GURPS OLD WEST: Intimidation and the Movies

[hal]

Originally Posted by Kromm

You could do worse than to add +|Bulk|/2, rounded down.

This is workable :) Consider it taken.

Ok, so lets look at the original "scene" from my last game run, and see how it could have been improved.

Three men are standing on a street bored as all heck. Hygene being what it is, most folk wouldn't want to be within a few feet of them without some way to block out the ripeness of their bodies. One jostles the other pointing out that across the street is some average looking guy wearing a holstered pistol - also wearing what looks to be a confederate's soldier's uniform sans any insignia. "Hey Elroy, lookit that" would have been the one's response to a sight of a man in grey. Later on, the rebel shows up (Keep in mind this is Kansas - home to bleeding Kansas) crossing the street after having entered into a gunsmith's shop earlier, and seemingly headed for the gunsmith's next to the three men.

"Lookit what we have here. A confederate uni form. Looks like a walkin dead man in a confederate uni form."

More words like that would pass between the one lone gunman (who actually has a +2 reputation as a gunslinger, but a muted reputation as someone that only sheriffs and gunslingers would know for now) and the three rowdies.

Angry at being picked upon, the lone gunman hikes his coat back and just stares at them from a distance of roughly 10 feet. Rolling a 12 against his Intimidation skill of 11 (he has Charisma but didn't talk) and he has Handsome - not to mention combat reflexes). In front of him were three men - the "leader" of the three had an IQ 10 and a skill 11 with his pistol. The remaining two had IQ's 10, HT 11 and 14 respectively, and both had skills of 10 with their pistols.

In the end? The scenario went down where the one lone gunman tried to stare down three. Their response was to step forward (rolling against their reaction, I had treated the intimidation as a roll against intimidation to gain a +2 bonus on the reaction roll, giving the boys a +1 due to them outnumbering the lone gunman). Net result was that the boys just stepped out with their own hands near to their pistols, but then just standing there.

At this point, the nearby people, fearing a gunfight errupting, all scrambled for cover as fast as possible. Fast as lightning, the lone gunfighter (the only one with fast draw), lines up his pistol on the chest of the middle guy (the seeming leader), fires a shot (but the round does an anemic 5 points of damage), the second shot he fires (He's faster in speed) is against the next guy to the right, while the center guy fires and almost hits (but for the dodge of the lone gunman), and then two more shots ring out towards the lone gunman while his shot centers on the third guy, who took a vitals hit (rolled a 1 on a 6 sided die). The .44 that hit the lone gunman, dishes out 6 points of damage, upped to 9, which coupled with prior damage to the player character, knocks him unconscious.

Then, the one guy who had taken a slug (#2 in the list of targets by the lone gunman), puts two more slugs into the prone gunman (rolled a respectful reactionroll by the center rowdy, but rolled a 5 reaction roll for the other one remaining standing. His damage rolls were 3 an 4 (rolled in front of everyone so people don't think I'm rigging the die rolls either for or against players). Those were upped to 4 and 6 respectively. With Hard to Kill and a HT of 13, the Lone gunman survives his death saving roll, and his bleeding stops within the 5 minutes it took for the Doctor to arrive on the scene. The other rowdy, having taken 18 points to the torso with a vitals hit, wasn't so lucky. He continued to bleed out until he was taken to the Doc's office some five minutes away (men carrying a wounded individual are notoriously slowere than a running man!). Wounded but still alive, the patient is put on the table and operated upon with almost unseemly haste, but the patient expires on the table as the doctor fails to find all of the blood vessels severed by the .38's entry into the chest.

So what could I have done to make this better? What could the player have done to emphasize his "intimidation" besides pulling his coat back in an obvious invitation to a gun fight?