Ripping Out Someone's Heart

[DangerousThing]

I would treat it as an innate attack, starting with "Summon a Beautiful Woman". It may take a few weeks...

Seriously, I would go with Pressure Secrets. Though I'm not sure how realistic it could be to ever rip somebody's heart out of their chest with your bare hands. The rib cage is extremely strong.

Of course the Mayans were rumored to do this in one slice of a glass knife.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

Of course the Mayans were rumored to do this in one slice of a glass knife.

Killing a helpless target works differently.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I would treat it as an innate attack, starting with "Summon a Beautiful Woman". It may take a few weeks...

Seriously, I would go with Pressure Secrets. Though I'm not sure how realistic it could be to ever rip somebody's heart out of their chest with your bare hands. The rib cage is extremely strong.

Of course the Mayans were rumored to do this in one slice of a glass knife.

Sharpness helps. In most of the super-martial artists doing it are most easily represented by Imbuement characters.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

Of course the Mayans were rumored to do this in one slice of a glass knife.

Obsidian is INCREDIBLY sharp. Modern tests have shown that you can do brain surgery with an obsidian knife, if you're really careful.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Obsidian is INCREDIBLY sharp. Modern tests have shown that you can do brain surgery with an obsidian knife, if you're really careful.

I heard many years ago that there were experiments with using glass scaples in the us for just that reason. The problem was that they were too fragile and tended to leave glass fragments where the scaples hit bone. Not to mention dropping accidents making them hazardous for the surgeons.

I wonder what could be done with today's newer and stronger glasses? Of course, we're also able to make sharper metals too.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I heard many years ago that there were experiments with using glass scaples in the us for just that reason. The problem was that they were too fragile and tended to leave glass fragments where the scaples hit bone. Not to mention dropping accidents making them hazardous for the surgeons.

I wonder what could be done with today's newer and stronger glasses? Of course, we're also able to make sharper metals too.

Obsidian is tough enough to not shatter into thousands of pieces so easily, but the main lroblem would be convincing surgeons to change materials from modern steel and lasers to what is basically stone-age tech. Seriously, it's sharper than surgical steel, but I dpn't know of any stats for it in GURPS terms.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Obsidian is tough enough to not shatter into thousands of pieces so easily, but the main lroblem would be convincing surgeons to change materials from modern steel and lasers to what is basically stone-age tech. Seriously, it's sharper than surgical steel, but I dpn't know of any stats for it in GURPS terms.

In GURPS terms, it's a cheap knife, because it may be tough, but it's not tough enough to hit armor and not shatter. In any case, if glass were really that good a material it would be used, but sharpness isn't everything.

[ajardoor]

Keep in mind that Resident Evil 5's Albert Wesker was "super-science" and Mortal Kombat's Kano was ridiculously cinematic.

And to get the points needed to pay for their abilities, they had to take the disadvantages Obsession (COMPLETE GLOBAL SATURATION!!) and Odious Personal Habit (Terrible Australian Accent), respectively.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I heard many years ago that there were experiments with using glass scaples in the us for just that reason. The problem was that they were too fragile and tended to leave glass fragments where the scaples hit bone. Not to mention dropping accidents making them hazardous for the surgeons.

They don't shatter hazardously in surgical use (OK, a blade might if the surgeon was unwise enough to whack it against bone, but surgeons tend to be smarter than that). They just wear down quickly with use, so you need to run though a whole stack of somewhat irregularly-shaped, hand-made glass blades in the course of a surgery instead of a much more durable and ergonomic set of steel blades. Despite glass's sharpness, steel's easier to use on an industrial scale. Glass blades might have had a niche in delicate eye surgery, but lasers are superior in that realm.

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Seriously, it's sharper than surgical steel, but I dpn't know of any stats for it in GURPS terms.

There's a basic treatment in Basic, and we address it in more detail in various places in the Low Tech series.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Obsidian is tough enough to not shatter into thousands of pieces so easily, but the main lroblem would be convincing surgeons to change materials from modern steel and lasers to what is basically stone-age tech. Seriously, it's sharper than surgical steel, but I dpn't know of any stats for it in GURPS terms.

Obsidian is not "tough" - it's brittle. It left fine splinters in the flesh if it scraped against bone. This is a) unhygenic and b) blunts the edge. Add in thefact that it can shatter if dropped, and it's not worth any minor gain in sharpness. Never mind the ridiculous cost increase of going to a disposable blade (they're single use...)

(From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8415970: "Each rat received two parallel 8-cm dorsal skin incisions, one with an obsidian scalpel and the other with a surgical steel scalpel (no. 15 blade). Data were analyzed by ANOVA. Tensile strength of the two wound types was not different at 7, 14, 21, and 42 days. Scar width, however, was significantly less in the obsidian wounds at 7, 10, and 14 days (p < 0.005). At 21 days, scar width was not different in the two groups. At 42 days, all wounds were barely detectable, thus precluding scar width analysis. "; In other words, there's some initial benefit but the final scar is the same. Obsidian is not approved for use on humans due to the risks of fragments)