4E's hit point philosophy

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I've said this before, but ships of the line had hundreds of crewmen. Isn't naval combat between ships of the line simply outside the playable scale of GURPS combat?

It might be, but with the RAW, it only takes a few shots to sink one. So instead of it taking hundreds of crewmen, one PC aiming a cannon can do it.

That's not something I especially want to game out, though. Because with a TL4 or TL5 cannon of 9-lb or 12-lb, it doesn't make sense to be sinking warships left and right, in just a couple of minutes of accurate shooting. But it's possible in the rules and while that's the case, players who know the rules will wonder why I keep getting a sad look when they formulate their naval tactics based on them.