Reverse Missiles / not an "attack"

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

You don't need an extensive ballistics education. You just be able to read the Gurps stats for "Max" (and "1/2D" is also of interest).

If the total distance traveled by the Reversed projectile exceeds the "Max" stat it does indeed fall to the ground. If it exceeds the "1/2D" it is slowed and does 1/2 damage.

This might happen fairly frequently for thrown weapons but very seldom for bullets whose 1/2 and Max are in hundreds of yards.

I am not concerned about air resistance bringing the projectile to a stop, but rather about the projectile being slowed enough that gravity has more time to pull it down before it reaches the target. A marksman firing at long distances can take this into account when aiming; I strongly suspect that the Reverse Missiles would have to make further adjustments when firing the missile back.

(In a vacuum, if an incoming object that has been moving along a ballistic parabola is launched back out with the same speed it came in and in the exact opposite direction, it will move in reverse along the same parabola to pass precisely through the point from which it was launched on its original flight. In an atmosphere, an object so launched would be slowed down over the course of its path, and consequently have fallen slightly farther by the time it reaches said original source. How far "slightly farther" is, and whether it would be enough to miss a man-sized target, would depend on how much the projectile has been slowed- hence my appeal to those with better knowledge of ballistics.)


The 1/2D rules, of course, are a simplification for gaming purposes of the reality that a projectile in an atmosphere is gradually slowing over the whole course of its flight.