Pyramid #3/120: Alternate GURPS V

[Kaslak]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Heh. It's been years since I really read this, and I'm going to need to read it again and clean it up and simplify it when I do Mission X, so this is actually on point.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer, really appreciated. Especially given the fuse differences :)

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I had a big answer before I realized it wasn't what you asked.

Based on the rules in the Basic Set, I'd say you don't check and re-check for crippling effects to limbs and eyes. That being said, if you use the pain rules and take a Sev 0 crippling wound, the HT-fail state is "Agony," which is incapacitating. If you succeed, you "only" suffer Terrible Pain, with a crit success only being Moderate Pain. So the Concentrate to make a HT roll to master the pain (p. 32) and the fact that the pain lasts both sub in for those effects. If you want.

Essentially I was referring to the rolls vs unconsciousness happening at 0 or less HP in the basic set. This is definitely more clear, thank you!

The only point I have to raise in this answer is that, as the increment in severity (+3 for an extremity) is for gross effects only, not including pain level, so a crippling inj. to an extremity would be moderate pain (-3) on failed HT roll.

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

No, you've jumped too far ahead. First, you need to check p. B419:

0 HP or less (meaning Sev 0), roll for HT every second or collapse.
-1xHP or less (Meaning Sev 2 or you check for death ONCE, but if you make it, then you can continue to act until you pass out (since you're checking for KO each second)

Only if you fail the death roll by 1 or 2 are you instantly incapacitated.

Even so, this looks like I was being a tetch too casual, perhaps, with the effects of crippling injury. You're looking for details, and I'm too tired to grab for them right now. Looking at the pain rules, though, you're looking at being in Agony at anything more than Sev 0, and a Sev 2 wound puts you in Agony unless you critically succeed on the HT roll (then you're only in Terrible Pain, woo hoo).

Indeed, based on the naming convention I extended all the consequences of fail by 1 or 2 as outlined in the basic set, to the full span of success of CI, because that failure span is what causes a "basic set mortal wound" in the first place.

So if I understand correctly, the mortal wound in CI mostly covers the single HT vs death roll in the basic set, plus (I'd say I definitely like it, in the spirit of making massive damage more deadly) that even if you pass, you still need to be stabilized and have to check vs death at subsequent intervals (as if it was a 1 or 2 failure in the basic set), and likely be incapacitated by pain.

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I absolutely didn't think it through that far - thought experiment. But the rules seem fine to me. The real point of checking at 1 minute (for massive trauma), again after the "golden hour," and then every day after that was to allow for lingering death. And frankly, "roll every 30 minutes" strikes me as sketchy from a "rolls interfering from fun" perspective. It also doesn't usualy mimic the fiction well.

Definitely I like the change, especially that the rolls are more adapt to travel time in different scenarios, reducing to a few, important rolls - I can foresee that the golden hour is the most important in modern scenarios where you have access to vehicles and hospitals, and the following longer intervals scale well with a low tech transport, rushing to get to the nearest healer before the next interval expires.

I was just wondering about the implication in a modern setting. Without scaling up also medical support intervals, the relative impact of trauma maintenance is reduced from a 1/48 reduction of the roll rate to 1/2, and negates completely the impact of a Physician (except for the skill roll in place of HT)

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

As noted in my prior reply, this is accurate. However, there are some tweaks required to make injury accumulation work better, and the Chaotic GM and I discuss them here: https://chaoticgm.wordpress.com/2020...ns-and-tweaks/

Also a playtest report here: https://gamingballistic.com/2018/11/...pyramid-3-120/

You'll want to keep scrolling: It's near the bottom.

Thank you very much for the link. Indeed I remember finding them when I was gathering information on the system. Being endorsed by the article author himself, I'll definitely implement them.