Help a noobie understand critical hits

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Instant death by gunfire is about as likely in GURPS as real life (especially if you use bleeding and the rules from the box on High-Tech p. 162) and generally only when you have a central nervous system hit or a very high caliber high velocity round like an HMG.

Short range bursts by 9mm SMGs or 12g shotguns, much less assault rifles, can easily achieve 24-36 injury against an unarmored target and cause death checks. That's not an automatic death, but it is more or less instant.

I don't see a lot of death in my fantasy games - people usually drop out of a fight before hitting -1xHP - but my modern day and sci-fi games have people drop dead. Not everyone, but a couple in any high intensity combat.

Automatic death is incredibly rare. Like maybe a handful of times across hundreds of combats, though again more likely with guns. 7.62mm sniper rifles to the skull are rare, but not much survives them. Though I've seen some PCs that just shrugged them off.