Help a noobie understand critical hits

Purple Snit · 07-31-2023, 02:21 AM

I still think it's weird that no-one has defaulted to Damage Reduction as an in-genre solution to some of the lethality issues. It's in Supers for a reason. Don't reduce gun damage; make the PCs harder to mortally wound, if that's what you want.
But ultimately, it's a matter of the GM choosing what to do. Don't want a PC taking four sniper bullets to the skull? Then don't ambush them with snipers.
Don't want them dying in a hail of machinegun fire? Don't shoot at them with machineguns.
Would you nerf crossbows or bows? Because a powerful enemy with those can kill with a shot to the eye as well. If playing Fantasy, an Ogre or Giant can do masses of damage as well - would you say they don't, just because it might kill a PC?
You don't want the hypothetical insta-kill (which I have never seen in my 20+ years of GMing GURPS because I don't do that to players), fair enough. But the solution isn't to rewrite the weapons. It's to use the rules to get what you need, whether by cinematic combat, Damage Reduction, armour, or smart players. And that takes some GM work, but it's way more entertaining than "we're safe because all the guns hit like they are .22 calibre".

07-31-2023, 02:21 AM	#11
Purple Snit Join Date: Jan 2011	Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits I still think it's weird that no-one has defaulted to Damage Reduction as an in-genre solution to some of the lethality issues. It's in Supers for a reason. Don't reduce gun damage; make the PCs harder to mortally wound, if that's what you want. But ultimately, it's a matter of the GM choosing what to do. Don't want a PC taking four sniper bullets to the skull? Then don't ambush them with snipers. Don't want them dying in a hail of machinegun fire? Don't shoot at them with machineguns. Would you nerf crossbows or bows? Because a powerful enemy with those can kill with a shot to the eye as well. If playing Fantasy, an Ogre or Giant can do masses of damage as well - would you say they don't, just because it might kill a PC? You don't want the hypothetical insta-kill (which I have never seen in my 20+ years of GMing GURPS because I don't do that to players), fair enough. But the solution isn't to rewrite the weapons. It's to use the rules to get what you need, whether by cinematic combat, Damage Reduction, armour, or smart players. And that takes some GM work, but it's way more entertaining than "we're safe because all the guns hit like they are .22 calibre".