How to avoid killing your player characters as GM

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

So there are two places where the rules make "_any_facing" clear and explicit. In cases were they do not do so I read "facing change" to be one hexside by default.

Honestly, I agree it's unclearly written, I just believe it's the original intent. I'm fairly sure it allowed turning to any facing in 3e, which likely influenced my opinion, but I can't currently find my GURPS 3e.

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Honestly, I agree it's unclearly written, I just believe it's the original intent. I'm fairly sure it allowed turning to any facing in 3e, which likely influenced my opinion, but I can't currently find my GURPS 3e.

Maybe I'm in a slightly different camp. I don't see it as being unclear and I don't see that the existence of more explicit descriptions in some places adjusts the intent of those with less explicit detail. The extra detail can be provided because it's considered necessary in some places and not in others.

My reading of it is that you can face any direction because "facing change" is not defined anywhere to be a single change, and a quick reality check says that it's extremely quick and easy to pivot up to 180 degrees either left or right, so there's no apparent physical limitation to overcome to achieve this.

At any rate, I play/GM to allow the change of facing and it's never seemed broken. To not allow it would, however, seem an unreasonable restriction in most cases.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Farmer

My reading of it is that you can face any direction because "facing change" is not defined anywhere to be a single change, and a quick reality check says that it's extremely quick and easy to pivot up to 180 degrees either left or right, so there's no apparent physical limitation to overcome to achieve this.

On the other hand, stepping back, spinning around (or spinning around and then stepping forward, or spinning during a step to what started as your rear, and then striking a foe who was previously behind you, is much more involved than just stepping forward and striking a foe in front of you, or even stepping diagonally-forward with a 60-degree shift in facing to strike a foe over there. Now, I'd be more inclined under such an interpretation to give the attack a penalty when you need to spin around (probably the same -2 as for a pop-up attack, which this is similar to - you start your turn unable to properly see the foe) than to only allow for one facing change, but I could see other ways to handle it. A harsh GM might want to treat such an attack is something akin to a Wild Swing, so would call for the character to use a Move and Attack to get enough movement points to actually be able to turn all the way around - or an All Out Attack for a similar purpose (but sacrificing defenses to be able to turn and strike without penalty). Or maybe let a Step allow for changing facing by 2 sides if you don't move - which will let you hit anyone (although they may be in a front-side rather than front-center hex) if you aren't moving, or call for a Committed Attack to get an extra Step to be able to Step back and turn all the way around in one go.

I do think the RAI is that a Step allows you to change as many hex-sides as needed, however.

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Varyon

On the other hand, stepping back, spinning around (or spinning around and then stepping forward, or spinning during a step to what started as your rear, and then striking a foe who was previously behind you, is much more involved than just stepping forward and striking a foe in front of you, or even stepping diagonally-forward with a 60-degree shift in facing to strike a foe over there. Now, I'd be more inclined under such an interpretation to give the attack a penalty when you need to spin around (probably the same -2 as for a pop-up attack, which this is similar to - you start your turn unable to properly see the foe) than to only allow for one facing change, but I could see other ways to handle it. A harsh GM might want to treat such an attack is something akin to a Wild Swing, so would call for the character to use a Move and Attack to get enough movement points to actually be able to turn all the way around - or an All Out Attack for a similar purpose (but sacrificing defenses to be able to turn and strike without penalty). Or maybe let a Step allow for changing facing by 2 sides if you don't move - which will let you hit anyone (although they may be in a front-side rather than front-center hex) if you aren't moving, or call for a Committed Attack to get an extra Step to be able to Step back and turn all the way around in one go.

I do think the RAI is that a Step allows you to change as many hex-sides as needed, however.

I'm not sure spinning around is always needed or that hard. There seems to sometimes be an assumption that characters are standing with their two feet together and so need to "step around" to face the other way. If you have one foot forward and one back (which you generally do after making a step), then you only need to pivot on your feet, which really takes next to no time, and stepping backwards is a fluid movement of taking the step and pivoting on the back foot. It doesn't need to be (and generally shouldn't be) two separate movements.

By all means apply a pop-up penalty to an attack if you couldn't have seen it before you turned (unless characters have some advantage to mitigate, of course), but outside of that, there's no practical reason nor rule to say you shouldn't be able to end up on any facing.

[Eric Funk]

Something I found useful is to compare the typical weapons of the day to a bystander "typical" human of ST10, 10 HP, 0 DR. To such a person, three hits of a ST10 quarterstaff can reduce to 0 (1d6 cr), or one fine longbow arrow (1d6+2 imp) , to say nothing of firearms. THe simple answer is don't get involved in a battle.

If you are looking for survivable gunfights consider GURPS Gun-Fu's "Dodging Bullets" and "Bullet Time" on p.32. Consider "Buying Success" p. B347 to turn rolls such as Dodges from failures to success, or lots of Luck (or Super Luck), Serendipity to find conveniently sufficient Cover (consider Perks in Gun-fu related to this as well).