Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-03-2022, 08:41 AM   #21
Verjigorm
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Charlotte, North Caroline, United States of America, Earth?
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Ropes. If you can get some ropes secured to it, then lots of people can be used to immobilize it, and then you can stab it in vulnerable spots.
__________________
Hydration is key
Verjigorm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 08:56 AM   #22
Thamior
 
Thamior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Moscow, Russia
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Human level of intelligence... Is it capable of communication? If your setting is low magic it is very unlikely that it could have human level intelligence without some kind of a functional society of such things. Human level intelligence is not genius by the way. And often humans are more easily decieved because of intelligence. So maybe use it somehow? Also what is its diet, does it breathe, needs water? How about trapping and suffocating/starving it? Poison is also an option.
Thamior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 09:10 AM   #23
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Verjigorm View Post
Ropes. If you can get some ropes secured to it, then lots of people can be used to immobilize it, and then you can stab it in vulnerable spots.
That's a potential idea. With ST 200, it's got BL 8,000, needing roughly 400 men of average strength to match it; 500 men of above-average strength hauling on ropes should probably be enough to immobilize it, but actually getting enough ropes attached is going to be rather difficult, given you'd be reliant on siege weaponry to launch the harpoons (a snake-worm-thing probably doesn't have any convenient attachment points aside from convincing it to run through a loop of rope you can then pull taut).

Another option is to lure it into a canyon or similar, then drop boulders on it, letting gravity do a lot of your work for you (just like the cliff/pit-trap I suggested before). A group of strong men with a lever can probably tip an impressively-large boulder down, and even if you can't get large enough ones to reliably harm the beast, you may be able to get enough to simply bury it under the crushing weight.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 09:12 AM   #24
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Verjigorm View Post
Ropes. If you can get some ropes secured to it, then lots of people can be used to immobilize it, .
ST200 is basic Lift 8000. "Lots of people" is therefore 400.

Of course you have to think of a way to attach all those ropes first.

Fleeing still looks good to me. :)
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 09:43 AM   #25
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters View Post
A guy in a coach covered in iron spikes is traditional. But I don't think that Persian dragons really qualified as human intelligence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TerryW View Post
In the fantasy settings or mytholgies that support indestructible giant wyrms with malignant intelligence, the traditional military tactic is to either pray for divine intervention or search for a wandering champion to bring down the beast.
Paging the Earl of Lambton...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Verjigorm View Post
Ropes. If you can get some ropes secured to it, then lots of people can be used to immobilize it, and then you can stab it in vulnerable spots.
Or, if the hooks on the ends are the right kind, get on top and ride it about. Khul Wahad!

Failing that, predators (presumably this thing didn't appear out of no-where) - either small, vicious things that eat it from the inside, or a truly enormous blackbird.
The Colonel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 09:59 AM   #26
Lovewyrm
 
Lovewyrm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2022
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Paging the Earl of Lambton...

Or, if the hooks on the ends are the right kind, get on top and ride it about. Khul Wahad!

Failing that, predators (presumably this thing didn't appear out of no-where) - either small, vicious things that eat it from the inside, or a truly enormous blackbird.
Truly enormous blackbird is terrifying. Most truly enormous birds are, even if they're just singing.
It must be deafening.

Probably also the reason why most dragons opt for telepathy.
Humans already need pop filters for plosives. Now imagine a close conversation with a really big dragon, the kind that has utility van sized claws.
"Placating me is only possible if you people present me with a pretty princess."
Probably like standing in a wind canal.

But to come back to the worm:
Maybe fry it with a big sun mirror. Sizzle sizzle. Dunno if those would melt, but I'd allow it for coolness sake. Well, hotness.
Lovewyrm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 10:20 AM   #27
talonthehand
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: LFK
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Lure it into a valley by a dam, then burst the dam and drown it?
talonthehand is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 10:31 AM   #28
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lovewyrm View Post
Probably also the reason why most dragons opt for telepathy.
Humans already need pop filters for plosives. Now imagine a close conversation with a really big dragon, the kind that has utility van sized claws.
"Placating me is only possible if you people present me with a pretty princess."
Probably like standing in a wind canal.
It's not like you need to be close to the dragon to speak to it, if its voice is that loud. Well, you don't need to be close to hear it - maybe you do for it to hear you. So, any conversation with it would probably have the human using a messenger - listen to the dragon, draft a reply and send the messenger to deliver it, then have the messenger return before the dragon speaks (or give him some really good earplugs).

Or the dragon can just, y'know, talk quietly. Being able to all but crush you with its voice alone would certainly put the dragon in a position of power for the negotiations.
Say it with me now - "Fus Ro ..."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lovewyrm View Post
Maybe fry it with a big sun mirror. Sizzle sizzle. Dunno if those would melt, but I'd allow it for coolness sake. Well, hotness.
Archimedes was said to have used either a giant mirror or a group of soldiers with mirror-polished shields to do this to a Roman fleet. Stats are in GURPS Fantasy Tech 1 IIRC (where I believe it's marked as either TL 1^ or TL 2^). A quick online search pulls up an article suggesting the story may have been true, but rather than focusing the sun's rays to set fire to the ships (which would have been largely impossible, due to movement), he actually used them to fire steam cannons loaded with clay balls filled with Greek fire (steam cannons are also in FT1, I believe). Neither option would really give enough damage per second to get through the worm's DR, unless it was deemed to be ablative against burning damage.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 11:12 AM   #29
Lovewyrm
 
Lovewyrm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2022
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
It's not like you need to be close to the dragon to speak to it, if its voice is that loud. Well, you don't need to be close to hear it - maybe you do for it to hear you. So, any conversation with it would probably have the human using a messenger - listen to the dragon, draft a reply and send the messenger to deliver it, then have the messenger return before the dragon speaks (or give him some really good earplugs).

Or the dragon can just, y'know, talk quietly. Being able to all but crush you with its voice alone would certainly put the dragon in a position of power for the negotiations.
Say it with me now - "Fus Ro ..."



Archimedes was said to have used either a giant mirror or a group of soldiers with mirror-polished shields to do this to a Roman fleet. Stats are in GURPS Fantasy Tech 1 IIRC (where I believe it's marked as either TL 1^ or TL 2^). A quick online search pulls up an article suggesting the story may have been true, but rather than focusing the sun's rays to set fire to the ships (which would have been largely impossible, due to movement), he actually used them to fire steam cannons loaded with clay balls filled with Greek fire (steam cannons are also in FT1, I believe). Neither option would really give enough damage per second to get through the worm's DR, unless it was deemed to be ablative against burning damage.
Ah, yes, the dragon could whisper (didn't actually think of that), but that's also kind of funny to me.
Like, converse with a cat or a dog in whispers only. It's subtly inconvenient (in my opinion)

Especially if you went "Could you repeat that? I'm hard of hearing." (which, admittedly, would be a rather foolish thing to say to a dragon)
But the essence still amuses me.

And well, maybe it won't penetrate the worms defense, but it could perhaps inflict pain.
And if it's got human intellect, it might just seek whatever it wants elsewhere.
Slither off, or it's another searin'.

Like, maybe it just wants food, or a certain kind of tree to eat.
On the other hand it could possibly enrage the thing and while castles are walled and tall. A creature that big could probably just full on desperate/rage assault the installation and go over the walls to thrash everyone.
Lovewyrm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2022, 11:49 AM   #30
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Military Stratedgies against a 300 Foot Snake/Worm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
(Realistically, given the square-cube law, I believe larger creatures actually take proportionally more Injury from a short-ish fall than a human, but as HP in GURPS can mean more than raw mass, they opted for just scaling with it linearly).
Larger creatures have a higher terminal velocity, which makes a lot of difference for long falls, and simply falling over (trip, etc) is a longer fall for a larger creature and thus more dangerous, but other than that, no, large creatures don't suffer proportionately more injury for the same absolute fall distance, ability to withstand injury is not proportional to lifting ability.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:17 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.