giants tearing tiny people into two with raw strength (and surviving like Martians)

[Plane]

For example like what the Destroy does to Martian Manhunter here:

https://youtu.be/FLyvqJaBqXU

If a giant is large enough, a single hand can wrap around both thighs, while the other hand wraps around the entire torso, and then they can pull in both directions and tear you in half.

I was thinking on how we could approximate from existing techniques or abilities to allow people to attempt stuff like this.

I know that in GURPS Fantasy they allow Berserkers to buy "Innate Attack:
Dismemberment" which is a special "cutting attack" to allow ripping off a single grappled limb.

This assumes an Arm Lock which explains how you would be twisting an arm off...

Straight-out pulling (low-skill, like Destroyer does to Manhunter) on the other hand, should probably have some kind of cap on how much damage you do to the limb until the pulling just moves the person around (you lift someone up by the arm, you drag them by the arm) or else you need to stabilize them to prevent movement (tie their legs to the ground, hold the legs with your other arm, etc)

- - -

F205 defines "Follow-Up, Delivered by Grappling an Extremity, +0%" which makes it sound like it's instantaneous damage, but F206's explanation actually makes it seem delayed:

Theattacker grasps one of a foe’s extremities and applies an arm lock (or a similar leg, wing, tail, or head lock) with hysterical strength. The cutting (actually tearing) damage is added to the basic damage for the lock

B403's Arm Lock is an attack done after a parry but the damage is rolled on the NEXT turn.

This actually sounds like it ought to be a -10% limitation (not +0% enhancement?) as it resembes the "Requires Grapple" limitation for Innate Attacks on page 21 of "Powers: The Weird"

I think the only way it could work as +0% is if we remove the "next second" requirement of Basic Set's Arm Lock and instead have it work like Technical Grappling pg 25's "Treat Damage as an Attack" policy.

Although many see that as a downside (no more free action damage) it has the upside of "you can perform a lock and apply damage on the same turn if you have Extra Attack" and this could allow +0% Cutting Attack to work right away instead of the -10% Cutting Attack needing that 1-second delay.

- -

Anyway getting back to Destroyer v. Manhunter: I figure if you grapple both thighs with a single hand, any kind of "Leg Lock" or "Wrench Limb" type attack would need to split damage between them both (you couldn't focus on one leg without letting the other go?) or maybe even make even (because now you're moving the pelvis around) make it some kind of 50/25/25 split between damaging the legs and damaging the torso?

Best I can figure, tearing someone's torso in half (like say, severing the lumbar vertebrae from the thoracic vertebrae) would be like a "Wrench Spine" attack that would normally induce a Paraplegic penalty and unless you had massive Regeneration (as I'm sure Manhunter does) also cause someone to bleed to death.

There doesn't really seem to be an advantage to cover "someone ripped my torso in half, I stuck it back together" as far as I know. I know there's Injury Tolerance for re-attaching severed limbs, but it's an enhancement to re-attach your head... should there be another enhancement for re-attaching your pelvis to your chest?

[Anthony]

Martian Manhunter might just be Diffuse. I would just use the rules for a Strangle, and you have to do around HP*5 damage to rip asunder.

[kenclary]

Something like Wrench Limb, but applied to spine, with "tear them in half" as a special effect of getting past the instant death threshold in a single attack.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by kenclary

Something like Wrench Limb, but applied to spine, with "tear them in half" as a special effect of getting past the instant death threshold in a single attack.

There are different insta-death thresholds though, like -5xHP normally or -10xHP if Unkillable.

But should UK1 make you harder to tear in half or just more likely to survive it?

Seems to me that the spine could use the same "if cutting damage destroys it, it is severed" rule that limbs do to cover bisection w/o death.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Martian Manhunter might just be Diffuse. I would just use the rules for a Strangle, and you have to do around HP*5 damage to rip asunder.

I don't think MM even breathes, so if he was also diffuse I don't see how strange would ever go more than a 1 point of damage.

OTOH, if he was Homogeneous this is just more of a special effect related to massive damage. I envision Diffuse being more like how the T2 absorbed damage. Most attacks didn't do much (left marks that disappeared as they healed) except the explosion that took a lot longer to heal after it blew a hole in his center (obviously he was taking "Do Nothing" to avoid consciousness checks while healing).

[Lancewholelot]

I think I would use the Wrench Spine or Backbreaker technique from Martial Arts page 82, but perhaps with fewer steps to execute due to the relative size difference. Much like decapitation in GURPS 4e, the tearing in half could just be treated as a narrative effect.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Lancewholelot

I think I would use the Wrench Spine or Backbreaker technique from Martial Arts page 82, but perhaps with fewer steps to execute due to the relative size difference.

plus that also involves smashing someone down on your knee (like Bane did to Batman) whereas Destroyer doesn't use such a lever

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Lancewholelot

I think I would use the Wrench Spine or Backbreaker technique from Martial Arts page 82, but perhaps with fewer steps to execute due to the relative size difference. Much like decapitation in GURPS 4e, the tearing in half could just be treated as a narrative effect.

Yeah I would just make a technique similar to Backbreaker adding something like these...
Requires both hands is a drawback lowering cost [-1].
Must be SM+4 (or maybe +5) larger than the target [-1].

[Lancewholelot]

Originally Posted by Plane

plus that also involves smashing someone down on your knee (like Bane did to Batman) whereas Destroyer doesn't use such a lever

Due to the relative size difference, I would ignore the bit about using leverage and reduce the execution to just two steps. Treat it like Wench (Limb) only the attacker is grappling the torso (and perhaps the legs) and the damage is to the spine and torso.

[Pursuivant]

I treat extreme dismemberment as a "special effect" of instantly reducing someone to HP x -5 or greater.

Surviving such extreme dismemberment requires Extra Life or Unkillable. Alternately, it could be treated as a form of Injury Tolerance.