[Basic] Skill Question: Dropping vs Artillery (Bombs)

[Edris]

Originally Posted by nerdvana

I have searched the forums and I cannot find any point where this is addressed.

I have skimmed (and thread searched) both "recent" threads on Artillery ("[Basic] Skill of the week: Artillery (and Forward Observer)" and "Artillery") and found no discussion of this question.

Other than "one (Dropping) is DX-based and one is IQ-based" and "one (Artillery) is a technology skill and the other is not" is there any real difference between Dropping and Artillery (Bombs)? If not, why isn't there a default or equivalence between the two? or even better, why isn't Dropping folded into Artillery (Bombs) and allowed to be used based on the better of DX or IQ?

Artillery/TL, IQ/Average
"..The ability to use a heavy weapon, such as a trebuchet or a howitzer, for indirect fire.. onto a target area via a high ballistic arc or similar path."

Dropping, DX/Average
"..The skill of dropping heavy objects on your foes while flying.. Learn dropping if you wish to drop boulders and similar projectiles on individual opponents while on the wing. Use Artillery(Bombs) to attack areas with explosive ordinance, etc"

Artillery is a technological skill. It is subject to TL difference penalties (GURPS 4th - Basic Set: Characters P.168); -15 to skill for using a Rock/TL0, +0 to skill for using a 150lb HE Bomb/TL8, both with Artillery/TL8. This is because the skill utterly relies off the technological and scientific progress built into the equipment. Ultimately artillery is the skill of estimating/calculating trajectories, and using higher tech trajectory-based equipment that does much of the calculating for you (Resulting in higher accuracies) is going to give you a huge shock when suddenly you have to estimate everything yourself when you suddenly lose all of those aids. It is IQ based because you are not relying on appendage-eye coordination; having tremors would not effect the skill roll to hit because the equipment balances and steadies itself, you do not steady it.

Dropping is a DX based skill, it is based primarily off of the appendage-eye coordination of the user and is thus also eligible for an attribute substitution to Per (GURPS 4th - Power Ups 2: Perks P.15) for those of you commenting on the similarities of the skill. By default, it would be really hard to drop that rock accurately if you're suffering from tremors. It is not utterly reliant on the technology of the equipment to do what needs doing, the technology inherent in the equipment solely aids instead. Add aerodynamics to a rock and it's Acc would go up, add stabilizing fins and it's Acc would go up, etc. Increases to skill would come from build quality (Are the fins perfectly straight, or do they impede you at a 90 degree angle?) as per usual.

The differences you seem to not want to pay attention to are the "real differences" and make a huge impact on the separation of the skills. Obviously if you're playing a cinematic campaign and want to ignore neurology and tech level penalties you can do so, but RAW rules are based around heroic realism.

Originally Posted by Sir Pudding

Nobody on a mortar team is using mathematics and physics. The FDC is, but they aren't the ones that roll Artillery. You can load a gun with ST-Based Artillery (this is RAW) so that's clearly not fire direction. You set site dope, perorm the gun crew drill, get up on the aiming stakes, and drop the round with Artillery; none of that is math or physics, all of it is intensely physical.

It is quite physical, that's why the firing team gets the Artillery/ST roll to reload and reready faster. The one doing the estimation/calculations is the one rolling Artillery/IQ. Let's think about it (Assuming a three man FO-FDC-FC team as you brought up)

• You don't punch the shell into it's ballistic arc so ST is out for firing the shell.
• You're not steadying the weapon via appendage-eye coordination, so DX is out for firing.
• Setting dials to the precise numbers provided by another member quite frankly doesn't require that much intelligence, just technical knowledge of how the machine works so IQ is out for firing.
• It's certainly not based on endurance (but is fatiguing) so HT for firing is out.
• You don't move the shell to the target area via sheer will, so will is out.
• You're not steadying the weapon via appendage-eye coordination, so Per is also out for firing.

The firing team, at most, would be the better of soldier or an easy application of Artillery, if you really wanted to have the granularity to require a firing crew roll. The FDC would be the Artillery/IQ roll, because that's where the calculation is.

Originally Posted by Sir Pudding

I think it is. If you drop a hand grenade from an open cockpit that's Dropping, if you deploy a bomb from a hard-point on the same aircraft that's Artillery (Bombs). Since you don't have bomb-sights, aircraft, and hard-points and/or bomb-bays before TL6, it is a TL6+ skill.

GURPS is a universal system, however. You could have a TL0 race of flyers that uses Artillery (Bombs)/TL0 that has a box of projectiles that they dump upon an area that prey occupies. Spears w/Throngs, atatls, woomeras, throwing sticks are all TL0 (GURPS 4th - Basic Set: Characters P.276, GURPS 4th - Low-Tech P.77). So aerodynamic projectiles clearly exist, in this case the TL0 "technology" is simply merely being aerodynamic instead of just a rock and the "calculation" is entirely estimation. Such races would likely divebomb their targets (Like a Stuka) and is almost certainly either an easy application of Artillery (Bombs)/IQ or an attribute shift to Per as anyone who has used realistic simulators can attest to. If we were to take the hawk entry on (GURPS 4th - Basic Set: Campaigns P.457) that can reach move 70 on a dive, we can see how incredibly deadly that would be from the collision even noting the lack of ST on a hawk.

Originally Posted by Sir Pudding

I think this one is actually pretty simple (compared to Artillery (Cannon), anyway).

What do you find confusing about Artillery (Cannon)? The skill description is pretty clear. Guns/Gunner is for direct fire (A line that rises at the beginning, or a line that droops at the end), Artillery is for indirect fire (Full ballistic arcs). As a technical explanation, if the direction of the coronal plane of the projectile is ever the inverse of a previous direction, you use Artillery (Cannon).

[sir_pudding]

Off-topic response to Edris in the on-topic thread.