Hit points of a baby during childbirth?

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's not a subject on which I'll ever be in a position to testify. . . .

Alas, I can only testify to the "ripp'd untimely from the mother's womb" version, and that, with TL8 medicine (THANK GOODNESS). But if you want me to try to get my mom to get an account so it's not just hearsay... O;D

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

But if you want me to try to get my mom to get an account so it's not just hearsay.

If I repeated it it would still be hearsay, though. I note the anecdotal evidence, but I don't think having it confirmed would give me a real knowledge of how many women have one experience or the other, or why.

Bill Stoddard

[Archangel Beth]

Hmmm. If someone were truly working on GURPS Childbirth Through The Ages, I suspect there would be Livejournal communities where one could solicit anecdotes -- possibly in numbers sufficient to become actual data.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

Hmmm. If someone were truly working on GURPS Childbirth Through The Ages, I suspect there would be Livejournal communities where one could solicit anecdotes -- possibly in numbers sufficient to become actual data.

I suspect you would run into the mother of all selection biases.

Trawl places where people are sharing anecdotes and you'll come across a heavily biased sample in the favour of noteworthy and exceptional occurances.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Trawl places where people are sharing anecdotes and you'll come across a heavily biased sample in the favour of noteworthy and exceptional occurances.

Of course, that's exactly what you want if you're making up a table of critical hits or critical misses! But it's not so good for the typical outcome of a roll.

Bill Stoddard

[martinl]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Given the size modifier of the target cell during the slam . . . Yes, I know Relative SM, Rapid Fire . . . I'm kidding.

Is this a "jet" skill?

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Trawl places where people are sharing anecdotes and you'll come across a heavily biased sample in the favour of noteworthy and exceptional occurances.

You might be surprised. Depending on the tenor of a given group, the average might be surprisingly average.

It does depend on the group, though, and their previous dedication to presenting a balanced set of outcomes for new members/viewers who are curious about the topic. Some places, you'd only get the outliers. Some places, with sufficient population and a specific "trying to find the percentages" prompt, you might get a pretty good spread of results.

[Danukian]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Average newborn weighs 7.5 lbs. If we find the cube root of that and multiply it by 2, we come to 3.8, which rounds off to a nice even 4. So four hitpoints.

If you wanted to see if it survived, just roll against the baby's HT (which is probably 10, but might be lower for a premie)

This works out fine for live meat = HP, but it also means that a new born could quite possibly live through 2 or more hits from a machete swung by a ST 10 man! Maybe more on track: Figure the HP for a three year old, new born is at 1/3HP, and thus Move is halved.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by martinl

Is this a "jet" skill?

No, I was referring to Brawling for the little fellows.

[Phoenix_Dragon]

Originally Posted by Danukian

This works out fine for live meat = HP, but it also means that a new born could quite possibly live through 2 or more hits from a machete swung by a ST 10 man!.

Okay, but let's put that in perspective. In game effects, a 4HP baby getting hit twice with a machete by a ST10 man is comparable in damage to a 10HP man being shot twice with a .45. Even if it gets lucky and has very low damage rolled, it's still a nasty, nasty wound.