Punching someone into a "Fine Red Mist"

[Lovewyrm]

I guess there's always the "well you just die" clause.
Like getting your throat slit with a dagger that would normally not be enough to remove all the HP required to kill you.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

I guess there's always the "well you just die" clause.
Like getting your throat slit with a dagger that would normally not be enough to remove all the HP required to kill you.

A propper militay style sentry removal would involve _2_ attacks to the Neck (Arteries) location. You thrust/Imp in and then Swing/Cut out on the next Turn. Both attacks get bonus damage and lodig consciousness is highly likely but it's the horrible penalties to bleeding that will actually cause death.

"You can't actually kill someone with a dagger." is an "other system" problem.

[Inky]

There was a long thread discussing the question of whether a dagger to the throat is as fatal in GURPS as you'd expect it to be in reality.
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=172321
It gets pretty stomach-churning in places.
The gist seemed to be that the reason a cut there is so dangerous is precisely because it bleeds so much, so using the bleeding rules was pretty much a necessity, but that if you did use the bleeding rules, plus bonuses for Telegraphic and/or All-Out Attack and for hit locations, it worked out just about right, as Fred Brackin says. The victim wouldn't die immediately (which some posters reckoned was in fact accurate to real life), but they would usually be unconscious immediately and would die within a few minutes without very drastic (probably magical) medical attention. It's only if you skip those detailed rules and handle it as any other medium-sized knife cut that it works out like any other medium-sized knife cut.

But yeah, if it does happen that something that the GM thinks would be definitely fatal is not definitely fatal according to the GURPS rules, Basic Set p423 does discuss that, using that exact example.

[Lovewyrm]

Originally Posted by Inky

But yeah, if it does happen that something that the GM thinks would be definitely fatal is not definitely fatal according to the GURPS rules, Basic Set p423 does discuss that, using that exact example.

Ah, yes that was what I was referring to, and while it doesn't result in bodily destruction (aka -10xHP), its quasi 'final wordness' could be a boon in a way.

The victim doesn't get to roll after falling, I dunno, some really long long way down, but it would put them at -5xHP.
If that is a player character, then the party can decide if its worth trying to go for a rescue mission, or to reroll the character.

Total bodily destruction could probably very likely happen at some point, but then the game's over for that character for sure.

This could probably lead to arguments about 'rules' but usually players want the more positive outcome anyway...so... maybe it's a decent solution for the falling dilemma.
Just gotta decide on some arbitrary fall, or just rule that falls cannot ever cause bodily destruction to players, along the lines of 'most npcs don't get death rolls'.
And then go via the aforementioned decision to rescue or reroll.

Considering tech levels/healing magic, etc.
Ultrafall = -9xHP max. Completely supermangled, but not irrevocably destroyed.

Edit:
A fall usually means: (far) away from the party. Which complicates things.
So if someone dies of falling into, I don't know, a really, really, really, really deep and craggy pit...
That's more of a hassle to 'heal' than getting eyebeamed by a god while standing near the party. Due to the recovery of the body involved.
Thus, it could still be a meaningful choice to go or not go for a new character, even if the character is guaranteed to never be fully destroyed by the impact.

[Rupert]

Non-standard worlds (higher gravity, thinner atmospheres) aside, we're given a terminal velocity for humans of 60-100 yards/s. That translates into 20d damage when hitting hard ground at maximum velocity, scaling linearly with HP.

An absolute maximum roll can get over -10xHP, but it's highly unlikely. Having 'permanent death from falls' protection isn't actually going to be worth a lot of points, as it's unlikely to come up unless you're already well beaten up by something else. Protection from automatic death (-5xHP) will be worth more, because that's actually reasonably likely from a terminal velocity impact, if you aren't spread-eagled to slow the fall a bit.