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Old 05-18-2012, 10:37 AM   #1
martinl
 
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Default Taking Down the Big Monkey

I recently found myself pondering the climax of King Kong with more cynical eyes than I originally used when I saw it for the first time as a wee nipper. I quickly realized that strafing machine gun fire out of biplanes over Manhattan, while arguably Awesome, was definitely a Bad Idea.

This was followed almost immediately by the thought that "any decent sniper could probably have taken out Kong with one high powered rifle round to the eye from a nearby rooftop for -100 reckless endangerment points."

This thought was followed by "I could probably simulate this in GURPS," and then "I bet the Forum would have a field day simulating this in GURPS."

So anyone want to simulate a 1930's era National Guard Sniper vs. a 40 foot tall gorilla?

Special Bonus Section: You're playing a GURPS Pulp Heroes game with your normal group and Kong and Faye have made it to the top of the ESB. What do the PCs do? (I have a strong suspicion that a significant percentage of groups would put an inadvisable amount of explosives against the ESB roof from the inside...)
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Old 05-18-2012, 10:57 AM   #2
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 conveniently has a "big boss" giant ape on page 16 :) SM +5, 65 HP
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Old 05-18-2012, 10:59 AM   #3
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

Definitely a fun sounding endeavor... are there agreed upon stats for Kong? Because I have a feeling that even a sniper would have a hard time of it. A rifle shot to the eye of Kong might be a bit like a speck of sand in the wind hitting a human eye. Hurts and probably distracts quite a bit, but ultimately doesn't do much damage. Depends on Kongs stats. I'm not sure the strafing planes would have the fire power to get through Kong's hair and hide either.

I don't remember how the girl was saved (if she was saved). I never saw the movie. But I assume keeping her from plummeting to her death is a goal of the encounter.

If the building is holding up to the weight/pressure, I might be tempted to wait for Kong to come back down. I mean, climbing the building doesn't really help him any. He can't really do much from up there.

Definitely an interesting scenario.
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Old 05-18-2012, 11:00 AM   #4
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

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Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 conveniently has a "big boss" giant ape on page 16 :) SM +5, 65 HP
... only 65 hit points? That surprises me.
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Old 05-18-2012, 11:04 AM   #5
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
So anyone want to simulate a 1930's era National Guard Sniper vs. a 40 foot tall gorilla?
Okay, first of all we have a 40' tall gorilla. This is roughly 7x the height of an adult gorilla, and presumably 343x the weight, or somewhere in the range of 60-70 tons. Said giant ape apparently moves like a normal ape, which means it needs strength proportional to its size, ignoring the square/cube law (18.5x the ST of a regular gorilla). Based on its mass, a regular gorilla should have 14 hit points; thus our giant ape has 259 hit points (we'll round to 260). Scaling other things in the same way, it has a skull DR of 37, and DR 0.5 skin becomes DR 9. Unlike the human skull, the eye sockets in a gorilla skull don't have much of a free path into the brain, and would not allow a brain shot from most angles. Frankly, it seems unlikely that a machine gun will have much trouble killing this, but a single sniper rifle shot would be challenging.
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Old 05-18-2012, 11:05 AM   #6
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

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Originally Posted by kdtipa View Post
If the building is holding up to the weight/pressure, I might be tempted to wait for Kong to come back down. I mean, climbing the building doesn't really help him any. He can't really do much from up there.
That strikes me as the way to go. Seeing as the Empire State Building is the tallest building of its day, any "nearby" rooftop firing position has to deal with a possibly modest horizontal distance, but also a considerable vertical distance, and maybe very high winds as well. If Kong's not doing any damage, wait until he gets bored and comes down, so you can bring heavier weapons to bear on him with a much better chance to hit, more damage if they do, and without smashing a very deep 40-foot-ape-shaped hole in Fifth Avenue.
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Old 05-18-2012, 11:12 AM   #7
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

King Kong's height's ambiguous. The original movie has him at 24 feet at one point. But if you look at that huge ape hand grasping Fay Wray, it covers pretty much her whole torso. That's at least an 8:1 increase in palm breadth, maybe 10:1. That would put him at 50-70 feet.

I think King Kong's size actually fluctuated with the needs of the plot and the capabilities of the special effects department.

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Old 05-18-2012, 11:14 AM   #8
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

From the point of view of the rescuers, though, it is likely that Kong appears to be an imminent threat to the woman he is carrying, so it might be necessary to act sooner for her sake.
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Old 05-18-2012, 11:15 AM   #9
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

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Originally Posted by Dorin Thorha View Post
From the point of view of the rescuers, though, it is likely that Kong appears to be an imminent threat to the woman he is carrying, so it might be necessary to act sooner for her sake.
Especially considering that this is a pulp genre, and so the safety of the nearby structures and their inhabitants is a non-issue, and, besides, of minimal importance compared to that of The Woman.
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Old 05-18-2012, 11:23 AM   #10
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Default Re: Taking Down the Big Monkey

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Originally Posted by kdtipa View Post

I don't remember how the girl was saved (if she was saved).
He put her down so he could try to swat the planes buzzing him. Which where a sniper doesn't do the trick.
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