Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds

[Varyon]

I've always thought of Shock penalties as stacking, up to the maximum of -4, but reading B381 and the FAQ entry, that's not immediately obvious. I feel the GURPS authors would have specifically stated something like "if you take multiple hits in a round, apply only the highest penalty" if it were intended they shouldn't stack, but I could well be wrong on that. If you want to know the intent, I think your only option is to ask Kromm directly (or find a thread where he gave a response). Failing that, you'll need to simply make a call as GM as to what makes the most sense to you - if someone takes a moderate hit for 30% of their HP and a weak hit for 10% of their HP, are they as debilitated by the pain as someone who took a single 40% HP hit, or does the pain of the 30% hit basically completely overwhelm the pain of the 10%, making the latter largely unfelt?

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I've always thought of Shock penalties as stacking, up to the maximum of -4, but reading B381 and the FAQ entry, that's not immediately obvious. I feel the GURPS authors would have specifically stated something like "if you take multiple hits in a round, apply only the highest penalty" if it were intended they shouldn't stack, but I could well be wrong on that. If you want to know the intent, I think your only option is to ask Kromm directly (or find a thread where he gave a response). Failing that, you'll need to simply make a call as GM as to what makes the most sense to you - if someone takes a moderate hit for 30% of their HP and a weak hit for 10% of their HP, are they as debilitated by the pain as someone who took a single 40% HP hit, or does the pain of the 30% hit basically completely overwhelm the pain of the 10%, making the latter largely unfelt?

My inclination is to have the penalties not stack. The cap is only -4, so stacking minor wounds can hit it quite quickly, which doesn't seem desirable to me. Also, the game considers Shock to be a similar source of penalties to Pain, and I don't think Pain penalties stack, rather stronger Pain over-writes the weaker.

[Anthony]

The rules don't say the penalties don't stack (just that they're capped at -4) and in GURPS most things that don't specify otherwise do stack.