Benchmark tables for BL, Damage, Damage Resistance?

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

One aspect I really struggle with (not just in GURPS) is fitting an RPG's numbers to real world measurements.

Currently I'm a little confused how strong a given ST is and what "Xd+/-Y" damage is comparable to. I know there are weapon and armor tables, and there's a "ST needed to lift very heavy things" table in Powers. But it's still a bit confusing to go between all those pages.

Does anyone have some kind of simplified document that lists what BL, Damage, Damage Resistance -- and maybe various kinds of Movement speeds/distances -- mean in terms of something that can be encountered in the real world?

UPDATE: Best answers:
Material strength advice
How to calculate "x times stronger than human"
Convert to MPH and metric (and in subsequent posts)
Stats on Lifting, Move, Damage, and Armor

[WingedKagouti]

Start by looking at page 17 in Characters.

There you'll find the table for Basic Lift and encumbrance along with a description in text of what it means.

Unless otherwise noted Move is always yards/second.

[Varyon]

BL 20 is roughly how strong an average person is - thus, BL 40 would be twice as strong as a typical person, BL 60 is 3x, and so forth.

Damage and DR are interrelated. DR 70 is how much protection an inch of Rolled Homogenous Armor (RHA) steel provides (you can often find real armor - mostly for old armored vehicle - listed in RHA-equivalence). Similarly, 20d of damage is roughly the strongest attack an inch of RHA steel will protect against. You can extrapolate from there, and also use the DR and damage of existing armor and weapons - a medium iron breastplate gives around DR 6 (I think DR 5 in Basic, but at a different weight), a 9mm pistol deals around 2d+2 pi, etc.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

Start by looking at page 17 in Characters.
There you'll find the table for Basic Lift and encumbrance along with a description in text of what it means.
Unless otherwise noted Move is always yards/second.

I might not have been clear: I don't have a grasp idea of what "able to lift 20 pounds with 1 hand in 1 second" means. I'm hoping there's something somewhere that says "this ST score is this many times stronger than the average human" or "this Damage Resistance is like being made of this material".

[whswhs]

Divide Basic Lift by 20 pounds to find a multiple of human strength. For example, "as strong as ten men" would be 200 pounds Basic Life, which would be roughly ST 32 (since 32 x 32 / 5 = 1024 / 5 = 204.8 lbs.).

You can't just say "as much DR as material X," because the DR of a material depends on its thickness; an inch of steel has much more DR than a millimeter of steel. Take a look at the Structural Damage Table on p. B558 for some benchmarks.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by whswhs

You can't just say "as much DR as material X," because the DR of a material depends on its thickness; an inch of steel has much more DR than a millimeter of steel. Take a look at the Structural Damage Table on p. B558 for some benchmarks.

Okay, this was something I really needed pointed out to me. Thanks.

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

I might not have been clear: I don't have a grasp idea of what "able to lift 20 pounds with 1 hand in 1 second" means. I'm hoping there's something somewhere that says "this ST score is this many times stronger than the average human" or "this Damage Resistance is like being made of this material".

Either find BL and divide by 20 or divide ST by 10 and square the value e.g.

ST 20 / 10 = 2 squared = 4x stronger than average human.
ST 40 / 10 = 4 squared = 16x stronger than average human.
ST 60 / 10 = 6 squared = 36x stronger than average human.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

maybe various kinds of Movement speeds/distances

Move is in yards/sec, by definition. By coincidence, you can double yd/sec to get miles per hour nearly exactly. (3600 seconds in a hour; 1760 yards in a mile, so it's really a factor of 2.04545....)

If you'd rather play in metric so you have a better feel for the units, the easiest thing to do is just treat "yards" as meters. It's close enough. Similarly, dividing "pounds" by 2 to get kg is a similar ~10% error. (2.2 pounds per kg.)

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Move is in yards/sec, by definition. By coincidence, you can double yd/sec to get miles per hour nearly exactly. (3600 seconds in a hour; 1760 yards in a mile, so it's really a factor of 2.04545....)

That's nice. I'd never made the connection.

Agree with your simple 1m/1y and 1kg/2lb conversion - we use that all the time and it's plenty close enough for game mechanics.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

And in>cm seems to be "x2.5" (though I only bothered to check that because I added jumping distances to my stat-block template).