Sharp Knife

[Jeminai]

When I see video where large fish are being sliced up by fillet knives, these knives go through scales and flesh with very little effort. Would this be some special level of sharpness for purposes of damage or is that just how sharp your knives are supposed to be for the purposes of combat?

In a realistic game, what kind of damage should a fillet knife do? I'm also figuring that the knife is quite weak for a stab but if like to get some input on this any way.

Thanks in advance!

[Donny Brook]

A long-standing problem with GURPS has been the legacy error with damage types. Impaling damage should penetrate better, but cutting damage should have a higher wounding multiple. That would better reflect what we see in slicing demonstrations on unarmored targets like fish.

[Juca]

It is because the fish is (or should be) on a stable surface, it is not fighting back, or trying to not be sliced, and the fisherman is not worried about being wounded back; that is - it is not a combat situation, and should not be handled as combat. In combat, a fillet knife would probably do damage as a small or large knife (as fitting its size), but I think that it would count as "cheap" for the purpose of breakage. It got a very fine edge, but it don't matter when in a combat situation, where you can't but the right kind of strenght behind your cuts.

[Juca]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

A long-standing problem with GURPS has been the legacy error with damage types. Impaling damage should penetrate better, but cutting damage should have a higher wounding multiple. That would better reflect what we see in slicing demonstrations on unarmored targets like fish.

I beg to disagree. Impaling damage only penetrate better against some kind of armor, and the wounding multiplier represent how mortally the wound is, cuts can look nasty, and incapacitate limbs, but punctures kill. (ok, actually, both obviously kill, but slashes kill after you bleed out, sometimes quite later on, while puncturing wounds can quickly bleed you to unconsciousness and death).

[Opellulo]

IMHO in your scenario you are seeing the results of Cooking(sushi) or Profession(fisherman) more than knife blade quality. Meat fibers are meant to be cut in specific directions in order to reduce resistance and preserve meat quality. Consider that cooking knifes are often very sharp because they are used in a perfect way in a perfect environment, use the same knife to slice perpendicularly anything harder than a loaf of bread and it's going to lose its edge pretty fast.

Also if you think that cutting fish is an astounding feat then see in action some professional "jamonero": they can consistently produce perfectly homogeneous thin slices from a cured meat that's harder than many wood types.

Tools are important but the craft is the real difference.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Juca

I beg to disagree. Impaling damage only penetrate better against some kind of armor, and the wounding multiplier represent how mortally the wound is, cuts can look nasty, and incapacitate limbs, but punctures kill. (ok, actually, both obviously kill, but slashes kill after you bleed out, sometimes quite later on, while puncturing wounds can quickly bleed you to unconsciousness and death).

I believe its been claimed that cuts incapacitate, but punctures kill.


I can see that being hard to represent with a single HP stat.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I believe its been claimed that cuts incapacitate, but punctures kill. I can see that being hard to represent with a single HP stat.

Hence wounding multipliers, limits on what sort of attacks can target the victim's Vitals, optional Bleeding rules, and rules for Infections.

[Rolando]

Agree with all of the above, but some professional knifes are also fine or very fine quality to keep a better edge and can be a bit more lethal than your average "good" of the shelf knife. But they are tools not weapons and resistance to breakage (when parrying at least) is not necessarily a key feature of their higher quality.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Jeminai

Would this be some special level of sharpness for purposes of damage or is that just how sharp your knives are supposed to be for the purposes of combat?

You could treat special-purpose tools like these knives as Fine- or Very Fine-Quality blades when figuring the amount of damage they inflict but merely Good-Quality (or even Cheap-Quality) for other purposes.

[Donny Brook]

Punctures kill when they hit vital organs, but are survivable when they do not.

Consider a body part that does not provide instant-kill potential, say like the gut or a leg. Personally I'd rather take three sword-thrusts there than a full slash.