Combat between very little creatures

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Rendu

(Honestly, a bit annoyed they went with a lower-case "d". Capital "D-" for "×10" and small "d-" for "÷10" would make more sense. )

I think it was an aesthetic choice - dDR, dHP, dST all look better than DDR (which looks like either a typo or a reference to a dancing game), DHP, and DST. It also makes it look like the "d" is its own thing - it's more immediately obvious that dST is some modified version of ST than DST (which looks like it could be an abbreviation for some other, potentially-unrelated statistic). Going with the SI abbreviation for deca, da, would have had the same effect and left things open for deci, d, but there almost certainly were no plans to have deci-scale at the time of Spaceships' publication (particularly considering, to my knowledge, there is still no official deci-scale in GURPS). da also would have had the advantage of leaving people likely pronouncing it "de-ka," as that has the same syllables as "dee-eh," and honestly it's a bit quicker and easier to do a two-syllable word that is consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel than consonant-vowel-pause-vowel. As it stands, it's just "dee-dee-arr, dee-aitch-pea, dee-ess-tea," and that's boring.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

While it was designed for GURPS 3E, the full set of GULLIVER rules looks into the biomechanics of large and small scale creatures, and has some very good ideas for handling large and small scale fights.

Of course, this does raise the question of whether you want physically accurate handling or not. The real mechanics of fighting (or activity in general) are different at significantly different scales.

(I think a realistic handling would be really cool and I should read it, but...it's going to be weird, much like how realistic giants are weird.)

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Varyon

While I've long been a fan of restructuring the damage table (but haven't yet determined exactly how I want to do this), I think going through and doing so just so you can have a pair of Lilliputians fight is a bit excessive.

Well yeah, but it also let's you downscale giants down to human sizes and not get inconsistent results (11d of damage at 100 HP is a bigger chunk than 1d-2 of damage at 10 HP).

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Of course, this does raise the question of whether you want physically accurate handling or not. The real mechanics of fighting (or activity in general) are different at significantly different scales.

(I think a realistic handling would be really cool and I should read it, but...it's going to be weird, much like how realistic giants are weird.)

There is a reason that insects go in for poison in stingers or fangs, claws that grab and crush once they have a grip or grappling and gnawing. Hitting or thrusting don't do much.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by dcarson

There is a reason that insects go in for poison in stingers or fangs, claws that grab and crush once they have a grip or grappling and gnawing. Hitting or thrusting don't do much.

Yeah, generally the significance of momentum decreases as size does. (Especially but I think not exclusively in an atmospheric or liquid environment.)

(Though I'd note that even non-venomous impaling can be useful, as exemplified by certain ants.)

[dcarson]

Right but they don't just hit with those, they grab and keep squeezing until it penetrates enough.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Right but they don't just hit with those, they grab and keep squeezing until it penetrates enough.

Yes, quite. Spikes can be useful, strikes for the most part are not.

[Inky]

There seems to have been a thread about Microworld, an Infinite Worlds setting with humans about one inch tall, some time ago.

One of the "Creatures of the Night" supplements also had a salamander that could shrink people, and gave rules for scaled-down adventures.

It seems like you could do mini combats either following the square-cube law (so that tiny creatures can lift proportionately very big objects, like ants carrying leaves) or like human-sized creatures in a giant world. I'm not sure which of those the various scaling rules in this thread are closest to, if either.

[Gollum]

Wow! Thank you for all those very interesting answers and sorry for the delay of mine: I was very busy this week-end.

I’ve heard of Guliver rules and will read them as soon as possible.

And, of course, I’m not looking for physically and mathematically accurate rules … But I’m still looking for something more useful than actual rules, because they are not satisfying enough – to my point of view. How to handle a combat between a mouse and a little fairy, for instance, which can happen from time to time in a medieval fantastic game world?

Shifting the strength score sounds to be the best answer.

And the inverted d-scale of Space Ships, which is exactly what I was speaking about with my table at the start of that thread, may be a good way to do it. You’ve got the damage for a little creature against a bigger one and, as soon as two little creatures fight against each other, you just have to multiply HP and DR by 10 and to drop the “/10”.

It has to be tested, though …

And thank you for the link to the thread about Microworld too.