Knockback Questions - Page 2

Koningkrush · 07-03-2015, 05:59 PM

I was looking at knockback rules and I'm trying to understand how they work across different types of damage. I'm probably being too technical, but I really like realism in my games.

Crushing: Seems fine and has no problems.

Cutting: Seems fine as well except for what happens when cutting penetrates DR. It might be a thing with physics that I don't know about, but why would energy penetrating a barrier cause all the force required to break that barrier to vanish?
For example, Joe with 10 ST wearing 64 DR super plate metal gets whacked in the chest by an axe traveling at subsonic speeds. If this axe does 64 damage, Joe will fly backwards 8 yards and probably land on his back if he doesn't get a great DX roll. However, if this axe did 65 damage, the axe went through the armor and cut through Joe's skin for 1 point of damage. Why didn't Joe fly backwards in this case?
A house rule I figured that might work for this is that you subtract penetrating damage from the damage absorbed by DR, then calculate the knockback from that. I thought that this might represent the axe being inside of the person enough that the flesh around the edge actually holds them in place to a certain degree.

Impaling: This is another thing I wondered about. This might be more physics oriented than anything. If a really large impaling weapon that has a small point hits you, shouldn't it cause knockback since it has enough mass behind it, or does having a small point in front make it ineffective for this?
For example, Joe, with the same 64 DR chest plate, gets hit by the stinger of a giant hornet the size of a house. He takes 64 impaling damage, but doesn't get knocked back at all by this massive blow.

Piercing: I agree that this shouldn't do knockback due to the insignificant mass.

Blunt Trauma: Does knockback apply to blunt trauma? If Joe replaced his chest plate with ultra-super-mega plate for 80 DR, and took 80 points of damage from a bullet, would the 8 points of blunt trauma knock him back 1 yard?

--Off topic related to blunt trauma: For the same reasons for cutting knockback, I assumed that blunt trauma is the result of damage being dispersed throughout your body (or body part) as shock energy does Large-Area injury in a sense. I house ruled that blunt trauma applies even if damage penetrates DR. The blunt trauma is from the energy of the blow spreading out and causing general damage, while the penetrating damage is highly concentrated in a single spot. In other words, why would the force required to penetrate a barrier (the armor) disappear once there is enough force to penetrate it?

07-03-2015, 05:59 PM	#1
Koningkrush Join Date: Dec 2014	Knockback Questions I was looking at knockback rules and I'm trying to understand how they work across different types of damage. I'm probably being too technical, but I really like realism in my games. Crushing: Seems fine and has no problems. Cutting: Seems fine as well except for what happens when cutting penetrates DR. It might be a thing with physics that I don't know about, but why would energy penetrating a barrier cause all the force required to break that barrier to vanish? For example, Joe with 10 ST wearing 64 DR super plate metal gets whacked in the chest by an axe traveling at subsonic speeds. If this axe does 64 damage, Joe will fly backwards 8 yards and probably land on his back if he doesn't get a great DX roll. However, if this axe did 65 damage, the axe went through the armor and cut through Joe's skin for 1 point of damage. Why didn't Joe fly backwards in this case? A house rule I figured that might work for this is that you subtract penetrating damage from the damage absorbed by DR, then calculate the knockback from that. I thought that this might represent the axe being inside of the person enough that the flesh around the edge actually holds them in place to a certain degree. Impaling: This is another thing I wondered about. This might be more physics oriented than anything. If a really large impaling weapon that has a small point hits you, shouldn't it cause knockback since it has enough mass behind it, or does having a small point in front make it ineffective for this? For example, Joe, with the same 64 DR chest plate, gets hit by the stinger of a giant hornet the size of a house. He takes 64 impaling damage, but doesn't get knocked back at all by this massive blow. Piercing: I agree that this shouldn't do knockback due to the insignificant mass. Blunt Trauma: Does knockback apply to blunt trauma? If Joe replaced his chest plate with ultra-super-mega plate for 80 DR, and took 80 points of damage from a bullet, would the 8 points of blunt trauma knock him back 1 yard? --Off topic related to blunt trauma: For the same reasons for cutting knockback, I assumed that blunt trauma is the result of damage being dispersed throughout your body (or body part) as shock energy does Large-Area injury in a sense. I house ruled that blunt trauma applies even if damage penetrates DR. The blunt trauma is from the energy of the blow spreading out and causing general damage, while the penetrating damage is highly concentrated in a single spot. In other words, why would the force required to penetrate a barrier (the armor) disappear once there is enough force to penetrate it? Last edited by Koningkrush; 07-03-2015 at 06:15 PM.