Heavily modified (logarithmic) damage system for GURPS: feedback wanted!

Sam Baughn · 03-06-2022, 05:50 AM

Inspired by Douglas Cole's Conditional Injury, but applying the logarithmic concept to every part of the GURPS damage process except recording injury, my system makes resolving damage quicker and easier.

Provisional name is 'Sort-Of Logarithmic Improved Damage System' or SOLIDS.

Features:

Removes almost all division and multiplication calculations, replacing them with addition and subtraction.
Reduces amount of dice rolled.
Much faster resolution of multiple hits.
Handles extreme values easily.
Introduces mass-based collision and knockback rules for more accurate 'game physics'.
Smaller numbers, less counting needed.
Handles small / weak characters better than default system.
Crippling and major wound thresholds do not need to be calculated for each character.
Effects which should scale with HP but don't, like bleeding, handled better.
Fully compatible with most popular optional rules, including Conditional Injury, Knowing Your Own Strength, and Survivable Guns. Actually makes them easier to implement in many cases.
Potential for future optional rules to be added, taking advantage of features such as easily adding 'wounding modifier' between pi and pi-, 'armor divisor (1.5)', or more precise crippling thresholds (e.g. legs could easily be made slightly harder to cripple than arms, different injury needed to cripple with different damage types).

Drawbacks:

Slightly less detail than existing rules, some ST scores no longer offer much difference (mostly fixed by combining with Knowing Your Own Strength).
Some weapons no longer distinct from each other (notably, .45 ACP, .40S&W, and 10mm Auto usually deal the same damage).
Adds several new numbers; mostly replacing existing ones, but overall count of things on character sheet goes up by at least one (Mass Class).
Requires extensive conversion of existing items, replacing all HP, DR, and Damage (including armor divisor) values, and adding Mass Class (but conversion tables and formulas are provided).
Requires some table look-ups (but progression is usually the same as the S&S/R Table, so it may be possible to make a cheat-sheet which covers all needed ones, and if you have the S&S/R Table memorized, you usually just need to 'shift' it a couple of steps).

At the moment, this is very much a 'first draft' which should be useable as-is, but could do with a lot of editing, proof-reading, and playtesting to bring it up to standard. I'd really appreciate any feedback people here can provide.
Anyway, here's the link (125 kB PDF):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rxt...ew?usp=sharing

03-06-2022, 05:50 AM	#1
Sam Baughn Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and some other bits.	Heavily modified (logarithmic) damage system for GURPS: feedback wanted! Inspired by Douglas Cole's Conditional Injury, but applying the logarithmic concept to every part of the GURPS damage process except recording injury, my system makes resolving damage quicker and easier. Provisional name is 'Sort-Of Logarithmic Improved Damage System' or SOLIDS. Features: Removes almost all division and multiplication calculations, replacing them with addition and subtraction. Reduces amount of dice rolled. Much faster resolution of multiple hits. Handles extreme values easily. Introduces mass-based collision and knockback rules for more accurate 'game physics'. Smaller numbers, less counting needed. Handles small / weak characters better than default system. Crippling and major wound thresholds do not need to be calculated for each character. Effects which should scale with HP but don't, like bleeding, handled better. Fully compatible with most popular optional rules, including Conditional Injury, Knowing Your Own Strength, and Survivable Guns. Actually makes them easier to implement in many cases. Potential for future optional rules to be added, taking advantage of features such as easily adding 'wounding modifier' between pi and pi-, 'armor divisor (1.5)', or more precise crippling thresholds (e.g. legs could easily be made slightly harder to cripple than arms, different injury needed to cripple with different damage types). Drawbacks: Slightly less detail than existing rules, some ST scores no longer offer much difference (mostly fixed by combining with Knowing Your Own Strength). Some weapons no longer distinct from each other (notably, .45 ACP, .40S&W, and 10mm Auto usually deal the same damage). Adds several new numbers; mostly replacing existing ones, but overall count of things on character sheet goes up by at least one (Mass Class). Requires extensive conversion of existing items, replacing all HP, DR, and Damage (including armor divisor) values, and adding Mass Class (but conversion tables and formulas are provided). Requires some table look-ups (but progression is usually the same as the S&S/R Table, so it may be possible to make a cheat-sheet which covers all needed ones, and if you have the S&S/R Table memorized, you usually just need to 'shift' it a couple of steps). At the moment, this is very much a 'first draft' which should be useable as-is, but could do with a lot of editing, proof-reading, and playtesting to bring it up to standard. I'd really appreciate any feedback people here can provide. Anyway, here's the link (125 kB PDF): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rxt...ew?usp=sharing __________________ My blog.