Scratching with a poisoned needle

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Is there a RAW answer to what skill to use when scratching a target with a poisoned needle? Knife? Or Brawling? Or DX?

Brawling seems to be the "improvised weapon skill".

I'd call it Knife, but some of that probably depends on what you are envisioning here. I'm not convinced there are any real poisons you can deliver a lethal dose via a "scratch", and the motions and hence skill you'd need to drive a needle in solidly and push a plunger to inject something are clearly different from a casual scratch too - more like a knife thrust rather than a slap or wild swing. If you did have a cinematic poison that would actually work with a needle scratch or a poison needle ring (and note historical "poison rings" are not that, they're lockets with a space to store a dose of poison to be dropped into a drink or something) then I could believe Brawling (or it's DX "default") would work.

[benz72]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I'm not convinced there are any real poisons you can deliver a lethal dose via a "scratch", .

Po210?

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium-210

"210Po is extremely toxic; it and other polonium isotopes are some of the most radiotoxic substances to humans.[6][16] With one microgram being more than enough to kill the average adult, 210Po is 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide by weight;[17] it is also thought that one gram of 210Po is enough to kill 50 million people and sicken another 50 million.[6]"

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by benz72

Po210?

Even there, it really depends on the definition of a scratch. You need to get far enough in for the poison to enter the bloodstream, otherwise it's just resident at the injury location, and as an alpha emitter, the radiation just won't go very far.

[benz72]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Even there, it really depends on the definition of a scratch. You need to get far enough in for the poison to enter the bloodstream, otherwise it's just resident at the injury location, and as an alpha emitter, the radiation just won't go very far.

Sure. I had assumed for context that at GURPS resolution it would be the lowest possible injury, 1 HP. Do we have an actual rule on this? Is "Scratch" defined somewhere?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by benz72

Sure. I had assumed for context that at GURPS resolution it would be the lowest possible injury, 1 HP. Do we have an actual rule on this? Is "Scratch" defined somewhere?

A Scratch arguably should be less than 1 HP, but capable of transmitting a Blood Agent (possibly with a bonus to resist) - a No Wounding effect. But unless you specifically design a No Wounding attack, GURPS doesn't allow for that - indeed, any cutting, impaling, or (IIRC) piercing attack deals at least 1 HP of Injury if it gets past DR (or there's no DR to start with), implying that, yes, a Scratch would be 1 HP.

I think the only case where Scratch is actually defined is in the Conditional Injury optional rules, where I believe it is indeed less than 10% of the target's HP, working out to around either 5% or 7% (away from my files, and it's obfuscated by the Severity system, but it works out to roughly one of those).

[sir_pudding]

Horrible synthetic nerve toxins could do it, but then you don't even need a scratch. Supposedly toxins orders of magnitude more lethal thsn VX have been identified, never made, and the data scrubbed.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I'm not convinced there are any real poisons you can deliver a lethal dose via a "scratch",

Not exactly a poison, but "corpse juice" could be quite effective in a historical campaign.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Not exactly a poison, but "corpse juice" could be quite effective in a historical campaign.

Dung was used as a poison historically (because tetanus), but again, really needs a certain depth to actually be effective.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Dung was used as a poison historically (because tetanus), but again, really needs a certain depth to actually be effective.

And again, it needs enough time to work that it's not really useful in battle on the tactical level.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

And again, it needs enough time to work that it's not really useful in battle on the tactical level.

Well, yes, if you want it to work in real time, that tends to be cinematic.