TL3 shields work as cover vs modern rifles?

[weby]

Originally Posted by martinl

The average rpg hobbyist expects low tech shields to be durable equipment. GURPS caters to this.

Realistic low tech shields, as noted, take a lot of damage in fights. Handling this in GURPS results in a lot of record keeping and maintenance.

GM: Lord Phluphernuttur, the Black Squire smacks you with his morningstar!
Player: I block (clatter) made it by 3.
GM: OK, the morningstar does (clatter) 11 points to your shield. Is that enough to bash through?
Player: hrm... minus DR ... carry the 2 ... ok 3 points get through.
GM: OK, roll on the shield penetration hit location table (clatter) it hits your helmet.
Player: Whew, I got DR 5 there.
GM: Are we using armor damage?
Other players: (run away screaming)

Apparently your group is not like mine..

Player 1:
(browsing through equipment lists)
Oh.. look, the shields have really high DR
(browse more)
Oh.. and they also require 1/4 of the HP to breach.
(calculates)
so that is for the large shield will require 24 points.
(thinking)
(does a web search to get the size of shields and human torsos)
I will buy 2, cut off the extra material so my arms and legs can move and cut off a part so they only cover torso.
(calculates)
According to this that would be about X%, so I will have a torso armor that wrights less than the Heavy Steel Corselet but provides better armor.
So I will have torso DR of 9, backed by a ablative DR of Y with penetration at Z total points.
My Armoury(bodyarmor) skill is..
GM:..
Player 2: Make one for me too
Player 3: I want also arm and leg armors made of the same stuff...
GM: (Bangs his head at the desk a few times)

[martinl]

Originally Posted by weby

Apparently your group is not like mine..
...
I will buy 2, cut off the extra material so my arms and legs can move and cut off a part so they only cover torso.
...

LOL. That was great. Almost as good as the "brain armor" of 3e.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Lupo

I agree with Hal here, shields should have *far* lower DR and HP. They're unrealistically resilient in GURPS and this creates the problems you are pointing to.

Shields were made much more resilient for 4e. I used to say this was an accidental misformatting of the (much more reasonable) 3e data. Kromm told me it was deliberate and now I just say it was a mistake instead of an accident. :)

[weby]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Shields were made much more resilient for 4e. I used to say this was an accidental misformatting of the (much more reasonable) 3e data. Kromm told me it was deliberate and now I just say it was a mistake instead of an accident. :)

Ugh.. deliberate?

I thought the default rules of shields not breaking would be enough for people in the "shields are durable crowd", so the optional rules of shields breaking should then really have been realistic for the people who want realism.. so that we do not need to make our own rules.

[weby]

I sure hope Low tech has fixed shield rules.

[Lupo]

Originally Posted by weby

I sure hope Low tech has fixed shield rules.

GURPS 3e has them! Or you can simply reduce the values given on 4e to half or one third.

[Nymdok]

I tried at one time to look at shields versus the Structural tables in the back of the basic set to see how much of the DR/HP came from the material and how much of it came from technology.http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=47660

Right now Im busy failing at trying to improve the bow spectrum, but you may want to consider looking at it and trying to further that material.

Nymdok

[jacobmuller]

Originally Posted by Lupo

GURPS 3e has them! Or you can simply reduce the values given on 4e to half or one third.

That does produce nice numbers. Large shield DR3 HP20 would stop 8 points of damage. A lot closer to the inanimate object stats for thin wood with a leather facing.