From: tmyoung@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Thomas M. Young)
Subject: Re: GURPS: UlTRA Tech ?= Ultra Death??
Keywords: GURPS DEATH ULTRA
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 11:20:07 EDT

In article <rsuelINNcgl@agate.berkeley.edu> labc-4ac@web-2e.berkeley.edu writes:
>I was playing inan extensive GURPS Supers/Ulta Tech game and we came accross
>an interesting problem with Ultra Tech, and to a lesser extent Supers.  With
>the amazingly HUGE numbers of dice involved in damage (20D6 dino-lasers) and
>the huge DR's of the super high tech armor, for us a hit was either bounced
>by armor, or fried the character.  The shot either didn't penetrate the armor
>or it penetrated with 10+ hitd and toasted the PC.  What ever happened to
>injury's??  Have other people had this problem?
>
> -=- Matthew L. Seidl
>
>ps. This came up first in a test combat, where the characters decked out
>in tech 8-9 weapons were sneeking arround a wood/stone building and the
>bad guy inside (wearing power armor) just walked through the wall, hosed
>the group with a gatling laser and took off at 40+ miles an hour.
>.

This is a pervasive problem in SF and SF gaming - if people don't keep up with
their tools, the tools take over.  What you have described is the "Armored
Creampuff" syndrome, and has been much discussed on SJ's BBS.  Basic problem
is that at TL3 or so, a 2d hit (ave 7pts) is about what you plan for, so you
wear armor with a DR 7.  If you're taking only 1d hits (ave 3.5) wear 3-4 DR,
and you'll be OK.  That rule breaks down at high damages.  Here's why: A 2d
hit does 2-12 points, so DR7 will reduce this to 2d-7 which does 0 about 60%
of the time, and averages only 2pts the rest of the time.  The spread of
damage drops to 0-5, and most characters can handle that.  On the other hand,
a 10d hit does 10-60 points, so if you want to take no more than 5 points from
a hit, you need DR55 - which works, you never take more than 5 points per hit,
but you create a second problem - almost all hits do 0.  Only 1 in 2500 hits
will penetrate!  

To combat this effect, use damage to inanimate object rules on the armor. 
Steel is listed has having DR8, and 80HT per inch, and provides 70DR to any
one standing behind it.  If you made 6" thick steel armor (for a super-strong
guy, or a tank), it might legitimately have DR8 and 480HT, and provide 420DR
to its occupant.  Now you hit it with blasts from that 10d attack.  At first
nothing will penetrate, but you're 10d-8 is being subtracted from the 480HT
of the armor each time you hit.  Eventually, you will ruin that armor, and 
soft little guy inside is toast.  In effect, the HT of the armor now serves
the same purpose as the HT of the man did in the low-tech game.  The GM has
complete control over the stats for ultratech materials anyway, so this gives
him a handle on the game's lethality.


So: 1) Decide what the typical damage you're players will be up against is.
    2) Pick an armor value a few points less than the max damage from (1).
    3) Decide how much DR and HT the *armor* itself has in order to provide
       for (2) above - remember brittle materials (composits) will have
       more DR and less HT.  This fact keeps these things under control.
       1" Steel has DR8,HT80,DR(for occupant)70.  Ceramic composits might
       have DR16, HT40, DR(for occupant)140 - great protection until they
       shatter.

WARNINGS:
If you roll those 10 dice as 5dx2, the chance to penetrate DR55 is 1 in 119,
and if you roll them as 2dx5 you get a chance to penetrate of 1 in 4. So be
consistant with this!

GM's need to remember (and let players find out) that the difference in danger
between a 15d and a 20d attack is about the same as between a 1d and a 6d 
attack. 

This has worked for my campaign, but can create some real problems if you've
got sneaky engineers in your game.  Still, they're realistic problems, and
not game killers.

Tom Young                                          tmyoung@rodan.acs.syr.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp