From: bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: game vs reality simulation
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:05:32 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego


	Okay, below are (roughly) the effects of various weapons
against an unarmored foe with a 15 HT.  In these combats I am
assuming that it is a single foe against some arbitrary number of
attackers.  The foe is good enough (or the attackers bad enough)
that only a single shot hits the foe every turn.

REVIEWING DAMAGE TO VITALS
	Shooting the vitals is a -3 (you can't just randomly fire at
the entire torso; you've got to aim for the VITALS).  Impaling or
BULLETS will cause x3 damage (blowthrough is at HTx3 as I recall).
Certain attacks will force the enemy to roll vs. HT or fall
unconscious.  (I don't have the info here, but I did do the rolling
right).

DAMAGE TO BRAIN
	HT/2 damage will AUTOMATICALLY KNOCK THE ENEMY OUT.  Damage
is multiplied by 4 after getting past the natural skull DR of 2.  No
blowthrough.

GYROC vs. VITALS
	Two shots from the gyroc irrevocably kill this guy.
Remember that at -6xHT this guy is dead.  Period.  The first shot
does quite a bit of damage...
	A gyroc doesn't do quite as much damage as a bazooka, I
figure, and with a bazooka I wouldn't count blowthrough (well,
depending...)...so this guy would probably be shredded on the first
shot regardless.

MILITARY RIFLE vs. VITALS
	I used 6d as the damage for the military rifle and did not
use any special ammunition (ditto for GYROC).  Two shots to the
vitals also killed our 15 HT guy quite nicely -- set him past the
-6xHT barrier.

HANDGUN vs. VITALS
	I used 2d+2 damage as my handgun damage.  I managed to
average roughly 30 points of damage per shot to the vitals which
caused our bad guy to make two health rolls a turn to STAY ALIVE in
addition to two health rolls a turn to STAY CONSCIOUS.  (Once past
0 HT, you must make a HT roll every turn to stay conscious.  Enough
damage to the vitals also forces you to make a HT roll to stay
conscious.)
	My first trial ended up with the 15 HT character dead at the
second turn.  This wasn't the norm, however, so I ran another trail.
Even though he made all his health rolls, he died after the 4th turn
because he went past the -6xHT barrier and died automatically.

	Again, this is combat assuming that the foe is unarmored and
is only hit once a turn.  In some combats the foe will be heavily
armored and the armor will naturally retard damage.  In some combats
the enemy will be taking multiple shots in a turn -- which will most
likely end up with him stunned and dead very quickly.
	GURPS combat isn't deadly?  Only when you're not trying to
kill the enemy.  Next time you're in combat, remember to shoot for
the vitals or the brain.  The brain is much harder to hit, but most
weapons will automatically knock out the enemy and the remaining
damage may very well kill the person.
	If you're not using advanced combat rules, then don't bother
arguing that GURPS doesn't have realistic combat.  The basic combat
rules are obviously "flawed" so far as realism is concerned.
They're designed to be quick and dirty.  (This post is mostly as a
response to the guy who said that he and his friends "pumped" a bad
guy with a 15 HT and he didn't die.  If they fired as many shots as
he suggested they did, I assure him that if they had been firing at
the vitals, the bad guy would probably have died on the 2nd turn or
so.  Not bad.)