GURPS - What is it?
- Thread starter Decamber
- Start date
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
Goodsport said:
     
NBC went and genericized all the websites for their shows, which is a shame because Conan's site was one of the best humor sites on the web.
WizarDru
Adventurer
Victim said:
It's also one of the most common areas to be armored and protected. GURPS combat works on completely different principles, and has idosyncracies just like any other system. The random hit location table isn't really meant to be used as the default.
Combat can definitely be more tedious is GURPS...but it doesn't have to be. Just like every other RPG out there.
Vaxalon
First Post
WizarDru said:Combat can definitely be more tedious is GURPS...but it doesn't have to be. Just like every other RPG out there.
If you "fix" it so that it's not as tedious, it's not GURPS, it's a homebrew system based on GURPS... and I would rather play DnD where I don't need to revamp the whole system.
The Cardinal
First Post
GURPS is usually equated to be a realistic system but as it stands, it is a bit too lethal and actually not realistic. The average damage from a modern-day firearm is in 2d to 3d range. Average person only has a HT of 10.
Contray to popular opinion, most people shot by a firearm survive with ease since shots to the legs, arms and non-vital parts of the torso are WAY more common than shots to the heart or head. Barring suicide or a murder at point-blank range, you generally won't kill a person with a gun outright (barring blood loss).
This has been known to hospital and police departments for many years but for some reason, people equate guns with instant death.
Contray to popular opinion, most people shot by a firearm survive with ease since shots to the legs, arms and non-vital parts of the torso are WAY more common than shots to the heart or head. Barring suicide or a murder at point-blank range, you generally won't kill a person with a gun outright (barring blood loss).
This has been known to hospital and police departments for many years but for some reason, people equate guns with instant death.
Cyragnome
First Post
Hrm...I'm not in total agreement with you, Al. In GURPS there is "Blow Through" damage, so the max a person with HT 10 will take in a shot to the legs is ~4 (HT/3) damage...while in the torso it is equal to HT, so some of that 2d6 from that weapon ends up "blowing through." Combine this with the fact that HT 0 does not necessarily mean that the character is dead (you get HT characteristic rolls based on the amount that you are negative compared to the character's HT, thus a roll for death is first required at HT -10 for the HT 10 character)
Allister said:
In GURPS it takes 20 points of damage to have a 50/50 chance of a kill.
You don't die till a "survival roll" is failed and you don't make those rolls till negative your health (neg 10 for an average guy) then every five points thereafter
If the target is hit by say 9mm with ball ammo takes 10 points, he will likely be stunned or maybe KO'd but there is no instant kill.
Afterword if the GM uses the rule, a bleeding roll vs Health is made every minute.
How this works out is on a 9mm shot a person has about a 50/50 chance of death after 20 minutes without any medical aid. There after he has a fifty percent chance of dying every ten minutes.
A bit high prehaps but workable.
A leg shot OTOH barring a critical hit (femoral artery essentially) would inflict a maximum of five points (half health). Without even basic first aid a character will be in danger of death in 30 minutes assuming all bleeding rolls are failed and he doesn't stabilize.
GURPS is lethal but no more so than Phoenix Command (shudder) or Rolemaster
Oh and FYI GURPS combat done right is about as fast as DND combat but you have to know the trick of it.
Vaxalon said:
You're right, you don't have to revamp the whole system. Reading the rules would help though.
Start by dropping all the rules from Advanced Combat. No hit locations, no facing, use average of armor for all defense. We are going for quick and simple.
Criticals just do max damage, no roll on the table or anything like that. No called shots, no special damage for various hit locations because everything is now a hit to the torso.
If you like weapon skill to have a larger effect on who wins, use the "Only the Best Shall Win" optional rule from Martial Arts which cuts down on the defender's defense based on margin of success. Since most blows miss because of a successful defense, this causes combat against lower skilled opponents to go much faster.
Use this for the quick and easy battles. Save more advanced rules for the battles that are supposed to be climatic.
All that said, provided you can avoid a rules discussion about AoOs and what type of move something is then D20 combat will go faster. Start getting into tricky situations and I think that D20 actually goes slower because of all the micromanagement that AoO cause.
Psionicist
Explorer
How many GURPS character creation points to you need to be equally powerful a 32 point D&D character? 100? 120? 150?
That is, what is a good starting point pool?
That is, what is a good starting point pool?
