One of the holdovers from GURPS' early days is its peculiar Strength Damage Table. It's a pure table lookup, with odd breakpoints and some effects that inform the game in unfortunate ways. It's also one of the most-discussed systems for houserules, with many heavy hitters like tbone and even the GURPS Line Editor Sean Punch suggesting new ways to figure damage.
This is my own rewrite of the Damage Table, using a different progression for thrust and swing damage. Past ST 7, thrust damage increases by 1 step every 3 ST, and swing damage increases by 2 steps every 3 ST. A bonus is that there are no 'dead zones' in this progression, unlike RAW 7-8 or 27-28 or 31-32, where damage doesn't increase at all, giving you limited value for your 10 points.
Why bother? By the book, swing damage increases too quickly, turning modestly strong characters into human guillotines who can ignore most low-tech armor as if it wasn't there. Using Edge Protection rules (aka "Blunt Trauma and Edged Weapons" from Low-Tech p.102) helps with the armor problem a bit, but even so, swung edged weapons have so much power that they remain the go-to against targets in heavy armor, which is the exact opposite of what history shows us.
Additionally, at the high end of the RAW progression, swing damage tops out at 2d more than thrust damage, which doesn't make sense to me. If the swung object is supposed to be a lever, it should multiply the effect of your ST, instead of adding a flat +2d whether you're Spider-Man or the Hulk.
Speaking of Supers, there's a lot more to be said about how to handle super levels of ST in GURPS (yes, another thoroughly discussed subject that I will nonetheless weigh in on). I'll do that in another post.
| RAW progression | modified progression | |||
| thr | sw | ST | thr | sw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1d-6 | 1d-5 | 1 | 1d-6 | 1d-5 |
| 1d-6 | 1d-5 | 2 | 1d-5 | 1d-5 |
| 1d-5 | 1d-4 | 3 | 1d-5 | 1d-4 |
| 1d-5 | 1d-4 | 4 | 1d-4 | 1d-4 |
| 1d-4 | 1d-3 | 5 | 1d-4 | 1d-3 |
| 1d-4 | 1d-3 | 6 | 1d-3 | 1d-3 |
| 1d-3 | 1d-2 | 7 | 1d-3 | 1d-2 |
| 1d-3 | 1d-2 | 8 | 1d-2 | 1d-2 |
| 1d-2 | 1d-1 | 9 | 1d-2 | 1d-1 |
| 1d-2 | 1d | 10 | 1d-2 | 1d |
| 1d-1 | 1d+1 | 11 | 1d-1 | 1d |
| 1d-1 | 1d+2 | 12 | 1d-1 | 1d+1 |
| 1d | 2d-1 | 13 | 1d-1 | 1d+2 |
| 1d | 2d | 14 | 1d | 1d+2 |
| 1d+1 | 2d+1 | 15 | 1d | 2d-1 |
| 1d+1 | 2d+2 | 16 | 1d | 2d |
| 1d+2 | 3d-1 | 17 | 1d+1 | 2d |
| 1d+2 | 3d | 18 | 1d+1 | 2d+1 |
| 2d-1 | 3d+1 | 19 | 1d+1 | 2d+2 |
| 2d-1 | 3d+2 | 20 | 1d+2 | 2d+2 |
| 2d | 4d-1 | 21 | 1d+2 | 3d-1 |
| 2d | 4d | 22 | 1d+2 | 3d |
| 2d+1 | 4d+1 | 23 | 2d-1 | 3d |
| 2d+1 | 4d+2 | 24 | 2d-1 | 3d+1 |
| 2d+2 | 5d-1 | 25 | 2d-1 | 3d+2 |
| 2d+2 | 5d | 26 | 2d | 3d+2 |
| 3d-1 | 5d+1 | 27 | 2d | 4d-1 |
| 3d-1 | 5d+1 | 28 | 2d | 4d |
| 3d | 5d+2 | 29 | 2d+1 | 4d |
| 3d | 5d+2 | 30 | 2d+1 | 4d+1 |
| 3d+1 | 6d-1 | 31 | 2d+1 | 4d+2 |
| 3d+1 | 6d-1 | 32 | 2d+2 | 4d+2 |
RAW=Rules As Written
This is akin to what I've worked out a few times, though never bothered to use in play. I quickly whipped this up in Excel to demonstrate:
ReplyDeleteST thr sw
1 1d-6 1d-5
2 1d-6 1d-4
3 1d-5 1d-4
4 1d-5 1d-3
5 1d-4 1d-3
6 1d-4 1d-2
7 1d-3 1d-2
8 1d-3 1d-1
9 1d-2 1d-1
10 1d-2 1d
11 1d-2 1d+1
12 1d-1 1d+1
13 1d-1 1d+2
14 1d-1 2d-1
15 1d 2d-1
16 1d 2d
17 1d+1 2d
18 1d+1 2d+1
19 1d+1 2d+2
20 1d+2 2d+2
+10 4 steps 6 steps
The ideas are two:
* ST damage should scale with HP.
* Every point of ST should increase damage somehow.
The two do present a conflict, as +10 ST should give 1d-2 extra thrust damage and 1d extra swing damage, but those are only six steps (think steps as in 1d/1d+1/1d+2/2d-1/2d/2d+1/2d+2/3d). The way to reconcile this is that every 5 steps implies a point of DR, which makes sense since bigger beings have tougher skins.
For ST above 20, find the corresponding ones digit, subtract that ST, divide by 10, then multiply that number by 4 (thr) or 6 (sw) to get the appropriate ST. ST 42? The answer to the ultimate question of thrust and swing damage for GURPS is ST 12's 1d-1/1d+1, then one tenth the gap between ST 42 and ST 12 (ST 30), which is 3*4=12 steps for thrust and 3*6=18 for swing. Every 4 steps is a die, so we get 4d-1 thrust (1d-1 for ST 12, +3d for 12 steps) and 6d-1 swing (1d+1 for ST 12, +4d for 16 steps, and two steps above 5d+1 is 6d-1).
That is indeed pretty similar. Our tables will slowly diverge at higher ST levels -- in your notation, my progression looks like
Delete+9 3 steps 6 steps. Now if I can figure out how to get this into GCS...
Why did you reduce the rate of thrust progression? I've rarely seen the case where people said "the problem with GURPS ST is that my super-strong guy does TOO much damage when he punches people." The more normal issue is that past ST 15 or so, swing damage grows so quickly that there's no point in not using sw/cu weapons. Your table reduces the high end swing damage, but it keeps thrusting attacks as pointless as ever.
ReplyDeleteI actually completely agree that Punching damage with Supers levels of ST is something GURPS struggles with, and this table doesn't do anything at all to help with that. Here I'm focused on reducing Swing damage at normal ST levels and making every point of ST have some effect on damage. Making super punches more effective is definitely going to be a future post.
Delete