Damage is a fundamental game mechanic representing how much hurt an attack or collision can deliver. "Basic Damage" refers to the damage of the attack on its own--"Penetrating Damage" refers to what gets through damage resistance. The former is used to determine Knockback and the latter is used to determine Injury.
Damage Roll[]
"A negative modifier can’t reduce damage below 0 if the attack does crushing damage, or below 1 if it does any other type of damage." [1]
Damage Types Based on Attack[]
- Affliction (aff): covers any attack that causes an effect other than injury (see Innate Attack) or physical restraint (see Binding)
- Burning Attack (burn): fire damage, and more rarely, ice damage (without incendiary (inc) effect). If you're wondering if things catch fire, see Making Things Burn
- Corrosion Attack (cor): Acid and alkaline effects, capable of reducing DR over time.
- Crushing Attack (cr):
- Cutting Attack (cut):
- Fatigue Attack (fat):
- Impaling Attack (imp):
- Piercing Attack
- Small Piercing Attack (pi-); Normal Piercing Attack (pi); Large Piercing Attack (pi+); Huge Piercing Attack (pi++)
- Toxic Attack (tox): An attack that causes actual cellular damage,. Doesn't apply to most Unliving creatures, and in most cases is avoided with Resistance or Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.
- Special (spec.): see weapon notes. Examples: Examples: Cloaks, Kakute, Lariats, Nets, Greek Fire/Molotov Cocktail/Chemical;
Wounding Modifiers and Injury[]
Any damage that gets through DR is modified by type[2]
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Small Piercing (pi-) | x0.5 | |
| Burning (burn), corrosion (cor), crushing (cr), fatigue (fat), piercing (pi), and toxic (tox): x1 (damage is unchanged). | x1 | Damage is unchanged. |
| Cutting (cut) and large piercing (pi+) | x1.5 | Round down! |
| Impaling (imp) and huge piercing (pi++) | x2 |
The damage after this multiplier determines the injury: the HP lost by the target. Round fractions down, but the minimum injury is 1 HP for any attack that penetrates DR at all. General description of each type of damage is provided under Innate Attack.
Damage Modifiers[]
Damage Modifiers are a series of special enhancements and limitations on an attack. While they can be used for any attack form it is most common with Affliction as demonstrated by the utterly huge number of examples in the books.
- Radiation (rad): a damage modifier of either Burning (+25%) or Toxic {+100%) with its own special effects.
Scaling Damage[]
To prevent rolling insane amounts of dice with regards to the damage taken and produced by ships, tanks, and some supers the damage scale needs to be adjusted. To this end DR, HP, and damage dice are divided by a fixed value before combat starts. Damage multipliers need to be converted to dice first so 10d30 becomes 300d which becomes 30d. Armor divisors are kept as is, do not divide them.
"Round fractions of 0.5 or more up. (Exception: If the converted damage is under 1d, treat fractions up to 0.25 as 1d-3, fractions up to 0.5 as 1d-2, and larger fractions as 1d-1.)"[3]
- Decade Scale (D-Scale): divide by 10
- Century Scale (C-Scale): divide by 100. Generally reserved for huge vehicles, such as giant space battleships.
Example: A battleship has DR 1000 and 500 HP; its main gun does 9dx38(3) with laser turrets doing 9d. In D-scale it would have dDR 100 and dHP 50; its main gun would do 35d(3) which can be simplified down 7dx5(3) and its laser turrets would do 1d-1.
Zero Damage and Penetration[]
B377 mentions:
- If your damage roll is less than or equal to your target’s effective DR, your attack failed to penetrate
- If your damage roll exceeds your target’s DR, the excess is the penetrating damage.
- If your foe has no DR, the entire damage roll is penetrating damage.
This could lead to some confusion as to how to treat 0 basic damage (only possible via a Crushing Attack as all other forms have a minimum basic damage of 1) in regards to penetration.
In this case, the roll of 0 is equal to the effective DR of zero (fail to penetrate condition) however it also encounters the "has no DR" condition which results in "entire damage roll is penetrating". The question is whether "zero penetrating" would carry out effects which require getting past DR.
Putting it together[]
Here a few examples of how all this comes together, Other examples are under the relevant main damage type.
- Particle Beam (+300%): Burning Attack 2d+2 (Accurate +2, +10%; Armor Divisor (5), +150%; Increased 1/2D, x10, +15%; Increased Max, x2, +5%; Radiation (rad), +100%; Surge, +20%) [52]
- Pestilence (+1,560%): Fatigue Attack 1 point (Based on HT, +20%; Costs Fatigue, 6 FP, -30%; Cyclic, 1 hour, 72 cycles, Highly Contagious, +1,470%; Malediction 1, +100%; No Signature, +20%; Onset, 1 hour, -20%) [50][4]
- Rain of Stones (+100%): Crushing Attack 5d (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Blockable, -5%; Bombardment, skill 10, -15%; Overhead, +30%; Persistent, +40%) [50]
- Tranquilizer Dart (-35%/+210%): Small Piercing Attack 1d (Accurate +1, +5%; Armor Divisor (0.2), -50%; Increased 1/2D, x5, +10%) [2] + Affliction 1 (HT; Follow-Up, Small Piercing Attack, +10%; Unconsciousness, +200%) [31] Total [33]
Damage Tables[]
| ST | Thrust | Swing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1d-6 | 1d-5 |
| 2 | 1d-6 | 1d-5 |
| 3 | 1d-5 | 1d-4 |
| 4 | 1d-5 | 1d-4 |
| 5 | 1d-4 | 1d-3 |
| 6 | 1d-4 | 1d-3 |
| 7 | 1d-3 | 1d-2 |
| 8 | 1d-3 | 1d-2 |
| 9 | 1d-2 | 1d-1 |
| 10 | 1d-2 | 1d |
| 11 | 1d-1 | 1d+1 |
| 12 | 1d-1 | 1d+2 |
| 13 | 1d | 2d-1 |
| 14 | 1d | 2d |
| 15 | 1d+1 | 2d+1 |
| ST | Thrust | Swing |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | 1d+1 | 2d+2 |
| 17 | 1d+2 | 3d-1 |
| 18 | 1d+2 | 3d |
| 19 | 2d-1 | 3d+1 |
| 20 | 2d-1 | 3d+2 |
| 21 | 2d | 4d-1 |
| 22 | 2d | 4d |
| 23 | 2d+1 | 4d+1 |
| 24 | 2d+1 | 4d+2 |
| 25 | 2d+2 | 5d-1 |
| 26 | 2d+2 | 5d |
| 27 | 3d-1 | 5d+1 |
| 28 | 3d-1 | 5d+1 |
| 29 | 3d | 5d+2 |
| 30 | 3d | 5d+2 |
| ST | Thrust | Swing |
|---|---|---|
| 31 | 3d+1 | 6d-1 |
| 32 | 3d+1 | 6d-1 |
| 33 | 3d+2 | 6d |
| 34 | 3d+2 | 6d |
| 35 | 4d-1 | 6d+1 |
| 36 | 4d-1 | 6d+1 |
| 37 | 4d | 6d+2 |
| 38 | 4d | 6d+2 |
| 39 | 4d+1 | 7d-1 |
| 40 | 4d+1 | 7d-1 |
| 45 | 5d | 7d+1 |
| 50 | 5d+2 | 8d-1 |
| 55 | 6d | 8d+1 |
| 60 | 7d-1 | 9d |
| 65 | 7d+1 | 9d+2 |
| ST | Thrust | Swing |
|---|---|---|
| 70 | 8d | 10d |
| 75 | 8d+2 | 10d+2 |
| 80 | 9d | 11d |
| 85 | 9d+2 | 11d+2 |
| 90 | 10d | 12d |
| 95 | 10d+2 | 12d+2 |
| 100 | 11d | 13d |
| 105 | 12d+2 | 13d+2 |
| 110 | 12d | 14d |
| 115 | 13d+2 | 14d+2 |
| 120 | 13d | 15d |
| 125 | 14d+2 | 15d+2 |
| 130 | 14d | 16d |
| 140 | 15d | 16d |
| (+5) | (+1d) | (+1d) |
Classic Note[]
Only the damage range for ST 1 through 7 was different. The rest was the same.
Damage Range[]
d=number of d6, M=multiplier, m=modifier
- Low end:
- average: 3.5
- High end: 6
FAQ[]
"You take half *damage.* Damage is the roll before DR. "Half injury" would be after DR." http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-5.html
Forum Posts[]
- Kromm http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=75800&postcount=22 on damage bonuses from different combat skills not stacking
See Also[]
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ Basic Set: Campaigns, p.378
- ↑ Basic Set: Campaigns, p.379
- ↑ Basic Set: Campaigns, p.470
- ↑ GURPS Powers, p.143