Follow-Up

Basics

B105 lists this as an enhancement (a penetration modifier) for attacks.

• B378 "The damage of an attack modified with Follow-Up (p. 105) is never halved, either – although its “carrier” attack is subject to 1/2D effects as usual."

It requires designating a carrier. Two carriers are given:

• body weaponry
  • Claws
  • Teeth
• Innate Attack

It later mentions that if used on a "passive carrier attack" like Spines that Follow-Up is instead a limitation.

Afflictions as carriers

B105 requires specifying body weapons or innate attacks as carriers. This creates a problem if someone wants a 2nd affliction triggered by succumbing to a first.

H12 accomplishes this in Horrifying Window by giving a Trigger limitation to the 2nd affliction, which has Link+10% to the first

Normally a trigger needs to have the condition met to make the attack. Link+10% being simultaneous would interfere with that, so it works a bit differently.

Here due to 2nd attack having the Onset limitation, it takes effect AFTER it hits, allowing the 1st affliction resistance to be resolved first.

This allows that 1st roll's failure to trigger the 2nd roll. The attack is effectively made, but if the trigger is not fulfilled, it's as if it wasn't made.

This seems to treat that as a 0 point feature, and by combining the trigger limitation with the delay limitation, seems to be emulating the triggered delay enhancement except it isn't voluntarily triggered by the user, but rather by the failure of the target to something.

Pairings

When designating natural body weaponry as carriers, it can be unclear whether a specific one needs to be declared, or whether multiple/ANY natural weapons can work.

P144 for example says "Follow-Up, Teeth or Striker, +0%" for Paralytic Venom or "Follow-Up, Teeth/Striker, +0%" for Average/Fantasy/Strong/Weak venom but it's unclear how this would work for someone with both teeth and a striker, if only one would be venemous or BOTH.

The introduction seems to imply singular:

Poison carried by a bite requires Sharp Teeth [1] or Fangs [2].

Venom on a stinger calls for Striker (Piercing)

[5], (Large Piercing) [6], or (Impaling) [8].

P55 is similarly vague:

Poison on Claws, Teeth, etc. should cause fatigue or toxic damage unless it’s very unusual.

Such attacks always have Follow-Up (+0%).

Make a melee attack to hit with the carrier attack.

Ideally if there is a monster example with both claws and teeth who can use either or both, it could help clarify.

Taboo modifiers

"Note that the Follow-Up attack itself cannot take any of these modifiers. Only its carrier attack may have them." is mentioned after the following list:

1. Always On
2. Aura
3. Cone
4. Drifting
5. Emanation
6. Emergencies Only
7. Extra Recoil
8. Guided
9. Homing
10. Increased Range
11. Jet
12. Limited Use
13. Malediction
14. Melee Attack
15. Preparation Required
16. Rapid Fire
17. Reduced Range
18. Takes Extra Time
19. Takes Recharge
20. Unconscious Only
21. Uncontrollable
22. Unreliable

The sum of any of these on the carrier instead defines the value of Follow-Up.

It is unknown if there are any examples of abilities which combine Follow-Up with one of these taboo modifiers. If so it should be listed below and explained.

Similar modifiers to the above list which are not mentioned:

1. Usually On (similar to Always On)
2. Persistent (prerequisites for Drifting)
3. Area Effect (prerequisite for Emanation)
4. Cannot Parry (perhaps part of Melee Attack, like ST-Based)
5. Weaponized (add-on to Malediction from later book)
6. Very Rapid Fire (variation of Rapid Fire from later book)
7. Costs Fatigue (like Takes Recharge, this limits usage!)
8. Reliable (not really the opposite of Unreliable, as the opposite of this is actually Hard to Use)
9. Fickle (later book, similar to Unreliable
10. Extended Duration and Reduced Duration (like Persistent this isn't mentioned, but this would be really important regarding Aura or Drifting!

Campaigns

B 381 elaborates

FAQ

URPS FAQ 3.4.5.10. Follow-up ignores DR if the carrier penetrates it. Is it automatically stopped if the carrier fails to penetrate?

No! Example: If a grenade hits you for 1d crushing in the head (with skull DR 2 stopping it completely on a roll of 1), it still explodes for 3d cr ex. Now, poisons are another matter: Toxic and Fatigue attacks on realistic weapons frequently have Blood Agent. In this case, the follow-up will indeed be stopped if the carrier fails to penetrate. However, there is no discount (limitation value) on the follow-up attack for this, as a strong carrier negates the limitation, and basing limitation value on carrier damage is too un-generic.

Powers

"Follow-Up is only valid on attacks that can’t normally ignore DR" and prohibits using it with Leech, suggesting Blood Agent instead.

P144 gives examples of "Followup: Teeth/Striker" indicating that Strikers can be carrier attacks too.

Supers

GURPS Supers 39 has a complete list of body weaponry: "Claws, Spines, Striker, or Teeth"

Horror

GURPS Horror 154 mentions:

Vampiric Bite (14): 1d+1 cutting + follow-up 2 HP/second

blood drain. Requires a normal grapple first.

Fantasy

GURPS Fantasy

• pg 205: Innate Attack: Dismemberment (Cutting; Follow-Up, Delivered by Grappling an Extremity, +0%; Immediate Crippling, +10%; All or Nothing, -10%);
• pg 212: any damage gets through, the striges remain attached and drink the victim’s blood; treat this as a Follow-Up attack

that causes toxic damage.

Quotes

Kromm

per Stephane Theriault in 2005 http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=3668

Area Effect isn't supposed to carry Follow-Up attacks. If you prefer to allow it, then you *should* add the costs of these things to Follow-Up.

(And note that you can have Drifting w/o Area Effect if you take Delay, but you can never have Mobile w/o Area Effect, which is why Drifting is on the short list while Mobile is not.)

• PK elaborated

I'm surprised that Sean and David just assumed that Area Effect attacks shouldn't include follow-up. I mean, since Side Effects isn't allowed on any attack with Penetration Modifiers, the only way to do a cinematic "ion cloud" (i.e., a cloud of electrically charged particles, delivering enough amperage to damage and stun you but stopped by any cloth, armor, or other nonconducting matter) is:

Burning Attack (Area Effect; Contact Agent)

plus

Affliction (Followup: Burning Attack)

This sounds like errata to me, not just a clarification.

PK in 2006

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=175634&postcount=9

What you're "paying for" with Follow-Up is the fact that if your initial attack penetrates DR, your Follow-Up attack ignores DR completely. That's normally a +300% enhancement, so getting it for +50% with the drawback that it only does so "if any melee attack you ever make penetrates armor" seems like a fair price to me.

sir pudding in 2007

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=356035&postcount=27

. If the follow-up attack does fatigue or toxic damage, it won't do anything to armor, as it only affects living organisms. A fatigue or toxic attack with follow-up is automatically a blood or contact agent (see Delivery, p. B437), but it receives no cost break because it has a means to bypass DR -- the lack of which is what makes Blood Agent and Contact Agent limitations. If the follow-up does any other damage type, though, it affects unliving things and might be capable of penetrating armor on its own. See also

Follow-Up Damage, p. B381.

put Follow-Up on a burning or corrosion attack. Unlike fatigue and toxic attacks, these things can pierce armor and might very well injure even without the "armor divisor infinity" of a carrier attack that puts a hole in armor.

Blood Agent

breakdown http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=23986&page=2

see also

• Follow-Up, Universal
• Side Effect

Additional Information

• Follow-Up and Link Explained (Dungeons and GURPS)