No Skull DR [-2] is disadvantage mentioned in 2019 in Toolkit 2:
- pg 10 includes it in the Helminth template
- pg 29 mentions it under Complete External Exoskeleton
- and also for No Skeleton
- pg 48 includes it for Decabrach
- pg 49 includes it for Prosthetic Body
No Skull was the initial term used for this when in 2016 it was included as part of the W29 metatrait Extensibility on The Weird pg 30. That naming was problematic because it could lead people to think that this meant the hit location no longer existed, when in fact it DID:
- "Your skull hit location lacks the usual DR 2."
It's pricing appears to be based on the Thin Skull quirk in Power-Ups, from 2014. Something like Very Thin Skull or Negligible Skull could also make sense.
Balance problems[]
"No Skull DR" and "Thin Skull" propose that missing a free "1 point" or "2 point" advantage (5 or 10 points base -110% in limitations which caps at -80% is worth saving 1 or 2 points.
This would only make sense if we assume skull-less beings are the default. But they're not: you should only gain -2 if you're actually losing a full 2 points, meaning at minimum -80% in limitations.
Rebalancing[]
Flexibility[]
The only way this is really balanced is by tweaking the Hoodwork for "skull DR" as a trait.
The first step is remove the Flexible -20% aspect of Tough Skin. It doesn't make sense: skulls are rigid. Even if you houseruled it applied to crushing damage of less than 5, (just 1/5 gets through as injury) skulls don't move so easily unless actually broken.
- This might be intended to represent "whiplash" of a blow to the head, but different custom rules are a better idea for that, since that would apply to metal helmets and stuff too. Probably based on "knockback" to "hit location" like what Push Kick uses. IE "the brain colliding with the skull".
Limited discount for hit locations[]
The second step is reduced -70% (based on penalty to hit from front) to -60% (average of -7 and the -5 to hit from back)
- GURPS Zombies 69 supports that. It's -5% for DR to not apply to a skull, which is Occasional per Bane, and Occasional is -60% per Limited for DR.
+20% for Not Flexible and +10% for repricing Skull brings -110 up to -80 which is fair.
Brain comparison[]
"Limited, Skull" could probably be better called "Limited, Brain". It's ultimately the brain which is the hit location. Why it's called skull is probably to indicate how the DR won't apply when there are 'eyes' to bypass it.
No Brain (eyes only -80%) [1] might be used to represent the idea of eyes which can be targeted but which do not count as brain attacks. This is effectively how Fingerpoke already treats them, and would make sense for eyes which are on stalks, or eyes which are in the palms of one's hand.
Cracking skulls[]
Skulls can gradually crack over time. Reflecting that doesn't necessarily require using Semi-Ablative though. Low-Tech has armors assigning HP to "armor" based on mass.
- this could be made into a more gradual reduction of 1/2 DR at 30% HP, like Cole's improvement to FP loss causing ST loss.
This is a lot like using Gadget Limitations, which give you gear with HP.
- DR of 2 or less is worth -20%
- SM of -5 is -10%
That's -30% which saves 3 points. Considering this "built in" is sort of reasonable, and it might be slightly offset with some kind of "gadget heals at rate of wearer" meaning fewer enhancements would need to be assumed to pay for it.
Even if not assumed: this is an example of something cheap someone could buy for skull protection which they could pay for with Cheap Skull, and all it takes it that you have an obvious gadget that looks different than your skull.
If this is adopted as a baseline rule for all DR (with some cosmic enhancement making "HPless" DR) you have that component. Skulls having HP like helmets would also allow collision/whiplash rules for knockback. Probably with some kind of free "internal DR" against crushing attacks representing the fluid which cushions the brain.
If it's not like a baseline rule then it could be reflected by defining Skull as a built-in gadget. Repaired by medical skills: with maybe some kind of enhancement reflecting "self-repairing" gadgets.
- Gadgets can also be defined as Allies using Items as Characters though
notes[]
Lower-resolution collision damage (ie between 0 and 1, decimals) would be beneficial here. As might "sub 1" DR.
Skin DR of 0.5 is implied (armor multipler 2 gives DR 1) so giving HP it's own DR/HP which supplements skull/spine DR would make a lot of sense.
Skin clearly is flexible, so skin atop skull is flexible DR layered atop rigid DR.
Harsh Realism for skulls could just be reflected by making the DR 3 cutoff for "hurting yourself" less rigid.
For example instead of "1 per 5", rigid DR of less than 3 could instead use 1 per 10. In case of stuff like Hammer Fist which already use that, it could be 1 per 20.
Maybe instead of "Hurting Yourself" being free for rigid DR it could be bought as a 1/5 price Reflection that only works against unarmed foes making melee attacks. That assumption could make the pricing of skull more sensible.