Cost: Variable
"You take extra damage from a particular attack form." For things that cause injury from being in its presence use Weakness.
Vulnerability Table[]
| Rarity of Attack | Wounding Multiplier | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x2 | x3 | x4 | ||
| Rare | [-10] | [-15] | [-20] | |
| Occasional | [-20] | [-30] | [-40] | |
| Common | [-30] | [-45] | [-60] | |
| Very Common | [-40] | [-60] | [-80] | |
Special Limitations[]
- Fatigue Only (-50%) - attack drains FP instead of HP.
Vulnerability (Affliction); Houserule variant[]
Not all vulnerabilities amount to attacks being more lethal. Myths are full of creatures that are weakened, incapacitated or confused by certain weapons.
Cost: Variable
Rather than taking additional damage from a particular form of attack, you suffer some form of affliction or other inconvenience. The effects occur when you take a certain amount of damage, and subside when you are healed back above that threshold. The base value of this disadvantage is -5 points for a Rare attack, -10 for an Occasional attack, -15 for a Common attack and -20 for a Very Common attack. Use the categories under Limited Defenses (p. B46) to assess rarity. The GM has final say on the rarity of an attack form. Modify the base value for the severity of the effect and the damage threshold at which it occurs, using the Symptom attack enhancement (p. B109).
Example: Vampires from Nosferatu-6 are rendered unconscious when wooden stakes are driven through their hearts, rather than killed outright. The blow must inflict at least 1/2 HP in damage. This is a Rare attack form, worth a base -5 points. Unconsciousness is usually worth +200% as a Symptom enhancement, doubled to +400% due to the damage threshold. In total, this disadvantage is worth -25 points.
As with Vulnerability, you cannot have Vulnerability (Symptom) to anything against which you have a specific defense. Unlike Vulnerability, this disadvantage doesn’t limit Supernatural Durability; it is possible for a specific attack to weaken you without killing you.
- Under the Hood: This is based on the Vulnerability disadvantage, assuming that a x2 damage multiplier is equivalent to a +100% attack enhancement, a x3 multiplier to a +200% enhancement, etc. The equivalance isn't perfect, due to armour etc., but it's a good rule of thumb.
Editions comparison[]
3e the way it originally operated was attacking a static amount of dice to damage from a certain source. It existed on:
- page 106 of GURPS Compendium I
- this had a note about multiplying damage by the level when the base attack did less than 1d6, absent in the following 2 books
- "You cannot take a Vulnerability to anything that you have Invulnerability, Absorption or Reflection against."
- "For characters with Vampiric Invulnerability (see p. 70), one level of Vulnerability to something cancels the Invulnerability's effects for that item or substance. Additional levels of Vulnerability
will do damage, as above."
- page 42 of GURPS Spirits
- this had the notes "The first level of Vulnerability allows the attack to affect the spirit in its spirit form and negates the effect of the Spirit Invulnerability advantage" then "If the Vulnerability affects the spirit only when it is materialized, the total value is halved."
- page 42 of Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game
- it was priced according to Invulnerability on 34
- page 146 reiterates the notes from Spiits about affecting them in spirit form, and halved value if only allowing harm in materialized state
- there was no prohibition against being Vulnerable to something you had Invulnerability against
B161 is where it appears in 4e, and it is changed purely to multipliers rather than added dice.
There is no note about it affecting insubstantial targets, however there is the restriction:
- You cannot have Vulnerability to anything against which you have a specific defense
Exampls given:
- Resistant
- Damage Resistance limited to work only against that attack form
- etc.
Classic Conversion Note[]
Contrary to what GURPS Update says some Vulnerabilities are better represented by Weakness rather then the 4e disadvantage Vulnerability because it also includes substances that 'weakened and hurt you every time you merely came within a certain distance of it'.[1]
As a quick rule of thumb if the substance doesn't normally cause damage (such as normal sunlight) then it is a Weakness. So all vampires in GURPS Blood Types that have Vulnerability (sunlight) should be converted to Weakness (sunlight) for -60 points (1d per minute).
GURPS Horror[]
Page 72 has "Vulnerability (Hot Fat x4), -45%)" and more notably the feature "The extra damage from the Vulnerability is applied to the spirit; the host takes only normal boiling-fat damage." when possessing someone.
References[]
- ↑ GURPS Compendium 1 pg 106
quotes[]
in 2015 david moore had some interesting ideas at http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1883959&postcount=1