Re: (TFT) Doing damasge modernly

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/1/2004 9:54:32 AM Central Standard Time, 
eac42@columbia.edu writes:

> I'm not sure why modern weapons would need such high damage 
> numbers.  Unless it's explosive, a round is not going to do more damage 
> than, say, a battleaxe. 

It really does depend on whether it's a pistol round or a rifle round. A 
.30-06 is going to have approximately three to four times as much velocity & 
momentum as a typical pistol round, and 10-20 times as much kinetic energy. That's 
going to pump up it's damage. 

> When I was doing modern TFT in connection with a 
> superhero campaign (if I can find the notes, I'll post them, this was many 
> years and 5 moves ago) IIRC a .45 did 2d6+1.

This sounds like reasonable damage for a .45 ACP to me, but a .45-70 should 
do at least twice as much, if not three or four times as much damage. It's that 
difference between pistol & rifle, between something intended to stop a man 
(St 10) vs something intended to stop a bear (St 30). The only reason not to up 
the damage on the .45-70 vs the .45ACP is if you're taking the Hollywood 
route of mostly ignoring the power difference of pistol vs rifle/shotgun.

>But it ignored most armor, 
>and with a modicum of skill and DX allowed for multiple shots.

I agree that multiple shots is where modern arms have the advantage. I'm not 
so sure that "ignoring armor" is worth the complications, unless the rule is 
very simple (e.g. "all guns ignore the first three points of armor"). 

>People get shot every day, and survive.  Some of them multiple 
>times.  Many of them continue to function, just as they would against the 
>more primitive weapons.  After all, a graze from a bullet is no more 
>inherently deadly than a nick from a sword, and a mace upside the 
>(unarmored) head will kill just as neatly as a .38.

That's pistols vs rifles, once again. As I said in an earlier post, a single 
pistol wound has about a 20% chance of being fatal. And so yes, 2d-1 is right 
for either a mace or a .38 special. But a deer rifle (e.g. a .30-30, .30-06, 
or .308) is *designed* to do one-shot kills of mammals weighing between 100-250 
lbs. So it should have an average damage well over 10 points - at least 2-3 
times the damage of a .38. 

Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow
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