(TFT) Doing damage modernly

[<tybeard@sbcglobal.net>]

Howdy all. I changed computers and somehow lost the TFT mailing list. But I'm
back now.

Here are a couple of ways that I handled damage with modern weapons. One thing
they have in common is the attempt to deal with the fact that penetration is
not the same as damage. If you don't make this distinction, you'll have
weapons that do too much damage -- they'll almost certainly kill anyone who
gets hit. See GURPs for this problem, where had weapons can do 6+ dice damage.
(Yes, I know GURPs has a blowthrough rule, but it is clumsy and leads to the
odd result that you can't kill an uninjured person with a single gunshot!)

Method 1. Weapons do X dice of damage. Rifles do 3d, heavy pistols 2d, etc.
Modern armor reduces each die by X points. So flexible kevlar is worth, say 1
point. It would reduce a rifle by 3 points or a pistol by 2 points. Modern
armor gets its base protective value against melee weapons, so the kevlar
would be worth 1 point against a broadsword. This system is a little fussy,
but it allows you to (a) keep armor values within a reasonable range (1-4
usually) and (b) keep modern armor from being overly effective against melee
weapons.

Method 2. Weapons do X dice of damage. Rifles do 3d, heavy pistols 2d, etc.
Modern armor has a value of 1-4 or so. Each point of modern armor reduces
modern weapons damage by 1 die. So flexible kevlar is worth, say 1 point. It
would reduce a rifle to 2d damage and a heavy pistol to 1d damage. Depending
on the GM's desires, modern armor can behave the same against melee weapons.
Or, it can get its base protective value against melee weapons, so the kevlar
would be worth 1 point against a broadsword. This system is less fussy, but it
means you have to disclose the armor rating to the players. It also allows you
to (a) keep armor values within a reasonable range (1-4 usually) and (b) keep
modern armor from being overly effective against melee weapons. I'd also add 2
enhancements from Traveller 4th edition, which had a version of this system.
First, flexible armor reduces the weapon die to 1 pip. So 2 point flexible
armor would reduce a rifle from 3d to 1d+2. Second, no weapon can do more than
3 dice damage to a target (4d for shotguns). This allows you to simulate high
penetration weapons by simply raising the damage dice, yet it avoids the
problem of too much damage against unarmored targets. For heavy weapons, I add
+2d maximum damage for each 5mm of projectile diameter starting at 10mm. So
from 10mm-14.9mm, 5d. From 15mm-20mm, 6d. etc.

Method 3. Weapons do X amount of damage, but have a separate "pentration"
value. This is the amount of armor they ignore. So a Rifle might be 3d(5),
which means that it ignores the first 5 points of armor. A pistol might be 2d
(1). A shotgun might be 4d (n), which means that all armor is doubled.

Method 4. Weapons do X amount of damage (3d for rifles). Armor has 2
protection values -- 1 against melee weapons and low tech missile weapons and
the other against modern firearms. So chainmail might be 3/0. Light Kevlar
might be 3/1. Etc.


--Ty
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