Breaking Things, Revisited

[PhilFleischmann]

Do any of you have or use any modified rules for damaging/breaking objects? I find that the current rules have some realism flaws:

 

1) Why should all inanimate objects have Resistant DEF? Yes, hard things such as brick walls and metal armor should, but you can stretch out a piece of rope and let elephants trample it and it won't break, but you can cut it easily with a 1 pip HKA pocket knife. Therefore, I say soft, flexible items should have non-resistant defenses. Using the 3 to 1 DEF rule for automatons which take no STUN, just multiply the object's DEF by 3, but say that it's non-resistant.

 

In TUV, there is a klunky construct about ship's sails - even though they're inanimate objects, and therefore have resistant DEF, they should be easy to damage. So they're given a Susceptibility (or was it a Vulnerability?) to KA's. Wouldn't it have been simpler to just say their DEF is non-resistant?

 

2) Why should all inanimate objects have PD=ED? Ever light a rock on fire?

 

3) I've been toying with an idea of giving objects three BODY ratings: One to render the object non-functional (but repairable), one to render the object irrepairable, and one to break it into bite-size chunks. Usually all three will be the same.

[Vondy]

I allow characters in superheroic campains to take a full phase to "set and brace" at 1/2 DCV for maximum body damage when striking a stationary (or very large) inanimate object.

 

That way a character with 50 ST rolls normally for combat, but can do a pushed haymaker for 32 body on a vault door (or stationary tank) for dramatic effect.

[Blue]

Re: Breaking Things, Revisited

 

I've long considered some kind of shrapnel rule, but never implemented it. I'm not sure there were enough instances of it to be a real concern.

 

For example, you'd break through a wall; We'll say 4 DEF/4 BODY. You do... 12 BODY and it's considered broken through. At this point I thought about giving pieces from the breakthrough a velocity equal to the remaining BODY Done, and would generally be blunt damage. If needed, their defense would be equal to the original object smashed, though BODY would be halved.

 

This was actually the result of considering shattered glass. I can't remember stats on Glass just now, but let's say 2DEF/1BODY. You hit it with your bat, doing 5BODY. The shards fly at 2" velocity. Not very fast or hard. But that could be 1 Pt KA.

 

In any event, I think I decided I was creating rules for something that hadn't happened yet and therefore making everything more complicated than it needed to be.

[PhilFleischmann]

Originally posted by PhilFleischmann

3) I've been toying with an idea of giving objects three BODY ratings: One to render the object non-functional (but repairable), one to render the object irrepairable, and one to break it into bite-size chunks. Usually all three will be the same.

 

Just to clarify what I meant by this "three BODY scores" thing:

 

The evil Dr. Badguy has a big machine in his lair that does something unhealthy. The machine has 10 BODY. I've managed to find the machine and want it to stop doing its unhealthy thing, so I do 10 BODY damage to it. It now stops functioning.

 

But then I realize, what if one of Dr. Badguy's faithful assistants comes by after I've left and repairs the machine? Or what if agents from the evil foreign nation of Meanland get their hands on this technology? So I do 10 more BODY damage to the machine. Now it is permanently broken and will never work again. If Dr. Badguy wants to do this again, he'll have to create a whole new machine from scratch.

 

And then I realize that Dr. Badguy himself is hiding in a secret vault on the other side of this machine. I've rendered it a useless hunk of metal, but that doesn't mean I can walk through it to get to the secret vault. So I do 10 more BODY damage to it and it is now in little bits and pieces on the floor, taking up negligable room and not obstructing my path. Dr. Badguy is cowering in a corner just beyond.

 

This would be the general rule for macro-mechanical machines and similar objects. It's even analogous to living beings such as people: A base character has 10 BODY. 10 BODY damage causes him to "stop functioning," i.e., his biological processes no longer work correctly and he is dying. 10 more BODY damage and he's dead, "irrepairable," no doctor can save him now. But at this point you've got a corpse that takes up room and can be tripped over, etc. My estimate is that 10 more BODY damage ought to reduce him to pieces small enough to ignore (except of course for the smell, the health hazard, the stains, and the sheer yuckiness).

 

So a standard object/living creature could be said to have 10/10/10 BODY, or 20/20/20 BODY or whatever depending on its size and toughness. Non-standard objects would not have the same score for all three. For example, more electronic devices are fairly delecate (they run on smoke as you may recall, for once you let the smoke out, they stop working). A typical desktop computer might have 1/1/6 BODY. It takes very little damage to stop it working, but more to break it into lego-block sized pieces. In some cases, complex objects like computers might have a 0 for their second BODY score, meaning that once you do enough physical damage to stop it working, it will never work again. It might be a good idea to have Computers (i.e., character-point Computers, AI's and the like, as opposed to real-world PC's, Macs, etc.) to have X/0/X BODY, for whatever value of X is purchased.

 

Some objects, like walls and trees and boulders are much simpler, since they don't really have much game function other than to be barriers. Do X BODY to a wall, and you've made a small hole that you can look through or maybe even reach your arm through. Do X more BODY and you can now walk comfortably through the hole you've created. At this point, if it was a load-bearing wall, the building might start to collapse. Do X more BODY and the hole will accomodate just about anything. Someone arriving on the scene might not be able to tell where the wall was.

[Talon]

That triple BODY score rule is pretty much what TUV says -- 0 BODY is "not working", -BODY is totalled, and -2x BODY is scrapped.

 

Seems like you could do the rest with "Vulnerability to all attacks, only to render nonfunctional" or extra BODY, only after it stops working.