Location, Location, Location!

And a joyful GURPSDay to all the GURPies, GURPSers, and GURPSaholics! Enjoy the day of plenty.

In GURPS combat, where you damage an opponent can have as big an impact as how much damage you inflict, so today I thought I’d look at how the same gunshot wound affects a target differently depending on where it hits. Hit Location effects are described on pp. 398-399 of GURPS Campaigns; the Injury effects are on pp. 419-421.

For this example, the attacker has fired and successfully hit Bob the Target (who failed to dodge) with a single shot from a Glock 17 pistol. The listed damage is “2d+2 pi,” and the attacker rolls a “5” and a “3.” Total damage is “10” (and, as the damage is piercing, there is no wounding multiplier for damage type).

Bob is wearing no body armor, and has HT/HP of 12/12. He does not have High Pain Threshold. In all cases below, total damage inflicted is greater than 4, so he will have the maximum Shock penalty on his next turn (usually -4, doubled to -8 for Groin hits).

In the absence of declaring a hit location, the attack is assumed to be against the Torso, so let’s start there.

Torso

Since this is the default hit location, there are no special damage effects. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to 2. (No wounding modifier.)
• Rolls against HT to avoid Knockdown and Stunning. (Suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound.)
• Halves his Move and Dodge (Less than 1/3 HP left.)

Vitals

“Just” a simple gunshot to the Torso left Bob in pretty dire straits, but if the attacker hits him instead in the Vitals, things get much, much worse. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to -18! (Wounding modifier for a piercing attack here is x3, so those 10 points of injury become 30.)
• Rolls against HT to avoid dying. (At or below -1 x HP.)
• Rolls against HT-1 to avoid falling unconscious. (At 0 HP or less, at a penalty of -1 per full multiple of HP below zero.)
• Rolls against HT-5 to avoid Knockdown and Stunning (suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound, at -5 for Vitals).
• Halves his Move and Dodge (less than 1/3 HP left).

Ouch. Stick a fork in poor Bob, he’s done. Note that if he fails the roll to avoid dying, he doesn’t need to roll the rest; if he succeeds the roll to avoid dying but not the one to avoid unconsciousness, he doesn’t need to roll the rest; etc.

Arm/Leg

Scaling back a bit, let’s shoot Bob in a limb, either an Arm or a Leg. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to 5. It takes only 7 HP to cripple one of Bob’s limbs (more than 1/2 HP), and any damage beyond that is lost (in 3rd Edition, this was “blow through” damage). So, he suffers lower HP loss, but his limb is now crippled and useless.
• Rolls against HT to avoid Knockdown and Stunning (suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound).
• Note that Bob does not need to halve his Move and Dodge, as he is not at less than 1/3 HP.

Hand/Foot

Similarly, we can shoot Bob in an extremity, a Hand or Foot. Sorry, Bob, this is fun! Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to 7. It takes only 5 HP to cripple one of Bob’s limbs (more than 1/3 HP), and any damage beyond that is lost. So, he suffers lower HP loss, but his extremity is now crippled and useless.
• Rolls against HT to avoid Knockdown and Stunning (though he didn’t suffer more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, any crippling injury is still considered a Major Wound).
• Bob again does not need to halve his Move and Dodge, as he is not at less than 1/3 HP.

Groin

Just to be mean — um, thorough — we’re shooting Bob in the Groin. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to 2. (No wounding modifier.)
• Rolls against HT-5 to avoid Knockdown and Stunning. (Suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound, at -5 for Groin.)
• Halves his Move and Dodge (Less than 1/3 HP left.)

Neck

Moving up the body, just before we get to head shots, we’re going to put some lead in Bob’s Neck. Only crushing, cutting, and corrosion damage types get increases here, so for a gunshot it’s effectively identical to a Torso hit. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to 2. (No wounding modifier.)
• Rolls against HT to avoid Knockdown and Stunning. (Suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound.)
• Halves his Move and Dodge (Less than 1/3 HP left.)

Face

“I shoot him in the face!” being such a popular RPG war cry, here we are. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to 2. (No wounding modifier.)
• Rolls against HT-5 to avoid Knockdown and Stunning. (Suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound, at -5 for Face.)
• Halves his Move and Dodge (Less than 1/3 HP left.)

Skull

Now we’re talking! The wounding modifier for injury to the Skull is x4, the largest increase possible based on Hit Location, though note that the skull itself does give a DR of 2 even without any armor. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to -20! (Wounding modifier for a piercing attack here is x4, but the Skull imparts a DR of 2. So, the rolled damage of 10 points becomes 8 points after DR, which is then multiplied by 4 for a total injury of 32.)
• Rolls against HT to avoid dying. (At or below -1 x HP.)
• Rolls against HT-1 to avoid falling unconscious. (At 0 HP or less, at a penalty of -1 per full multiple of HP below zero.)
• Rolls against HT-10 to avoid Knockdown and Stunning (suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound, at -10 for Skull).
• Halves his Move and Dodge (less than 1/3 HP left).

Eye

And, finally, the hardest Hit Location of all to hit (at a whopping -9 penalty), but with the biggest bonuses. A successful attack to the Eye is treated the same as a Skull hit, but without that pesky DR of 2. Bob…

• Lowers his HP from 12 to -28! (Wounding modifier for a piercing attack here is x4, so those 10 points of injury become 40.)
• Rolls twice against HT to avoid dying. (Once at -2 x HP, once at -1 x HP.)
• Rolls against HT-2 to avoid falling unconscious. (At 0 HP or less, at a penalty of -1 per full multiple of HP below zero.)
• Rolls against HT-10 to avoid Knockdown and Stunning (suffered more than 1/2 total HP from a single injury, Major Wound, at -10 for Eye).
• Halves his Move and Dodge (less than 1/3 HP left).
• Bob is now blind in one eye (damage over 1/10 HP cripples the eye).

As you can see, the location of your attacks can have a big impact on overall damage and other effects, like stunning or knocking the target down. Remember, you can roll Hit Location randomly for most attacks (p. 552), so every once in a while you could get a lucky Skull or Face hit without suffering those big attack penalties (note that neither the Eye or the Vitals ever come up randomly).

Now get out there and cause some mayhem.

 

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