This is a monthly r/GURPS thread for anything and everything related to your own campaigns. Tell us how you and your friends are making out. Update us on the progress of your game. Tell us about any issues you've run into and maybe we can help. Make suggestions for other players and GMs.

This is a monthly r/GURPS thread for anything and everything related to your own campaigns. Tell us how you and your friends are making out. Update us on the progress of your game. Tell us about any issues you've run into and maybe we can help. Make suggestions for other players and GMs.

Hello, I'm currently trying to build a character for a GURPS 4E game. This is my first time, and there are plenty of things I kind of comprehend. I have the PDFs of the books, and I'm slowly putting the character together.

So in the Magic expansion there are enchantment spells that can well enchant weapons, making them magic and so forth. Is there a way to do something like that using advantages?

I'll start by quoting relevant rules:

Basic Set p 381:

Follow-Up Damage
Some attacks, such as poison darts and exploding bullets, have “follow-up” damage: a second type of damage that occurs an instant after the primary effect. The primary effect is always ordinary damage of some type – piercing, impaling, etc.
If the primary damage penetrates the target’s DR, the follow-up effect occurs inside the target. DR has no effect! Follow-up effects that occur internally never inflict knockback or blunt trauma – even if their damage type usually does.

Basic Set p 414:

Fragmentation Damage
Many grenades, bombs, and artillery shells have metal casings designed to shatter when they explode, producing a storm of sharp fragments. Some are packed with Scatter extra material (pellets, nails, etc.) to enhance this effect.
Fragmentation damage, if any, appears in brackets after explosive damage; e.g., “[2d]” means 2d fragmentation damage. Everyone within (5x dice of fragmentation damage) yards is vulnerable. For example, that [2d] attack would throw fragments out to 5 x 2 = 10 yards.
The farther a target is from the blast, the less likely the fragments are to hit him. A hit is automatic if the explosive attack actually strikes the target. The fragments attack everyone else in the area at skill 15. Only three modifiers apply: the range modifier for the distance from the center of the blast to the target, the modifier for the target’s posture (prone, etc.), and the target’s Size Modifier. It is possible for several fragments to hit! For every three points by which the attack roll succeeds, one additional fragment strikes the target.
The only active defense against fragments is to dive away from the explosion that produced them; see Dodge and Drop (p. 377).
For each hit, roll hit location randomly. If that location is behind cover, the fragment hits cover.
Fragmentation damage is cutting. Note that if an explosive attack has an armor divisor, this does not apply to the fragments it produces.

Basic Set p 415:

Internal Explosions: If an explosive goes off inside someone – e.g., a follow-up attack penetrates the target’s DR, or a dragon swallows a hand grenade – DR has no effect! In addition, treat the blast as an attack on the vitals, with a x3 wounding modifier.

Ultra-Tech p 152:

Armor-Piercing Hardcore Explosive (APHEX) (TL9)
A warhead with a high-density penetrator and a small charge fused to explode after penetrating. APHEX inflicts normal piercing damage with a (2) armor divisor, along with the damage shown below as a follow-up attack:
10mm 1d-4 cr ex [1d-2]
15mm 1d-2 cr ex [1d-1]
18.5mm 1d-1 cr ex [1d]
25mm 1d cr ex [1d+1]
40mm 2d cr ex [2d]
64mm 4d cr ex [3d]
100mm 8d cr ex [5d]
Damage in brackets is cutting fragmentation damage.

My question is how to calculate how many fragments hit if an APHEX round penetrates armor and detonates inside the target. From RAW "a hit is automatic if the explosive attack actually strikes the target" there's no roll to attack and thus no way to score more than one hit but it makes no sense.

I'm also confused by damage multipliers: if the round penetrates the Skull, does it still get x3 for Vitals instead of x4 for Skull? And what about the fragments, do they also get a flat x3 for Vitals or a location-based multiplier?

A player in a new game I'm running has been putting together a 'gunmage', and came up with the following cheap yet powerful ritual as part of their starting list of rituals:

Bullet shield (14 energy): Lesser destroy energy (5), area 1 metre (+2), duration 12 hours (+6), weight 30lb (+1) The dissipative powers of air resistance are greatly enhanced around the caster, reducing deadly projectiles to mere annoyances. While the ritual is in effect, all unpowered objects that pass within 1 metre of the caster and that are moving at more than 1m/s are reduced to that speed, up to a total mass of 30lb (equivalent to approximately 960 bullets). 

This follows my reading of the rules in GURPS Thaumatology: RPM very closely but seems disproportionate in its effects compared to other rituals of similar cost. Of course I could just use GM fiat to boost the cost by for example saying this needs to be a greater effect, or imposing a speed modifer of +13 for the reduction of bullet speed from approx. 300m/s to 1m/s, but both those approaches go directly against what is written in the book:

 Modifiers--Speed: For **movement spells** look up the speed in yards/per second and add ...to the energy cost. 

and

Lesser destroy energy can stop energy completely if there is a natural means by which that could happen. For example, it can put a fire out completely because fires die naturally. 

Opinions welcome!

How would you represent a military officer who refuses to risk civilian casualties? "Cannot Harm Innocents" seems too strong: "you may only use deadly force on a foe that is attempting to do you serious harm. Capture is not “serious harm” unless you are already under penalty of death [...] You never intentionally do anything that causes, or even threatens to cause, injury to the uninvolved – particularly if they are “ordinary folks.” - that reads like attacking unsuspecting enemy combatants is out of the question so wouldn't work for that character.

However I think this restriction is too severe for a quirk, especially for a professional soldier who might be court-martialled for flat out refusing actions that risk collateral damage.