01 December 2014

One Shot Stops

...And GURPS.

Common self defense ammo...  Let's go from small to big.

.25 ACP.  The smallest unless we count .22 LR, but there's not near so many actual concealable guns for the rimfire as .25.

.25 ACP pulls 1d pi-.  Center mass hits are body hits, so that's 1-6 raw damage, so 1-6 damage to penetrate then divide damage by 2 (round down min 1), so 1-3 points of damage vs the average of 10 HP.  Not even a major wound!

Changing to hollowpoints bumps the pi- to pi; but adds a 0.5 armor divisor.  That also makes normal clothing be DR 1.  That gives us 0-5 for reals now!  Now we have a chance to get a major wound.

On average vs the body: .25 ACP ball does 1 point and hollow point does 2.

.32 ACP is next.  2d-1 pi-.  1-11 raw damage.  1-11 penetrate then is divided in two for 0-5.  HP negates the pi- for pi and there's the DR 1 for normal clothes: 0-10 penetrate.

On average vs the body: .32 ACP ball does 3 points and hollow point does 5.

.380 will depend on the barrel length.  Short barrels like a SIG P238 get 2d-1 pi and longer barrels like a Colt 1908 Pocket Hammerless get 2d pi.

Short barrels get 1-11 that penetrate and stay 1-11!  While HP gets bumped from pi to pi+, the 0.5 armor divisor still lurks in the shadows (0-15 can penetrate).

On average a short barrel .380 ACP gets 6 points and HP gets 7.  An aside here, the similarity in damage between ball and HP was actually noted in a recent ballistics gel test of .380 rounds!  Go GURPS!

Long barrel .380's get 2-12 with ball (1-16 with HP).  pi+ with HP and the divisor.

On average that gets us 7 for ball and 9 for HP.

.38 Special from a snubby is 2d-1 pi and gets the exact same effects as a short barreled .380.

.357 Magnum from that snubber or 9x19mm from a full sized automatic is 2d+2 pi.  Ball 4-14 and HP 4-19!

Averages 9 for ball and 12 for HP.

Smaller 9mm's only get 2d+1 pi.  3-13 damage that averages to 8 for ball and 2-18 that averages 10 for hollow point.

Unorthodox rounds like .357 SIG and .38 Super get 3d-1 pi.  2-17 damage; averaging 9 for ball and 1-24 averaging. 12 for HP.

.40 S&W is an anomaly in GURPS.  2d+2 pi+.  Like all pi+ rounds damage that penetrates does 1.5x as much damage.  So it's 4-14 raw damage for ball that becomes 6-21 in tissue.  The hollow point bumps the damage to pi++ though, still with that damned armor divisor for 6-26.

Average damages will be 13 for ball and 16 for hollow points.

The beloved .45 ACP is a "mere" 2d pi+ for ball.  2-12 that becomes 3-18.  Averaged out, it's 10 for ball and 2-22 averages to 12 for HP.

Now that we've done all that math!

5 points of damage is a major wound on a typical ST 10 10 hit point person.  That means they're likely stunned and knocked down because they only have about a 50% chance of avoiding it with such a non-PC HT score.  Plus, any bullet that manages to do more than 10 means another HT roll to avoid being knocked unconscious.

While the benefit of the hollow points seem marginal on average, they can make the difference in whether the target keeps fighting next turn.

SUMMARY

Round -      Dmg - Ball, min - avg - max; HP, min - avg - max.
.25 ACP - 1d pi-;       0, 1, 3                     --             0, 2, 5.
.32 ACP    2d-1 pi-;   0, 3, 5                     --             0, 5, 10
.380 ACP  2d-1 pi;     1, 6, 11                   --            0, 9, 15
.380 ACP 2d pi;         2, 7, 12                   --            1, 9, 16
.38 Spcl 2d-1 pi;         1, 6, 11                   --            0, 9, 15
9x19mm 2d+1 pi;       3, 8, 13                   --            3, 10, 18
9x19mm 2d+2 pi;       4, 9, 14                   --            4, 12, 19
.357 Mag 2d+2 pi;      4, 9, 14                   --            4, 12, 19
.357 SIG 3d-1 pi;        2, 9, 17                   --            1, 12, 24
.38 Super 3d-1 pi;       2, 9, 17                   --            1, 12, 24
.40 S&W 2d+2 pi+;    6, 13, 21                 --            6, 16, 26
.45 ACP 2d pi+;         3, 10, 18                  --            2, 12, 22

2 comments:

  1. And then there's 10mm Auto for the 3d-1 pi+, 2-17 raw (avg 10) becomes 3-25 in flesh (avg 14) with ball ammo, or 3-33 with HP in flesh (avg 18). Only downside is the Rcl 4.

    Actually, in looking for those stats I noticed .45 ACP has rcl 3, and .40 S&W only rcl 2, but as I recall .40 S&W kicks harder than .45 ACP. It seems to me like it'd make sense to have the pi+ AND 2d+2 of damage of .40 S&W come with Rcl 3, if not switch it with .45 ACP (.45 ACP has rcl 2, .40 S&W gets the rcl 3). Propel approximately equal bullet at good bit higher velocity, you get more recoil out of it. As presently listed, .40 S&W is kind of a free lunch. Gobs of damage (relatively speaking), low recoil, moderately high ammo per magazine, cheap-ish ammo (halfway between 9x19 and .45 ACP). Of course, no such thing as a free lunch, in this case it's Game Balance that pays the price.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .40 S&W is an anomaly in the stats. I usually give it Rcl 3 when I'm thinking about it; but these are the published stats.

      There was a raging debate about it on the SJ Games forums that led nowhere. Since it doesn't really do more damage than 9mm or .45 I'd trend to it being 2d pi+, Rcl 3 with 9mm range stats. You get more beans in the pipe for less weight being your reward over .45 ACP.

      Rcl is not actually recoil. It's the ability of the combination of round and weapon to put follow-up rounds on target. Hard to reacquire sights are actually part of this stat! We were supposed to get a small arms design system years ago, but all they managed to get done is discover how many fudges they'd made to get it as coherent as it is. Using the system that Hans Christian-Vorsitch developed resulted in lots of guns stats changing from their already published numbers.

      As an aside, .40 being so damned uber is an example of the flaws his system has in it and why things end up kludged around in books like Pulp Guns.

      Delete

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