RE: [WW] Re: Australians and Damage Values

["Alan & Dorothy Hoyland" <ahoyland@mediaone.net>]

D20's hit points don't model physical damage I will grant you. But it
does model what the average soldier believe stands between him and
death. I've seen enough documentaries were former soldiers talk about
someone knowing their luck had run out.
Wounds are merely outward signs of this luck. Wounds occur when you
don't have enough luck to make the event a clear miss.  When the medic
binds the wounds, sets the bone he is doing rituals needed to increase
luck as a shaman would dance to reach to the other side. The drugs given
to you are the components for the magic, like a witchdoctor burning
herbs and having the patient drink teas to cast out some spirit.
Why else would it take weeks and months for a wound to heal, yet their
hit points are fully healed.
Hit points/luck, they are all stands between a soldier's going home or a
new home 6' under in Europe.

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-weirdwars@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-weirdwars@gamerz.net]
On
    Behalf Of nvdoyle
    Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 4:32 PM
    To: weirdwars@gamerz.net
    Subject: Re: [WW] Re: Australians and Damage Values
    
    Well, the problem is, d20 -doesn't- model damage 'realistically'.
It's a
    fudge, to make the heros a lot tougher than your average grunt,
peasant,
    what have you. And have grand combats against terrible foes. Not to
    simulate
    the grittiness of modern combat. GSW's (GunShot Wounds) are tough to
do,
    in
    this. Look at the comparisons between your -average- human, and -
    average-
    weapon damage. d8 HD, 5 HP. A longsword does just the same amount,
on an
    average hit. The WW guns all do more than that on an average hit.
GSWs
    are
    notoriously random, in both the immediate and longer-term effects.
Also,
    don't forget criticals, and the multipliers that are used...the
.50BMG
    is
    just -painful- when it hits the right places.
    I'm loathe to use such tables as more than vague guidelines, as the
    designers of WW had to fit the firearms into the same scaling as the
    cannons
    and such. Some compression is necessary, to make it work - which I
think
    in
    the end is a good thing, rather than having more systems to convert
    things
    into.
    
    Noah
    nvdoyle@home.com