GURPS - Basic Set 3r..

Damage to Shields: AnOptional RuleThis rule allows shields to take combatdamage, eventually becoming worthless. Donot use this rule unless you are willing totolerate some bookkeeping in order toachieve more realistic combat!Whenever you make a defense roll byonly the number of points of your shield'spassive defence, the blow hit your shield.For instance, if you have a large shield (4points protection), and your total defense rollis 12, then any roll of 9 through 12 missedyou but bit your shield. Any blow that hitsyour shield can damage it.Any wooden shield has an inherentdamage resistance of 3 - equivalent to aninch of wood, or thinner wood with a 1/8"metal facing. Subtract 3 from any blowyour shield takes before you assess damageto the shield. -Shield Damage TableShield typeImprovisedBucklerSmallMediumLargePDl or2 1234Damagevaries5/205/307/409/60PD: The passive defense of the shield.Damage: This is given as two numbersseparated by a slash. The first numbershows the amount of damage, in one blow, thatwill penetrate the shield. For instance, five hitsin a single blow will penetrate a buckler orsmall shield. If a shield is penetrated by acrushing or cutting weapon, you are not hurt,but the shield is rendered useless. If it ispenetrated by an impaling weapon, theweapon comes through and hits you. withits force weakened by as many points ofdamage as the shield took, plus 3 for its DR.Except for that damage, the shield remainsintact.The second number shows the totaldamage your shield can take. Mostmedieval shields were wood, or wood with athin layer of metal. After one good battle, ashield was worthless. Keep track of the totalnumber of hits your shield takes for you.When this total is exceeded, your shield isdestroyed!At Tech Levels 2-4, metal shields (usuallybronze) are available, but uncommon. For abronze shield 1/2" thick, quadruple the cost,triple the weight, and double the damage itcan take before destruction. It has DR6 — itwill turn most arrows and some bullets!Passive defense remains unchanged —which is why such shields were rare.TL7 riot shields (Lexan, etc.) have thesame damage numbers as wood shields butweigh half as much. Shields made of moreadvanced materials are certainly possible.Force shields may exist at TL11; see p.76. They do not take damage when hitRate of FireThe Rate of Fire (RoF) for an automatic weapon is the number of rounds it fireseach turn. If the gun starts firing at the beginning of the turn, and the trigger is held for thewhole turn, the gun fires the RoF number of rounds.If the gunner takes any other action (such as moving, changing facing or dodging)before firing, some of the time that could have been used in firing is expended. Anyaction that takes less than 1/2 of Move allows full RoF: an action that takes 1/2 Move ormore allows 1/2 RoF. The GM rules in any disputed case.Number of Hits in a BurstIt is very unusual for all the rounds of a burst to hit the target. To game this, theburst is divided into groups of no more than four shots. A separate roll to hit must bemade for each group fired. The firer rolls against Guns skill, modified by Recoil of theweapon.The table below shows the number of shots that hit. depending on the success of theroll. Note that if three or four shots were fired, a roll that misses by 1 is still a hit withone shot. A miss by 2 or more is a miss with all.A critical hit with a group of shots is a hit with all the rounds. One shot does damageaccording to the Critical Hit Table. Likewise, a critical miss with a group means one roll onthe Critical Miss Table.Rounds in Roll Made byGroup-1 0 7 2 3 4 5+1 0 1 1 1 1 1 12 0 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 2 2 34 1 2 2 3 3 3 4Damage from a BurstEvery round in a burst has a chance to damage the target separately. Damage is separatefor each round, not cumulative. This affects armor penetration. The PD and DR of thetarget must be applied separately to each round that hits.Exception: For lasers with automatic fire, total the damage from all rounds strikingthe target in each one-second burst. If eight 2d rounds are fired, and five of them hit,apply them to the target's armor as a single l0d attack.Recoil from Burst FireBurst firing is harder to control than single-shot. Each round of the burst has thesame recoil impulse as would a round fired by itself, so a long burst is harder to controlthan a short burst. Among the things that determine recoil are weight-to-recoil ratio,stock design, compensators and rate of fire.When a weapon is fired on automatic, the Rcl number is a penalty to the effectiveskill level on the firing roll for the first group. This penalty is added again for each fourroundgroup, or partial four-round group, after the first. (-1 becomes -2 and then -3: -2becomes -4 and then -6: and so on.) This penalty continues to add as long as that burstcontinues, even in subsequent turns!At TL7 and below. all automatic weapons have significant recoil; the best Rcl numberis -1. At TL8 and 9. some automatic weapons have a Rcl of 0 - they are effectivelyrecoilless. At TL 10+. almost all weapons are recoilless.The Rcl number is doubled for a base Skill level below 12. Rcl is also doubled foreach point of ST below that required for the weapon. These doublings are cumulative thatis. ST below list and Skill below 12 quadruples the Rcl number.