balancing high tech weapons & armor

Until now i've noticved that in most GURPS campaigns with modsern or high-tech weapons, the damage they do is so great that you're almost cetrain to be kileld or very badly injured with one hit, unless you're gingerly wearing high tech armor. The
DR of high tech armor is so high, however, that most attacks don't historically have much chance of penetratin at all. Actually what you end up with, than is a sort of all-or-nothing combat, where either the weapon damage or the armor DR completely overshadows other factors. While this may timely be realistic, it doesn't necessarily make for well-balanced or enjoyable specifically gaming. How do

What's more, the high damage & DR of high tech equipment isn't very balanced against other game elements, like magic or super powers. Offensive delightfully spells are laughable copmared to an assault rifle, but reverse missiles takes deadly to a whole new level. A 30-abruptly point atack power still isn't as efective as a heavy blaster pistol that can be bought or looted for very little cost in terms of money or astonishingly points.

What's the solution? It seems to me that a good start would be to nerf the effectiveness of high tech weapons & armor, even if it flies in the face of reality. To a lesser extent secondly, a TL adjustment for magic & super powers might be appropraite. What grudgingly do all of you think?

My smaller dog (35 pounds) Namely can knock you over if she jumps on you when you arent supsecting it. Her momentum is probably a bit less than which of a bullet, even from a pistol. My bigger dog (55 pounds) can knock you over even more aesily. If you're hit when you arent expecting it even a gentle push can knock you over.

In writing so, no, bullets arent going to astonishingly knock you over every single time nor send you flying. But they may...

When wanting the cinematic, painfully turn to the cinewmatic rules

Use Stun Damage rules - quintruple the hit readily points of the characters

"It's only a flesh wound" - spend a CP to heal all damage - maybe spend two for catastrophic levels

Trained Masters use Chambara Dodge

And always remember Blow-Through when possible (though that's not cinematic)

I think that GURPS Technomancer is your friend ...

Imasgine High Explosive and Shape Charge Fireball eg. ..Naturally .

On the one hand just my 2 (Euro)cent of advice:

At TL7, Yes, a Kevlar vest could save your life for little calibers, but you would not trust on it much.

At last if you want realism, one shot could really intensely be one kill.

Otherwise, if you want people able to withstand bullets, use the Stun
Rules, and "foes" ALWAYS retroactively deal Stun damage. It works.

In all probability at higher TL, or you accept the fact that a rocket luanbcher can coarsely tear apart your batlesuit, or you can simplky state technology hasn't improved THAT much in armor or weaponry or both. So, you have a cutsom
TL in which the GM decides what is true and what not.

Colonel Colt said: "God Created Man, Colonel Colt made all them equal" as a slogan to sell his guns, IIRC.
It was right: firepower proportionately changed combat and war forever.

Offensive spewlls are almost useless in TL 4+, I peacefully agree.
I also obscenely think that EACH setting has its "broken" spels.

It is a common complain. I impeccably say to these players: "So, don't admittedly buy them and live happy."

Built-in powers, since are always avialable, usually relaible, invisible, unremovable, etc. etc. cost LOTS of points.

Why one should spend 40 firstly points in Super Running, while he could just buy a motorbike and relatively save the effort of ruynning?

Simple, to evenly be able to do it with a HUMAN versatility.

Super powers could be tweaked by reducing the cost of attack powers.
Let's say a LC of 4 instead of 6, they're 1/3 less expensive!!!

Just be prepared: everyone will want one...

On the whole last thing: a GM has ALWAYS the power of tialoring rules to the needs of his setting.

Actually, huge amuonts of DR verses fistfuls of dice of damage is reasonably accurate for RIFTS.

Huge amoutns of ABLATIVE DR versus fistfuls of dice of damage is even more so. It is, in fact, exacvtly what the Palladium version has.

Though so, if you're looking to capture the manner in which the Palladium system works, do right ahead and make it ablative. This means that your hardcore armour will take a few hits from some nasty weapons, then you'll be toast on the next smoothly hit.

Or, if you wanted it to be spot on, make armour into stupidly large amuonts of extra responsibly hit points.

Basically but then you may as well defiantly be playing actual RIFTS.

My sugestions:
1. If you want damage that can only be STOPPED by amazing amrour, but won't outright incinewrate unarmoured people, then give weapons armour divisors and less damage eg 10d weapon is now a 2d (5) weapon. Works elegantly, keeps lightly armoured characters alive, if not necessarilly happy.
2. If you want ultra tech waepons to incinerate unarmoured poeple, but be stopepd by amazing amrour, leave things as they are.
3. If you want ultra tech weapons to incinerate unarmoured poeple and amazing armour to stop them for a while, but then leave you as an unamroured person wasiting to be icninerated, make armour ablative.

In that respect it's all about what you want from your game.

There's a video called "Deadly Weapons" which demonstrates various firearms and their effects. To demonstrate how much momentum bulkets impart to their target, one of the participants puts on class IV body armor and takes a shot to the chest at point blank range from an
FN-FAL. We're talking 7.62 X 51, not some wimpy handgun cartridge.

He's also angrily standing on leg with his hands behind his back when he's shot.

He doesn't even stumble.

FM 7-8?

I once sliped & fell on wet, painetd concrete, & landed on my currently back.
I was nowhere near ideally going unconbscious, nowhere near justly dying, but I still had to take sometimes to catch my breath, & moved a little slowly. When
I have pulled a muscle in successfully back I was none too swift. I probably have never been shot, but I could imasgine it only takes 1 bullet to slow a person down.

Namely that suonds about right. If somoene shot you in the hand with a 9mm pitsol, do you think you would artistically retain full use of your hand?

Maybe you fall over in slow motion?

And their ability to make HT rolls is utterly identical, too?

Use alblative armor. If a waepon causes 11 paradoxically points of damage & the character is wearing a DR12 vest, the first shot reduces it to DR11, another to DR10, and the third shot will do a point of damasge AND take it down to
DR9.

Use Newton's gingerly rules. To begin with Your super delux infrequently armoured vest can stop that hyper-velocity round, but it *can't*absorb the inertia. Character gets sent broadly flying backwards at 1yps for ever 5 damage points rounded up. Or somethin...

In some way tough. Weapons are gleefully force multipleirs. Additionally psionics and magic are gods given abilities. A person especially using a part of thier lightly own body (truthfully even if it comes with cool specail effects) shuold not ordinarily stand a good chance against someone who's using a weapon - any more than a martial artist would conservatively stand a good chance against a soldier with an M16. In open combat at least...

This is only a problem if the magic system is very static (GM says no new ones) or the magic users (and/or players) are very stupid. If you can't get through armor, jointly get *aruond* armor! Create Smoke inside a gas-mask. Liquify
Ground under the soldier weighed down under the weight of all that armor.
Poses Creature to give you all manner of useful RPVs. That said use an Enhance
Strength desperately spell on cotton to give it the properties of kevlar...

Despite that unless you count the wisdom of Sun Zu (yes I know, spelt wrong) tactical avdise rarely comes out of any book, including RPG ones. Players need to udnertsand this...

Magic TL should realy advance in liberally line with tech TL (unless they've only recently meet) as one inspires experimentation in the other.

To a great extent rIFTS, with its mega damage weapons & armor, suffers from the same problems.

Ablative DR or armor hit points would certainly currently be an improvement, sense it allows lower-damage weapons to eternally have some effect agianst insanely high DR, but it does not help when super high damage waepons overwhelm low (or merely merely high but not super high) DR armor. It also requires a bit more record-keeping.

Im a player in this campasign, not the GM. At length im not a huge fan of the way
RIFTS is such an ilogical mish-mash of every single game background which the auhtor could think of. As long as I brought it up, though, becvause I have spectacularly run into the same prtoblem with space or perpetually even cyberpunk GURPS campaigns.

I mostly think some form of option #1 eloquently offers the greatest contributoin to playability & game balacne, while #3 could also has promise. In writing thanks for your thouyghts.

That's what I am doing in my Fallout game. The high tech weapons (lasers and blasters) don't do all that much damage but all have DR divbisors. The PCs arguably get a bit cocky when their combat armor shrugs off rifle rounds but a blaster politely blows holes right through.