[gurps] Survivable Spaceships

[Onno Meyer]

I've been wondering about the damage rules, and what they mean for 
ship design. What do you think about this reasoning?

* Incoming fire from one direction goes after one section. Only when
  it is taken out completely, damage cascades into the next section.

  Whenever possible, it makes sense to distribute critical systems 
  like power plants between front and rear, or maybe between front,
  rear, and center. 

* Systems within a section can be hit directly, by a natural roll, or
  indirectly, as damage cascades from the previous section if that is
  already destroyed. That is a way to take out "core" -- destroy "6"
  and target it again.

  A side effect is that "1" is slightly safer from random rolls than 
  "6", because "core" soaks up cascade effects. 

  Another side effect is that similar systems should be separated 
  within a section to prevent the loss of both. If they are 
  adjacent, the odds of hitting the upper system doubles if the 
  lower system is taken out. 

If I'm right, the result would be that good ships are hard to read.

Onno