[gurps] GURPS 4E MVA

[Captain Joy]

On Mar 26, 2009, at 3:22 PM, Anthony Jackson wrote:
> GURPS 4e collision rules are broadly wrong in that they base the  
> collision damage on the mass of the larger vehicle. The fact is, a  
> human hit by a one-ton compact moving at 20 mph is not going to be  
> significantly less hurt than one who gets hit by a forty-ton semi  
> moving at 20 mph (total collision energy, assuming a 150 lb human,  
> is about 6% lower).

Good point.  I would use collisions only when both object where of  
nearly the same mass--enough so that both their velocities would be  
affected by the collision.

If one object is so much more massive than the other that it's  
velocity is effectively unchanged, then I would treat the smaller  
object as taking "falling damage".  I'd use the relative velocities of  
the two objects, then figure damage as if the smaller object had  
fallen from a height high enough to achieve that velocity.
--
Captain Joy
captainjoy at mac.com
The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous  
the more honest he is.--Horatio Bunce c.1830 from The Life of Colonel  
David Crockett, by Edward Sylvester Ellis