Hurting things in GURPS: towards a solution?

So, I tinkered.  I tried to make damage somehow related to the skill roll (a la Harnmaster and my home-brew Runequest).  I tried to convince myself that what GURPS really needed was polyhedra dice.  But I abandoned that idea.  Some things are sacred.  At one point, I changed the whole skill mechanic from 'roll 3d under a target' to 'Roll 3d, add a skill modifier and compare to target number.'  And I tried, endlessly, to adjust the Swing and Thrust damage table.

Finally, I hit upon something that seems to be a solution.  For now.

I realised that GURPS's strength was a weakness.  The revelation came from a desire to simplify.  I'd been entranced by the cutting / impaling distinction and had shamelessly nabbed it for my homebrew Runequest.  But - as I tinkered with that set of rules, I became frustrated with the cascading multipliers I had foolishly built into that system.

You hit someone with a dagger, right?  So, daggers are small weapons, and in my rules that means the basic damage is halved.  But they are cutty-stabby weapons as well, so the damage that penetrates armour is doubled.  Which seems like a lot of palaver just to slaughter a Goblin.

My solution was to make the most common type of damage (Cutting, in my homebrew) the one that is not modified.

I realised this could also be applied to GURPS.  Most damage in GURPS is Cutting or Impaling.  Few people wander about with maces in GURPS, because they aren't awesome like axes or swords are awesome.

• Crushing damage - whatever gets through armour is halved.
• Cutting damage - whatever gets through armour is not modified.
• Impaling - whatever gets through armour is doubled.

That solved one problem, to a degree.  But the problem of the odd progression of the damage table  remained.

I spent an awful lot of time trying to come up with a progression that allowed thrusting damage to remain substantial enough to remain a valid tactic.  It proved very hard, until one day I realised something that should have been very, very obvious.

There was no need for two damage values.

All I had to do was come up with a damage progression for Thrusting damage.  Swinging damage could be one and a half times that.

Coupled with my new conception for Crushing, cutting and Impaling damage, the whole tactical array fell into place.  Swing your sword, and the swing gives you a decent chance of getting through armour, but nothing beyond that.  Stab with it, and you will be less likely to get through armour, but more likely to do significant damage if you do.

And because they were both linked to the same value, there would always be that tactical tension - more now, or potentially more later?

From there - after years of abjuring Steve Jackson Games for unleashing this torment on me - it was relatively simple to draw up a new damage progression system.  The only significant innovation was banding Strength in twos, rather than having an increase for every level of Strength.

(Which might seem to devalue Strength - but more on that, later!)

The new table looks like this:

ST	Damage
1, 2	1d-3
3-5	1d-2
6-8	1d-1
9-11	1d
12-14	1d+1
15-17	1d+2
18-20	2d+1
21-23	2d+2
24-26	3d+1
27-29	3d+2
30+	4d+1

(The formula, FWIW, is fairly simple.  Starting at 1d-3, every three full points of ST adds +1.  When the total adds reaches +3, a new 1d-1 is added.)

It is not without flaws.  Some may object to the lower 'resolution,' with only a lousy +1 difference between ST 9 and ST 14.   But that (may) be addressed in my next tweak.  And it seems consistent and produces values roughly in accordance (well, slightly higher than) the original Thrusting column (Where ST 9 gave 1d-2 damage and ST 14 offered just 1d!).