2d Damage

GURPS uses d6 for everything. For purposed of determining damage, GURPS makes use one or several 6-sided dice. 1d6 gives you a flat random distribution. 2d6 gives you linear up --> peak --> linear down. 3d6 (or nd6 where n >= 3) gives you a bell curve. I.e. when you graph these results, 1d6 is flat, 2d6 looks like a pyramid, and 3d6 looks like a bell curve.

I've decide that the 2d6 gives the kind of distribution I want for damage. In general, I think using 2 dice to determine damage should be preferred whenever possible. Furthermore, I want the minimum possible damage to be about 15% of the expected average and the maximum possible damage to be about 185% of the expect average. To that end, the following charts should be used to determine damage:'

Damage Table

Use this table to determine your character's basic thrust and swing damage.

ST	3d6 thr	3d6 sw	2d thr	2d sw
1	1d-6	1d-5	2d2-4	2d2-3
2	1d-6	1d-5	2d2-4	2d2-3
3	1d-5	1d-4	2d2-3	2d3-4
4	1d-5	1d-4	2d2-3	2d3-4
5	1d-4	1d-3	2d3-4	2d2-2
6	1d-4	1d-3	2d3-4	2d2-2
7	1d-3	1d-2	2d2-2	2d3-2
8	1d-3	1d-2	2d2-2	2d3-2
9	1d-2	1d-1	2d3-2	2d4-2
10	1d-2	1d	2d3-2	2d4-1
11	1d-1	1d+1	2d4-2	d4+d6-1
12	1d-1	1d+2	2d4-2	d5+d6-1
13	1d	2d-1	2d4-1	2d6-1
14	1d	2d	2d4-1	d6+d8-1
15	1d+1	2d+1	d4+d6-1	2d8-1
16	1d+1	2d+2	d4+d6-1	d8+d10-1
17	1d+2	3d-1	d5+d6-1	d8+d10-1
18	1d+2	3d	d5+d6-1	d8+d10
19	2d-1	3d+1	2d6-1	2d10
20	2d-1	3d+2	2d6-1	d10+d12
21	2d	4d-1	d6+d8-1	2d12
22	2d	4d	d6+d8-1	(d6+d8-1)x2
23	2d+1	4d+1	2d8-1	(d5+d10-1)x2
24	2d+1	4d+2	2d8-1	(2d8-1)x2
25	2d+2	5d-1	d8+d10-1	(2d8-1)x2
26	2d+2	5d	d8+d10-1	(2d8-1)x2+1
27	3d-1	5d+1	d8+d10-1	(2d6-1)x3

3d6 to 2d Conversion

Use this table to convert GURPS damage to 2d damage.

GURPS Avg.	GURPS	2d	Min	Max	2d Avg.	Min/Avg.	Max/Avg.
0	1d6-6	2d2-4	0	0	0	n/a	n/a
0.2	1d6-5	2d2-3	0	1	0.25	0.00	4.00
0.5	1d6-4	2d3-4	0	2	0.44	0.00	4.50
1	1d6-3	2d2-2	0	2	1	0.00	2.00
1.7	1d6-2	2d3-2	0	4	2	0.00	2.00
2.5	1d6-1	2d4-2	0	6	3	0.00	2.00
3.5	1d6	2d4-1	1	7	4	0.25	1.75
4.5	1d6+1	d4+d6-1	1	9	5	0.20	1.80
5.5	1d6+2	d5+d6-1	1	10	5.5	0.18	1.82
6	2d6-1	2d6-1	1	11	6	0.17	1.83
7	2d6	d6+d8-1	1	13	7	0.14	1.86
8	2d6+1	2d8-1	1	15	8	0.13	1.88
9	2d6+2	d8+d10-1	1	17	9	0.11	1.89
9.5	3d6-1	d8+d10-1	1	17	9	0.11	1.89
10.5	3d6	d8+d10	2	18	10	0.20	1.80
11.5	3d6+1	2d10	2	20	11	0.18	1.82
12.5	3d6+2	d10+d12	2	22	12	0.17	1.83
13	4d6-1	2d12	2	24	13	0.15	1.85
14	4d6	(d6+d8-1)x2	2	26	14	0.14	1.86
15	4d6+1	(d5+d10-1)x2	2	28	15	0.13	1.87
16	4d6+2	(2d8-1)x2	2	30	16	0.13	1.88
16.5	5d6-1	(2d8-1)x2	2	30	16	0.13	1.88
17.5	5d6	(2d8-1)x2+1	3	31	17	0.18	1.82
18.5	5d6+1	(2d6-1)x3	3	33	18	0.17	1.83

See Also

Detect Lies Interrogation Tactics