2d Damage

For purposes 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 prefer the distribution given by using two dice. Also, I want the minimum possible damage to be about 15% average and the maximum possible damage to be about 185% 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.

Thrust and Swing Damage based on ST

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

This table shows statistics for the various damage amounts. Use this table to convert GURPS damage to 2d damage.

This table should also be used to find a new damage whenever there is a + or - modifier to the normal damage done. E.g. if the damage done has a +2 modifier, use the result two rows further down. So 2d4-1 +2 damage becomes d5+d6-1. Of course, to avoid having to access this table, one could simply use 2d4+1; but, +/-'s in excess of +2/-2 should be avoided.

GURPS Damage vs. 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

Nonstandard Die

• A d2 can be any die: odd values = 1, even values = 2
• A d3 is a d6: 1,2 = 1, 3,4 = 2, 5,6 = 3
• A d5 is a d10: 1,2 = 1, 3,4 = 2, 5,6 = 3, 7,8 = 4, 9,10 = 5
• 2d2-2 is the same as d2-1 + d2-1: roll two dice, odds = 0, evens = 1

Examples

Your character has ST 10, so his basic thrust damage is 2d3-2 and his basic swing damage is 2d4-2. His punch damage is rated as thrust-1. Looking at the above tables shows this to be 2d2-2, and this is what should entered as this character's punch damage.

A weapon does 3d GURPS damage. You would roll d8+d10.

See Also

Detect Lies Interrogation Tactics