Treasure: Vorpal Sword

Treasure: Vorpal Sword

Who doesn't like decapitating enemies in a single hit? Depending on the degree of realism in your games, the difficulty of this task may range from easy to practically impossible. You can see this feat being done in movies, books, games, quite often. In D&D any slashing weapon could be enchanted with the vorpal enchantment, but it was one of the most expensive enchantments. Let's see how to do this in GUPRS!

Page 399 of GURPS Basic Set states that the GM may rule that anyone killed by a cutting blow to the neck is decapitated! There are no rules on major wounds to the neck in the Basic Set, but page 138 of GURPS Martial Arts provides additional rules with a nice table for such wounds. Basic Set states that if you deal injury equal to twice the HP needed to cause a major wound, you cut off or similarly permanently destroy the body part. Thus, to decapitate a person, you have to deal an amount of cutting injury to the neck equal to the subject's HP. Note that cutting damage gains a x2 wounding multiplier on neck hits. That would be 10 points of injury to a normal person. So, 5 cutting damage to the neck before applying the wounding multiplier. Seems pretty easy, huh?

But the calculations described above assume that the victim dies from this hit. If not, he's just going to have some severe problems (just look at the table in GURPS Martial Arts!) for a long time and most likely die in couple more hits. To kill a person outright, you have to bring him to -5xHP in one hit. This is 60 points of injury to a fully healthy human, or 30 cutting damage to the neck before applying the wounding multiplier. Now this is difficult to accomplish.

A thrusting greatsword (LT70, B274) deals sw+3 cutting damage. Let's assume that the wielder has ST 13. Thus, the wielder will be able to deal 2d+2 cutting damage with a swing of a greatsword. Average of 9 damage, maximum 14 damage. Let's add 3d damage to that. This will bring the average up to 19,5 and the maximum up to 32 damage. So, a lucky hit to an unarmored neck will be able to decapitate the victum for sure. If the same wielder was to make an All-Out Attack (Strong), he would deal 2d+4 (let's transform it into 3d) plus 3d cutting damage. Average - 21 damage, maximum - 36 damage. The chances are improving! The chances can be improved even further by improving the wielder's ST or the greatsword's quality (or size!).

Let's not forget that hits that target the neck do so at a -5 penalty. This can be improved with the Targeted Attack (Two-Handed Sword Swing/Neck) technique or such advantages as Higher Purpose (Decapitate people with my greatsword).

Let's make a Sorcery spell that vorpalizes a weapon.

Vorpal Weapon

Keywords: Weapon Buff.

Full Cost: 18 points.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: Three minutes.

Once cast upon a weapon, this spell causes it to do an additional 3d of follow-up (p. B105) cutting damage on neck hits, but only if the weapon deals cutting damage. This additional damage causes no blunt trauma and no knockback. Additionally, the wielder of the weapon gets a +1 bonus to his weapon skill when making cutting attacks that target necks.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on cutting weapons, -40%; Advantage, Vorpal Weapon, +100%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [18]. Note: “Vorpal Weapon” is Cutting Attack 3d (Accessibility, Only on neck hits, -40%; Follow-Up, This weapon, +0%; Magical, -10%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Knockback, -10%) [5] + Higher Purpose (Cut necks with this weapon; Magical, -10%) [5].

And now let's make an enchanted greatsword using Sorcery enchanting system. Note that a greatsword costs $900, more than the enchanted sword's inherent value.

Vorpal Sword

Vorpal Sword – as an enchanted item (using Sorcery)

This thrusting greatsword (LT70, B274) can be vorpalized by the wielder for 1 hour by taking a Concentrate maneuver and spending 1 FP. Once vorpalized, the sword will deal an additional 3d of follow-up (p. B105) cutting damage on neck swings. This additional damage causes no blunt trauma and no knockback. Additionally, the wielder of the weapon gets a +1 bonus to his weapon skill when making cutting swings that target necks. SM-3, DR 6, HP 15, 7 lbs. LC4.       

Statistics: Cutting Attack 3d (Accessibility, Only on neck hits, -40%; Follow-Up, This weapon, +0%; Magical, -10%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Knockback, -10%) [5] + Higher Purpose (Cut necks with this weapon; Magical, -10%) [5]. Usually On; Weapon, Metal, x0.45; 5 EP.

            TL3 Price: 2 x ($30 + 5 x $320) = $3,260.

            TL8 Price: 2 x ($600 + 5 x $1180) = $13,000.