B-Scale Detail and Examples

The “B-scale,” taken from the notion of “Basic Damage Potential,” is logarithmic by design – and that design comes straight from the GURPS core you already know. It is in many ways the core alteration to help make the disparate length and power scales in modern action games uniformly tractable at the table.

Let’s look at it a bit more.

Every +1B multiplies penetration and injury potential by roughly ×1.5; an even more intuitive rule of thumb is +2B is approximately ×2 (very approximately, since +4B is ×5). Every full +6B multiplies it by exactly 10. The progression is identical to the Size and Speed/Range Table that GURPS players use constantly. That continuity is intentional: the same math that handles “how far is that shot?” now handles “how bad is that hit?” with perfect consistency.

All input B values are integers. Players never see decimals. The GM handles any final rounding for Wound Effects. There is a detailed GURPS Damage Points → B-Scale Conversion Chart to make conversion seamless. A .30-06 that used to be 7d+1 (25.5 points of damage on the average) converts to 8B+2. Armor that used to be DR 50 now stops up to 9B+0 cold. A ST 11 punch is 1B+1. A space-kraken with ST 5,000? 17B+0 base.

A ST housecat has –2B+2, but that still matters because Size Modifier is subtracted from penetrating injury, which means a ST 4 (–2B+2), SM –3 cat attacking another one effectively is striking at its clone at the same intensity as a human striking another at 1B+2 … slightly more effective than a ST 10 human punch (much more once you include the claws).

Skill boosts add to Damage Variability Rolls directly, serving the same purposes as “per-die” damage adds in other Powered by GURPS games. Weapons of course provide leverage and thus provide damage adders, and attack options are there to do even more for the ultimate smackdown of ultimate destiny.

Robustness is its own 25-point trait (decoupled from ST in a way that still respects the original GURPS balance), you can have a scrawny but ultra-tough operator or a massive but fragile giant. The scale works beautifully in both directions without breaking anything.

This purposeful scaling is now applied to everything from xeno-swarms to powered-armor assaults to star cruisers from the Grand Republic to smoothly handle scaling shifts in modern-action and sci-fi campaigns.

Over the next weeks I’ll be making posts talking about the different chapters, the game development, what MX is … and what it’s not. Please stay tuned! If you want to follow on Kickstarter so that you will be on board immediately when it launches, please click here to jump over to the promo page!