So I've been working on the Psi-Wars take on ogres (the monsters, not the tank), and I ran into the problem I always run into with SM, which is that I don't really understand scale. I think most people don't. So I thought I'd whip up a quick guide, mostly for myself, to get a sense of how things will work. This borrows some art from Cardboard Heroes and the GURPS DF line, and I mostly use material from Combat Writ Large from Pyramid #3/77. I've also created this handy (but terribly pixelated) guide that I found useful. I apologize for the production values!
Each entry also contains ST values. These are either based on the standard formula for deriving ST, or using a cinematic treatment from Template Toolkits 2 or derived from a listed ST value. In the case of Spaceships, this is the listed spaceship ST halved, as the listed values are for unliving vehicles.
I've also included some scales for ST and movement. The low end tends to be based on the actual values you would realistically expect, and the high end comes from taking the heaviest weight (almost always the animals from GURPS Space) and then using the cinematic rules from Template Toolkits 2, so it's closer to "the maximum for a stop motion dinosaur of that size" than anything remotely plausible for a humanoid giant. Treat it as an absolute maximum upper bound, and lean towards the lower bound, especially as you get to larger SMs, which get increasingly silly. The cinematic movement is based on the rules from Template Toolkits, which are how fast the character would move if they were just a normal human "scaled up" to that size. In reality, we'd expect completely different movement mechanisms at larger sizes, and we tend to picture giants moving more slowly, so the real values will typically be lower than this. I rather like DF's "Just move 9 on all giants."
SM +0
Longest Dimension: 6'
Typical ST: 10-12
- Low End: 10 (~1 damage on a punch, BL 20)
- High End: 12 (~2 damage on a punch, BL 29)
Cinematic Movement: 5 yards
Mass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 125 lbs
- Realistic: ST 10
- Cinematic ST 10
- Biotech: 145 lbs (ST 10)
- Listed ST: 10
- Realistic ST: 10.5
- Cinematic ST: 11
- Space: 200 lbs
- Realistic ST 11
- Cinematic ST 12
- Spaceships: 200 lbs (derived)
- Listed ST: 15
- Realistic ST 11
- Cinematic ST 12
That's you, right? This is the default bases from which the rest of the numbers come in. This is also probably the most abused SM, because if 6' is the tallest that someone of this SM can get, I personally am SM +1, and I bet quite a few of you are, which is part of the problem with SM +1, and we'll get into that soon. But this is a very stretchy SM, and if you want to get technical, an ST 6 human bottoms out at 4'4" and is SM -1, and an ST 10 tops out at 6'1" and is already SM +1, and by ST 12 or higher, you're averaging SM +1, but we tend to fold everything into one SM for convenience.
Unsurprisingly, the ST values "line up" nicely, but we'd expect that. After all, this is the point that we're measuring against. Even when we get into cinematic levels of ST for high mass variations, we find that typical of how characters might actually be: it's totally plausible that an SM +0 human is 200 lbs and has ST 12.
I will say that while I suspect the Template Toolkits approach is pretty much in line with how GURPS actually works: that weight is what you get for precisely ST 10 per the formulas, and that height scales with the rest of the SMs, but we're asked to believe that SM +0 people are 6' and 125 lbs. People will quibble and say "Well, it's up to 6', though okay, some people are taller than that and still within SM +0, and the mass can go up and down a bit without changing ST, etc" but I want you to keep that in mind for the rest of the SM's. The values I'm giving are as accurate to that SM as "humans are 6' and 125 lbs." It's a rough and slightly inaccurate order-of-magnitude with lots of wiggle room.
SM +1
Longest Dimension: 9'
Typical ST: 15-22
- Low End: 15 (~4 damage on a punch, BL 45)
- High End: 22 (~6 damage on a punch, BL 97)
Cinematic Movement: 7 yardsMass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 400 lbs
- Realistic: ST 15
- Cinematic ST 18
- Biotech: 500 lbs
- Listed ST: 15
- Realistic ST: 16
- Cinematic ST: 20
- Space: 600 lb
- Realistic ST 17
- Cinematic ST 22
- Spaceships: 600 lbs (derived)
- Listed ST: 15
- Realistic ST 17
- Cinematic ST 22
An SM +1 character is approximately one and a half times as tall as a normal person. If our elf girl is ~ 6', then our Bone Golem is about ~9'. In general, I tend to see SM +1 as within the realm of easy interaction. They're "big" but they still feel within the realm of the human: they're a space marine, or a barbarian, or a "big dude." The default ogre is about this size.
In combat, an SM +0 character can hit an SM +1 character with +1 and vice versa at -1. This amounts to a small perk or single level of skill difference: it matters, but not hugely. It's a number I tend to forget. The SM +1 character also gets +1 reach with their CC attacks. Combat Writ Large also suggests that an SM +1 character can "bear hug" any SM +0 character, trample any prone character, and their bite counts as a two-handed grapple in specific circumstances. They also get a +1 to hit with e Grapple and +3 to pin. An upright SM +1 character still fits into a single hex. You can also probably claim the height difference bonus for a -1 to an SM +0 target's defense and a +1 to your own defense (which frankly works out to better than the penalty you suffer)
In general, I tend to forget the special rules of SM +1. I should collect them into something handier, especially for some of the "big" races of Psi-Wars, like the Menhiri, the Mug and the Saruthim in armor, or even characters in battlesuits, because it's nice to remember that being a big guy actually makes a difference. But this is an SM I find most GMs forget exists: they note that someone is SM +1, note the higher ST at the cheaper cost, and then forget to apply any of the rules one way or the other, because they just feel like an especially tall human.
SM +2
Longest Dimension: 15'
Typical ST: 20-50
- Low End: 20 (5 damage on a punch, BL 80)
- High End: 50 (18 damage on a punch, BL 500)
Cinematic Movement: 12 yards
Mass:
Mass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 1250 lbs
- Realistic: ST 22
- Cinematic ST 32
- Biotech: 1160 lbs
- Listed ST: 20
- Realistic ST: 21
- Cinematic ST: 30
- Space: 3000 lb
- Realistic ST 29
- Cinematic ST 49
- Spaceships: 2000 lbs (derived)
- Listed ST: 25
- Realistic ST 25
- Cinematic ST 40
An SM +2 character is nearly three times the size of a normal person. If our elf girl is ~ 6', then our Rock Giant is about ~15'. SM +2 is odd, as I don't see many creatures in it. It's too big to be "just a normal interaction" but too small to be "Woah! A giant!" It does feel like a good, monstrous size. Like if a giant statue came to life, it would be about that size. I started all of this to work out a Psi-Wars Rancor, and I pegged them at this size, but most research I've done into their "actual" size says more like SM +3, but still, these feels right to me. This is also your smallest Attack on Titan titans (the "5m Class" titan). It's a good Ogre size: big enough to be truly monstrous, but not so big you can't have a direct fight with it.
In combat, an SM +0 character can hit an SM +2 character with +2 and vice versa at -2. This amounts to a free "Deceptive Attack" bonus for the smaller character, and the larger character must make a Committed Attack to cancel out the penalty to hit the smaller target. The SM +2 character also gets +1 reach. Combat Writ Large also suggests the SM +2 character completely blocks line of sight, it can always trample a human, and you can grapple them while they lie down without going prone yourself. This is the smallest SM where a standing character starts taking up multiple hexes. They get +2 to grapple SM +0 targets. At this height, if we're using the Combat At Different Levels as accurately as possible, there is a 9' difference between the human and the giant. The Giant's reach allows it to bring that difference down to 6' difference, so it can "punch your head" still. This means our elf girl can only attack legs and feet without that fancy crossbow or a spear, and she suffers a -3 to her defense rolls from his attacks, and he can only attack her head and shoulders, and he defends at +3.
SM +3
Longest Dimension: 21'
Typical ST: 30-80
- Low End: 30 (10 damage on a punch, BL 180)
- High End: 80 (30 damage on a punch, BL 1250)
Cinematic Movement: 18 yards
Mass:
Mass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 4000 lbs
- Realistic: ST 32
- Cinematic ST 57
- Biotech: 3915 lbs
- Listed ST: 30
- Realistic ST: 31
- Cinematic ST: 55
- Space: 8000 lb
- Realistic ST 40
- Cinematic ST 80
- Spaceships: 6000 lbs (derived)
- Listed ST: 35
- Realistic ST 36
- Cinematic ST 70
An SM +3 character is 3.5 times the size of a normal person. If our elf girl is ~ 6', then our Hill Giant is about ~21'. SM +3 starts to feel like a "real giant" to me. This is supposedly the size difference of Luke vs the Rancor but I'm skeptical (though the Rancor was pretty hunched over). This is also "about average" for an Attack on Titan titan (the "7m Class"). It's also the height of a Sentinel, from the X-men. This is definitely where I start to get interested in the rules for size modifiers.
In combat, an SM +0 character can hit an SM +3 character with +3 and vice versa at -3. The vitals of an SM +3 character are as easy to hit as as a normal person, while the larger character has as hard a time hitting an SM+0 character in the skull as you would have hitting an eyeslit. Combat Writ Large also suggests the SM +3 character completely blocks line of sight even when kneeling, its trample does large area injury and it gets all sort of special trample like "incidentally trampling" targets, though at the same time smaller characters gain a +3 to evade the giant. It can evade an SM+0 target for +1 move point, its bites count as two-handed grapples for all purposes, and it can just directly attempt to pin a standing foe. This is the smallest SM where a standing character starts taking up multiple hexes on both dimensions. They get +3 to grapple SM +0 targets. At this height, if we're using the Combat At Different Levels as accurately as possible, we actually cannot attack the smaller target without crouching down or using a long weapon: even with our reach of 2. You can see that in the picture: the giant can barely cap her head with his club (He has a base reach of 6' and his club might offer another 6' but that puts them at a 3' difference).
SM +4
Longest Dimension: 30'
Typical ST: 45-140
- Low End: 45 (16 damage on a punch, BL 405)
- High End: 130 (50 damage on a punch, BL 3380)
Cinematic Movement: 25 yards
Mass:
Mass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 6 tons
- Realistic: ST 46
- Cinematic ST 98
- Biotech: 9 tons
- Listed ST: 50
- Realistic ST: 53
- Cinematic ST: 120
- Space: 12 tons
- Realistic ST 58
- Cinematic ST 139
- Spaceships: 10 tons
- Listed ST: 75
- Realistic ST 54
- Cinematic ST 126
An SM +4 character is 5 times the size of a normal person. If our elf girl is ~ 6', then our Mountain Giant is about ~30'. SM +4 is absolutely a real giant, and this is where we start to get into why SM confused me, because it's also the smallest star fighter. Humanoids tend to be pretty stretched out (no big wings) and if you look at him and think "Where would the cockpit be" then the mass of a light starfighter starts to become more obvious. It also gets into where I start scratching my head on how to handle this sort of thing, because this is where we start to get out of the human scale and into the military scale, and a tank or a starfighter would have no trouble with that thing. This is supposedly as big as a rancor gets, and it's the size of the earlier colossi, such as Valus, in Shadow of the Colossus. It's also your smaller Mecha, according to Modular Mecha, though again, perhaps that overstates their size somewhat.
In combat, an SM +0 character can hit an SM +4 character with +4 and vice versa at -4. This is the equivalent of a free telegraphic attack for the SM+0 character, and it's the highest bonus an SM+0 character can get. The Skull of an SM +4 giant is as easy to hit as a human's vitals, and their eye is the size of a face. The giant would need to make an AoA Determined to have a chance of wiping out is penalties without resorting to a Big Swing.
SM +5
Longest Dimension: 45'
Typical ST: 70-250
- Low End: 70 (28 damage on a punch, BL 980)
- High End: 250 (90 damage on a punch, BL 6 tons)
Cinematic Movement: 37 yards
Mass:
Mass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 20 tons
- Realistic: ST 68
- Cinematic ST 179
- Biotech: 25 tons
- Listed ST: 70
- Realistic ST: 74
- Cinematic ST: 200
- Space: 40 tons
- Realistic ST 86
- Cinematic ST 253
- Spaceships: 30 tons
- Listed ST: 100
- Realistic ST 78
- Cinematic ST 220
An SM +5 character is 7.5 times the size of a normal person. If our elf girl is ~ 6', then our Cloud Giant is about ~45'. SM +5 start to get stupid, like I wonder how this fight is supposed to even happen without military grade equipment. I mean, this is a building at this point. This is the size of a 15M class Attack on Titan titan, which is as big as they get before we start getting into the crazy ones. It's also the advertised size of King Kong in the original film, (though on screen he looks closer to 25 feet, or SM+4). It's the size of a "medium mech" in Modular mecha.
In combat, an SM+0 character still only gets a +4 to hit the target, while the giant has a -5 to hit the target, which is so large that not even an AoA can wipe it out. At this size, hitting a normal human is as hard for the giant as hitting someone's face or neck is for a normal character. All the other rules above apply; there are no additional break points at this level.
SM +6
Longest Dimension: 60'
Typical ST: 70-250
- Low End: 100 (40 damage on a punch, BL 1 ton)
- High End: 400 (140 damage on a punch, BL 160 tons)
Cinematic Movement: 50 yards
Mass:
- Templates Toolkits 2: 60 tons
- Realistic: ST 97
- Cinematic ST 310
- Biotech: 70 tons
- Listed ST: 100
- Realistic ST: 105
- Cinematic ST: 340
- Space: 100 tons
- Realistic ST 117
- Cinematic ST 400
- Spaceships: 100 tons
- Listed ST: 150
- Realistic ST 117
- Cinematic ST 400
An SM +6 character is 10 times the size of a normal person. If our elf girl is ~ 6', then our Titan is about ~60'. See her? She's the little blob of color next to his ankle. If SM +5 was already stupid, this stops looking like a fight and more like a set piece, and indeed, this is the size of some of your larger Shadow of the Colossus Colossi, such as Gaius. It's also the size of a large modular mech.
This isn't the largest that fandom monsters get. The largest Colossus from Shadow of the Colossus gets up to SM+8, while the largest Titan from AoT clocks in just over that size at somewhere between SM +8 and SM +9. The King Kong of Skull Island is also about SM +7 to SM +8.
In combat, the SM+6 character is as suitably stupid as the SM +5 character, but still doesn't reach new breakpoints until SM+7. You don't fight these with blade or pistol, but with fighter jets and artillery.
Thinking Big Thoughts
A lot of this research came as a surprise to me. A tank is about SM +4, so a tank-scale threat is about SM +4 too, right? Well... no. Not if it's human shaped, which is likely why mecha have to be so cinematic to keep up with them. It's also obvious to me that I had no real idea of the scale of these size modifiers in comparison to normal humans. I think the GURPS writers have a better sense of them, because what they write is consistent with what I see when I look at these pictures. I will have to rethink some of the rules, though, like the penalty for attacking a higher target should only really apply if you're attacking things that are high up: attacking a titan's knee is much harder than attacking their toes. I'm not sure how that applies in reverse, though, and it seems kind of weird that you get such a big penalty to dodge an attack from above from a giant.
The problem I find myself confronted with in Psi-Wars is how to make a giant an interesting threat. On the one hand, we like the image of a space knight fighting a giant monster, but on the other hand, at some point, you're using a tank or a fighter jet and hitting it with isomeric nukes. A threat that scales well with a human-level opponent, even a highly cinematic one, is too weak to fight a tank, and something that can easily fight off a tank is going to be too nasty to fight a human-scale opponent. Scaling UT is always a problem, but giants tend to blur those categories a lot, and it does so quicker than I think most people would expect. SM +5 and +6 are already rapidly getting out of the reach of human level combatants, but would tend to be easy pickings for most star fighters.
Still, this gives me a better sense of perspective, what is allowable and what isn't, and what sort of scales we're talking about with humanoid characters. I hope you found it useful.
Good stuff. I was hoping for some discussion on Godzilla!
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