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I'm trying to create a character who will knock people out with a syringe of strong sedative, like how Dexter Morgan does in the show Dexter.

Here is a short description of what he does that I'm looking to emulate:

Dexter administers a big dose of Etorphine to his victims as a way of immobilizing them. The sedative works instantly, rendering the injected immobile and unconscious within a couple of seconds and lasting for several hours. He administers the Etorphine via a Hypodermic Needle, typically to the neck of his victims.

So, how can we play out this injection-attack in GURPS 4e?

SevenSidedDie
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Oleksandr Galichenko
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    @HeyICanChan The campaign is realistic (w/o cinematic, magic etc). And yeah, I wondered what checks I should perform to knock a victim out (for immobilizing him to kill in the nearest future). Sorry for confusion) – Oleksandr Galichenko Nov 22 '16 at 16:12
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    I've updated the question to just ask about the syringe thing. – doppelgreener Nov 22 '16 at 16:14

3 Answers3

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If the victim is aware of the attack, then I'd use the combat system, and either require the victim to be pinned down, or to need to use it like a cheap-quality small dagger with a -2 improvised weapon skill penalty that does no damage itself, can't pierce any armor stronger than soft leather, and does thrust-3 for purposes of piercing armor with DR1. Anything but a successful attack would likely have a good chance to mess up the syringe one way or another. Also I'd require a separate roll to inject after the stab is done, on something like the lower of close combat DX or First Aid. I'd also research to see if there would be a big difference between injecting into a vein and into muscle - if there is, then that should require a target penalty to get a vein during combat.

If you can try to inject without the victim knowing (using, say stealth versus perception and being able to come up from behind, or a ruse using Acting and Sleight of Hand versus maybe IQ/Skepticism and perception), then it might just be a matter of First Aid skill at a penalty (adjusted by the GM according to the situation - clothing, how distracted is the target, what the posture of the people is like) to do a proper injection in the right spot before the target reacts.

Once injected, if we accept the description, that sounds like an increasingly difficult HT roll each turn to avoid physical stun and falling unconscious, or possibly inevitable unconsciousness after a number of seconds.

(P.S. As @JohnDallman pointed out in comments, if you want to track a more accurate medical skill for injections than First Aid, that might make sense. I chose First Aid because it seems like the closest GURPS skill I actually give characters other than medical specialists, and of course First Aid defaults to Physician, but clearly there could be people who were skilled in injections but not the rest of First Aid, which could be a Specialized skill or One-Trick-Wonder as @JohnDallman suggested.)

(P.P.S. Thinking about syringes in combat a bit more, I agree with @philosophyguy's that one could probably use close combat DX or brawling (or karate) for stabbing someone with a syringe in combat. But as with knife, I would have a skill penalty and any miss or parry may mess up the syringe. That represents that while you might be able to poke someone with it at full DX/brawiling/knife skill, you have to do it carefully or the syringe may be broken or emptied before it can inject.)

Dronz
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    I'd agree with this approach. An attack roll to pierce the skin with the syringe, then a roll to inject the sedative, then the victim makes HT rolls to avoid falling unconscious.

    I'd allow the character to make an attack roll to stab with a knife skill, a First Aid skill, or just DX since stabbing is a pretty reasonable untrained action. I'd consider allowing Brawling as well.

     – philosophyguy Nov 22 '16 at 20:06
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    Giving injections is Physician skill, rather than First Aid. A one-task Wonder perk to get Physician at IQ for the task of giving injections would be reasonable. If this actually turns into combat, remember that a hypodermic needle is extremely light, and will be bent or broken if it's parried by (almost) any weapon. – John Dallman Nov 22 '16 at 20:25
  • @JohnDallman How would you represent the technicians who give shots and draw blood but aren't physicians? You're right that it would more accurately be a single trick, but the way I usually think of First Aid, I'd think it'd be the most common skill my NPCs have that would be relevant. – Dronz Nov 22 '16 at 22:08
  • "Physician" as the skill of giving care, is actually the primary skill of nurses. Doctors concentrate on diagnosis and/or surgery. The skill names were created in 1985-6, without a whole lot of research, and have been kept unchanged for historical reasons. Now, the UK medical system uses nurses to give most injections and take blood samples, so I'm not familiar with that kind of technician, but they might well have Physician with an optional specialisation in Phlebotomy. – John Dallman Nov 22 '16 at 23:23
  • @JohnDallman I think that may be a US vs. UK terminology distinction. Physician is still the general more technical general word for full medical doctor in the US. – Dronz Nov 23 '16 at 06:32
  • It is here, too. The GURPS skill name is misleading. Doctors have Physician skill, but they aren't the only ones who do, – John Dallman Nov 23 '16 at 08:06
  • I'm now of the opinion that Phlebotomy is an Technique of Physician, of Average difficulty. A phlebotomist would have a couple of points in Physician, so IQ-1, and buy up the technique to IQ+2 or so. With decent medical facilities, that gives you effective phlebotomists with only about 5 points of training. An alternative prerequisite is Surgery, which would mostly be used by low-tech doctors who bled their patients. – John Dallman Jan 18 '17 at 23:16
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I'm not very familiar with Gurps, but after a quick perusal of the Gurps Lite 4th ed PDF, and gauging by the similarities with Hero system, I would assume it would play out as this:

Using his high dexterity and stealth/shadowing skills, "Dexter" is able to follow and then sneak up on his intended prey.

Once within striking distance, and the prey being unaware, it's a matter of making an attack roll with the syringe to the targeted portion of the body (IE: Head -5 No DR; no special damage results, but critical hits go to Critical Head Blow Table.)

Thorborn762
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For actually sticking them:

I'd probably do it as either a quick contest or a regular contest: If they're unaware you can do stealth/dex against perception.

If they are aware you can do dex or str against whatever skill they have to fight you off. (this would almost certainly be a regular contest).

For the drug itself the Campaigns book has a part on poisons.

cdm014
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