GURPS General!
New people asking rules questions edition!
Old Thread
>>47887902
>>47931206
Aside from missing the link pdf this is how to start a new gurpsgen!
>>47931633
Wouldnt let me post the PDF. Duplicate File.
>>47931206
In RPM, how would I design a spell that would let me turn someone (either living, or a corpse) into an intelligent free-willed undead, such as a Vampire, Ghoul/Ghast, Wraith, Ghost, or Lich?
I mean actually creating undead, here, not "temporarily transforme into a lich".
And, if that's not possible per RAW, how would I (as GM) make that possible?
For that matter, is there a way to give a PC a template, other than having them save up and pay points to acquire it? What if the template's net value is 0 points?
>>47931975
Thats the downside of expecting the OP to start with a specific file. That file can't be posted until the old thread dies, which gets in the way of replacing an autosageing general when it hits page 8 or 9.
Honestly I suspect thats why the other generals use pastebins and google docs.
>>47931975
>In RPM, how would I design a spell that would let me turn someone (either living, or a corpse) into an intelligent free-willed undead, such as a Vampire, Ghoul/Ghast, Wraith, Ghost, or Lich?
>I mean actually creating undead, here, not "temporarily transforme into a lich".
Canonically, you can't. But, see the next answer for a workaround.
>And, if that's not possible per RAW, how would I (as GM) make that possible?
Rule that a specific ritual is Instantaneous. Like applying damage that remains once the spell ends the ritual magically reshapes the subject who remains in that shape after the spell ends.
>For that matter, is there a way to give a PC a template, other than having them save up and pay points to acquire it? What if the template's net value is 0 points?
Do you mean as GM or in game by another PC? If the former you just give it to them. If the latter they only get it if they have points available (or the GM lets them pick up disadvantages to cover, or lets them go into point debt). None of which holds if the given template is only temporary.
All of the above comes with the caveat that I haven't used RPM since the thaum book was released so I might not be accurate.
>>47932106
I believe there are actually two similar but slightly different OP pdfs for exactly this reason.
>>47931975
Path of Undead, along with Path of Spirit, is the one that most requires everyone be on the same page. There are a bunch of different approaches, none of which are really more correct than any other; as the GM, you just have to decide which approach you're taking.
When I GM'd a game with RPM, I had Lesser Create Undead simply animate the target with the appropriate template -- e.g. Corpse, Zombie, Skeleton, or Mummy -- with capped IQ, Automaton, and Reprogrammable. Anything beyond the base template required Additional Traits to be added to the ritual along with the physical components like extra arms to make a four-armed skeleton. Greater Create Undead did the same, but removed the IQ cap, Automaton, and Reprogrammable; adding Extra Life also gave them memories of their past life, allowing for something debatably close to resurrection. This is just how *I* approached undead, however; you're free to do it any way that seems best for you.
As for duration, remember that you can continually increase duration after casting, and you're only limited to doing it in increments of the original duration; if the original Create Undead ritual had a duration of one week (9 energy), you could give your creation a year-long duration by casting 51 9-point rituals that up the spell's duration by one week at a time.This is also a reason why free-willed undead would still serve a mere mortal: if they kill their "master," their duration will eventually run out.Would-be liches probably have a conditional spell left hanging that casts Greater Create Undead on themselves when they die, and they can keep upping their own duration indefinitely.
Lastly, as the GM you can do whatever you want/whatever the players will let you get away with. If a PC becomes a vampire, they gain the vampire template and their point total changes accordingly.
Help me fa/tg/uys. You're my only hope.
I have a player whose idea of active participation outside of combat consists solely of wandering the streets and going into shops. Like he's the main character in a CRPG looking for people with exclamation marks floating over their heads. He doesn't ask questions or investigate anything (except a scream or shout heralding combat). When he does find a clue vendor his response is "I make a note of that." He doesn't ever follow up and often doesn't even tell the other characters. Oh, and he also constantly says he wants to play "less combat centered games."
He's a great player once he's dropped into a scene initiated by someone else he just can't initiate them himself. Normally that would be no problem but he keeps trying which frustrates him and takes time away from the others. I've talked to him already along with the other obvious things along those lines.
How can I help him when the world doesn't consist of an animated collection of pixels and doesn't contain a glowing, pulsing arrow leading to his next goal?
>>47932493
NPC babysitter? Or maybe always keep him with the party? That or give him a long-term personal goal; is there anything in his backstory you can use?
I think you may get more responses from /tg/ as a whole if you make a thread for your question rather than ask in a system-specific general; there were less that 50 posters in the last thread.
>>47932493
Sounds like he is a bit shy. Try engaging him and asking him direct questions, with suggestions about what might be appropriate for his character.
"You know a clue relevant to what they are talking about, but the others haven't heard it yet. You could tell them, or keep it to yourself."
"The man seems distraught and unhappy. If you can calm him you might be able to get some information out of him, or you could try to force him to focus and tell you what you need with intimidation."
>>47932545
>NPC babysitter
Seconding this
I've used it before and it's a simple tool. Literally just a tag along campaign appropriate "hp with a dodge and weapon" that asks the player pointed questions and moves things along.
First for the share pdf
>>47932412
>Lesser Create Undead: animate the target with the appropriate template
>Greater Create Undead did the same, but removed the IQ cap, Automaton, and Reprogrammable; adding Extra Life also gave them memories of their past life, allowing for something debatably close to resurrection.
Can I see your buildout of the spells, if you have it?
>You can continually increase duration after casting.
Yeah, I saw that. I don't have a problem with temporary undead existing, I just don't want all undead to be temporary.
>>47932355
>Rule that a specific ritual is Instantaneous.
How do I price out Duration(Instantaneous) in terms of Energy Points?
>>47932705
You are doing OP's work, anon.
>>47932716
>How do I price out Duration(Instantaneous) in terms of Energy Points?
No idea. Duration is for spells that aren't Instantaneous. Perhaps with that in mind the cost must be 0?
>>47932545
>>47932684
I'll give the babysitter a try but I don't really like the idea of it. If it works I'll learn to like it.
>I think you may get more responses from /tg/ as a whole if you make a thread for your question rather than ask in a system-specific general; there were less that 50 posters in the last thread.
I was hoping for quality over quantity. The general /tg/ quality is pretty hit or miss. Here it is pretty reliable.
>>47932585
That's the bizarre thing. He's not the slightest bit shy. I will ramp up my direct and guiding question game a notch.
Thanks all for the suggestions.
>>47933011
That would mean it takes more energy to make a vampire that falls apart in 2 weeks than to make a vampire that stays alive indefinitely.
How does it work for resurrection? What stops the character from keeling over dead in a couple weeks? How do you price /it/ out?
>>47933128
Leading questions are, in general, a good way to get a player going. They might rebel and not do any of them, but then they are at least doing something.
>>47932926
So that I can post a PDF next time rather than having to wait for the old thread to die while everyone whines about it, does anybody have the *Other* version of the OP file?
>>47933141
I don't have to agree with it but that's all the reference I could find in the thaum:rpm book. The first sentence under Duration, p. 18. You could also try Conditional Termination on that same page. It might be more agreeable to you.
The answer is still the same though. You can't do it (RPM p. 18 "Aside from healing and damaging spells, no ritual effect is permanent"). Unless you make a ruling for yourself as an exception with the power of plot.
>>47934078
Could it be done with powers? If yes, how would you do it with powers (maybe I can reverse engineer something).
>>47932716
>Can I see your buildout of the spells, if you have it?
On my other computer, but I'll get it in a sec.
>Yeah, I saw that. I don't have a problem with temporary undead existing, I just don't want all undead to be temporary.
*All* undead won't be temporary, just *artificial* undead. Skeletal warriors that rise of their own volition from a cursed battlefield operate indefinitely, as do corpses from profaned graveyards, divinely empower undead avengers, etc. The only undead with a time limit are those raised by casters; "natural" undead can go on for as long as the plot requires it.
Alternitavely, you can use the same logic behind permenant enchanted items to make permenant undead; after creating them (no point in paying extra energy for duration), you invest the *character points* necessary to buy them as an Ally; fluff-wise, you're tying the magic together with a bit of your own life-force.
>>47934459
Affliction with Extended Duration, Permanent, +150% or +300% depending on whether there's a terminating condition or not.
Latest Pyramid
>>47935131
You are now my favorite individual. May all head shots miss you.
>>47935131
>but they don't need eyes to see what they're doing
God I'm a sucker for these dumb little references.
>>47935131
Reading this with the gas mask I found today on is kind of fun.
>>47935131
And now its in the trove.
Should Fit help recover FP spent on biological or chi powers? Basic Set only says no psi or magic, but that may be because psi and magic were the only two "main" varieties of supernatural powers in BS and it was supposed to read more like "no supernatural abilities."
>>47936685
I think it works for any fatigue gained due to muscular work.
Is there somewhere with detailed rules about allies, contacts, reputation, fame, and networks?
>>47931975
From the writer:
You shouldn't add One Use on that, the use ends when the duration does. That said I've used the following two methods in my own games:
• The spell requires a certain amount of time to prepare, whether this is inventing or adapting the process to work on you, gathering materials, etc., it takes time. Figure out the cost of the template you are trying to transform into and use the Improvement Through Study (p. B292) to till you achieve enough character points to buy the template. You may add bonus character points normally to speed up the process.
• The spell's power requirement is massive. Figure out the cost of the template you are trying to transform into and then multiply it by 5. Then use this cost to figure out the energy required for Altered Traits. There is precedent for this in the Fortune elixir (Pyramid 3/43: Thaumatology 3, p. 16). In fact, this is where the idea came from in the first place!
Example 1: Bob the Mad wants to become Bob the Lich, he's got a copy of how the Lich spell works thanks to a grimoire, but it's going to take time to adapt it to his body if he's going to survive the process. Since the Lich template is 105 character points (Magic, p. 160) this is going to take 21,000 hours of working out magical theorems, gathering the proper ingredients, and mixing them together properly. Since he's learning on his own this is going to take him 9 years and 215 days to finish (assuming 12 hours a day of self teaching). But Bob can reduce this time by using bonus character points to get to his final total. If Bob had a teacher this would reduce the time to 4 years and 294 days (assuming 12 hours days); or if using the Intensive Training rules the time it takes is 1 year and 292 days (assuming 16 hours).
>>47931975
Example 2: Might use a spell like this:
Lich
Spell Effects: Greater Transform Body + Greater Transform Undead.
Inherent Modifiers: Altered Traits, Alternate Form (Lich)
Greater Effects: 2 (x5).
This spell turns the subject into a lich (Magic, p. 160)! After the spell is cast, the subject (almost always the caster) must roll vs. HT. Success means he rises as a lich 2d days later. If he fails, he dies! there is no duration for this spell because the effects (turning you into a lich take place instantly)
Typical Casting: Greater Transform Body (8) + Greater Transform Undead (8) + Altered Traits, Alternate Form (Lich) (476*) + Subject Weight, 300 lbs. (3). 2,475 energy (495×5).
* Includes a extra cost equal to the cost of the template x 5 to assume it permanently and adds "Backlash, Instant Death, Resistible to Alternate Form" (-150%).
Both of these methods are hard, because they should be! Turning yourself into a eldritch undead creature shouldn't be easier. You're definitely going to want to use Traditional Trappings, or Decanic Trappings (Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic, p. 36). I'll note, that turning yourself into a lich via a potion is probably easier and might look like this:
Elixir of Lichdom
Spell Effects: Greater Transform Body + Greater Transform Undead + Lesser Create
Magic.
Inherent Modifiers: Altered Traits, Alternate Form (Lich)
Greater Effects: 2 (x5).
This spell turns the subject into a lich (Magic, p. 160)! After the spell is cast, the subject (almost always the caster) must roll vs. HT. Success means he rises as a lich 2d days later. If he fails, he dies! there is no duration for this spell because the effects (turning you into a lich take place instantly)
>>47937461
Typical Form: Elixir.
Typical Ingredients: crypt dust, the thigh bone of a necromancer, well from a river or lake near a barrow, dirt taken from a unhallowed graveyard on the night of a new moon, crushed black diamonds, blood from a demon or angel, the heart of a vampire.
Typical Brewing: Greater Transform Body (8) + Greater Transform Undead (8) + Lesser Create Magic (6) + Altered Traits, Alternate Form (Lich) (476*) + Subject Weight, 300 lbs. (3). 2,505 energy (501×5).
* Includes a extra cost equal to the cost of the template x 5 to assume it permanently and adds "Backlash, Instant Death, Resistible to Alternate Form" (-150%).
Assuming the character uses at least 30 times as much Fine ingredients as normal, this would reduce the cost of energy by a whopping 30% (1,754 energy total).
And of course you can reduce the cost further by adding a Dependency on a "phylactery." I'd add Dependency (phylactery; rare, Constantly) [-150], but remove both Dependency (Mana; common, constantly) [-50] and Fragile (Unnatural, Mitigated by potion, monthly, -70%) [-15]. This turns the template into 20 points and would reduce the time in example one to:
Self-Teaching: 1 year and 301 days.
Teacher: 334 days.
Intense Training: 125 days.
And the cost of example two's spells:
Ritual: 610 required energy
Potion: 625 required energy (438 energy if using Fine ingredients).
From <http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1659976&postcount=2>
>>47935131
Awesome, thanks.
>>47937447
Thanks!
I was looking through the GURPS Forums to see what I could find and just came across that post like 5 minutes ago.
Good stuff!
I also came across this jewel, also from Ghostdancer: "In general, if you want a permanent effect in RPM you can use Conditional Termination (GURPS Thaumatology Ritual Path Magic, p. 18) and declare "Until dispelled" as a condition worth 18 energy."
>>47931206
Gimme the skinny on Space Opera Combat. I'm shopping around for an RPG with ship-to-ship combat and GURPS is on the list. How's it run? How knowledgeable do I have to be about the (insanely robust) rest of GURPS to run it? Does it only work with 3E, or does it work fine with 4th? Do I even want to run 4th?
Which damn book do I read first?
>>47937775
>>47937447
>>47937461
>>47937469
After I'm done making the templates I want for the campaign I'm planning,(I'm not happy with the existing fantasy templates in fantasy and dungeon fantasy, I want something smaller and more modular - I'll share when I'm done, maybe someone else will like it, who knows)I may start putting together my own collection of RPM Spells.
>>47937918
>Which book do I Read First?
GURPS Lite, is what I'd suggest, that's the basics of the system.
GURPS Basic Set Characters is the primary Core book, and it's the one you need with pretty much everything.
All the other stuff is optional rules and optional character options the GM picks and chooses to fit their campaign.
For a space opera you may find you will want to look at Ultra Tech 1 & 2 as well, and you *may* want to look at Powers for if you want to design new weird tech or unusual alien abilities.
You could also check out Transhuman Space or GURPS Traveller. GURPS Prime Directive is a thing I've noticed in the Trove, but I dunno if its for 4e.
I'm not super familiar with the spaceshi stuff.
You want GURPS 4e. There's a Trove with all the books >>47932705.
GURPS 4e lacks a normal "vehicles" supplement, but it has space ships. It's stuff like motorcycles and boats that sometimes are a pain to stat up.
I hear in a pinch you can use GURPS 3 Vehicles supplements with 4e, and the conversion work is pretty doable. Haven't tried it yet, I'm pretty new to GURPS myself.
>>47937987
With any luck, one of the other guys can give you more information.
>Space Opera GURPS!
>Wat Options/Books?
>How does Ship Combat Work?
>>47937469
>Ritual: 610 required energy
Is it even possible for normal character? I ran RPM calculator and with ES 30 it took about 50 gathering attempts to collect that much energy.
Then I tried with ES 25 for a few times and target number drops to 0 before I even reach 400 or just critical failure happens.
How much energy can you gain from sacrifice?
>>47938055
I think the sacrifice EP gain is uncapped. You can also blight the land for a fair bit of energy.
Lichdom is solidly into Archmage territory, so it taking a huge degree of preparation, a very good Grimoire and Place of Power is reasonable.
>>47938055
Depending on your GM, he may let you do it like enchanting's slow and sure, method; or you might instead use rules from the Material Magic supplement in Pyramid 66, while allows you to distill mana from valuables such as gemstones or the like, or potentially grabbing mana from enchanted objects (which are destroyed in the process)
As for how much you can get from a sacrifice:
Sapient: Energy equals IQ*(the higher of HT or HP), divided by 5. Your average peasant yields 20 Mana.
If you sacrifice someone with Mana Enhancer (likely a mage), you multiply the end result by their Mana Enhancer rank +1.
So a mage with Mana Enhancer 4, IQ 14, and HP 12, would yield 168 (14*12/5*5).
Find a powerful mage with Enhancer 4 and an IQ of 18 and HP 12? 216. That's a good chunk of the way there.
Sadly, unless your GM is making changes, the cap on sacrifices is you can only use a single sacrifice per spell (what nonsense is that! I want massive cages with hundreds of virgins that get simultaneously meat-grindered to open a permanent mile wide gateway into the abyss!)
And, in addition to what >>47938121 mentioned, A good Grimoire and Place of Power can also be combined with lots of trappings for mana cost reductions before you perform the ritual.
>>47938055
So, assuming skill 22, a +10 Grimoire, a +5 Place of Power, 8 assistants and caster sacrificing HP for 50, 30 internal points, a sacrifice of a fit genius for 40 energy, desecration of the land for another 40ish energy... then it's definitely doable.
Even with a self-written Grimoire for only +5, it's alright.
Easier to just make yourself a lower-order immortal creature first and then augment yourself over time.
>>47938188
Sacrificing a mana enhanced fit genius can net you 216 points, making it VERY doable.
And that's before you start considering extracting mana out of raw materials as suggested in P3-66.
>>47938188
>Easier to just make yourself a lower-order immortal creature first and then augment yourself over time.
This is not how you become new BBEG.
>>47938182
>massive cages with hundreds of virgins that get simultaneously meat-grindered
This, this is absolutely necessary.
>>47938182
>massive cages with hundreds of virgins that get simultaneously meat-grindered to open a permanent mile wide gateway into the abyss!
Someone should build this.
I'd love to see some PCs come across a copy of a ritual that gets mana this way and requires a colossal amount of mana, complete with diagrams and all of the formulae, and either makes a massive instantaneous change or a massive permanent (until dispelled) change. The spell would of course be monumentally difficult to dispel due to the colossal amounts of mana required.
>>47938182
>The cap on sacrifices is you can only use a single sacrifice per spell
(I will most definitely be dropping this cap in my games. I want to have the players be mechanically tempted by lots of human sacrifice.
In fact I might come up with more ways to make them yield more (such as requiring them to be virgins, or holy men, or whatever else might show purity).
(I recently played in a Mongoose Conan RPG that had things like this, and we - as good guys - were often strongly tempted to employ human sacrifice for the huge boost to power it would yield. I like the idea of tempting players to do terrible things).
>>47938249
>This is not how you become new BBEG.
True. The requirements for going all-in are a great plot hook.
>>47938287
Technomancer had something similar - the Soulburner.
It's a massive structure filled with severed heads, kept alive by necromancy and harvested for magical power. Produces a huge amount of power.
Of course, that's for standard spell magic. Would be extremely nasty if the caster had planeshifting magic, as they could easily find a low-tech world and harvest as many souls as they need to fuel Great Wishes.
>>47938328
Oops, I left out the part about how it works.
Each head stores 1 point. It regenerates energy at a rate of 1 point per 10 heads per hour. The canon Soulburner had 501 heads.
>>47938249
Assuming absolutely average (20 mana) virgin sacrifices (and assuming your GM doesn't rule virgins are worth more), but that he WILL let multiple sacrifices be applied to a single ritual, every 100 virgins is 2000 Mana.
If virgins are twice as good a sacrifice as regular people, that's 4000 Mana per 100 virgins.
Now.
31 (perfectly average) human sacrifices provides all the mana needed to become a lich.
What sorts of horrific rituals could you accomplish with 100 (2k mana)!?
>>47937918
There are three different ship-to-ship combat systems in GURPS. The one in Basic (also used in Tales of the Solar Patrol), The one in Spaceships, and the one in Traveller Interstellar Wars.
I've used Basic's system (not with spaceships but with terrestrial vehicles), and Spaceship's system. I've read the Traveller system. Of these three the one in Basic will be most familiar because it is largely the same combat system used by regular characters. The one is Spaceships is quicker and more abstract but has some design problems (insta-death if you're outmatched, missiles and conventional weapons not balanced against each other, etc. See the forums for in-depth discussions). I can't really comment on Traveller's since I haven't used it.
If I wanted more narrative combat I'd use Basic. If I wanted more simulationist I'd try Traveller.
>>47938371
Lich that can exist without filacteria?
Or just grant yourself unkillable 3 (150 x 3 for greater effect, plus some other stuff, then x5 because of those rules of permanent effects earlier, so 2250+ unless you take some limitations) At this point you can comeback every so often, build evil empire and challange some heroes. Forever. Until you get tired of this shit and start doing something else.
>>47938487
If you wanted the ability to grant people magic, like a god, or a demon, how would you make that happen? (I assume it would be using Powers).
A campaign where the pcs become divine powers (perhaps using a ritual with a ton of mana) could be quite neat.
>>47938529
Whoops. Forgot to remove the quote, sorry.
>>47938529
You can grant everything with Affliction. And Magery itself is really cheap advantage.
>RPM Altered Traits
Im kinda much paranoid or it really big way to abuse rpm system?
Like slap on fighters bunch of high damaging one-use IAs
>>47938487
>Unkillable 3
That's a decent use of 100 lives, for sure.
>>47938371
Now I'm thinking about fullmetal alchemist. And about rewatching fullmetal alchemist.
Alchemy: RPM, with custom paths (or one path)? and aspects. Thaumatology skill is renamed alchemy. Everything is cast using a knowledge skill related to what youre trying to do, but there's no actual paths, just alchemy. You can't use alchemy to build a radio if you don't know how radios work. Etc.. Symbol magic variant from p3-66. You don't need a consecrated space, everyone who can use alchemy has adept (space). Incantations are used for stunts like mustangs fire blasts.
You can't use alchemy without magery 0. (The ability to use alchemy can be lost, so presumably not everyone has it).
Maybe also go effect magic instead of mana gathering. Not sure.
Amestris is a very high mana zone, and it also has magic control rituals in place. The people of amestris don't realize they're even channeling energy, it's so abundant (foreign alchemy practitioners channel energy, and not the same kind as the ones in amestris. Channeling energy in amestris is highly unsettling to foreigners)
Philosophers stones (and proto-philosophers stones) are non-regenerating distilled mana batteries from mass human sacrifice.
Homunculi are living philosophers stones with unique abilities, and healing that comes from the philosophers stones they're made of. As a result they effectively have many (but a finite number) of lives, and healing/regrowth/regeneration.
This... would be fairly easy to build from rpm.
Then you'd want to make blunt damage nonlethal, do away with falling damage entirely, and use martial arts options.
TL would be like 8ish? (1920s) For the most part, except for biomechanics (automail) which would be TL 10 or 11.
Did I miss anything? Has this already been done? Is there an FMA fan sourcebook already?
>>47938590
Sorry for the confusion. I meant the divine magic system, not rpm. Like the "pray for spells" system.
>>47938727
These alterations take quite a bit of time and effort, and GM approval to make the spells work anyways. There's enough "ask your GM" built into the spell design rules that I'm not worried about it.
>>47937987
>>47938460
Thanks for the help Anons, I'm digging through that stuff as we speak.
>>47938790
I have a friend I talked to earlier today who is considering a space opera game, and was considering mongoose traveler for it.
Then I told him about how I've been getting into GURPS lately and how it has some cool sci Fi stuff (but I'm looking mostly at the fantasy stuff).
Was that you?
Just the space opera thing making me wonder if this is coincidence.
>>47938765
Alchemy takes FP as well, as repeated alchemy is shown to exhaust the alchemist.
Some alchemists have massive reserves, however, some state alchemist watches serve as amplifiers, and the use of a power source like a philosophers stone bypasses fp entirely.
And those who have seen "the gate" have a template that would yield a bunch of wildcard knowledge skills to a pretty high bonus, an advantage allowing them to skip making a transmutation circle and improvise by circulating energy through themselves, and a big boost to their alchemy skill (which of course still acts as a cap on their transmutations).
>GURPS FMA.
I'd pay good money for that.
>>47938805
Nah, I'm the first guy to look into GURPS in my group. They've been D&D die-hards for a long time but they're open to something different, so I'm shopping around.
>>47938328
Wow, that pic.
>>47938952
Gotcha.
Btw, guys. I added my unofficial GURPS 4e collection to the trove.
There's a decent Witcher book, as well. Only problem I have with it is magic in the Witcher is definitely symbol based rpm, and the fan book isn't using that (it doesn't really cover actual magic at all, unfortunately. But it does have Witcher signs! And Witcher alchemy! And templates! And a sizable bestiary!).
It's very clearly based on the videogames, not the novels, but it's still quite good.
There's also some GURPS star wars stuff, and GURPS Stargate for 3e.
If I come across anything else that seems really cool I will share it as well.
>>47938979
The full one, with the bit I missed.
The Technomancer setting is set in 2000 - by 2014 they had a Mars mission. They're well on their way to a Technomagical Singularity.
Given that they're in the Infinite Worlds setting as well, well... a few big Soulburners could feed an incredible production of magical items and spells.
>>47939148
Yeah, I just never had read about the soulburner.
You forgot the sentient killer penguins and zombie Lenin, that's unforgivable.
If a spell gives -2 to DX and DX-skills does that give a total of -4 to DX skills?
>>47938487
Even with Unkillable 3 I think sooner or later you'd go from getting killed by heroes to sealed in a box buried in geologically stable rock with signs above you that say
"This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. Nothing valued is here.
What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger."
In every lanauge they could think of.
>>47939558
No. You typically only apply a modifier like that once. If a spell gave a bonus to ST, it would affect Basic Lift and Damage but not HP, because HP is it's *own stat*. You follow?
>>47939575
Buried alive? That doesn't sound very heroic.
Anyway, considering we are talking about RPM archmage, it won't be too hard for him to unbury himself.
You'd have better chances to catch him in his incorporeal form and prevent it from reborn somehow. Or maybe hold him unconscious.
>>47939597
But say you get +2 to DX, wouldn't that by default increase all DX skills too while the +2 DX is active?
Here is a creature from Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" novels that is suitably terrifying for a horror-based campaign.
--- --- ---
"Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?”
Lobstrosity
ST: 5 / HP: 4
DX: 10
IQ: 4
HT: 10
Will: 10
Per: 10
Dodge: 8
Move: 4
SM 0; 70 lbs
Attacks: Claw-12 [1d-2 cut], Beak-12 [1d-5 pi+]
Traits: Bloodlust (Only at night); Curious; DR 3; Doesn't Breathe (Gills); Extra Legs (8, Cannot Kick); Horizontal; No FIne Manipulators; Pestilent; Sharp Beak; Sharp Claws; Short Attention Span; Skinny; Striking ST +4 (Claws only); Wild Animal
Skills: Brawling-12
--- --- ---
NOTES: These buggers are tough to scratch due to their solid exoskeleton, but they are easy to hit despite their small size (they're described as being four feet long by one and a half foot wide, but are fairly boxy, so this bumps them from their normal SM of -1 to SM 0) and fairly fragile if you have a decent weapon to fend them off with. When you lack a firearm or even a basic melee weapon...preferably a hammer or mace...and they attack as a pack, though, watch out!
Lobstrosities primarily slash at their prey with their great claws. They only bite when said prey is severely wounded and cannot fight back in close combat. Unless they assess that a foe is a threat, they will almost always choose the All-Out Attack:Strong maneuver. If you move far enough away from the shoreline of the beaches they tumble onto, they will give up their pursuit.
The Pestilent Perk represents the ease with which wounds caused by them can fester and become septic. You can find it in the GURPS Horror supplement.
Characters with Entemophobia roll at -3 upon initially encountering a lobstrosity, thanks to their size, unnatural appearance (even by crustacean standards), and ability to speak in the form of mindlessly repetitive questioning.
>>47939629
I'd imagine they'd anti-magic the shit out of the area to keep the dark lord of evil from just casting a spell. Judging by tropes, this would seal his ass away until future cultist free him, curious archaeologist ignore every warning or some other sufficiently dramatic event frees him to level his terrible revenge.
>>47939673
Yes it would, but it would not add *an extra* +2 to DX-based skills. If you had DX 11, broadsword 13, and Bow 14, that +2 DX would leave you with 13, 15, and 16, respectively, not 13, 17, and 18.
>>47939909
Yes, but the first example used "DX AND DX-based skills" in an explicit manner. Is it simply to imply the skills are affected or are the skills affected both from reduced DX and the specific reduction to skills?
>>47940343
The former.
You can get hit with a spell that gives -4 ST but doesn't affect hit point totals (for example)
The gurps guys are just erring on the side of explicit instruction
>>47937987
Prime Directive in the Trove is 4e.
However, my question, has anyone got/seen a scan of the GURPS Prime Directive 3e? I felt that there was a ton of stuff in that which was not put in 4e (some for obvious reasons, some not) wich was good and useful. I'm thus on the look out for a copy if anyone can steer me in the right direction?
>>47937918
Space is no harder than any other setting; You can build ships with the guidelines in Spaceships(and its various supplements) but the real meat and bones of any game is about what the players are up to, not the ships inthe armada.
Think of designing the ship as less "building a stat block with HP and Acc" and more "Building a setting location" like a town or a keep.
Space opera romanticizes, war, conflict, diplomacy and action into a dramatically appropriate setting(hence the Opera; all the worlds a stage). Make sure the characters are well rounded, the NPCs have personality, and that the world is vibrant and lively. Make the conflict stark and polarized. Make the choices critical, and the plot rich with them. Make the game teem with life
(goddamn the painkillers are kicking in today)
Anon using imbuements (including vehicle imbuements) for ki abilities here, how does this sound for a new imbuement?
Instantaneous Movement
General; DX/VH
Prerequisite: Imbue 3
"You can move locations *instantaneously*, usually through magic or psionic means, but possibly though a sheer burst of impossible speed. On an unmodified roll, move up to one yard away, facing any direction; while not a dramatic distance, this movement is truly instantaneous and cannot be followed by the human eye. You can carry up to Light encumbrance while doing this; excess weight is dropped."
Modifiers: -2 per additional level of encumbrance; if you can handle the weight, you *can* carry along another person. -2 to increase the range to 10 yards, -4 for 100 yards, -6 for 2 miles, -8 for 100 miles, or -10 for 5,000 miles. -2 to move to a location you can't currently see but could still noramlly reach. Cumulative -2 per additional time used in a single turn.
I tried using the same logic behind the Phasing Vehicle imbuement when writing this up: the unmodified roll is about as efective as a 70-point advantage, and the modifiers are worth about 1/20th of the advantage modifier (Phasing Vehicle lets you affect the world while insubstantial at -5, and the Insubstantial advantage has the Affect Substantial enhancement which is worth +100%).
How does it look?
Am I the only one posting from work today? Is everyone off celebrating Brexit or something?
>>47941460
I have nothing useful to contribute, and I'm thinking of something to post to my GURPS blog.
Okay, I feel like an idiot for having to ask this, but:
How the hell do alchemy costs work? Like, how do I read that template? Is the Cost the cost to buy it? The cost in materials to make it? What about the Recipe cost? Is that the cost to get a copy of the recipe, or the cost of the materials that go into the recipe? And if neither of those are he cost to buy the recipe, how much does that cost? Just "Make it up"? A standard skill book? Should recipes with higher default penalties cost more? Is all of this written out somewhere, and I just completely missed it like an idiot?
>>47941457
looks like you put some good thought into it!
Just adding in a technique for some DBZ style "instant transmission"?
>>47941484
When in doubt, After Action Report!
If those are all up to date....worldbuilding!
>>47941491
What template are you referring to?
You seem to be rambling on about something, but what are you actually looking at anon?
>>47941529
The one for Alchemical potions.
Example:
Hatred
Alternative Names: Antipathy,
Nemesis.
The subject hates all that he
normally loves.
Duration: 1 hour.
Form: Any.
Cost: $300/$500.
Recipe: $125; 1 week; defaults to
Alchemy-1.
>>47941544
>>47941529
So, uh, not template as per the typical GURPS usage, I guess, but I don't know any other words that would describe the general basic format thing.
I have read some posts somewhere about removing Per and Will from IQ and I would like to do that because I don't really see the IQ being a direct effect to these two secondary stats. Would it break anything if I lowered the price for IQ?
Putting it at [10] instead of [20] (the cost for Per and Will) makes it extremely cheap to make super efficient wizards with the default magic system and so many skills build on the stat. Is there any benefit to Magery over IQ at that point, aside from prerequisites? (I don't count the faster learning time for Magery as a major benefit compared to IQ also increasing ALL IQ skills.)
>>47941553
>>47941544
Okay, thats a start.
Where did you GET IT FROM ?
>>47941492
Yes indeed, you caught me. Good to hear that there's nothing too wrong with it.
>>47941491
I guess you're talking about the Alchemy chapter at the back of GURPS: Magic?
"Cost" is the retail cost; it's what you pay to buy it from a shop. The two prices listed are the different recommended costs for high- and low-magic settings, respectively.
The cash value listed under "Recipe" is the ingredient cost for brewing your own.
The cost of the formulary is entirely up to the GM. Personally, I'd base it off some multiple of the ingredients cost, maybe x3 to x10 depending on how magical the setting is.
>>47941612
>Where did you GET IT FROM ?
... Any Alchemical formula you find in the books? As far as I've noticed, they all look like that. That particular one I found in the Magic book, though.
>>47941641
I was, thank you. And that's... slightly annoying, about having to make up the formula costs, but hey, at least I know now. Thanks!
>>47941604
I would not lower the price of IQ, as it removes the reason to separate the two at all; one of the reasons to split Per/Will from IQ is that it is so fucking cheap to buy up IQ and then buy Per/Will back down. 20 points per +1 to IQ is still balanced even after divocring it from Per/Will because of the vast majority of very very important skills that are based off of IQ, *especially* in a fantasy setting where high IQ directly leads to vast supernatural might. A good fantasy warrior needs some combination of high ST, DX, and HT, while a good mage needs only IQ; making IQ only 10 points/level makes it incredibly cheap to be a god-tier wizard-genius.
>tl;dr droping IQ to 10/level under any circumstance gives me MAD warrior/SAD wizard vibes something fierce.
>>47941752
I don't think the "buying off Per and Will" is legal by default. I'm pretty sure I read attribute reduction counts towards Disadvantage limits. I had a friend I introduced to some GURPS in a 1-on-1 session and he got very pissed at the notion even if I found IQ was still terribly powerful without Will and Per linked to it.
I do think you might value IQ a bit too high still for a mage. They still need HT, FP, Speed and other factors unless they're always hiding in their towers behind layers of magical protections. While I can agree it might not be the best way to go about it I still don't know if I can fully justify the removed link without any cost reduction.
>>47941841
Speed, I can see, but why HT and FP? Energy Reserve (Magical) help power your spells, and HT just needs to be high enough that you don't die easily, so a couple levels of Hard to Kill.
>>47941883
You also don't want to get knocked out by poison or Afflictions. I didn't think of ER so that's true. They would still want Will and Per slightly higher too because you don't want to be shanked in the vitals from behind. Though I guess if you get a lot of points freed from IQ being so cheap you could have all kinds of countermeasure spells. It turns out making Will and Per separate and keeping IQ at the same cost creates some issues with templates and such, though I think I'd rather have that than keep the stats connected or lower IQ cost.
>>47939758
And then there's a sequel with awful writing!
>>47940707
Sorry bro. Anything I've got for 3e or earlier I've added the trove already.
>>47941841
I think I saw notes about how you should handle that in pyramid alternate GURPS (forget which one).
>>47941460
>Is everyone off celebrating Brexit or something?
More like drowning our sorrows
>>47941841
Even wihtout magic, Will, or Per, IQ is a very powerful attribute. A lot of IQ skills that are vital to adventuring tend to be "all or nothing" and have disasterous consequences on a failure: if you miss in combat, you get to try again, but if you fuck up a knowledge or influence or deduction or navigation or whatever roll, you're seriously boned and not a lot can change that. There are of course similar serious consequences with many DX skills (e.g. don't fuck up Acrobatics when tightrope walking over an active volcano), but most of them either don't penalize you as much on a failure (again, if you miss in combat, that sucks, but you get to try again next round; it's not like a failed Broadsword roll automatically results in you gettings stabbed in the face) or gives you some sort of second chance (the roll to catch yourself comes to mind after a botched Climb/Jump/Acrobatics roll comes to mind).
>>47942287
Would it be that hard to implement something similar for knowledges or the like?
>>47942365
you may be missing the point
Inherently, that how it works.
So therefore, IQ costs what it costs
modify that at your peril
>>47942287
Uh...there are PLENTY of examples where flubbing an attack/defense roll results in your character dead or dying in the next turn.
>>47942438
But it's not automatic the same way a single poor influence roll will fuck over not only you but your entire party.
I'm also talking "regular" failures, not critical failures.
>>47942438
youre misinterpreting the example
he said that DX skills dont go
skill check->fail->die
your thinking of
skill check->fail
next turn something happens to kill me
>>47942397
Oh, sorry. I wasn't making myself clear:
Guy wants to remove perception and will from IQ.
One of the alternate GURPS articles tasks about doing that and moving perception to HT.
I'm not sure where will would be moved. Maybe it could stand its own.
But if you're looking to remove these things from IQ, and you're wanting being the cost down, and you're saying you shouldn't reduce the cost because IQ skill checks are all our nothing affairs whereas other skill checks give you the opportunity to recover from failure, perhaps correcting that poor design decision would also be a good idea.
Honestly though, given how GURPS doesn't really have a fixed size skill list, I'm pretty sure the skills are not factored into the price of attributes.
If some of the skills are problematic, I'd suggest fixing those skills.
>>47941752
Another way to solve the wizard-genius issue is to divorce Magery from IQ, and just have casting based on 10 + Magery. Kromm made that suggestion somewhere on the GURPS forums. I'm sure it also appears in Magic or Thaumatology, too.
>>47942519
>Honestly though, given how GURPS doesn't really have a fixed size skill list, I'm pretty sure the skills are not factored into the price of attributes.
They are, but only in the vaguest sense of "DX and IQ rule 95% of the skills, so they should cost more."
I just came across something that looks pretty damn useful. It's not complete (Author's notes say 44%), but it's a spell compendium for RPM. It's a big collection of regular GURPS Magic Spells, built using RPM. Downside is of course that its an incomplete collection. Upside is I found a thread indicating that the author might pick up on it again soon.
>File (XLSX)
https://mega.nz/#!vsUVFT7B!Vk9EQEHk4-knssQJfbZ1uqWf-iNssjQPv04hbGD5hlc
>Project Thread (Dead, but informative)
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=124196
>Recent thread discussing resumed work on the project.
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=142771
There was also a V1 of the project, which was actually completed. Unfortunately I can't find a working link to download it.
RPM Question:
Normally there are lesser (x1), and greater (x3,x5,x7,x9,...) effects, and the GM just decides if its lesser or greater.
Or: Each Greater Effect adds two to the multiplier.
What about if Normal Strength Effects were a thing?
IE: Each Normal Strength effect adds 1 to the multiplier.
Just for a bit more granularity.
Of course the GM is going to have to decide what qualifies as lesser, normal, or greater.
Speaking of: Does everyone here use the default divide of lesser vs greater, such that anything you can't rationalize away as coincidence is greater, or do you guys ever use something else as the measuring stick for lesser vs greater?
I'm thinking Size & Power of the effect may be the dividing line I want, moreso than overtness. Not sure how to determine where I'll draw the line though. Ideally I'd want something mecvhanical or at least a benchmark I could use as a guideline to decide; but for hte setting I have in mind, I don't really care if you want to shoot lightning from the sky during a storm, or shoot lightning from the sky on a clear sunny day, I care how strong the lightning is and how many targets it hits.
Odd question for GURPSgeneral, but if any of you have roll20 experience:
If Im mapping out a tall tower with several floors, is the best way to represent that with slices of the floors side by side?, or with layered pieces somehow?
>>47943494
>is the best way to represent that with slices of the floors side by side?
Yes, that's the best way.
>>47943494
I'd go with slices, personally. I'd only go with layered pieces if I was gaming with a 3d environment such as terrainlinx or some digital equivalent.
>>47943494
Side by side is the best way. Roll20's a piece of shit so trying to have layers will just make everything awful forever. You could also do separate maps for each floor, with two/three to a map if your tower is very tall.
>>47943494
Definitely side by side. Unless each floor is a huge complex unto its own, have each floor side by side so players can move between them freely.
>>47943566
>>47943560
>>47943553
>>47943528
Huzzah
Obviously the muscle relaxants have gotten to pickling my brain if the answer was this resoundingly obvious
>>47943275
More granularity seems good on paper, but yeah in play it's almost always a hassle to fogure where the line in the sand is supposed to be.
Your general divison is good -- at least, it is the same one I used -- but Thaumatology: RPM gives specific divisions for each Verb+Path working.
Regarding Templates:
Why do templates tell me what the final score is (12, 13, etc), and the cost, rather than telling me how much it modifies things by?
As a random Example, Courtesan, GURPS Fantasy p.214
>DX 11 [20]
In this case, its +1 DX, because I know the Price, and that it starts at 10.
But why do I have to reverse engineer it at all?
That works fine if I only have a single template, but if I'm a dwarven courtesan vampire (or whatever), now I have to reverse engineer all the math.
Am I missing something?
Okay, I asked last thread about ultra-tech armor (and the way to create new armors on the Pyramids), but my socialist government fucked up the internet and I didn't get to see if anyone answered... or asked for more info.
>>47944461
Ultratech itself is notoriously imbalanced, and it's rules are "fucky" at best,
Whats your setting, in general, so we can help you tailor options for your PCs?
>>47944452
nope; thats a known foible of their design choices :(
>>47944461
Last Thread.
>>47887902
Thread Before That
>>47780635
>>47944486
>Ultratech itself is notoriously imbalanced, and it's rules are "fucky" at best,
I'd argue it's more that they go for a specific form of Offense Trumps Defence that isn't appropriate at all for a lot of games, and failed to provide alternate ways of doing it.
It's fine if you want very lethal games, where your battlesuits rely more on their stealth capabilities than their armour.
>>47944503
Ugh. Thats absolutely retarded.
Okay then. At the very least, I will be making it plain as day in my own templates.
Fuck that's dumb. I guess I will be making all my own templates for this campaign, because I plan on mix & matching them.
>>47944486
Traveller, Milieu 1120. So... I was going to use the Pyramid's way of creating armor so that we could have armors for every TL, from 1 to 12. (But mostly 9-11)
>>47944520
Isn't there like a half a chapter dedicated to e-war, stealth and spotting?
>>47944452
In general, occupational templates are seen as the "base" of a character; be you an elf, human, or ayylmao, you are mainly defined by your occupation(al template). In D&D terms, your capabilities are much more defined by your class than your race, and the same is true in GURPS.
Also, 99% of racial or acquired templates *do* use the addative format; The Dwarven and Vampire racial templates should list everything as modifiers, making it easy to make a Dwarven courtesan vampire i.e. Courtesan's ST-10 DX-11 IQ-11 HT-12 attribute lineup becomes ST-19 DX-11 IQ-11 HT-13 with the +1 HT from the Dwarven template (p F107) and +9 ST from the Vampire template (p. F111).
>>47945292
Ah. I see.
So you want to make sure you apply the occupational template first, and then anything that makes changes on top of that.
I'm assuming you can't easily have multiple occupations then, right? (Or you can, but it's a pain). (Assuming you have the points)
Say you've got experience both as a Scout, and as a Hunter, or Scout and Soldier.
>>47945557
So, I'm statting up a bunch of racial templates for a campaign, and looking to existing racial templates for examples.
The "Size" limitation on HP and ST gives a discount for large creatures.
Does it cost extra for small creatures?
If you're a hobbit -2SM, do you pay 20% extra for HP and ST?
>>47945557
Essentially, yes; occupational/"class" templates are going to be the foundation you build your character on.
The easiest approach for template mizing is taking a "main" template and then using the secondary one as "inspiration" for how to spend your additional points. Templates are meant to make creating GURPS characters faster and more focused; if you want to start mixing and matching to meet specific wants, you're better off using various templates for inspiration and just going full point-buy.
However, Dungeon Fantasy, GURPS's answer to D&D, also includes "lenses" or stripped down versions of a main template meant to be added on to another for something akin to multiclassing. For example, say you wanted to build, using the DF templates, a half-elven scout with a smattering of theif abilities; the Scout template gives DX-14, the Half-Elf template gives +1 DX, and the Thief lens for scout gives +1 DX as well, so the character would end up with DX-16 (plus a whole lot more; at that point the character is somewhere around 315 points!)
>>47945780
Nope; ST/HP costs are only affected by SMs greater that 0.
>>47945812
Hmm. Gotcha.
Yeah, for my campaign I'm looking to go faster than full point gen, but more flexible than what I saw in DF.
I now have a better understanding of how that's handled normally, but for this particular campaign I want a more modular approach, with some inspiration drawn from Rolemaster & RQ.
As in there will be several templates involved in making a character.
Race, Environment, Culture, Social Class, Training Package.
The bulk of the points are still going to come from training packages (with race likely being the second biggest consumer of points), but I want to be able to quickly spit out "Tribal Human Hunter from the Mountains" as something that would play differently from "Nomadic Human Hunter from the Desert".
I will have to look at lenses, because it seems like what I want is characters built from an assortment of custom lenses. Much appreciated.
Thus far I've only built Race templates. We'll see what I come up with for the various modular mix & match lenses.
Hello /gurps/. I am new to GURPS but have read all the basic set, and will soon be running an adventure for some friends who will be brand new to GURPS. I tried to take advice from these threads and online, and craft something that would be usable by my players and make GURPS less daunting of a task. If I gave you this PDF, would you be more or less excited about playing GURPS. What would you change?
How would I go about statting up some kind of light sensitivity for darkvision races?
As per D&D, they'd suffer penalties to visual checks and to any kind of aiming or accuracy or dodge checks as their sense are overloaded when in bright lights.
Could be mitigated using quality sunglasses (which would be expensive in a medieval campaign, and a good hit to the face could break the sunglasses).
>>47946043
Sure. That would be helpful.
Some templates & example characters would likely make the process easier for your newbie players. Make it clear that things can be adjusted if they like most of a template but not all of it.
>>47946112
When I looked at templates, it felt like I would need more knowledge of the game to make it work. I was thinking a one-on-one thing so I can ease any fears.
>>47946058
Nevermind. Found it in GURPS Fantasy p. 130
What does the Destiny advantage do? I'm all for flavorful character design but in basic set it doesnt have much of an impact that i'd rather they just start off with a reputation that they would get from the Destiny. Is there any supplements that make it more impactful or add more rules?
>>47946142
Templates may look daunting, but they're literally just collections of stuff you'd be choosing in character creation.
I would suggest looking at existing templates, and trimming down from there.
Race templates and lenses may be less intimidating, as they show you how much the template modifies stuff by rather than presenting you with the new base numbers if you apply it to a 0 point default character.
Open 2 PDFs. Basic Characters, and whatever book has the templates.
For each trait/modifier/whatever, look it up in basic characters. It will explain what it is, what it costs, etc.
Remove the things you dont need, to make smaller templates (since you're starting at such a low point total).
It'll be more work for you, but those templates will make things way easier /AND/ faster, for your players.
If you're feeling generous, include the book name and page number next to any advantages so your players know where to find the rule, rather than having to search for it.
>>47946253
When you say it like that, it definitely seems like a way I could learn more of the system at least.
>>47944678
There is.... kinda of. Mostly just 'invisible ink for your stuff'. I was looking for something more 'average' so that the street grunts might have, while the military goes all clamshell.
>>47946180
Hmm.
How do I give something Darkvision (and no penalties - but no color sense) at illumination -6 or less, but have no darkvision, and penalties at illumination -2 or higher?
>>47946336
Night Vision as a feature would work okay at like -5, but I'd want anything darker than 5 to be penalty-free.
They can see in complete darkness, because magic, I suppose.
Maybe I have to just suck it up and give them both night vision and infravision.
>>47946250
It's incredibly vague, which is why it got switched out in later supplements. Starting with Monster Hunters, most writers treated Destiny as a 5 points/level advantage, with each level giving you a "character point" that can only be spent on buying successes and guiding scenes related to your destiny (see page 347 in Campaigns); they refresh at a rate of 1/session to a max of your Destiny level.
>>47946366
Dark Vision is a thing. BS47.
>>47946366
Dark Vision (Only at -5 or worse, -20%) [20] + however you were going to do penalties for being dazed in bright light.
>>47931206
>gurps asparagus
...what...?
>>47946406
It's in the Archive, if you want it.
You know you do.
>>47945965
Action 4: Specialists has a more pick-and-choose approach. Basically everyone starts with a "base" template that only includes the very minimum everyone *needs* to have to survive. From there, you pick a list of 25-point packages that add on to the base template, such as Detective Work, Criminal Past, Femme Fatale, Electronic Surveillance, or Forensics, to name a random few.
Make a small base occupational template that has all the required disadvantages, recommended advantages, and "good idea" minimums on attributes, then write up a bunch of 25-point lenses players can pick and choose from when building their characters. Some will be races, some will be culture, some will be training, some will be background/lifestyles, and some will just be personality traits.
My group has recently switched to GURPS and I'm looking for a few pointers on how to make a good magic based character. My current character isn't terribly useful, mostly from lack of experience with the system (and not realizing how important casting time is), so I'm considering swapping him out for a new one.
We're not using RPM, but we are using the alternate Ritual Magic system from the Basic Set. So what I'm looking for are any tips you can give me on mage character building, what colleges are useful, etc.
In particular I like battlefield control type spells and debuffs or buffs over straight blasting, but right now I'm just looking to be useful in combat.
>>47948804
Buy an Innate Attack Cutting (Magic -10%) and some other limitations, and some kind of melee capable. So you'll use it as magic missiles... or as a sword/staff if someone gets close. Imagine Dragon Age 3's Knight-Enchanter.
>>47946406
I am more interested in vehicles 2 and monkeys.
>>47948804
What colleges have you learned? Ritual Magic's strength is it *extreme* versatility, so it most comes down to A) building your guy mage-y enough, and B) picking the right college(s). A is a matter of optimization; post what you've got and we'll give suggestions on how to fix it (or what to not do with guy #2). From what I know, Body and Movement colleges are great for B, but I'd wait for someone with more experience using the default magic spells to chime in.
>>47949393
Right now I've got 2 colleges, Air and Mind Control. We only had 200 points to work with, so I decided to focus on the two schools central to the character, and intended to stay back casting debuffs and the occasional lightning bolt. What ended up happening is I took the following spells:
>Lightning
>Mass Sleep
>Charm
>Command
>Body of Air
Once we started playing it became pretty clear that I screwed up. I meant to use Mass Sleep as his primary contribution to combat, but managed to miss the casting time, which was long enough that most of the combat was done with by the time I would have cast it.
Then, looking back over the rules, I realized I don't know the system well enough to actually fix this. The other anon's suggestion of taking Innate Attack and giving it a magic modifier was something I didn't even know you could do.
As far as stats go he's got ST-8 DX-12 IQ-13 HT-11 and then HP-8 WILL-13 PER-13 FP-16.
>>47949756
My personal favourite is Body-Control. It has so many great spells for trolling.
>>47948856
>GM: we use this magic system, read it
>Player: nah, I'm just going to buy Innate Attack and throw fireballs left and right
>>47949912
So? I think Fantasy even says some things are 'Spell-Like' that are better suited to be made as Advantages. He can use them to simulate spells that he created, or are close guarded secrets. My character has the 'magic missile' as something her mother created, and the 'upgraded it' to act like a melee weapon too. We play on banestorm.
Fitting to talk about her here. She's also autistic. A christian autistic necromancer.
>>47949912
Buy the innate attack as an alternate ability on your spellcasting, for 20% cost.
Now you can cast spells, and you have a backup.
Is there a way to do one second missile spells with the magic as skills book?
Way I see it every missile spell takes two turns, Id like to zap shit faster.
>>47949963
In GURPS is autism a Disadvantage, or is there just a Not Autistic advantage and it's an assumption that every character and there player is autistic?
>>47951262
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=68725
More than one.
It would probably actually be like, a metatrait/lens, more focused on the disadvantages than anything, and you would probably have several, but not all traits. For a functioning character that wasn't a shit flinging screeching retard that rocked back and forth. You could still have a useful character even if he was Rainman bad, though.
>>47951035
Compartmentalized Mind (No Mental Separation, -20%; Magic, -10%) is how I've always done it. (and Kromm agrees: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=696171&postcount=55)
You use the compartment to do 1 second of Concentration and you still get your normal maneuver which you use to throw the spell.
>>47946369
That's actually pretty cool, Thanks!
>>47952125
The concept is also somewhat expanded in Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys.
>>47949756
>Mass Sleep
I think this means you have the prerequisites for Mental Stun? In which case, Mental Stun is a great spell. If you're new to GURPS, you might not realise how powerful it is to deny an enemy their defences. You cast Mental Stun, your warriorbro does an All-Out Attack (Strong) and the enemy gets cloven in two. If you can get the mass version of Mental Stun, even better.
And you should ask your GM if you can retroactively switch points out from Mass Sleep to something else.
>From Kromm's blog:
>Another project, this one part of a new series (sort of . . .), made its way through production and is awaiting release. I'm keeping it nameless for your own protection.
>An item that will start another new series (again, sort of . . .) is now through editing and on its way to production.
So what do we think these are? "Sort of" makes me think it's new DF sub-series.
>>47953416
>I'm keeping it nameless for your own protection.
I don't like the sound of it.
>>47953481
Fnord?
>>47953494
Why would you only post an interrogation mark, Anon?
>>47953481
I'm guessing it's a reference to what the series will cover: spies, MIB/XCOM (though probably not, as MH4 covers that already), conspiracy (maybe Cabal?), etc.
Then again there's alwaysVehicles
>>47953886
Cabal makes sense; bringing it from 3e to 4e may count as "sort of new."
>>47955682
I'm really hoping for a Technomancer update.
Cabal would be pretty neat too, but updating it is really easy as it's all just the normal magic - and RPM practically supports it by default.
>>47955791
Ooh Technomancer would be very nice.Still holding out for Vehicles; he's protecting us from the dank memes.
I'm trying to find if there are any range penalties for firing a gun at long ranges. The Range Table on pg 550 of the Basic Set looks like what I'm looking for, but some of the values seem off to me, especially at some of the shorter ranges. Is this the correct table, or is there another one I should be looking at?
>>47956584
It is the correct table. GURPS assumes you use the "aim" maneuver before shooting (meaning you add the gun's acc(uracy) to your skill for the roll, if not more, see B364), usually negating a lot of the range penalties, and fight somewhat close. In more distant engagements you'll usually have a spotter to know the exact distance (another +1), a scope for some more again, etc.
And if shooting for sports, you, as above, aim, know the distance, and have bonuses for shooting in safe environment, with less pressure and stress.
Although there is also pic related.
Then there's this one too:
http://gamingballistic.blogspot.com/2016/02/quick-and-dirty-guns-combat.html
>>47956584
The range penalties are realistic and thus quite harsh. In a combat situation, you'll struggle to consistently hit a person at 100m with a rifle, and that's by design. If you want easier range combat for more videogame-ey gunfights, you can ignore range penalties totally. But make sure you don't let players stack too many positive modifiers for aiming, otherwise it gets ridiculous. Energy weapons in particular have very high accuracy, so I'd advice against ignoring all range penalties in a sci-fi game with prevalent lasers.
Or use the simplified ranges anon this anon >>47956766 shows.
>>47956118
It's the right table. Pic related.
>>47935131
>battlesuit zombies
>>47957094
A good Gunslinger (with a capital "g") ought to be able to fire snapshots at seventy-five plus feet and hit accurately every time.
>>47957638
Especially when he's not being shot at. Or is cinematic. I guess there weren't any good gunslingers in the NY Police in 2006.
Where do I find a list of the different light levels, so I know how bright is what kind of situation?
IE: Moonless night, Full Moon, Overcast, Stormy, Bright and Sunny, etc.
I've successfully created the food mage and he's going really well. I'm beginning to learn the cheese college from http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=510
How strong do you think this college really is?
>>47958696
All that's in Basic is torchlight (or flashlight) and pitch darkness.
Tactical Shooting has some stuff, Mysteries has some stuff, and Powers Enhanced Senses has some stuff. Most if it doesn't agree with the other stuff. Then there's this word of kromm, which is what I use: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=223114
>>47958696
GURPS Basic says Visibility rules are on page 394. (Index, and the darkness spell both mention it).
GURPS Basic of course, only has 336 pages.
>>47958880
No, Characters only has 336 pages; it's counterpart, Campaigns, *starts* on page 337.
The Basic Set is split up very literally between two books because the cost of producing a single 576-page tome of decent quality is hella expensive.
>>47958696
As other anons mentioned, it should be found somewhere in Campaigns. There's also Powers: Enhanced Senses, which goes in to a lot more detail if you need it.
>>47958880
>GURPS Basic of course, only has 336 pages
Characters and Campaigns have continuous numbering. The first page of Campaigns is 338, the last is 575.
>>47959054
>>47959063
Aha!
Thanks guys. I did not realize the numbering was continuous.
I now understand why people who get their GURPS Books printed via Lulu often get the two combined into a single massive book.
So I looked it up, and an explanation for what constitutes different levels of light and the like is completely absent.
Fortunately, someone has already done the work of spelling it all out for me, so I'll be using those rules, since GURPS is markedly absent on the subject.
https://sites.google.com/site/anthonysgurps/lightdark
>>47959236
This guy has a bunch of other GURPS stuff, some of which may prove useful, as well.
>>47931206
Does anyone here have access to whose two posts:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/1936669
https://www.patreon.com/posts/1675366
? I'd love to read them, but I literally don't have a spare dollar, let alone a dollar a month.
Today in GrimWyrd gaming:
>the party held the line against waves of ravenous hordes
>an evil sorceress threw lightning, burned only dwarves, was accused of 'racist targeting'
>drug crazed elves were let loose from a dungeon, held at bay by lightning magic
ALL AT THE SAME TIME
In the aftermath, there were explosions, drug testing, and heavy suspicion of a fountain. Nothing but compliments from the party :D
>>47961042
>suspicion of a fountain
Details?
>>47961042
Sounds neat. Storytime?
>>47959405
Sorry dude. I don't think any of us have this Patreon subscription.
Has anyone tried running GURPS, separating out the attributes into their components entirely?
So, for instance, you wouldn't buy ST, you'd buy Striking ST, Lifting ST, and HP. If something allowed you to default to ST, you would roll either default to striking or lifting ST, as appropriate.
>>47961764
What's the point?
>>47961946
Well, it makes it easier to raise one aspect of the attribute without raising the others, for one.
For another, it allows you to treat it like an advantage and apply alternate abilities on them more easily, so you could (for instance) take an innate unarmed attack power as an alternate ability on Striking ST, to get decent damage on your punches and kicks, in a game where that fits the setting, as suggested here: https://sites.google.com/site/anthonysgurps/balancing-st-vs-innate-attack
As an added bonus, it would also let you more easily have strong willed characters that aren't necessarily smart, or perceptive characters who are again, not smart;
It does it in a straightforward way. If you go to raise something, you're just going to raise that one thing, not a bunch of things that are keyed off of it. If you want to raise those other things, you just buy them individually.
>>47941604
>1. Perception and Will are separate from IQ.
>Both Per and Will are their own attributes. They start at 10, and can be raised or lowered for 5 points/level. IQ is unchanged, at 20 points/level.
>This is a big change, but an important one. As written, if you lower your character's Per and Will, you'll see that IQ (just IQ by itself) costs 10 points/level. Compared to the price of Talents, Magery, and even skills, that's just too little. Now that mental skills cost more per level, it's unbalancing to make IQ cost less.
>In addition, it makes themetic sense for Will and Perception to be divorced from IQ. Intelligence certainly doesn't affect alertness -- look at any animal to see that. And your strength of will isn't related to how smart you are, otherwise nerds would intimidate jocks, not the other way around.
>This does slightly change the cost of building characters, so you'll want to mentally add about 10-15% to the starting character points suggestions in the books.
>(Note that Affliction (Attribute Penalty, IQ) no longer reduces Per and Will. Instead, the Attribute Penalty enhancement may be bought for each at +5% per level. Similarly, Steal Will and Steal Per are +100% enhancements for Leech.)
http://www.mygurps.com/index.php?p=i&a=1h&v=0#houserules
-Jason Levine
He's got several templates for different GURPS lines converted to accomodate this change.
>>47961170
A massive fountain of a snake looms over a pool, water pouring from it's mouth over a carelessly heaped pile of golden treasure.
The savage beastman was somewhat suspicious of that.
>>47963506
>New to GURPS
>People talking attributes and the stuff derived from them.
Aside from skills, what is based off of each attribute?
>ST
Striking
Lifting
HP
>HT
FP
1/2 Basic Speed & Move
>IQ
Per
Will
>DX
1/2 Basic Speed & Move
>Anything else?
>>47963640
Ha. I bet. Bait indeed.
What they gonna do when they reach pyramid 3/100? Will they switch to 4/01 instead?
>>47963943
My understanding is that Pyramid 3/1 is when 4e started.
I *Assume* Pyramid 2/1 was 3e, Pyramid 1/1 was 2e, and they didn't have Pyramid during 1e.
>>47963943
Probably just keep it 3/100; the first issues of volume 3 were just 3/2 and 3/5, not 3/02 and 3/05, so I don't see why that can't just keep it in volume 3 until some large change warrants a fourth volume.
I will, however, have to personally change my filenames to accommodate a third digit and my lazy ass is very unhappy about that.
>>47964007
I think Pyramid used to be more independent; volumes one and two were replete with reviews for other systems and supplements and even some computer games; it wasn't just GURPS: The eZine. Volume 1 ended when they went digital, and Volume 2 ended a few years after 4e launched (I'm guessing that's when they changed hands).
>>47964080
>Volume 2 ended a few years after 4e launched
So, there's a bunch of GURPS 4 stuff in later Pyramid 3 Issues?
Any idea where the GURPS 4 stuff starts?
>>47964141
Well, 4e launched in August of 2004, and Vol.2 lasted until November 2008, so I'd start looking in between those dates. The issues were weekly, so the last... 200 or so issues should include some variety of 4e material
>>47932705
Anybody have the other Share PDF?
Is there a big collection of pre-statted NPCs somewhere that I can steal for a campaign?
>>47964511
Setting? I have a couple fan-made ones, but a list of historically accurate human NPCs for a medieval setting won't help if you're running a space opera game.
Making game about specialist maguses with RPM-system. Like Magicka or ArxFatalis something, but with complex magic.
Need ideas for magic spheres, RPM-default too broad.
>>47967288
You might look at the pathfinder spheres of power rules, or perhaps grab some existing mystical sources.
Chinese zodiac, perhaps, or Western zodiac, or astronomy zodiac (with sepiuchus), or something else. Sub categories if you need more spheres, perhaps.
Does any one have the Weird Word 2 book? I've been looking for it because we are setting up a campaign around that time period and are doing it Hellboy style.
Super confusing skill names time, Perception edition.
GURPS skills don't always have the most intuitive names. Judo and Sumo Wrestling are bad enough, but perception skills can be even worse.
Observation: Holy shit, this skill is broad. By the rules it's used to check out a dangerous or interesting situation for 'tactically significant or concealed' details. It's also used to oppose stealth and camouflage if someone's trying to sneak up on you or ambush you.*
*You can also roll Per with no penalty to spot camouflaged objects and oppose stealth. The apparent advantage is that Per is actively looking around, while Observation can be done casually without alerting anyone.
Search: Is used to check people and objects for hidden items, mostly to examine people for contraband and weapons. It's used by cops, guards and customs agents. Nobody else needs this, as it explicitly only works for items with Hideout modifier +3 or more if you touch someone. Really, nobody but really narrow concepts needs this ever (a body search finds things without it because of the giant mod.) If you MUST be able to spot people carrying guns, it's meh.
Detect Lies: Tell if someone is lying. You get a penalty if you can't see them.
Body Language: Tell if someone is lying. You can't if you can't see them. You can also judge their mood and mindset.
>>47939575
Wouldn't you just suffocate or starve to death then reform outside the box in that case? The heroes would have to do another big ritual to give you Doesn't Eat Or Drink and Doesn't Breathe first.
Where guy who convertin' The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic?
He done it?
>>47964141
A lot of the 3e stuff would still be good for 4th anyway. Such as this thingy.
>>47967288
There's some things along that line here: http://www.ravensnpennies.com/search/label/Ritual%20Path%20Magic
Mainly things like using Higher Purpose to define the speciality.
You could also use the GURPS Magic colleges as seperate Paths. There're lots of examples of what each college does, and there's a partial conversion of the spells somewhere as well.
>>47968212
Detect Lies works whether you can see your target or not. What are you referring to?
I love the GURPS Skill sub-system on the whole, but a certain aspect of it bothers me.
That is to say, there are specific areas of competency that require investment in another Skill which is much broader than what the character would normally be competent in.
Below are some examples.
--- --- --- --- ---
If you want to be good at stabbing foes with your rifle's bayonet, you roll against Spear. This means that someone skilled at wielding an M-16 with M9 bayonet is also equally great with dedicated spears of all kinds.
Ditto for swinging a longarm requiring Two-Handed Axe/Mace. Knowing the best ways to swing that M1 Garand also ensures you'll be just as handy with a sledgehammer or battle axe.
Being skilled at playing dead goes hand-in-hand with the ability to put on a mean Turkish accent or affect a convincing limp.
>>47969598
This is meant to be what skill familiarities are for. If you learned Spear for using a bayonet, using it for an actual spear in formation is at -2. That said, familiarity rules are quite nit-picky and I've never seen anyone apply them generally. I've used them once or twice but more like a difficulty modifier for a rare or unusual item/tool.
>>47969598
Well, actually you can use such things from skills you want, but it AWFULLY point inefficient, when you can be master spearman as side effect to know how to bayonet stabbity stab party in trenches.
>>47969251
Always here, just having major troubles posting lately. I also converted shadow magic from Tome of Magic into Sorcery.
I really like RPM-system, but as much i played with it, it feels like very broad and versatile and with that it buffs PCs up to real powerhouses from where starts much of tough work for GM to keep party immersed as "real" instead of "video gaming facerolling dovahkiins".
>>47969537
>Mainly things like using Higher Purpose to define the speciality.
In scale of standart RPM Paths -- they too broad. But the circumstances of mandatory buying of standard paths with specializations, is felt more cruel than replacing standard paths with mandatory buckets of more specialized paths.
>http://www.ravensnpennies.com
Yeah, i read Christopher time to time. As i can remember, he usually write things with standard RPM Paths.
>use the GURPS Magic colleges as seperate Paths
Yeah, feels right.
>>47967422
>pathfinder spheres of power rules,
Thanks, I'll take a look
>Chinese zodiac, perhaps, or Western zodiac, or astronomy zodiac (with sepiuchus)
Not sure, feels broad.
>>47963640
[q]uaff
>>47969559
Detect Lies gives you a penalty to detecting lies if you can't see someone, as I said. Body Language only lets you tell if people are lying if you can't see them.
Detect Lies isn't a strictly worse Body Language. If you need to be able to judge someone's truthiness from what you know about them and their voice on the phone, it can be vital.
But body language is, for most characters, a much better bet.
>>47970147
>Body Language only lets you tell if people are lying if you can't see them.
If you CAN see them, that is.
>>47970147
>>47970160
>>47968212
Why the hell is Search a skill? Even for GURPs it covers pretty much nothing.
