"How can we get more people playing GURPS?" edition.
Previous thread: >>47973965
>>48049215
Minor nitpick: For Targeted Attacks, you round towards zero (up), not away from it (down). So, for the eye, you take -9/2 = -4.5, round towards 0 for a -4 with a fully bought-up TA attacking the eyes, not -5.
Example that backs me up: TA (Judo Throw/Skull): Defaults to Judo-7; cannot exceed Judo-3. -7/2 = -3.5, round towards zero (up) for -3 (MA68).
>>48049267
>An example combat that covers everything
I know you don't mean everything, but a series of battles that covers different situations would be much better. Attack/defense, wounding modifiers, shock, knockdown, hit locations, etc. are quite a lot to handle for a new player already without bringing in disarming, grappling, range penalties, etc.
>All of that production cost
It'll never happen unless there's a very dedicated set of fans, SJ Games kickstarts it, whatever. I could see a /gurpsgen/ anon doing a solo project where they write a script and have simple animated hexes, but nothing that intense.
>>48049440
http://www.themook.net/rpg/examples/
Is a really good place to start for non-interactive examples. Everyone should at least read the basic ones to get an idea of how things work.
Another quick note to new people: GURPS combat rounds are very small, one second slices. Don't panic if all you can do in a turn is aim a gun, draw a sword or move. I've defiantly seen several people come from D&D and be exceptionally frustrated at how hard it is to move five yards and attack in one turn.
>>48049440
>Minor nitpick
Good catch! Somehow I read "round up" as "round away from 0." Somehow I glossed over the examples in MA.
>>48049663
So. Much. This.
Ideally each player's turn should be as close to the character's turn length as possible. Aim, Evaluate, Feint (rolled for when resolved), Move (especially to and from cover), etc. all go a long way toward this.
Playing with the idea of some half baked house rules to keep healing more simple, or at least less rolls.
Every character gets a Healing Rate stat of 1/10th HP, minimum one, and a Healing Interval that defaults to 24 hours.
Every time your healing interval passes and you don't have lasting FP damage from fatigue, food or water deprivation you recover HP equal to your healing rate and reduce any injuries by your healing rate.
Fast Healer adds 1 to your Healing Rate, Very Fast Healer adds 2.
Regeneration changes your Healing Interval from 24 hours to 12 hours, then to 1 hour, then to 1 minute, then to seconds, ect.
Injuries now have an associated damage value. A crippled arm or leg, for example, is equal to your full HP. It's damage counts down every time you heal. When it hits 0 you roll HT. If you succeed, the injury is healed. If you fail, you add the degree of failure to the damage count on the injury and have to wait until it hits zero again. If you crit fail you have to pick between it being healed wrong, for a physical disadvantage, or outright disabled (again, a physical disadvantage.)
Regrowth now removes the HT roll when recovering from injury and increases the type of injuries you can naturally heal.
Am I missing anything?
>>48049425
>How can we get more people playing GURPS?
This has been discussed ad nauseum. There needs to be an equivalent to the OD&D "red Box". Something that comes with the basic rules, an adventure, and some premade characters. Do that for some generic settings and boom. You're golden.
>>48051169
A decent license would work too. GURPS: ASoIF or GURPS: Fallout basic sets would be a hell of a gateway drug with proper marketing.
>>48051075
>Am I missing anything?
How do you round off healing rate? Core set has you HP recovery * HP / 10, Round Down, minimum one.
Do something about recovery and medical assistance.
I'm the guy asking about print on demand in the last thread.
I'm at a roadblack, anytime I upload the file to Lulu it says it's make it print ready, then it just boots me out and says an error occured.
Am I doing something wrong?
>>48051401
Make sure the pages are all the same size. Lulu can be a prick about that.
>>48051439
I even tried converting it on another site and still it just boots me out
>>48051457
What book and what site?
>>48051514
GURPS - Basic Set (The two books combined) and on Lulu
>>48051457
Don't know what to tell you. I've never had that problem. Maybe there's a forum?
>>48051541
Can you try and see if it works for you right now? I need to know if its a me problem or a lulu problem
>>48051564
Sorry. Can't check from my phone.
>>48049425
Is there a 4e book that has stats or a template for a Satyr or Faun?
How about Lizardfolk, Minotaur, or Ogres?
>>48052061
Dungeon Fantasy 3 has gamey versions of all of those, I believe. It has "Fauns" but no satyrs, Minotaurs, Ogres, Dragon Blooded, and "Lizard Man."
You know what would be kick-ass, but likely isn't ever going to be produced?
A GURPS Basic Game box in the vein of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game, that's what!
There would be three or four different adventures to get one's feet wet with the rules...which would themselves be some combination of GURPS Lite and GURPS Characters/Campaigns that affords many options yet entices the customer to pick up the actual books. I'm thinking Fantasy (gotta have it in today's market), Wild West/Steampunk (something old, but not medieval-era, that *is* adventurer-friendly), Modern (perhaps with supernatural elements?), and Science-Fiction.
>>48052061
Horror and Fantasy have Satyrs, Dungeon Fantasy 3 has Fauns, Lizardmen are in Dragons, Tales of the Solar Patrol, and Banestorm as are Minotaurs and Ogres (both of which are also in Dungeon Fantasy 3)
>>48052169
>>48053161
Thanks, guys!
Anybody have a source for a some undead templates?
Both for the undead templates themselves, and so I can derive a core "type" template that covers the basics of undeath?
>>48053349
And finally, is there somewhere I can find a wide variety of prebuilt powers, either to use or to use as a starting point for building my own?
I'm trying to plan a political intrigue campaign with some friends set in renaissance Italy (around TL4 or 5) where the characters basically do black ops missions for a politician so he can gain more power, which will hopefully end with him reaching highest office. The problem is, I've never DM'd a campaign before in any system and have only really read through the basic set. Can someone give me tips on how to run an engaging and fair campaign and some pitfalls to avoid? Additionally, are there any books or anything specific to political type campaigns that could give me inspiration as to how things like that should be run from a technical aspect? I really appreciate any info you can give me.
>>48053349
There are TONS of "undead" templates in the GURPS Horror supplement.
>Last thread someone asked about innate attacks
Innate attacks scales faster than ST in damage. GURPS usual suggestion to "control" this is to cap innate attack damage to either "ordinary" melee or ranged damage (depending on tech level).
As a general tip, in low tl games, innate attacks should usually require some resource to use, because otherwise they'll push ahead of the norm. In high tl games, guns can usually keep up, and then putting too many resources on innate attacks makes them useless compared to just owning a gun.
>>48052296
You know what would be awesome? GURPS pdfs with ticky boxies next to Advantages and the like. Basically the Trait sorter only intergrated with the book for ease of use.
>>48053769
>ticky boxies next to Advantages
>Trait sorter
What're you talking about? Could you describe it better, or give an example?
>>48052296
I think it's time for /tg/ to get shit done. Anyone want to organize to make a GURPS Lite "game box"?
>>48053450
Thanks, anon! Useful advice.
>>48054161
I wish you the best, but I'm procrastinating on too many projects as is.
I still have my very different d20 fantasy heartbreaker to build (while it would be neat if it made me money, I mostly want it for my own campaigns), two different software tools (one for Pathfinder, and possibly later adding 5e support), and a world building tool, which I intend to be both useful for tabletop gaming, and which I intend to leverage in making a videogame.
Of course in addition to building the materials for the GURPS campaign I want to run, which I'll probably have a hell of a time finding players for.
>>48054161
What do you have in mind? Perhaps a communal effort towards creating the meat of the box's contents* that anyone could print and use for their own purposes?
*Absent the actual box and any potential miniatures, naturally.
>>48054812
It sounds like they're looking for a couple different short 1-off adventures with pregenerated characters, that run off GURPS Lite, designed in a way that they will encourage people to want more options and keep gaming picking up the full rules.
>>48053408
Read "On de Medici's Secret Service" from Pyramid 3-30. Then read Hotspots: Renaissance Florence. Then Wikipedia for detail on the crusades and cities and leaders of your specific date. You'll never hurt for ideas between Wikipedia (or a history book if you like that sort of thing) and Assassin's Creed 2.
That time period (15th century) is *awesome*. There are crusades, warring city-states, invading Ottomans, antipopes, great artists & inventors, gunpowder cannons (and grenades! though the firearms are really for shit), the silk road for the eastern exoticism (gurus, mystics, ninja, kung-fu masters), the massive French army, Dracula (vlad the impaler, the voivode of wallachia))
The Basic set is fine and really all you need. Low-Tech (and maybe Martial Arts) covers all the gear catalog you need (skip the stuff in Basic).
The Reaction Table (Basic, p. 560), and some advantages that give reaction bonuses (try to keep the players from taking anything giving penalties) and social skills (Savoir-Faire, Current Affairs, Area Knowledge, etc.) should go a lot of the rest of the way. For technical though, try not to touch the dice if at all possible (unless one of the players is a socially awkward fa/tg/uy) during social interaction. Role play!
Also, come up with a list of 20 male italian names and 20 female italian names (and another half dozen for each gender for the Ottomans). At least. And refresh the list as the names get used. This goes a *long, long* way towards improvising an NPC on the spot.
The best advice for a new GURPS GM is "Use as few rules as possible! GURPS has a rule for everything, *don't* try to use them all out of the gate!"
Hey guys, what are the essential skills, advantages, and abilities that an adventurer type would need to get by in an Action, Fantasy, Dungeon Fantasy, Low-Tech, or Monster Hunters type campaign?
>>48054871
>Pyramid 3-30
I mean Pyramid 3-10.
>>48054883
Isn't there a list in How to be a GURPS GM? If not then the official forums has a post by the line editor. Google something like "GURPS everyman skills"
>>48054812
Pretty much exactly what >>48054848 said.
I've never been good at making adventures, though. I'd be willing to help with editing, rules, making it into a .pdf that looks halfway decent, etc., basically anything that doesn't require me to be terribly creative.
A completely fan-made supplement for GURPS Lite that uses all (or most) of the rules across a few different adventures set in different TLs would be great, especially if there was an 'under the hood' look at how the challenges, especially combat and characters, was designed.
>>48054955
It would be good to be able to break that out for a one-off to get new people into GURPS.
I do think that part of the problem of GURPS is that there's very little hood, outside of DF and MH. You can see all the engine parts, and that can be overwhelming to newbies.
I feel like the solution to that is making template use more front and center.
I don't know how you'd go about doing that though.
I know that for my next game (and first GURPS game, for players who have never played GURPS) character creation is going to be mix & match lenses sorted by category (with lots of categories, and players picking at least one thing from each), rather than going freeform point buy.
>>48054955
>that uses all (or most) of the rules
Especially if it includes something like Shadowrun's On The Run where rules were spelled out with page references and guidelines for how things can play out ("The team has several options for gaining entry to the concert. Buying Tickets, Bribery, Sneaking, Forgery, Seduction, Strongarm, Unconventional Entry" each point with it's own paragraph on how it works and how to GM it.) On The Run may not be the best but it does a whole lot right for a brand new GM and I don't know of another intro adventure that holds the GM's hand like that one does (I'm fishing for recommendations BTW).
I'm a big fan of teaching someone how to GM. Anyone can learn to play given time and incentive but a GM is likely to become that time and incentive for someone else (after moving I went from being the only GM for a year to being one of three). It's like a pyramid scheme.
>>48055163
>there's very little hood, outside of DF and MH
Perhaps I should have been more clear - Everything will be 'all hood', so to speak. If you're familiar with Savage Worlds, the Deluxe version has five two-page adventures at the end of the book, one of which has four characters already statted out. I'm envisioning something similar, a short adventure (two to four pages at the most) with characters already fully statted out, disads and all. Combats would have pre-made enemies and everything. At the end of the adventure, there would be an extended "Designer's Notes" that detailed how they balanced everything, made the adventure work, what rules they decided to use and why, etc.
>Templates
That'd be the other option to completely pre-made characters. GURPS overall could benefit a lot from a more... legible format for templates. I get headaches whenever I try to read DF's templates, for instance. I'd definitely re-do how the templates are done, or provide an alternative option, or something. What's good for saving space isn't necessarily good for reading.
>First game
Good luck, and I agree with mixing and matching instead of free reign. It'll be a better experience for all.
>>48055282
>Teaching new GMs
Agreed. I have a friend who GMs for me and he's just... it's amazing how even the most simple things can blow right past the average dude, y'know? I'll give On The Run a read-through for inspiration.
>>48054955
>different adventures set in different TLs
Infinite Worlds is ideal for this. Not only different TLs but different adventures could highlight different rules. Kind of like the early campaign missions of most CRPGs.
"On sneak-world you can't use your guns without drawing too much attention. Here's how Stealth and Grappling work and how to combine them for sentry removal." Or "This place is engaged in trench warfare. Here's explosions, shrapnel, and suppressing fire."
>>48055163
Basically, I'm going to combine chargen ideas from several different systems (Rolemaster, RuneQuest, & Shadowrun being the main ones, but I may also add in some ASoIF style house/guild building element) into a single package, under the GURPS system, and drop this alternate character generation method for my players to build legal GURPS characters for my campaign.
Hell, maybe I will submit it to Pyramid when I'm done, too. That could be neat.
>>48055349
Yeah, kindof like that. Though I would very strongly suggest you do your pregens more closer to what they do in deadlands or shadowrun. Each pregen fills exactly one sheet, and has all of the specific rules about the character so you know what you can do.
So if you want to play as "Sister Mary, Demon Slaying Nun with a Holy Shotgun", the GM can literally just pass you that page.
It's a graphic design decision with very important practical implications.
>>48054909
Thanks!
Based on that list I slapped this together.
I'm going to give this to my PCs, in addition to whatever they actually build.
Do you have any suggestions or comments for me?
Player Character
There are some things that are essential skills in this kind of action-heavy campaign. In addition to anything else taken by the players when building their character, all player characters have the following template. All Skills are bought to the “Attribute+0” level. Select options which add up to the total template cost. Any unspent points are lost.
Skills [26]
Nonoptional [14]
Climbing(a)[2]; First Aid(e)[1]; Gesture(e)[1]; Hiking(a)[2]; Holdout(a)[2]; Riding(a)[2]; Stealth(a)[2]; Throwing (a)[2]
Social [1-4]
Choose: Carousing(e)[1], Diplomacy(h)[4], Fast Talk(a)[2], or Interrogation(a)[2];
Perception [1-2]
Choose: Observation(a)[2], Scrounging(e)[1], or Search(a)[2];
Melee [1-2]
Choose: Axe/Mace(a)[2], Broadsword(a)[2], Knife(e)[1], Shortsword(a)[2], or Staff(a)[2];
Ranged [1-2]
Choose: Bow(a)[2], Crossbow(e)[1], Thrown Weapon (one kind)(e)[1];
Unarmed [1-4]
Choose: Boxing(a)[2], Brawling(e)[1], or Karate(h)[4]); Forced Entry(e)[1];
Grappling [2-4]
Choose: Judo(h)[4], Sumo Wrestling(a)[2], or Wrestling(a)[2];
>>48055400
You might want to build your pregens with no name, and one or two choices.
That way if you get two people doubling up on a pregen (it happens) they can at least be slightly different.
>>48055695
That looks pretty good and at least ensures minimal competence in most of the stuff an adventuring hero should be able to do.
I'd drop Search (it's really just for finding keistered stuff), make a note (if the game setting fits) that riding can be swapped with driving, and add climbing (if you can't even haul-ass up a tree you deserve to get eaten by wolves).
Also, since I'm a bad and lazy GM I put 4 points in everything on each template or make everything a multiple of 4 since the costs plateau at +4 per +1 to skill (which might make you think that everyone will take knife instead of broadsword [which covers baseball bats too, BTW] but knives have their own problems (reach, can't parry as well, low damage, etc.) The extra +1 to hit generally isn't worth it.)
>>48055695
>Hicking
Only if traveling time is important and you won't railroad end result anyway.
Same with Riding.
>Holdout
For everyone? From what you named murderhobos will perfectly fir and they don't need holdout.
>Interrogation
>for random adventurer
Meh. Intimidation for tough guys.
>Choose: Observation(a)[2], Scrounging(e)[1], or Search(a)[2];
Observation is the only one that will be actually useful most of the time.
>Melee
>Ranged
>Unarmed
>Grappling
Just let them choose it for themselves, goddamit. They will buy additional skills if they feel they need it.
>>48055695
>>48055816
>>48055833
Sean "Kromm" Punch, the big name in GURPS for mechanics, actually has a pretty solid/concise list for 'essential' adventuring skills (insofar as your standard fantasy game would need): http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=369148&postcount=21
>>48055816
>and add climbing
Oops, didn't see it on your list, ignore this bit.
>>48055855
Yep. Just like I said here: >>48054909. You posted the link though so I'll defer the internet points to you.
>>48055816
Climbing is the first item in the template.
>I put 4 points in everything on each template
Ah. yeah, I'm going to let them move the points around between categories, so long as they pick at least one thing in each category and stay within the point budget.
I've also decided I'm upping the template total value to 30, to give them a bit more wiggle room, and to let them grab 2 things in one category.
>>48055855
That post specifically, is what this template is based on, with slight changes since it will be a fantasy game.
>>48055833
>Only if you won't railroad end result anyway.
I tend to run sandbox games. Don't railroad results. If they have 2 weeks to get something done, and they wasted 12 days travelling because they fucked around or someone built an incompetent character, they have 2 days left or miss their chance, and then them missing their chance is part of the story.
>Holdout for everyone?
How does that not make sense for a group of wandering adventurers/mercenaries?
>Interrogation
You'll note there were several other social skills in that category. They have to take at least one of them.
>Observation is the useful one
Yeah, I figured. Search could be handy occasionally though.
>Having a bare minimum combat competence for adventurers in a variety of areas is bad!
YMMV obviously, but this is going to be for a somewhat dungeon fantasy type game centered on adventuring, guilds, and factions. They're gonna fight, giving them *SOME* fight skills for free on top of what they pay for with their 250 (or whatever my campaign point total ends up being) doesn't seem so terrible to me.
I thought Mana would solve my problems, turns out it exacerbated them, any tips on adapting Vancian casting?
>>48056288
I'll need some more information to deduce what is going on here. What kind of campaign? What kind of characters? What is it that made everything worse?
>>48056288
Use Sorcery with various levels of Limited Use required.
>>48056288
>adapting Vancian casting
Unless you are literally doing a The Dying Earth setting, why?
If you must, the easy way is Sorcery, Modular Abilities with Limited Use and Requires Preparation. They can slot spells by "level" (cost) as desired, but forget them when casting and must relearn them in order to cast them again.
It's going to be work. There's another RPG they used to publish that had a lot of flaws but went all in on Jack Vance style wizards you might just want to use instead. I forget what it's called, but it came out in the 70's and stayed in print a long time so you should be able to get the books cheap.
Gurps Infinite Worlds: What would be the best POD for "France is the bad guy of World War 2"?
>>48056607
That's just normal homeline Earth.
>>48055816
Search really dose almost nothing. In the last thread someone figured out if cut off someone's clothes they can't hide anything larger then a freckle from a pat down and if you are sick enough for a body cavity search you automatically find everything without needing to roll search.
>>48056606
To be fair even with pretty rudimentary knowledge It's incredibly easy to make spellcasting essentially free, Vancian casting stops that dead.
>>48056288
>What were your problems
>what gurps magic system were you using
>How did it exacerbate them?
>Why do you want to go to Cancun, specifically, rather than picking one of the several existing gurps magic systems?
If you're dead set on vancian, you could
>>48056579 base it on sorcery with some homebrewing or you could build it using powers and alternate powers.
>>48056640
How is that?
>>48056639
Wouldn't you also use search to search a room for hidden doors and whatnot?
>>48056655
Hidden door's actually use Observation or Traps, according to DF. Search is near exclusively about frisking dudes and rolling corpses. I think it's also used to quickly get something from a packed container?
>>48056579
I remember someone talking about a spells/day system a long time ago (I think it was for Dark Souls?). IIRC, they had a variety of spell effects, all of which were Follow-Ups to a no-wounding guided pi- attack. That might be the best way to tackle spells/day with a system as broad and maleable as Sorcery; all spells have Follow-Up and the carrying "attack" is divorced from the Sorcery system of Modular Abilities and learned spells.
>>48056607
Hitler was a francophone?
Or DuGaulle was a Facist?
Or ww1 reparations go too far and France carved up Germany hardcore.
The league of nations didnt disband, and France takes the helm?
>>48056288
Use Ritual Path Magic, only allow them to cast spells by preparing charms beforehand.
>>48056607
Random fascist/military coup.
That's like super plausible and these people were a problem until like the 80s.
You could go with Action Française not being condemned by the Pope in 1926 for whatever reason you want. They lost a lot of their people then, because many were religious people who joined AF to oppose the secular government. Maybe it'd be enough for them to gather enough power or seize it later.
>>48057150
And that too. If AF gets its way after WW1, they'd have asked for a complete dismantlement of Germany and their partition into several german states. No doubt they'd end up trying to gobble a few later and start shit, or maybe they'd join Hitler (though they hated him IRL, since they wanted a weak Germany, and no war) in a war against communism, and then backstab Hitler and destroy Germany then. Hilariously enough, at the time they basically hated the jews as much as nazis, but refused any association, IIRC.
>>48056639
Hence the reason I recommended to drop it.
>>48057157
Actually, if you just ban Ritual Adept, the penalties will add up to making "improvised" spells incredibly fucking hard and *exceptionally risky* for even archmagi while still technically possible. I've always liked it when wizards can try suicidal 11th-hour shit like that.
Also, hanging spells > charms. I love coming up with fun triggers for my hanging spells, and it's closer to vancian preparation anyway.
>>48056607
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Pétain
This guy was the leader of Vichy France after Hitler occupied the north, and they've got quite a story to them already. I'm sure it wouldn't be too far outside the realm of possibility to just make Vichy France form naturally and kick off WW2 with this guy as French Hitler instead of being a result of Germans.
Are there any rules to determines how easily a firearm remains/drops out when it's tucked into one's pants or even simply held fast through one's own belt?
The character in question will be running and climbing, so it is of some importance to determine if they lose their weapon.
>>48061947
Read up on high tech. It's very unrealistic to store a gun in your pants. There's even a perk to defy reality and keep it there.
>>48062338
That entry makes mention of it potentially firing, but not whether it will remain in the impromptu "holster" at all for any appreciable length of time.
Also, the PC doesn't have either the Unluckiness or Cursed Disadvantages, so those are a non-factor.
>>48056607
>>48057150
Wouldn't it make more sense for a Mosley's Fascist Britain being allied with the Axis? France prior to World War 2 was politically mild and stable; the communists divided themselves into irrelevancy and the conservatives were to busy publishing journals to care about militarization.
>>48062492
I'd say an insecure weapon, be it put into a pocket, a handbag or waistband, falls out on failed DX roll if you perform any action more vigorous then walking.
You can secure it to prevent this with a tight belt, bit of rope, lots of tape or staples. If you do so I'd forgo the DX roll, but require 5 seconds to free it from it's binding and ready it.
>>48049425
I'm looking at GURPS for the first time and the rules for combat require HT checks to not die or to remain conscious.
If a character has a HT of 18, are they pretty much unable to die or be knocked out until they have -5 times HP?
>>48066780
You always fail on a 17 and an 18, regardless of circumstances. You do however only fail about 1% of the time if your HT is 16 or above, until modifiers bring it below that point.
>>48066807
Oh yeah, the automatic fail. I guess that's also a very high level too?
>>48066923
Like I said, it applies to a roll of 17 or 18, always. It could go away if you have some really special Cosmic rule that would likely cost a ton of points, but generally that wouldn't be a good idea to put on HT rolls to survive.
>>48066780
Yeah, 16 HT is sort of unrealistic and quite powerful, but even then you can only keep performing vigerous action for a couple minutes at negative HP before you pass out.
It's likely to take someone finishing the job with a point blank headshot or other excution to finish you, but you DID spend 60 points on HT. For the same investment you could be killable only with blessed silver or fire.
![GRr4Frx%255B1%255D[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/klDJ2I3.png "GRr4Frx%255B1%255D[1].png")
Here's a graph that I made that shows whether it is better to increase HT or HP if we are solely speaking to the maximum amount of damage one can take before dying... HT up to 14 before any HP is the best investment, and then after that it gets a little murky.
Gurps vehicles when?
>>48069389
When you write it for yourself. People have been nagging them for GURPS vehicles for a decade.
>>48069562
If you do, please base it on space ships.
>Sourcebooks that don't exist, and shouldn't
>>48071101
GURPS WW1
GURPS Vehicles
GURPS Mehca
GURPS Ultra-Tech 2: Better Edition
GURPS Wild West
GURPS GURPS
>>48071155
Vehicles would be good, but it doesn't need a big book.
Just give me a concrete way to adapt vehicles built as characters into a cost, and some vehicle creature templates to make things easier.
You could do it in like 10 pages.
Likewise for mecha.
And weapons and other gear for that matter.
Just give me some concrete guidelines for converting characters or templates to equipment, and give me some sample template pieces, and I'll run with it.
What's good about this system? Would it be good for a magical school role play?
>>48071621
Almost everything. Yes.
>>48071621
Nothing really. Nah.
>>48071621
Meh, it's okay.
>>48071155
Those all sounds like good books.
Though I doubt they'd make a Wild West book since there's already one for 3e and there aren't much rules in it, it's mostly fluff.
>>48049425
Someone in the last thread asked about modifying RPM so you need to research & learn your spells first.
http://www.ravensnpennies.com/2014/04/gurps101-beginners-ritual-path-magic.html#.V3d0YCMrLmE
I'll be employing this in my next campaign.
>>48071155
>books that shouldn't exist
>GURPS Vehicles
>GURPS Ultra-Tech 2: Better Edition
Anon, no, those are the ones we want!
>>48071744
Please specifics?
>>48071573
That sounds worthy of brewing, and like a fairly simple approach. After all, you can typically build *Anything* in Gurps, right?
>Build existing equipment as templates that yield a single power, or as a character.
>See Point Totals.
>Compare to Costs in Book.
>Collect Examples in Excel.
>Determine an averaged out Points:Cost ratio, as well as how much things deviate from that.
>Come up with some piecemeal built power/advantage templates you can build new weapons/vehicles with, based on the ones that exist.
>Release to anons, or publish in pyramid.
>People use these rules to build new collections of stuff. That stuff gets posted online or in pyramid.
>Better for everyone!
It would take some time in front of a spreadsheet, and building a pretty decent collection of stuff as powers and characters, though, since I'm sure the GURPS guys just guessed and made shit up, or looked at real world data rather than building it modularly.
Personally, I want a decent collection of converted equipment for "GURPS Shadowrun", and "GURPS Star Wars", and "GURPS Halo", and "GURPS Mass Effect".
That would cover all of my ultra tech needs quite nicely.
How crippling exactly is the Cursed disadvantage? I know that it's heavily dependent on the GM and obviously pretty awful given how many points it gives you, but does anyone have any experience with it in practice?
I'm wondering because one of my players picked it and I need to know a general metric for how badly I should fuck this guy over.
>>48071621
>"What's good about this system"
Short of rules for building custom equipment and vehicles (which you kindof have to fudge), GURPS can do anything.
>What do you mean?
GURPS is the LEGO of RPG Systems. If what you want to do is not a kit you can buy off the shelf already made (like most other RPGs), all the component parts exist so you can combine them together and build the ruleset you want.
>Would it be good for a magical school roleplay
GURPS has rules for building children as characters.
GURPS has several different magic systems, depending on what you're looking for, and several guides for customizing them.
GURPS has a book for designing superpowers.
GURPS has lots of rules for expanding combat to make it more interesting.
It's the only game I've seen that you can tweak the options so it can handle running Fullmetal Alchemist (Adjusted Ritual Path Magic) OR Avatar the Last Airbender//Legend of Korra (Chinese Elemental Magic) OR Naruto (Powers, Maybe Sorcery).
You could also easily use it to run a historical game. Or (slightly less easily but still doable) an elder scrolls game.
It will run whatever you want, but there will be more up front GM work before you start your campaign if its not a published setting for GURPS, selecting options, building the things you want using the existing materials.
Of course, once you're set up for ONE Fullmetal Alchemist campaign, you're set up for ALL fullmetal alchemist campaigns you might want in the future, and (If you share it) other people are also set up for it.
You could probably build a Nasuverse campaign too, but I don't know enough about the setting to tell you what to use.
I do suspect it would struggle with something really high powered like DBZ/BLEACH/Avengers/Justice League, but maybe not.
Honestly, I don't know why there aren't more fan made campaign guides for GURPS 4e, given how long it's been out.
>>48072499
And unlike many other RPGs where you're just homebrewing and guessing, in GURPS you're building it with published pieces which already fit together, and you typically only build the stuff you need.
>>48072499
A Nasuverse campaign wouldn't be difficult at all, In fact the magic is near identical to the GURPS default.
>>48072487
Oh, a few weeks back another anon shared his experience with cursed. It ended up getting him drowned. In a desert campaign.
My personal recommendation: Have something happen about once per session that screws him over. It should be something bigger than a minor annoyance (minor loss of coin/health), but more something that greatly complicates something previously simple. Don't aim to kill him, but it could occasionally be a possibility. It could sometimes be stuff that affects other party members too, but it should always hit the cursed guy the worst.
Examples:
Hard-to-replace gear lost or broken
Sudden ambush
Circumstances beyond the players control slows him down/hinders him at a critical moment
Help suddenly unavailable (eg. doctor being out of just the medicine the PC needs.)
>>48068070
This works out pretty much how you'd think, but dose have interesting data. From a pure survival standpoint your best is to improve your roll to avoid death (HT based, but modified by Fit and Hard to Kill) rather then buy more HP. At 14, and to a far greater extent at 15-16 you no longer get much, or any benefit from buffing the roll.
This makes Hard to Kill better then HP in this case. But there are other cases to consider, as HP dose things that aren't just surviving a giant amount of damage.
More HP doesn't just increase the amount of raw abuse needed to kill you, it increases the amount of damage you take before you feel it. More HP increases the thresholds to cripple a limb or extremity and how much you can take before you start having to roll HT every second to keep from passing out. In extreme cases it also increases the speed you recover from injury.
The basic lesson here? Everyone should try to snag Hard to Kill 2 and Fit if their character concept and points allow. They massively reduce the chances you will die until the 'magic number' of instant death.
>>48073008
You can always just have things happen out of the blue too. A floor giving out under his step, a sign falling just as he walks by or a shelf tipping over to fall on him or a candle tipping over and catching his bed on fire.
Gives him a good chance to try out those dodge rules, maybe paired with observation to spot threats before it's too late.
>>48073099
Realy, a good way to do things would be to just look at serenipidity and think "but what would be the opposite of that?"
>>48072499
>Would it be good for a magical school roleplay
Plus, GURPS has a book that covers this more or less (Social Engineering: Back to School -- But you don't want to use all the fiddly bits from it, just skim through it for fluff).
>>48072499
It seems cool but also stressful and complicated and expensive to find out what you need. There is no just basic rules.
How do you build or price something that gives a bonus to the effective skill of a roll, without knowing what skill level the one benefiting from the bonus has?
Is this spelled out clearly in powers?
>>48073471
>No basic rules
Gurps lite?
Gurps basic: characters?
I don't understand what you mean.
>Stressful, complicated, and expensive
There's a link to all the books in the op. Doesn't get cheaper than free.
Stressful/complicated: so don't go in depth tweaking until everything is "just perfect" and go with options that just get the job done instead?
I imagine if you could tell people what your looking for, they could tell you which options to use.
You could get by with just gurps basic, but it tends take some work building stuff.
You might get what you want using just gurps monster hunters and making your pcs play as children.
There's lots of ways approach things, depending on how in depth you want to go customizing things.
>>48073526
Are those the only two basic ones I need to read, besides the ones needed for the game customization?
>>48073536
No, you only need Lite. The two books of the Basic Set are the next step up.
>>48073536
>GURPS lite
covers the core mechanics. It's free, and not many pages. It's an intro to gurps.
>GURPS basic set: characters
includes everything in gurps lite, but is part of the full game.
Gives you everything you need to build basic characters, a default magic system, some basic super power rules, etc.
>GURPS basic set: campaigns
is the GM mechanics.
That's all you *need*.
People would have suggestions beyond that things to make your game better, but but that covers everything you would really need to build humans, possibly with minor powers, and a basic magic system to boot.
If you're gming you may want to read to be a gurps GM or gurps for dummies, but it's not strictly necessary.
>>48073568
This.
Basic set is gurps lite with a ton more character options and more guidelines for the GM.
>>48073606
>>48073536
In gurps you never include everything.
You'll basically always include the stuff gurps lite, and then you add on the extra options you want for your campaign as needed.
And over time you'll find options you like options that you'll start to include in your games by default. For instance, some people always play with the martial arts rules turned on. Powers is also pretty useful for the GM in how many things it can be used for.
Is Gurps bad for a first time DM
I've been using GCS, but I'm not happy with the layout of the sheet it gives. Is there some simple method of extracting the data from it and having it input into a different layout?
Also, I want to make a sheet to track injuries, fatigue, etc. for each PC. Anyone know some good icons to represent hit points, fatigue, death checks and so on? I was thinking maybe smiley faces with various levels of injury for damage and hearts for fatigue...
>>48073758
It worked out pretty well for me. That said, there's a difference between merely being a first time GM and also being new to RPGs in general, which one is it?
>>48074130
What are you exporting to? I know there's an .html layout in the files somewhere, if you edit that, you can tweak every sheet output.
>>48074130
You can make alternative html template to print out character. Otherwise, no, it only looks like editable html, actual gui is just customized awt/swing controls.
>>48074230
>What are you exporting to?
I was planning to use LibreOffice, since that's my go-to document tool, but I'd be willing to use pretty much anything which lets me end up with a nice-looking printable document with my choice of fields.
I'll have a play with the html options and see what that can do...
>>48074130
The gcs files are pretty simple xml, it's not difficult to write a program that can ingest the file and output whatever format you want.
>>48074179
I've never played before and neither has anyone else in my group
>>48073471
Where all the complications and extra rules for GURPS really shines is in that point with other systems that you find something that isn't covered and need to make up a house rule to cover it. With GURPS you look up what the rule for that thing already is. Keep it simple and use the bare minimum until your game *needs* more.
The other place GURPS excels is when you play more than one genre. You don't have to learn a new and potentially complicated set of rules when your group switches from werewolves and vampires to future-tech space opera. Or from modern spy movie action to ninjas and samurai in Edo period Japan.
You can do all of that pretty well with Lite. You can do it very well with Characters and Campaigns. You can do it very well and have an easier time of it if you add other books appropriate to what you're doing at the moment.
>>48074865
>>48073758
Well, what are you planning on running? It's never 'bad', but it might mean more work than other systems. If you're not running something that has extensive material out already, then it's going to be a bit more complicated for you, the GM. It's not more difficult by any means, but GURPS expects you to use it like a toolbox, with which you can create your perfect campaign, and this usually means more work for the GM. But once that work is done, you have the system tailored to your needs, fit to run and feel like you want it to. If you're not willing to put in all the work, GURPS Lite and the Basic Set work right out of the box, it's just gonna feel a bit generic, or incomplete.
The most complete lines are Monster Hunter (urban fantasy) and Dungeon Fantasy (classic dungeon delving), and these are criminally easy to run and play in GURPS because so much of the work is already done for you in their respective books, from templates, to races, to monsters, to GM advice. You practically only need to think up the campaign itself, since there are GURPS setting books like Banestorm, or Infinite Worlds (which is full of setting ideas in itself).
>>48071155
>GURPS WW1
If it stands for Weird War 1, I disagree
Made a start on icons for a health tracker sheet. I was hoping to fit all the injury rules on one page together with HP and FP trackers, but it might be a bit crowded.
"A Matter of Inches," a textbox from Martial Arts that goes into extra detail for those that want it, gives unarmed strikes +2 for cascading waits and stop hits, but +0 for making/resisting feints or adjusting the parry penalty. Anyone know why? It makes sense to me that, if wielding a light weapon (in relation to the wielder's ST) makes parries and feints easier, unarmed should also get this bonus.
At the end of the day I can always just change it, but I want to know what that's the default in the first place.
My players want to build a fortified base. Does anyone know where all the rules for building walls, fences, etc. are? I've found the ones in Low-Tech Companion 3, but I'm sure there are others...
Soon to be GURPS DM here, having an issue. My players will be doing a no-magic low fantasy kind of game. They're going to be fighting knights and bandits and just regular old infantry at some point. How do I come up with combat for that? Mainly the enemies "stats"? Do I make character sheets for every enemy, even the lowly grunts? Or is there a streamline way? Should I just give the grunts basic stuff like "shortsword 10" and such or...?
>>48078846
>Should I just give the grunts basic stuff like "shortsword 10" and such or...?
Yes. You don't need points and sheets.
Look at the PC's average main fighting values (damage of best/most used weapon, DR, best/main fighting skill) and give lower than that to most your NPCs. Of course mooks'd have much less, while elites would have as much as PCs, or even more.
I'm guessing you also won't get all that too high due to it being low fantasy and no magic, but remember that you can just add more of the enemies if they're weak. Fifty weak mooks that hit once in a blue moon are guaranteed to ruin any group of PCs. And if you go there, I'd suggest using the alternate Tactics rules. Whichever side wins a quick contest of Tactics vs Tactics gets to position its "units" however they wish and gets the margin of success as rerolls (like luck, kind of). Can't remember which Pyramid that's from, sorry. That'd make big fights less of a mess and more fun.
>>48078846
You can get away with just attributes and the most important skills and traits for almost all NPCs. If you are in a hurry, assume they have no notable advantages and disadvantages, all attributes at 10 and relevant skills at 12 or so; that's pretty much an average person. Don't bother to calculate points.
What might be more hassle than character traits is their equipment. It's easy to give random NPCs stuff which is worth way more than you expect them to own if you aren't familiar with how much stuff is worth in GURPS. Use Cheap quality swords and armour for most commoners.
>>48078927
>>48078966
Thanks guys.
>>48078161
OK, looking at the LTC3 rules, they seem rather harsh. A 1" thick cheap wooden palisade is $6.20 per square foot. A carpenter earns $790 per month, so a work team headed by a carpenter generates $434.50 of wooden wall per month per person. With the 4 characters in the group, that means they make about 280 square feet of pallisade in a month. If it's five feet tall, it's only 56 feet long, enough to make a square enclosure 14 feet per side. That seems kind of pathetic for a four-man team working for a month. My players seemed to think that would be a viable construction to throw up in a day or two and that didn't seem unreasonable to me.
I guess I could increase production rate for high skill; they have two carpenters with skill 17 and 15 and a combat engineer with skill 15. That seems like it would be good for maybe double the rate of ordinary workers.
They are TL 8, so I could calculate their wages as $2,600 instead, but they don't have many power tools and no modern construction equipment, so that seems kind of wrong.
Is there a list of all the poorly-named traits?
>Honesty doesn't prevent you from lying
>Unkillable 1 doesn't prevent you from being killed
>>48078161
There's also stuff in Supers and a Pyramid article. I can't remember which though.
>>48079292
You are right, that seems pretty wrong.
It treats a palisade as a finished product. Let's instead treat it as a way to store raw material.
Most of the $6.20 per square foot of the cost then comes from the 12" logs used in the construction. The majority of the production time required is to cut and process them then move them to a site. I'd allow a 2 man team to harvest enough wood for a 10' by 5 ' palisade section an hour given a woodlot with appropriately sized trees available.
I'd let a two man team to knock together the wall at a rate of 6' an hour, up to 10' tall. (Taller then that and the awkward weight and size of the logs would slow them down).
Unless the palisade is simply lashed together with rope they will need a carpenter and tools to auger and peg the logs.
A person working alone would triple the time needed or worse. This isn't a one man job, there are too many parts where handleing the heavy logs and keeping them in place while they are secured requires four hands.
>>48079412
>Oblivious vs Incurious
>Revulsion Vs. Weakness Vs Vulnerability
>Neutered Vs. Innumerate Vs. Missing Digit
>>48078161
A more rules-light system is using GURPS's favorite rules for building shit: spaceships. A "spaceship" lacking in a propulsion system or power plant is effectively a building. Fill the 20 system slots with appropriate systems like quarters, open areas, storage, and specialized things like workshops/"factories" and labs depending on focus and TL. If you go down this route, check Spaceships 7 for low-tech materials (like stone) and variant rules (e.g. removing standard space things like life support and automated systems; this not only makes the base more base-like, it also cuts costs dramatically).
>>48079908
If your "fortified base" doesn't have a power plant and somewhere to grow food it isn't really suitable as a "fortified base" senpai.
>>48080002
If what you're building is, like, a medieval castle or something equivalent, then having a power plant would be slightly weird, wouldn't it?
If I wanted social combat in let's say a court room or something, would Social Engineering provide me with what I need?
>>48080052
They often had a horsemill or/and watermill.
>>48080002
>>48080052
As it happens, their base will have a very small power plant with solar panels and a methane fuel cell. Technically it will also have a spaceship control room, since the initial building is made from a TL9 re-entry vehicle.
Image is a local life-form they are keen to keep out of their compound.
>>48054161
>>ticky boxies next to Advantages
>>Trait sorter
>What're you talking about? Could you describe it better, or give an example?
Okay, this is the trait sorter
http://www.sjgames.com/gameaids/gurps/sorter/
That's a shitton of stuff, and you read it and go, ehhh, shit, what exactly does that one do again? Which book was it in?
Now then.
Imagine getting ready for a game.going through the Basic set, picking out shit that you'd allow. Getting to read the advantages and disadvantages fully--how much bonus does that give and to what, again? And if it's cool? There's a ticky box right next to each entry.
Ticky boxes next to special rules, so as you read them you can hit the ticky box next to each one you're going to try out.
And then hit a button and it puts together a PDF of what you tickyboxed, either to read or print out, so you don't have to look in the book each time.
It would make set up for me hella easier, citations on hand.
>>48051169
A thought on the premade adventures: something that shows off how flexible the system is:
Uncontrolled Jumper with Trigger.
Get Amulet from the mystic cave, or in the high tech vault, and suddenly a jumper. Drag the character to other worlds/times/genres in a semi choose your own adventure.
>>48080091
Probably yes, depending on exactly how combat-like you want your social combat to be.
>>48078846
>>48078966
Here's some example stat blocks I'v used.
Battle Thrall
HP 10, DR 0, FP 10, Will 10, Per 8
Move 6, Speed 5, Dodge 8, Parry (unarmed) 9
HT 10, ST 10, DX 10, IQ 8
Claws: SL 12, Damage 1d-2 cut
Bound to Darkness, Bloodlust (9), Moral (10)
The lowest of the servants of the darkness, dressed in little more then rags and without weapons. Dispatch them quickly to keep them from overwhelming you and to break their shaky moral, if not led by a more powerful creature.
Axe Thrall
HP 12, DR 2, FP 10, Will 10, Per 8
Move 5, Speed 5, Dodge 8, Parry (Axe) 9U
HT 10, ST 10, DX 10, IQ 8
Cheap Axe: SL 12, Damage 1d+2 cut
Claws: SL 12, Damage 1d-2 cut
Bound to Darkness, Bloodlust (9), Bully (9), Moral (12)
Leather Armor. DR 0 on Neck and Eyes
Thralls that have survived long enough may earn weapons and training to use them. The crude and brutal axes they use and their bloodstained leather armor sets them apart and most delight in brutalizing those weaker then themselves. After striking their axe is useless for defense.
Battle Shield Veteran
HP 12, DR 4, FP 12, Will 14, Per 12
Move 5, Speed 6, Dodge 10, Parry (Axe) 13U, Block 13
HT 12, ST 12, DX 12, IQ 10
Axe: SL 14, Damage 1d+4 cut
Claws: SL 14, Damage 1d-1 cut
Bound to Darkness, Bloodlust (9), Moral (14), Combat Reflexes (+2 init/+1 group)
Chain armor. DR 0 on Neck and Eyes. Flexible, Medium Shield
Massive, hulking figures in heavy armor, carrying dark shields marked with the heraldry of their Master. Such creatures are thankfully rare but should be avoided if found in numbers or targeted first. Don't expect a fast fight, they defend themselves far more capably then mere thralls and are unlikely to be baited into distraction or driven into retreat by fear.
>>48080179
>Thrall
Okay, that's easy enough
>Axe Thrall
Creative name you've got there. Still okay. Dangerous
>Battle Shield Veteran
Holy shit, that escalated quickly. Players might get a little fucked up at going from a mean drunk at a biker bar to HIGH OCTANE RAPE MACHINE.
>>48079292
>>48079584
Going by the basic set digging rates, a three-man team should be able to dig almost 100 cf of ordinary soil per hour. In LTC3 piled earth is $0.25 per cf, which means the three man team are generating nearly $25, or about $8 each, per hour. I guess just digging and piling earth is 'struggling' work (so $400 per month) which implies labourers only do about 50 hours work per month.
I think the prices and times in LTC3 should be assumed to be fairly well built stuff with some effort wasted transporting materials to site, overhead costs, etc. For hasty fortifications multiplying building speed by 4 or so seems reasonable.
How would I price "wildcard" versions of perks that normally require specialization by skill? I'm considering just multiplying the cost by three like for wildcard techniques, which seems fine for Grip Mastery! or Sacrificial Parry!, but underpriced for Efficient! or Exotic Weapon Training!
>>48082236
Personally I'd make wildcard perks five points, if only because 95% of GURPS advantages are priced at some multiple of five.
>>48080152
>Spore for creature art.
I like it.
Does anyone have a pdf of GURPS Espionage?
>>48083431
Check the archive
https://mega.nz/#!2lEChBRT!kPBsaPEoa_YErqZW3HIxSiQvKDHpJI17zTxhz2_gZi8
>>48083965
Huh. For some reason I didn't think it was there. Thanks.
Do you allow payers to trade in points spent on skill increases for attribute increases in cases where the latter is strictly better for the former?
For example, if players get 5CP per session to spend, and puts 4 per session into increasing a different DX-based skill by 1, would you allow them to reduce those skills to their original levels and put the points into increasing DX directly once they've accumulated enough total points?
>>48085644
Generally no. To optimize like that he'd need to save up for 4 sessions, then get the increase to DX. He'd miss out on the higher SL for a few sessions. Such optimization is best left for character creation.
I'm trying to upload the GURPS basic set book to Lulu to print, but I need to have the font embedded i guess, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it without fucking up the look of the book
>>48085883
Save it as PDF/A. You will need the fonts used available.
The mob rules found in GURPS Horror are serviceable when the constituent beings of the mob all attack with the same weapon (natural or otherwise), such as a human mob pummeling a victim with their fists or a zombie mob ripping into a survivor with their bites.
However, they don't seem to handle mobs with varying means of attack, such as the classic torch AND pitchfork wielding mob.
How would *you* handle the randomness of attacks with varying reaches (close range machetes, longer range scythes, and even longer range bottles/bricks, for example) and damage types (cutting, crushing, burning, etc)?
>>48086175
I just checked and it's all embedded fine in the PDF normally
The error im getting from Lulu must be something else
>>48075098
Could you please elaborate on this urban fantasy? Is this like /x/ style hunting demons? What books do I need for that?
>>48086276
GURPS basic, and the gurps monster hunters books.
The gurps monster hunters books are all pretty short, but there's lots of them.
>>48086261
Once you've got it figured out is appreciate any directions for what worked.
>>48086276
>Is this like /x/ style hunting demons
It definitely can be. Urban Fantasy has been monopolized by Wold of Darkness and White Wolf for years, but I think there's more to urban fantasy than that. In the OP you can find the GURPS Basic Set and the GURPS Monster Hunter books, pick up those and go fight the supernatural with yourtulpa waifu
>>48086190
>How would *you* handle the randomness of attacks with varying reaches (close range machetes, longer range scythes, and even longer range bottles/bricks, for example) and damage types (cutting, crushing, burning, etc)?
When it's the mob's turn, roll 1d before attacking:
1-2 - sickle
3-4 - pitchfork
5 - scythe
6 - improvised weapon (cooking pan, skillet, blacksmith hammer, etc.)
I wouldn't put the torches in though. The torches aren't for lynching people, they're for seeing who you're lynching.
>>48087822
What is the coolest campaign you guys have run with Gurps
>>48088206
I'm a player right now in a good old hack and loot Dungeon Fantasy campaign, very fun, but I really feel the itch to run something myself.
>>48088206
I'm in the opening stages of an Urban Magic London campaign. Coolest to me, but then, I'm a big fan of Dresden files.
>>48088206
Probably a swords and sandals bronze age adventure.
Got a couple cool ideas on the burner, but I have yet to find a new group after transfering to a different college.
>>48086276
Urban fantasy in general: modern day magic, covers everything from Dresden Files and Hellboy to Harry Potter, though magic is hidden and secret more often than not.
GURPS's urban fantast series, Monster Hunters: GURPS's version of WoD: Hunters, though PCs are powerful enough that pissing off a vampire and a *few* of its kin isn't a death sentence. Investigate weird things and track down the vampire/werewolf/ghost/demon/mutant/psi/mage/whatever responsible. One of the best investigation rules I've seen in a long time; it does a lot to stop the game from devolving into a series of missed chances and playing "what am I guessing" with the GM. The magic system introduced in MH is now a fan favorite, and it's good for games that want to promote subtle magical effects and have slow casting times. The most recent splat for it also adds a variety of ayylmaos to the shitlist, giving you enough to run an XCOM game if you ban supernatural PCs.
>>48082236
There are official rules in Power-Ups 7 (Page 20). Quadruple cost.
Does anyone know if there's a chart or something showing what the most efficient way to use the time spent on long tasks rules is?
As far as I can tell, it works like this...
Roll against Skill-N for every 8 hour shift.
On a success, contribute 8/(1-(N/10)) hours of work.
On a critical success, contribute 12/(1-(N/10)) hours of work.
On a failure, contribute 4 hours of work.
On a critical failure, destroy 2d6 hours of work.
So, at a given skill level, what is the best value of N to use?
This might be a stupid question, but where are the rules for what roll counts as a success for very low skill? If I am rolling against skill 3, is a roll of 4 a critical success, normal success or failure? By a strict reading of the rules on page 347 of the basic set it's both a failure and a critical success, which doesn't seem right...
>>48091038
I might be misremembering, but once you reach 4 on your effective skill, you auto-fail.
>>48091133
You are. You only auto fail if the dice cannot possibly roll your target number, meaning you need effective skill level of 2 or less. The two exceptions are defense rolls and resistance rolls, which I believe always succeed on a 3 (maybe on a 4 as well?).
You still may need to roll when your effective skill is 2 or less, though. Margins of failure still need to be tracked in some cases, and a failure by ten or worse is a critical failure. I guess in a way there is no true "automatic failure," just a point where success is impossible but you still may need to roll.
>>48087926
Torches ought to deal swing crushing damage, perhaps at a penalty, linked with 1 burning damage.
Would you guys buy old 3e books if they were dirt cheap?
I found illuminati for like 4 bucks online and I kinda want it, but I'm afraid I'll never use it
>>48049425
>"How can we get more people playing GURPS?"
Paradoxically, stop shilling it everywhere and presenting it as the end-all and be-all for everey genre.
It's an idiosyncratic system with a very specific flavor, regardless of what setting you drop it into.
Players who like lots of crunch, a detailed tactics-driven initiative system, and a skill system that supports deep non-combat roleplaying will like GURPS. Sell it to them, and leave the narrative/rules-light people and the "muh D&D" kiddies alone.
>hurr, but it's just 3d6 roll under, how complicated is that?
Not very, if you go ahead and let 95% of the published material gather dust on your shelf. But there are other, better systems for "[n]d[n] roll under, DM wings everything else", and there's no reason for people used to those systems topiratebuy $60 worth of books to play something they're already playing.
>>48051248
GURPS has traditionally gone for the cheaper niche licenses: Riverworld, Humanx, Starfleet Battles (as opposed to Star Trek proper), etc. I doubt they could afford GoT at this point, and they tried and failed to get their system baked into Fallout.
>>48090890
Made a table working out what the optimum level of penalty for each skill level would be and how that translates into work done on a long task averaged over many eight-hour shifts.
This assumes that skill 3 is an ordinary success on a 3 and skill 4 is an ordinary success on a 4, critical success on a 3. Wouldn't make much difference if I got those rules wrong though.
It's not worth taking extra time unless your skill is 1 or less, at which point you average more harm to the project through critical failures than you contribute with work.
>>48092123
Illuminati is a deep headfuck, and worth buying just to read, even if you never use it in a game. It's also an interesting historical document, given how much SJG was into illuminated weirdness throughout the 90s and early 00s.
>>48092461
>It's not worth taking extra time unless your skill is 1 or less...
Should be '2 or less'. Skill 2 has 37.5% chance of critical failure (ruins 2d6 hours work) and 62.5% of an ordinary failure (contributes 4 hours work), which averages slightly negative (seven and a half minutes of work lost per eight hour shift).
>>48080519
>which implies labourers only do about 50 hours work per month.
Implying stoop labor gets paid 100% of the value they add. 20%-25% is closer to reality.
And that's not all just bosses being greedy--although some of it is, obviously. There's maintenance/replacement on the picks & shovels, rent and (at TL5+) utilities on storage and offices, transportation to the site, dispatchers to ensure the right dudes get sent to the right job, etc., etc.
>>48092253
"with a very specific flavor"
I'm not seeing how that detracts from it's ability to handle pretty much any genre, even if that particular flavor is not to your taste.
>>48093936
>You can use tea in anything you'd use coffee for.
What if I don't like tea?
>>48092253
>stop shilling it everywhere and presenting it as the end-all and be-all for everey genre.
Point out when that happens. I personally see a shit ton more posts saying GURPS is shit and should never be used than I see posts that felate the system. The only exception is when people say >inb4 GURPS, which invites a bunch of morons to start spamming it for shits and giggles, and I don't count those as they're not legitimate attempts to get people to use the system and are just trolls memeing away.
>>48093936
Flawed comparison. That would be akin to disliking Makita brand tools even if they get their respective jobs done simply because you prefer DeWalt's products.
Does anyone know any good sentient plant racial templates?
>>48094073
People only say those things because of how long it genuinely was something that happened all the time. Its just that gurps has been spammed so hard its become unspoken, something people don't even wait to be told. Yes in recent times this means we don't see the gurps spam but that's only because everyone already knows before the conversation is even done.
>>48094120
I don't know anything about those tools, but are they used significantly differently and have very different operating experiences?
>>48094148
Hold on a second. Are you referring to genres or the peculiarities/quirks of certain systems? I was speaking of genres.
GURPS can absolutely handle the genres of Old West, Cyberpunk, Modern Day Military, low to medium powered Fantasy, Pulp, Steampunk, etc.
What tripped me up was me not knowing why you conflated flavor with solidity of mechanics.
>>48094223
Now, if you prefer, for instance, D&D's AC over GURPS' Active Defenses, that's another matter entirely.
>>48094148
So you're saying you can't point out examples.
As for plant templates, what like killer plant monsters, or like dryads/grassmen?
>>48094148
>>48094251
I would also be interested in dryad/grassman templates.
>>48094223
Eh? I wasn't the guy you were talking to before. But i assumed when he said flavor he referred to the system's inherent flavor, which is constant no matter what setting you attach.
>>48094233
But that is where a systems flavor comes from, its mechanics.
>>48094251
Mostly stuff like Audrey 2 would be pretty great but if you know some well done grassmen I'd like to know about it too.
>>48094298
>>48094384
>No flavor
All its unique and bizarre mechanics are flavor though. Its not even bland like HERO, its got really specific mechanics pushing towards a very technical and somewhat movie-like feel as opposed to more abstracted systems.
>>48094384
But anon, I can't eat a book.
>>48094424
You're just not hungry enough.
>>48094298
That's just how the system is. D&D has D&D-like flavor, If you want D&D, you play D&D. If you want something generic from the outset that can be molded, you go with a system like HERO or GURPS as you work out how your particular fantasy game feels.
It's not that D&D can't achieve every subset of the fantasy genre, but you'll be looking for a *lot* of substitution rules to achieve even a fraction of what GURPS can do with it's two core books.
>>48094608
I disagree, GURPS isn't all that generic. Its setting-neutral but to a great extent it pushes a particular kind of tactical gameplay just as much as D&D pushes its dungeon crawling. D&D is like Lego and GURPS is like clay/marble; one is more versatile but both will have the material they are made of be very clear to anyone who interacts with them no matter what you build.
>>48094753
Great extent? You can ditch the facing rules and pretty much anything related to Fatigue and do just fine. Hell, the section on expanded tactical combat (indicated by the scary skeleton wielding a blade) is pretty clearly labeled as optional.
Believe me: few people are going to bat an eye if you opt to allow unmodified parries with a weapon opposite of the side of your body that a foe attacks.
>>48094148
>Does anyone know any good sentient plant racial templates?
Dungeon Fantasy 9 has wood elementals with various lenses.
>>48094298
Audrey 2: Deathstalkers from Creatures of the Night, Vol 5. Closer to oversized dekubabas from LoZ, though adding tentacles is easily enough (as is increased IQ and Singing-18 if neccessary).
Plant People: Woodland Oracle from Creatures of the Night, Vol 3. Though meant for a peaceful mentor role ( IQ 18!), the creature has all the traits I would consider necessary for a plant people. I would use the Woodland Oracle as a base and shave off unnecessary/unwanted features (e.g. Unkillable 3 is fine and dandy for a spirit of the forest given corpreal form, but it's less appropriate for a race as a whole)
>>48094809
I'm not really talking about facing or expanded tactical combat (though i would consider both core to the game in most circumstances), but more stuff like the 1 second turns, pain etc. Even in simpler forms the game pushes a very methodical and tactical approach, even out of combat thanks to its wide variety of skills and its many social modifiers.
>>48094148
>sentient plant racial templates
Just use Asparagus with non-zero IQ?
>>48096402
We've reached full-circle. Asparagus has transcended meme status and become something genuinely useful for GURPS games.
I'm not ready for this brave new world.
Recent convert from D&D; I'm digging the level of detail I can get up to. You can just parry or dodge an attack... or you can cross parry riposte into a spinning counterattack elbow to the kidneys, and all that is actually reflected in the mechanics rather than just the GM going "huh yeah that's pretty cool, here's a +2."
>>48098742
Quite honestly, my favorite part of the system. Lots of options, lots of depth, and it's all effective, too. None of that 'it sounds cool but it's actually a trap option'.
>>48094298
>The system has a very specific inherent mechanical flavor.
>>48094414
>It's got specific mechanics that push it toward a movie like feel.
>>48094753
>Gurps pushes really tactical play-by-play gameplay.
>>48095374
>1-second turns
>Pain
>Massive number of skills
>Tons of social modifiers
So, this has me wondering:
What other styles of play might GURPS not currently able to handle, and how hard would it be to enable those types of play with existing gurps materials?
I assume the wildcard skills would be a start, for some of them.
Are there existing optional rules that help accomplish the rest of the changes people might want in the game play?
I get that it's on the fiddly side, and some people prefer to play their games with broader strokes. Can gurps support that?
>>48099100
No. Gurps might be able to support it with a hundred splats and houserules, but at that point you aren't playing Gurps, you are playing something else.
If you tried to do what you are doing It'd basically be a different 3d6 system.
>>48099287
Nothing so easy as plugging in an alternate, lighter combat system, and using wildcard skills?
I mean, yes it wouldn't play the same, but gurps is already a mix and match system. Would an alternate/lighter combat system that's still compatible with everything but the normal combat system be such a problem?
>>48099853
I don't know if its a "problem" its just very different and probably shouldn't be treated as "GURPS" but as something else. I also assumed with the use of wildcard skills etc you are also simplifying and changing the rest of the game, not just combat.
Also an alternative combat system doesn't have to be "simple" to be different.
Anyway the biggest change from regular GURPS that is popular is Dungeon Fantasy i think, with its different approach to character building and balancing.
If I take an advantage with a Gadget limitation, does the Gadget have the same protections as Signature Gear?
>>48100481
Ah. I was mostly thinking the combat, since that's what the other anon mentioned.
Is there a simplified/less crunchy gurps combat system, should you want it?
>>48101098
No, you don't get a replacement gadget if yours is lost, destroyed or stolen. That's the danger of those drawbacks.
>>48102860
Ntgb Really?
Why in the world would you ever take a gadget then? If it's just equipment, take it as equipment.
Id think gadgets would be treated like in m&m. They can be lost, but if so, they can later be replaced at no cost, or you can have your points back.
When you guys adapt something for a gurps campaign (show, movie, book, videogames, whatever), what do you guys do with the materials you built? Is there somewhere good to host such things, with an existing collection so as to not duplicate the same efforts?
>>48103136
Because "Can be Stolen" and "Can be Broken" are optional disadvantages for a gadget. If you don't want those to be possibility you don't have to take them and your gadget is all yours, barring extreme efforts to take it from you.
You can also take the gagetieer advantage and make them as required.
>>48103631
Then how do you model "can be stolen, forcing me to do without it for a time, but i can replace it later for no additional character points"?
>>48104008
that's the default with 'breakable' and 'can be stolen' - with breakable, you can use a skill check (determined by the DM) to repair it
while there aren't any specifics for getting a stolen gadget back, the text for the 'unique' gadget limitation says
>Normally, you can replace abroken or stolen gadget – although this might require significant time and effort (GM’s decision). If the item is Unique, you cannot replace it! Character points spent for the item are lost for good if it is broken or stolen.
so basically, it's only irreplacable if it's got the unique limitation
and to be honest a good gm might even let a gadgeteer PC spend a lot of time and effort to rebuild a lost or destroyed unique gadget anyway.
>>48102860 just can't read
>>48102476
Sure. Just stop using all the crunchy options. It's all modular and optional.
>>48079908
>Spaceships for buildings
Jesus. Does spaceships work for basically everything? That's honestly really clever, though. I'm running a hexcrawl/sandbox soon, and I suspect some of my players may want to stake out their own territory. Are there any rules for land/territory/settlement management ?
Converting Technomancer to 4e with RPM.
Line mages makes magic items as usable for everyone charms with "Conditional Termination"@Dispel +20,with stakable charges as per "Alternative Ritual Path Magic," from P3/66.
How much that close?
And how much energy Line Mage can draw from factory electroenergy power supply? I think he wont draw raw energy, but something to convert into it, keeping his reserves and avoid energy accumulating procedure rolls.
>>48099287
To paraphrase some famous dude: "That's just, like, your opinion, man."
A GURPS game with Wildcard Skills only, the basic -10 to +10 difficulty modifiers, character specific "Higher Purpose" Advantages to represent their focus/niche/archetypes, and a smattering of cinematic options (such as TV Action Violence or Flesh Wounds) will be pretty damn light and breezy.
>>48104982
Where do you find those cinematic options?
New to gurps.
>>48104989
Page 417 of the "GURPS Campaigns" book of the Basic Set.
>>48105238
Thanks!
>>48103157
Bump for interest
>>48103157
>>48105429
Perhaps we should create some kind of a homebrew/conversion/content trove?
>>48105647
http://pastebin.com/kD8EVjCq
I made a 3E to 4E conversion for the weapons in Cyberworld, if anyone wants it.
