Off the grid edition.
>>47887902
Goddamn it. Beat me by two minutes
>>47887902
How do you guys make your NPCs?
Building them with points seems very time consuming.
Finally managed to get my hands on a second-hand 4th Edition set in decent shape. Noice.
>>47888011
Nice.
Been considering getting it printed via Lulu.
>>47887902
>Off the Grid edition.
I've got an After The End game set in the Intercoastal Waterway. Can anyone think of good encounters for Maryland, now that the players have left Virginia behind for points north?
>>47887987
I write their name, age race and general traits. I only stat them out of fun or if I think it will be relevant;
>>47887987
I typically assign NPCs a Skill Level, then just list skills, advantages and techniques they use. They default on skills they don't have, unless I think that the NPC would really have that.
IE:
Black Powder Raiders
SL 11
Shotgun, Spear, Solider, Hiking, Camo, Stealth, Brawling, Wasteland Survival, Bloodlust (8), Bully (8), Morale (10)*
ST 11, DX 10, IQ 10, HT 11, HP 12 BS: 5.25, Mv: 5
Stuff: Leather armor and boots (DR 3 all but Head/Face), Blunderbuss w/ Cheap sword bayonet, 3 reloads, 6 meal ration, 2 liters water, backpack, personal basics
* Morale is a non-advantage that I put in there to cover how likely they are to stick around if they are injured or if the battle seems to be going ageist them. These basic raiders break and run about half the time.
>>47887987
Don't use points. Just give them what they need to provide the level of challenge you want for the PCs, and leave attributes at 10 unless it's important to their challenge.
If you use an arbitrary point limit, you're either going to overbuild them or underbuild them. You'll build something weak up to the point total and make it too strong, or you'll build something strong down to the point total and make it too weak.
Look at the PCs' capabilities, then decide how challenging you want the encounter to be, then double-check that the encounter makes sense in the narrative of the game.
>>47888134
How do you handle morale?
>>47888194
Hmm. OK.
Been reading thaumatology and thinking about how I want to handle magic for an upcoming fantasy game I'm considering running.
Is there somewhere with a few more fleshed out magic system examples?
I've got a few ideas, but if I could find a couple of built examples it would make things easier.
Though I do have some thoughts on what if like to have it do.
>Spellcasting should come either from manipulating the laws of nature (by mages who either memorized the rules and can use existing spells, or who understand the fundamentals enough to build their own spells or improvise in the fly), or gifted to humans in exchange for either ongoing service, or as payment for a favor, by powerful supernatural creatures, such as demons, fey, elementals, or spirits.
>Magic has high energy costs, and as such is is cast mostly using external sources, such as trying to channel ambient mana(something that should require a roll), rather than relying on your own fatigue/energy.
>Slowed casting, such that it's mostly not a hand to hand combat skill. Ideally the caster should be spending a few turns gathering mana, and then a turn or two more actually casting the spell. Simple spells would end up being potentially viable in hand to hand combat because of their low or nonexistent mana requirements.
>In the case of magic from a demon pact or the like, mana channeling might work differently.
>Magic would likely be keyed off will. Granted magic might be keyed off health.
>What options would I need to choose to make that happen?
Are there rules for designing new spells that I overlooked somewhere?
>>47887902
Anyone have any stories or adventures from running a Mesolithic/Neolithic/Ice Age-inspired game in this system? Or games that had cultures like pic related with no metal-working before their contact with the outside world?
So I have a mage with sunbolt from the Magic book, I wanna go around and pew pew people in combat with it like the dick I am.
However, if I do this isnt there gonna be a prety high chance of me eventually summoning a demon mid combat by accident?
>>47888471
From what you want, you're looking for Path of Magic.
>>47888542
Do you mean ritual path magic?
>>47888471
>Spellcasting should come either from manipulating the laws of nature (by mages who either memorized the rules and can use existing spells, or who understand the fundamentals enough to build their own spells or improvise in the fly), or gifted to humans in exchange for either ongoing service, or as payment for a favor, by powerful supernatural creatures, such as demons, fey, elementals, or spirits.
Mostly a flavour concern, but would work for distinguishing what each type can do and what advantages they need - Wizards having Thaumatology and magic skills capped by a Science skill, Gifted getting it from their Patron but having access to exotic things that scientific magic doesn't yet understand.
>Magic has high energy costs, and as such is is cast mostly using external sources, such as trying to channel ambient mana(something that should require a roll), rather than relying on your own fatigue/energy.
Ritual Path Magic works like this - and you can do things like despoiling the land for more power, and sacrificing animals.
>Slowed casting
Another thing that RPM does. Very slow casting, unless you have an Adept advantage (which is perhaps something that a Patron entity can grant for their Paths), but either way it's better to prepare precast spells and long-term effects - unless you're damned good.
>In the case of magic from a demon pact or the like, mana channeling might work differently.
I think both RPM and Thaumatology had "Black Magic" - might be in Pyramid 66, which has lots of great RPM ideas - where you could draw energy from "dark forces"... for a price.
Dungeon Fantasy also differentiates "clerical" magic, by having it based on reaction rolls - might be worth a look.
>>47887605
I went insane for a moment and produced a spraying fire cheat sheet with two equations for use when only ruler is available as well as example of how it all works. The logic of it sounded sane and I ran a few tests, so it seems to work, but feel free to comment on it and point out any mistakes.
>>47888862
Thanks! I'll look it up!
Now qn 2: of I want to include magic items, which players can definitely lose, but which are interesting and powerful, rather than just +numbers, how would you go about making them and is there a source with premade magic items I should look into?
Interesting examples include the dragon balls, the Chinese zodiac talismans from Jackie Chan adventures, the demon chi artifacts, also from Jackie Chan, and (less so) the oni masks from Jackie Chan. Well throw in jack sparrows compass and the one ring as a couple more examples.
Basically artifacts/wondrous items, and things that come in sets, for the plot hook of trying to collect them all.
>>47888579
Yes.
>>47889034
GURPS 3e had 3 big Magic Items books, which are all basically fine in 4e rules and don't usually need any updating. Some are very neat trinkets, some are ridiculously OP like fucking hell dear gods the horror, and some are both neat and powerful.
RPM lends itself to making one-shot magic items and potions, and it has rules for making permanent items as well. It's a very freeform system, so it can totally have lots of interesting effects.
Dungeon Fantasy also has a couple of artefact books as well.
GURPS Cabal has some interesting magic items - and a really cool mystic cosmology - with my favourite item ever, the Uraeus of Tefnut.
>>47889218
I wouldn't have thought to check cabal. Thanks!
>>47889218
Oh, and GURPS Warehouse 23 (inspired by Indiana Jones, and similar to Warehouse 13 but more fnord) has a ton of neat things.
I sometimes like to dare people to include this one in their game... but I don't think it's worked yet...
>>47889027
Second formula can be simplified to (MHD farthest + MHD closest)/2I have insanely strong Deja Vu right now
Is there a GURPS 4 equivalent to Runequest guilds or empires?
>>47889251
Jesus Christ that's a mean item.
>>47889027
Neat idea, though if I only had a ruler, I'd just use it to draw a conical template.
>>47889280
Thanks, updated it a bit and added a picture for prettiness.
>>47889309
I made it for my personal use with Roll20 and such, since I had issues with that during my last session.
>>47888235
NPCs check their moral SL under various circumstances. On failing, they typically attempt to disengage and break contact with attackers, taking wounded comrades with them if they can without risking themselves.
Checks, and modifiers..
After taking 1/4th HP in damage at +1
After any major wound at -2
Successful Intimidation. (Penalty equal to degree of success)
Losing more then 1/4th the starting group without inflicting any hostile casualties at -1
Losing more then 1/2 the starting group at -3
Leader lost at -2
Someone with the Leadership skill can try to rally broken moral with a skill check modified by worst penalty suffered by anyone fleeing. It's an action on their turn.
Irregular troops, raiders, milita, ect tend to have about 10, trained troops get 12, veterans get 14, fanatics/madmen are immune. Because EVERYONE in a group checks at the loss thresholds they tend to snowball once people start running and can have a whole group of attackers rout.
I like the rules because it encourages players to take out leaders first and means that human/sophont foes don't fight to the last man and to the death. It also means the players can face more foes then they'd think, as injury and panic will send opponents fleeing.
>>47889392
Nice.
House rules, or is that actually from somewhere?
>>47889392
What's SL? Skill Level?
>>47889425
>>47889568
SL = Skill Level, basically just "roll under this on 3d6"
Just a house rule.
>>47889635
How do you determine their morale SL?
>>47889657
Eyeball it, pretty much.
Irregular troops, opportunistic raiders, criminal gangs and mobs get 10. They might fight though pain but without a leader to hold them together they break and run fairly fast.
Regular troops, hardened criminals and the like get 12. This makes them a lot steadier and less likely to run away en-mass unless things are fucked.
Disciplined veterans get 14. Even major wounds or massive losses might not make them flee. If they do leave, it's likely to be a controlled, fighting withdraw or negotiated surrender rather then rout.
Crazed people and true fanatics just don't roll moral. A player might figure something out to drive them off, but just killing them won't do it.
>>47888042
Personally, never been there, but the best Fallout/post-apoc rule of thumb is "Take a local landmark, blow it half to hell, make survivors worship the ruins somehow"
so if theres a fish cannery? everyone has food, but everyone has lead poisoning
Local monument? Modify it in an amusing way, cover it in mutants
fun geographical feature? Its now on fire, and full of nuclear bees.
>>47889288
After a brief googling session, I'd say Social Engineering: Pulling Rank and/or Dungeon Fantasy 17: Guilds. Both books focus on how the PCs operate as part of a larger organization, how that organization can help them, and what the difference is between the various ranks. SE:PR is the "generic" version with all the rules in place while DF17:G includes a series of premade organization types (e.g. thieves' guild, noble court, mercenary company, extended family/clan, craftsman guild, etc.) relevant to a fantasy D&D-esque setting and does a lot of the decision-making for you; it also includes only the more relevant and streamlined rules.
>>47889635
Just to nitpick. You should use Effective Skill (or ES if you have to). That's the term in the rules for 'roll under this on 3d6.'
Have you thought about merging your morale guidelines into fright checks? I use fright checks for morale with very similar modifiers to what you have.
>>47891714
I think Social Engineering also has rules for morale checks with detailed modifiers, based on Reaction Rolls.
>>47888042
Does Maryland have any cryptids or urban legends? Good source for unique mutant critters.
Riverboat settlements that drift up and down - they farm or hunt on land, but it's too dangerous to actually live there, perhaps because the local supercritter hates large bodies of water (or can't cross them, if it's a more supernatural apocalypse).
Crater lakes filled with altered life.
A city filled with gribblies, where the only safe passage is the waterway.
A settlement that's grown over the top as a giant ramshackle bridge, using it for hydroelectricity and to collect tolls.
>>47891699
Whoops, turns out that was for RQ: Guilds, Factions, and Cults only. RQ: Empires looks like it has more of a nationbuilding aspect to it. I think the go-to for this is a combination of Mass Combat, Boardroom & Curia, and the article "City Management" from Pyramid #3/54 Social Engineering.
MC is useful because, well, nations have armies, either to go a-conquering or to defend themselves from their asshole neighbors that also want to go a-conquering. There have been some supplements to MC -- a Pyramid article that transplats MC to a grid for more tactical control, and another article that includes more detailed rules for make new MC units (including translating the PCs to Hero units!) -- so feel free to ask if you want more info on those.
B&C is dedicated to the logistic of organizations -- their manpower, their budget, skills of the members, etc. -- and includes rules for setting up/expanding organizations. In this case, the orgnaization should have the Governing type (possibly among others).
CM is useful because the empire will likely start as a small independent city-state the PCs will have to govern directly. While B&C handles the "big picture" aspect of budget and expenditure, CM covers more detailed aspects like civil construction, government projects, and other more "local government" things. It probably won't be super-relevant later on, as the PCs are likely to have someone else rule over the individual towns while they focus on larger matters, but it can be useful in the beginning.
>>47891940
Do you know of a RQ trove or would you up those two somewhere? I don't seem to have them.
>>47891759
You may be thinking of the Loyalty score for hirelings/allies/etc. Reaction rolls already tend to cover morale anyway under Combat/Potential Combat Situations.
Turns out it even says so explicitly (p. SE71):
>If the PCs aren't seeking an end to the violence, a reaction roll for the NPCs can serve as a "morale check" if the fight is turning against them. On a Good or better reaction, an NPC or group will flee or surrender; they will not offer friendship, and their further reactions have no bonuses. The NPC's leader may make a Leadership roll to keep them in the fight -- success gives -1 to the reaction roll, or -2 on a critical success.
I'd probably have NPCs roll after a Major Wound and have groups roll after some losses or an important loss liek their commander if organized. There's a list of modifiers I'm too lazy to type out a couple pages back at the beginning of the chapter (p. SE68)
>>47891998
Sorry, I don't have any RQ books. I just googled the titles to find out what they were about and to figure out what GURPS books would work best for emulating them.
What the everloving fuck is up with Supersensitive? It's basically a permenant -1 to IQ and DX that jumps up to -2 reasonably often, but it's priced at only -15. If you try and remake this disadvantage using the recommendations for making your own disadvantages, you're looking at -40 at the very least!
>>47892137
yeah, thats always bugged me too; why is it so cheap, but provides such a terrible flaw?
>>47892223
Maybe to balance Combat Reflexes which is exceptionally cheap?
>>47888539
I think there's a perk floating aroudn that allows you to re-roll a critical failure; if the second roll is a success, it's just a normal failure.
However, demon summoning is a pretty low chance, as it requires a critical failure and THEN a roll of 18 on the miscast table; if Sunbolt is your main spell, you should have it at 16+ at least, so you would need to roll two 18s in a row to accidentally summona demon or do something else equally destructive. That comes out to a 0.214% chance of occuring, or 1:466.
>>47888526
Planning on running one soon. There's the 3e Iceage book that may be worth a look, plus the plethora of "Caveman vs. Astronaut" arguements on the forums.
Considering running a State of Decay game in GURPS. I'm attracted to GURPS because of the realistic gun mechanics, the rules for digging (good for building a stronghold against zombies) and the fact you can build ordinary people. I'm figuring 50 point builds.
Thoughts? Also how to make headshot zombies practical with the -7 to hit head? I know a lot of aiming will be involved but these people,will barely have any gun training.
>>47892341
Be careful with headshots and zombies, I think the GURPS default of assuming a zombie is "undead" means most bullets just pass through them like rotten pig lard, and very little injury is incurred.
>>47892236
I dont follow your logic
+1 to active defenses != -1 to all DX and IQ skills when in the presence of people
I dont even see where you came up with the example...
>>47892341
I believe shotguns have better chances to hit due to multiple projectiles per shot, but I don't quite remember how does it work.
Anyway, noobs are going to aim for torso or even worse - shoot on general direction for random hit location.
>>47892341
No defense rolls for the Z's? A -7 sucks ass, but it sucks a lot less if a defense roll is not going to take away your lucky hit. Also, aim.
>>47892341
of all things, read up on the GURPS Zombies supplement for 4e; lots of discussion in there on all the different plavors of zombie under the sun. You should be able to find a listed example in there on what you want your zombies to be like
>>47892427
yeah, an all out attack +1, braced +1, aim +3 or better... it can cut some of the penalty off, but zamboz be zamboz man
>>47892341
Unless you're dealing with way too many zombies, you'll probably have time to aim, and can all out attack without much risk.
>>47892423
Yeah, a shotgun's an excellent choice - anything that isn't a handgun would be, really.
>>47892341
If it's a horror game -- and since you're combining zombies and low point vlaues, I assume it is -- the difficulty of shooting the skull is actually a good thing; you don't want your horror elements getting blown the fuck out by an untrained scrub.
>>47892423
The short version of shotguns: it's the same as a burst of automatic fire, including the to-hit bonus for high RoF, but with Rcl 1.
>>47892320
>plethora of "caveman vs astronaut," arguments
I'm new here, and new to this system. Explain a bit?
>>47892611
The best stress test of a system is to pit Cavemen (TL0 dudes) and Astronauts (TL8+) against each other in the same situaiton, and see who wins. Sometimes its a case of a fight to the death, other times, a footrace or the like.
>>47892691
What typically happens?
>>47892611
GURPS's capacity to handle a bunch of different settings means you can use the rule set to not only accurately stat out both cavemen and astronauts, but have them fight as well. "Caveman vs. Astronaut" was originally a joke from the Buffy spinoff series Angel where two characters were bickering over who would win in a fight: a caveman with the strength and skills honed by his rough paleolithic life, or the highly trained and conditioned modern-day astronaut (no weapon!). Since then, it sort of entered "nerd culture" and still rears its head occasionally (pic related).
Its basically Batman vs. Superman but (theoretically) more based in reality and less on the whims of whoever is writing the respective character at the time.
>>47892714
Realistically? It devolves into the minutea of the system with people arguing how to more accurately stat out the combatants.
>>47892733
And here's the original source for posterity's sake.
>>47892804
God, the writing in Joss Whedon's shows really shines over the years
>>47892733
>>47892804
Come on, anon, what happens next? I must know!
>>47892745
>>47892714
The "caveman vs astronaut" thing is a way to say that GURPS can fit characters from (m)any background(s) into one system, and have them fight realistically.
>>47892733
>>47892804
The astronaut wouldnt be able to "outthink" a guy who spend all his life hunting and ambushing animals bigger than him.
Talking in GURPS terms, the caveman would have several skills at a professional level, that would be FAR more useful in a fight. He even knows how to use rocks to kill.
How many points/disads do the caveman and the astronaut have?
>>47892886
Depends on the astronaut. If it's the Air Force vet who pilots the craft, he'll be in peak physical condition and know a thing or two about fighting. But if it's the biologist along for the ride...
>>47893069
It doesn't matter the astronauts formation. The caveman knows how to hunt, ambush, move silently... Now, if you pit him against a cop or a soldier, I would take my money from the caveman.
>>47893146
>Cops
>Soldiers
Anon, stop masturbating to military men. Most of them are as shit as you. Take their guns away and pin them alone (you know, without backup, something both desperately needs) and it's a street brawl of a chaotic mess.
>>47892886
>>47893069
>>47893146
>>47893197
Guys pls stop. It was a joke and now you're actually fighting about it. You've been memed.
>>47893223
Thats because some o fus are cavemen and others are astronauts.
>>47893257
But which group is better than the other, Anon?
>>47893197
And a caveman is somehow better?
By virtue of their lack of modern calorie input and healthcare?
They aren't knights. They won't have extensive training and practice in fighting other humans, and they won't have much combat experience either - because it's way too dangerous to do anything more serious than assert dominance. They're scavengers and hunters, and savagery counts for something, but it isn't a skill.
>>47893270
But that's the question, isn't it?
>>47891998
If you keep an eye on the thread, I'll get you a link in a couple hours.
>>47891699
>>47891940
Both books largely focus on building the organization (guild or empire) as an entity and controlling it, but guilds also has a section on how pcs fit into the organization. I'll look into the sources you suggest.
>>47893223
You know what? We should *actually* fight over it, as in, a proper fecht. I'm pretty sure there are stats for cavemen and astronauts.
We'd just need to establish equipment for both.
>>47893197
>street brawl of a chaotic mess
Then I'ill just keep masturbating to muscled, hairy and agressive cavemen.
>>47893288
It all reduces on how we imagine the cavemen. I usually think that "primitive" cultures are as advanced as ours, but in different ways. Cavemen are not animals, they are as intelligent and resourceful as modern humans, they just have different skills.
>>47893223
Willingly >memed
Returning to the "serious" conversation. I want to reduce a little bit the lethality of a scifi game, but return to normal lethality if PCs insist on being careless and screwing up.
I was thinking in having a shield that grants you some DR for a few attacks and then it has to reload. Like 2-2-1: 2DR for two attacks, then 1 and then 0. This DR would add to any armour DR.
The point is to grant them one or two turns to amend their mistakes.How does shields affect fights against cavemen?
>>47893411
The same way shields affects fights for anyone: hard cover blocks incoming damage, you don't get hurt.
>>47893467
I was talking about sci fi shields. The ones that make you glow in a faint blue light when you get hit.
>>47893389
>equipment
But then, if we give the caveman weapons, we have to stat a Russian cosmonaut with their fancy gun.
>>47893517
The astronaut could have whatever they keep in their reentry pod. Say, they've just washed ashore in the liferaft (and happen to be in good health) and run afoul of a young hunter (also in good health).
>>47893411
>>47893505
I'm not sure 2DR matters that much in sci-fi game, I mean, damage values are huge.
Make it defence bonuses instead, like regular shields, maybe? A good +2 to dodge once, then +1, then 0.
Or a Luck advantage, defensive only, so they reroll their dodge every hour.
>>47893505
2 DR can stop pebbles, not lasers. You gonna need more DR.
>>47892416
I was trying to point out that costs don't always have to line up and make sense. Combat Reflexes was just the first example to come to mind. I probably could have put it better. But let's see how wrong I am and whether my intuition stands up to logic. How do the two cost out?
Let's say "any sapient beings within 20 yards" is a -20% limitation (I think it would be higher, but this way makes Supersensitive more expensive). Skills Only is -10%. Also bundled in is Detect (humans, common; vague) [10]
So Supersensitive is DX -1 (when sapient beings are within 20 yards, -20%; skills only, -10%) [-14], IQ -1 (people w/in 20 yards; skills only) [-14], Detect [10]. that's pretty close to -15 points. That's not an exact model of the disadvantage but modelling it more accurately requires juggling the limitation percentages and is more prone to disagreement. Even if the modelling makes Supersensitive work out to -30 points it's still only on par with how unbalanced Combat Reflexes is as a package deal.
Combat Reflexes is Enhanced Block [5], Enhanced Dodge [15], Enhanced Parry [10], +1 Fast-Draw Skill [1 to 4], Fearlessness 2 [4], and some other small benefits that are probably worth a perk or two. That's at least 35 points.
>>47893652
>>47893697
I'll have to roll some combat rounds to calibrate it then. The thing I want is an energy shield that reduces damage for a few rounds and then depletes. "It'll keep you alive for enough time to find a cover."
+dodge or luck would be more useful as cybernetic implants. But I'll consider the alternative if shields don't seem to work.
Also, fluff is not strictly necesary but I like when I can come up with plausible stuff. I was thinking in several shield generators distributed over the head and the torso, proyecting a soft magnetic field. When the generators detect an incoming projectile or beam, they can strenghten the field and emit plasma or other particles in order to reduce the impact.
>>47893901
What you want is a halo Spartan shield, right?
It absorbs *all* damage until it depletes.
I wouldn't model that with DR at all, I'd give it enough temporary hit points do the job.
>>47893945
The HP depletes and the PC then has their armor and whatnot as a fallback.
If they don't get hit for like 30s to a minute, it recharges.
>>47893901
>"It'll keep you alive for enough time to find a cover."
My advice would be to use the standard conformal force screens from Ultra-Tech, but make the DR ablative rather than semi-ablative. 60 ablative DR means a few laser pistol shots will bounce off but the second round of combat might involve taking a hit for real. It's a nice way to get them to learn how to do combat, since it acts like a HP cushion to show them how quickly HP can evaporate when hit.
>>47893945
>>47893975
>>47893989
>It's a nice way to get them to learn how to do combat, since it acts like a HP cushion to show them how quickly HP can evaporate when hit.
I'm more for a SW/ME kind of shield, not temporary invulnerability. But temporary HP seem to be a good way to model them.
Damn, I have to start reading that book before making questions. I still have not enough knowledge of the material to come up with a bok that could have the rule I need.
It's a *lot* of stuff to read, but I feel glad that I have my back covered for almost anything I can come up with.
>>47889392
>>47889425
>>47889568
>>47889635
>>47889635
>>47889657
>>47889892
I use a similar system but I use the average Fright Check number of a unit as the morale check and a few more modifiers. I have a full write-up at: http://southernstylegurps.blogspot.com/2016/02/npc-morale.html
>>47894110
>temporary HP seem to be a good way to model them.
a point of Damage Resistance with ablatative is 99% a Hit Point anyways
I did a similar thing for my first game ever(TM); they were given 'experimental force field projectors' after I chewed through a WW2 era-spy with a few bursts from SMG's in an ambush.
DR 30 (force field, ablatative, hardened(+1), bullets only, gadget[belt])
>>47893718
I'd say including Detect is a little redundant; you know when you're suffering a penalty and how big the penalty is, especially when it's something as blatant as tumultuous psychic noise in your head.
Also the penalties continue, so a further -1 to IQ/DX with increasingly strict accessibilities.
Plus, yeah, the inevitable squabbling over percentages for the attribute penalty.
>>47894773
I agree it probably is redundant but it was explicitly in the description as a beneficial side effect and is written up almost exactly how vague detect works only without having to roll to detect (which I probably should have included as an enhancement but didn't).
Either way, even if I'm off by 100% Supersensitive is still only just as mispriced as Combat Reflexes. And those aren't the only two.
But it's not like the whole concept of points for advantages and disadvantages is flawed just because some of them aren't priced according to my view of what's right. I can overlook those little details in that light.
>>47895022
must be a holdover then, from the 3e conversions
Like how vampiric bite got clarified into the leech advantage?
Or how psychic talent got clarified into talents
Or how this that and the other advantage held over got left in at that point total for 'reasons'
I'll personally be putting Supersensitive up to about -30 base cost now. And maybe Combat reflexes up to 25...
Delusion("One point in gardening skill is as useful as one point spent on the Infinite Ammo perk.")
>>47892886
>>47893069
It really comes down to muscle here. You've got to give it to the astronaut. He's going to have 8" and 90 pounds on a old-stone-age hunter/gatherer from steady, high nutrition during development.
>>47895022
I though Combay Refleces was explicitly underpriced to make combat easier; the devs consider it THE advantage for any fighting character, which means most adventurers and thus most PCs.
>>47892018
I don't know if I like reaction rolls for this. Being less likely to surrender because the bad guy is ugly and spits chewing tobacco casually on the ground seems stupid.
>>47895224
I wonder if hunter-gatherers didn't have better, more reliable nutrition than middle-ages people that near-completely relied on crops and seasons. I mean back then, a good season meant an economic boom and a bad one a recess, and it happened all the fucking time.
>>47895255
So if you run a fighty campaign, should you make it free?
>>47895255
>explicitly underpriced
Lastly I've been reading that several (dis)advantages are under or overpriced. Is this an issue that should worry a noob? Are they easy to spot? Are they a matter of cinematic vs realistic?
>>47895280
maybe; Ive had games where everyone was assumed to have its benefiets, and you bought a disadvantage if you wanted to be a nonce who didnt have it,
>>47895255
Probably is but that goes directly against the "it costs what it costs" goal 4e was supposed to have and does have in other areas.
>>47895280
In a manner of speaking. The GM should give out enough points to cover the traits he thinks fit the game. If the characters all get made with the idea that it's a no combat game and then it gets changed to a more combat-centric game I'd expect the GM to throw more points in for the changed assumptions.
>>47895332
Not really. It's an edge case thing that comes up once you get into building new advantages yourself and start looking into how the existing ones were built. I probably played for 6 years before I even noticed and even afterwards it doesn't really make a difference outside these discussions.
If you find something that bothers you in the context of a specific game, change it. Or use Unusual Background (which is what I do to Combat Reflexes in low combat games).
>>47895336
>>47895517
I'm mostly wondering about free combat reflexes in a low-points game. Even with 25/-25, people are bound to pick it up because of the usefulness, but that'd eat away a lot of points that could be used on being a tiny bit more useful at other things.
>>47895271
Not really. By the middle ages long ranged trade and transport linked together different areas. If Venice's region had a bad harvest year they could buy grain from Egypt. Every major population center was reachable on the water, and thus could trade bulk goods.
Good pottery also allowed storage of foodstuffs as a buffer from unreliable harvest. Granaries and warehouses could hold enough food to supply settlements for years.
>>47895224
>>47895588
Not so much. Pre agrarian humans (cave men) had good nutrition.
The tiny malnourished people of the middle ages and earlier come from rampant farming and a lack of understanding of nutrition (homogenized diets) .
>>47895270
Think about it, all other things being equal, would you be more likely to surrender to a handsome enemy soldier with a "heroic" timbre of voice or a wall-eye'd one with warts and a lisp? Most people would probably find something distrustful or "weak" about the latter, lowing the likelihood of surrendering or fleeing, respectively; things like appearance and attractive/ugly habbits or traits really affect our decision making a *lot* more that anyone is comfortable admitting.
I also don't think reaction modifiers get very extreme in realistic cases, making the modifiers listed in SE *much* more influential.
>>47895549
Fighting at 25/-25 isn't a very good idea, Combat Reflexes or not; you just don't have the points to be a decent fighter. Characters should focus more on not getting into fights in the first place.
>>47895588
There was some debate on how the lack of food variety affected medieval culture, however. Hunter/gatherer groups ate a little bit of *everything* while the vast majority of medeival diet was the local variety of grain
>>47895549
In that range one point of DX is much more useful (+1 to all physical (including combat) skills, +1/4 Spd, +1/4 Dodge, +~0.5 Parry, +~0.5 Block, plus a bunch of other stuff).
That said, it's almost certainly better to put those points straight into skills. Embrace the useless sidekick-ness for the first few sessions and spend your advancement points on things like CR (which is justified after a few fights! You're a grizzled veteran now!)
>>47895763
> spend your advancement points on things like CR (which is justified after a few fights! You're a grizzled veteran now!)
This! Combat Reflexes is so cheap because it's meant to be bought easily with bonus points.
Incoming Word of Kromm:
>Yes. CR is cheap; [Enhanced Defenses] is about right. We know. We don't care. We did this on purpose so that starting PCs could cheaply acquire good defenses and not die all the time.
>As for Combat Reflexes, it's practically a FAQ: Yes, we the designers know it's a good deal for the points. That's the idea: All "career warriors" will have it, just like all "career wizards" will have Magery 1. If that bugs a GM, he's free to change the cost.
>Combat Reflexes is an excellent example of the kind of advantage that many rookie character concepts can and should acquire in play.
>>47895721
>Not so much. Pre agrarian humans (cave men) had good nutrition.
I've heard this a lot, but it always comes down to a sinful city/sacred nature and it's not very well supported by the historic record. It's normally quoted by someone trying to sell you a pailo diet.
>>47895758
>Hunter/gatherer groups ate a little bit of *everything* while the vast majority of medeival diet was the local variety of grain
Depends, but for early development steady nutrition is vital. Periods of starvation can massively stunt growth, something that is well supported by the archaeological record. European middle ages diets featured whole grains, cheeses, beer, fish and game. The portion of the population that ate diets of low nutritional quality was lower then the portion of 'hunter gatherer' populations that lived that way.
>>47895893
The thing that most people forget is that for the majority of history, humans cultivated varieties of wheat and made bread from it. Wheat flour is very very high in protein for a staple crop or grain, and it can make up the majority of your diet with few nutritional problems.
When Jesus said "a man cannot live on bread and water alone", what he meant was that you needed God too, not that you needed more varied food.
>>47895976
>Suggesting man needs to consume their God.
Now THERE'S a plot for a campaign.
>>47896682
>You have to eat your God to grow big and strong.
Alright I am building my first character with GURPS, looking at 100 points and going for a scout style in the post apocalypse setting I am in.
What should I take?
>>47896682
>>47896762
Yep, works out pretty well for Catholics.
>>47896942
100 points total or 100 points with some disadvantages?
In either case: You want Perception of 12 or so. (5 points each), either Rifle or Bow should get 8 or 12 points, stealth 8 points, camouflage 4 points, survival (your environment) 4 points, observation 4 points, climbing, hiking, swimming at 2 points each..
Now, for advantages I'd want Combat Reflexes (15) and Night Vision 2 (2 points). Flexible is fun, as it gives a very nice bonus to climb and lets you wiggle though small spaces. Fit is modestly useful too.
Stats, at 100 points, are a bit pricey. HT and DX 11, and Basic Speed 6, are a heck of an investment, but might be worth it for you.
>>47896942
Spam the Talents. You can easily get +8 to all your scouting skills for a fraction what it would cost to buy them directly or via attributes.
Camouflage, Hiking, Navigation, Stealth, Craftiness, Forest Guardian, Stalker, Strangler each at 10 points.
Acting [0] IQ-3 (7)
Brawling [1] DX+2 (12)
Bow [0] DX-3 (7)
Camouflage [0] IQ+2 (12)
Disguise [0] IQ-3 (10)
Fast-Draw [1] DX+2 (12)
Hiking [1] HT+1 (11)
Holdout [0] IQ-3 (7)
Navigation (Land) [0] IQ+1 (11)
Shadowing [0] Stealth-2 (15)
Stealth [1] DX+7 (17)
Survival [0] Per-3 (7)
Tracking [0] Per-1 (9)
Wrestling [1] DX+1 (11)
That's 45 points. 55 points is plenty for a bit of ranged combat skill, boosting the above skills, and some advantages.
This is just a jumping off point to give you an idea where to look, not a written in stone guide.
>>47897408
If you take everything I suggest there you are up to 115 points. That's past your budget unless you have disadvantage room. You could lose Combat Reflexes. It's painful and means you should avoid combat and prioritize getting it, but could make for an interesting character development as you learn to fight.
For disadvantages, Dwarfism/Short is pretty good for this character type. SM -1 makes you harder to spot and harder to hit, at the price of reduced Move (not Speed) and not being taken seriously because you can't reach stuff on the top shelf and you need to sit on a phone book at the dinner table.
>>47897502
I should have also pointed out this list is an example of focusing just on maxing Stealth so Stealth is the only one getting the whole +8.
>>47897502
On the bright side, Forest Guardian is only 5 points.. on the bad side, it's sort of something that pigonholes you into a character type that might not work in a post-apocalyptic game.
>>47897765
>that pigonholes you into a character type that might not work in a post-apocalyptic game.
It literally requires you be an elf.
>>47897504
>>47897826
>tactical elves
Damnit, anon, now I have to go find porn of this.
>>47897502
You could just take a bunch of levels in Stalker, though. It's Stealth, Tracking, Camo, Navigation (land) and Hiking at 5 points per level. 5 levels in that is 25 points, then one point in each skill makes you ready for the wilds, once you grab survival and something to kill people with.
>>47897911
>Woman operators with pointy ears
Ten seconds in GIMP and ~*~I can show you the world~*~
>>47897502
JFK how many talent pools is this abusing?
>>47897911
Weapon Outfitters dose some very strange advertising.
>>47897765
>>47897826
I never noticed that. Still doesn't invalidate the general idea. Just put that 10 points into one of the other three. Good catch though, thanks.
>>47897936
If your GM lets you develop talents after character creation (I can't remember the RAW on it, mine doesn't so adjust as needed).
>>47898037
>bum smear
>untouched/unshopped ass blemishes
>cannot unsee
>>47897993
No abuse at all! It's right there in Power Ups 3, p. 4
>However, Talents can overlap to give skill bonuses in excess of +4.
>>47898114
Plus a rifle and costume wings!
My kind of crazy. The kind of girl that will set you on fire while you're sleeping because she had a dream where you cheated on her with her pet rabbit.
How's this look? As a rough conversion of the archetypical dnd monster
>>47899769
Looks okay.
Except... build Mental Blow and Psychic Blast as powers instead of just eyeballing them (since you built everything else; I think you'll be surprised at the cost). Psychic Blast is damn near an 'I win' button.
>>47899769
Not bad. Interesting way to go.
>>47899875
Oh it's a short hand description based on an affliction/malediction power.
This IS a boss monster, mind you.
Also, I didn't just want to go the route of "psychic DR force field bubble" like I always do; needed to stretch my gm muscles.
>>47899875
It's also a "just fucking kill me" button if it can't catch everyone. They have sort of shit defenses.
>>47900232
>>47900232
Yeah, truly. The classic setup is minions in front, and this guy "leading from the back". I'd also hazard some basic armor, a few simple combat skills, and maybe a weapon are in order for him. Maybe a simple staff? Something more wizardly. Or an esoterically topped spear?
>>47896762
That's literally what happens in orthodox churches at some holidays, they use not!pagan rituals to turn bread into Jesus' flesh and give to people.
>>47900469
Yeah. That's transfiguration. I'm talking about kidnapping your God and cutting off pieces of God flesh to eat
>>47888526
well, not much of a fun history to be told but i used to gm a tl0-early tl1 game, most of the game was about not dying to mundane things, so, yeah, it was fun but nothing "fun" to go full on historytime. Get a look at the 3e guidebooks for this, most of the things still usable with little to no conversion needed
>>47900549
A demon grants you superpowers
What do they do?
How do they look?
What's part of your Pact Limitation?
![Teen.Titans.S04E03.Birthmark.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-BluZilla.mkv_snapshot_19.44_[2016.01.06_00.26.32].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/CsDhqdw.jpg "Teen.Titans.S04E03.Birthmark.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-BluZilla.mkv_snapshot_19.44_[2016.01.06_00.26.32].jpg")
>>47902029
>What do they do?
Bad things.
>How do they look?
Really bad.
>What's part of your Pact Limitation?
I have to destroy this world.Please send help
>>47902054
how can i represent a melta bomb(and a krak grenade) on gurps?
>>47902124
>melta bomb(and a krak grenade)
What?
>>47902124
Look at ultratech for already written examples
Compare to bolter/melta damage values you already have.
>>47902149
the melta bomb is a landmine sized fusion reactor filled with RAGE used to explode heretics, the krak grenade is just a AP grenade
>>47902124
>>47902186
i'm using a ap grenade as krak but i still have no idea for the melta bomb as the meltaguns use infrared beams but the meltabombs use a nuclear fusion as the melting force and there isn't a fusion minibomb anywhere, the closest thing is a antimatter nuke
>>47902907
For a melta bomb I'd just use a contact explosive with high armor divisor and a very small area. Given the quoted armor of 40k machines, it's not a very impressive weapon.
>>47902907
Did you check Ultra-Tech? p. 156 has mininukes (kiloton range) which are good enough to clear a battle map.
I'm trying to get my friends together for a GURPS ran post apoc game set in New York but they got discouraged due to the "complexity" of the combat.
What is yalls take on the combat system?
>>47903926
Roll to hit (just like any other game only in this game it means success is good enough to hit something not moving), then your target might (probably) gets a chance to defend (this is the bit most games skip or abstract). Then, maybe, roll damage (and maybe reduce the damage if the target is wearing armor).
Those are the basics. Anything else is only there if you want it to be. Skip the complexity (which is all optional).
>>47892341
You can buy off penalty to headshots using points as "Targetted Attack <Weapon>/<Target area>" technique, although it's sorta expensive.
1) Aim maneuver. Most rifles have 4-5 acc that already negates majority of the penalty once it's done. Combine it with a red dot sight, scope and laser sight to completely negate the penalty.
2) Attacks to skull are -7 only from the front, from the rear it's -5, so outflanking or distracting a zombie makes it easier to headshot it.
3) Automatic weapons have bonuses for firing rapidly, an M4 firing 15 shots per second gives up to +3 to hit bonus, although that wastes ammunition. For that purpose consider a shotgun, a buckshot 3" will deal 1d+1 pi, but will have rof 3x10, as such you can fire once for +2 bonus, or fire 3 times for +6 bonus. Since it's rcl 1, every success is additional pellet on target.
>>47903926
GURPS Lite + the After the End series keeps everything to a nice minimum. Most players should be able to handle that.
How would you build a shield like Reinhardt from Overwatch? Creating a forward-facing force field that covers the character and adjacent allies on activation and requires a brief downtime if it goes down entirely?
>>47906031
I'd say 200 Ablative DR (Force Field, Area, Forward Only) with Very Fast Regeneration(Shield Only, Accessibility: Only when shield is offline).
>>47906064
I thought something simple like that, but I can't check my books or PDFs right now. I think I was confusing the modifier that lets others use your Advantage with Area so I thought the shield might appear on allies' fronts. This makes sense, thanks!
Though how does Area work with a frontal DR?
>>47906064
In Powers it's said you need to have both Affect Others and Area Effect.
>>47906146
The shield is a big line. The front of it grants DR. Just like reinhardts
>>47906064
As a follow-up on this idea how does Regeneration work for the Ablative DR or DR in general? Usually healing scales with HP but does Regeneration scale with the DR if it is DR only?
>>47908074
Regeneration doesnt scale at all so your question is moot
You buy regen, and get a set rate of healing
you apply that only to the DR healing back up
Thats it
>>47908304
Wrong. From p. B424, in the text box at the top of the page:
>The healing rates given for natural recovery, first aid, magical healing spells, THE REGENERATION ADVANTAGE, etc. assume someone with human-scale Hit Points; that is, with fewer than 20 HP. Those with more HP heal in proportion to their HP score.
>>47908074
I couldn't find an answer on the forums, but considering how close the cost of HP and Ablative DR are, I don't think scaling the DR recovery rate is too out-there. Ablative DR is basically HP that doesn't increase Major Wound/Crippling thresholds or checkpoints for rolls vs. Death and can be bypassed by Cosmic or blown through with any attack with an Armor Divisor, but is unaffected by wounding multipliers.
>>47908074
DR and Energy Reserve/FP regen also scales with dr/fp, it is always 1/10 of the 'thing' being regenerated to a minimum of 1
>>47908652
>>47908304
Well, theres your answer then. Scale it on the same rate then; when HP/DR is 20+, scale the rate of healing by the ratio.
so 1HP/sec regen healing becomes 5HP per sec if they have 50+ DR on the force field
>>47908938
You know, I don't like it.
It groks OK in a certain level (massive beasts gaining hp at a rate commensurate to their st/hp) but on the lower end, I don't like how it makes a fast regeneration on Dr so good for so little points...
In order to learn the game and to use the character assistant, I'm making PCs based on concepts and ideas from my friends.
This is a guy who works for the mafia and the rich peoplethey are the samehunting strange animals in unexplored regions.
I think that some of his skills are wrong and that he might be lacking some important ones.
The idea is being able to research the academia about the species, and then travel to the colony and move around finding rumours and help from the locals. Then go into the wildernes and live there for several weeks looking for the prey. He has to know how to keep his weapon working and how to outfit it.
He also lives in a sci fi setting so I gave him every day skills to reflect that he moves in space or drives some vehicles. Also, some /savours/ to reflect the enviroments he moves on. He has reputation as one of the best hunters in known space, but only to the kind of person that hires his illegal services.
He cost 180p because I think of him as an NPC
>>47909055
How few points are you counting here? Also keep in mind that many things can bypass HP and/or DR entirely.
It probably isn't as cost efficient as you make it out to be if you compare it to the M.U.N.C.H.K.I.N, which I believe is an Innate Attack at 57 points which deals 200 damage to everything in the universe except yourself. It won't go through heavy DR but for 3x the cost the damage also melts away all non-cosmic DR.
>>47909055
Regeneration (Extreme; DR only, -40%) is still 90 points; seeing as how scaling Extreme Regeneration effectviely removes the Ablative limitation (they regain most if not all of the DR they lose that turn), you need at least 23 levels of Ablative DR for it to become more efficient than simply buying normal DR.
DR 23 [115] vs. DR 23 (Ablative, -80%) [23] + Regeneration (Extreme; DR only, -40%) [90]
>>47909120
chivalry seems like an odd code to live by in the space age, but I think I get what youre going for with that? Hes got a personal code of ethics to live by?
I wanted to make a Follow-up attack that would not bypass DR if the carrier attack did, a friend suggested Link but follow up is a 0% modifier and link is a 10% one, why would I want to pay an extra 10% for what is essentially a limitation?
>>47909205
That still doesn't provide the same benefit. The 23 DR covers all attacks while Ablative DR recovers only at the start of your turn.
Anyone ever ran a game with people from here? I mean GURPS-g specifically, not 4chan.
How much of a bunch of flakes are we?
>>47909238
I was imaginig something like: hunting only "worthy" preys, fighting fairly (not using traps or drugs). Respecting the contracts he signs and not stopping until the prey is dead.
I don't know how to represent that in terms of disadvantages.
Also, how are the skills? Thats the part that most bothers me.
>>47909120
From an optimization standpoint:
-Drop acrobatics; SL12 is not reliable enough to use it in combat situations (i.e. Acrobatic Dodges), so put those 4 points elsewhere.
-Focus on a single Survival specialty; they default to eachother at -3, so having one at 17 and every other specialty at 14 may be beneficial. I'd put the 17 in Arctic, as the other environments tend to be easier to survive in. You never want to fail a Survival check, and Arctic areas will routinely throw penalties at you, so higher skill will help with that.
-Biology is more "what you know right now" and is meant to answer more academic questions. Pick up Research instead if you plan on hitting the books/net one you reach planetside.
Personal opinion:
-Chivalry seems like an odd addition alongside Greed and Bloodlust. Professional's or even Gentleman's may be more appropriate.
Other than those nitpicks, looks very good. Solid skill distribution, and no over-spending on any skills (excellect use of Talents) or traits.
>>47909387
Code of Honor (Professional's) is a good base. It's [-5] normally, but if you add on the "fair fight" aspect, I'd price it at [-10].
>>47909302
I'm running a game on Roll20 (GrimWyrd) with recruits from the gamefinder threads here on 4chan
5/6 of them have been awesome. Not terrible odds. Make sure to do session 0/character generation one on one with each. Best way to vet them
>>47909545
One on one?
Didn't go well when you did session 0 with the whole group?
>>47909417
Thanks for the feedback
>looks very good
TFW first character
>>47909598
Not that guy, but doing session 0 as a group means diverting your attention a lot. If there are newbies, sometimes they'll have to wait while you answer someone else's question to ask theirs. It's more productive to do one-on-one. Group chargen sessions work okay in person but it'd probably be terrible over VOIP.
>>47909753
man its even worse if youre stuck doing text only chat
But yeah>>47909598
Do a one on one session with each person you meet online.
Check if theyre people,
then check if they can game,
then make a character with them, maybe.
>>47909867
>man its even worse if you're stuck doing text only chat
Depends on the typing skills. The giant advantage of text is that it's asynchronous and logs automatically. Everyone's messages are there for everyone to read and can be replied to in order. People don't have to repeat themselves, and can take the time to organize their thoughts.
The logs also mean you've got a full set of detailed notes if you need to check anything, like "oh fuck, who was going to have their father be a notorious traitor?"
>>47910349
true; Ive found it useful in my game to have that log of "what Ive told them, what I havent" to compare to
>>47910349
I would say the same. Logs in Roll20 are indespensable, especially if anyone is a lazy note taker. I can ususually talk faster than I can speak, but it isn't the same for everyone. If it comes down to that, RPing in text (Not everyone can really sound like their character after all, and things like puppet shows actually work in text) and doing mechanical things verbally so you can make sure everything moves forward at a decent pace may be a good idea.
>>47911993
>*type faster than I can speak
Does GURPS have rules for a metacurrency? IE Fate Points, Edge, Hero Points, Bennies, ect.
>>47912176
The Luck advantage is the closest thing to that in the Basic Set book. Depending how much you want to invest in it you can get roll a result two more times and pick the best for you every 60/30/15 minutes of game time.
>>47912176
B357, Influencing Success Rolls box. Also, Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys.
Essentially, character points (what you use to level up) are fate points. If you want to make a pool of points as a specific thing, the image has an advantage for you (Taken from Pyramid 3/70, Fourth Edition Festival, "Ten for Ten" article about 10 rules that should have been in Basic, but weren't. Great read, I especially like Complementary Skills).
>>47912176
you can spend Character Points to change a failure into a success
And GURPS Psionic Powers had a Karma Perk somewhere
>>47912274
B347*.
How much of a discount should I apply to Modular Abilities to have it cover only Imbuements? I would say -30%, since they're not as broad as all spells (-20%) but they are broader than the -40% examples (e.g. Unarmed Combat Techniques Only or Toxic Attacks Only). Does that sound about right?
>>47912362
yeah, sounds good
Imbuments hit whatever theyre specialized in, so being able to realign your imbuments themselves occasionally fits
>>47912176
Power ups: impulse buys has a system for spending character points for meta purposes, and then a few suggestions on pricing refreshing points as advantages based on pool size and refresh rate.
>>47912176
In addition to the above Monster Hunters 1 changed the Destiny advantage to provide a per session pool of points to use with Impulse Buys (or Other Uses for Points as it's called in Monster Hunters). There was also a Pyramid article that touched on it if I remember correctly... There it is, the section Destiny Points section in Pointless Slaying and Looting, 3/72, p. 13.
>>47912993
I think those are basically Wildcard points, seeing as they're linked to skill levels and Pointless GURPS only uses wildcard skills.
>>47914033
Or, you know, you could read the references. For example:
>Monster Hunters 1, p. 31 "The costs below may be paid for with unspent character points, destiny points (p. 23), and/or bonus points from a high wildcard skill (p. 28-29).
>>47915110
I was talking about the DPL from Pointless Slaying and Looting/Pointless Monster Hunting being essentially Wildcard points and not wholly new, numbnuts. Try reading the entire post befor getting snippy.
How's exorcism handled?
>>47909867
>check if theyre people
I think I've been too lucky in the past and would be too trusting. Can't even begin to figure how to check that.
>>47915227
Learn grammar before you start name calling fucktard.
"I think those..." AND <something else>
Then pull your head out and read the fucking reference.
>Pointless Slaying and Looting, Pyramid 3/72, p. 13 "Destiny Points can be spent in place of character points on Buying Successes . . ."
Try not to be so publicly wrong in so many ways while making verbal attacks. It just makes you the ignorant troll.
>>47915720
The 4chan Voight Kampff test is pretty smiple.
Ask them a set of questions and judge their replies. Time is a factor, and be aware of red flags.
"Do you play other games?"
If they say FATAL, kick them out.
"Do you go to other boards"
If they say /pol/, kick them out.
"You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, its crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on it's back. The tortoise lays on it's back, it's belly baking in the hot sun, beating it's legs trying to turn it's self over, but it can't, not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that?"
>>47915718
Meant a "magical" one
>>47915718
>>47916048
There's the Exorcism skill. It requires either Blessed or Truth Faith to work without a penalty and you have to tie someone down. This is old fashioned, movie style battling it out with a daemon to save an innocent soul.
Basic Set, page 193.
>>47916105
She has absolutely zero tittays
>>47916105
I meant more like "some cast a curse on something and causes misfortune to the place around". What about that?
>>47915734
Wildcard points are spent the exact same as character points, just like destiny points. All I was doing was pointing out that the ideas in that article wasn't something the dev pulled out of their ass since it was tied to fucking wildcard skill level in PS&L/PMH.
Jesus christ what made you so pissy today?
>>47916156
You're describing a hex or a curse; posession and exorcism is a different matter entirely
>>47916147
She's small up-top but it's the pose that minimizes her breast. Lifting the arms above and behind the head stretches the pectoral muscles and flattens breast tissue.
>>47916193
Oh, okay. I expressed myself poorly them. How's that removed?
>>47916156
>>47916193
If, in your game, such things are caused by spirits then exorcism the skill could be used to drive them out.
If curses are purely magic then you'd need something else. If they are divine a person with Truth Faith/Theology might be able to come up with a ritual or payer that could lift it.
>>47916270
>If curses are purely magic then you'd need something else
What would be needed in this case?
>>47916270
Yeah, when in doubt, there are opposing forces in gurps.
Psi vs antipsi
Magic vs Antimagic
Demons, spirits, undead vs True faith, power investigate
>>47916234
Good god man, she's what, 17?
What is this boner?
>>47916156
I think Dungeon Fantasy 2 has some simple rules for this along the lines of use Exorcism skill while praying for a few days, with the idea that the rest of the party will need to protect you from the swarm of evil spirits that would try to stop you.
>>47916381
I would tap that, Commissar.
>>47916286
A spell to break the curse, either a generic anti-curse spell* or something that explicitly counters that spell. (Sometimes just doing the curse backwards).
Or of course, meeting the escape clause/end condition of the curse. True Love's Kiss, the water from the headwaters of the Nile, getting a woman to fall in love with you before the last rose petal falls, ect.
>>47916434
Dispell Magic maybe?
>>47916381
>boner for generic glamour bitch
Shit taste, desu.
>>47902124
Eh, melta bombs can probably work off the shaped charge rules for a baseline of how it functionally works (UT shaped charge made via grenade rules even have the thing about slapping it onto the target to use), and then I guess just tweak stuff like damage, damage types, armour divisor and the like to get it at the power level you think a meltabomb should be.
>>47916553
She's acutely pretty creative and far from generic. Everyone gets their own taste though.
>>47916671
Dresses are nice, but make up is just horrible in my opinion.
>Everyone gets their own taste though.
I guess.And then I dig through my collection and realize I don't have nice gothic girls, they are either cringy as hell or not actually gothic
I'm trying to make a spirit familiar for a player and it goes like this. The spirit is always inhabiting his mind, but it can take the form of a regular fox with 30 FP and breath fire if the mage summons it, with an alternate form of a bulkier fox. If the spirit isn't physically manifested, its 30FP can be used by the mage for spell casting
How do I stat this whole thing? I've never done this before, so I don't even know how to approach it.
>>47889288
>>47891699
>>47891940
>>47891998
>>47893386
Sorry. I umm. Forgot.
Here you go.
>>47918317
A lot of what you want is in Dungeon Fantasy 5: Allies, under the familiars section, and some extra inspiration might be pulled from Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners.
>>47918317
Build the familiar's body
Add the breath weapon
Add the big energy pool
Give the player access to the energy pool, with modifiers for "granted by familiar" and "accessibility: when familiar not manifested"
Give the familiar that "hiding in player" ability however you feel; likely he's an ally with "summonable" so that's built in.
>>47918749
And Empires
>>47918317
I'd stat out the fox, give it Alternate Form, and buy it as an Ally. I would then buy the mind-inhabiting form as another Ally* alongside 30 points of Energy Reserve and package them together. Whichever was less expensive would be bought as an Alternate Ability at 1/5 the full cost.
*Mental-only allies like this can be tricky. An alternative is to give the (physical) fox ally Insubstantiality (Only when "riding" someone, -20%) and Affliction (30 ER; Melee; Increased duration, permanent, until no longer riding).
>>47918765
Worth noting that the Granted by Familiar limitation from Allies wouldn't be appropriate for this as, when the fox is granting the 30 ER, it's not really vulnerable to anything. I don't know if that's what you were going for, but I'm throwing that out there just incase.
>>47918781
>Give the familiar that "hiding in player" ability
The what?
>>47918852
I think the "however you feel" part implied he was leaving it up to the Anon, not pointing out a specific ability to use/copy.
>>47918749
You are this week's winner for all of today's gratitude!
Did you also have Empires or was that someone else?
>>47918897
>Did you also have Empires or was that someone else?
Yeah, ignore that. And take a double helping of gratitude for posting faster than I can type drunk.
>>47918847
>Alternate Ability
where is that explained?
So, I'm considering a fantasy GURPS campaign of sorts.
Looking into magic options, and I'm liking RPM... Mostly.
I'm looking for some feedback:
I don't like the default assumption being consecrated spaces, with a connection to the subject.
I'm thinking the ritual adept (space)/(connection) would be either rolled into magery 0, or given freely to everyone even if they don't have any magery.
Thoughts? Would you say it's a big deal to give it freely rather than tacking +20 pts onto magery 0?
However, I like the idea of things being *better* if you have either of those two things, or maybe a particularly crappy or amateur mage might take a flaw on their magery that gives them those limitations in exchange for 10 points each?
What about allowing an advantage that gives a *bonus* when you have a connection or consecrated space? How hard would that be to price?
Could I literally just invert the ones on pg 6, such that you get a +5 if you have one of those two things if you have the advantage? Or would that be too big of a bonus? What would a reasonable sized stackable circumstance bonus for 10 points be?
Thanks.
>>47918919
You're welcome.
Maybe you'll find something in there you can even convert for use in your GURPS campaigns!
They have some neat stuff. Hopefully some of it is of use to you.
I don't know of a proper RQ Trove, and every time I try to make any kind of d100/BRP/RQ General it dies with no interest whatsoever.
If anyone is ever able to scrounge up enough RQ interest to keep a damn thread alive, I will start hanging out in the RQ General as well.
>>47918956
The concept is first introduced in Characters in the form of Alternate Attack: if you buy two closely-related Innate Attack advantages, you can buy the cheaper one as an Alternate Attack; this cuts the cost to 1/5 but the two cannot be used simultaneously, and if something stops one of the attacks from functioning (e.g. Static/Drain/Neutralize, crippling the ability, etc.), the other is stopped automatically as well. This was made more generic in Powers and is meant for any series of abilities, such as a Tight-Beam Burning laser having a blinding Affliction as an AA. In this case, the AA is to represent that the fox cannot be both inside your head granting energy AND outside in its physical form at the same time.
>>47918961
How does Ritual Path Magic Work? (Looking for a short-ish summary)
>>47919084
Mages learn the various Paths (Energy, Matter, Mind, Crossroads, etc.) in order to cast spells. The spells themselves are player-designed rather than picked from a list of effects. Every spell has a given energy requirement, and most times this requires the mage to sit and focus for a significant amount of time. After five minutes of focusing, the player rolls vs. the spell's Path and adds their margin of success to the energy total; if it's not enough, the mage keeps focusing and rolling until they have gathered enough energy to cast the spell. They then make one final casting roll to throw the spell out there.
Adepts are really good mages that roll after five seconds rather than five minutes of focusing (plus they enjoy things like not requiring premade ritual spaces), making them a bit better on most adventures but still too slow for most fights.
If the spell's effects are too blatant, the energy cost skyrockets. Keep it subtle unless you can handle the extreme costs.
Spells can also be cast into objects called Charms or left hanging, ready to be triggered. This is how RPM mages stay useful in combat.
There's also the magic system comparison in the OP.
>>47919014
>Maybe you'll find something in there you can even convert for use in your GURPS campaigns!
That's the hope. My next game is going to be in Renaissance Italy. All that intrigue and backstabbing and city state bickering and badass foreign invaders and maybe even a crusade and an antipope!
Hopefully I can crib together enough stuff to have a high level factions and powers mini-game running simultaneously by a second group.
>>47919222
RPM requires really heavy GM guidance for it to not be broken as hell. A grenade with strengthen energy is doubled, and with greater strengthen energy where does the limit go? It stated as further than double the damage, is that x256 damage grenades? or just x4
>>47918961
If the mage doesn't have Adept, he's going to be spending a long time gathering energy anyway, so he should be able to spend 1d minutes setting up a magic circle that reduces the space penalty to -1.
You can also just declare the world a Very High Mana zone, giving all RPM casters +5 to skill; this cancels out the -5 for lack of connection and lets those with Ritual Adept (Connection) enjoy a net +5.
tl;dr no it's not a huge issue, at least for connection; there are already ways to do what you want RAW, so feel free to handwaive it all. I like the idea of a mage requiring an extra 1d minutes of magical circle drawing, though, and I feel it's a nonissue between the lack of Ritual Adept (Time) and all but removing the penalty with only 1d minutes of work, so I'm more reluctant to apply a workaround to that.
>>47919416
You still need to add energy for the increased damage; you can't just apply Strengthen+Energy and call it a day. If you double that 3d grenade to 6d, the spell's energy is going to be 11 to start (Strengthen is +3, +3d damage is +8), and quadrupling it to 12d is 35 energy by my count *before* factoring in the Greater effect, which would bring it up to 115.
>>47919434
Ritual Adept (Time) would be attainable, but on its own. Either you're good at channeling Mana, or you're really not.
>>47919416
Hmm. I will think on it then. Honestly, the main appeal was the mana channeling aspect.
Will review further and then consider the other systems.
Has anybody built any decent custom magic systems, to add to my list of magic systems to check out?
>>47919514
Oh so my GM was wrong about that part, so I should've have not had x64 damage grenades for about 60 energy, oh well he should probably give RPM another try with this new information. Silent, Only Works on Humans Grenades where fun to use. I still think it does needs a close eye more so than the usual GURPS rule sets
>>47919416
Can they improvise a spell on the spot, or does the spell need to be researched and designed in advance?
>>47919907
Well you have to "channel" energy to cast spells. but as far as game mechanics are concerned you don't need to research them. But your GM would probably be kind of annoyed since the spells take a while to design irl unless you are really comfortable with the system. As >>47919222 said Charms are what you are going to be using if you want to cast big things on the fly, Think as if you were a DnD style wizard that has to prepare his spells if you go by charms.
>>47919416
It's more that you can create massive portals, or levitate huge objects, dig up and repair tanks and battleships, or curse cities...
I think they should have made the default assumption be that areas with mages will ward their cities/towns with spells to prevent anyone casting "turn cement to water".
>>47919982
So, if you have the adept talent, what kinds of things might you be able to actually cast in a fight, without combat?
If I as the GM wanted to add in some sort of spell research component, and make improvising new spells (or spells you've only seen someone else cast) on the fly more difficult, would that be a hard thing to do? Would I need to discount all the magic stuff by some percentage to account for the lessened flexibility?
Apologies for my newbishness. Trying to plan out my first GURPS campaign.
Is there a way for mages to cast spells as a group instead of individually?
How about limiting energy channeling, such that there's only so much mana you can draw from a place before you have to wait for it to "grow back".
Just a couple ideas of things that I would like to do.
I get that GURPS is flexible, but I'm not used to having hard rules for customizing this stuff, (and I'm unfamiliar with most of the books at this point) I'm used to having to figure out stuff by eyeballing it and estimating usefulness using spreadsheets and the like.
>>47919985
Good suggestion. I will keep that in mind.
>>47920095
>So, if you have the adept talent, what kinds of things might you be able to actually cast in a fight, without combat?
That all depends on your skill with the path you're using to cast. There's a web app around somewhere where you can put in your skill and the target amount of energy and it'll tell you how long it takes to cast.
Here it is: https://gurps-monsterhunters.appspot.com/#RpmPlace:Gather&cost=-1
>>47920166
Interesting. What is "Turns Per Penalty"?
What's to stop characters from amassing a thousand charms to break as needed? Anything? Is there anything to stop someone from setting off several charms simultaneously, for ginormous effect?
I'm still reading through the RPM PDF, and trying to wrap my head around the material. Already read the brief comparison pastebin and the summary above.
>>47920236
Every 3 (iirc) attempts to gather energy you get -1 cumulative penalty to relevant skill, so yeah, at some point you won't have a chance to gather any more energy.
>>47920095
A low level adept would probably be able to cast something like at 5-10 without burning his reserves, you could say less than 20 with burning his reserves. Higher levels don't really get that much better. Its still way better to just use prepared charms for say "Fireball" or "Stun" than casting mid combat. >>47920236
Theres a limit for both charms and elixirs that is your Thaumatology level + Magery. You could tweak the number if you want but there is a limit. Turns per penalty is explained in page 20.
>>47920307
Hmm. Gotcha.
It may take some doing to calibrate this to my particular needs, but the core of the Thaumatology system sounds very close to what I'm looking to do.
Is there an option somewhere for burning FP or HP for mana, or draining energy from other living things (plants, animals, people), or using ritual sacrifice for extra energy?
I saw mention of energy sources besides channeling. Is that, like, soul-gems and the like? Where do I find more details about those?
>>47920368
Theres some rules around the gathering the energy part of the PDF iirc its like 2HP or 3FP per energy point. its not great.
>>47920368
Pyramid 66 has a bunch of modifications for RPM that might be useful for you.
>>47920515
Is it possible to/how do you affect an instantaneous or permanent change using rpm?
Creating a permanent wall, growing new plants, creating a homunculus (with no special attachment to you necessarily, it just exists), killing a target or afflicting them with a permanent drawback/curse until they have removed, time travel, etc?
>>47920656
I will definitely look at that. Thanks!
Hey GURPSgen, I joined a random group on roll20 to play my first GURPS game. Built a solid character but I ran into a huge flag.
I was told by the gm that our game was gunna be strict RP because it is set in the sengoku era japan. The only problem I have is that everyone but I are playing foreigners because they don't want to deal with the "class system" and meta out the honor system the gm put in. He is allowing it so I'm the only native and none of them know Japanese nor any of them speak the same language.
Am I a fucking retard and just stick through it or bail and find a better group.
If I should bail where can I find a better place to find GURPS games online?
>>47920927
Stick it out until you aren't having any fun then bail (or bring your concerns to the GM).
Then just try to find another game. It's hit and miss but after a few tries you should be able to find a group that's 80% worth a damn. Probably. IME it's worse with other systems. Many more tries and the good groups are only 50% good.
