GURPS General

I enjoy the system because of it's bell curve. As a result, d20 GURPS does not appeal to me.

Pineapple salsa?

I've been somewhat extrapolating and homebrewing a system of more diverse customization options for cinematic weapons.
pseudoboo.blogspot.com/2016/05/crafting-more-fundamental-property.html
pseudoboo.blogspot.com/2016/05/crafting-modifying-damage-types.html
pseudoboo.blogspot.com/2016/05/crafting-changing-enhancementslimitatio.html
Any critiques?

does anyone have a copy of pyramide after the end?

How would you price an Affliction that ONLY bestows Enhancements and/or Limitations?

For example: a weapon-mage could enchant any weapon to make it more effectively bite into armor solely by touching it.

In other words, he would have Affliction X (Armor Divisor [2], Extended Duration X).

Sorcery does this with skills to advantages using imbuements, packing the cost of the imbuement at IQ level + the level of the Imbue (one skill) advantage required into one advantage.

this guy

right, so half of us couldnt/didnt show, then the rest had to bail due to stuff midgame.
UGH
Life is so annoying sometimes

At least they got a few rounds of combat in; they killed a dragon and took out a pair of evil mages! Now they just need to deal with the fallout of magical artifacts and such >:)

[Also, let it be known; 4d6+1 of musket into the skull of a dragon is an awesome way for your session to go tits up]

True story,
Once a GM that I was playing with gave us a bunch of dynamite to blow up a fortress overrun by monsters... I couldn't tell if she was luring us into a trap or not, but the army sent a bunch of teams to blow up same fortress, but we were the only ones who made it to the site, we interviewed a captured intelligent monster, and he said he had no idea what was going on and this fortress always belonged to them, so we went awol with a wagon of explosives, found a demon palace, and did several 10s of d explosive crushing damage to a king of demons.

>Stargate 1888
>party is part of the Royal British Space Marines, sent through the gate
>Cartload of nitro glycerine and TNT
>the group gets embroiled in a civil resistance between natives and Gou'auld
>teleporter puts several tons of naquadah ore and explosives into a mothers hip
Luls were had

I'm new to Gurps and wanted to run the cyberpunk module with it
The module is made for 3e I believe, so I'd most likely go with the 3e version of the base rules.

I've been hearing a lot about 4e improving on 3e in some major ways, would it be worth it to adjust the systems to work together? Would it be better to just house rule 3e to adopt 4e rules, or tweak cyberpunk to work with 4e?

Would be simpler to just say they can't crit. They're mooks, so they aren't going to have amazing skill numbers anyway.

IIRC, an early issue of Pyramid updated most of the cyberpunk netrunning stuff. Ultratech, Biotech and other Pyramid issues deal with actual augmentations.

In general, 4e is backwards compatible with 3e - the changes are important, but mainly come up in character generation.

It would be easier for you in the long run to do it in 4e. The few conversions to make are present in the -tech books. And things got better balanced in 4e as well. Better skill purchasing rules, better combat rules. Etc.

bump

How would you stat a big ass rifle for a mech as in pic attached?

Either use 3e Vehicles to build it from the ground up or use an already-made artillery cannon.

What does everyone think about using Style! type skills as the core skills for a template, and incorporating non-combat skills that are core to the way the "class" functions?

Example. It'd include a bunch of techniques related to lockpicking and point-shooting.

Is it just me, or does GURPS discourage protracted fistfights (which are a staple of even LIGHTLY cinematic fiction)?

You can go from zero to dead or zero to dying on sheer crushing damage alone pretty darn quickly.

I know of the "Flesh Wounds" optional rule, but it feels cheesy to make most if not all of those blows deal 1 damage apiece.

Use The Last Gasp? People won't be able to swing so often, then.

Not really. Most protracted fights are either between two masters that can consistently Parry and Dodge or more average dudes trading low-damage blows.

Punches deal thr-1 by default, making average damage 1d-2 (min. 0). Once combatants have enough ST and bonus damage from high skill to make unarmed combat instantly lethal, you're back in the realm of masters that should be able to defend consistently.

I need a fucking drink

Awesome, thanks for the advice guys

This is more of a general question

For 4e there are two core books, correct?
Characters and Campaign?
Would both be necessary/good to have (physically) during play?
It seems that the characters book is mostly creation, meaning it wouldn't be referenced often, except at the very beginning and when improving your character.
I'm broke as fuck and don't want to spend what I don't have to (but still would like to have a physical copy as it helps my group a ton)

If it helps the group then buy it.

Though you can also end up with an archetype I like, not very skilled but extremely strong characters.

If someone as strong as an ox is throwing punches at SL 12 the wise man shifts to defense and tries to wear him down or wait for an opening. Someone throwing punches that can hit for 7 average damage can end a fight fast, but a more skilled brawler is hard to tag with those devastating punches.

Remember that there's plenty of ways to get DR over the torso enough to force punches to aim around it and that an average punch deals a whole 2.5 damage. Someone with a motercycle jacket and HP 12 can last a long time fighting hand to hand.

If you want longer fistfights, up defenses and remember that people step back, evaluate and grapple rather then trying to land a power blow every time.

If you have to pick one..

Campaigns covers the rules to play the game and having it to hand to reference can really help combat. You can get away with it on a tablet and a set of cheat sheets.

Characters is vital for building characters, but you don't have to reference it very often once the characters are built.

Is there anywhere I could find a big dump of potential enemies/monsters/whatever?

1. google It Came From the Forums (hundreds of entries)
2. google gurps wiki (hundreds of entries)
3. scattered throughout all DF line, very clunky; also Horror and 3E Bestiary
3.1 that being said, I fucking LOVE the slime/ooze book
4. there are also a lot of community settings spanning hundred+ pages, also with some monster writeups

Oh, and since you didn't specify, I assumed the fantasy is what you are after. You'll have to poke more knowledgeable anons for post-apoc or whatever

It's fantasy, yeah, though a little more modern. It Came from the Forums seems to be pretty good from the little bit I've looked at it so far. Thanks!

Fun fact about GURPS basic combat, if you don't use accumulated damage for crippling wounds you can kill a man by punching his foot 20 times.

Just like in real life

Icky Goo is fucking fantastic. Some of the weird attacks/defences in there, like the psychedelic lights one for example, are just so much fun to throw at players.

If you kick/Stamp Kick her feet, forget it...she'll be dead in a handful of seconds.

I've had trouble with this before GURPS Gen, quick question.

What is your preferred difficulty? I'll throw out some examples.. My problem is that I've had complaints about games where I went for Hard, and ones where I went for Easy.

Easy. Characters are especially powerful, foes are average or strong ones are very outnumbered. This isn't a bad thing, it's fun to feel like a total badass sometimes.

Normal. Characters are strong and foes are average, or characters are average and foes are weak. They don't outnumber the characters. Good tactics and clever moments allow them to win big and look awesome, but even badly luck and mistakes rarely result in serious injury.

Hard. Characters are matched to their adversaries, about as strong and equal in numbers. Without good tactics, or if they have bad luck, the characters can get into trouble pretty fast.

Just fuck my shit up Senpi. I've only done this by request, the characters are average people fighting powerful foes and monsters. This pretty much requires you win the fight by ambush or at least with a really good plan.

I was considering picking up Gurps 4e for some future campaign ideas, but the page count alone is looking like a turn off
~580 pages for the core books alone seems a little steep, but after looking at a PDF it seems like a lot of the Characters book is in depth descriptions of tables. I saw around three pages of explanations for the weapons table

Is this a fairly accurate representation of the books?
I don't mind skipping stuff like that and coming back to it if I need a reference (The tables don't seem overly complex really)
Was this just stretching material to justify a second core book?

The list of skills, disadvantages, advantages and spells take a lot of space in the Characters books. Campaigns is mostly rules.

>Was this just stretching material to justify a second core book?
no
Be glad it's only two. 3e had Characters and Campaigns too, and then two Compendia and a bunch of rules over several different books.

Those ~580 pages cover basically everything you need for multiple genres. You won't (most likely) use all of them in any single campaign. Remember, GURPS isn't a finished game like D&D or most other systems are. You aren't expected to use all of the rules.

You don't need the rules for vacuum, radiation, wizards or rapier fencing if your game is searching for the source of the Nile in 1870

Also, you could always start with GURPS Lite. It is only 32 pages.

.. and now I know what my next campaign will be about

It's not really padding it out - GURPS is a toolbox game. Not every GM needs every tool, but they all have a purpose. The writers don't expect or intend that ALL the rules will be used at any one time.

So basically, you just skip or skim anything you don't really need, and sometimes admire it hanging on your wall and find inspiration for future projects. There's less of an obligation for the GM to know absolutely everything - they just need to know what rules they're actually using in this particular campaign.

I think it's about equivalent to other games. Shadowrun 5e was about 500 pages - massive padding, but had a setting. The PHB and DMG were about 666 pages, and didn't have much of a setting.

There's also no tacit encouragement of dumpster diving to move splats - which means that any given GURPS game will probably use far fewer actual pages.

...and I need to pay more attention to policing my hyphens - it's just too much - they should be used sparingly - unless it's a Candlejack threa-

Remember that the G and U in GURPS stands for generic and universal. 580 pages covers laser guns, managing crew on a space ship, knapping flint spears, casting spells like a D&D wizard, psionics, asphyxiating in a vacuum, how interdimensional travel works, how to use indirect artillery fire, being a scientist, magical curses, inventing gadgets, driving cars, piloting spaceships, stats for animals and even a description of GURPS' default setting Infinite Worlds. In any given game you'll probably use at most 40-50% of what's in the Basic Set.

Ok, so me and the group is trying some PvP based scenario.

We are 4 characters (and players).

1 is Beef McHuge (12 or so in axe skill, ST 20, HP 26, DX 10, HT 12 and BERSERK)

2 is a spearfighter (spear-16, and apparantly a focus on sweep, HP 11, HT 10 and lost of dodge and moving away planned.), very likely to manipulate Beef McHuge to fuck me up.

3 is a useless GMNPC I might have to end up allying- though the GM is inept in really making fighters kick ass- so I'm considering murdering the character cruelly. The knowledge that she wont back stab me is likely more worth than her combat abilities.

4 is my guy: Judo-19, HT 12, ST-10 and stealth skills.

How do I win this crap? (Its me from a couple of threads back who got dragged into some hunger games game.)

...

All comes down to campaign tone, but I guess my preferred level is Hard; most other systems my group is familiar with tends towards Easy with them mowing down mooks and such, so GURPS is my chance to run Gritty McGritface: Medieval Death Simulator. I did really enjoy running not!Anima though.

How cinematic is the campaign, and how good are your stealth skills? Dungeon Fantasy 2 has some rules on using Stealth mid-combat to basically slink away indefinitely; while you can use this to run away, It's probably better to sneak up on Slab Hardabs when he's alone and grapple from behind. 19 vs 20 isn't great, but IIRC an attack form behind gives a penalty to break-out attempts, so that can help. Alternatively, if you trust your skills enough, try and trigger his Berserk then slink away to watch the fireworks. All-Out Defense -> Judo Throw is good if you're cornered.

Fear the Sweep; prone is basically death. Compounded with Reach and an Impaling weapon type, I think the spear-wielder is a bigger threat than Rock Grizzlechest. If he doesn't have any major backup skills, try ambushing and taking away his spear or if possible crippling his arm/hand.

If you end up facing both simultaneously, your goal is to survive, not win. Throw and run/hide/both.

Someone to watch your back is indispensable. At the very least, having a second Per roll to spot ambushes can be a lifesaver. I wouldn't risk too much to save the GMPC if things go south, but I would refrain from sacrificing them right off the bat. Also, isn't this your girlfriend's first game? Might not be the best idea to torture her GMPC to death.

>tl;dr there's a reason ambushes are a common tactic: they fucking work. Fight strictly on your terms. Show them your mastery of gorilla warfare. Don't fall into the grimderp trap of unnecessary killing of allies and neutrals/potential allies.

It's not my GF- It's one of the other lads. She has played with us for years so it shouldn't be that bad.

On stealth- it's stealth-15 with stealth 14 when at full move. Along with this Ive got camoflage-16.
Also Luck.
Concerning hit and run type shenanignas my character has running-11.

Also cant find it in dungeon fantasy 2, is it the back stab option at the start of a combat?

Oh snap, its her first time really GMing. Sorry, wrote it wrong. Shes been a player for years.

I'm also thinking eye gouch from behind but what sucks is I've got Judo not Karate.

Fun fact
If you throw an area effect attack at the party, they will likely dive and dodge out of the way.
If they do, they are prone, and will take 1+ turns to get up to combat readiness.
During those turns, your enemies are not prone. The party is a bigger target.

Fear not the dragonfire. Fear the prone mauling of an angry dragon afterward

>they will likely dive and dodge out of the way
Only valid defense against that kind of attack is a dodge+dive to remove yourself from the affected hexes, so yes. Your logic is sound.

Be a dick: put a lancers rider on the dragon to do followup shanks to the exposed backs of fallen foes!

My bad, it's not in DF2. It is in Action 2 and MH2 instead (and probably AtE2 as well); it's the same as Backstabbing but with -10 rather than -5 and no modifiers for ambush as the battle is already in full swing. At Stealth-14/15, I don't think this is the best option, though.

Running is only really relevant once "combat time" has ended. See if you can get your GM to use Chase rules (also from Action 2), which may make your Running and Stealth more relevant. Actually, seeing as how the current plan is hit-and-run tactics, operating entirely via Chases might be in your best interest. Spear man may still give you a run for run for your money (hue hue hue), but it's better him than him AND Butch Deadlift.

Camouflage will help you both set up and avoid ambushes, but once combat's started you're SoL.

Eye Gouging, as per p. MA71, defaults to Judo-5, making it a reasonable option, especially if you can Telegraphic Attack against a target with no defenses (e.g. Blast Hardcheese when berserk), though doing only 1d-5 to each eye means you're be vulnerable for potentially quite a bit while you wait to roll max damage.

Wait, shit. With the default grappling rules, breaking free is a straight quick contest of ST; even with the +5 for being the aggressor, you're not going to win. ABORT ABORT.

No chance you guys are using Technical Grappling, are you?

no. We've never rolled with it.
My current idea is to attack his hands to wreck him and fuck his ability to attack up.

If you roll to resist an affliction with a penalty that leaves your effective HT below 3 (e.g. someone with HT 10 rolling against HT-8), do you still get a roll that succeeds on 3 or 4, or do you just auto-fail?

With his massive strength, grappling would be a bit of a no go.

However, with an axe skill of 12, you should have little difficulty hitting him, as he also sounds like he doesn't have much of a dodge.

Go for the eyes, hands (or fingers) and you should be able to cripple him.

Trigger his beserk, and you have won, as he won't be able to defend. Beserk is suicidal!

The spear dude as others have metioned is the real threat.

With a high dodge skill you will have a bitch of a time trying to hit him, and he has rach on you, can use wait actions to stay out your reach, and retreat to get passed your dodge.

How high is his dodge, if is is 12, you are seriously fucked, if 10 you will still have difficulties as he will be able to retreat to being it up to 15.

With his superior reach you will be chasing him.

Only thing I can suggest is to disarm his spear with the judo, you have a better skill so should have a better chance of disarming him, grabbing it will be a pain though as he may try and dodge out the way.

You could take a wait action, he attacks and you defend, trigger your wait to grab it, he spends his retreat action and then on your turn you grab again, he has spent his retreat so less likely to dodge, stick on some deceptive attack to make sure you hit otherwise just go crit fishing.

Go for the weapon first and his reach wont be an issue.

Luckily, with your judo you will also be ridiculously hard to hit (but dont trade blows, otherwise it will be who gets crits, and as he has a weapon his crits will hurt a lot more than yours, make him spend his dodge and go for deceptive disarm attempts)

Yeah my parry is at 19/2+4 = 13 giving me decent odds of not being hit.
A) How do I deal with Muscle McMeatbrain once he is in berserk?

B) Where in the book do I find the part about disarming the spear fighter?

Figured; it's not the most popular supplement, but it does make skill influence breaking free rather that it be raw ST vs. ST.

With a whopping 26 HP, dude has crippling thresholds of 13 for the arms and 9 for the hands. While getting Flint Ironstag in an armlock will make it hard for him to break free (ST 12 + 5 (p. B371) + 4 (p. B403) = net ST 21), I really don't see you being able to get a MoV of 9 with your Judo-19 vs. his ST 20. Are you using Accumulated Wounds? That would let you cripple his arm over multiple turns. Or do you have any striking skill? The damage from an arm lock is a free action, letting you do other things like kick or knee him of whatever; you might just want to lock him down and then nickel and dime him to death.

Long story short, getting the dude in an armlock from behind will give you a decent chance of keeping him from killing you, but there's not much else you can do; you can't really take him out with a grapple, so at best you're just putting off his curbstomping.

This may be one of those times where some honeyed words and groveling is the best option. Get him to kill spearman before spearman gets him to kill you.

Auto-fail. From p. B345:
>You may not attempt a success roll if your effective skill is less than 3, unless you are attempting a defense roll (p. 374).

He could try a Slip instead of a Retreat to get inside the spearman's reach; net Parry-14 isn't bad and getting into CC is the one big weakness of spears.
Lets just hope he doesn't know about Shoves with Weapons, as high-reach weapons get a bonus to that, though a solid defense is still a solid defense.

Just dodge and defend, he hasn't got enoug skill to be puttng in deceptive attacks and will be crit fishing (10% if he goes all out per turn)

He can't defend, so jsut strike him in a vulnerable area. Telegraph it for a +4 bonus.

Disarming weapons is page 401 of campaigns, additional rules in GURPs martial arts (highly recommended even though it is out of print)

>URPs martial arts (highly recommended even though it is out of print)

It's annoying how everything is out of print. But eh, pdf's...

My problem is I'm not sure how to actually do damage to him, having only really Judo.

Damaging will be a bit more difficult, but remember, with 26 HP you would need to do 3 damage to cripple the eye (commited attack strong to get plus 1 damage) so even unarmed you are likely to be able to blind him, when he is blinded in two eyes just ignore him.

I do agree, he is still a challenge and your inability to do damage will be difficult and his high strength will be difficult to contend with.

But then again, you are fighting unarmed against a spear man and an axe man.

You are NOT likely to win, the odds are against you if the character point totals are equal, the game is quite simulationist and unless a lot of dramatic cinematic rules are being used, a person who is unarmed, fighting against people who are armed, built on simialr character points, is just more likely to lose...because in real life to people of equal ability (maybe not skilll, but the axe man accommodates with strength) one of them armed, the other not, the money is going to go on the armed man...cos that is life, people use weapons for a reason.

If the GM is using more cinematic rules that may make a difference

Actually I have an idea for the axe man-

So he goes berserk and does his all-out crit fishing. Which is fine, its going to take him time to get through my defenses- besides my character has luck so I might get some milage out of that.

Okay: So he does AOA on me which means no defense which means I can hit him with any thing I can find by stacking up telegraphic attacks, right?
Is there a cap on how hard I can telegraph my attacks?

As for the spear man he is going to be a lot harder. But once Muscle McMeatbrain is dead there is only the spear man and a harmless GMPC left.
Neither of them has good perception, the difference here is that Muscle McMeatbrain cant just have his arm/leg crippled by a sneak attack. Which will be my prime strategy against the two others.

The cap is +4, you can't get higher than that (you could add it with an all out attack determiend yoursef for +8 but if he hits you once he will seriously fuck you up so I wouldn't)

Unfortunately you can not stack telegraphed attacked with the consider manouvre (from the GURPs forum and word of Kromm himself)

But using a dagger would be a good idea, however his beserk will make him immune to stunning and +4 to stay up....so he is likely to be up for a while (until you get him to -5 times his health, not happening)

To be fair, he may get a crit before he falls over dead.

You need to cripple his limbs to render them unusable, and even with a telgraphed attack, the -9 is going to make it difficult tfor you to make a default attack with weapons to the eyes, vitals may be possible, but their main bonus is stunning the opponeng which he is immune to (and the +3 damage, but with a knife and poor strength and beserk you may as well be stabbing meat)

Could maybe pick up a hammer or some heavy two handed weapon, but using any weapon you lose your judo parry and are reliant on dodge and retreat.

Guerilla warfare it is then, I need ground with sharpened stakes, hidden sharpened stakes. He attacks and I judo throw.
Alternatively some hole with even bigger spikes might do? The judo throw seems to be my primary tool.
Say, if I can get him on the ground couldnt I then go down from behind and choke him?

With the two handed weapon you would be aiming for the arm (or maybe hand if you want to get lucky, but DX-4 and another -2 for an average skill giving you -6. The telegraph will take that to -2. With the hardest hitting weapon you can be doing swing +2 cut (assuming 10 strength) making on average, assuming unamroured hand, 7-8 damage,

With 26 HP you need to do 9 damage to cripple so doable with a cutting weapon. Could maybe get away with a one handed weapon. BUt won't be able to judo parry if holding a weapon.

Daggers though, you won't have a chance (unless doing cumulative wounds)

With his strength it is going to be difficult (if you can, reach technical grappling, brillaint, and really goes into how much strength matters in wrestling and putting that into more refined rules)

You may also want the traps skill, and camoflage skill, maybe digging as well to be able to construct the traps properly (or rely on default skills, but they may be easy to see, though you did mention they had poor perception)

My character has camoflage 16, assuming I apply the judo throw for defense no mechanisms are necesay. Didnt have points for traps...
This is gonna be some Vietnam shit, my character will just lay low and stalk the enemy until he has opportunity, then strike if I see possibilities.
I'm very happy for the running skill now as It will very likely help me in hit and run strategies.
Also I have danger sense and perception 14 so they wont be ambushing my character easily.
Captured ranged weapons can also help me kite them, even if I don't hit.

Anyone got a copy of Disasters: Meltdown and Fallout yet?

Generally speaking, against humanoid opponents, is one better off investing in Targeted Attack Skill/(Weapon) or Targeted Attack Skill/(Hand) if they want to quickly neutralize an opponent's lethality without outright killing them?

Hand
Or leg
Face is nice too. A hit ensures a roll versus knockdown and stun, because it's the head. But you don't get huge wounding multipliers for oops!kills

Advantages of going for the weapon:

Easier to reach (assuming it's not a reach C weapon).
No Defence Bonus from shields.
Doesn't piss the target off quite as much as breaking his hand.

Advantages of going for the hand:

Much easier to cripple a hand than break a weapon.

For most people, the last point is the most important one. A broadsword has DR 6, 11 HP and HT 12. If you knock it down to 0 HP it has to roll against HT every turn it is used. On a failure, it could become useless or it might just lose it's tip. At -1 HP it is guaranteed to shatter if it fails the HT roll, but there's still a good chance it will pass it for several turns. Only truly massive amounts of damage or some very lucky rolls will take it out in one turn. An attack against a hand on the other hand (sorry) will automatically cripple it when you go past the threshold, which is usually pretty low. It also has a chance to stun your opponent.

tl;dr hand

>Okay: So he does AOA on me which means no defense which means I can hit him with any thing I can find by stacking up telegraphic attacks, right?

That assumes a few dangerous things:

1) You are still alive after the attack. If he goes AOA double and hits you once you are going to be at -4 from pain and are likely to be rolling HT vs a major wound. If he gets lucky, you will be rolling HT vs instant death.

2) Telegraphic attack is allowed. It's an optional rule.

Was there a pyramid article that went into depth on serendipity? I feel like there was, but can't recollect which.

I thought is was social-fu that did that?

I'm sorry. I meant to say "Disarming" instead of "Targeted Attack Skill/(Weapon)", as I was aware that weapons have DR and HP to contend with if you want to make them truly inoperable. The goal here is to stop making the wielder a threat as much as possible without going for a kill (possible crippling is okay, though).

Basically, it is a choice between disarming the wielder of their weapon versus damaging their hand.

Of I can complicate things? Learn sweep
Probing someone is HELLA awesome for you and terribad for them. They have penalties to defend, limited movement, no retreat or step options. It's awesome

Disarming gives you another penalty to hit (not sure if it can be bought off) and allows a quick contest for the target to keep his weapon, which will be hard to do unless you invest points in the Disarming technique or have a huge advantage in skill (or strength). Reliable disarming is probably only possible if you use a weapon which gives a bonus to it and invest the points for technique mastery plus the technique.

Generally speaking, crippling the hand is still going to be easier. If being able to stop attackers without killing them is a major thing you worry about and you expect them to mostly be using long weapons and/or shields then investing the points into disarming could pay off, but if it's just an incidental thing you are a little concerned might come into play now and again, I'd stick to hitting them in the hand.

Disarm is at -2 unless you use fencing weapon. Prongs add +2 bonus on top of that.
>tfw rapier/sai hybrid will never be made irl

HungerGamesAnon, what about choking him out? Strangling with actual crushing damage and suffocation is a quick contest of ST, but choking out at the rate of 1 FP/sec is automatic as long as to maintain a neck grapple from behind (p. B404). You may also want to pull some insane shit like grappling with the legs (-2 skill, +2 ST, p. MA79) that not only makes breaking out harder but leaves your hand free to wail on his head or stab at it with a knife — remember to go Reversed Grip (p. MA111) for +1 damage. You may be able to add arms and legs together if you read "arm" as "limb" i.e. "each limb beyond the first two gives +2"; ST 12 + 2 (legs) + 4 (2 arms) + 5 (grapple initiator) = ST 23. AOA (Strong) may add to this as well.

Yeah, you'll look like a retarded monkey on his back, but retarded monkeys are dangerous!

Maybe the Mariners would actually be able to hit with a target that big, for one.

I looked around for a pyramid issue with that name to no avail, your highness. Is that the article name?

There's a Power-Ups splat called Inpulse Buys dedicated to how PCs can spend "points" in-game. The default currency for this is character points, but Serendipity gets some space too and IIRC is pretty solidly expanded on.

I think there might be something in the Action issue of Pyramid, but I'm not sure. I know they generic up Gadgets, but maybe Serendipity is also mentioned? I'm away from my books at the moment but I want to say Pyramid: Action has something.

Ah, I've been meaning to
>buy
Impulse Buys for a while. This might just be the final stroke, the impulse if you will, that might push me to get it.

I love Sorcery!

If you're given the option to purchase gear, two pairs of Fine (Balanced) kakutes (MA227) will give you +4 to the breaking free QC, and will only run you $100. Very worthwhile investment.

I like this. I can see how my character could slowly and steadily choke him out, also it might work really well against Muscle McMeatbrain, he has berserk which means he will be laser focused on getting my guy of: He cant scream as I'm choking him and he cant signal for help because BERSERK he has to attack.

gurpswiki.wikidot.com/ind:combat-skills-with-techniques

Here are some combinations that amuse me (either because they seem impractical when paired up with an associated Technique or because they flat-out don't make any sense given the weapon being used):

"Reverse Grip (GURPS Martial Arts, p. 78), Average, Default: Two-Handed Flail-4, Maximum: Two-Handed Flail+0 "

"Finger Lock (GURPS Basic Set, p. 230, or GURPS Martial Arts, p. 73), Hard, Default: Polearm-3, Maximum: Polearm+0"

"Arm Lock (GURPS Basic Set, p. 230, or GURPS Martial Arts, p. 65), Average, Default: Force Sword-0, Maximum: Force Sword+4"

"Finger Lock (GURPS Basic Set, p. 230, or GURPS Martial Arts, p. 73), Hard, Default: Force Sword-3, Maximum: Force Sword+0"

"Finger Lock (GURPS Basic Set, p. 230, or GURPS Martial Arts, p. 73), Hard, Default: Monowire Whip-3, Maximum: Monowire Whip+0"

"Reverse Grip (GURPS Martial Arts, p. 78), Average, Default: Monowire Whip-6, Maximum: Monowire Whip+0 "

"Fighting While Seated* (GURPS Martial Arts, p. 83), Hard, Default: Shield-2, Maximum: Shield+0"

Weapon-Technique combinations*

>kakutes
>balanced
How the hell this shit can be balanced? It's already weight virtually nothing.