GURPS General - /gurpsgen/

"Vehicles when?" edition.

Previous thread:

My group is playing a game in the Forgotten realms settings and I'm playing a mage character. However I'm kinda stuck on how powerful a mage should be.
Does anyone know a good build for a combat mage?

Hate to start off thread with just questions but

I'm starting up a campaign again but using GURPS for it this time. The PCs are a couple of Merc's turned knights in a low fantasy game. They've been put in charge of a town, and eventually are probably gonna be building a fighting force (there's a civil war on the horizon) and a town. I have the PDF for mass combat, but where can I find rules for building forts, towns, and managing those resources and such?

I'm assuming you're using the default magic system. What's your starting point budget?
In general, you're going to be more useful trying to do things the rest of the party can't do rather than outpace them in terms of damage, but that doesn't mean you can't have a handful of good attack spells. In general, you're going to want to have one or two (three at the absolute most) attack spells at a high enough skill level that the FP cost drops to 0; if they're your bread-and-butter attacks, it won't do to have them be an intense resource drain. You're always going to be firing fairly slowly, however, as missile spells take at least one round of casting *before* you spend a round attacking.

Dungeon Fantasy is meant to emulate D&D to a certain extent, and the starting characters are supposedly the equivalent of level 4-5 characters; look at the example blaster wizard if you want spell selections.

There's a small PDF called City Stats floating around. Pyramid #3/54 Social Engineering has the "City Management" article that uses that splat and gives some rules. The short version is that you set the taxation rate for the towns and can spend that money on a variety of civic projects, economic growth, defense, or riotous living. There's also a small bit on administrative duties (i.e. roll Administration once a month to see how badly you screwed the town over) and building new towns.

If you want something more in depth, there's also Lord of the Manor in a different issue of Pyramid, which looks at how much land a ruling lord owns (and what's grown on it) to find how much they get in taxes. The money could then be spent via Low-Tech Companion 3's rules on fortifications and large-scale engineering. Even if you don't want this level of detail, Lord of the Manor may be a useful read if your "city" is more of a center for surrounding farmland and you want some help eyeballing the town's tax revenue.

I'm just going to say this, if you're getting started with GURPS don't overload yourself with too many rules too quickly. Start with the Basic set and ease into it. Start with basic combat and then move to advanced, judging your party's reactions on how crunchy things are becoming. If they want more crunch go from there.

What you're describing, having PCs manage resources and build forts and steer a whole war sounds like an absolute drag to play or run. But if you're group is super crunchy try easing them into it.

>missile spells take at least one round of casting *before* you spend a round attacking.
Compartmentalized Mind (Magic, -10%; Magic Only, -10%; No Mental Separation, -20%) [30] lets a mage throw a missile spell every turn (assuming a 1 second casting time).

That's a hell of an investment and also an advantage that is normally disallowed.

Attacking every other turn is fine -- it's what archers do and it's what melee fighters *should* do (spending a turn to feint is stupidly useful).

It's about as much as Extra Attack or Heroic Archer and does about the same thing (for certain values of 'same' and 'thing'). I wasn't able to find anywhere that says it's disallowed (in fact, DF 14 Psis has it as a power-up for mentalists... which is not to say it's explicitly allowed but I don't play DF so I'm probably missing something.)

I could have sworn that, in at least one GURPS supplement, there is a "price modifier" for Disadvantages beyond the Self-Control number of 6. In other words, a Disadvantage which is always on/always in effect.

Were someone to point me in the right direction, that would be swell.

I think Powers has the Temporary Disadvantage limitation give "no control roll" a x2.5 multiplier (makes sense seeing that 12 is x1, 9 is x1.5, and 6 is x2) so you could, for example, *always* be Berserk when you switch on your +10 ST. Whether you want to make this available to disadvantages in general is up to you.

I'm Do you know where I can find these PDFs? Google didn't give me anything.

See the image attached to the OP? Click on it.

Fucking Christ. On mobile, didn't realize it said PDF.
Thanks user.

To many people don't try the alternative systems either, Lapidism and Sacrificial Brokerages from Urban Magics is hilariously fun.

Hey, does anyone have suggestions on how to make my character immune/resistant to EXPLOSIONS? I was considering getting the explosive enhancement for my innate attack but I don't want to get blown up when I use it also.

Damage Reduction ONLY for explosive damage.

Selective area on p.108 maybe? I'm not sure if an explosive counts as an area of effect though because it has important differences.

Looking at selective area, p.105 in Powers, it seems like it might be allowed with GM consent.

>My group is playing a game in the Forgotten realms settings
Why would you do that.

I'm GMing on a Brazilian setting made for D&D, too. We call it masochism. It's a thing.

>Brazillian
I am very curious what your phone autocorrected from to get "Brazillian."
Or is it a D&D setting written by and for Brazillians?

Written by. Pretty much, the Gods died trying to save the planet from Chtulhu, and transported every race to the Seventh Moon of that planet, were orcs are originally from. Now they try to figure out how to live knowing that the Gods are Dead, Knowing that the Annihilation can still break free from whatever the Gods did to it, and that every time the Planet covers the moon, every creature from the underdark go out for a rape-fest. Oh, and the orcs are good guy rangers.

There's also some archaeological stuff older than the orcs, and Magitek. There's a human empire bordering on TL 5^, with everyone else at TL 4. Pretty fun, although autistic as fuck.

An angel that is always Charitable, for instance.

Was this published officially? Sounds pretty cool and I'd love to read up on it, though if it is published I'm guessing it'd be in Portuguese only.

Yup. But it is portuguese only. The Campaign Setting is images, but the World book is OCR. Maybe google can translate it.

Shame. Ah well, I guess I'll do what I can with your synopsis. Thanks user!

I can't print the character sheet from GCS, does anyone have any advice or idea how to fix it?

Export it as a pdf, then print the pdf?
I've had trouble with it too, time an again. That was how I circumvented the issue.

How do I export it to PDF? I'm kinda retarded at using this program so far

File, Save As, change the file type to PDF.

Figured it out, you just saved my life my dude
I would post lewds to award you but this is Veeky Forums so just take my gratitude

I will happily accept gratitude. That is fine.

If encumbrance isn't a factor are there any downsides to using a Force Sword as a fencing weapon (MA215 gives it as an option)?

Can't parry vibro-flails?

So, no basically. That player will be very happy (until I start throwing mobility hazards in anyway).

It's a shame theses threads aren't more popular.

The game itself isnt' very popular, too many memes leftover from 3e.

And there aren't edition wars to keep the thread bumped.

2e = BEST
4IES GO HOME

It doesn't help they're tons of bad threads on Veeky Forums that artificially slide good but not popular threads to page 9.

'Tis the nature of imageboards, and it's been like this for years now.

Speaking of which, one wouldn't happen to know of a repository of Sorcery Spells, right? A player of mine is really new to RPGs, and if we don't get past chargen quick, I could lose him. Hell, I might even make his character for him, I want to start running this as quickly as possible too. Been on a dry spell for so long.

Just grab some advantages, throw them into an Affliction, and apply Sorcery, -15%. Make most of his spells utility (climbing, DR, skill boosts, etc.) buffs for allies. Also give him several tactical spells (binding, darkness, affliction:stun, affliction:retching).

Similarly, just make an Innate Attack for his offensive ability (or abilities; a decent damage single target attack, an area attack, and, my personal favorite for a mage, a no-wounding double knockback attack).

One of my players has a pretty good list but he went full on autist and most of them are full of fiddly bits with excessive limitations. Not worth a damn for a new player.

>The game itself isnt' very popular

It's a shame, but it's completely understandable why.

I know how to make Sorcery Spells, user. My player would probably appreciate more if it came in a 'shopping list' format. If there really is none of it out there, I'll just bite the bullet and make the list myself though, thanks anyways.

I think Powers has a shopping list of, well, powers; you can show him those and say "slap on an extra -15% for Sorcery" and call it a day.

Similarly, Divine Favor has a bunch of good abilities you can just change the power modifier for, and Dungeon Fantasy 14: Psis as well.

>just bite the bullet and make the list
That was really kind of what I was suggesting. Insomnia is probably keeping me from being clear.

Hell, the entire Psionic Powers splat works for this.

These all have a leg up on Powers, becasue IIRC all attacks were priced at around 50 points. Utility and defensive powers were more varied in price, but if the player is using it as a shopping list, it's going to be quite a while before they can afford to learn an attack spell.

I'm completely new to GURPS and want to DM for my group who also has no experience with GURPS.

The setting I'm planing to play is pretty similar to our world, and I want to start out at the point where humanity gets superpowers. Still unsure how they get superpowers yet, but there are many possibilities.

How many points would be good to give the players, considering that we're playing in a modern setting, and that their characters just got their abilities? The characters should feel strong enough, but I want a good progression by making them start on the weaker side of superheroes and give them more points over time. Guns and explosives should still be strong for them to use and against them.

Are there any tips you still could give me or things I should look out for? I'm trying to keep most to the Basic Set, but I'm also looking at parts of "Supers" and "Powers".

Heads up: GURPS can do supers, but its harder. In fact, it's hard enough that I recommend you reconsider either the campaign or the system; a PL6 Mutants & Masterminds game may be better for what you have in mind.

There's nothing really innate about the GURPS system that makes it hard to do supers; it's mostly the incredibly high point budget required to get anything approaching super and the level of granularity when spending them. GURPS is dauting due to its size and tossing people the book and 500 points to spend is going to get weird. Best bet is to have people buy expensive power packages and use Wildcard skills.

If you do want to do this in GURPS, I'd suggest maybe 400-500 points. That's what Monster Hunters PCs start at, and they're on the highest possible end of humanity; guns are still a threat when they hit, but they have the skills to regularly avoid the worst of it (alongside vampires, werewolves, angry mages, etc.). If you spend those points on abilities rather than just raw skills, it should be fine (some MH PCs would be at place on the comics pages anyway; the Commando is about as good as the Punisher, the Witch is about at John Constantine's level, and there were a shit ton of comics in the 90s where monster PCs would feel very at home). Supers also lists 400 as the braking point between Low- and Mid-Powered supers.

Hold on... I'm the user who posted the answer, but I'm not the one who replied. Some motherfucker just stole my gratitude!

Adding to this. The Archetype template from Supers is very much inspired by Superman and comes out to 2,000 points. Batman would probably be the equivalent of stacking the Acrobat, Nightstalker, Renaissance Man, and Superspy templates, coming out to 1,250. Those are a lot of points to spend even if using templates; just giving that many points to your players and letting them run loose is GMing suicide.

Rolled 1, 3, 4 = 8 (3d6)

Rolling detect lies.

He seems to be telling the truth.

Rolled 6, 5, 4, 6, 5, 3, 4, 2, 3 = 38 (9d6)

Then I'll attempt to use stealth to become unseen, shadowing to follow the user which absconded with the gratitude, and pickpocket to steal the gratitude and return it to it's rightful owner.

I seem to have found myself in a heap of trouble.

Thanks for the info. Maybe giving them so much points is not the best idea.

I thought about giving them less points, and not really making them supers from the start but more like humans with some kind of ability to make them stronger. I'm totally fine with them not being so strong as long as it benefits the overall game.

I've thought about giving them 250 to 300 points maybe, they are not supposed to be ultra powerful from the start, as they just got their abilities.

desu, I think 150/-50 is more than fine enough for one-power weak supers.

Guess I will make 1 or 2 example characters to get a better picture of how many points I will give to them.

I want to limit them to one type of ability like Ice properties. One of my players is probably doing a Gunslinger type character which should be fine, but another one want to go for mind control, and I'm unsure how this will work with not so many points.

Would gurps do well at supers if you weren't just giving them points?

Like if they had budgets for categories (abilities, powers, skills, advantages), and some smaller pool of free points, and then a bunch of premade powers to choose from, with "build your own power" as a GM coordinated activity?

Personally, I think GURPS does a pretty good job at supers without all this. One of my favourite characters was a Super (on a post-cyberpunk setting!).

I'm this user and I have a question about the Mind Control advantage.

You can control everyone affected by this ability for as long as you concentrate right? Now while you don't concentrate the effect "lingers". Does that mean you are still able to control him for the duration without concentrating, or do you have to concentrate again?

Also when do you give your targets your orders? Do you say what they should do when it's their turn? Or do you specify that in your turn where you are concentrating, to tell them what they should do when their turn comes?

Possibly. A Template system like monster hunters might make it easier for newer players. Personally i think the main problems with supers are the weirdness of how strength interacts with weapons and that is more difficult to build characters for a new player.

Seriously though i don't know why a weapon's maximum ST is tied to its minimum ST. Wouldn't the maximum ST bonus be related to its construction and sturdiness rather than the vague "weight" or whatever ST is supposed to represent? You have to wield a giant block of lead to do any damage with a super!

250-300 will give you sort of "teenage mutant ninja turtles" level heroes or lower end interpretations of daredevil, cyclops etc.
You aren't really playing supers at that point, you are playing "modern with fantasy elements". Those characters would likely be at serious risk when facing two muggers, let alone a bank robbery, a super-villain or aliens. That's not necessarily bad if you want a gritty realistic noir game but with supernatural powers, but its pretty shit for supers.

At 120/-50 how much DX and strength would a TL3 fantasy melee (probably human, might consider a larger creature) character want to aim for?

I have more than 120 points, i just want to try and keep the rest for non-stabby things like wealth, survivalist, riding, savor-faire etc etc.

Only raise DX if you have five or more skills at [4]. You're better off getting HT. It's cheaper, gives you Speed, and keeps you from dying/succumbing to disease/getting flashbang'd by time travelers.

As for ST, look at swing damage breakpoints - 13 is when you get your second die of swing damage and a full die of thrust, so on a low point budget that might be decent to shoot for. 11 or 12 is good, too, since each gives you +1 to swing damage. 11 is enough if you're using a thrusting weapon.

Hmm. Yeah, that would make more sense. But then they'd have to assign durability ratings to their weapons, and evidently they didn't.

I was going to run a highly cinematic metal gear rising game using supers rules and stuff but that was one of the many rules that made me decide it would take too much homebrew and I'm too inexperienced.

Anyone?

I don't know.

Um, thanks I guess

>You can control everyone affected by this ability for as long as you concentrate right?
Seems like it. There's a specific enhancement in Powers for independent mind control (works without needing Concentration maneuvers).

>Does that mean you are still able to control him for the duration without concentrating, or do you have to concentrate again?
The former.
>If you win, your victim will obey your every command until you free
>him. In effect, he temporarily gains the Reprogrammable disadvantage
>(p. 150), with you as his master.

>Also when do you give your targets your orders? Do you say what they should do when it's their turn? Or do you specify that in your turn where you are concentrating, to tell them what they should do when their turn comes?
Talking is a 'free' action (B363), so whenever? Not sure for other stuff, but probably as soon as the QC resolves.

I asked virtually the same question on the sjgames forum a while back. Pic related, there's your answer straight from the horse's mouth.

>>Does that mean you are still able to control him for the duration without concentrating, or do you have to concentrate again?
>The former.
Okay that seems really strong for combat. Even if you don't control your enemies to hurt themselves or each other you could just make them stand in place for the whole fight.

This would mean that you only need to concentrate if you want control over them for a long duration, which to me seems strong for a 50point advantage.

Is it too strong for a 250-300 point game?

I might be wrong on the former. I didn't dive through the forums (which everyone here should do if they have rules questions) for an 'official' ruling.

Besides that, though, I'm of the opinion that every power should have limitations and enhancements on it to make it unique. Maybe you can only mind control arthropods, but you can control *all* of them at once. Maybe your mind control only works on the opposite sex and is based on pheromones. Limitation inspires creativity, which will make clever play all the more rewarding. Mind Control as-is is an easy 'I Win' button.

Well there are anti-mind control defenses like anything that works against psionics or possessing Self-Mastery.

Plus touching someone isn't going to be too easy, though I'm sure there's a way to get it at a distance for not too many more points.

For mind control you don't have to touch them, you can also use it when you see them.

I will probably go along with what said and give my player a few limitations on Mind Control if he wants to play something like that.

Stat me

Regular buck-and-shot. First hit gives full damage, the rest follow shotshell rules.

Any thoughts on intentionally failing resistance rolls, say, in the case of an ally trying to give you an advantage via an affliction? Would you just have to fail your resistance normally or could you accept it as a willing target?

>You have to wield a giant block of lead to do any damage with a super!
Well, that explains why superheroes usually prefer to fist fight and throw cars at each other instead of using proper weapons.

Are cost of living rules just fucked at low TLs?
Shit like "costs six times as much whilst travelling" makes no fucking sense (20% of your cost of living PER DAY)
Tons of superstrength people in comic books, cartoons and other material use weapons though like swords or hammers and most of those usually don't require strength 500 to wield.

Not really. I mean, quality of life was pretty fucking shit that time. It's supposed to be bad. That's why everyone is Status -1.

Powers p40

Ah! Very cool, many thanks.

Bullshit, knights merchants and priests are listed as relatively high status and because of it literally can't travel without bankrupting themselves, which doesn't make sense for any of those professions.
A cost of living gives you proportionally less the lower the TL, but costs more in proportion to income the lower you go, it doesn't represent "having less" it just makes literally anything but an immobile serf unsustainable. Remember its six times your cost of living to travel, which is absolutely ridiculous and if you don't spend your cost of living you get penalties that mean your status is wasted points. For any society under TL6 none of this makes any sense, plenty of people travelled the world at decent levels of status without issues and 90% of the costs we associate with living today simply didn't exist, the higher price of dyed cloth is in no way a justification of travelling costs.

If you have that touch limitation, you would have to touch the person? Or would something they're holding wearing suffice?

If you have to touch skin (like rogue from the xmen) that's much different than if you touching their shield or coat counts.

See Multiple-Projectile Loads, High-Tech, p. 172 for all three. Additionally, see Multi-Flechette, High-Tech, p. 174, for the rightmost.

...

When traveling isn't it normal to have accommodations 1 or 2 steps below your normal status without taking the hit? I'm pretty sure that's what it says in Basic but I'm away from my books right now.

Knights and priests could expect some form of lodgings from other nobles or well off peasantry or the church as appropriate; this covered in Social Engineering IIRC. Merchants have it harder, but should constantly be wheeling and dealing and making money as they travel, and they're often distrusted in feudal fantasy settings for having more money than they "should" in the first place. Combined with the lower effective status another user mentioned, I don't think there will be too much breaking of the budget.

Part of the reason GURPS dose supers poorly is that GURPS is the asshole that looks at the Justice Liege and points out the only people that serve any fucking purpose are the Flash and Superman. The contributions of everyone else is trivial.. and that's a shitty way to play a game.

You CAN run supers in GURPS, but you are far better off playing X-Men then JL. Most people have moderate powers and those that do have big, impressive ones tend to be a disaster area of terrible drawbacks.

There's acutely Claim To Hospitality as a core set advantage that says you can stay with people when traveling.

You are right about Merchants: They rack up bills staying at places, but make enough money to offset their cost as long as they don't try to live too lavishly.

Other people, pilgrims, refugees, mercenaries, tinkers, ect tend to buy a tarp, a shovel and a blanket and sleep outside or on someone's floor while eating Status -1 rations to get by on a few bucks a day.

Status -1 rations cost $2.15 per day (Well, $15 a week) and weigh 2 pounds.

This isn't consistent with the travel rations that cost $2 per meal and weigh .5 pound. I guess those are Status 0 rations?

>TL 8 status -1 rations.

My caster knows minor healing at skill 17, which by the magic as skills systems gives me a 1 FP discount.
Does that mean I can continuosly but slowly heal allies a 1 hp per second?
Does this also apply to major healing once I reach skill 20 with it?

More like this.

I believe there's a minimum of 1 EP to cast.

>Status +1 ration.