GURPS General - /gurpsgen/

Real ones existed:

atarn.org/chinese/rept_xbow.htm

If I were GM-ing I'd allow it at TL3 or TL4, no earlier. At either of those tech levels it'd be rare and expensive, because it would have to be handmade by a skilled armorer--either someone smart enough to design one himself or someone capable of following blueprints if you brought him a diagram. Or maybe the character found one while out looting and murderhoboing, er, I mean, on an adventure.

To stat it? It's obviously not very powerful, not if it cocks the bow in a single stroke with that wooden lever handle that isn't even very long. Stat it as a short bow, with an ROF of one round every other second, min ST 10, 1/2 damage 80 yards, max range 200 yards. And it's so mechanically different from an ordinary crossbow that "Repeating Crossbow" is a separate skill from normal Crossbow, defaulting to it at -2. It also uses special repeating crossbow quarrels that don't fit regular crossbows and vice versa.

The bolts it shoots probably need to be poisoned if they're to be effective at all. It's a neat toy, but not much more than one, unless you fight a lot of unarmed low-tech mooks who give you time to see them coming across a wide open field.

LT76.

ah, cool.

I decided to make another magic subsystem based on Sorcery just to see if it can be done. I'm not sure if it is balanced this way and if I transcribe my thoughts into text clearly (I'm not a native speaker), but I would appreaciate any feedback.

My sources of inspirations were Dominions and one article about blood magic from a 3e Pyramid issue.

Does -30% seem reasonable for an Accessibility requirement of "Only in melee combat" for Damage Resistance?

I would suggest getting rid of the whole second paragraph though (even the first sentence of it about ready sharp weapons unless you add accessibility to the power modifier). After all, you already have Costs HP and Painful Casting so the blood mage *knows* it is going to him hurt before even starting. Why even worry about the extra hurt of the cut. Or, why not worry about the pain of the spell itself and need to make a Will roll before even beginning?

Sorcery very, very rarely requires more than a token expenditure of energy so getting a whole lot from a single source by sacrifice isn't going to be a big incentive.

It looks like you're trying to mix in the downside of magic-as-skills (energy cost) with sorcery. They're really kind of intentionally incompatible in their limitations.

The real limit is covered by your sentence "blood magic is also limited thematically in its effects" (which is covered by the SE limitation to blood magic only) plus the pain effect and the HP cost. I'd focus on that since the mechanics support it.

I like it though and it's given me some ideas I can use in my game so thanks for that!

I don't think so. There's only two types of combat, melee and ranged (and a third catch-all DR might be good for but I'm not sure it'd be worth more even 5%, certainly not more). 50% of the time is only a -20% limitation. So 15% or 20% seems about right to me.

Thank you, I think you have a good point. I removed the second paragraph entirely.

About the sacrifice energy, if you sacrifice a pig (wild boar from Basic) you'll get a minimum of 8 energy. That's 8 spells cast for free over the next 4 hours. Compared to how long the ritual takes (what's the base time on the ritual so Extra Time can be figured?) it probably isn't worth it. Even if you sacrifice a normal human that's 100 energy. But energy *still* isn't the limiting factor for Sorcery type magic.

Maybe try something like this (replacing the sentence starting with "the energy can only be spent"):

"The energy can only be spent to pay the Costs HP cost of the spell or to cancel penalties to spell rolls (such as for distance) or as penalties to the target's resistance. Canceling spell penalties is 2 blood points per -1 removed. Lowering the target's resistance is 5 blood points per -1 to the target's resistance roll."

Of course, you should adjust the ratios to fit your game (2 points per penalty cancelled and 5 points per resistance penalty could be 4 per -1 and 15 per penalty or whatever).

I like this idea, thanks. Changed the rules according to your suggestions and added the time required to perform a sacrifice.

After we see what any other suggestions might be and since you've done all the heavy lifting I'm going to shamelessly steal it to use in my games.

Go ahead.
I think the next thing I'm going to take on is going to be D&D 3.5 incarnum.

Well, per page 46 of the basic set "melee attacks" are a Very Common category of damage and gives -20%

I'd likely let you split the difference between Common (-40) and Very Common (-20) if your DR was only effective when -you- were engaging in melee combat, but that would be pretty weird.

That sounds like a really fun combo actually.

TL10, but what Ultra Tech refers to as Conservative Hard Sci-fi, meaning no tech introduced after TL9, just improved versions as per TL, and little to no superscience.

Favorite Tech Level is 4. Perfect tech level for introducing a bunch of strategic and tactical tradeoffs between a bunch of weapons, and the themes of exploration, colonization, and discovering lost indigenous people are ripe for adventuring.

I wrote a blog post that I think is the foundation of a good idea for making survival rolls to gather rations more interesting in a (dungeon) fantasy style game.

pseudoboo.blogspot.com/2016/07/rules-survival-and-food-gathering.html

I know about the chinese repeating crossbow. The one I described above is quite different. Is more similar to Van Helsing's crossbow, which is why I mentioned it

Blood Summoning lists a cost of 23 points, but the extended description for the Ally advantage lists 9 points. Am I missing something here?

Can you use the extra action from the extra attack advantage to ready a weapon?

Nominally, no. I feel like house ruling "extra attack (also readies)" might be a +60% or so improvement, and "extra attack(readies only)" might be a -20% limitation.

RAW, no.
>Each level of the Extra Attack advantage gives one additional *attack* per All-Out Attack, Attack, Committed Attack, Defensive Attack, or Move and Attack maneuver. Extra Attack benefits *only* those maneuvers (p MA126).
Also, pic related.

Ready is its own maneuver, and thus can't be traded. However, Kromm okayed a 10-point advantage that gives an extra Ready on your turn. Also, there's nothing stopping you from allowing that trade in a suitably cinematic game; the chambara/wuxia rules already allow the trading of extra attacks for extra Steps, and you could do something similar for Ready actions.

That was actually the intention. One of my players decided to take Damage Resistance (Bullets Only, Only when in melee combat) to better facilitate punching armed security types in the face.

So playing a mage is there a price for hirering a mage to help you do big enchantments?

I'd say an enchanter (you want a full enchanter to help you, right? Not just a half-competent assistant/spprentice?) should have a Wealth level of at least Wealthy, whichmultiplies their monthly pay by five. After you've found their income, you can hire them under the normal rules for hirelings.

Tell him to stick to Bullets Only; if he has In Melee Only on top of that, he's going to get gunned down before he reaches melee range.

Does anyone do houserules on sorcery?

I'm looking at the bit on maintaining spells and it's real big disincentive learning new, stronger, spells.

I was thinking about house ruling that you can maintain and simultaneous cast any known spell, and gaining a new slot for simultanious casting every, eh, 10 points put into fully memorized spells?

Sorcerers are so goddamn flexible that allowing easy stacking of spell effects is inviting disaster. If you want to cast spell simultaneously (or cast another one while maintaining an Indefinite spell you already cast), you need to pay for the most expensive known spell. The only alternative that doesn't lead to balance issues is buying a *second* Sorcerous Empowerment; this allows you to have two independent spell tracks. For example, instead of upgrading Sorcerous Empowerment 6 to SE 7, a sorcerer keeps his main advantage as-is and buys SE 1. Doing this limits the extra effect to weaker "off-hand" spells and limits overall spell strength, which should keep any brokenness in check.

How about a piston driven auto-crossbow that cocks itself via a compressed air tank.

That's what seems to be going on with the Van Helsing crossbow. There's a pneumatic reservoir or something in the stock, in any case.

I'd treat it as a repeating crossbow with ST 12 and a ROF of 3 and shots 12(10). A special note that the weapon's air reservoir only has enough power stored to cock the weapon 36 times before it must be recharged via a pump, a process that takes half an hour with a hand pump.

Cost should be mildly insane. It's a near-magic gadget and is right at the edge of possibility.

Malf 15, cost $1000+

Just a typo, 23 is the correct cost.

How the hell do you like gurps vehicles?

The vehicle generation is literally like fatal char generation

>"select your tech level"
>"if your vehicle will have A go to page X if not go to next page"
>my vehicle dont have A
>if your vehicle have B go to page X + 1
> go to page x +1 and read rules
>must now go back to previous page
>must keep reading stuff in order until I find something I want and then jump to another page that will maybe tell me to jump to a third page

Was in a game where the party's robot medic accidentally summoned sun wokong and in doing so pissed off the gods into cursing her.

This sounds epic and hilarious.

Thanks

>Malf
What's malf?

Malfunction. Rolling that or higher means the weapon jams, explodes or otherwise fails to perform properly.

How often that must be rolled?

Every you roll an attack with it bad things happen if you roll Malf or higher.

So, in the upcoming adventure, one of the players rivals will appear. The rival will basically steal the relic the PC recovered from a dungeon. In your experiences as GMs, how have you handled these kind of encounters?

With a smug look on the rival's face and an indigenous tribe of bow and spear wielders backing him. Just after the PC emerges with the artifact.

Looking to do a Fallout game for my friends, how well does melee centric characters stack up in a setting with modern guns, while using cinematic rules from just the Basic Set?

Which cinematic rules and at what point totals will make all the difference. If the melee character can close the distance quickly it will make all the difference.

A chi-powered Warp with a 20-yard distance cap and reliable +10 (and maybe blink) will let a ninja be a threat to a guy with a high RoF rifle.

Once you get in close you can parry ranged weapon attacks by knocking aside weapons. That's vital to survive getting shot at.

Stealth and smoke are good too. Smoke grenades and low light make it much harder to shoot someone.

How would you price a limitation that forces the user spend ER, but disallows his to spend normal FP on it? Just as a feature of Costs FP, or an additional Nuisance Effect, -5%?

150/-50 sorry, and just the cinematic advantages from the basic set excluding magical or paranormal, we won't be using the in depth tactical rules either since it's our first time with the system, maybe we'll use hit locations I'm not too sure.

I've not used the cinematic martial arts/melee combat rules in GURPS much and my recollections are rusty.

I can tell you, though, that firearms in GURPS are absolutely, terrifyingly lethal--as they realistically should be. ("Tag! You're it!" "oog" "It's your turn to--oh, I see. Your lungs and intestines are in a tree now." "gurgle")

In that case, it doesn't. If you're 50 yards away and you brought a knife to a gunfight don't expect the person who inherits your knife to have to clean it.

If you tell us what you mean by cinematic advantages we can probably help more. The ones in the book are labeled "Mental, Physical, Social, Exotic, Supernatural, and Mundane." Some of them have the word "cinematic" in their description. Are you referring to those? Or are all Exotic, Supernatural, and Mundane off limits? Either way, I wouldn't want to be up against even a pistol if I only have a sharp bit of metal.

In order to handle a gunfight when you don't have a ranged weapon of your own you'll need to use a whole lot of Camouflage, Stealth, and Tactics. Pick of the stragglers one at a time then disappear. In other words you'll have to attack like a horror movie monster in the first half of the movie.

You *have to* get in close somehow with melee. It's kind of right there in the name. Unless you're using bullet-proof nudity and flesh wounds or Exotic and Supernatural advantages you're going to have a hard time with that in a group of melee PCs against firearms.

Be selective in your rules choices; choose ones that limit firearms but not necessarily melee fighters.

Tactical Shooting has some great rules for fucking over gunners.
-Sighted (All-Out Determined) or Aimed shooting gives you effect of No Peripheral Vision, or Tunnel Vision if using a scope!
-Armor tends to get in the way of a longarm's shoulder stock; non-concealable armor penalizes Guns skill. This means shooters are unlikely to use much armor, but melee fighters are free to!

Tactical Shooting also has some great suggestions for surviving gunners.
-Grab Luck. With bullets flying around, your adventure can be over after one bad roll. Luck makes you a ton more survivable.
-Utilize cover and stealth. Copy the rules from Dungeon Fantasy or Action about using Stealth during/at the beginning of combat.
-Grab Luck. I'm saying it again because it's that important.

>I can tell you, though, that firearms in GURPS are absolutely, terrifyingly lethal--as they realistically should be.

Kinda. Guns in GURPS acutely do considerably more damage then they should. A 5.56mm rifle round won't, in the real world, reliably and terminally cripple any limb it hits.

The disconnect is based on the incorrect idea that higher energy means a round dose more damage. Beyond sufficient penetration adding more energy to a round to deal more damage falls into diminished returns.

Would applying Survivable Guns to all firearms and worsening the injury multiplier for non-torso hits (or even across the board) be enough to fix this?
I already apply SG and cap torso damage at HP, but I've never considered worsening injury multipliers.

Yeah, the military is studying that particular phenomenon. Google for "fleet yaw." A lot depends on the specific type of ammunition that 5.56mm rifle is using, and even things like the rate of twist of the rifling.

5.56mm to the torso, though, assuming it's not just a grazing hit, is generally for keeps. See diagram. The bullet tends to yaw and fragment in soft tissue, or at least the older, Vietnam-era M193 bullet did. The (1980s-current) NATO standard M855/SS109 bullet was designed with a steel core, for a requirement conceived of in the 1970s that it be able to penetrate a Russian steel helmet at the same distance as the older, heavier 7.62x51mm NATO and .30/06 rifle bullets could, and the trade-off is that it doesn't always yaw or fragment so reliably.

Since the beginning of the "war on terror" in 2001 there's been a lot more money spent, and not just by the US military, on further improvements. I'm not sure if they've made their minds up yet but they've been testing stuff for fifteen years now that's got everything you can imagine, short of solid rocket fuel.

You could give them pic related from Martial Arts if you don't mind it being unrealistic.

Keep Simultanious tracks limited to the same that's in RAW then.

The thing is, prices for sorcery are all over the place. No-Smell costs 63 points!

You can get an explosive, 1 second cyclical 1d+5 fireball for 32 points.

in RAW, leaning new spells is not at a disadvantage, unless the numbers come up wrong, and if so you loose the benefits of the points you invested until you invest even more points to master your newest, most expensive, spell.

I admit, 10 points invested per slot is too damn cheap, it should be like, 30 or something.

But what's wrong about being able to maintain spells you mastered even if you haven't paid your top price?

What about just paying the difference?

For example, Sorcerer Bob has SE 6 [60] and has a known spell that has a full cost of 50. Bob then buys SE 7 [70] for 10 points. A few adventures later, he wants to buy a spell with a full cost of 65. If he spends 13 points, he knows the spell, but can no longer have two abilities running simultaneously. However, Bob decided to un-master that 50-point spell from before; it's still a known spell that costs 10 as an Alternate Ability, but that frees up 40 points. For only 25, Bob knows a new and *very* powerful spell and can still simultaneously cast two of them. Or he can pay for the the 65-point spell in its entirey and be able to have *three* simultaneous effects.

Lets be honest here, if you're at the point value where you can afford both 70 points worth of Sorcerous Empowerment *and* a 65-point advantage on top of any other known spell, mundane advantage or skill, or above-average attribute, a few dozen points is pocket change.

I still like my idea of buying a second Sorcerous Empowerment though. It lets you have a constant low-level spell effect (some DR, a skill bonus, etc.) while letting you filng (mostly) full-powered spells around like normal.

I think the issue behind the No-Smell example is that Obscure treats every sense as equal when it really shouldn't be. Having no odor is not the equivalent of being invisible. In general though, there's the big issue that a decent number of spells are going to be horendously overpriced because that's what happend when you convert vague spell effects to advantages; the Resist Fire spell would cost literally *infinite points* if converted to advantages despite being a fairly basic spell with only three prerequisites.

psychological disadvantage: compulsively bumps threads that are about to expire, common, strong, -2 reaction, 10 points

Survivable guns and works, as dose doubling the threshold for guns that are pi lower then pi+ to cripple limbs. This also makes pi+ guns, otherwise sort of rubbish, better.

I'm trying to build incarnum from D&D 3.5 as a power. I attempted to translate the chakra and essentia mechanics to make incarnum feel different from other powers. This is what I have right now. I built one soulmeld to see how it works. Did I do it properly?

Seems good, though you should note how long binding soulmelds lasts for.

Thanks.
It's supposed to be indefinitely.
I guess if I won't find anything else missing, I'll start converting the rest of the soulmelds.

Spending FP for an unlimited duration resource seems a bit pointless. You get the FP point back after an hour. Wouldn't it fit better to either disable the spent point while it's in use, or require reapplication? As is, you'd only ever need one point of essentia.

I think we have a misunderstanding here. You don't spend FP to bind the soulmelds or bind them to a chakra. You spend FP to use their abilities, which are either instantaneous or last for 1 minute.

Ah, right, my mistake-got the terminology mixed up. Yeah, I think k you're pretty set then.

>All in all, one of my absolute favorite characters in over 20 years of gaming
>over 20 years of gaming

if you started playing when you were 10 that means you are 30+ now. Which leads to a question how old are you user?

GURPS general, tell me about Spaceships. It's a supplement I've been thinking about using for my next campaign, and besides running a few of the ships against each other, I see no otherwise learn about this subsystem besides asking you guys.

>What kind of armaments are good? Too good?
>How much fuel do you need?
>Are defenses worth spending money and slots on?
>How expensive is the upkeep of your average vessel
>What does a fleet battle look like? What does warfare in SPAAACE look like?

>What kind of armaments are good? Too good?
Missile are too good (but easily counterable, which I'll touch on later).
>How much fuel do you need?
Can't speak to this, sadly. Every GURPS game in space I've particiapted in used reactionless drives due to ~scary maths~
>Are defenses worth spending money and slots on?
A mass of tertiary laser cannons is basically necessary if the setting includes missiles. Missile are one-shotting fiends *but* are easily shot down by the laser light show that is the tertiary weapons battery. The only way to reliably overcome a ship's point-defense system is by devoting the entirety of your ship to missile launchers and cargo to hold all the missiles, which is not only suicidal but expensive.
>How expensive is the upkeep of your average vessel
Upkeep isn't that bad (unless you use missiles) but it obviously varies from ship to ship. Even cheaper if you use reactionary drives and certain powerplants.
>What does a fleet battle look like? What does warfare in SPAAACE look like?
Really really depends on the rules and tech level in question. If high-power reactionless drives are in, or if the setting uses aerial dogfighting in space a'la Star Wars, then ships will be zipping between each other and fightercraft with flood out of hulking motherships. If that's not the case, then working to dodge lasers may be suicidal (i.e. spend too much reaction mass dodging lasers in a fight may leave you stranded even if you survived the battle unharmed) and battlefields will look very much like LoGH with mostly stationary ships (in respect to each other) exchanging blue lines and hoping their armor is enough. You may also see a return of "eggshells armed with warhammers," or ships that dedicate everything to killing enemy ships in the initial volley.

>tl;dr missile suck dick and ruin everything. Either cut them from the setting entirely or have them limited due to fear of MAS (Mutually Assured Stupidity).

40? Maybe 50

Alright, this was helpful.

Next step is trying out some simulations I guess.

Does a character with cowardice heave to roll against it at every turn during combat?

>my next campaign
Can I join?

Even if we assume that I was GM:ing in English (which I am not), I'm just at the planning stage since I'm in the middle of another campaign right now, and that one will likely last a few months, sorry.

It was also not intended to be very LoGH inspired, I just like the show, hence the pictures. I usually do sandbox games, so it would probably have ended up being more of a firefly/crest of stars mix.

>>How much fuel do you need?

Long story short, efficient single-stage reaction rockets tend to have a fuel ratio of around e. In GURPS Spaceships terms, that means 13-16 fuel tanks.

I don't think it should be every round, I'd say if you pass your first check, you won't have to make another one until something bad happens to you (or the threat's disproportionally large, anyone would just run at this point). Let's say you get over your irrational fear of guns being pointed your way. Good, now you can function and do things, maybe even fight. But if you catch a bullet, you're gonna quickly reconsider, I'd say you make a check every time you're harmed. Or maybe every time you suffer a significant shock penalty, Low-Pain Threshold characters are gonna be running away pretty often.

No. They have to make a self control roll to put themselves in physical danger if they have a choice to avoid it, but that isn't a fright check, it's a self-control roll which doesn't cause them to roll on the fright check table. They simply avoid the danger in any way they choose.

They also suffer a penalty to fright checks involving physical danger. These are fright checks which anyone might be called on to make, the cowardice just makes it worse.

Typically fright checks happen in combat when confronted with overwhelming force, such as being suppressed by automatic weapons fire, explosions, dragon breath, being in the middle of two phalanxes crushing into each other or when seeing unusually brutal or gruesome injuries (or less severe injuries happening to you). They might also be appropriate for totally unexpected violence, such as a knife attack while you are working in your office. These fright checks happen when you are exposed to the event and you only roll once per event, not every round of combat (although some combat can be so nasty that there is a fright-check worthy event every round).

>devoting the entirety of your ship to missile launchers and cargo to hold all the missiles, [...] is not only suicidal but expensive.
Itano Ichirou wants to have a word with you

Combat fright checks is something I'd like a pyramid issue to get into depth with. They say this is a possibility, but since they give any good templates on "in what sort of campaigns should what sort of combat checks cause fright checks at what penalties". It feels bad to actually include them as a GM right now since I think just winging these kinds of fright checks are likely to become inconsistent and unfair.

Also, if one of your allies goes down, that's a pretty good place to consider fleeing/hiding behind cover forever.

Honestly, firm guidance on when to use Fright Checks in general would be welcome. Even Horror is pretty vague about it; it lists modifiers to the roll, but doesn't really have anything about when you should and shouldn't roll except vague talk about GM's judgement.

Also, does anyone know what the point of the 'rule of 14' is? Why can't I have a better than 84% chance of resisting fear even if I have superhuman Will, loads of Fearlessness, Combat Reflexes, etc? Unless I just take Unfazeable, which is total immunity.

If you use 4th ed Spaceships, literally any gun can one shot literally any ship. The errata cuts their damage by an order of magnitude and it's still too high. This also makes heavier missiles pointless.

So.. Yeah, ultra-tech space magic deflector shields and collapsed matter armor can't stop one gunshot.

Oh wow, and I was going to use GURPS only for the spaceships. Is that bad?The combat is fun at least?

Does anyone ever get the urge to rewrite the "Elf" racial template from GURPS Fantasy so that it includes a psych lim, "quick to recognize lewdness?"

I'm spending way too much time here.

Armor is honestly pretty meh unless you stack it up warship style and use one of the optional rules for increased DR for dedicating X% of your ship entirely to armor and always choose unstreamlined over streamlined. Forescreens are da bomb if you allow them in though.

That being said, the inability to tank shots in space isn't as big an issue in play as it seems. In most scifi shows I'm familiar with, slugfests between ships are few and far between; this includes Firefly, which you listed as an inspiration. Instead, it's a few warning shots or devastating surprise hits and then on to evasive maneuvers; a good pilot is worth his weight in gold-press latinum. Alternitavely, it's opened communications followed by heading planetside or a boarding action. Rarely is anyone blown out of the sky.

Also, it's almost never a good idea to give PCs a warmachine that makes them feel indestructable. That's the fastest route to them biting off more than they can chew and TPKing. Fragile ships make for humble crew.

Gamewise: It's too cheap; between Will [5/level], Combat Reflexes, and Fearlessness [2/level], a starting PC can easily become all but immune to fear essentially on accident. The Brave/Rule of 15 perk is a tiny middle point between normal characters and Unfazeable ones, though.

Fluffwise: Fear can be insideous. Simply being willfull isn't enough as Fear can turn your mind against itself.

I admit, your solution is elegant, but is it in RAW?

And then, well, you're basically treating it as a form of cosmic modular abilities.

Isn't simpler to go: For maintenance or simultaneous casting Points invested in mastered spells must be at least equal to the most expensive spell.

Don't see why it wouldn't be RAW, as Sorcery *is* just a form of Modular Abilities.

Your solution is debatably simpler (separate low-level track and keeping a sum of points at least equal to your most expensive spell are both pretty straightforward, so comparing them's a wash), but I'm exceptionally warry of "free" effects like this, especially in a game with as many intricate and moving parts as GURPS. That's just me though. If having a separate Sorcery track doesn't sit right with you, that's fine because it's not my game.

Would that be a quirk or a perk? I could see that working either way.

Perk probably. You automatically recognize attempted uses of Sex Appeal/Erotic Art. Or maybe make it a technique for Observation that counters Hinting (Sex Appeal).

What are you guys general thoughts on cheating your players. In the adventure my players are about to set off to, they are going to be helped by a guy that is secretly working for one of the PC's rival, but will say he works for the same organization they do. Since my players are rather gullible, they will probably take it at face value, and that kinda makes me worried they will get a little too pissed at me. I don't mean I will pull this shit all the time. What are your guys general opinions on it?

I see no problem with doing it occationally. If you're worried about you'r players reaction, give them a way, clues or something, to eventually figure this out themselves rather than just wait till he betrays them in the open.

>Don't see why it wouldn't be RAW, as Sorcery *is* just a form of Modular Abilities.

...No it's not.

Sorcery is roughly 90% RAW from Alternate Attacks from Basic Set.

>Alternative Attacks
>If you have multiple Innate Attacks, you may define them as being the
>same basic attack, but with different settings, ammo types, etc. Determine
>the cost of these “alternative attacks” as usual, but only pay full price for
>the most expensive attack. Buy additional attacks at 1/5 cost (round up).
>This can save a lot of points, but there are drawbacks. First, since the
>attacks represent a single ability, you cannot use them simultaneously,
>even if you are capable of multiple attacks. This also prevents you from
>combining them with the Link enhancement (p. 106). As well, any critical
>failure or malfunction that disables one of your attacks disables all of
>them. Finally, if your most expensive attack is somehow drained or neu-
>tralized, none of the cheaper attacks will work.
>You may also apply this rule to multiple Afflictions (p. 35) or Bindings
>(p. 40), or any combination of these with Innate Attacks that you cannot
>use simultaneously. With the GM’s permission, you can apply this rule to
>multipurpose Strikers (p. 88) as well

Basic Set Characters: page 61

In sorcery the thing you're paying top dollar for is the empowerment itself.

There's no mention of being able to move your points around

>...No it's not.
...Yes it is. The core of Sorcery is Modular Abilities (the improvised spells) and Alternative Abilities (the known spells). It even says it in the book on page 5:
>The value of Sorcerous Empowerment was estimated by creating a custom Modular Ability (using GURPS Powers), worth 5 points base + 5 points per point of abilities, that can simulate anything the GM agrees could be cast as a spell in the setting (see Improvisational Limits, pp. 7-8). This was modified by Limited, Advantages Only (-10%), Magical (-10%), Physical (+100%), and Reduced Time 1 (+20%) – the latter to allow instant configuration so that improvised spells don’t take any longer than known ones – to arrive at the final cost.

>Finally about to start running a game again after a dry spell that was way too fucking long.
>First session's about a month away by most estimates, but most things have been set up.
>Working on adventures and encounters
>Start theorycrafting about totally different things to run in GURPS, rules-wise.
>Then tone-wise
>Then setting-wise
>Start writing up NPCs or cool locales.
>Have nearly killed my enthusiasm for a game that hasn't even started by funneling it to about four different side projects, none of which will see the light of day.

Jesus what the fuck is wrong with me. Never have a felt such kinship with filthy frogposters.