GURPS General - /gurpsgen/

PDFs of what?

GURPS of course, the 6.6 gb.

You got anything that's missing from the Archive in the op's 'picture'? Oh, you didn't know, didn't you? APOLOGIZE

sorry

Well, do you have anything missing?
I still don't have all the 3e books. Sometimes it wakes me up at night.

I forgive you user. We'd make the damn thing more visible but, but I think we could run into issues with copyright or something.

Yeah, blatantly hosting a mega archive for "personal use".
How could that be bad for anyone

I think might have something.

Holy, that archive is enormous.

Reposting this here

So, we're all aware of the kickstarter by now. I'm in for a copy to ease my group into something that isn't a D20 derivative. To expand on the box beyond the basic set, would I be better off getting Magic, Thaumatology, or Fantasy first? Assuming I can only get them one at a time on a poorfag's budget.

Depeeeeeends!
Magic if you think standard spell system is fine but want to add more spells.
Thaumatology if you would like a more interesting magic system. Would be my pick.
Fantasy... not sure what it gives that isn't in the DF set. Not entirely sure what the DF set contains either, but my guess is that you can overlook it for now.

Kassandra Leige, feeling like death warmed over.

I'd suggest Thaumatology first, among those options..

But I wouldn't pick that option. I'd go with Low Tech and some of it's companion books to Dungeon Fantasy. I like Artifacts and Treasure tables to give lots of new things to throw at players.

This too, Low-Tech is a really great book. I was hesitant to recommend it because I'm not sure how well it matches DF-gear, anyone with more DF-experience that can elaborate on that?

>not sure what it gives that isn't in the DF set

I've actually been wondering about that. What separates DF from the Fantasy supplement?

Armor is more complicated, but at far as I know, it meshes fine with Basic Set (DF just uses BS and introduces new qualities like Dwarven). The weapons should be fine as well as its just an expansion.

A ton. They're totally different things.
Fantasy is all about worldbuilding and setting the tone/theme. It includes general templates for tropes (peasant hero, battlemage, etc.) and monster, but that's about it.
DF is basically D&D. It's all mechanics with prescriptive templates, power-ups, rules for traps and dungeon crawling, etc. There's almost nothing on worldbuilding because that's not something that dungeon fantasy cares about.

>the Fantasy supplement
Fantasy isn't a campaign background book. It is a "how to build a background" book.

If you were to make your own version of Dungeon Fantasy from scratch without ~~stealing~~ referencing any other existing game or background Fantasy would be the tool to help you do that. It is an interesting read and useful even for those who don't play GURPS but it probably isn't what you're looking for if you want something you can just pick up and run a game out of.

Fantasy is more about how to design a fantasy setting for a GURPS campaign. It has a ton of good info on how to evoke different kinds of fantasy and gives rules examples relating to those. It's definitely a GM focused book.

Dungeon Fantasy is way more focused as a self contained D&D style game. It basically gives you character classes, skill/spell/equipment lists and some monsters and tells you to get on with it.

Books I would get to compliment the dungeon fantasy box would be:

Thaumatology because regular GURPS magic is one of the worst parts of the system.

Whichever Dungeon Fantasy books listed under "beginner" or "expert" look like something you want in your game (like ninjas or barbarians or whatever)

How to be a GURPS GM has insanely good advice on how to run combat in GURPS, both in how to design NPCs that are challenging and what rules to use. Combat can be pretty tough until you've run it a few time, so I recommend this pretty highly even though the title makes it sound like it's for babies

Low Tech and its companions if you decide you really want to get into the minutia of what kind of shit would be around in your game world. If it's not going to be a big deal the DF books give you enough detail.

Martial Arts if you decide that combat isn't intricate enough for you.

Social Engineering if you want to run a campaign set in a court or something and decide you need a robust rules system for that

Why GURPS? I kind of hate SW because it seems so limiting when creating a character though it gives the illusion of choice. My favorite systems are Rolemaster Classic, Shadowrun, and 4e dnd, for different reasons. GURPS seems to be a more complex SW? Would it appeal to me given my preferences? Does it do tactical combat well? Does chargen have actual depth like Shadowrun? Anything cool or interesting about combat like Rolemaster crit tables?

I posted this in the previous thread but it was at the ass end of the thread, got some great responses but I'd like to hear more takes on GURPS.

I'm building a armor loadout for a TL 4 SM+1 character as kind of a wishlist that I can pick up ala-cart when the GM gives enough time to get armor made or modified for my huge Scorned.

I'm not sure if I totally get how Low Tech works though.

SM +1 Heavy Mail Coif (Covers Skull and Neck, Face from Behind) DR 5* (-2 vs CR)

Cost $720, Weight 10.8

SM+ 1 Fine Mail Halkburk (Covers Torso, Arms, Groin)
DR 4* (-2 vs CR)

Cost $2700, Weight 45

SM +1 Fine Mail Leggings (Covers Legs)
DR 4* (-2 vs CR)

Cost $1800, Weight 30

SM+ 1 Light Iron Gauntlets (Covers Hands)
DR 3

Cost $200, Weight 1.6

SM+ 1 Light Iron Plate Boots (Covers Feet)
DR 3

Cost $200, Weight 1.6

SM +1 Water-Resistant Surcoat, Arming Garments and ect for Status 0

Cost $220, Weight 6

Total: $5,840 and 95 pounds.

Did I miss anything there?

Check the OP's image for a general overview.

I'd add breastplate later depending on dangerous your average opponents are.

I'm not sure how do you calculate your costs, but I might be mistaken as well.
Lets check "SM+ 1 Fine Mail Halkburk (Covers Torso, Arms, Groin)"
Torso (includes abdomen which includes groin) 100% + Arms 50% -> x1.5
Multiplier for SM+1 is 2.25
Fine Mail is $900 15 lbs
So it should be 900*1.5*2.25 = $3037 15*1.5*2.25 = 50 lbs

>Multiplier for SM+1 is 2.25

I believe you, but got a page reference? I was using the Basic Set x2.

Man, 2.25 is harsh. You already get half the armor per pound of a normal person.

Low Tech Companion 2, pages 20-21
Didn't know there was rule in Basic Set as well

Not that guy but it's in Low Tech Companion.

It's also pretty harsh. I house rule humans with giantism and similar creatures only pay 1.5 weight and cost for armor with 2+ being for things like horses and grizzly bears and draft horses that are SM +1 but weigh a literal tonne.

Yeah when in doubt the newer books override with their modifiers; especially if your picking out armor from those books in particular.

So the cost would be $6570 and weight 106.9 pounds.. Ouch. That's a lot of weight. I'll still be in Light encumbrance, but being unencumbered is out of reach.

>100+ lbs
>light load
Wtf mate

18 ST. Just have to keep it under 130 pounds. I'm going to see if my GM will approve Lifting ST as a character advance though. I'd like to get that higher and have more grappling options.

If you don't fastball special, you are no credit to team

Any good advantage options for developing a sort of minimap sense of an area? Like spotting individuals, and open spaces, no major details. It's meant for a character who uses a warping affliction to move people around. Rather not use blink so he doesn't have to know the structure of a building ahead of time.

Detect
Clairaudience/clairvoyance
Penetrating vision
Hyperspectral vision

Hmm, a kickstarter from a company that has never made an enjoyable product, and who kickstarted Ogre, the most boring and unremarkable game to ever be remade.

However they're as reliable as they are uninteresting.

Detect points you in the direction of a thing, so it doesn't seem useful for what I want at all.

Clairsentience displaces your senses to s specific point away from your body, again, not good for getting a general sense of an area, especially when I'm talking about not wanting much detail.

Penetrating Vision would have to go along with 360 vision and it's more detailed than I'd really like, though if I can't find anything better I might just go with it.

I don't think hyperspectral vision will let one see through walls and such.

Alternate GURPS #3/72.

...

Good stuff, many thanks.

>Thinking SJG is reliable.

/Thread

Scanning sense (milimeter wave radar) would do fine.

> We aren't using the magic book, or that system, so don't choose spells from that book. Everyone got it?
> Yes.
>Ok
Next day
>I think I want my character to have magery 3 and these spells.
>We aren't using that system
Go into group chat
>Guys, we are not using the regular magic system, only ritual path magic or Sorcery, or any other Powers you want. Understood?
>Yes
>No questions?
>Yes, stop badgering us. We got it.
Next day, another player
>Can I get magery 3 and Fire College! ?

>wanting basic magic when you have access to way more flexible stuff
That's some weird people

A lot of people that are bad at minmaxing want power instead of flexibility, and the base spell system is very good at delivering power. With decent IQ and Magery, a single point invested in a spell unlocks a very powerful and reliable ability. I mean, I COULD build an ability that lets me create a storm of flame and lava that scours the battlefield, or I could put a point into Meteor Storm.

Less cynically, they may just be more comfortable with the base system; each spell is its own predetermined effect, which is easy enough. Building RPM rituals or Sorcery spells is not only more work, it also means the possibility to make a mistake. There's no confusion over what a spell does and no way to mess up investing a point in it. This doesn't excuse being an idiot that doesn't listen to the GM time after time, though.

Yeah, someone said that I'd just assume they haven't read RPM.

The GM wasn't clear the first time. No Magic (the book) leaves the Basic Set's magic chapter. A person might be forgiven for missing the second post that the only allowed systems are RPM and sorcery.

>With decent IQ and Magery
This sounds like a lot of points. At this level RPM mage can supply whole party with powerful fire bombs (or even better - vacuum bombs that remove solid chunk of ground under enemy). I dunno, even in raw power smart RPM user can outperform blast mage.

I'm familiar with main-line GURPS. I'd never consider GMing it, because to take out all the extraneous rules in the books I'd use, I'd have to write a full length book just to keep what I *do* have together.

So, is GURPS Lite a semi-solution to that problem? Let's say I want to run a straight urban fantasy game, no weird twists. CofD or the like. Can it do it, or would I be wasting my time trying to learn it? I've got Ultra-Lite, but it's too light for me.

You could do that. Lite is perfectly workable but you might miss some things. If you want to include monsters and spooky shit and magic..

Well, I'd suggest you take the plunge and jump into the Basic Set. Yes, it's fucking huge, but you don't need to use all of it and there's an assistant program to help with the harder part, making a character.

You could use Lite rules for the players and build things out of your GURPS experience, but I feel like for a CofD game you'd want to be able to use rules from Horror and I'd want to take out Ritual Path Magic.

So I am planning on running a Fate/Stay night game using GURPS. Players are going to be a team of servants. What Books do you think I should use?

>less than 24 hours after DFbox kickstarter went live
>nearly $40k funded

I'm happy the gurpsfags are coming out of the woodwork for this

It helps that every GURPS fan is an IT professional with a decent amount of disposable income*

*This is an estimate, but seriously, how many people have you met that play GURPS that couldn't make wince by asking them about rolling out a patch on a server in production on a Friday night?

H-hey, that's not true! I'm not...

>physics PhD
>spend most of my time programming

Fuck.

That's not true at all, we have... well, fuck. One guy that's not somehow involved in IT in a seven person group, and he's an architect.

I'm a high school drop out NEET, user. I'm just a failure.

Realistically, the gauntlets and boots should probably be segmented plate or some other flexible or articulated armour.

Most TL 4 games you can get plate gauntlets with the chinks in armor rule for the leather or chain where they articulate. In the case of gauntlets the whole palm is leather in most cases. I think plate and mail would fit the rest of the suit better though.

Your face is protected on 1 on a D6 and the fine mail gives you sort of shitty weight to protection ratio. If you have spare weight just slap a visor helmet over the coif for 11th century crusader style.

Unless that's a deliberate choice? The face is a hard target and takes bonus damage from almost nothing. If you like scars then leaving it unprotected lets you avoid No Peripheral Vision.

Actually, Low Tech - Instant Armor features gauntlets and sabatons made of just light plate (at TL4) as well as segmented variants (at TL3)

Why is light plate so good? It has the best DR to weight ratio of all the armor in low tech. Fringing 2.5 beats the hell out of heavy plate

As I recall, all plate armour gets a free +1 DR for the deflection effects of being a smooth, hard surface. Since light plate has the lowest DR, it gets the most benefit from this.

I remember a few threads ago there was someone complaining about how Ultratech armour doesn't protect enough, and how armour divisors are far big (Halving all armour at the lowest AD, for example). Would lowering (Or in the case of things below 1.00, highering) each armour divisor by 0.25 per 0.50 above or below 1.00 work to fix that? Meaning that 2AD would turn to a 1.50AD, and 0.5AD would turn to 0.75AD.

>GURPS seems to be a more complex SW?

They're different enough that I wouldn't say that.

>Would it appeal to me given my preferences?

It might, that's hard to say off hand.

>Does it do tactical combat well?

I've never played a system I thought did it better.

>Does chargen have actual depth like Shadowrun?

Depends on what you mean, but 90% of your effort in GURPS will be character creation, and you can create virtually anything you want. In GURPS, you could stat out the entire crew of Red Dwarf, including Holly and Talkie Toaster.

>Anything cool or interesting about combat like Rolemaster crit tables?

There are some very useful and deadly critical hit tables. A triple damage crit in GURPS can be a terrible thing to behold. A hobgoblin PC in one of my games in 3rd Edition was literally cut in half by a greatswordsman, going from maximum HP to dead, dead, dead in one blow.

>a patch on a server in production on a Friday night?

FUCK YOU YOU MONSTER IT'S THE FRIDAY BEFORE LABOR DAY

Non-integer armour divisors like that end up a bit weird. Do you want to sit there and try to work out what 0.75 of someone's DR is?

>Depends on what you mean, but 90% of your effort in GURPS will be character creation, and you can create virtually anything you want. In GURPS, you could stat out the entire crew of Red Dwarf, including Holly and Talkie Toaster.

I think something that's really worth noting is that different characters will feel different as well. A lot of rules-light games can also deliver on the claim of "create damn near anything," but they do so by reducing the mechanics to the lowest common denominator. Making TT in FATE, for example, is a matter of choosing the right aspects, and the aspects Toaster Body and Cheap Heating Element are resolved like any other aspect like Practitioner of Forbidden Magic or Veteran of the Great War; there's no mechanical difference between them, so the difference feels moot or even fake, which is what I think the user meant when he was talking about SW's illusions of choice -- yeah you can pick from a lot of different things, but at the end of the day it's all "+2 in [situation]" or something similar.

Neither approach is wrong, but people usually have a very strong preference for one over the other. If you want your fireballs to feel different from your shotgun or to have rules for telepathy, use GURPS. If you just want to jot down "Ranged: d6+2" and "+2 when reading minds would be helpful" and get on with playing the game, use a more rules-light system.

Very well said, user.

Yes, this is what I meant. Thanks a lot for the insight guys, I'm definitely gonna give GURPS a try.

Does the Reverse Missiles spell also put a stop to grenades chucked into the caster's HEX (as opposed to directly at the caster himself)?

Only if the target sacrificial-dodges themselves into the path of the grenade and has his buddy caster reflect the grenade as it is about to hit.

One-handing two handed guns still makes them unreadied if you fire at 1.5x ST, right? I don't have the book in front if me, but I'm trying to figure out a points ballpark for how much ST I'll need.

Correct, although some guns have special rules and there are a few tricks you can use to counteract the high-ST requirement.

Neat, so I'd only need ST 14 to keep dual wielded G11s on target. That's doable.

I hope you have spare G11s in case some of them will jam

>glorious clockwork
>jamming, ever

It's like you don't trust the Swiss.
Now all I need is a game to field dual-wielded G11s in. Maybe I'll end up having to GM...

>work out what 0.75
Sure. Figure half DR. Halve that. Multiply by 3.

Figure out half DR, halve that, add both.

Settings/campaigns I have in my head right now

Ghostbusters '99: Japan (think a remake made by the guys who did Men in Black or Pacific Rim)
Prelude to World War 3 (WOLVERINES)
Sliders: the good season (LOL, but no, really, great setting)
Stargate (this time with production value!)
1984 (like the book, but more kraut space magic)

>just do three calculations instead of one

Or, you know, you could do one. Say you have AD0.75 against 15DR, you'd just go 15/0.75=20. Seriously, that's the only calculation you'd need. I have no idea why those others said you need to do three.

Because multiplying by fractions is scary for most people.

I'm mathematically retarded, so I typically just use a calculator anyway.

Doubling, halving and tripling numbers is relatively easy to do mentally. Mentally multiplying by fractions other than 0.5 and 0.25 is hard.

Dividing something by 2 or 10 is super easy to do mentally, so most people will try to break things down in terms of those numbers (e.g. divide by 5 = divide it by 10 then double it) like they are with x0.75.

Handling thirds is a pain in the ass to the point I instinctively reach for a calculator without looking at the problem.
>I need one-third of six?? Ffffffffuuuuuuuuck lemme check my phone
>...
>Hold up.

I play online, so doing any sort of math is as easy as typing it out in my search bar. I can see how it would maybe be a little more difficult in meatspace.

Also, with all the popular ADs, you'd end up with:
2 = 1.5 (Probably the most difficult one)
3 = 2
5 = 3
10 = 5.5 (I'd probably just round that down to 5 for simplicity's sake)

I have a player who is innumerate and a functional illiterate as well as another player who can take up to 30 seconds to sum 3 dice.

There's no help for the latter (aside from not allowing him to touch dice - he uses an app on his phone) but the former can do halving, doubling, and tripling.

Several small, simple operations are much easier for the average person than one single seemingly complex one.

>a player who can take up to 30 seconds to sum 3 dice

it me

What's the highest point value you've ever played at and had fun?

>Mentally multiplying by fractions other than 0.5 and 0.25 is hard.
Multiplying by 0.1 is piss easy and every 0.x fraction is a multiple of 0.1, that certainly simplifies things. Between "halve it, now halve it again" and "divide by 10, now multiply that by some integer" you can handle most fractions you encounter.
Of course multiplying by 0.47 or something isn't easy but then when the fuck do you need to do that in a RPG?

750+200, no supernatural, no magic, extraordinary abilities only as part of a race template. We played the inner council of a space empire after the last emperor died and left a five year old heir. Most of those points went into allies, status, and assets, except one guy who played the imperial flagship and its various avatars.

>played the imperial flagship and its various avatars.
Shit, in any game that takes place aboard a ship with a large enough crew, the GM or a player should actually roleplay AS the ship, taking its interests into account.

How was the Ogre kickstarter? Did it get delivered on time?

Can I trust SJG to not fuck me over?

I didn't back ogre but my roommate did. He said it delivered late because they raised so much extra money ($900,000 out of a goal of $20,000) and kept throwing more stretch goals on.

I've been playing GURPS for more than 25 years. I've never once been fucked over by SJG. In fact, when they did fuck up (the first print run of Characters and Campaigns where the binding was shit and the pages fell out) they shipped replacements for free, no questions asked. That was really above and beyond level shit.

I feel pretty confident in saying they won't fuck you over.

>kept throwing more stretch goals on.

With the current stretch goals, that doesn't seem like it will be a problem this time.