GURPS General GURPSGEN

The hero we deserve.

>no catgirls in Banestorm
What blasphemy is this?

David Pulver wasn't involved.

Goddammit gurpsgen, don't die on me.

What's your favorite book?

Martial Arts and Low-Tech. Don't make me choose.

If you want it to live, just pick your favorite out off:
>the lifting still is stupid
>damage/dr/strenght balance is bad
>the ultratech weapons suck
>tips on how to make a campaign? I was thinking 250 points with -125 in disads

>>tips on how to make a campaign? I was thinking 250 points with -125 in disads
Jesus christ.
The one I'm in has 100 points and 23 in disadvantages and quirks.
Interesting.
Do knuckledusters count?

>Do knuckledusters count?

Nope. Punch away, friend.

Unpopular opinion time?

I think Martial Arts is unnecessary. Not bad, but it expands on a bunch of stuff that the Basic Set already did well. Unless you are playing a game where the very gritty close combat details will add a lot you don't need to use it.

I meant do they provide protection.
I already have power blow charged for twice the strength and my base ST is 10.
Another player who's up that tree thinks that I just hate him as a player because in the other campaign we're playing I killed him out of sheer rage while the reason I killed him was that my character was racistic as fuck while his character was a nigger

Knuckledusters mean you don't take damage when punching. Gauntlets don't keep you from taking damage, but do reduce any damage to your hands via DR.

There's a few heavy punching gauntlets in Low Tech that give bonus unarmed damage and DR, these mean you don't take damage just like brass knuckles.

If you really want to bump the thread you can mention the economy/cost of living

Oh fuck cost of living. How the shit does it even work?

Probably it's one of the things you only take into account when skipping time.

I just use it as 600 a month to cover room, board, wardrobe and basic transportation. Rations are $30 a week, ect.

shameless plugging
GrimWyrd is getting session logs updated, finally
kendelyzer.wordpress.com/

>GrimWyrd
yay!

Are we all just chatting in the new GURPS discord instead of in here now?

On *a* level, it makes sense: higher Status means higher standard of living, which means more money spent. Average peasants back in the day count as negative Status not just because shit sucked, but as a bandaid to this system (a serf cannot make enough money at TL3 to pay Status 0 CoL each month, but they can manage Status -1/-2). We can probably extrapolate on this and assume higher-TL average citizens are default Status 1+. Would modern CoL prices make more sense if we assume we're at the beginning of TL9 (ubiquitous smartphones, drone warfare, beginnings of mounted gauss/vacuum weapons, etc.) and most westerners are at Status 1?

In the Powered up book there's rules to have minor quality of life things as 1 point features.

On my gun users I usually take it and describe it as my character always making sure his guns are maximally loaded at every chance he gets during downtime. So my GM can't surprise me by saying, "But you forgot to reload from the last combat"

in the same vein, had a supremely forgetful PC in a game. Master assassin, but he just fucking forgot things all the time. Empty mags, guns on the dashboard, which photo was for which contract. etc. etc. Fun times, if a bit "Inspector Cluseau"

This actually makes sense because Serfs were not even free people, they were part of the land, slavery by another name. So yes if you are a serf you definitely have lower status.

Nice, very cool. It's great to look back at how things went down.

In any case, This Week On Grimwyld..

>Promo shots: A door exploding inward under cannon-fire, a hideous abomination threatening people from within a great sphere of magic. Everyone falling as a fortress drops out of the sky, Syviis half naked.*

The Party: Gray the huge beastman, group swordsman, heavy item transport. Bomrek, Dwarf alcohol and gunman, Syviis, elven ranger and lightning witch, Suðri, young and idealistic dwarf that believes in BIG GLAVES and Roderick, human swordsman, fire wizard and has awesome facial hair.

The group spit up some equipment from stores and collected their things, trying to keep Falkirk the coma wizard and ex-PC from getting more dead before he can be possessed by some hideous monster and nearly kill us all**

We teleport up to the flying fortress for the first time. Technically we've been able to do this for a while but we didn't before because we were exploring the rest of the place.

A huge room of polished black stone with words on the wall and windows looking out on an awesome view. The other side of the room? A giant sphere of horror with too many eyes and a ALL CAPS voice that demanded we free it. Deciding that it was a trick and we shouldn't shoot at the thing that seemed to be imprisoned, Gray played with the controls on a platform, three floating spheres of crystal.

This made the whole place tilt and a huge grinding sound. Turns out the giant anchors were still stuck in the mountain. Syviis was less then impressed by leaving the parking break on, but Roderick's fae-possessed sword whispered to him that it could teach him how to fly this thing.

Comment too long..

*Note: Syviis isn't acutely half naked in this episode, they just throw that in the trailers.
** I have no reason to think this would happen, but for some reason I'm expecting it any time.

We took a last trip down into the dungeon to find that apparently dragging the anchors had done a small amount of damage.

>Shit's on fire, yo.

Down past the door marked with the symbol of "a terrible creature of fury and pain" we found a place as hot as an oven, a lake of lava.. and another hideous abomination, though this one lava monster and had less style then the one in the fortress.

It tried to talk us into coming over and dying, but instead we just NOPED out of there, following our proud tradition of trying to spot fights where the GM is clearly forshadowing that they are bonus bosses we don't need to fight and avoiding them.

Back to the fortress, Roderick touched the controls.. and revealed that the item of our quest isn't some small thing, it's the whole flying fortress.. and that the whole thing moves under control, luckly he figured out enough of them to save us before the whole thing slammed into the ground, with only a short fall.

Gray, being unimaginative and piratical, said they should drive some anchors into the floor and lash stuff down.

>Overall..

Great session. I love this game.

Never GURPS before, but i'm lurking and liking what i'm reading.

Stargate 1888

> Cast of Characters; Ashton Carter, arrogant cycoptian sniper. Colonel Pomsby, team commander, accompanied by his stalwart African manservant. Cosette St.Michelle, nurse practitioner. James Reynard, whom is also there. Kris Drayer, linguist and idealist. Tobias Fletcher, solider and man of god, and Jamie McTavish, Scotsman, with the skills and abilities expected of such.

Chapter 2
>The field commander arrives, the Gate is opened, and we behold a new world. Much to the displeasure of the natives.

The team spends a week together, training with new weapons and learning about each other. Cosette subjects everyone to a medical interview, and being introduces to Colonel Pomsby, Her Majesty's Army, Retired. He proves to be a reasonable older man, avid adventurer and hunter. They at last went though the Gate to a new world for the first time.

On the other side we find out that only a few people are trusted with the code to open the Gate and return to New London, but everyone takes it well as the group is pretty much all playing professionals with cooperative attitudes (a fun novelty).

After studying what seem to be the gate controls and a statue of a sad looking human man in the jungle with a purple sky the group follows a trail, coming to a river where a man was hacking at a giant sluglike creature. Covered by the rest Pomsby took Kris forward to attempt to communicate. The savage man yelled and lifted his knife, enough to provoke Ashton to action. The sniper on overwatch put a blast from a electric rifle into the man's face, dealing terrible damage.

They checked out the body, discovering the man was impossible to save without immediate treatment at a first rate medical facility and even then would be unlikely to live. Given that Cosette gave the man a bunch of morphine and last rites.

Poor Tobias was given the task of examining the giant slug while Kris checked out the savages knife, Tobias finding a body inside the slug that was human and seemed undamaged other then the fact it had no skin. With that cheerful image they chose to move on, leaving the bodies behind and following the path as they went in the direction of a large pyramid in the distance.

As they went, Kris was working on trying to understand the symbols carved into the knife the savage had carried.

Give us some credit, the mark XI isnt repainted nerf(tm)

>*Note: Syviis isn't acutely half naked in this episode, they just throw that in the trailers.
HAH

>The sniper on overwatch put a blast from a electric rifle into the man's face, dealing terrible damage.
That wasn't a mark 11, that was a Martini-Enfield Mk1

Newbies overlook;

Luck. This is VERY FUCKING USEFUL, even if all you ever do is force a re-roll when a hostile critically hits you. It's also pretty cheap when Defensively Aspected.

Combat Reflexes. Cheaper then any other way to get +1 to all defenses and means if your GM uses the Surprise/Stun rules you never need to worry about them.

Rapid Healing. This is only really useful if you are in a game without high tech or magical healing this gives you +5 to HT rolls to heal, but also to avoid a limb getting crippled for good after a major wound.

Only started reading GURPS stuff yesterday and still haven't played it, but is seems like Luck is brokenly overpowered, even at it's cheapest. Wouldn't it make a character more or less immune to critical hits (are characters really critically hit more than once per hour)?

High-Tech. I enjoy especially reading about the various gun types, along with the armor. Never realized I was missing out so much in modern armor.

Metabolism Control+Hard to Kill. The ultimate, "You thought I was dead" combo. You dump one point in metabolism, two in hard to kill. People will assume you're dead, when really you just get back up later on and waltz off.

Also absolute timing+lightning calculator. Perfect for any time traveler, but I rarely see people grab it. (Too busy grabbing "Muh Temporal Inertia") The reason why these two fit together so well is you can always calculate WHEN you are. Throw in Edict Memory (Or whatever the E one is) and History. Boom, you know when things happen, where, and how. If you're witnessing them, History isn't really needed.

My favorite hidden gem has to be Judo. It's not an advantage, but it's utility is ungodly. Out of all the skills out there, Judo is probably the only one I think is a do or die for melee combat. It makes all melee encounters so much easier with it's counter-attack set up. Makes disarming enemies easier, too. Saves you from grapple hogs, and allows for parrying. Since it makes you a grapple king anyway, you don't have to worry about damage, really. Just all out defense, then judo throw and finish them off.

It's hardly broken. Once per hour doesn't reset for combat. You could use Luck outside of combat and suddenly find yourself in combat, with no re-roll.

Furthermore, that is a major reason for Luck, to prevent getting hit by critical successes. All that needs to happen is a second critical success, or a critical failure. It buffers characters against death by bad luck. Tactical Shooting says Luck is practically a mandatory advantage for real-life shootists, because people that survive gun fights are lucky.

This exact thing has happened every time my players have gotten killed
>shit, this seemed like an important roll, better reroll it
>Oh I'm in combat
>oh shit
>shit
>whelp

Fuucck, reminds me of a terrible death

>Use Luck to reroll a failed climb check
>Get critted and fucked up
>Bleed to death
>Get reminded that a failed climb check doesn't make you fall.

Alright, Luck seems more legit than I thought.

On readying a weapon: if the PCs start combat with their weapon in hand, do they count as readied? I'm thinking of a situation where they are in a precarious situation, playing it cautious, and keeping their weapons in their hands because they anticipate danger. Do they still have to spend a turn readying their weapon when combat breaks out, despite walking around with it in their hands?

I wouldn't believe so, especially in a dungeon-crawling situation.

Nope. The rule is that once you ready a weapon (an action you can take any time, including out of combat) it says readied until you stop holding onto it or perform an action that would unready it.

So you can walk around with a gun ready, unless you need to put it down in order to carry people with two hands, operate a computer or to make an espresso drink.

Note that, as you likely realized, a weapon at the ready does make civilians nervous.

You can keep a pistol ready under a newspaper or in a big enough pocket. In a pinch you can also just hide it behind your back.

I like psionic powers

So do I. I also like psionic biotech creature weapons

Banestorm is a very boring setting with lots of wasted potential. Catgirls would go a long way to livening it up along with elves that are not boring as shit

What is discord? I keep seeing that name around but what the fuck is it? Some kind of chat thing?

A botnet.

Just a chat application and site. Nothing fancy.

It's a chatroom/audiochat thing that's superceded Skype and Teamspeak/Ventrilo

>I think Martial Arts is unnecessary. Not bad, but it expands on a bunch of stuff that the Basic Set already did well. Unless you are playing a game where the very gritty close combat details will add a lot you don't need to use it.

Mostly true, but it was such a perfect, thorough treatment of martial arts that it's one of my favorites. There's basically little or nothing it did wrong. And the styles mechanics have proven to be very flexible for all kinds of games and situations.

Is it better than the alternatives?
>inb4 le botnet

>What is your favorite hidden gem?

Favorite covers a lot of ground, but ONE of my favorites is Signature Gear. GMs going after your best equipment is a very old problem in gaming-- as annoying or more than losing a character even though the GM thinks it's not so bad.

Social Advantages like Ally, when taken with a power modifier, suddenly turn into awesome psi/magic/fate abilities. Power-ups: Impulse Buys is a hidden gem of a supplement that turns many meh traits into sources of awesome.

What the game really needs is a good fiction series like Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms got. There's a lot to like but you're right that it feels static and boxed up.

>"Is it better than the alternatives?"
>Skype is now an advert platform
>Ventrilo still exists?

Pretty much, yes.

I'm fan of the perk level signature gear that acts only as insurance to let you keep items under normal circumstances. The power-up books in general are pretty good.

The rules for biting really change how things go in fights with predators and the basic set doesn't really cover that. I also like that it's not a book of fight'en magick.

I like Signature Gear because it's just a nice way to keep your character thematic. Items go a long way towards cementing a character.
I don't have a GM that I think would go out of his way to take stuff from my character, but it feels nice knowing that I'm reasonably sure that I always have what I need. It's especially true if you're a character that requires item(s) to fulfil your concept.
Especially for the character I'm playing right now, which is a cavalryman with a ton of horse-related skills. My horse is Signature Gear, because it's appropriate, and gives me as a player some security that my skill have a chance to be relevant.

So I'm looking to make a character based off a Seals/ Black Ops sort of character, but I was wondering what could add to this flavor wise to allow my character to be competent against more fantasy-based characters, like magic. Are there any magic jammers and such? Special weaponry?

So our test game running Mordag's Finger was a success and my players are up for more gurps. Running new campaign with new characters because first ones were broken as fuck. (Mordag went down like a bitch to a terminator with a sword.)

New game is going to be like sliders so we can mess around with a little bit of everything. Any tips for how to make the most of it as the GM?

Which GURPS books should I go for to build unique Eldricht Abominations? The goal is to create something describable, which nevertheless hurts to think about. No hiding behind "You will never knooow!"

A bunch of axe-armed fanatics in a dark building can be a very fun challenge for a group with TL 8 weapons. If they make a mistake they can still get in a lot of danger, but have overwhelming firepower.

Depends on setting. The Magic Resistance trait greatly reduces the chance that you will be effected by spells and curses cast directly on you. Dodge protects you from spells that throw blast at you.

For some unknown reason I've got the autistic urge to compile all the various firearm statistics across GURPS books into one big compendium PDF, is there any way I can find a comprehensive list of books which have addtional firearms in them?

So far I've got High-Tech, High-Tech Adventure Guns, High Tech-Pulp Guns (volumes 1 and 2), SEALs in Vietnam, and Tactical Shooting, just from looking at what I've got in my GURPS folder so far - are there any others that stand out?

Recommend me a set of artillery to put on a character who is going to be self reliant. Basically, give me some guns that would come in enough variety while not bogging my character's weight down. Like a standard equipment list for a marine going on a lone mission.

>FN FAL Para
>FN-Browning High Power

Could you even possibly need anything else?

whats the book sources so I can get the specs

Basic set, really. Any special build they have is made up of advantages found there.

Unless you want Illusion or Leech, those are in powers. And the Awe table

High-Tech. FAL base stats on 120, Para-specific stat changes on 115. High Power on 101.

Thank you, but it's not what I meant. Rather than building them mechanically, I wanted something to base their themes upon. Like Shub-Niggurath representing twisted fertility, or Azathoth representing idiotic power. I also hoped to give them more personality than Lovecraft did. I think Blindsight aliens are the best example. Intelligence without consciousness. I wouldn't have thought of something like that myself, but now I could build them mechanically.

>Rather than building them mechanically, I wanted something to base their themes upon.
Ohhhh shit nig, just get back up to date with some existential horror then.
HP's shit is off the hook.

Horror would be the best route, then I'd probably raid creature lists and other sources.

>Ohhhh shit nig, just get back up to date with some existential horror then.
I can't possibly argue with that. :)
>HP's shit is off the hook.
I need the abbreviation explained.
Thank you.

Just got the tentative cast list for my upcoming Samurai Western game. Looks like things are going to be... interesting.

>Richard Wang
A sharpshooter of the Viper Clan. Currently traveling under a pseudonym while hunting down any information he can on his brother's killer. A crack shot with his rifle, but he's cocky and too-sure of his mighty boomstick.
>"Black" Jack Kitsuki
An advisor and spirit-talker of the Jackalope Clan. Like most of his family, his native blood is apparent on his face and skin. Unlike most, though, he's also 6'2" and prone to nightmarish visions of dire times ahead. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is debatable.
>Unnamed Pistolero
A gunslinger of the Hawk Clan. Little information known (dude was hella sick during Session 0; one of the other players is his roommate and somewhat experienced with GURPS, so I left it to him).
>Unnamed Samurai
A ??? of the Viper Clan. Even less information known (had to miss session 0 as well and lacked previous player's support system, so I may have to make it for them with their input; all I've got now is "assassin," so the clan is at least obvious, but there are many approaches to assassination. Knowing the player, though, I'm expecting ninja-light).

Session 0.5 is this Thursday, so I hope to have a report up by Friday.

>I need the abbreviation explained.
H.P.Lovecraft, father of the Genre

Did everyone see the announcement that they are printing some GURPS books through createspace? Just Magic, Thaumatology and Ultratech so far, but probably more in the near future if they sell OK.

Does anyone have any experience with createspace? Their website doesn't seem terribly well-designed. I can't even figure out if I can buy from them, since I'm in the UK.

Yeah, you could need something useful.

I think that banestorm has some good ideas, but it could use more then one fantasy setting...

Meanwhile Warehouse23 has 40% discount on almost everything until December 15

I'm not sure if Combat Reflexes is really that underrated. Most people know to take it if they're making any kind of combat style character.

Yeah, not a hidden gem. Reputation is a better example of that

TL 5? Sounds like a interesting idea, if one where it's going to be hard to use blades in the face of guns.

Let us know how it goes, epescally if they all manage to get shot in the face in the first encounter.

*slap*
Doh!

Infinite Worlds. World generator, crazy alternate realities, "Stargate+Mad Nazis from the planet were Hitler won"-spy plots.

I had plenty of fun going through that "Robot Post-Apocalypse" book, but I can't for the life of me remember what the actual title was. It was basically detailing all possible variations of a Skynet uprising and its aftermath.

Reign of Steel?

Atomic Horror. I love me a good bit of MST3K-grade cheese.

No shit! I was looking for a print copy of Ultratech just last night.
I'm ordering it from Amazon (way faster+
cheaper shipping), but its the exact same 3.3 edition published today.

I pulled the trigger and did it in reverse. Essentially, imagine an Infinite Worlds Banestorm setting, where the world is essentially the result of one infinite mega banestorm that tore bits and pieces and people from every alternate possible.

I've been playing 5e for a while, and I'm sick of it. I'd like to switch over to GURPS, so as a proof of concept I'm transferring my player's characters over. Would you guys mind helping me convert? Here's what I need to convert, in order from least to most difficulty

>Ability Scores
This is what I'm working on atm. I started off with (STR+CON)/2=ST, DEX=DX, INT=IQ, and CON=HT, but that ended up giving WAY too high of scores. The direction I'm heading now is based more off the modifers now. Not too worried about this part, but if anyone has any feedback I'd love to hear it.

>Human Valor Bard
I don't think this one will be hard at all. Just need to read up on how bardic magic works in Dungeon Fantasy. Give him a few extra martial skills and he'll be set.

>Elven Gunslinger
I'm thinking he should probably have a mtachlock pistol and musket from the basic set, not sure if there are any better guns from other books.

>"Human" Assassin/Warlock
This one is quite easy actually, since most of the rogue's special abilities in D&D are just things that anyone can do in GURPS. He does have a couple unique traits. At one point he bathed in climbing and health potions, so he now is half monkey, half man, has a *slight* healing factor, but can't drink potions at all. He also recently became a warlock. I presume that this would just be a simple pact?

This is where it starts to get tricky.
>Dwarven Circle of the Land Druid
The spellecasting is whatever, but I know for a fact that he'll want to keep his shapeshifting ability. Would he need to buy each individual creature separately? Or would it just be whichever one is the most expensive (probably his allosaurus form)? I assume that the best way to advance this ability (which is his favorite part) would be for him to just buy new templates?

>Dwarven Way of the 4 Elements Monk
This one I don't even have a clue where to start. How do you build the fucking Avatar in GURPS?

>Attributes
Choose what makes sense. Unlike dnd, in DF it's rare to have any attribute over 15 (except for ST).
>guns
Low-Tech has more, but I guess Musket from basic set is the best you can hope for at this TL. Breach-loading carbine has better reloading, but far lesser damage.
Also check out Pyramid #3/36 for Musketeer template.
>*slight* healing factor,
Rapid Healing or low-level of Regeneration.
>but can't drink potions at all
I don't think it worth more then a quirk, considering there many other ways to get positive effects. Maybe -5 at most like if it was minor Vow.
>He also recently became a warlock. I presume that this would just be a simple pact?
It's pact with disadvantages like Fanaticism or Disciplines of Faith. Alternatively you can use Corrupting limitation from GURPS Horror. There are also "black magic" in GURPS Magic, but I never read it.

>Maybe -5 at most like if it was minor Vow.
Different guy but is it still considered a Vow if it's something biological like, "This person's body completely rejects the chemicals in healing potions"?

The most easy time is picking GURPS:Dungeon fantasy and just giving players the appropriate templates with slight adjustments for tone if they feel inappropriate.

Slightly harder is to google around until you find dnd to GURPS conversions. I'm pretty sure there's a few of these projects lying around.

>>Dwarven Way of the 4 Elements Monk
>This one I don't even have a clue where to start. How do you build the fucking Avatar in GURPS?

Innate attacks probably. If his powerset is very flexible, try checking out GURPS:Sorcery and replace the "magic" parts with "ki".

>shapeshifting
There is advantage with the same name. Alternate Form variant would be cheapest if you only have few forms. You pay for the most expensive form (15 + difference between new racial templates, if new form costs more), and the rest are 15 points per form. Allosaurus might be really expensive if he chooses to keep his IQ in animal form.
>This one I don't even have a clue where to start. How do you build the fucking Avatar in GURPS?
Powers has very generic Create and Control advantages. Innate Attack for more straightforward damage effects. Modular Abilities if you want to be able to do EVERYTHING but only one thing at the moment - it's going to be expensive, though.
Or use Sorsery as this user suggested, it's basically Modular Abilities for minor improvised stuff plus full advantages (bough as alternate abilities) for few signature moves.
Allergy is a quirk. Restricted Died covers much wider specter of problems than just "can't drink potions". I just used Vow as guideline, because effects are pretty similar, and you won't receive negative social reaction like if you break vow.

Thanks, this is really helpful.
>Modular Abilities if you want to be able to do EVERYTHING but only one thing at the moment - it's going to be expensive, though.
I'll probably go with this. And yeah, they're all going to be expensive I'm in the process of making the druid, and he's REALLY expensive. His shapeshifting alone is 230 points, and that's not even including templates. I never appreciated how much D&D is a medieval superheroes game until now.

I really like Magic Resistance, but everyone that I've spoken to seems to think that it's worthless.

Three ranks in a swashbuckler type brings you to 16 for AoE mind control spells and all body control spells. You become almost immune to Grease and highly resistant to Glue. Stench too, you are almost immune to and I think that that's most of the fight-stoppers accounted for-- not bad for 6 points.

The Healing advantage can get around the drawbacks of the trait, and asking your mage to brute force your resistance prior to the dungeon with low Haste and/or Armour buffs gets around that as well -- not to mention that Bless doesn't offer a resistance roll anyway, and that's a pretty big game changer by itself.

Ahh, and weapon buffs like Flaming Weapon and Affect Spirits are cast on the item and not you, thse aren't resisted either.

>mfw GCS has Engine Hearts advantages built in
It's like everything's come full circle