Gurps General

Gurps General

Chicken > Pig

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Why do you use GURPS?

I like it.

This thread is fucking dead. Bumping with the hope that it can come back to life.

It was the first system I learned, and I never found a real reason to learn any others, if GURPS can run anything I want, what's the point?

Pig > Chicken.
Prove me wrong.
Protip: you can't
It's good. I like to use good things.

How the fuck does space combat work??? Everyone seems to recommend compendium 2 3rd edition space opera rules?

How would you stat Bruce Lee? I looked in both volumes of Who's Who, but he's not in them.

He's one of the martial arts masters of the mid 20th century, and there's a lot of ways you could look at it.

You could say that he's high human average. Good ST, DX, HT and IQ, charismatic, with very high levels in Karatie and support skills, acting, teaching, ect.

The 'cinematic' Bruce Lee is of course an option too.

Campaign ideas for historical Wild West game??

It's after the civil war and a silver strike out west is luring people. A friend of yours sent you a letter asking for your help and saying he'd found something big that could make you rich.. but when you arrive, your friend is dead.

sounds cool. Like some sort of murder mystery. Maybe he owed some depserados from new mexico some money. I wanted to set it somewhere in the colorado territory, because through some research i found out the indians were still actively resisting there till like the late 1870s.

>Finally get a game up and going.
>It's going really well and everyone's having fun.
>I keep coming back to ideas and notes for other campaigns.
>Desire to run them instead is mounting

stOP

Can someone explain to me why a longsword has reach 1,2 and a spear has reach 1?

Because of ballance. Used one handed the handy, light Spear in the basic set must be held close to the ballance, meaning only half of the weapon is forward of the grip.

Used two handed the same spear has reach 1,2 because it can be grasped near the base.

Spear has a reach of 1, 2 if used in 2 hands (where you can hold it farther back). With only one hand, you need to hold it near the middle/upper end, so you don't get a whole lot of reach.

What GURPS calls a longsword is what other systems (namely, D&D) calls a bastard sword. It is rather long, and only has a reach of 1, 2 when thrusting with it. Swinging it only has a reach of 1.

A GURPS broadsword is what a lot of other systems call a longsword. It only has a reach of 1.

Longsword, on the other hand, is held with two hands on the hilt in the stance that the basic rules assume, allowing you to strike at reach 2 without a problem.

I guess I picture a spear being about six to seven feet long... which should leave plenty of length to be equivalent to a longsword with 3 feet of blade, right?

The thrusting only property to the reach 2 makes sense, actually. Need to lunge a bit to get that extra length.

I've always imagined the taxonomy of swords thusly:

shortsword

...

>Pig > Chicken
>Implying this hard
>Forgetting about existence of godly delicious ducks
>And beef

Are 250 points characters (Like in Dungeon Fantasy) superhumans?

Not necessarily. The POTUS can probably rack up 250 points or maybe more, varying with competency. Points are all about how you use them. 250 points is just very, very generous in terms of a player's character.

Which POTUS? that changed recently.

I was speaking generally, my friend. Merely being in command of so many resources gives you incredible power, in GURPS terms, which is very expensive.

Oh, okay.

Solid point. High point totals just mean characters are powerful and/or have a lot of options, but don't necessarily mean they are outside the normal.

GURPS tends to break down super humans in a few ways:

The first is just being able to get Supernatural (marked with a lightning bolt) and Exotic (marked with an alien head) advantages. These tend to be very powerful abilities, or at least strange ones, and can make a person superhuman even if they don't have many points to throw around. The little girl from Firestarter would be superhuman, even if she is a 12 year old that weighs eighty pounds.

Another way is the ability to take Cinematic advantages and use Cinematic rules. These aren't strictly superhuman but do tend to create characters that can do things no normal person could, like fist-fight a huge room full of police officers and knock people out with acupuncture like Jet Lee's character in The Red Dragon. (Mook Chilvery and impossible uses of Esoteric Medicine, a skill that in more realistic GURPS is defined as "a way to waste some points, does nothing").

...

>no Code of Honor
>no Lucha Lore
Disgusting.

What GURPS calls a spear seems to be a relatively short weapon, no more than six feet long and the cut-off point for reach 2 seems to be about three feet in front of the hand. Most military spears should probably be 'long spears' in GURPS rules, with the standard spear being a skirmisher's or hunter's weapon (supported by the fact it can be thrown without penalty).

Does being the most powerful man in the world actually cost that many points?

Presidents in general don't seem to be geniuses and I seem to recall some article which says the optimal intelligence level for being popular with a group is one or two standard deviations above the group mean, which implies maybe IQ 12 in GURPS terms for a typical president. Their Will is probably higher than that, but Per has no reason to be above average. Call it [40] in attributes.

A president almost certainly has Charisma, but probably not world-class levels of it. Say two levels for a typical president for another [10]. Appearance is unlikely to be below Average, but seldom seems to get better than Attractive. We'll go with Attractive for [4] more.

Presidents always have huge reputations, but they are both loved and hated. Let's say that most of them have +4 with their political supporters [10] and -2 with their political opponents [-5].

Presidents are usually multimillionaires; let's say Multimillionaire 1 [75] is typical. This gives two levels of Status for free.

According to Social Engineering, FDR had Political Rank 7 and Status 7. Arguably, the modern-day US government has expanded it's power enough that the president might qualify for Rank 8 [40] and Status 8 [15] (including the +5 free Status from Wealth and Rank).

That's 189 points before Skills, Talents, Allies and so on. Presidents also generally have a few disadvantages; most of them are elderly and will have some lowered physical stats, they usually have Enemies, really bad reputations with small groups, etc.

As a politician, allies might just be one of his largest point sinks and are not to be ignored, and they should qualify for allies and contacts across the other branches of the government (variable to how well liked he is within and outside of his party, what friends and enemies he's made along the way). International allies, while not sworn to obey his word, hold considerable power themselves and are loathe to ignore the president of the united states in international matters. The Secret Service, a large organization dedicated to the president's safety is also to be considered. The CIA, arguably the largest intelligence organization in the world can put in the president's hands almost any piece of information he might require. As the commander in chief, Rank gives him command of the largest military force in the world, yes. But the president is also in command of the country's nuclear arsenal, capable of unimaginable destructive power.

I'm really surprised that a game as generic as GURPS doesn't have a chapter about creating your own attributes that differ from the main ones presented.

Attributes are simply aspects of someone or something we see as especially important, right? So why not create our own attributes for things that might be relevant for the campaign / adventure. Like say you're playing a game on a dream scape, then perhaps it'd make sense to have an imagination attribute of sorts, which would affect your ability to change the world around you for instance. Maybe you're playing a city management game, perhaps it'd be good to track things like the average education level of the population and so on. With it's advantage and disadvantage system, GURPS is already pretty open ended, but I feel this would make it the perfect system.

What do you guys think about this, have any of you tried to create your own custom attributes and some advantages / skills to go along with them? Do you think it'd be a good idea, or do you think it'd dilute the system too much to the point where it really wouldn't be a "system" any more?

Read books 'till u don't get how the things work.

Are dinosaurs statted out anywhere?

Lands out of time.

Ah, don't have that, thanks.

Reposting, because I'm not happy with the replies I got last thread.

Small problem I just noticed with morphing.
So you can only morph into a creature that has an acceptably low template cost, yeah? So if you have 25 points to spend on forms, you can turn into say, a wolf, but not a saltwater crocodile. Makes sense, appropriate check on power.

I'm trying to stat out a character that's essentially beast boy using the Animalia site, which is a great resource. But take a look at the template costs, and tell me if you see a problem. I've taken off the negative cost for intelligence, and included the ST bonus as a way of showing the effective power of the template in play:
>Smilodon: 186 points (ST+10)
>Saltwater Crocodile: 174 points (ST+12)
>Polar Bear: 259(!) points (ST+15)
>Allosaurus: 193 points (ST+26)
>Giganotosaurus: 187 points (ST+43)

Someone else pointed out last thread that the bear is overcosted, so ignore the bear. How about the fact that it only costs 1 point more to turn into a giganotosaurus than a smilodon, or that the (significantly more versatile and stronger) crocodile is CHEAPER than Smilodon?

It seems to me that the ability to turn into massive creatures is WAY undercosted, due to how cheaply they can buy ST. Has this been addressed anywhere, or am I just making a fool of myself?

IMO, GURPS dinosaurs is the greatest dinosaur related RPG supplement ever written. It's 3rd edtion, but it really wouldn't be hard to convert to 4th. The only thing that would be significantly different is the ST scores, and that's easy because the weights are listed in every entry.

If you don't feel like converting, and don't care about dino accuracy/variety then yeah, Lands out of Time is fine. Just be careful if you use the t. rex, they misprinted its ST

The problem from the writers' perspective is that they need each thing they publish to be as compatible as possible with every other thing published for the system. If you change the cost of a trait or remove it, that will break any pre-made stuff which relies on it. In the case of attributes, that's most of the system.

If you're going to need unusual stuff, better to add it in the places where new things are meant to go: advantages, disadvantages and skills.

>As a politician, allies might just be one of his largest point sinks and are not to be ignored...

Really, most of that seems like Rank and Status to me. Your country's allies certainly don't count as Allies in the GURPS advantage sense. They are part of what makes the leader of that country Status/Rank 8 instead of the lesser Status and Rank the ruler of a weaker country has. Likewise, the Secret Service seem to be roughly the kind of guards I would expect a person with that kind of rank and status to have, the CIA is part of what a superpower country just has available to it and is likewise part of what makes the POTUS a rank/status 8 position.

Only people who are personally loyal to you should be counted as Allies and Contacts in my opinion and while the president certainly has many powerful friends, most of them will be part of a 'Contact Group' which is a pretty efficient way to spend your points. Someone who makes it easier to get a bill passed seems like a 'Contact' in GURPS, while Allies are more like people who will kill a hooker and bury her where she will never be found if you ask them to. How many of those a president has is debatable, but probably not that many.

It's hard to say without knowing exactly which options you chose (I get both Smilodon and the saltwater crocodile as having +9 ST and SM +1) but it doesn't look like the difference is really in the ST scores. Rather, the cat has higher DX and, like the bear, fucking good hearing compared to reptiles.

I also think you are overlooking quite how bad large Size Modifiers are. They add to all rolls to hit you and deduct from your rolls to hit opponents in melee. That's fucking horrific. Attacking something even a bit smaller than you is a major issue in GURPS.

GURPS Thaumatology talks about basing magic off of different attributes than IQ. One of the recommendations is a flat 10+Magery. This can be easily extrapolated to near anything. Playing a game about elemental warriors? Introduce the Fire, Water, Air, and Earth attributes that start at 10 like every other attribute and cost 5 points/level, or simply the Element attribute that costs 10 points/level. It's the same base as 10+Talent but disguised as an attribute.

>The problem from the writers' perspective is that they need each thing they publish to be as compatible as possible with every other thing published for the system. If you change the cost of a trait or remove it, that will break any pre-made stuff which relies on it. In the case of attributes, that's most of the system.

I get that, but I see no reason why they can't just give us some hints or tips if we do want to go there, the same way they do with advantages and such. Some things cannot quite be captured as easily if they are advantages, and in the case of new attributes with their own set of abilities / related advantages / skills, I don't see how it could break things THAT bad. It would just be a parallel set of options, and IMO that's what GURPS is all about.

I guess you wouldn't do it if you were playing with strangers and relying mostly on what is written, but I think it'd be fairly organic to change the attributes themselves if everyone was on the same page with it; call it a "pseudo-system" derived from the GURPS one, if you will.

This sounds cool, I gotta read that, thanks.

Want to play Low Tech game with some fantasy elements, like say common herbs that can cure shit, pretty good health care, etc?

GURPS can do.

Wanna make that setting to actually be a lost colony of a SciFi setting where those herbs exist because of genetic engineering, and they universe makes contact with your world again?

GURPS can do.

Want a high fantasy game where there's many kinds of magic, where wizards are casting set powerful spells from rote with little flexibility, and sorcerers cast flexible magic with less power, and priests chant and work for days but can cover entire townships with a single spell?

GURPS can do.

Imbuement would seem like the way to go. It's probably worth a -20% to -30% for having each skill limited to a weapon designed specifically for it.

Hi all, in need of a bit of help.

I posted here not too long ago asking for help converting my 5e campaign to GURPS. After some feedback, I've been able to convert most stuff pretty easily (I can post the char sheets if there's interest), but I've hit a bit of a stumbling block.

One of my players uses the gunslinger archetype (pdf related),, and I'm not sure what guns to have him use. We play a pretty high magic campaign, so I'm not really worried about him being too powerful or anything like that, I just really don't know what to give him in GURPS. The specific guns he has are:

>rifle, outfitted with a scope that can see onto the ethereal plane. Is able to shoot 'acid' bullets
>Two pistols, one that can shoot 'ice' bullets, and one that can shoot 'fire' bullets
>'Bad News', essentially a sniper rifle. No other special qualities, but deals a shit ton of damage

We basically use the stats in the Could anyone recommend me some equipment/skills to give him? I'd like to keep it TL 5 or lower, but if that's not doable higher is fine too.

There's a bunch of different ways to do that kind of thing. I'm not really familiar with later editions of D&D or how they handle gunslingers, so apologies if this makes some bad assumptions...

One method is to simply have guns which shoot bolts of fire, acid, ice, etc. be simply equipment which anyone can buy (or build, with suitable advantages and skills). Make up stats for them based on existing weapons which you think are balanced (probably late TL4 / early TL5 to compete with cinematic archers and crossbows). If you feel you need a more structured framework for setting a suitable price, take a look at Metatronic Generators from Pyramid 3#46.

Another is to have the gunslinger buy the guns as innate attacks with gadget modifiers. This requires less in the way of judgement calls from you, but does mean he has to spend points on them while everyone else gets to buy their equipment from the shop. Probably only suitable if the guns are somewhat better than weapons you can buy for cash. Does give the gunslinger a unique 'niche' that others can't intrude on.

You could have the gunslinger use normal guns but allow them to make the bullets do crazy shit with Imbuements. This doesn't seem to fit especially well with the idea that each gun has a unique attack type, because Imbuements would generally let you make any of your guns shoot ice, etc.

You could use one of the magic systems to represent the 'weird technology' of fantasy-tech firearms. Ritual Path Magic limited to only making bullet charms works well if you want to have the ammunition be what is special. Standard magic system wands with missile spells re-fluffed as guns could work too.

Thanks guys.
>imbuements
What book is that in?

>Make up stats for them based on existing weapons which you think are balanced
Which weapons would make sense? I'm not really familiar with firearms, so I'm not really sure what from the Basic Set would fit thematically. The stats for the weapons are on page 2 here:>Another is to have the gunslinger buy the guns as innate attacks with gadget modifiers.
I REALLY like this idea. His point total is a bit lower than the other characters at the moment, and guns are the only thing he really does, so I'd say this works really well.

For a very quick solution, try Pyramid 36, which has the Musketeer template for Dungeon Fantasy.

Going through the PDF, it seems most of this stuff is basically covered by just using existing GURPS rules for guns.

Having access to guns when most other people don't or better guns than are available to others is probably one of:

High TL (1, Only for Firearms, -80%)
Perk: Better (Guns) (Power Ups 2, p.8) or Early Adopter (Gun Fu, p. 18)
Unusual Background

...all of which should be about 1 point.

If you really want to emulate Grit as an expendable resource, you can do it as type of Energy Reserve which you can only spend on gun-related stuff (probably Imbuements or Gunslinger with Costs Fatigue) or a pool of impulse buy points (see Power Ups 5; works especially well if you use the Guns! wildcard skill). Impulse buy options could possibly be unlocked one at a time with perks (so you can only buy successes on skill rolls by default, but a perk lets you buy maximums on damage rolls, for example).

Specific deeds in detail:

Deadeye. This could just be aiming, making an all-out-attack, precision aiming, or some other normal combat option which makes hitting easier. If using Imbuements, it's Far Shot, Homing Weapon or Guided Weapon. If using Impulse Buys, it's buying a success on your attack roll.

Quick Draw is just the GURPS Fast Draw skill. If you have Guns! you can use that for this. The Fastest Gun in the West perk (Gun Fu, p. 18) might be appropriate, as would cinematic advanced holsters.

Violent shot seems to represent loading an extra-powerful charge of powder into your gun. This could simply use the normal rules on High-Tech p. 165 or Low-Tech p. 95. this is a bit weak compared to the gunslinger ability though. Alternatively, it could be done as an Imbuement like penetrating strike, although there isn't a perfect match for just doing more damage with Imbuements. With impulse buys, it's buying maximum scores on your damage dice...(split for length)

So, there is a GURPS book called "building the low tech environment" or something like that but i can't find it, does someone have a link or pyramid number?

Nvm a friend found it, its called; 'bulding the low-tech landscape'

(continued)

Trick Shot is probably just using the normal GURPS rules for hit locations, but you can make it more effective by buying up the Targeted Attack technique, using the Crippling Blow Imbuement or buying failures for your target's rolls to resist knockdown, crippling, etc. with Impulse Buys.

Lightning Reload is probably several levels of the Quick Reload perk (Gun Fu, p. 21) plus slightly advanced loading technology like paper cartridges (possibly requiring a perk level unusual background).

Cheat Death seems like it could be any advantage that increases surviveabilty. Hard to Kill and Extra Life are especially appropriate. Alternatively, it's an example of an Impulse Buy.

Mortal Shot isn't easily mapped to anything except an Impulse Buy to max out damage, force a failed HT roll or mess with the critical hit table. However, the general feel of it can be represented by buying up the Targeted Attack (Vitals) technique or with a custom perk which lets you re-roll on the critical hit table when using guns.

For the guns:

The pistol seems a bit weird in that it gets four shots before needing to reload. The best match is probably the Mariette Poivrière (Adventure Guns, p. 9) or possibly the Collier Revolver (High-Tech, p. 92) or the Duck's Foot pistol (Low-Tech, pp. 93).

The musket could be a generic Flintlock Musket (Basic Set, p. 279), Brown Bess, North-West Gun or Fusil Mle 1777 (High-Tech, p. 107) or an Arquebus or Teppo (Low-Tech, p. 92).

The pepperbox seems closest to the Allen Pepperbox (High-Tech, p. 92) or the Cogswell Improved Repeating Pistol (Adventure Guns, p. 10) although both are a bit weedy compared to the D&D version.

The scattergun seems could be a double fowling piece (Low-Tech, p. 92) loaded with larger balls, or a double-barreled version of the blunderbuss (also LT, p. 92).

(...split again...)

Imbuements is Power-Ups 1.

Bad News could be a Musket (Low-Tech, p. 92), based on the weight, but a rifle like the Jäger Rifle (Low-Tech, p. 94) or Kentucky Rifle (Low-Tech, p. 107) loaded up with accessories like a fixed-power scope (High-Tech, p. 156, probably made heavier or restricted to lower magnification for being introduced earlier than it should be available), a bipod (again, with increased weight for being anachronistic), musket rest or shooting stick, a rifle sling and maybe counting a carrying case in it's weight to get it up to the 25 lbs. figure.

Elemental effects are obviously not realistic and depend on what magic system you want to use and possibly how they are justified in game. The basic magic system allows you to enchant your guns with flaming missiles or icy missiles easily enough; unfortunately, there isn't an acid missiles spell, but you can easily extrapolate it.

If you want to do the guns as innate attacks, looking at equipment stats is still helpful for gauging what numbers to assign them. Generally, IAs should be good enough that they are worth paying points for, but not totally overshadow mundane weapons. I can write up some suggestions, but I'm going to need a little bit of time...

>I'm really surprised that a game as generic as GURPS doesn't have a chapter about creating your own attributes that differ from the main ones presented.
>Attributes are simply aspects of someone or something we see as especially important, right? So why not create our own attributes for things that might be relevant for the campaign / adventure.

Basic Set basically includes a blueprint for this, Magery.

How much does it cost to raise ST? 10 points. How much does it cost to raise Magery? 10 points.

So, if it's a specialized attribute that not everyone has it's a 5 point buy in

Shilling the Veeky Forums discord because /5eg/ is migrating from their discord to here. Please dont let it be overrunn by DnD.
discord.gg/2q83hHm

It won't be, I'd wager that more than half of the 5e people were probably already on Veeky Forums's discord. Anybody that leaves though will be among the worst /5eg/ has to offer though.

OK here's how I would stat the guns as Innate Attacks:

Rifle [17]

Corrosive Attack 4d (Accurate, 1, +5%; Breakable, DR 5, Mechanical, SM-2, -40%; Can be Stolen, Requires Contest, -30%; Increased Range, ×10, +30%; Limited Use, 1, Slow Reload, -35%) [12]
and
See Invisible (Ethereal; Breakable, DR 5, Mechanical, SM-4, -35%; Can be Stolen, Requires Contest, -30%) [6].
Pistols [17]

Burning Attack 2d (Breakable, DR 5, Mechanical, SM-4, -35%; Can be Stolen, Requires Contest, -30%; Inaccurate 1, -5%; Increased Range, ×5, +20%; Limited Use, 4, Slow Reload, -15%) [4]

and

Large Piercing Attack 1d (Breakable, DR 5, Mechanical, SM-4, -35%; Can be Stolen, Requires Contest, -30%; Inaccurate 1, -5%; Increased Range, ×5, +20%; Limited Use, 4, Slow Reload, -15%) [3]

and

Fatigue Attack 1d (Follow-Up, Large Piercing Attack, +5%; Hazard, Freezing, +20%; Resistible, HT, -30%) [10]

Bad News [14]

Huge Piercing Attack 5d (Accurate, 2, +10%; Breakable, DR 5, Mechanical, SM-2, -40%; Can be Stolen, Requires Contest, -30%; Increased Range, ×10, +30%; Limited Use, 1, Slow Reload, -35%) [14]

Then buy the pistols and Bad News as alternative abilities for 1/5 cost, reducing them to [4] and [3]. Total cost [24].

Does anyone know where I can find GVB? It's not in the trove.

Are there any alternative alchemy rules? The ones in Magic seem like they would be overpowered in any campaign where you have serious prep time (and completely useless if you don't).

As someone who has never played GURPS, if I wanted to use it to run either a post apocalyptic setting or a space/scifi setting, which edition/books would you recommend starting with? Or would you even recommend GURPS for these settings?

4e is superior to 3e in every way; GURPS doesn't try to (poorly) reinvent the wheel every edition like D&D.

Read and play GURPS Lite to get a grasp of the rules.

After the End 1 & 2 are the post-apoc supplements.

It's fine to start with either of those. Remember to have fun and not throw in every rule or every option. Meaning, don't use tactical combat if you don't want to, don't use magic if you don't want to, etc.

Have fun, and ask us questions if you have more.

Thank you user. Ill be reading up on those.

Any suggestions for the space/scifi?

I hate space/scifi so I'll let someone else answer it. GURPS Space is the generic space book, and spaceships is apparently a series about spaceships, though I've never read either.

GVB? GURPS Vehicle Builder?

Am I missing something or is Spaceship combat extremely deadly?

Conventional guns seems like they guarantee that no matter what you're taking out a system if not an entire hull section with every hit, that is if you don't just one shot the ship completely, but then a second hit is a guaranteed kill.

As far as I can tell, it's deadly, not very generic, not fun to play and possibly not even especially realistic. However, I've never actually played with it, so this is pure hearsay and the rough impression I get looking at the numbers.

I'm not sure how hard it would be to fix the issue but I suspect one major problem is that the GURPS rapid fire rules encourage you to take shitloads of different weapons to maximise the amount of attack rolls you make instead of grouping them all together into an easily managed high RoF one.

I'm going to run an Aliens game and I need stats, advantages, disadvantages, etc. for the xenomorphs. Does anyone know what the stats are or where to find them?

I would recommend the full basic set if you wanna be a GM but you can start with GURPS lite if you want. GURPS can model most settings just fine but the details of the setting really matter. For example, do you want a taticool post apocalyptic campaign with operators operating operations or a high space fantasy campaign where people regularly shrug off bullets. Either way these details will matter as GURPS uses heroic realism by default.

>I hate space/scifi
My man!

You haven't missed a thing. "Eggshells armed with warhammers" is a phrase I've often seen used to describe spaceship combat. This is true even when using errata'd damage values.

That being said, there are some solutions scattered throughout Pyramid. "So You Want to Build a Spaceship" from #3/94 is all about using rules tweaks to better emulate a given genre of space combat such as submarine-esque seek-and-destroy combat and grand fleet exchanges a'la LoGH. Add in the dogfighting stuff from Spaceships 7 and you've got a good number of alternatives to the default pseudo-realistic combat system. "Alternative Spaceships" from #3/34 is a great read all around and I'm sad it's not a "true" Spaceships entry, but it's especially good for you because it introduces the Armor and Volume rule; if you dedicate more than 4 systems to armor, you get a multiplier for total DR, and dedicating more than 12 systems makes you effectively smaller and thus harder to hit. Dedicating two systems per section to armor is a reasonable expectation for ships expected to see combat, so survivability across the board goes up, plus ultra-heavy dreadnought flying balls of armor may become viable (I think the do, but I haven't crunched the numbers yet). "Armor Revisited" form the same issue introduces the concept of armor as dice (e.g. 2d of DR reduces an incoming attack from 3d damage to 1d damage); the system sort of struggles with lower DR levels, but it'd be great at mitigating the huge damage and armor values of Spaceships and it in general makes armor more valuable.

Monster Hunter 5: Applied Xenology has a horrifying mashup of xenomorphs and XCOM's chryssalids ready to inflict on players called Insectoids.

thanks user

A few. RPM has rules for translating rituals into alchemical potions. "Metatronic Generators" from Pyramid #3/46 has rules for translating any GURPS attack into a device with a cash cost; you can make one-use grenades, remove all the technobabble stuff and fluff them as alchemical grenades, and use a crafting system of your choice.

Though if you're happy with how Magic's alchemy works as a base and your only big issue is the preptime requirement, it's easier to just change the preptime. Check out "Dungeon Brewmasters" from Pyramid #3/82; it has new rules for much faster and less exploitable alchemy suitable for adventurers.

Thanks user, I'll have a look at those options.

Another ship related question, the space combat rules seem insanely complicated. Are there simpler rules somewhere for more unrealistic and cinematic style space combat? Like if I just used dogfighting rules would those be any easier?

chibblys a best

and I'm not just saying that because they ended up a bizarre religious symbol in my game

Are Meta-Spells their own "School" for meeting requirements for the Enchant spell (requiring spells from 10 schools).

Yeah, it's some oldschool Windows program that does the differential equations for you. I had it before but must have cleared it out

So I'm thinking of running a game with mecha in GURPS, and I want to weigh my options.

Using the Starships mecha rules seems to be the "easymode" rout designing-wise, with all the plug in systems and weapons in stuff. The problem that I foresee with that is the above mentioned "eggshells armed with war hammers" issue mentioned above, as well as a fairly limited set of options.

The other option is building mecha as big characters, this seems like it'd give the most options for equipment and systems but will be the most work design-wise.

Which ones have you used?

Soooo.. I decided to go with GURPS (couple of months ago) only because I assumed it was the go-to system if I liked action points in RPGs.

After reading through Basic, Martial Arts, Low-Tech, a bunch of Pyramids, and fuckton of forum threads, I realized that the Last Gasp is not really.. encouraged.

Was I wrong to fall for this meme? I kinda like the Last Gasp. I searched for it on Veeky Forums archive, and many anons weren't big fans of it. After playing a one-shot with both LG and default system, the latter seems a bit stale to me.

Last Gasp requires more bookkeeping and not everyone likes it. I guess default rules work good enough for most people.

Could anyone explain to me the "+4 routine bonus" and when does it apply? Reading through the SJGames forums, it appears that even resident posters themselves have some trouble applying it properly.

And is it worth to just use the BAD modifier system?

BAD's a huge time saver. If you don't already have all the modifiers set up, BAD keeps the game going, and that's vital in many games.

Coming from a DnD background, I've always treated that +4 as taking 10; do it when the situation's not extreme, stressful, or chaotic. It's the bonus for mundane day-to-day tasks rather than adventuring.

>It's the bonus for mundane day-to-day tasks rather than adventuring

What categories of skills does it apply to?

Pretty much every skill has multiple +4 applications. There's a pyramid article called Everyman Tasks that you can read, don't know the issue, google it.

All of them. As long as the situation is less than pressing, you can claim that bonus. Plinking at targets on a range? +4 to Guns. Fixing a hole in your pants? +4 to Sewing. Recalling a fun physics factoid for small talk amongst friends? +4 to Physics.

Also note the +4 is a generic modifier. If you feel like crunching numbers and end up with a different mod, feel free to use that instead (IIRC, Tactical Shooting does this, and the Guns roll above would be at +5); +4 is a bonus you can add to a roll for non-adventuring tasks without putting too much thought in to something not worth wasting time on (if it's important and worth wasting time on, it probably doesn't warrant the +4).

Idea: Make a simplistic FF-style Jobs system with GURPS as a framework utilizing Wildcards and a common pattern for Job creation. Jobs would act as temporary switchable lenses. The goal is to make a job switching each and have the final product be a straightforward standalone system good for total newbies. I've already started on this, but is it worth pursuing? Should I post what I have so far?

You're not "wrong". The Last Gasp is actually really good, it's just that it addresses a "problem" that not everyone has or is willing to take the extra work to account for.

Not a bad idea at all. I've done something similar myself actually, using Wildcard Skills alongside Wildcard Powers for some really simple/straightforward Supers character archetypes for a newbie game.

Pyramid has already done this, actually. Though it's not the only way to do it, of course - so it could be a good source of ideas.

played a short campaign of GURPS and loved it. now my normal playgroup just never plays it anymore... FeelsBadMan
What do?

I know about that article; that's why I specified job switching be easy and the final product be newbie-friendly. Messing around with a few broad wildcard skills is wayyyyy easier that handling traditional templates, plus if everyone can switch jobs, that's a campaign feature and you don't have to deal with the mechanics of it (which is good because I find the Imitator template clunky for some reason).

I don't play any JRPG's, but I've been tempted to make The Nameless One from Planescape: Torment using the Imitator template.

Can someone hand me the gurps asparagus book real quick?

...

Wow it actually exists.

Thanks I guess.

Which would be better for a cyberpunk game, GURPS cyberpunk or Cyberpunk 2020?

I can vouch for GURPS being good for cyberpunk games, but I've never played CP2020 so I can't comment on how they compare.

So, I've been skimming through the books, but there's something bothering me about combat:

From what I've been reading, someone attacking does so without any regards for the defenders skill at defending (be it at dodging, parrying, and so on), which would be all well and fine, except when the defender is rolling for their defense, the roll does not take into consideration the attackers skill. This seems off for the sole reason that, realistically, a blow from a quick and skillful swordsman would be much harder to, say, dodge, than a swing from someone less proficient, which does happen somewhat in game due to the rate of critical hits increasing, but kind of "plateaus" with higher skill levels. You could have a situation where someone would be skilled enough to only fail 17 18 rolls, and yet at that point they would still have a flat chance to "miss" the attack if the defender defends successfully.

Did I read correctly? It just seems silly to me that there's always that flat chance there.

You are reading correctly, but... keep reading.

There are many techniques useful by skilled attackers to change this 'flat defense' phenomenon.
Feints, Beats/binds, Deceptive Attacks, multiple strikes (if the foe is relying on parry or block), etc. In addition to defensive penalties such as reach, facing, posture, footing, stun. The combat is not nearly as cut-and-dry as it might initially appear, a skilled fighter has a HUGE amount of leeway and options against a less skilled one, even one with a really nice-looking Dodge.

To expand on just one of the most straight-forward options listed here, Deceptive Attack lets you trade a -2 to skill for a -1 to the opponent's defenses (without being able to lower your skill beyond a certain threshold). This doesn't even require set-up, and can represent a blow too quick to parry, more skillful exploitation of open defensive angles, etc.

There really are tons of options, though; while your reading is thus far technically correct, I have no doubt your concerns will be alleviated by the aforementioned options (and more) on further exploration of the rules.

Well, thing is, I'm a huge fan of simple combat, or at least of a combat which doesn't have many rules. One thing that always bothered me about most RPGs is how many combat rules there were; there aren't tons of lying maneuvers or handshaking methods for social interactions, so it just doesn't make sense to me to add specific rules for grappling, disarming, etc. I mostly leave such options open, of course, but they are played out as they come, and GURPS simple system of "just roll dice against the skill which would permit you to do that" is really good for me because of that. This is just how I like my games to go, of course, not saying it's the best way to do things.

I was thinking of using quick contests to resolve the attacks, but now that you mention all those techniques and such I think I'm going to read through them; I might not use them verbatim, but it might give me good ideas of ways to break that plateau in some other ways.

Your stance is understandable and admirable. I run GURPS very similarly a lot of times, eschewing things like jumping distance in favor of a simple DX or skill roll, stuff like that; being able to pare the system down to fundamentally "do a thing, roll 3d6 under" as much as possible is definitely an appealing ability of the system, and a fine goal.

One option would be to simply include Deceptive Attack (-2 to skill for a -1 to enemy defense) as a "core assumption" of high-skill fighters; say, any skill above 16 is automatically reduced to that and the defender's skill reduced by half that, round down.

On the other hand, I'm sure there are other ways to do this more in keeping with your desire for the simplicity of the core rolls themselves; off the top of my head, maybe instead of using derived defenses (weapon skill/2, +3) you might just use the weapon skill itself as an opposed check (my Sword-14 vs. your Mace-15 [or Shield-13, or whatever]). Dodge in this case could be calculated as something like HT+DX/2, leaving the base at 10 for the purposes of such a contest.

And as a matter of fact, it looks like others have explored this (here's one such thread):
forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=140086

For the record, GURPS does a lot of stuff with Social techniques, maneuvers, situational modifiers and stuff as well (if you were interested in delving into such things, anyway; guessing not based on your stance, but worth mentioning) via Social Engineering. It's not as in-depth as combat per se (it never ventures into 'beat up your enemy's argument with these rules' territory), but certainly adds similar nuances which evens the "crunch field" socially speaking.

Oh, and also just FYI Feints and Beats are both weapon skill quick contests which affect Defenses on the next attack. I'd definitely read through some of the different options and see if they fit your needs (most aren't complicated at all); you might be able to avoid rewriting stuff if you find things simple enough to address the issue to your liking.