GURPS GENERAL /gurpsgen/

What about the GURPS system currently isn't "hard cash?"

It's memespousers like you that give GURPS a bad name. Nobody would care about single article in pyramid (not even a book on its own ffs) if you faggots weren't crying about it all over the internets.

>Delicious sassy Ripley
Now I wanna trash my current side game for an aliens one shot. Thanks.

Fuck you too?

I believe the easiest way to start is to use GURPS Lite and any of premade genre books - Dungeon Fantasy, Action, Monster Hunters, After The End.
Action 2, specifically, has very good guidelines on how to run action game plus simplified rules. You will rarely need to use Basic Set with it.

I have a couple times, mostly to make a minmaxed seven-foot-long bow made out of horn with (IIRC) wrought iron arrow shafts or a monstrosity of a crossbow, basically stuff the existing rules and equipment catalog didn't cover (and for good reason).

After struggling though it manually, I found the spreadsheets from googling and my life became a tone easier.

If you prefer a system where rather then have a Wealth Level you have cash, After The End keeps things simple for post apocalypse.

No Wealth, instead everyone begins with $500 and may buy $250 per Character Point spent on Wealth.

Wealth level IS cash though; you spend points on Wealth to start with more dosh or get points back for reducing Wealth and thus getting less dosh.

Everything is handled with discrete cash values; there's no "rarity rating" or "buy checks" to make, just a money cost.

Can you share a copy of the spreadsheet? The one I found is sorta broken.

like it feels vague.. Idk man. I think i need to read more into it.

It's on my other machine, but eventually yeah I'll pop on to that and throw the spreadsheet on the MEGA.

How the fuck is it vague?

Choose your TL
People start with X money
Buy Wealth up or own for more or less money
Spend money
What the shit is weird about that?

Not that user but it is vague. What's your CoL? What assets do you have? Can you leverage or liquidate those assets? What does that do to your Wealth? What do you do with non-legitimate sources of income? How does that change your CoL and assets? Those and many, many other questions are poorly answered by the Wealth rules (except the specific CoL but that system is part of the problem).

Instead of the RAW Wealth rules I just make Wealth cost 20% and only use it for starting cash. Assets and investments can be bought for 80% of RAW Wealth cost but those might go away if you do something illegal.

ok same user here.
Lets say I wanted the party to rob banks. Im not comfortable enough with the wealth system to understand how that would work?
Like how to I function in the new wealth??

edit: how do I incorporate their new wealth?

You don't.

You give them the money they get from robbing the bank. They divide it up, save or spend it as they feel like.

Now, if they want to take a chunk of that money AND spend character points they gained in play to buy up Wealth and/or Status, that's also a possibility. Representing investing their assets instead of spending it all like a poor man who won the lotto.

But generally speaking, money acquired in-game is just exactly that. Money.

By RAW or without headache?

By RAW Wealth includes their ability to launder or utilized income. They don't really get any boost from the bank robbery unless you allow it as an excuse to increase (by spending points) Wealth. They can buy stuff with the money but you are within your rights to take it away or just say they waste a big chunk of it. Ultimately returning to their baseline as described by their Wealth level.

You could also give them raised Wealth and an Enemy (or enemies) to balance the point costs representing the investigators.

By my simplified 20% they now have a boatload of cash. They monthly pay the cost of living for the status they want to live at in the upcoming month (or buy several months at once or several costs of living to represent other houses or safe houses).

What would be a good way to introduce players to gurps, I am considering either a weird west type game or a dying earth/ dark sun style fantasy setting for my next campaign.

Guns are powerful in GURPS, but unless you give them Gunslinger it's something that requires you hold still, Aim and manage your range and viability to hit.

Dark fantasy is something that GURPS does very well, so I'd go that way for a first game.

By and large, using the series (Dungeon Fantasy, Action, Monster hunter, and After the End) is the best way to introduce a group to GURPS. The series have templates which nixes GURPS's biggest issue--new player drown under too many options all at once--and they keep all the relevant rules in a single document so A) there's no question of what rule is in effect or not, and B) players and GM alike don't have to dig through irrelevant rules like gaming out explosive decompression in a weird west game. The series as a whole are also less concerned with realistic simulationism; they openly simplify and streamline things.

Depending on how weird you're going with your weird west, I recommend using Monster Hunters as a base. The series is for games in the vein of Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or WoD Hunter games; you and a few of your ultra-badass buddies hunt the creatures of the night with blade, bullet, magic, and faith. While the series assumes a modern TL8 setting, limiting gear selection to TL5 and nixing the more sci-fi templates like Psi, Experiment, and Techie is an easy enough switch, though you might want to scale back enemies as the heroes can no longer bust out RoF 15 assault rifles.

Dying Earth/Dark Sun would make use of Dungeon Fantasy (basically not!AD&D) with a particular focus on DF16: Wilderness Survival.

Does dungeon fantasy work well for a more sword and sorcery style game, not the high fantasy style of D&D? Furthermore, I was thinking of starting out at aroun 100 points do you think that would be a good starting point?

People can play with 25 points just fine, it's not about how many you have but how you use them. Hence the problem with low points and new players. They can probably make do with 100, though, but it's probably a good idea to go easy on them, at least until you're all comfortable.

Whoops, forgot a bit there.

If you want your West to have only a tinge of weird rather then be a full-fledged freakshow, I recommend using Action instead as there's already a Pyramid article out there that covers converting Action to a Wild West setting. Let the published material do most of the legwork and throw in the occasional wendingo or evil shaman afterwards. Action is the best series in terms of streamlining and simplification for new players and new GMs; range bands, BAD, rounds, and muthafuckin' chase rules are just great in general.

DF is very much a swords and sorcery game; the rules center around a bunch of adventurers delving into dangerous places for fun and profit, fighting tooth and nail for every last coin and relying on wits as well as muscle and magic. As for starting point values, DF15: Henchmen have 125-point templates for more low-power games (or, as the title suggests, to serve as henchmen and retainers for full-powered PCs); I recommend giving that a look if you don't want to write up your own templates.

For new players I tend to suggest 125 points and 25 points of disadvantages. This allows players without experience with optimization to make a character that can handle several situations.

You're overthinking it.

If your players robbed the bank and got $20k, you'd split the money how you want and go on with the rest of the campaign. Done.

If your GM (or yourselves) decides that you should go into hiding for a year, then he can decide to use the Cost of Living rules to decide how much money is spent on living during that time.

Cost of Living on B265 is just a monthly payment your character has to make in order to maintain their current lifestyle during downtime. Rent, taxes, car payments, etc.

For you example, a criminal would be living in a shit apartment with a room mate, at Status -1 for about $300-$599 a month for his food, his rent, and air (for his bike tires). But after his big heist he has extra money and decides to start living as if he were Status 1, which is between $1200 and $2999. He could decide to be stingy and continue to live at Status -1, but risk malnutrition, getting kicked out of his apartment by the landlord, or whatever the GM decides.

If I were the GM, I would make the sudden leap from Status -1 and Status 1 draw attention, both positive and negative, but that's a different discussion entirely.

NEW QUESTION FOR THE THREAD

Have you ever ran and/or played in a modern military campaign? How did it go? What type of characters were in your party?

If not, then was there a point in your campaign where the characters were involved with the military of any TL? Were the characters in the party in charge? Did you use Mass Combat for any combat between armies?

The basic rules on Pulling/Dragging things (which presumably ought to cover pushing things too) don't seem to adequately convey the difficulty in pushing someone in a wheelchair over long distances.

High-Tech says...

"Wheelchairs let those who can’t walk retain some mobility. The muscle-powered version described on p. B142 is $300, 40 lbs. at TL8."

Campaigns says...

"When you pull a load behind you unassisted, use its full weight. Halve effective weight if you are pulling a sledge over snow or ice, divide effective weight by 10 for a two-wheeled cart, and divide effective weight by 20 for a four-wheeled wagon. (Remember to add the weight of the sledge, cart, or wagon to that of the load before dividing!)"

A wheelchair has four wheels. This makes it close to a wagon, I suppose. So, take a person that weighs 150 lbs, add the weight of the wheelchair and then divide the total weight by 20...

(150+40)\20= 9.5 lbs.

Huh? Am I reading this right? You can effectively "hike" over long distances pushing someone in a wheelchair without the combined weight counting towards Encumbrance?

Sounds about right. Don't forget to factor in shit terrain. Normal calculations just figure in normal terrain. Pushing a guy about will start to matter when you have to go over any Bad terrain.

Assume you're a vehicle for simplicity. Use the rules on B466 labeled "Ground Travel"

I'd note that with a non-hardened wheelchair in field conditions you should roll HT on it every day to see if it's falling apart. While made to handle some dirt and imperfectly level surfaces they are really only intended to be used on clean, level surfaces.

It has four wheels just so it doesn't have to balance on two. Wheelchairs are not at all like equal size wheels on a wagon. I'd give them the two wheeled divisor.

Also, pulling is not all that much like pushing. I'd recommend hitting the forums to double check me and get more depth.

Is there a good cheat sheet for noobs to look at for combat?

We just started a new game but we need to drag two of our players out of the D&D mindset.

Looking to run a monster hunter style csmpaign. As in taking down large bounties. Set in a medieval period. Which sources should i take from? Or is another system more suited (not dnd/pf tho)

Low-Tech
Martial Arts
Combat Writ Large from the "Combat" issue of Pyramid.

A dude on the GURPS forums put together a pdf called "Dungeon Fantasy on the cheap", which scales down all the standard DF class templates to 100 pts, and then shows the progression of each in 50 pt allotments, which lets you do your classic dnd levelling. I'd recommend using that, and letting them "level up" to the next 50 pt grade after each successful adventure. Once they hit the 250 pt mark (i.e. the standard point level), then scale back the character point rewards to ~5ish per session.

It's well worth a read if you want to do DF but keep it a bit more gritty to start with.

Combat Cards. They're a free download from sjgames.
There's also a couple of community-made combat cheat sheets/flow charts.

Oi that's a good rule.

I've always used this. It collects all the big options from the Basic Set and Martial Arts and puts them on a single page for easy reference. There's a more in-depth cheat sheet in the OP, but it's layout is not newb-friendly; the density of the text, the font and color choice, and the exhaustive explanation of every relevant aspect makes the system look as memetastic as possible. For established players, it can be quite useful, but for beginners, it's all too much.

Does anyone have the copypasta/screencap of how GURPS's combat has depth (talking about feints, evaluates, etc.)? That might be a good 45-second read for new players to help them do more with the system.

Quick question' how do you guys handle making npcs , I've considered running gurps numerous times but the thought of having to stat out everything myself has always turned me off as it seems like it would take forever and I am worried about overpowering generic enemies

I heard some people just give them a single skill score that they use for all rolls. Personally I prefer more detail, but it's still pretty simple to just make up some appropriate numbers for attributes and skills.
As for encounter balance, that is a bit more complicated, yes. I don't have any concrete advice to give, you just get a feel for it after a while.

1. Don't write up a whole character sheet. That's freaking overkill by 10,000%. List the essential relevant traits and move on. If it's something complex, don't worry about advantages with a laundry list of modifiers and handle it with GM fiat; point costs are the devil.
2. If you're in a hurry (or the NPC is a combat mook not meant to last more than 30 seconds), go super minimalist and have only DR, Damage, and Skill. Everything the NPC should be good at is rolled vs Skill, everything they're not is at Skill-5, and use the Canon Fodder rules instead of tracking HP.
3. When determining traits, you have two options: go with what's realistic, or go with what's an appropriate challenge. If using the former, extrapolate from pic related; as an example, bandits would have low Broadsword skill because realistically they would have little training with swords--they mostly wave them around menacingly and occasionally chop up an uppity merchant that can't fight back. If using the latter, you have a few options. Action 2 introduces BAD which is used to establish both obstacle difficulty and enemy skill; it's a bit simplistic, but it works. For a more in-depth look, there's the CER mechanic form Pyramid's "It's a Threat" where you quantify an opponent's offensive and defensive capabilities, do the same to the party, and then compare the two to see if the upcoming encounter is going to be a cakewalk, a curbstomping, or somewhere in between. Under this approach, bandits may be very good at fighting as the game calls for the heroes to face some dangerous cunts with swords.

I don't. Maybe I note their IQ, DX and a few disadvantages if they're important and going to be recurring.

Since GURPS is as simulationist as it is, the guidelines work great. Basic Set. p. 172 especially. The local guard leader is going to have DX 11 or DX 12, his skill will be DX+1 or +2 with whatever weapon I hand him. He'll also have supporting skills like tactics, administration, riding... and other "guardy" skills, and whenever those show up I eyeball how much training he'd have. For example tactics is probably IQ-1 or IQ-2, and his IQ is enough to make him the leader guy, IQ 11. He's more of the local go-to than anyone with real-life tactical experience, but he's seen enough bar-brawls to make the right decision more often than someone fresh off the street. A tactics score around 8-9 sounds about right.

For enemies, I note a HP, a DR value or two (lower protection on arms and legs, for example), a skill value, a damage and range value, and anything that significantly differs from the norm.
If he's more encumbered due to heavy armor, I note that his Move is 4 and his Dodge is piss-poor and don't bother with details like calculating precise encumbrance.
If he's got a cool trick up his sleeve, I give him a technique or a hidden weapon or something.

You really don't need more than that.

As for accidentally making the generics overpowered, that is a real risk when you're inexperienced, try to stay away from powerful advantages and too high skill, better to start with a pushover than a full party kill. You should probably avoid fancy tactics too, a tiny kobold hiding in the bushes can kill an experienced adventurer with a single crossbow bolt if the adventurer never sees it coming, and archers on stone walls or behind flesh walls have their power multiplied many times if the party can't get close.

Nice. Thanks.

Here's what I do

>Figure out the racial average for each main stat (ST, DX, HT, and IQ) and start from there

>For mooks (generic bandit, goblin knife-fighter, and orc axe-swinger) I set every main attribute to that average

>For "super mooks" (Bandit Leader, Goblin Chieftain, and Orc Warmonger) I set every attribute to /above/ the average, usually +1 to +3.

>For skills, I set it to around 12 for mooks, to 14-16 for super mooks.

>For defense and other secondary attributes, I figure those normally.

>I figure damage normally and give an appropriate weapon, and I also give them some armor.

>Finally, I add in any relevant advantages/disadvantages for the race (Night Vision for goblins, Combat Reflexes for most animals, Berserk for orcs) and take good note of them so I do not forget about them.

If you want a more complicated or powerful NPC, such as a mythical monster, a BBEG, or whatever, you make it more or less like a character, BUT CUT CORNERS WHERE YOU CAN. Do NOT write every skill, advantage, or disadvantage that you KNOW wont come up, or are really just there for the player (like Cooking, Overconfident, or Lecherousness). ONLY CONSIDER WHAT'S RELEVANT FOR COMBAT because combat is the most crunchy and can grind to a halt if you are looking through a 3-page character sheet to see if the BBEG has Combat Reflexes. The rest can be written in a bio somewhere: "He is greedy and likes the women." or "It's a fucking dragon." If you NPC has abilities, like fire breath or an arm canon, build it - take note of relevant stats like damage and range - and forget about everything else. If your NPC has extra heads, take note of combat relevancy and forget everything else.

If there is even a slight chance that the NPC in question will tag along with the party, then you should consider statting him like a full character.

Ideas on creating bullshittery on par with Exalted's Sidereals in GURPS.

>Using the Skill Adaptation perk, parry with Artist, Sex Appeal, or Philosophy

I'd allow Feint with the two first in a silly campaign.

>Philosophy Parry
I can just see a Morpheus-inspired martial artist devastating enemies with bizzarre and well-timed nihilistic observations.

>You don't know it yet, but you are already dead!
>>Roll rapier wit.

A question.

Currently I'm looking for a new game to play with my group. I'm used to play and run GURPS Lite, they barely even know there is such thing as GURPS at all. I would like to try it out with them, BUT thing is they are very much story-players and story-tell is their default mode for playing.
So I need some voice from outside to measure if Lite can be considered crunchy or not, since I, as a guy playing both Lite and normal version, am not the best reference point

mage or gadgeteer?
im kinda undecided and dont know an incredible amount of 4e GURPS coming from 5e D&D

Mage. The default system is pretty straightforward, and there're some templates that make it easier.

Gadgeteering is much more complex, and has a lot more GM adjudication.

Depends highly on a) what magic system you're using, b) what you mean by gadgeteer, and c) how your GM is going to handle invention/crafting.

I would assume most posters here have played the Basic Set as well; you might be better off asking on the official forums where a dev might chime in.