GURPS General /GURPSGEN/

How is it that all the GURPS books are so consistently so good?

Is it just because Munchkin shits money and GURPS is Steve Jackson's baby?

I'd say yeah. GURPS has serious quality control and rigorous editing because it's Steve Jackson's baby. The fact that it's gotten support for so long despite being such a niche market should be proof enough that it was kept going as a labor of love.

Ah, alright. That makes a lot more sense, thanks. I'm really enjoying the ideas put forward in the article, too. I was digging around for a sanity system, and this fits the bill perfectly. Now I can finally run my bio-horror anime games and dark fantasy anime games, both complete with sanity-blasting powers.

What other (perhaps out-of-the-box) games would you use Mad as Bones for, /GURPSGEN/?

How is the Photographic Memory advantage supposed to work? I have a player who picks it for basically every single character he makes and I feel like he's abusing it a bit.

Praise be. And lol no I'd never use Adobe, not in a million years. My laptop's just such a potato, a guy named McFinnigan tried to eat it.

>X is hard as hell
>nuh-uh a guy with skill 31 can do it reliably

I might use a toned down version for my magical academy game. I've been wanting something that shows a need to balance study and leisure time, and mental exertion as stress fits the bill perfectly.

Okay, kids. I'm coming back. I'm gonna run modern-day, street level superheroes.

What books am I looking for besides Basic, Powers, Supers, and HT? Any useful Pyramid articles?

Okay so I know only the very basics of the system and I want a formula on how to build battle suits. I wanna run a bubblegum crisis game so I need to know how to build this type of armor. How do I do it? Can I do it by only using the core rulebook?

You can, if you build from scratch, but it'll go easier if you use Ultra Tech. It has a lot of nifty gadgets and some pre-built power armor and combat walkers.

Action! 2 is super helpful for modern day games all-around. Can't think of any specific articles that'll help, besides maybe Survivable Guns to reduce gun lethality.

Ultra-Tech has a slew of battlesuits pre-made to use. Use those as a base and modify them if necessary.

>I wanna run a bubblegum crisis game
There's the old Fuzion-based BCG RPG, and I think there are some Fuzion-GURPS conversion rules knocking about (Sengoku has some, I think). Or you could build some using GURPS Mecha, if you're really patient. Both of those are for 3e, though, so you're probably better off using UTech 4e and messing about with the numbers a bit, like says.

Jesus, that is some of the WORST character creation I've ever seen!
>No Everyman skills
>10 in all stats
>Didn't even take gunslinger

If this guy gets jumped in an alleyway by a junkie with a pocket knife, he's probably fucking dead, no matter how many guns he has.

And with Armory 11, it's only a matter of time until he breaks his precious raifu himself.

Except you can use IQ-based Guns for maintenance. Armory is for repair and complex modifications. Even then, Taking Extra Time exists.

Yep. Repair. Taking extra time isn't a thing that you can do in combat, and even with 30 skill you're gonna roll an 18 eventually and fuck your gun.

This is why it's worth putting some points into Wealth so you can afford nice Fine (Reliable) firearms.

>repair
>in combat
You are even more retarded than idiot who posted original build.
>muh crit fail at 18
LOL
And having reliable gun won't save you from crit fail anyway.

You sound exactly like the retard who posted the build.
Well baited, now here's your (You) and fuck off.

>y-you are a troll, n-not me
Okay, you win.

Wasn't trolling though. Does someone need a nap?

Eh, it varies. Space, for example, have wrong coefficients in some formulas even after errata. It doesn't necessary breaks the game, just makes it inconsistent with reality.
Otherwise, as other user said, SJG loves GURPS and makes sure it's good.

>have wrong coefficients in some formulas even after errata.
They're not just in odd units like foot-pounds per square yard?

They use Solar/Earth Masses/Radii/etc or AU. I don't think imperial units are used anywhere in calculations.

That's good, they used to use imperial half the time. What ones are wrong?

>Eidetic Memory: You automatically
remember the general sense of everything
you concentrate on, and can
recall specific details by making an IQ
roll.
>Photographic Memory: As above,
but you automatically recall specific
details, too. Any time you, the player
forget a detail your character has seen
or heard, the GM or other players must
remind you – truthfully! 10 points.
This trait affects recall, not comprehension,
and so does not benefit
skills. However, it gives a bonus whenever
the GM requires an IQ roll for
learning: +5 for Eidetic Memory, +10
for Photographic Memory.

Seems straightforward to me. The character just does -not- forget shit. Ever. Can you give some examples of the player 'abusing' it?

Well, I don't remember what exactly. There was thread on forums where guy tried to make them fix it, but I never worried too much about realism to write it down.

I tried googling 'gurps space 4e formula wrong', and the ones I saw were the Tidal Braking and Orbital Period ones, both of which were errata'd.

In general, just about every thing we come across he goes "I look around the room and memorize every detail" or "I leaf through all the papers I see so I can read them later" and in general as a player he doesn't pay much attention to the game and instead relies on his photographic memory to get other people or me to remind him of mission briefing details or anything I presented before.

I mean, he doesn't get much actual gameplay value out of it except once in a while, but it's really annoying and it slows down the game. I'm thinking of outright banning the Photographic Memory advantage.

Before you ask, yes we did try talking to him, but he insists it's all RAW and doesn't see a problem.

Before banning the advantage, I wanted to make sure that it is indeed RAW, and I also wanted to know how other GMs and players handle the advantage in their games.

I see what you mean. Unfortunately, he's also playing a person with photographic memory straight. They tend to read things once and just remember them, they don't forget anything.

Which can be useful. Especially if their most recent encounter with someone was stressful or unpleasant. Photographic memory, by definition, makes forgiving and forgetting impossible.

As GM, you're within the rules to approve or ban characters or advantages as necessary but it seems to me that you're just not using the downsides to this. I mean, if he sees something horrible like an extradimensional entity, or a murdered kid... Well, he can end up making fright checks multiple times for the same event, in theory. But that may be going a little far.

Hm, I think was the one thread forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=25253
And there was the other which was much longer.
Either forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=74233 or forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=18435

>"I leaf through all the papers I see so I can read them later"
Now that's straight bullshit.

You can't just look at a paper once and remember what was on it perfectly, words don't work like that, you need to read shit. Like actually read it.

>extradimensional entity
Usually not that kind of game.

He also tends to play characters with either Unfazeable or high amounts of Will or other advantages that help him pass will checks.

He's a fan of special snowflake characters like that.

The best thing I could come up with is setting stricter time limits so he simply has no time to look at everything, but that only solves half the problem and doesn't really apply always.

Also, a question about Photographic Memory: Am I, as GM, obligated to tell him details his character would remember without him specifically asking for them? For example, if they're looking for a blonde haired suspect, should I tell him "The bartender had blonde hair" without him asking "What color was the bartender's hair?"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory

>By contrast, photographic memory may be defined as the ability to recall pages of text, numbers, or similar, in great detail, without the visualization that comes with eidetic memory.[4] It may be described as the ability to briefly look at a page of information and then recite it perfectly from memory. This type of ability has never been proven to exist and is considered popular myth.[5][7]

Yes, I know it says "considered popular myth," but that's how most TV shows, movies and media in general handles it. I'm not sure which type of memory GURPS meant by the 10 point advantage Photographic Memory.

To me, Eidetic Memory seems the more realistic one and Photographic Memory seems to be the movie version, thus I'm considering banning Photographic Memory.

Speed-Reading is a skill you have to learn, though, if you want to blitz through papers. It even talks about Photographic Memory giving a (hefty) bonus on a failed roll to recall information.

The point is that it's not reading, since the papers could be in a foreign language or whatever, and you often see in the movies or TV shows a character just glancing at a page and then reading it during some other time, at their leisure and when it's required.

Guys, I need some help picking a city for the next part of a modern day campaign I'm running. The city needs to be set in the US but since I'm not from there I having a hard time picking one. I didn't want to make a new thread for this and I am running GURPS.

Basically I have some requirements for the city and I need a US city that matches those requirements (more or less):

>Must be a large city/metropolitan area, a million or more in population
>Must not be Miami, nor anywhere in Florida in general
>Must not be close to the Mexican border (maybe half a day's drive or more)
>Lax gun laws and a more or less active gun culture, preferably with concealed carry and good stand your ground laws (I will investigate the details of the laws later)
>Large criminal presence, including gangs and other organized crime, with an active "import" business
>Must have both ghettos and very rich areas
>Coastal city preferred but not necessary

That's about it, any help would be appreciated, I am going for cinematic realism so I'd like my basic facts to check out. I will be doing proper research after I have narrowed down a city.

Chicago.

I thought about it, but isn't Chicago pretty strict with gun control and self defense laws?

Change it for your game. Nobody's going to care.

I'd rather keep that as a last resort, because I care. Also my players can get pretty anal about some of this stuff.

Buying +5 SL for one skill cost (4x5) 20 points, not 15.

I wouldn't allow this as an unusual background, just because it seems like such a narrow niche. If you want to be good at called shots just get good at the base skill and max out Targeted Attack. It also doesn't seem like something where it makes sense. I can't think of a fluff way that would work.

Good review, thanks.

Detroit.

Michigan gun laws are considerably more lax then those of Chicago and the city is a half abandoned wasteland filled with all manner of criminal enterprise.

Detroit's also a great city if you want lots of abandoned buildings to set messy deals in or use as 'dungeons' filled with things to kill.

Just north of the city you've got Oakland County, and one of the richest in the US.

In general, yeah you should posit useful info. However, if it's slowing down the game and worse facilitating zoning out during the game and not giving a shit, ban the advantage at your table.

>not for any competent 100 point character

it works every tiem

Sup, Veeky Forums
1) What skill levels and advantages should have human NPC for keep busy 2 combatant PC [DF15: 125-henchmans, non-fantasy TL4]?
And
2) Same but for robot or possible animal/mutant [ATE: 125-Wastelander level, GURPS Cyberworld]?

Does a critical hit with a firearm guarantee every bullet fired hits, or is it solely based on Margin of Success?

>based on Margin of Success

What are you quoting?

Question about the basic rules. So as far as I understand it, shields boost ALL active defense bonuses, not just blocking, unless a shield can not block that kind of attack (IE bullets or the like).

Yes, except from attacks at the weapon side or back.

Correct. Strapping cover to your arm means you always have something to duck behind or to support your parries.

>This is why it's worth putting some points into Wealth so you can afford nice Fine (Reliable) firearms.

Or just killing someone and taking their guns and selling them til you have enough money. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. inb4 you go "wah but you need Fast Talk 18 and Diplomacy 17 to be able to sell a gun" because dude I have no salesmanship experience and I still sold off my AR for 50 less than it was worth so I could buy another gun.

Implying that your GM makes guns so prevalent.

Also why are you using Fast Talk and Diplomacy to sell a gun when you use a high Gun skill (to impress) and Merchant (to get a better deal)?

You can't just kill someone, when your weapon broke in middle of this.

>Also, a question about Photographic Memory: Am I, as GM, obligated to tell him details his character would remember without him specifically asking for them? For example, if they're looking for a blonde haired suspect, should I tell him "The bartender had blonde hair" without him asking "What color was the bartender's hair?"

>Any time you, the player forget a detail your character has seen or heard, the GM or other players must remind you – truthfully!

It says that right in the fucking description of the advantage, genius. If you're so butthurt about the advantage, just stop allowing it and stop approving characters with it.

I've never played GURPS (I have very little tabletop experience beyond a little D&D, as curious as I am to get into it) but I've heard there's an Alpha Centauri book and a campaign based on my favorite video game (and vidya setting) of all time sounds incredible. Is the book any good?

>1 in 216 chance
>when

Yeah bro fucker off, I'll have something like 100k worth of guns before I have to worry.
>Implying that your GM makes guns so prevalent.

Well, I wouldn't play this character in a campaign where guns WEREN'T prevalent. If it's going to be all mystery pisstery shit I'll play a normal skill monkey. But if the game's gonna have combat, I'm going to win. Also this character was meant as a retort to the example in the GURPS general PDF posted above where it said shooting a running target at 100 yards is very difficult. So I think if you are doing that in a campaign, the campaign is likely to heavily feature guns.

Houston.

Far enough from the Mexican border, but it's Texas. Reasonably lax firearm control, and there are lakes and the ocean within a day's drive. With the Ship Channel, it has a pretty large import/export of both legitimate and not so legitimate means. As far as gangs go...Yes, and a fair amount of drug trafficking.

There's also Ellington Field and the Space Center nearby, as well as two airports.

Ghettos? Check. Rich areas? Kingwood.

Please stop feeding the retard.

Other than the Coastal preference St. Louis, Missouri fits the bill pretty well.

I mean, there's always New Orleans.

Well with that character you obviously just blindly put a bunch of points into guns. Of course with a gun skill of 27, proper aiming, and bracing you can hit reliably at 100 yards. But most GMs (at least in a semi-realistic or grounded campaign) will either cap skills at character creation, or see that you're being a munchkin and tell you to make a better character.

>inb4 B-but its in t-the Rururus!
Please stop feeding the 'tard. He's done this every thread for the last three.

How does using a riot shield (TL9, DB 3, 30 DR, 60 HP) work as cover against firearms? Do you have to sacrifice your active defenses?

It's a good sourcebook for Planet, it's got the factions, aliens and stuff all statted out (for Gurps 3rd edition). So if you've want to know how mind-worm boils, work, it's got that.

When you fail active defence by DB shield will act as cover.
And we allow block vs ranged attacks/

I understand that Extra Arm doesn't grant extra attacks by default, but how does it interact with Dual-Weapon Attack or AOA (Double)? It's weird that a four-armed alien can't point four pistols at a dude and pull the triggers without eating huge penalties for ranged Rapid Strikes.

...So you're saying that the four armed alien should have the advantage of extra attacks without paying for them?

Despite all the extra attacks being a clear advantage worth points? Just buy the extra attacks.

Multilimbed multiweapon attack sounds like a special technique in itself. Maybe double(!)defaulting off dual weapon attack?

Its already hard to operate two handguns effectively in real life.

No, dude. Extra Attack is a free extra attack with any weapon at full skill with no downside. DWA gives a skill penalty and AOA disallows defenses.

That's what I'm thinking if there's no official answer.

Operate effectively, you mean. Any idiot can pull triggers, represented by rolling DWA at default. A multi-armed creature cannot attempt that, and Extra Attack would make them especially coordinated.

>tl;dr an extra-armed entity has two options: they either have Extra Attack and are impossibly speedy and coordinated or they can only pull two triggers a round. I find this weird.

Well it's not hard in GURPS. Even a 100 point cop with plenty of side skills could do it with a 50% chance.

>make a better character.

But he is better. He's better than 90% of what the GM will throw against us.

That is because the base assumption of GURPS is Average Joe human, with mostly realistic and semi-realistic abilities so sometimes stuff doesn't exist for niche situations like this. Dual-Weapon Attack assumes two hands/limbs, but there is no answer to having more limbs to make even crazier simultaneous attacks (as far as I know). The best way is probably to just add on penalties (because making 4 attacks for cheap is strong) or give them Extra Attack and Ambidextrous.

They should have enough defenses to defend against two attacks per round and enough DR to soak the average damage of the attackers. Give them Combat Reflexes.

First bullet is a critical hit. Rest are normal hits: forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=22707&postcount=8

This post might help?
forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1441992&postcount=10

Works for me, thanks! It looks like Dual Weapon Attack is closer to Multi-Weapon Attack in that case.

Honestly it shouldn't be very hard for a person to hit a man size target with a rifle at 100 yards. A skill of 12 (professional level), aimed fire (+4 acc) +3 (aim) +1 (all out-determined) +1 (braced) - 10 (range) gives you only a check against 11 which is 62% chance of success. This is really far too low, realistically. If someone is shooting a rifle from a bench, aiming for 3 seconds, and paying complete attention they should be hitting more often. It's not like it's a small target either, it's a person.

I guess if you consider the "everyday situation bonus" of +4 it brings it up to 95% which is a bit better but it still seems low regardless.

Thanks, I'll take a look at all of those and pick one.

GURPS's results are mostly in-line with statistical data pulled from police and military reports.

Tactical Shooting, page 9: "GURPS assumes that all shooting is done in combat conditions (High-Tech, p. 85). Under more favorable conditions, the GM can assign non-combat bonuses, up to a total of +10." I imagine most people are shooting at +3 for knowing exact range and speed, +1 for an outdoor range (indoors give better), +3 for no risk to self, others, and no stakes in the outcome. That comes up to +7.

For an AR-15, that is. And it was aiming for 4 seconds not 3. A kid could hit every time under those conditions.

What do you guys think about the YouTube Channel "How to be a Great Game Master"? What do you think about the tips that he gives about making a story and being a GM in general?

You're right, it is low...for shooting on a range.

It's accurate as far as trying to shoot someone at 100 yards who's shooting back.

Bump

I felt it has some handy tips, but most of it tends to be very obvious or he tends to drag on a single topic for far too long.

Any books or pyramid articles that talk about making a good game where the players are tank crewmen? Any tips from someone who ran that himself?

Is there a book that cover cyborg enemy types? My campaign has a cybermutant faction and i need some premade enemies to throw at my guys. Any suggestions?

>any weapon
extra attack is a free extra attack with any limb you haven't already attacked with
a human with an extra attack could swing a weapon and bite, swing two weapons in different hands, swing a weapon and kick, etc, but NOT bite twice, not kick twice, not swing the same weapon twice.

so: just buy an extra attack or two for the multi-limbed species.
you don't even need the full four attacks - humans don't get an attack for both arms, after all.
also reminder: the four-armed race are already going to be getting some serious bonuses for it. using two two-handed weapons, using a two-handed weapon and keeping a second set of hands free, carrying a sidearm along with a two-handed weapon, major grappling bonuses, and so on.
there are so many two-handed weapon shenanigans you can get up to it's ridiculous. for example, you could always carry an unwieldy weapon with something light in an extra hand to parry with, as well as a shield. or maybe just two shields?
really you don't need to add another extra 25-75 points of functionality to them for no cost, lel

>here are so many two-handed weapon shenanigans you can get up to it's ridiculous.

I had a friend who ran a GURPS: Dark Sun game and I played a thri-kreen who used a shield, a crossbow, and a mace. It was fucking bonkers.

>not using your four arms to dual wield SMGs

Again, I did not argue HURR EXTRA ATTACK 4 FREE. I was curious how the system handled firing a gun with each hand if number of hands > 2. There absolutely should be a middle ground between "Make multiple attacks at full skill" with Extra Attack and "lolno you can only fire two" which is what RAW Dual Weapon Attack implies.

You're also way fucking late as already presented The Word of Kromm on this matter: despite the name, DWA applies to any number of arms, not just a pair. This actually answered my question rather than making an assumption or sidestepping my question.