GURPS General /GURPSGEN/

One thing that changes is that the armor can't absorb the entire blow at all with this system, but that seems like a neglible thing to consider.

>eight feet tall
>(SM +2)
I thought that would be SM 1 wouldn't it?

>100 point GURPS character
>56 points into Parry Missile Weapons skill to give me 22 in it
>40 points into Shortsword gives me a 20 in it.
>can parry arrows with a 91% chance of success, crossbow bolts with 74% chance of success. Parry of 13 in melee so I parry 84% of melee attacks against me.
>buy a few disadvantages to pay for some peripheral skills at low levels
>don't need HT cause I basically can't get hit
>get fucked GM.

True; if the attack can breech the armor at all, it's assured to deal some damage. However, I think the author made a blog post about how he really liked someone else's rules for grazing shots (basically, if you hit exactly or the target barely fails to defend, it's a grazing blow and, among other effects, DR is doubled). I'll probably be using that as well; occasionally, people will get lucky and their armor will catch a shot it really shouldn't have. Beyond that, maybe chinks in armor will finally get some love!

From p. BS19.
>Box-, sphere-, or blob-shaped characters add +2 to SM; elongated boxes, like most ground vehicles, add +1.
I'd assume the combat walker is a hefty boy, a lot stockier than a human scaled up to 8' would be. He gets +1 for being 8' tall and another +1 for being probably around 5' wide and/or deep.

What if you are attacked by an Affliction?

>only a 74% chance to parry crossbow bolts

Say hello to my little friend.

On that note, bonus SM from shape is how you can justify SM+4 mechs not having to be 30' tall; a 12' tall mech that's very wide and stocky is still SM+4. Take pic related, for example. It looks to be only a hair over twice the pilot's height; if we assume the pilot to be roughly 6' tall (and the two models to be roughly to scale), that puts the mech as 12-15', or only SM+2, but once we factor in its bulky dimensions, it should fall safely in the SM+4 category.

>ambushed
>no points in anything that makes it harder for people to get the drop on you
>shot in the back by an easily-parried arrow that you didn't see coming

Or-
>lost in the wilderness
>only have "some peripheral skills at low levels"
>hopefully those include survival skills
>if not...

Or-
>used as a patsy for a local noble's plot
>too many guards to fight at once, and/or apprehended when not fit for combat (unarmed, drinking, asleep, etc.)
>no skills to defend against political intrigue

Or-
>get sick because life sucks
>low health, fail roll to recover, crippled for life

A good campaign is tailored to the characters. You'll always be hit with something you aren't made to deal with, and you'll have to find a way to struggle through. But an over-optimized character is rigid and inflexible - the first time you run into a scenario your skillset isn't optimized for, you'll be knocked flat on your ass.

Or just, you know...

>26% chance to not parry a crossbow bolt
>shot at for the fourth time in a campaign
>fail parry
>solid shot to the center of mass, bleeding profusely, trying to defend self with -4 shock penalties...

I have a better one.
80p on guns.

Is there a canon way to make "wildcard" perks? I've thought of pricing them at 5 points each, since Off Hand Weapon Training! is just Ambidexterity [5]. This seems fine for cases like Grip Mastery! or Akimbo!, but not for Efficient! or No Nuisance Rolls!.

Im looking at the example of symbol casting in Magic on page 206 and am confused by how the energy cost is 966. I get 766 when i add it all up myself.

So then.
I love GURPS, and I think the system does a lot of brilliant things, but riddle me this.

Why is it, that there is NO level of skill sufficient to remove or even reduce the chance of a critical failure? Yes, I know anyone can fail at any time. But why is it that say, Michael Phelps can drown on a swimming check, or Hawkeye can drop his bow while trying to shoot? I feel like at a certain level of talent you should become immune to failure except under the most ridiculously harrowing circumstances.

Yeah I have no clue why it totals to 966. I could *maybe* see the argument for 866 if you needed to apply Bane twice (once for each underlying enhancement), but 966 is most likely a typo.

Magic has a LOT of errata, but oddly enough this doesn't seem to be on the list. Go you for finding something new!

How do you convince people to play GURPS?

Especially without being able to GM it yourself? I've tried to GM in the past and can't do it, regardless of system.

No Nuisance Rolls perk (p. PU2-16)?

And you do reduce critical failure chances. A 17 stops being a critical failure at ESL 15+; it's still an auto-failure, but it's not a critical one.

Pay/get someone to GM it for you. Make sure it is set up for easy, quick character creation and in a setting/genre your friends want to play.

Remember that guy on Team USA who tore his hamstring during the last World Cup? Or Dale Earnhart's fatal crash? Or that runner who tore his hamstring (i think) and was carried to the finish line by his dad?

Those situations are what critical failures are.

GURPS is LEWD

...

Deceptive attack, Feint, several enemies, and so on. They are very basic tricks, and they all will fuck you up.

...

I want to play gunny mcshoot.
He has 80p in guns.
But all he wants is a peaceful life with a cute wife two kids and a big ranch.

>trying to defend self with -4 shock penalties...
active defenses don't take penalties for shock, B374, 'injury and active defenses'

True, but a crossbow shot to the chest with no extra HT would send him reeling in all likelyhood.

Active defenses might not, but a lot of other things he's going to need to defend himself will be.

So I have a question of balance for a weapons I want to give one of my players and I need some advice from more experienced GMs. For context, I'm running a low magic, low tech campaign and the enemies the players face are mostly humans of similar skill levels, things like guards or professional soldiers and the like. Started with 100 points but now they're up to 125 or so.

I'm planning to have a magic sword that can turn ethereal for a very short amount of time, maybe a second or so. In GURPS terms, I want to give the player the ability to ignore a successful parry when he attacks with this sword.

Now, I'm thinking of a couple of ways to balance this, since letting a player ignore parry all the time would be too powerful. One way would be to make the player roll a check to use the ability or give him a penalty to hit. Another could be to let the enemy dodge with a slight penalty after his parry has been negated. Additionally, other enemies in the vicinity could make a Per check and if they pass they would avoid parrying. Finally I'm thinking there should be a cooldown after using the ability.

The idea is to give the player a weapon that has a special ability that is used sparingly but is a powerful enough trump card to turn a potential loss into a victory for the group.

How does this sound?

As the others said, you do reduce critical failure chance up to a point, and critical failures can always happen even to the best of the best. That being said, if you wanted a cinematic campaign where it was simply impossible for one to critically fail a roll, turn to Power-Ups 2, pg. 20:
>Rules Exemption†
>This works identically to Extra Option, above, except that
>instead of granting access to a specific, beneficial optional rule
>that generally isn’t used in the campaign, it gives an exemption
>from a particular, detrimental optional rule that is used in the
>campaign.

Rules Exemption (Critical Failures for {Skill}) [1] does what you want.

If you still want there to be a danger associated to a skill with critical failures, but the character in question is buffered better than most against them, Perk-level Luck for a skill exists by word of Kromm (forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=754607#post754607), and RAW ways to do so are buying success via points, regular or impulse/destiny/wildcard.

Difficult, extremely strong, and not very active on your player's end.

Ready action to "Activate" it could work.
Take a ready action on turn 1, it's ethereal for 1 second, whether you attack or not on turn 2, on Turn 3 it's back to normal.

That way, it comes with the very clear drawback of wasting a turn activating it, it'd be comparable to a very strong Feint and Attack.

It's a powerful ability. I'd let it be an attack that can't be parried or blocked but as you noted, once you start using it people will notice and once they know it's a ghost blade they will try to dodge instead of block or parry.

That's still powerful. Block and parry is much easier then dodge. You could either have it recharge or make each use of the ability cost a Fatigue Point.

You could also have it be unable to pass though some things, magically warded weapons or something.

This keeps it mechanically simple, easy to stat out and still powerful without being overpowered. It's a great surprise, that first shot with the ghost blade could easily kill someone that doesn't expect it and tries to parry.

For an upgrade path, maybe a version that ignores armor too?

This could work. One caveat is if the player gets attacked on the turn that they took the Ready action, the sword would be ethereal so they'd be without Parry.

Maybe activate it as a free action, but the player gets no Parry that turn.

I'm thinking that the sword would have to be deactivated right after passing through the enemy weapon to actually do damage to the enemy, so maybe another skill check is in order here.

It probably wouldn't be good against shields since the hilt and the arm would still be physical, and while the sword is ethereal it'd pass through flesh without damage as well.

It's not a "ghost blade" in that sense since that would be incongruous with the way magic with the way I've established that magic works in this world. So it either passes through everything or its solid, can't be selective with what it passes through.

I would just make it an Imbuement skill that penalizes active defenses, like an offset Deceptive Attack. Something like...

>Wraith Strike
>Melee; DX/Very Hard
>Default: Specialty for related weapon at same penalty as weapon default.
>Prerequisite: Imbue 3.

>Your melee weapon phases through objects as you attack! This gives -1 to your opponent's defenses as the momentary flicker keeps them guessing.

>Modifiers: -2 for -2, -4 for -3, -6 for -4, -8 for -5, and -10 to bypass active blocks and parries completely.

Makes me wonder why it doesn't affect armor as well, of course. What's the difference between a shield and a breastplate? If it was just for game balance, it'd probably leave a sour taste in my mouth, but that's just me.

>Makes me wonder why it doesn't affect armor as well, of course
Well it would, of course, as I explained here . However passing through the armor would be pointless since there's no way to pass through it completely to deactivate it on the other side.

If you deactivated it while the sword is inside an object or person, it'd just get stuck (which would probably be bad for the person) and you'd be out a magic sword.

>If you deactivated it while the sword is inside an object or person, it'd just get stuck (which would probably be bad for the person) and you'd be out a magic sword.
Sounds like a fun tactic, being able to grapple by having your sword stuck in someone.

Yeah, but you'd only be able to do it once.

I guess it could be used to insta-kill an important but well armored opponent by shoving the sword into his vital organs or head and activating it.

>Yeah, but you'd only be able to do it once.
Why? Can't you just phase it out again?

No, since the metal would be alloyed with with whatever it was inside when it phased in, it would have a different composition (probably not even bronze anymore) and the enchantment that's running along the spine of the blade would break.

The whole shtick with magic and magic items in this world is that it's time consuming, hard to make and the enchantments are dumb (as in, simple effects only, no decision making) and fragile. So any magic items are best kept back until just the right moment and used as a trump card.

Sounds like a big enough drawback to me to just make it work when you use it, maybe a skill roll to activate it as you attack. No need for a bunch of rules when the enchantment is so fragile.

Yeah, I probably could do a skill roll and break the sword on critical failure.

How's this sound: When the enemy successfully Parries an attack, the player can choose to roll a skill check of appropriate difficulty (to be determined later) to ignore the parry, on critical failure, the sword gets stuck somewhere (enemy weapon, shield, armor or the enemy itself, roll for this) and the enchantment breaks. If the skill check is successful, the enemy gets a Dodge with a harsh penalty (-5 or something) and if the attack connects, damage is calculated as normal. Ability cannot be activated again for the next n turns.

My only worry is if I tell the player "you'll lose the sword on critical failure" they will be reluctant to use it ever and it'll just sit in their scabbard forever.

Adding to this, the skill check could probably be a Very Hard technique of the sword skill, so they can get better at it if they want.

Any other creative uses of the sword would probably have to be accounted for on the fly by the GM.

If it's a technique for the sword skill, just have them roll on the critical miss table on B556 as normal, or customize one that replaces options you don't think make sense for it. "On a critical failure, it has a chance of breaking" is certainly better than "On a critical failure, it breaks." Other than that, sounds fun. I'd use it, but that's just me.

Yeah, you're right, I didn't even think of making a custom critical failure table for it. That's a great idea, I'm going to use that for a couple of things in this campaign, can even have some fun with it.

I'm gonna go sleep on this, see if I think of something else.

Thanks for the help.

Honestly, I think the two anons eariler had the right of it. Don't have them roll an additional skill check, just have them ready an action, maybe spend some FP to activate it, and bam, it's self balancing.

I'm always against rolling uneccessary
skill checks, especially when failure can seriously screw the player for no reason.

I want to introduce a new system for spaceships; does this seem okay to you guys?

>Energy Bank (TL7) [Any]
>Energy banks are rechargeable electrochemical cells that provide variable short-term power; this system is most useful either as a secondary power source when the main generator cannot keep up with the PP demand or where short operation times are expected (i.e. fighter craft). Additionally, the lack of exhaust, radiation, or loud turbine makes energy banks useful for stealth operations.
>Rather than grant a fixed rate of power points over a fixed duration like most other power-generating systems, energy banks are rated in power-point hours (PPH); when used to power a system, every hour of operation reduces the amount of PPH available by the given amount. For example, a ship with 16 PPH can use one PP to power the engines for 16 hours, or it can use 8 PP to power the engines, shield, and laser batteries for only two hours. If energy banks are the only source of power, every four hours of idling (only auxiliary power is required and no PP is needed for any system) requires 1 PPH.
>Energy banks provide 1 (TL7), 2 (TL8), 4 (TL9), 8 (TL10), 16 (TL11), or 32 (TL12) PPH per system. They do not need refueling, but recharging them takes time and access to a steady supply of electricity.

>Cost: As MDH Turbine (p. SS1-20).

Is there way how i can use active defence with my 7d DR on arms (and legs) to block incoming damage?
Is it just plain and blatant unarmed parry with [better of dx or dx-skill]/2+3 parry?
As i want hard contact where all enegry of incoming attack should be absorbed by my DR, but most of attacks wont be targeted on it. Possibly they target my vitals and skull, u know...

I've been wanting something like that for *years* but have yet to come up with a mechanic for it in a way I feel happy with. Bonus to parry seems wrong, and messing with margins of failure on parries seems equally wrong.

>As i want hard contact where all enegry of incoming attack should be absorbed by my DR, but most of attacks wont be targeted on it.
Treat your armor as a shield with DB0

Power Block, maybe. P167~9.

One last example is the Stabilizing version of Magery, where if you critically fail, you roll your skill again; if you succeed on the second roll, it's only a normal failure rather than a critical one. I'm sure that would translate to a skill-specific perk just fine.

>A good campaign is tailored to the characters.

So basically the GM is a metagaming cunt? "well this character has a fireball spell so all the enemies will be IMMUNE TO FIRE! hahahaha!" And then the GM proceeds to jack off to his own cleverness. Nah, fuck you. So sick of this quantum ogre faggot shit. No, if you run a campaign, you create a fucking world, and then don't just change it just because the characters do something you don't like. You are a garbage-tier GM, and you should be removed from GMing altogether forever.

Even better, all 100 points into Hit Points to start with 60 HP.

nah not really.

Yeah, really. Your only defense is Parry 13, and it means nothing when you rack up penalties from multiple parries per turn (and possibly additional penalties from deceptive attacks), and especially when enemy starts the turn behind you back.

Players are souls of long ago dead mighty Heroes of ancient realm war, secretly reawakened by church to help defeat rebels, who instead of Imperia get in hands of "Rebellion", who is actually heretics-terrorists who playing with Evil, Demon Pacts, child sacrifices, slavery, trading with south barbarians and possibly TMWNMK.
So as far campaign starts, PCs should think "Rebels are good, Empire are bad" and they with Good Guys, while Maim-Burn-Kill peasants and paladins, until truth reveals in demon summon ritual.

So how to make players believe in
>"Rebels are good, Empire are bad" and they with Good Guys
?

Is the MEI Hellhound grenade statted in High Tech or Tactical Shooting?

Just like with IRL groups, just don't show that side off. Any rumors of rebels engaging in atrocities is imperial propaganda. The heroes are sent out to do essentially spec ops missions and don't ever really deal with the populace or standing rebel army for any extended period of time, and all the REALLY awful shit is done in distant lands.

It also helps if some not-insignificant portion of the rebel army has real justifications for wanting to rebel. The empire can be full of corrupt bureaucrats (in the political sense, not the demonic way), have nobles that invoke shit like prima nocta, etc. It justifies the raising of arms against them, and for a time being will also justify what little the PCs see in terms of the rebellion's... extreme measures. An angry, grieving widow fighting against an empire that executed her husband and only children on trumped-up charges will do a LOT to light the fire in the PCs' bellies.

Say that enemies can still stop the attack by hitting the user's hand.

In game terms, parries are at a penalty (-2 sounds good for that power level), but if the enemy succeeds anyway your hand takes damage just as if you failed to parry an attack while unarmed.

It would probably be balanced to let your PCs use that ability as much as they like, since every use carries the risk of being crippled. You could even give it an armor divisor and still be okay.

Explain to me why muskets aren't viable in a TL campaign.

They are, though they require careful use.

With muskets you get a very powerful attack that can't be parried. It has moderate acc and range.

The trick is to wait until you've got a perfect shot at short range. Put the bullet into someone, then get down to using the bayonet, use the gun as a club or switch to another weapon.

If you have a base of operations, a cart or a wagon you can grab several Cheap muskets and keep them loaded in a rack. Take multiple shots by picking up a ready one after each shot.

They take more thought and you will have to answer the question "what will I do when I have enemies and no shots left?" but that's not such a bad thing. They are viable, you just can't use them as your only weapon.

A *TL 4 campaign.

Running a Firefly/Cowboy Bebop game. Smugglers, odd jobbers in space.
Would (limited) Ultra-Tech and Space/Spaceships be enough to run it? Standard human points to start?

I'm fairly new to GURPS so anything is a help

You don't have to duck into UT for that, the guns and equipment used in Firefly and Bebop tend to be very low end, grounded stuff. You can mostly use TL 5-8 firearms from the basic set.

>Space/Spaceships.

If you aren't going to do ship to ship combat you can kinda skip these, though Space has some good things about adventures in space. The ship becomes their home and base of operations but doesn't have to fight.

Given the tendency of Bebop and Firefly to be somewhat over the top action types with long, hard past that have left them with a lot of experince I'd say 150 points and a 30 to 50 point disadvantage limit would be good.

Neither Cowboy Bebop nor Firefly really focus on the tech too much; you could get by with the Basic Set and not really have to touch UT.

You may need to snag Spaceships, though thankfully that series is a) pretty easy to use and b) comes with a lot of pre-made ships. Of special note is vols. 2, 3, 5, and 6; considering the theme of both CB and Firefly, the transport and cargo ships in #2 may see some love, and the pirates covered in #3 would also be useful; lastly, both series love repurposing civilian ships as adventuring bases, so the mining and exploration vehicles in 5 and 6 may see some use.

Heeeyyyyy my lazy-yet-austistic ass finally finished downsizing a bunch of TL9 spaceship systems to SM-9 through +3! Post tiny near-future bots for me to make and I'll see if my effort was wasted or not!

Alright, forget putting 80 points in swords or guns, or any of that other shit. You wanna break the game from the word go? Just buy 8 ranks of status. That shit only costs you 40 points, and you're supreme god king of your country for your trouble. If you're starting at 150 points, you still have plenty of room to spend 80 points on guns or whatever.

Does this seem seriously underpriced to anyone else? I really can't understand how it's only valued at the same level as fucking charisma.

It's implied that you also buy commensurate levels of wealth and other social advantages, representing your command of such a large empire

Also, GMs will be deciding who is and is not king of their lands. Those rules might be there for emulating royalty, but that doesn't mean they're appropriate for every game.

>Those rules might be there for [specific case if X], but that doesn't mean they're appropriate for every game
This should be it's own copypasta for gurps

How about stats for this piggy?

Looks to be around 3" long (SM-8), but the elongated box design bumps it up to SM-7. It has 2 HP and every system of Cargo space holds 0.03 lb.

Front
1-2. Cargo (Tiny Radio Communicator, p. UT44); $50
3-6. Cargo (Flat Cam w/2TB data-chip, p. UT51); $52
Central
1-2. Tracked Drivetrain; $0.10
3-6! Energy Banks (16 PPH); $1.20
Rear
1-2. Cargo (Tiny Computer running telepresence software, p. UT22); $50
3-6. Cargo (Left empty to cut down on cost). N/A

Total Cost: $153.30.

It's a professional souped-up TL9 version, but there ya go. I might have been able to skimp if we went for a smaller frame and tinier components, to say nothing of buying a cheaper camera/computer/communicator.

That was fun, thanks user. I think I'll need to write up plastic "armor" for fractional DR. I'll actually keep this as an example spybot the players can buy!

Your players might be able to get them for the Mass Produced discount, as these little guys are made to inspect pipes and ducts. It's not a proper PIG, as those are not self propelled.

Next, let's calculate the amount of damage you could do with .92 ounces of high explosives in that empty cargo compartment..

lol and what other defenses am I supposed to have?

You'd also have to buy the country as a Patron or buy a lot of Rank if you wanted to have any actual authority. Status just means you're famous and respectable; actually being in command of a major nation would cost an additional 90 points or so.

Plastex B (p. UT88) has REF of 4 and costs $20/pound. At 0.12 lb., it comes to $2.40 worth of explosive and deals a whopping 8d cr ex (plus some change), though it may be less if we need to make room for the detonator cap.

...

>buy nothing but status
>no authority
>no power to speak of
>take a bunch of over the top character traits
>elected by conspiracy
>mfw Zaphod Beeblebrox in GURPS

What you are supposed to do is to read the fucking book instead of dumping every point into one low-hanging fruit and then posting it in the thread and going "LELELE I BROKE YOUR SYSTEM WHAT NOW LOSERS"

SM-5, so 5 HP and Cargo=0.03 lb.

Front
1-4. Cargo (Flat Clam, p. UT51); $50
5-6. External Clamps; $0.06
Central
1-6. Cargo (Compact Genius Small Computer running AI software); $1M
Rear
1. Energy Bank (4 PPH); $3
2. Tracked Drivetrain; $0.50
3. Advanced Metalic Laminate Armor (DR1); $1
4-6. Cargo (Compact Genius Small Computer running AI software); --

Total Cost: $1,000,054.56

I believe Rick would definitely shell out for/steal a needlessly advanced computer just to run a miserable AI.

FUG, I messed up, the cargo is supposed to be 0.003 lb. Time to go for tinier components and less empty space! Or I could be lazy and just bump it up to SM-5.

Also I've been forgetting [core] system locations, but ehh.

>Million dollar AI and processor in a $54 shell, built only to pass butter.

He put 80 points into one skill, and that skill was shitposting.

In that case, he'd be good at it.

What we're seeing here is someone rolling against SL-6 and just constantly whiffing it.

I did read the book. And I already BTFO'd this worthless ""system."" And if that's not enough, check pic related.

You can't take rapid fire and emanation.

Why?
Doesn't this is generic pulse nova Boss-level attack from Japan slasher game, like this
youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=2_1y1pTdyIo

>Look Mom, I posted it again!

Because you can't you dunce. Abilities like that are represented differently. Emanation can only be taken with Area Effect and no 'ranged or melee attack modifiers' per the basic set. Which rapid fire is.

Read the fucking rulebook next time.

I made a chacter in this vain although it was 350points. (Before disadvantages)

Armis Skylark the Second Greatest Swordsman in the world.

Used a Late katana in one hand and a edeged rapier in the other.

24 broadsword skill.
Combat reflexes.
Improved parry,
Enhanced peripheral vision.
Weapon master sword.
Move 10.

Could parry dodge and weave all day.

On day he fought 7 centaurs alone and at once and 3 of them crit and that was the end.

When it comes down to it if you don't have decient DR high defence characters do eventually get crit.

My next character was is full mail and heavy plate as a lesson learnt.

That's an absurdly tough build, though sooner or later anyone can be worn down with enough attacks and centaurs tend to be pretty damn strong.

Being outnumbered sucks pretty hard in GURPS.

Good catch; it's actually just a million dollar processor and I forgot to add the cost of the AI on top of that.

Kinda like this.

>don't need HT cause I basically can't get hit

So..you're in a medieval tech level with low HT? Got some fleas and rats bearing bad news for ya.

How much should a person have for disease resistance in a game without good medicine or magic? HT 12? Fit? All the way to Resistant to Disease (+8) at [5]?