Need advice

Hey Veeky Forums, I'm about to start playing my first game of GURPS, and I was looking for advice on how to make my character.

The premise the GM gave us is that some calamity has happened and Merlin himself has summoned some of history's greatest warriors to aid him.

One player is playing Genghis Khan as a lawful evil fighter, and the others have been quiet about their characters.

I personally am going to TRY to play Vlad The Impaler as a lawful evil fighter while also focusing on taking priority in negotiations with intimidation. How should I go about making him so he isn't utterly shit?

Is he going to be an actual vampire?

I actually haven't thought of that yet. It depends on whether the GM will allow it. If so, he will definitely be a vampire, but I wouldn't be surprised if I can't, so if you can give an idea for both scenarios, I'd be eternally greatful

stick to the historical figure not the vampire story shit

make him a knight, who will never back down
make him use cruelty as a strategy and not just for fun, make him intimidating but not comic book evil

and make him react violent/cruel to disrespect

... why don't you ask GURPS General?

that was actually my intention! Mention over a campfire after the party asks why I do such ghoulish things, how I was raped for ten years at the hands of the ottomans, how I learned that to fight a monster, you have to become one yourself. How no man nor woman, no god or empire would ever dare defy Vlad Tepes III, Impaler of Wallachia again. A calm man when given proper respect, almost downright charming, but an absolute demon when he is disrespected, nailing fez' to heads, finding fitting punishment for those who wrong me or even my newfound allies

well for one, people seem just happy to help me in my own thread, and two, I feel like I'd get less of a focused response on a general thread, rather than my own thread.

>calls people who refuse to post in a general thread newfags

i am going to kill myself

Oh its no big deal, I actually am a bit new to Veeky Forums, I usually only come here for advice and opinions every once and a while. Anyways, I'm thinking of going with polearm proficiency for my weapon of choice, with torture tools as my secondary. Sound good?

sounds good.
ask your gm how deep he wants to go into mounted combat

mounted combat would be a good idea (especially with polearms) but i would understand if the gm wants to keep combat "smooth and simple"

Ok, but how will torture and intimidation help you in this "calamity" scenario?

you better help to fix this or your head will help to scare those who are unwilling too

Oh boy a GURPS thread. Don't mind not posting in the general OP.
How many points do you have to work with?

I mean, if you're fighting creatures with humanlike minds and have social interaction with others, then you should play as Vlad Tepes of Wallachia. If you're going to fight eldritch horrors then I think you should play as Count Dracula

Points? Shit my GM hasn't even told me about that yet...fuck now I'm feeling a bit more nervous.
Point taken, perhjaps leading into battle with a severed head on a spike will work?
That would definitely be badass, the guy's a long time player so I assume he won't immediately "trim the fat" for his own sake, however this is everyone excluding him and his brother's first game of GURPS. I've only ever played D&D before and I'm the only one in the group with multiple campaign experience, of course again negating the GM and his brother.
fairly certain its the first one

Also! Thank you guys so much for being kind to me, I was worried I'd be getting yelled at and called a normie a lot more. This is all really helpful info for me, I'm taking notes over on my end. I just wish I knew what our other players were going with, it'd help me build Vlad a fuck of a lot easier

>That would definitely be badass, the guy's a long time player so I assume he won't immediately "trim the fat" for his own sake, however this is everyone excluding him and his brother's first game of GURPS. I've only ever played D&D before and I'm the only one in the group with multiple campaign experience, of course again negating the GM and his brother.

just ask the gm. maybe he includes some rules and not all or uses a few house rules or he suggests something else.

communication is king when it comes to character creation

Actually I've been messaging him with questions you guys have given me while watching the thread! I think he's either asleep or at work right now, but I should have an answer by tonight! Also, as a funny aside, my best friend who's in the campaign is desperately trying to convince the GM to let him play Cyber Marilyn Monroe, which I fully endorse

>GM hasn't told you about points
Ok that's... Something. I GM GURPS and I usually tell my players how about Character Points even if I'm making them sheet for them.

Anyway, Vlad. Knight. So that means armour, and a sword. Broadsword or longsword seem good, you'll want skill in that as high as you can get it. Take a shield too. Alternatively, you can have a polearm, or sword, shield AND polearm if you have the points. Your skills list should also include:
>Leadership
You can yell at people to make them do shit better. Also lead NPCs
>Tactics (Make sure your GM is using the Martial Arts tactics rules)
Super useful skill if the MA tactics rules are being used. If you're using tactical combat, you get to put your side in an advantageous position, or put the enemy in a disadvantageous position
If you're using abstract combat, your side gets rerolls equal to your margin of victory.
>Soldier
Lets you do soldiery stuff like taking care of your kit.
>Wrestling
Grabbing people is useful
>Brawling or Boxing
Punching people is useful, because you won't always have your sword.
>Observation
For noticing things.

Perks you'll want if your GM allows. The following have to do with intimidation.
Flourish: Lets you use Intimidation at +4 the turn after you kill or knockdown a foe.
Follow-Through: Lets you use intimidation as a free action on the turn you knockdown or kill a foe.

fucking beautiful, I'm still waiting on him. I will admit the campaign is really turbulent right now, we're still finding our start date, so I think that's why he's hesitant to tel points, because this IS most of our first time using GURPS. I like the skills you lined out here. Is there any sort of iron will kinda skill that willl let me resist fear and intimidation?

Continued.
Hiking, Climbing, Stealth, Gesture, Strategy are useful skills too.

You might not be leading any armies, but you could convince your GM that you can use Strategy to try to outguess enemy commanders and identify possible points of interest. So you could then get there first and setup ambushes, etc.

Regarding his personality, Bad temper and stubborn could fit. As could Intolerance (Turks).

>Iron will skill
You want traits for that. (Positive traits are called Advantages, negative traits are Disadvantages)
Fearlessness (leveled trait, gives a bonus to resist Intimidation). Page 55 of the Basic Set: Characters

If it's the GM's first time using GURPS, you should make sure he knows about the noncombat skill bonus; you get something like +2 to +4, or even more to to skill rolls that aren't combat, or combat-like scenarios. That's why a skill level of 10 is sufficient for secondary skills that aren't likely to be used in combat.

this guy's been playing RPGs since he was 8, I've see his collection, its actually kind of mezmerizing, it isn't his first time. Thank you so much though. I'd heard jokes about how you basically have to make a torso with the plague to do anything decent, but this seems a lot more reasonable

Alright cool.
> I'd heard jokes about how you basically have to make a torso with the plague to do anything decent, but this seems a lot more reasonable
Yeah when GMs forget or never read that rule the system gets kind of stupid because things that should be routine tasks need expert levels of skill.

"my character is legless, armless, has no head, and has the plague, but he has immortality and time travel"

"So you're a torso?"

"Yeah but time travel"

"My character has two katanas"

>a knight
I feel like you're missing that A) he was a lord, specifically a voivode, which means slavic and turkish influence and B) it was the end of the middle ages/early renaissance, so he probably had more in common with the stereotypical Elizabethan noble or swashbuckler than the medieval knight.
So yeah, give him armor and weapons by any means, but remember what he's supposed to look like.

I think this picture is highly realistic.

noted, will be taken heavily into account. Thank you, I hadn't really thought of that

I just said knight because it's an archetype. Note that I listed strategy earlier, which isn't typically knightly. I looked at the skill Savoir-Faire (High Society), but I didn't suggest it because I'm not sure if it'd be useful in the game, but as OP has subsequently said that his GM is very experienced, it's probably best to take it.

Alright then. I just felt like he'd lose the flavor somehow if he ended the typical plate armor, shield, lance and broadsword knight.

I more plan for him to be the mouth of the group. We have Genghis "fuck your women I want the land" Khan on our team so we have a frontline fighter. I'm hoping to be able to start delving into the world's politics. Of course, a lot of this is speculation because he hasn't given us much prior knowledge

He fought a lot, I assume that means he wore armour. That doesn't mean plate though, he was around before that. So that means chainmail, or perhaps padded cloth, which he could possibly be wearing in that image above.

Definitely take the Savoir-faire skill. Also politics and public speaking then. If your GM is using the complementary skills rules, public speaking can augment your Leadership rolls.

>nobody mentions the Intolerance (Muslims)

UPDATE, 300 POINTS, NO MOUNTED COMBAT, AND I CAN BE DRACULA HIMSELF!

He didn't like Turks and was Christian himself, but had little trouble in the Sultan's court. Intolerance (Turkish Empire) would make more sense.

Are you allowed to design your own Vampire template, or required to use one from a book/one made by the GM? There's a huge amount of headroom for min-maxing with a powerful racial template like that.

300 points is a lot, but remember to stay focused. They can still go pretty damn fast.

300 points means you can be a combat monster, a social master, or a touch of both while staying competent in the relevant areas. What's your plan?