GURPS General

Duh. Forgot Powerstones were pretty cheap. I was thinking it's price on normal enchanting terms (eg $600 gem plus $3960 for energy cost). Yeah, for the low price listed on p20 it can be interesting, though probably an one-use per session/adventure, considering it's recharging time.
Speaking of enchantments, what's up with their prices?
A Longsword (per Low Tech) with Very Fine (+2 damage) and Balanced (+1 skill) costs $700*24=$16,800.
The same sword with Puissance (+2 damage) and Accuracy 1 (+1 skill) would cost $700+$33*1250=$41,650. It has the same stats as the above mundane sword (in fact, inferior because these enchantments doesn't affect chance of breakage) yet it costs almost 2.5x!

You typically want to use magic to improve the very best mundane weapons, not weapons of merely good quality. This feels like a feature, rather then a bug: The labor time for Puissance 2 and accuracy 1 is going to be lower then that of constructing a work of art sword like that.

Power Stones are generally best used as one and done batteries for a mage, burned out then stowed away for the rest of the adventure. That said, 2-3 power stones can give you enough oomph to fire off a lot of extra fire power each adventure, then can be hung up around different areas to recharge (or just passed to non-mages to carry for you).

>You typically want to use magic to improve the very best mundane weapons, not weapons of merely good quality. This feels like a feature, rather then a bug: The labor time for Puissance 2 and accuracy 1 is going to be lower then that of constructing a work of art sword like that.
Makes sense for low fantasies but not for high fantasies (where you would get the $33 per energy).
I don't recall the exact math I did at the time but I recall having calculated that a decent blacksmith with Inspired Creation could make an excellent sword in a month or less (Used LTC2 rules).
I've also seem a Pyramid article with an elf sample character for Banestorm that used quarterstaff with (I think) Accuracy 2 and normal clothes with Fortify 2.
The above could be considered edge cases but even ignoring them you still have trouble placing magic items in high fantasiers.
Think GURPS Elder Scrolls, how would I go about giving players an enchanted fire sword?
A Broadsword with Flaming Weapon would cost $500+$400+$33*750=$25,650. Definitely not reasonable.
As a GM I could drop the per energy cost but I really dislike arbitrary decisions like that (one of the reasons I like GURPS, there seems to always have a concrete rule to guide me).
I know Flaming Weapon doesn't actually deal burn damage, just using it as an example.

Is there any reason not to use the survivable guns rule? It seems more balanced, more fun, and means you don't have to spend 250 points in striking ST, to do the same damage someone with a gun can do at 300 yards, for 20 points, and a few bucks.

On a similar note, is it me or is ST overpriced as all hell for very little return? A couple points is obviously useful for a dedicated melee fighter, but more than 3 or 4 is just a waste, and basically anyone else will just want the bare minimum to be able to use their gun/crossbow/whatever of choice, or even just go for an innate attack.

Ah, okay, thank you.

You aren't wrong. Survivable Guns is more realistic and more fun, so there's very, very little reason not to use it.

ST is an interesting subject. In TL 0-2 you can make a real case that it's reasonably priced, but beyond that it's nearly impossible to make a case for it at 10 points per level. Knocking it down to 8/level is a change I've seen suggested, while I'd just as soon re-scale things to make each point of ST really worth 10 points.

I'd hesitate to say ST is HUGELY overpriced outside of TL 9+ games where armor is pointless (in most games) and there are tons of good weapons options with very low ST requirements.

How about a gritty world with non-humans and insane OP monsters but the PCs are children?

If I ignore facings, will that break tactical combat?

If you ignore faceing it's not tactical combat, it's just combat with a map.

It won't break anything, you can still use it to keep track of relative positions, reach, range, stuff like that.

Honestly you just gotta rip that band-aid off. If facing boggles them they are going to have a break down when they realize there are no Attacks of Opportunity or that certain weapons can't be swung every turn because they have to be readied or that anyone can move through an enemy occupied hex with a DX quick contest (albeit at -5) or that spell casters can wear real armor not just robes. If they really can't deal with it then just ditch the tactical combat and go theater of the mind.

>this whole post

paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCampaign/campaignSystems/exploration.html
Srsly dd and other osr have tons of such shit, just gurps it.

T R A U M A P L A T E S

I just houserule attacks with armor divisors reducing DR at the multiplied rate e.g. rolling 7 damage with AD (2) acts like 14 damage.

Going back and forth between books and pages got me confused.
How does Recover Energy, Regeneration (FP) and Energy Reserve works together?
For example, if someone knows Recover Energy at 15 and has Energy Reserve, do they recover 1 FP and ER each 5 minutes? Or will one of these will need to be full before the other starts recovering?
What about Regeneration (FP/ER)? Regeneration (Slow) cuts HP recovery time by two, so I believe Regeneration (Slow; FP/ER) will cut at the same rate: 1 point per 5 minutes.
Would Recover Energy 15 and Regeneration (Slow; FP) make the character recover FP at the rate of 1 point per 2 minutes and ER by 1 point per 5 minutes?

Also on magics, is it possible to use Memorize spell (Magic, p105) to temporary learn about a spell for the Ward spell (Magic, p122)?
Say my mage uses spells like Echoes/Images of the Past to learn the evil wizard has a penchant for Mental Stun spell, which my mage doesn't know. Could he, with access to appropriate tomes, use Memorize to temporary learn the ins and outs of Mental Stun so he can protect his allies in combat againt this spell with Ward?

The same is true for all attributes in most cases.
More than 13-14 HT is a waste, more than 13-14 IQ is a waste (unless you're a wizard, and even then you'll often want Magery instead), more than 13-14 DX is a waste (because all the skills you want will be at a fantastic level with a small investment, and the skills you want at an exceptional level like combat skills are still cheaper to improve than DX).

I can only really somewhat answer this post, but I think the Energy Reserve counts as a secondary FP-source by itself, and anything that recovers FP works on both of these no matter whether one or the other are full. (Unless of course you have some sort of modifiers in place)

I'm pretty sure the Recover Energy spell is priced based on Regeneration, so I'm unsure of how they would interact if you had both.

Personally I'd avoid any such conflicts.

Probably.

If using Armor Revisited rules, it might make damage calculations too complex to be smoothly done without computer assist.

Thanks for the references! Those are all great and I'm am reading through them now but I was more interested in events and encounters like mentioned in passing more than generic hex crawl guidelines. I just can't seem to come up with the stuff to populate those tables. I'm happy to convert where needed but don't have time to search since I work two jobs, have a family, and am forever GM. I was hoping to stand on the shoulders of giants so to speak.

detectmagic.blogspot.com/2014/04/pathcrawl.html You might like this, then. It seems fine on first blush. Or you can just google "Hexcrawl tables" and find a billion resources.

Has anyone tried the Discworld Roleplaying Game's magic system? Wondering whether to use that, RPM or incantation magic for my next fantasy game (not a discworld one).

/gurpsgen/, how do I find love?

Detect: Love, Occasional [10]
Acute Sense: Finding love [2/level]

Sex Appeal
Erotic Art
Wealth: Rich

No Grimwyrd this week folks, sorry

I had to cancel for hilarious reasons; I broke a tooth, had a severe allergic reaction ilciting hives across my body, and I had to install a laundry room...

All in all, flukes.

Is GURPS a good system for a hatred game?

Is that what Shad looks like underneath the mask?

Mind Control (Hearing- and Vision-Based, -40%)[30]

Easiest to just purchase it as needed. The cost of living rules are the wrong level of abstraction being too simple to usefully cover a very complex topic and too complex to handle well the details you'd want with a complex rule set. If that doesn't appeal then perhaps the Courtship section of Social Engineering (p. 40) might be more what you're looking for.

It's probably a little too crunchy for an edgy power fantasy; tacticool operating tends to slow down murder. Try Kill Puppies for Satan instead.

So the troll in Dungeon Fantasy has Regrowth, Regeneration and Independent Body Parts.

If the troll takes 10 cutting to the arm, it gets lopped off and the damage doesn't injure the arm nor the full body. For Regrowth coupled with Regeneration, the "time to heal to full HP" in this case is 0. Does this mean that the troll regrows their arm instantly? Or does "time to heal to full HP" mean going from -5xHP to Full?

Time to heal the dealt injury, which even though it's actually 0, I'd treat it as the amount that triggered losing the arm.

Also is it not "Regrowth (Reattach Only)"? That would make sense if Independent Body Parts is being used.

I think in the context of the troll, Regrowth represents its ability for its limbs to grow into new trolls

>You can go for fantastic and wild games with point totals too low for people to get Rapid Striking without heavily investing in it, or anyone buying 18+ ability scores.
That's what I said by high-fantasy cinematic with low point budget, yes. I think it gives enough varierty and freedom to make character creation interesting while keeping things somewhat grounded.

>You can also go for grounded, gritty, realistic games with high point totals that allow brutally effective fighters armed with powerful weapons and heavy armor.
In theory yes, but I wonder how realistic it is to have fighters with extra high attributes and skills.
I suppose it would look like Achilles vs Hector in Troy? Or HBO's Rome?

This is getting out of hand! Now there's two of them!

It's all right user, please feel better :)

Why every mage has IQ 14 and Magery 3?

Why Allies are so cheesy?

Not every mage has IQ 14 and Magery 3.
Allies are controlled by the GM, not the player.

>Not every mage has IQ 14 and Magery 3.
Maybe not exactly, but they float around IQ+Magery=17 for the sweet sweet ESL-15 spells at [1].
Even characters with larger CP budget than the (probably) common 150CP like the sample characters from Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic comes very close to that.
I don't actually think it's really bad, so to say, but it kinda feels like one of those things that restrics character building freedom. Like Fighters with the inevitable Weapon Master (if allowed).
In that regard Sorcery is slightly better, I think. It still requires a core advantage (Sorcerous Empowerment) but don't require high IQ. You can easily build spellswords that doesn't rely on Imbuements and powerful mages alike. Though at the cost of versatility.
"Versatility" is actually another point of contend of me regarding normal magic system. It's as free as its balanced. A mage without spells like haste, blink, shield, iron arm, ward and deflect/reverse/return/shield missile is less useful than a mage with them so it's another "obligatory cp cost" on mages that makes different mages less unique.

What's the point of using early rifles when muskets do more damage?

At TL 4 muskets and rifles do pretty much the same damage at comparable weights. A Musket at ST 12 deals more damage, but it's also a weapon that requires ST 10 compared to the Jager Rifle's ST 10.

The rifle hits a pretty solid sweet spot for range, accuracy and damage, with only it's reload being a problem.

Early rifles have better Acc than all but one musket, and said musket also has anemic damage. 3 Acc doesn't seem like a huge step above 2 or even 1, but remember that an extra +1 can negate a good chunk of range. Additionally, the Breechloading Carbine has a base reload time of 10 seconds *before* any shenanigans with paper cartridges and Fast-Draw (Ammo).

While damage is important, hitting your target in the first place is more important. How does the quote go again?
>You didn't hit me.
>If I did, you wouldn't be standing.
>Not arguing there... but you didn't hit me.

Why use early rifles at all when bows and crossbows can do significantly more damage over a short time?

they're scary

GM is using Last Gasp and The Deadly Spring. Bows are fucking exhausting.

Much easier to drill peasants to use firearms than bows.

To match a 3d+1 jager rifle with a bow takes a fuckton of ST and it's still an Average rather then Easy skill.

Crossbows that match the damage are slower to reload then a gun, not faster.

Kek!

xD

How do I run Golden Sun in GURPS?

It's been forever since I've played those games. What unique challenges does converting them present? IIRC, the main shtick was loading elemental dijins onto PCs to access spells of that element--maybe use Realm magic with the core only being accessible with the Granted By Familiar limitation?

I have no familiarity with Realm Magic, could I get an overview of how it works?

...

IQ 12+, Magery 2, Open Greater Gate

Essential Wood triplicate subject's DR, so a Wooden armor base stat would be DR 9 and weight 30lbs, correct?
Does that mean one could make a thinner armor with DR 3 and weight 10 out of essential wood?

Depending on what system for armor you're using, sure. Most systems with modular DR for armor uses linear scaling, and even if you don't I'm sure you could convince your GM it's a close enough approximation for the physics of magical wood.

It's a pretty barebones system from Thaumatology. The gist of it is that the universe is divided into core components called Realms--the example system goes out there with Matter, Light, Distance, and Spirit, but a more traditional division based off the elements would work fine too--and mages buy levels of each realm as an advantage. Each level unlocks new effects, starting with stuff like Sense and Analyze, going through stuff like Control and Create, and ending with more esoteric effects like transforming the Realm's form and/or physical laws they operate under (the example is turning electricity into a purple liquid).

However, for something like Golden Sun, you may want to swap out Effects By Level for something more like Magnitude By Level; someone with Earth 1 can still create stone--it's just a tiny ball, enough to hurt if flung at someone but not much more--and some Sense/Analyze effects may require higher levels if they're extreme like using Earth magic for vibration-sense.

Actually, the easiest way I can think to game this out is that you have Modular Abilities (Limited, [Element], -10%; Physical, +100%; Granted by Familiar, -40%) [15/level] and working out with the GM how many levels each dijin can grant. Getting a new dijin requires having enough points free to both buy the dijin as an ally as well as buy the MA that it grants. Alternatives include having the MA only grant spells from a given college or forcing PCs to pick from a list of predefined abilities (check out Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers for an example list).

Good to know I'm not stretching it too much.
To be honest, I'm not making a character for a game or anything. I just enjoy making characters.
The one I'm working now is based on Druid-Scout from DF and Sylvan Bow Lore from Yrth Fighting Styles. Mostly because I found this awesome pic.
Speaking of him, I'm not sure if he's cinematic or not. He has high bow skill and uses magic (hawk vision, conceal, tell position) but don't have advantages like Heroic Archer. Probably borderline cinematic but not technically so?

That's how orichalcum armor works in DF. Rather than tripling DR for equivalent weight, it has the same DR but 1/3 of the weight. I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing using Essential Wood.

So uh, anyone gonna post Dungeon Fantasy Box set yet? I don't have any money to but it, and I really wanna see it

Isn't DFRPG just a bundled/reorganized version of GURPS DF books?

Yes. It's still nice to have things in a nice, organized format

It's also cheaper, if you buy it.
DF #1-19 costs about $200, compared to DFRPG's $60.

DFRPG only covers the equivalent of DF 1, 2, and 3. Stuff like artificers, psis, incanters, ninjas, and summoners aren't in DFRPG proper. That being said, DFRPG does come with a fuckhuge (comparatively speaking) monster manual, old-school cardboard minis, expansions on a few Pyramid articles, and all the relevant stuff from the Basic Set all in one place, so $60 is still a solid deal. It's just not a "$200 worth of stuff for $60" type of deal.

This deserves more discussion because I also noticed how weird the math is on enchantment in GURPS. This doesn't even included how damn long it takes to enchant something in comparison to the smithing rules. How have you guys house ruled your magic enchanting?

I remember a discussion about GURPS Elder Scrolls talking about using Soul Gems, how about something like that?
A quick dirty way I came with to calculate a soul's energy value is (total CP*Will)/2 so a soul of someone with 150CP and Will 10 would give 750 points, enough for a decent but not spectacular.

Besides, Pyramid #66 has an article by Kromm about using material resources like monster parts and expensive items to provide energy for enchantments. Never actually read it in full, though.

There are some formulas in thaumatology for ritual sacrifices, but those are limited by consent/creature stats.

Should I play GURPS 4e or 3e? What's the difference?

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Use 4e, each edition is an iterative improvement.

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i would also like to see this
i think it have new rules

Looked into it. It has a few methods but the best seems to be CP and intelligence.
Intelligence recommends IQ*HT or HP so an average human would provide 100 energy. CP suggest 1 energy per CP, which would give about 50-75 per average person.
Anyway without any GM tweak it would require a mass sacrifice to power any enchantment, specially so if you consider unwilling subjects provides only a third of the base energy.

This is some next level trolling.

Troll Fantasy 3: The Next Level
Mixing boards
Veeky Forums marginal choice: Veeky Forums-/an/

Pyramid 3-60 Dungeon Fantasy III p.31:
Cutting Attack 2 points (Magical, -10%; Melee Attack, Reach 1, -25%; ST-Based, +100%; Thrusting Blade, +15%) [9]

Isn't this off?
Cutting damage is [7/level], tackle the (-10-25+100+15=)+80% modifier and now its 12.6, rounds up [13/level]
Partial dice costs *.3 so +2 is .6 and should cost 13*.6=7.8=[8] or maybe straight [13] if you round up the .6 to 1

Interestingly GCA has a modifier for Innate Attack called "Partial Dice +X (per level)" which makes this advantage indeed sum up to [9] but I can't for my life find where this modifier is. GCA accuses B62 but there's only the normal partial dice rule there.

Im my table the GM houseruled that to buy energy reserve you need to buy all extra FP possible first, which is 100% of your HT in our house rules. That means that to get 1 level of energy reserve you need to spend at least 30 points in FP. So its not always an option

That's a fucking retarded house rule.

>Survivable

DUDE YOU HAVE NO IDEA
Im playing a fighter that has ST 20 +2 striking ST and +2 Arms ST. I deal so much damage, I can wear armor and still be on no encumbrance. Due to the power grappling perk I can choke and control most humans. I can wade into combat fearlessly because I have 26 HP. ST is the ONE STAT that gets more and more awesome the more you have it, until you reach ST 31, then it gets softcapped.

I agree, we deal with many retarded house rules. The one that annoys me the most is that anyone wielding a weapon with two hands gets +2 damage per die of ST. Which means random orcs are doing 7d+2 damage, and ST 21-25 weapon masters are doing 8d-10d damage. Which is a ridiculously lethal ammount of damage.

He also makes wizards choose only 3 colleges and be locked in them, having to spend 40 points in it before learning another college. Which is basically lame as fuck.

Why do you play with this cockmongler?

Magic p150:
Toxic Attack 2 pts (Cannot parry, -5%; Irresistible Attack, +300%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%) [11]
4*3.65*.75=10.95=[11]
Ok, apply modifier then .75. Easy enough.
7*1.8*.75=9.45=[10]
FUCK!

Why do people continue to use 3e then? I hear things like people preferring having HP based off HT or the format of 3e, but I don't think that's enough

Despite his flaws he is a good GM, combats are very exciting and the plot rp is good.