/GURPSgen/ GURPS general

"Deep chargen and high lethality is dumb" edition

ITT: Borderline autistic discussion of a 3d6 roll-under system.

What genre of game have you enjoyed the most with GURPS? About what genre have you hypothesized the most?

I've enjoyed mysteries and horror a lot, since the aforementioned high lethality keeps things tense, and the roleplaying benefits of gurps tend to result in fairly creative play.

I've hypothesized in autistic detail about post-apoc stuff the most, since that's an ongoing game for me. I also like fussing with the utility of medieval and renaissance tech in a post-apoc setting.

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New and curious? Want your friends to play? Have a free resource which boils the game down to its essence: GURPS Lite.

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>you may distribute this PDF file freely under the above restrictions, and post copies of it online.

Best advice I have for getting your friends to play: make pregenerated characters (full basic set optional) and give them a choice between them, use only the rules in Lite, run a one-shot and do something GURPS can do that other games struggle with. Off the top of my head: roleplaying by using disadvantages; tense and detailed social play using reaction rolls; high tension combat.

Advice on getting new folks to play and questions from new people are appreciated.

Is there any way to alter a lifting/Striking/Enhanced ST advantage, so it doesn't automatically apply to the calculations in GCS? I am making a character that can temporarily "Hulk out"(Enhanced ST, costs FP, limited times per day), and I don't want them to factor into the BL and Damage of his basic sheet.

As far as I can tell, the kosher way to do this is to use Shapeshifting and an alternate racial template. I don't think there's a mechanism in GCS which accounts for switchable bonuses. I might be wrong, though.

How so? He pays FP, and he gets more Swole. He's not turning into an Orc, or whatever, he just has the power to enhance his muscle mass(It's a Supers game, to be clear)
That seems like it would be ridiculously expensive as well, compared, and while I'm not trying to cheese, when you're competing with shit like Mental Illusion and TK, which are super powerful and cheap, you kinda need all the help you can get if you're coming in with "Swole, and punches good"

Double click the ability, play around with the tabs, I think adding to striking st is on the features tab. You can delete that there, and it won't automatically impact your calculations.
Making it so that you can toggle the bonus on and off is harder, but not impossible, if that's what you wanted.

Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that, thanks man.

I have a Warhammer Fantasy game using GURPS planned, I've been trying to think about how a WW1-era espionage/spy type campaign would work, something where the players eliminate high value targets and gather intelligence, sneaky stuff etc.

Shapeshifting (Alternate Form) costs 15 points for a single racial template which is the same cost as the native racial template, or 15 + 90% the difference if more than.

Take Hulk. Huge, with HUGE GUTS. Probably kind of dim, though. Where Banner is probably 16 IQ but 10 ST, Hulk is probably more like -6 or -7 IQ, has SM +2/Gigantism for cheaper ST buy and of course a lot of ST, probably a couple disadvantages like Berserk. You could work something out with your GM that the more you fail a self control roll for berserk or bad temper, the better a temporary bonus to ST. You could write all that up as a fairly balanced racial template and buy Shapeshifting (Alternate Form) to handle it. Extra things like Leap would cost more of course.

That's my take on it. There are many ways to skin that cat, but that's just the one I could think of for dealing with your dilemma of putting it in GCS.

Only run/played a few campaigns, so I don't have a lot of practical experience with different genres in GURPS, but I've done WAY too much hypothesizing on a cyberpunk game, also nitty-gritty low-tech fechts, space opera, DF megadungeons, ultra-high fantasy, modern tacticool squad games, and more.

Why would you rise Dancing skill above weapon skill and get Dancing Feint perk?
It's a suggestion for a fighter using the Sylvan Sword Lore style but it seems utterly useless for any PC.

>I remember an user reading though the Abydos book and getting to section that describes the three types of duels: to first blood, symbolized by a read rose; to the death, symbolized by a white rose; and to total destruction, where when a duelist dies, their corpse is immediately animated and the duel continues until the zombie is completely destroyed, represented by a black rose.

>We all felt the black rose was a little excessive until we read the entry for That NPC.

Yeah, fuck That NPC. Megalos has lots of nasty abuses, but at least it's harder to get away with murdering your lonely, ignored, wife and then trapping her soul inside an insane attack dog.

...and then using that dog to rip apart her young lover.
...and then keeping the dog around to enjoy her unending torment.
...and walking around town with it, relishing the thrill - and the risk - that if anyone would touch the rabid beast, they'd hear her screaming.

Hell. Screw merely duelling under the black rose - That NPC deserves to have his own soul bound into his zombified corpse when it's animated. And unlike the ruler of Abydos, he won't have control of it.

but i like deep chargen and high lethality... :(

I've found GURPS runs D&D better than D&D.

I'm looking into mythras but not finished the book yet desu so can't compare.

While I honestly find GURPS best suited to Sci-Fi or realistic low tech stuff, I'm always running Post apocalypse stuff, like you. I find it balances the high lethality of later tech stuff when ammunition is scarce, technology-as-magic is more of a viable thing, and mutants are fun to create and mess around with. And of course, medieval civilization with high tech stuff is fun.

I like making characters but I don't have a group to play with so GURPS deep chargen and mountain of (optional) rules are a god send for me.
I've tried other systems (eg dnd, pathfinder, fantasy craft) but none came closer to the enjoyment I got from GURPS. The only one that came close is Eclipse Phase.

Maybe for specialized non-combat builds? Friedrich the knight should have high weapons skill, no questions asked, but the aristocrat Lady Helena that he serves probably only has a point or two in Smallsword but is rocking Dancing-15 because the court is big on balls and socials. For a perk, she can be a lot more effective when forced into combat.

Mostly I think the perk exists because it seems cool and is a worked example of Technique Adaptation.

>Deep chargen edition line
I was mocking some other asshole in another thread related to GURPS.

I'm inclined to agree, though. I like how modular it is, I like playing with it and sussing out how to gamify certain characters, I like that point-buy is the default instead of random stats from dice. GURPS does several games better than the custom systems. OSR/DnD, Shadowrun, Fallout, to name a few.

I would rather reframe it that Sci-Fi and realistic low-tech stuff is best played in GURPS. I agree on all other points, though, especially the balance of lethality with scarcity. Makes for very interesting long-term strategy and tactics, and ramps up the tension.

We should include this in the OP pdf as well as having it in every thread. I would, but I have exams, and I'm also incredibly lazy.

Last thread:

Why is it that we love GURPS? Personally I'm a freak that loves the style that the GURPS books are written in, they're fun even as a casual read for me, then again I also like reading college textbooks.

>racial template
So, for a regular human, a racial template would be empty, and worth 0 points?

Correct. As the advantage notes in the book on B84, were-creatures can typically be made on 15 points, since most creatures have a racial template that comes out to 0. If you did this with a Dwarf from DF, however, you'd have a racial template with a cost, so more powerful creatures would be available.

I find it most agreeable when it is posted as a separate pdf with license attached, instead of tacking it onto the OP pdf. I'm also not sure if attaching it to the OP pdf would constitute as "modifying" it, for purposes of the copyright. As such, I think that just posting it and using a pasta works the best. Attaching a general thread FAQ might be a good idea, though. I tried to preemptively answer the question of getting new players to play it, since that comes up all the time.

How would you build an Elf with their racial Magery using "chinese elemental powers"?
As you would build any other character, kind of wasting the Magery advantage, or would you adapt chi powers to magic?

What limitations would I add to Regeneration so that it would only work while the character is unconscious? The Unconscious limitation and associated Uncontrollable don't really apply, I wouldn't think?

Human is the default assumption of GURPS. Being subhuman in some way is a disadvantage, and when included in a racial template you don't need to count it to your disadvantage limit.

So a SM +1 beast with No Fine Manipulators and +8 ST would be 0 points, just like a human.

Accessibility (Only when unconscious) seems like a solid -50% or so to Regeneration. You can heal, but only when not awake.

Regeneration is always, unless otherwise noted, uncontrollable and automatic.

Thanks, I wouldn't have thought it would be such a large discount. I was thinking something like Trigger (common) which isn't nearly as good.

It's a pretty major drawback.

For faster (combat useful) regeneration you are losing it's total combat utility, so it's a huge downside.

For slower regeneration like hours scale you are losing 2/3rds of your HP-per-day healed.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for explaining.

I'd either include Mysterous Elf Magicâ„¢ that works with their Margery 0 or remove it from the racial template for that game.

Inherent Chi powers seem like an odd choice for an elf.

We want to play a game with piloted robots, like those from break blade/broken blade, Gundam, and TTGL, will GURPS work for that?

Yes. Try out GURPS Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha for help on this.

Adding to this the Pyramid articles "Mecha Operation" and "Titan Fightin'" plus a few general Spaceships-centric articles like "Alternate Spaceships."

>Style in which the GURPS books are written.
I like it also. One of my first purchases with the Basic Set was Fantasy, and I love how it is written. The three column formatting consistently annoys the piss out of me, though. I can't think of any advantages the format has over two-column.

The art... could be better. I feel like that's something which draws people into a game, is the art. If it's eye-catching while they're flipping through the book at the flgs, they'll probably read more and probably buy it. Pathfinder, 5E benefit from their cohesive art style and aesthetic, even if it is not the best thing in the world. GURPS art is all over the place in quality and style. If they had one artistic stylization, like watercolors, I don't think it'd be so obnoxious.

As far as my main draw to the game, it's because I'm a systems fag. A bunch of the pieces are bonuses, to me. Great, I can use the same system to run any game. That's a side benefit to me. I'm mostly fascinated with the modularity of the system, the elegance of its rules, and how intuitive it is. GURPS doesn't feel like it has to justify anything to me, it doesn't feel arbitrary or obviously gamist. ST is bulk, bulk affects HP, that seems obvious. A huge chunk of GURPS feels like pieces were designed to be self-contained, but when they interacts with other rules, it's a combinatorial explosion of awesome. Everything meshes well, instead of feeling like two completely different games.

There are a few standout things for me, coming from D20 as my first roleplaying experience. 3D6 roll-under is fucking amazing. At first glance it's just another resolution system, but the more I use it, the sexier that bell curve gets. Disadvantages, especially with self-control rolls, are an amazing mechanic. Sure, other games have roleplaying traits, but usually as afterthought, and not to this depth. Pregens as complete characters are viable!

I could go on, but character limit. I like GURPS.

>GURPS Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha
>Pyramid articles "Mecha Operation" and "Titan Fightin'
I'll check 'em later.

Also, is piloted (humanoid) robots have different ruleblock (actions, weapon damage, shooting, etc) or they can be played on same rules as human characters?

Personally I prefer playing them with the same rules as human characters. If you disallow all equipment and unsuitable advantages (like insubstantiality), you can run a very good giant robot campaign just straight out of the book.

The only time problems occur is when robot-scale and personal-scale interact, like when an infantry soldier fires an RPG or a tank needs to interact with both, but you can put your robots in decade-scale or whatever is appropriate for the setting and get rid of that issue.

Hey does anyone have any lightweight and streamlined survival and travelling rules? Looking to run a campaign with lots of travelling and adventure, but also looking to keep it as lightweight and fast as possible.

Basic
Basic Movex10 miles is what you can travel per day. Hiking roll increases this by 20%. Travelling in group requires a leader with Leadership skill above 12 and roll against the group's average Hiking skill (that's why even you mage should have a point in it).

Dungeon Fantasy Wilderness Adventures
Never read it completely but considering the kind of game it's aimed to, it shouldn't be too complex but probably contain details about encounters.

See also: Pyramid 95Overland Adventures and Low Tech Companion 2 ("Mobility")

I was planning oon being a dragon hatchling who can transform into a humanoid form for disguise. What's the best way to model this? Alternate Form?

Yeah. Just 15 points to transform into a racial template with a lower point value.
I'd also specify whether or not the human form is aged to the same degree as the hatchling form.

Banestorm's Dexnavi/Adrien is exactly like that, except he's a Monstruous Dragon, not a Hatchling, but it should be very easy to change it.

How do I create a decent Flintlock/wheellock Musketer/Pistoleer? What do I do once my one shot is gone?
What skills should I take

How can I be an anime?

Fastdraw (Ammo) and Fastdraw (Long Arm) for starters.

Shadow Form (3D Motion, Finite Thickness)
Appearance (Monstrous)
Reduced IQ (level 1-4, depending)

A bandoleer of multiple loaded pistols will help. Same with things like pepperboxes and primitive grenades.

But that only reduces it by two seconds out of 60

How pistols would be average?

Again, in English?

Through mechanics attack fast-draw.

Would a character with Flexibility (Double Jointed) automatically receive the benefits of Extra Flexible (arms only)?

Paper cartridges with Fast-Draw and a breechloading rifle let you fire off rounds at a respectable rate. Still, there's a reason musketeers were known for their strength and skill with the sword; after you get your shot (or shots if you have time to reload and/or have multiple guns/barrels), you need to be able to get stuck in with melee weapons.

Sorry, I was sleepy as fuck. I meant to say how many pistols would a person carry on average?

1 or 2. An adventurer probably closer to 4 or 6

...

>An adventurer probably closer to 4 or 6
Seems legit

Disclaimer: Not period expert nor have played a game at TL5 or so. My knowledge comes from what I gathered over the years while researching other things.

That said, flintlock weapons aren't good for your "adventurer" engaging in fights with small participants. They're inaccurate and slow to reload. What they have going for them is ease to use and cost.
Compared to melee weapons and bow, it's DX/E skill, cheaper to achieve higher levels. It's cheap, a good bow or crossbow will cost you around $600, while a musket or pistol won't cost you $300. It's also less bulky, a carbine's or a heavy pistol's bulk is -4 while a bow's or crossbow's is -7, so they give a much better chance to hit while a move and attack maneuver. Their damage is also not to be ignored, dragoon pistol's 2d damage is equivalent to a bow shot by someone with ST 17-18.

If I were to build a character for the period, I would probably get a few loaded pistols on my body and hold one in the off hand and a sabre or something in the main hand.
Engagement distance shouldn't be too far, because range/speed table logarithmic nature even at 10 yards you suffer -4 penalty for range. I would probably open by trying to take a shot at my enemy, if he doesn't go down I will make a move and attack while throwing away my unloaded pistol (free action) and getting a new one (possibly free action with fast-draw roll) by then I'm probably at melee range and would keep the last pistol in the off hand looking for a chance (be it a feint I succeeded, an All out Attack etc).

As I said, I would go for 3. You could of couse get more but realistically speaking I think having more than that in a place you can fast draw (near the hand you off hand) would take away some of your balance.

Finally, as the other user said, Breechloading Carbine with paper cartridges are a good choice too but I'm not sure they're as available as a normal flintlock gun.

By the way, I don't think I ever saw a high fantasy setting at realistic TL4-5. The closest stuff I can think off are settings with magical TL (steampunk, manapunk) or TL3 with magical guns (more common in J-fantasy, I think).

Some pirates carried as many at 8 pistols. Three pistols and a sword should be enough for most encounters, assuming you're not fighting supernatural shit.

There's a dude who semi-regularly posted updates to his TL4 fantasy campaign in this very thread.

With Dual-Weapon Attack and Dual Ready perk, in fact, you can stay with loaded barrels after each shot.
So basically it depends on how many cheap pistols you can afford and be able to reach or can you be able to realod in middle of combat.
For my John Woo style cyberpunk cop starting 3 pistols was tight, and 5 pistols was pretty enough.

I have finally gotten a prehistoric fantasy, cavemen and dinosaurs style setting off the ground. I did a huge amount of hypothesizing and prep work before my first session. A lot of stories that are told at a higher tech level can be told at tech level 0, I think, but some things are inherently different.

I modified the rules for primitive weapons materials considerably. Rather than multiplying target DR, most primitive weapons are fragile. Weapons are dangerous, but they break frequently, which often requires players to resort to drawing another weapon, utilizing the environment, using unarmed combat techniques or fleeing. In the first session, one of my players had his neanderthal stab a cannibal with his stone spear. It wounded the cannibal, but the tip broke off, so he grabbed a rock to finish the bad guy off while he was reeling. Better quality weapons tend to be more resilient in addition to dealing more damage.

The game is mostly about exploration. The home base is the tribe's camp, and I'm working on a system for improving social standing within the tribe. Doing this is a big part of the game, since it enables the players to put the tribe to work homesteading, taming dinosaurs or generally doing things the PC's can't or don't feel like doing. If the game lasts, this will become important towards the mid to late game, when the players start dealing with some of the more advanced tribes and stone aged civilizations.

Mysterious Elf Magic sounds good.
Body Control spells are already kinda like chi powers anyway...

Tips:
Don't over-invest in shooting. 4-10 points is fine (8 in Musket, 2 in Fast Draw (Ammo).

Save your shot until you have a good chance to hit. If you aren't looking at least at SL 12 after range and other modifiers, hold your fire.

Shoot, then charge. Either use a bayonet, your gun as club or pull a sword and tear into them. Use the shot to create an opening to exploit or to wound/kill the most dangerous enemy.

You can load your musket with pellets for a shotgun effect, or add extra powder if you have enough ST to handle the increased abuse. Over-charge + multi-projectile is a pretty strong combination. (ROF 1x9 for 1d+2 pi isn't bad at all).

How would you change this character, /GURPSgen/?

I wanna try and run a one-shot for some mates at some point in the next few weeks, but it'll be our first game of GURPS. Can I use the Action series to throw some characters together for my players with...relative ease?

Drop IQ by 1, up Per by 2, and up HP by 2 for a net 6 points left over.

Use that 6 points for more Bow and a few background skills that will flesh out the character (Musical Instrument, Games, etc)

He also needs some disadvantages. Overconfidence fits most adventurers. So does Curious or even Bloodlust. Use those points to get Weapon Master (Bow)

Yes it has templates.

with a timeline of "the next few weeks" it should be doable.
Action 1 contains "templates" which are simple building blocks for building characters. They streamline character creation by limiting choices to what is relevant. So the "demolition man" action template has abilities that are important for an explosives expert, without bogging you down with options that would either water things down by being too far out of scope for a demolition man or be completely inappropriate for the "action" genre.
When choosing the templates, pay attention to the customization notes, they have good advice for putting together cohesive characters in that niche.
The one special trick of Action is that character templates are meant to be paired with a lens, but that's not especially difficult.

Probably the easiest way to ramp yourself up without bogging yourself down with too much reading is to read GURPS Lite first to get the general GURPS rules (you can skip over the lists of advantages, disadvantages, skills, and equipment though.) and then read through Action 2 while keeping Basic Set - Campaigns nearby for reference. If you read an interesting section in Action 2 that refers to rules you didn't read about in GURPS Lite, they will almost certainly be referenced in Basic Set - Campaigns; if you read something that you don't find interesting, don't worry about it, all the rules are optional, and anything you think is boring, too simple, or too hard, or whatever, just ignore it.
Finally, understanding the core rules of Action 2, go back to Action 1 with Basic Set - Characters as a reference. browse the templates casually, but don't bore yourself reading the whole dang thing; the intro paragraph for each is almost certainly enough. If you are curious about any of the advantages, skills, or abilities on an interesting template, unless it is new to the Action series, you will probably find it in Basic Set - Characters; if it is new, you'll probably find it in Action 1.

Thanks for the advice.
I purposefully left disadvantages blank because I'm still coming up with a backstory. I'm also avoiding overly cinematic traits like Weapon Master and Heroic Archer.
Reducing IQ to improve the character's strong points is nice. I had considered lowering IQ because I feared losing too many levels in skill but looking at it again with what you said in mind, it's not really that much (reduced camouflage and navigation hurts a little but they're secondary skills anyway).
I wonder if Bloodlust [12] (the one a trained warrior/soldier would have) is compatible with a Code of Honor (Elven), pretty sure it works with the Soldier's one though.

How do I have fun

Fairbairn Close Combat is an odd fit for a TL 3 character, make sure your GM is okay with it. Sylvan Bow Lore is, likewise, an elf thing and might not be okay for your human character.

What is your point max/disadvantage max?

This seems like pretty solid advice too..

Thoughts:

Karate at 1 point invested is a waste. You are better off just hitting people at raw DX for SL 13. You've got a woodland hunter thing going on that fits well and suggest a lot of potential disadvantages/advantages. Snag a long knife for close combat fun.

Combat Reflexes would be very useful to help you avoid getting hit and boost your quick draw. Fit or more HT could be nice too.

Weapon Bond and Signature Gear your bow. It's something you are heavily invested in and you want to make sure you've always got it when you need it. Grab some Fine arrows mixed between Bodkin and Broadhead points to maximize your damage.

I hate to be a dick, but I feel like Special Exercises/Arm ST, Strongbow and KYOS is a deliberate exploitation if getting outside the normal human scale for ST in KYOS for as cheaply as you can.

I love Sorcery!

I love you user

All good points.

>Fairbairn Close Combat is an odd fit for a TL 3 character, make sure your GM is okay with it. Sylvan Bow Lore is, likewise, an elf thing and might not be okay for your human character.
>What is your point max/disadvantage max?
To be honest, I'm one of those theoretical players who doesn't have a group and spends time making characters for fun (and as an excuse to read about tid bits of history and science fiction).
This character's biggest problem is that he suffered multiple changes over the course of conception. He first started as a Druid, then became a Half-Elf Druid-Ranger and a few problems with points available he ended up as a human ranger. Setting is also pretty vague, it's mostly based on Yrth but not entirely. I wanted him to be a competent, but not yet heroic adventurer so I went with the usual 150 CP plus 50 tops from disadvantages (though if possible I want to avoid getting os many disadvantages).
As I said, he started as a Half-Elf and that was his excuse for Sylvan Lore. Fairbairn was the only style I could find that contained both Judo (to put his high Arm ST into use) and Knife (DX/E melee skill), this had the extra benefit of making me read a lot about the British Commando. I would have prefered something like "Sylvan Dagger Lore" but sadly there were none. Staff lore is not very strong (only crush damage without imbuements) and Sword Lore is too expensive (both regarding CP and $).
Current character backstory in pastebin because character count: pastebin.com/zQYaZEHa

>Karate at 1 point invested is a waste. You are better off just hitting people at raw DX for SL 13. You've got a woodland hunter thing going on that fits well and suggest a lot of potential disadvantages/advantages. Snag a long knife for close combat fun.
If there were a style like Dagger Fighting but with Judo instead of Wrestling I would have get it but sadly, there's none so I went with Fairbairn which included the Karate skill.
I didn't add it as note but I actually got a Large Knife (not long) with the (sneak) judo grapple to face followed by Knife thrust to neck (artery to hit penalty is too steep...) in mind.

>Combat Reflexes would be very useful to help you avoid getting hit and boost your quick draw. Fit or more HT could be nice too.
I already have Fit and WWII Commando templates suggests HT 11 + Fit so I think rising it to 12 is a little over done, isn't it?

>Weapon Bond and Signature Gear your bow. It's something you are heavily invested in and you want to make sure you've always got it when you need it. Grab some Fine arrows mixed between Bodkin and Broadhead points to maximize your damage.
To Signature Gear the bow I would need [2], which would leave me "wasting" $400. Is it possible to also get a Fine Balanced Large Knife ($320) as a "pack deal"?

>I hate to be a dick, but I feel like Special Exercises/Arm ST, Strongbow and KYOS is a deliberate exploitation if getting outside the normal human scale for ST in KYOS for as cheaply as you can.
I would usually agree with you but I want to defend this case. Arm ST and Strongbow came directly from the Sylvan Bow Lore style and together with +1 ST, using Deadly Spring as reference, allows me to use bows with draw weight of 200lbs under KYOS' basic lift, high end for real life but probably not overly so for a race that is almosy synonimous with bow.
I agree that KYOS damage is too high so I cogitated using normal ST table but that would reduce the draw weight to 127lbs, nominal for warbows and not particularly impressive. Keeping KYOS but using Deadly Spring bows was another idea, I even used the spreadsheet to come up with a Essential Yew Bow but the "vagueness" of the character concept at the time kept me from using it. I wasn't sure if I would consider Edge Protection rules or not, which in turn made me wonder if I wished to keep the KYOS high damage to compensate the low penetrating damage or use Deadly Spring to balance the damage against the vanilla rules. I probably will end up considering both as canon.

Just for fun, here's the Essential Yew Bow stats:
Draw Weight, 100lbs; Draw Length, 28''; Length, 53''; Working %, 100%; Construction, Recurved; Shape, Rectangular; Thickness, .3.
Damage, 1d+1(1) imp; Acc, 2; Range, 280/499; Shots, 1(2); ST, 15; Bulk, -7.

>not overly so for a race that is almosy synonimous with bow
Just saying I didn't forget my character is not an Elf. What I meant here is that he's among peers with much higher standards and probably with better training.
Now off I go trying to fish for a knife style more elegant than Dagger Fighting and also more at home than Fairbairn's style...

You can, depending on what book you are using, pay for a item out of cash and get a Perk level signature Gear as "insurance" that makes it so the item won't be destroyed, stolen or lost without the ST giving you a chance to get it back.

That said, you CAN take "Signature Gear: Father's bow and blade" with a sympathetic ST.

A re-fluffed Farbian style could be intersting in a game, and of course in Yrith/Infinate Worlds you could be a TL 3 archer that was trained by a world war 2 british commando.

Missed Fit, HT 11 + Fit is typically enough, unless your GM is going to run a gritty game where disease and deprevation are serious threats.

That's a valid case. I'd at least be willing to listen to a character pitch that included Arm ST and Strongbow for a highly specialized archer..

>Staff

Oh, but you might want to look at staff styles again. Crushing damage isn't as bad as you might think and the stick has great reach and decent damage.

In a game I'm running, I plan to have an NPC with a single suped up arm, ala pic related, or the God Hand. Arm ST(one arm), DR for that arm only, etc. Is there anything I can throw on or use to enhance the concept, skills to use, tricks to pull with it, etc?

And for that matter, are there any potential drawbacks I might be overlooking, beyond the obvious of "the arm being crippled severely reduced his combat ability"?

>A re-fluffed Farbian style could be intersting in a game, and of course in Yrith/Infinate Worlds you could be a TL 3 archer that was trained by a world war 2 british commando.
That gives me an idea. A British commando banestorm victim is running from the MoS and asks for refuge in a Elven forest. The Elves agree in exchange for the knowledge of his Commando training. Elves, being the long-lived hyper-competent selves, were not something the MoS would tackle lightheartedly and because the Elves have no interest on technologies and political ideas from Earth, the Ministry gave up on the pursuit.
The brutally efficient martial style passed by the commando were incorporated (and slightly embellished) into the Sylvan War Lore. Naming is hard but maybe "Sylvan Faeblade Lore"? Faeblade being a thinly veiled F-S Knife with the usual Elven craftsmanship (elven or fine quality).


>Oh, but you might want to look at staff styles again. Crushing damage isn't as bad as you might think and the stick has great reach and decent damage.
I left it out my response because it was getting too long but one of the reasons I didn't consider Staff Lore much is because logistics. I imagine it would be too troublesome to carry around a bow AND a quarterstaff. Even if you consider fantasy physics that allows bows not to be damage by staying strung and thus carried across your body or something, you'd have to drop the quarterstaff to use the bow and maybe pick it up later for use. A Knife can just be put into a shealth. By the way, I considered using Tonfa with Karate skill but that would be a little too silly.

Did you check Pyramid #01's Necromantic Tools (various arm enhancements) and #65 Alternate Gurps III's Natural Weapons?

No, I will check them out in the morning(didn't expect a response so soon, was planning to post before bed, GURPSgen is usually pretty slow). Anything in particular that they offer to look at?

As I said, Necromantic Tools has many special arms. Example: Dextrous skeleon arm, strong and clawed demon arm, insubstantial telekinetic ectoplasmic arm, among others.

Natural Weapons is about a new advantage, essentially a variant (some would say improvement) of Innate Attack. It also contains many examples like bone stakes, "wolverine" claws, psychic daggers and lightning whips.

Which GURPS magic system would be the one to use if I'm running a low magic world, where magic is complex, expensive, time consuming and not very flashy, but not necessarily outright dangerous? Also it should be about effects like buffs and debuffs, clairvoyance, mental manipulations, etc. as opposed to slinging fireballs around.

Has anyone ever written a good comparison of the available magic systems, as well as a list of reading material that explains what is where?

RPM and yes.

>RPM
Thanks.
>yes
Where would I find that?

In the OP, unless my memory is failing me. Should be a pastebin. It's missing Incantation Magic though.

Cool, I'll have a read. Thanks.

Not that user, but I've read through that and can't understand it, could you explain it?

Not him, but Ritual path magic, if you ban adept, takes a long time and requires a lot of preparation besides. It is flexible in that spells are made up of different nouns and verbs and lesser or greater effects, and it has a rubric for calculating how much energy a spell requires. I caution that it has a very steep power curve though. It starts off very meager in the low teens, picks up steam in the high teens, and becomes phenomenally powerful in the 20s. That said because of lots of rules constraining maximum skill levels based on different traits, it is very expensive to reach those very high levels.
In short, controlled very carefully, I think it is a good answer, but not controlled carefully, it escalates in power very quickly.

Isn't ritual path magic basically just having a base skill that you can cast spells off of? WHat's this with nouns and verbs? As far as I know this is how RPM works:

Let's say you have thaumatology 18. With that I could learn different Ritual Paths in different schools, let's say magic. If I wanted to cast ignite fire, that's the most basic spell at the top of the list, so I could cast it by rolling under my path of fire, at no penalty. Let's say I instead wanted to cast fireball. I then would look at each prerequisite spell to learning fireball, and subtract the total number of prerequisites to my skill. So if I had a 16, and there were 6 prerequisites, I would get a -6 modifier to make it 10.

Is this basically right?

Ritual path magic Ritual magic Path/book magic

???????
Explain to a newbie

I was giving a mile high elevator speech but in more detail, let's take your ignite fire spell example.
Fire is energy, so you need to invest in path of energy.
There is no hard coded spell list for "ignite fire" but instead, we decide which verb of create, destroy, control, transform, sense, or strengthen sounds like making a fire start. We don't need to pay for these verbs, just the path of energy.
"Create energy" sounds like what we'd need to start a fire. It might be a lesser effect if trying to ignite things that burn easily like dry tinder and kindling, or a greater effect to burn a green living tree.
Assuming the former, we guess how much our pile of tinder weighs, probably less than ten pounds, so we need a lesser create energy spell that affects a 10 lb pile of tinder that is about a yard from my hand.
10 lbs is 0 energy, 1 yard is 0 energy, and create is 6 energy. With a modest skill level of 13 or 15 it will be 5 to 15 minutes to light the fire, barring a few critical successes in a row.

I forgot to mention that they probably need to spend an hour doing a consecration if the area isn't magical. So it's more like 65 to 75 minutes, but once the area is consecrated, they can cast a lot more spells quickly, that is, without the hour surcharge.

How well can the magic systems interact? Like if you're doing a infinite worlds thing where "wizards of fantasyverse A use Core, wizards of fantasyverse B use RPM, wizards of fantasyverse C use Sorcery," would you have any glaring issues with wizards from the different universes meeting/being PCs?

Has anyone used Dungeon Fantasy for horror games, a la Darkest Dungeon?

Different strengths and weaknesses. Core magic is cheap to get decent at a bunch of spells that you can't modify. Sorcery is easy to get good at a few spells you specifically care about, and rpm is extremely flexible and probably the generalist of the system. Sorcery would probably beat the other two in a magic missile duel, while if all three were drugged and naked 1000 miles from civilization, the rpm user would probably get back the easiest. They all got pros and cons, but they don't really see eye to eye on any specific scenario.

I have no idea what Darkest Dungeon is like, so feel free to ignore this if it's wrong. A horror game with 250 point combat monsters for characters is probably not gonna go over well, unless it's a splatterhouse type of horror where the heroes are meant to be wading through some metalpocalypse hell-on-earth scenario. You'd want to cut off 100~150 points from the templates, probably just by reducing attributes and maybe advantages, to get more realistic/vulnerable heroes who can still perform well in combat aginst "common" foes like goblins and orcs. Not that you can't make the Bow-22 scout quake in his boots, or the lobsterman knight with Two-Handed Sword-18 soil his undergarments, it'll just be difficult because the expectation is that you're a Big Damn Hero.