Trim the fat!
GURPS main resolution mechanic is 3d6 roll-under. Its rules are discrete and meant to be used and referred to only as needed. A biker gang in 1960 probably won't need suffocation rules for space, for example.
Come hang out, ask some questions, post some memes.
Previous thread I think we should start collating a thread FAQ, since there are a lot of regular topics which come up on a regular basis. What questions and answers you often see posted? Newbie advice on how do GURPS?
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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.
Full license: pastebin.com
>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.
Can your PCs bring their war weapons like polearms into towns and cities?
>Pila were designed to pierce shields and still injure the man behind it, unlike traditional javelins that won't penetrate to sufficient depth. Pila getting stuck in shields and weighing them down was a useful side effect, not the main feature of the weapon system.
How true is this? Does GURPS represent the pilum properly?
Not hoplologist but I'm fairly sure Pila could actually piece shields but I don't think its objective was to hurt the man behind, that would be a lucky coincidence. The Pila purpose was to get stuck in the shield, making it unwieldy and ineffective, turning it into a weak spot of kinds for the spearmen.
That's really clever, like a hook without a hook, you pierce the shield, then you can control it with the pilum like a lever (higher degree of control than the shield's user has), while your buddies take advantage of their defenselessness.
Regular javelins will get stuck in a shield too, the difference between reaching round to extract a leaf-bladed javelin or a bent pilum is minimal. If the idea for pila was that they should be as hard to extract from shields as possible, they'd be barbed. As it is, they have a head design very similar to the armour-piercing bodkin arrows of the English in the 14th-15th centuries, which forms a robust point good for puncturing hard materials, but isn't particularly at all difficult to extract compared to a barbed broadhead or swallowhead.
If a pilum's head penetrated the shield, the long length of iron behind it, being narrower than the head, would also pass through, allowing the head to potentially embed itself into the shield owner's arm or shoulder, something a conventional javelin, whose wooden haft is generally thicker than the head, won't.
The normal thing to do when about to receive a barrage of javelins would be to tuck as close in behind your shield as you could, to maximise the amount of coverage you get from it. Against a barrage of pila, this is no longer viable as if your face and torso are pressed against the inside of the shield and a pilum penetrates, you'll have 10cm or more of iron driven into you.
An enemy that has an iron spike sticking out of his face, lung or shoulder is significantly easier to overcome than an enemy who has a stick stuck in his shield. The latter is useful, but if you're designing a short-ranged heavy javelin, the former is more likely what you're aiming for.
Rather than slightly hindering enemy shield-use, the chief benefit of the (relatively) fragile iron lance in front of the weight on the pilum (not nearly as fragile as is often suggested) is that if the pilum fails to pierce a shield or otherwise embeds itself in the ground, it stands a good chance of being left in a condition where it is unsuitable for being thrown back at the offending legionaries.
We should 100% include a FAQ
A couple of question suggestions:
Q: There's so many books, where do I start?
A: GURPS lite contains all the rules absolutely necessary to play. Once you grasp the rules, you can go and get the basic set. The basic set contains all you'll ever really need, if you absolutely have no money to spend you never really have to buy anything more than the basic set. You can just pick up books as you want to start running the appropriate campaigns: Buy the space book when you want to run sci fi, Dungeon fantasy when you want to run D&D etc.
Q: Isn't GURPS like, super complicated
A: People often overblow its complication. Yes, if you want to GURPS can absolutely get bogged down in a million equations, the beauty of GURPS is that it's completely modular: Nothing is required. You can calculate the damage of a throw by distance, speed, strength of the thrower, DR, dodge and more. Or you could just make a throw skill roll, have the opponent try to dodge and then do appropriate damage. This is not a case of "Well RAW you can't do that", it outright says in the book you should be slotting in and out rules as appropriate
I'm a real shitty writer, so take these only as suggestions, don't put them in the actual FAQ
In a small town nobody will stop them, but not in the bigger, more civilized cities. They can bring and wear their armor and their sidearms, including an arming sword or similar. Polearms, zweihanders, and ranged weapons are to be left at the gate. Except with the intent to have work done or with permission or sponsorship from a lord or council-member. Being hired by permission-capable bodies is also applicable.
Only if they're of an appropriate rank. If they're in the military, of nobility or have allegiance to the local lord / king / god / wizard, then they can tote it around. Otherwise, hand em in at the gates
Oldest question in GURPS history but what's a good fantasy setting for it?
Banestorm/Yrth is not bad but most of the world is already explored and doesn't fill me with a sense of wonder.
Honestly, I'm looking for something that gives me that feeling I had when I first played Ragnarok Online back when it was a thing.
Sunchaser from Fantasy Craft was quite nice in that regard but the nature of the book (more like a setting seed than setting book) made it kind of shallow. I wish the world were much bigger (disconnected) and wondrous, where a portal can lead you to anything from a steppe with not-mongol horse-archers to the foot of a glacial mountain with a tower at its peak where a lich lives.
>Take these as suggestions, don't put them in the actual FAQ
You can't tell me what to do!
I'm just joking. This is just the running edit. I'll edit and clean it up for posting later.
The point wasn't "use a kusarigama"; the point was "what your proposing was viable enough to warrant a specialized weapon that existed in real life--you should be fine with sword+whip."
I mean, take issue with a lot of the rest of the stuff in the post, but arguing is moot as my intention was not to argue the kusari's universality or superiority over a sword+whip combo.
I don't know if your game has those but would a membership in a "adventurer's guild" (Armsmen's Guild in Yrth) be enough excuse for a Permit perk?
Wasn't a kusarigama born out of the need to make weapons out simple tools? I thought kamas were just a sickle attached to a chain, not a "specialized weapon", more like a glorified improvised weapon.
I mean, my game wouldn't, but it's possible. Is this like a fantasy anime guild, where they inexplicably have more power than some local lords, and have presence in ever town? Then yeah, that'd be enough. Any town where the guild has a significant presence should allow guildmembers with proper certification (A badge, patch or tattoo) to openly carry weapons. If we're going more realistic, then if the lord doesn't allow it, it ain't happening
The kusari and the kama were born from peasant tools, but sticking them together made it its own thing that required more training to use effectively.
The entire reason I brought them up was to say Japan has a solid real-life proof of concept of your idea. If it was viable enough to exist in real life, it's viable enough for a fantasy game.
How do I make Dio in GURPS
Get Musical Ability talent.
youtube.com
Fair point then. I'll take a look at the kusari styles and see how can I adapt it to the simple whip...
Historically, usual practice allowed them to be taken into the city, on the express condition that you take them straight to the Inn (or residence of whatever local bigwig you are a guest of) you are staying at where they will be put in storage for the duration. Armor likewise needed to be stored as it was also taken as a sign you were looking for trouble.
>How true is this?
It's not. Pila could never hope to pierce a shield.
>How would it work?
It would not. They are shaped like that so they can't be easily thrown back, not to penetrate shields. It's intended to bend on impact.
An exchange of spears or javelins was extremely common in warfare. Casualties caused were typically light, as a shield wall could protect from spears, but it remained a typical tactic for a long time.
Historically, did medieval inns even exist? And wouldn't armors be a luxury item owned only by nobles and thus "armored visitor" be mostly a guest to the local noble?
Inns did exist, especially during and after the High Middle Ages but were very rare outside of towns and the most important roads. Most travellers would either rest overnight as guests or barter lodgings overnight from local people in their homes. Most villages wouldn't even have a tavern, let alone rooms for travellers to rent, with boozing happening outdoors or in peoples houses. Commerce means that cities and towns have a steady influx of visitors in need of accomdation beyond that which private residents had the means or inclination to provide. Religious institutions also offered hostels, again in towns or (widely spaced) along pilgrimage routes.
Depends on the period for specifics, but basic armor was usually available to a much wider group of people than those who could depend on hospitality of local nobility/magistrates/clergy etc. Most merchants would be able to afford good quality kit, and would make up the backbone of the militia/watch in their home city.
>[citation needed]
Couple thousand points for Dio himself + Impulse Points with Enhanced Refresh (Super Fast) from Pyramid #3/100 - Pyramid Secrets. Limit the IP to only be spent on Bullet Time, which you can find in Gun Fu, Power Ups Wildcards, and some other places.
I'm curious how one would stat Overwatch's Roadhog for GURPS. Huge guy, with HUGE GUTS.
If you are using dungeon fantasy class pregens do you print out a big list of what all the advantages/disadvantages do for each player?
I just did a single page with a one-line summary for each ability and gave each player a copy. That way they had an idea of what the others could do as well.
Does having a kusari readied at reach 2 get rid of the required two readies after an attack (for it being 3-4 yards long)?
Also I'm looking at the Demon of Old from DF Monsters 1 and its armed grapple is Reach C-2. Why is this?
By the 1100s the Hanseatic League was building beer halls and merchant inns in northern Germany, as attested to by a bunch of written records and still existing buildings.
There was a public house, tavern, inn or hall where people would be able to get a place by the fire about every 10 to 30 miles on roads that connected cities, towns and major villages. Going from Berlin to Paris, for example, you could find somewhere to sleep indoors every night traveling at 15 miles a day in the 12th century.
>Was armor a big thing?
Kinda. Most people with armor were less nobles then armsman and guards for nobility, sergeants and yomenry, decedents of the Huscars of the old system. Armor wasn't something most people wore often. People wearing armor were typically doing something risky, like escorting a high value person or item, or going to go get in a battle.
Kinda like now how people don't just hang out in armored vest.
Yes, but like carrying a rifle you look like an asshole and will attract attention if you do it.
I think that--instead of entangling like a kusari--the demons grab a normal chain at both ends and wrap them in that.
How would you do multiple characters who are physically inseparable, like conjoined twins?
Just write them up as a single character with extra heads, arms, etc? That doesn't seem right, since real-life and fictional examples both tend to have separate personalities, in some cases being actively hostile to each other.
Have the second person as an NPC? That seems like a better model, but what represents the fact you have to share your life (and some of your body parts) with another person?
Technically an Ally is just needs to be a consciousness. Transhuman Space goes on at length about infomorph Allies that ride along in either an imbedded or worn computer or another program installed on your cyberbrain; I would recommend starting there.
>real-life and fictional examples both tend to have separate personali
Split personality?
If I have Energy Reserve, what Recover Energy restores? FP, ER or both?
Is there a non-magical version of Recover Energy? The most obvious one (Fit) only works if you're resting, so no go for recovering FP while maintaining a spell.Regeneration (Fast; FP only) is too expensive for [50]
Any premade adventuers to go with this?
I would like to run a one-shot for my friends to try out the system.
Yes.
Same user that gave suggestions earlier
We should also probably suggest getting the dungeon fantasy box set, something like
Q: I'm coming straight from D&D, how can I easily run a game similar to it?
A: Lucky for you, recently Steve Jackson Games came out with a box set for Dungeon Fantasy, a set of books specifically written to run D&D-like games. It's relatively cheap to order, comes with rules, minis, maps and even a premade adventure
Q: I don't have any money, I'm new to GURPS, and I don't have any ideas for adventures, what can I do?
A: There's a premade adventure called Caravan to Ein Arris available for free on the SJG website, and it's a good easy introduction to the GURPS system
Q: I just started writing my first game/campaign, and I don't really know how to write for a GURPS adventure, are there any resources?
A: Mook, a common contributer and writer for the GURPS community released a book a while back called "How to be a GURPS GM", and it's become sort of a GM bible for GURPS GM's. It's completely free, and shouldn't be hard to find.
Also: Something to put right up at the beginning, this is purely my opinion so feel free to not use it
Q: Why GURPS?
A: It's hard to quantify specific reasons, as everyone has their own, so I'll give you some of the most popular reasons
GURPS is MODULAR
GURPS specifically in the book encourages for you to take bits and pieces from different books, and makes it incredibly easy to do so. This allows GURPS to live up to its name of being a "Universal" system, easily allowing appropriate rules to a genre to be slotted in and out.
GURPS has everything you need
One of the most common reasons I hear people sticking to GURPS is that it alleviates that problem of people being adverse to learning a new system so they can play in a new genre. If you've been playing D&D for 5 years, and you suddenly decide you want to run a sci-fi game, people will most likely be adverse to the idea. With GURPS, you can run any game.
I'm thinking about introducing my group to GURPS with a cyberpunk or wasteland style one shot.
I've been reading through GURPS lite and the core books, and I agree with the OP that premade characters are the way to go, problem is I'm not quite sure what a "good" character looks like.
Either campaign I was thinking 150pts. starting for the characters but how important are physical stats to a rifleman? How high should I invest in skills before moving on to the next?
Is there a guide for character building anywhere?
>It's completely free, and shouldn't be hard to find.
You should get rid of this bit as it isn't free from official sources. Good job on the rest though.
Most importantly, don't worry about it too much. Post the pregens here and we'll help you tune them. I can't remember if the following was copied directly from the forums or copied and then altered but it's what I hand to new players.
>These make sure a character is at least marginally useful in a wide range of situations and is rounded enough to be an interesting character rather than a boring collection of numbers.
>A travel skill. Hiking, Riding, or Driving as appropriate to the setting.
>An Influence skill. Everybody interacts with others. Your survival may hinge on doing it well.
>Interests. Everybody does something during downtime. Carousing, Connoisseur, Dancing, Games, Hobby Skill, Musical Instrument, Sports, etc. are all good choices. Pick one or more to make the character come alive.
>It's nearly impossible not to interact with the world at all. Get Area Knowledge and/or Current Affairs specialties that fit the character's background.
>Everybody should have some ability in Housekeeping (a decent default is often good enough).
>Computer Operation at TL8+.
>
>Adventurers need these as well:
>Climbing
>Stealth
>Perception 14+ or Observation
>At least one of: Detect Lies, Lip Reading, Scrounging, Search, Survival, Tracking, or Urban Survival
>A melee weapon skill
>A ranged weapon skill
>An unarmed melee skill
>A grappling skill
>First Aid
>One or more of Forced Entry, Holdout, and Throwing
And Template Toolkit 1 has a bunch of good suggestions if I remember correctly.
Oh shit, is it not?
Sorry about that, PDF user change that up if you're still around
Maybe use Action or After the End templates to make the pregens? Action's templates are 250 as befitting big-screen action heroes, but IIRC AtE's are 150.
Here is my extremely shitty update to the FAQ. This was my first time ever editing a PDF, so sorry for the crappy formatting. Hope FAQ user comes back soon
Rolled the Pyramid #104 Heroic Background Generator and got a character mentored by a Fairy...
Looking for ideas to what make out of it.
Obvious one would be making a mischievous illusion mage mentored by pixies but I'm not very fan of illusion magic. Other would be a bard trained by a nymph but I'm also not fond of musical instruments (had a very bad experience prior in life).
Not bad. You should expand the unofficial abbreviations (DR and RAW -> Damage Resistance and Rules as Written or even just Rules). It's a FAQ after all, lower the barrier to entry. There are a couple of other things but I'm on the way out the door so I'll leave them for another user.
Swashbuckler trained by ageless fae sword-autist. When you spend 690 years obsessing over swordsmanship, you pick up some unique tricks to pass on.
What do you guys think of dogs in pants?
How complicated is the character sheet for a dog in pants in GURPS versus your favorite system?
My favourite system is FATAL
So much easier
I thought that too, but its using the rules for armed grapple (same penalty to skill and same effect) from MA. Armed grapple wouldn't give extra reach, unless they're taking the kusari's SM range bonus (+1 to top end of range) + the demon's range bonus (C ranged grapples to C, 1).
How would I stat out a intimidating pose
Acting as complimentary skill for Intimidation.
How would I run a game in the style of Resident Evil 1?
I'm thinking Swashbuckler-Sorcerer with Flight as signature spell.
If I have Speed 6 and use a Longsword (lightest two-hander) I can thrust at reach 2 and then retreat 2 yards upwards, sound good in theory.
Maybe throw in a Reverse Missile against those pesky archers and casters.
Humans that move like tanks on Thorazine vs zombies, or more broadly police vs spooky zombie shit in a old mansion?
You could have fun with herb mixing and all kinds of odd BOW.
Sounds good. If you're flying about, you'll be a prime target for archers, so definitely get Reverse Missile.
Scratch Reverse Missile as Sorcery. It costs freaking 75 points so it's at minimum 95 point investment.
I'll check other option but at the moment investing in high Aerobatic skill and using Aerobatic Dodges sounds good enough.
Catch arrows maybe?
Ouch. Maybe drop the "reflect" bit and go for DR (Ranged Attacks Only; All or Nothing) instead?
Significantly cheaper, at 11 or 20, but it has some issues too. First, it has indefinite duration so depending on how I build the Flight spell I won't be able to use both without paying premium. Second it uses parry score based on (DX or Parry Missile Weapons + Sorcery Talent)/2, suffers cumulative penalty and also -2 against bolts. Dodging is cheaper and reliable.
That would be the Missile Shield spell at 40 at level 1 + 28/level, each level protecting against up to 2d missile damage. Among the protection spells against missiles it seems to be the best but 2d sounds very slightly unreliable. Someone with ST 15 and reflex bow or ST 17 and composite bow (-2 ST for fine arrows) will get past it. Not common, but I wouldn't ignore. Again, aerobatic dodge seems more reliable and broadly useful.
That's fair, how much will upgrading the acrobatic dodge be?
also what is acrobatic dodge again i forgot im sorry
Just found a perk for Sorcerers that fits nicely: Fae-Touched, it's basically a perk level unusual background that allows me to buy some exotic advantages including Flight (Winged) or Flight (Small Wings, Mana Sensitive). The advantage won't be cheap but I'll be able to use it indefinitely without spending FP every minute or so.
It also frees up the Sorcery to use Catch Missiles. Not sure if I'm gonna use it (points...) but it's an option.
Acrobatic Dodge is an option for dodge where you roll Acrobatics and if you succeed you get +2 to dodge, -2 if you fail.
Example: At Basic Speed 6 and no encumbrance, I have Dodge 9. If I'm shot at, I can retreat for a +3=12 and have about 74% chance of success. If I have Acrobatics at 16 and use it to dodge, I have 98%*90%=89% chance of dodging, an extra 15%. If I already dodged, it's 37.5% vs 61%.
Hey, the link to the Gurps Murder Simulator is dead.
Anyone know where to find it now?
Did you try archive.org?
That worked, cheers
What's GURPS murder simulator, can you post that archive link?
per the OP: "GURPS Murder Simulator, a fun tool to simulate shooting people in GURPS."
Fuck me dude, that's useful
thank you love you
Here I am, merrily building fae-inspired swashbuckler when suddenly winamp starts playing Burn My Dread. Now I want to take the Demonologist template, throw into a modern setting and make a devil summoner/persona user. ADHD sucks.
>Thanatos is a dude in a gimp suit with a skull strapped to his face
Why did I never notice this before?
Shit, you could have kept it yourself, now you ruined him!
That one doesn't have the permissive copyright that Lite does. Be careful posting directly, user.
How are the hacking rules in Cyberpunk? Any better than Shadowrun or is it still a solo dungeon for the hacker?
Realistic hacking is obviously not, and the virtual space pretty much is. The book also gives a middle-ground that was updated to 4e in the Console Cowboys & Cyberspace Kung-Fu article of Pyramid; program types are used against each other in abstract "rounds," keeping hackers involved but not having the spotlight stay on them all session.
Rule checking, if I have Flight and Air Move 12, I'm pretty sure I can use Move and Attack to fly past an enemy (evade auto success), change direction and attack him from behind, granting him no active defense, am I right? (Maybe throwing in Telegraphic Attack)
I'm less sure about Attack though, supposing I'm right in the front hex of an enem, I *think* I can take two steps to the hex behind him (automatically evading), change direction and attack. Commited Attacks works here, I suppose.
>No defenses?
No. It's a 'run around attack' and he defends at -2, vs your attack getting capped at SL 9 so that telegraphic attack starts seeming sort of pointless.
>Only 2 yards moved?
No. You have fly up and over to automatically evade, so total distance would be 8 yards.
Realistic hacking isn't "realistic" insofar as a huge chunk of it is script kiddies running programs w/o direct involvement. It is realistic insofar as the skills it requires you use. Social Engineering, as a group of skills, can also be pretty important.
Ultimately, it is up to the GM on how to run it. The books provide some guidelines on different flavors of hacking, depending on how cinematic, how relaxed or tense, or how involved you want it to be.
The short answer to your question is yes, the hacking rules in GURPS are way better than Shadowrun, but you can do it that way if you want. It's pretty frequently bandied about that GURPS does Shadowrun better than Shadowrun does.
FAQ pdf user here. Sorry, didn't mean to bail. Updated the pdf. Edited some things, like the note about How To GM not being free, and DR-> Damage Reduction, RAW-> Rules as Written.
I worry that there is some duplication between the OP and the FAQ, particularly "Why?". Probably still worth keeping two separate entities, though.
Here's a paste of the most recent, cleaned up version. It is set to expire in 30 days. pastebin.com
I'm keeping it under git version control. It's just a shitty .txt file right now, though. The pdf is basically just an .rtf with the Questions bolded. I think I'll use either markdown or LaTeX for it later. If I get around to cleaning it up with markdown and junk, then maybe I'll post the repository.
Yanked the link. Thanks!
Thanks FAQ user, your contribution is appreciated!
Shitload of HP and HT, Hard to Kill, Regen with a gadget limitation, Hook can be an innate attack.
I'm deeply depressed extremely suicidal in real life, can GURPS help me with that?
I found it to be a good distraction when I was going through some shit. Do some worldbuilding, create some class templates, make some houserules, etc. Hope it works for you as well as it did for me.
>people are still playing GURPS
I hope you are doing this ironically. If you aren't - kys.
>56942165
Don't feed it.
Was planning to do it at the end of today, actually.
Yes, but then, I have status 4 and filthy rich, I get to keep them anytime I want
Do I have to make a Move and Attack if my mount is the one moving?
>people still hating fun other people have
You ruined Veeky Forums.
stat this
youtube.com
80 points in broadsword. Incompetence in SFX.
>No. It's a 'run around attack' and he defends at -2
You are correct, per B391. I'm ashamed I ignored it, it's right above "defending against attacks from behind"!
>your attack getting capped at SL 9 so that telegraphic attack starts seeming sort of pointless.
Now this I'm not sure. That's Move and Attack maneuver, isn't it?
I'm talking about normal Attack. The character in question has Basic Move 6, so Air Move 12 which allows him to move 2 yards/hexes per step. Per B386 "the 'step' in tactical combat", I can freely change direction after a step. So my theory is that if I'm right in front of the enemy, I can move to the hex behind him through his hex (automatically evading because flight, per B368), change direction 180° and attack him from behind at full skill while his defenses are at -2 (unless he has double-jointed or other relevant advantage).
>B368
>"On the other hand, if you can use an advantage such as Flight or Super Jump to move up and over the foe's reach in the vertical plane, you can evade him automatically!"
To clear a SM 0 person's easy reach you have to go up 3 yards/hex, forward two, then down 3 to get back to the ground behind them.
No, though if your mount is so large you move more then 1 step on top of the mount you are forced to move an attack, that seems likely only if for some reason fighting while on the back of an elephant. If you are sitting on a motercycle or horse then you can take any action, not just move and attack while your mount moves.
Typically you are limited to your combat skill or your riding/ drive skill, whatever is lower.
Wouldn't I already be a few feet upwards to enjoy the benefit of combat at different levels?
This trick working or not, 3D combat creates an extra dimension of complexity.
There's a joke there about redheads bear between the legs but I can't seem to put my finger on it.