GURPS General

GURPS was good for magical girl games. I finally started my campaign today and my players warmed up to the new system pretty quickly. I'm really enjoying actually getting to GM a GURPS game after getting into like half a year ago.

I thought Brawling would be better than Boxing due to the versatility but the +3 retreat for the later seems to make for any disadvantage.
Damages are about same, if not better for Boxing. Brawling can use punching aids but so can Boxing. It can also kick but the damage is the same as Boxing punch and have -2 to hit. Bites are really marginal benefit for a standard human.
Regarding parries: The noteworthy -2 parry against kicks that Boxing suffers sucks, but if you can retreat your parry score will be the same as Brawling and honestly think kicks are somewhat rare compared to spear thrusts. Due to the bell curve, at this range of skill level the retreat bonus of Boxing really improves your odds of defending against swing attacks.
Overall I really like the Boxing feeling and the only big disadvantage it seems to have against Brawling seems to be the inability to use reach C or 1 weapons and tonfas in reversed grip to increase the parry score against weapons.

Addendum: Karate at same skill level (14 DX+2) costs way more than those two (12 points) but it has the huge benefit of not suffering -3 parry against swing attacks, in addition to the lack of penalty against kicks and having the same damage bonus as Boxing but also for kicking.
The only con I can find is the cost and the encumbrance penalty (which may be mitigated with a perk but are you sure you want to spend your precious combat perk here? Also you already paid a good price for the skill alone, this perk would make it even more expensive).

>Boxing has a -2 parry against kicks

I would find that annoying, but parrying a kick seems like a waste of time and energy when you could just avoid the blow entirely with some footwork.

By parrying, do they mean neutralizing the blow or countering it instead?

In GURPS a 'parry' is an active defence based on a skill which involves some kind of contact with whatever you usually use to attack using that skill, but isn't a shield or cloak. It can mean stopping a blow (what I would usually call a 'block'), deflecting it or a combination of deflecting and avoiding it.

One of the weird things about GURPS fighting skills is that the only one which helps dodge is acrobatics and that involves fiddly rolls. I'd possibly allow something like Enhanced Dodge (Melee only, -20%) as a style advantage for boxers.

>pre-make "classes" with levelup tables and everything.
FTFY
>pre-make "templates" with levelup lenses and everything.

Don't worry about threshold, just decide if they can buy lens items piecemeal or have to buy the lens all at once.

youtu.be/UBK2Eg9WukI
Stat me gurpsgen

Question about One-Handed Two-Handers rule (MA p.220) for Spears: The dagger says the "performance" is given by the first line. By "performance", does it mean "damage"? As in you can use a Spear at reach 1,2* if you have 9*1.5 ST but at the same damage as if you used it with the normal, reach 1* attack? Or in a more succinct way, you can use a Spear to attack at reach 1 with 10 ST and also at reach 2 if you have 14 ST, both dealing the same thr+2 imp damage?

I believe that the idea is they use the entire one-handed statline. Wielding a spear gripped only at its end like a rapier for maximum reach doesn't seem to be covered by the rules, or falls under AOA(long).

Possible justification; spears are inherently tip-heavy and need to be balanced either by gripping closer to the head or with two points or support. Gripping a spear with one hand at the far end from the point makes it clumsy and unsuitable for parrying, in the same way an axe is.

>Boxing vs kicks
That's 1 perk to avoid penalty.

A Hard Technique costing 2/3, actually. Though considering how Off Hand Weapon Training (5 points total) went the way of dodo with the introduction of Off Hand Training perk, I don't see any problem with a perk doing the same for kick. It's a combat perk so picking it precludes another and it saves only 2 points.

I have the impression that Animal Empathy and Speak with Animals should give some sort of bonus to Animal Handling and Riding yet I can find no rule about it. Am I out of luck or is there some obscure pyramid article or rule I overlooked?

OHWT went away because it was broken. Whoever created it forgot Ambidexterity was a thing and that a technique providing a limited form of it should probably cost less. Using OHWT as a justification to turn Techniques into Perks is a slippery slope.

I don't recall any specific rules on this either, but...
>+5 if the animal knows and likes you
Animal Empathy let you use influence skills on animal, and you can rule that good reaction qualifies for "animal likes you".

You're right and I agree with you but in this very specific case I hold my ground and say a perk removing parry penalty for Boxing or Sumo Wrestling doesn't break anything. Without the perk, achieving the desired result costs 3 or 4 points top (1 perk for style adaptation or special training and 3 points in the technique). This perk only serves to save 2 or 3 points. Compare to something like Form Mastery and I say it will hardly break anything.

Re

tarded system

Is your own fault.

We need a character templates and character sheets collection

>a year and a half out of date
Holy balls it still boggles my mind we've been playing the same campaign all this time.

Stargate 1888 burned out, Firefly tanked, but THIS carries on.
Goddamn

Portable holes aren't infinite; they're a 15x15 foot hole you can fold up like a sheet, that leads to a pocket dimension space on another private plane of existence. The room is about 50x50 if I recall?

This makes it an easy parachronic device to build. Basically the same modifiers from Powers, Jumper; gate(persistent)

I'm pretty sure theres a pyramid article about pocket dimensions, one of the early ones

Is there a good way to make a chargeable innate attack or any chargeable ability really where you could say charge for X turns for Xd damage or X level of an ability . Buying 3 separate advantages with their own increased time seems like it's cost ineffecient and you could probably just buy the highest level for cheaper.

You can buy multiple levels with different limitations (Powers p.46, Partially Limited Abilities). For example, Burning 1d (Takes Extra Time 1) + Burning 1d (Takes Extra Time 2) + ...
The more time you take, the higher the level is.

Also, there is Weakened Without Preparation, which (iirc) costs the same as taking half of the levels with Preparation Required.

Was taking a look at the animal allies from DF5, specifically Cheetah, and had a thought, is there any substantial advantage for very high speed (eg cheetah's 36yd/s)? It doesn't affect step and you need a lot of space to benefit from the range speed table against archers. The only thing that comes to my mind is slam which for the cheetah would allow 6d-2 damage but he would also take substantial damage...

Don't know how you're building but have you considered Alternative Abilities and Variable modifie?

Closing the distance to deal with enemies at significant range?
Running away from trouble when acting as a forward scout?
Carrying items between separated party members?
Moving fast enough that some traps simply don't have time to affect you?

There’s a bit in Powers about scaling level with FP cost—the example was something like a 5d Innate Attack with Costs Fatigue 5 would deal 1d if the user spent only 1 FP, 2d for 2 FP, etc. I see no reason why this couldn’t be applied to Takes Extra Time, though seeing as how TET doubles the number of Ready maneuvers required, a full powered use will mostly be an out-of-combat maneuver unless your allies can protect you for 16 rounds or longer.

A more open-ended alternative is using the rules for power stunts and the GM letting you use the rules for Time Spent to offset the penalty rather (or in addition to) spending more FP.

A fantasy game where the players find weird glitches and it turns out that they are NPCs in an MMORPG. They escape and have to survive as rogue AIs in a hard science Transhuman future. Eventually, they discover that their home server is being shut down because the game is old abandonware from a company going bankrupt. So now they have to "save the world" for real.

Thanks for the input.
The first two are not very good when you're working with a team. Charging ahead alone (leeeroooy...) is a good way to get ganked and killed. Animal ally running away and leaing the druid behind would make a fine comedy relief, though.
The last two depends on the charater, using a cheetah as deliveryboy sounds suboptimal.

Or just do it as payload with the Protected modifier and maybe a limitation related to its magical/crossdimensional nature.

Literally cosmic Payload from Powers - The Weird.

Isn't there a website for that specifically?

Damn, cool

How soon in the game was the reveal?

You can do it user! I'm currently running a new Vegas campaign set before the ncr and legion have established their presences around Hoover dam. My PC's are a wild eyed cowboy and a legion advance scout, both 150pts. They're a week out from the Mojave, having met up at Zion and seen the ruins of New Canaan. I have a few encounters planned with the great khans and a caravan braving the path to New Reno.

I'd play the hell out of it

Ave, true to Caesar

I never got a chance to run it. I'd have gone at least a few months, probably six.

What are some fun things I could put in a Czech castle full of Nazis? it's castle houska, which was built over a supposed "bottomless crack into hell". I'm planning on having the SS use it to try to breed demon super soldiers. Supernatural ideas are fine..

The game is in the vein of inglorious basterds and less historically minded, more cinematic. The players are there to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich.

Is there a point of a soldier/mercenary with only level 9 or so Soldier skill?
With average IQ you'd have to spend too many many points to get it to deshcent levels...

Nazi-tech armored robots in bullet proof plate armor with halberd?

Possessed and zombie nazis are always a favorite

Jewish test subjects with demon parts surgically added.

Sure, low skill levels can be OK if you usually work under the supervision of someone who can give you a decent bonus with complimentary skills, only work with familiar equipment, have people around who can help out if you screw up and all the other support that an army typically gives to basic grunts with minimal training. Soldier-9 lets you march in formation and recognise basic signals and rank insignia, which is about what you expect from bottom-grade enlisted men. Certainly there are plenty of serving soldiers who would have IQ 9 and at most a point in the skill in GURPS terms. You wouldn't trust them with anything difficult, but with a competent NCO they can be effective enough.

You have to include every single one of these guys:

youtube.com/watch?v=U_Z6tv7cQmM

Some of the Reich-5 stuff sounds appropriate - demon-children were one of their world-jumper projects.

I undertand jack shit about horses, can they kick forward or to the sides? In GURPS tactical combat, where can a horse attack? Only to the back? If so they always suffer the penelty for back kick?

Don't forget the Time Spent rules. They're usually good for a +1 or +2 at least.

I think that strictly by the rules, they kick exactly like people do; to the front at no penalty or to the back with a penalty.

Realistically, their 'natural' kick is behind them and they can easily see there thanks to having eyes on the side of their heads, so I would give them no penalty for that. They can kick in other directions, but it's awkward for them so I would give them a penalty equivalent to a human's back kick to do so. Not sure how to handle them kicking with both back legs at once. Technically it might be a DWA, but I think it's just part of a normal movement they do while kicking and probably doesn't deliver any more force that a single leg, so I don't think I would bother treating it as anything other than a normal kick.

I don't actually know much about horses. Kind of wish some horse-obsessed autist would write a bestiary book for them, because they are one of the most important animals for gaming.

Check Horizontal.

Horses like to stomp of things that are in front of them, they also have a mean bite. Both are pretty dangerous. I don't know how the stomp would be handled, though.

Overrun.

It's all in Basic, horses seem pretty damn straightforward to me.

A campaign inspired by X-Com 2. The players are part of X-Com and have to jump-start the resistance against the aliens. It would be run west-marches style with the players deciding which missions to take on as they build their resistance apparatus (i.e. develop new weapons, sabotage Advent forces, expand resistance network, etc.)

Horizontal only mentions penalty to kick, not direction.

Horses have weak bite so -4 damage for basic warhorse or -6 for DF5 stallion, still respectable damage due to high ST though.

Basic and DF16 mounted combat rules talks about kicks, slams and trample. Slams are as normal, trample is explained but kicks still evades me.
I've seem a few videos and now I can clearly see they can easily kick behind and to the sides but front kicks seems awkward. It seems they can only kick forward as stamp kick.

I've found a few interesting threads, by the way:
forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=45985
forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=50855

I've also been wondering about riding bonuses for Animal Empathy and Speak with Animal but considering a friendly mount gives +5 riding bonus , with an extra +1 if they have Mount skill, and that riding penalties rarely stack and none go beyond -4, it seems unnecessary. Maybe using these traits to earn the favor of an animal you don't know to claim the +5 is more logical.

What do people think of the alchemy system from the lastest Thaumaturgy issue of Pyramid? Anyone used it? It seems really neat but it also seems way more hassle than it's worth

Pull a twist; the lead scientist could never get the project to work,. Reading unholy abominations that failed to live long. He kept getting funding, but ultimately wastes tons of resources.

He doing it ON PURPOSE, because he's secretly a Romanian Jew out for revenge!
Every reichmark spent on him was not spent on bombs or bullets!

Then the double twist; he was sabotaging his own work, but can actually make demon hybrids/cyborg soldiers/wünderweapons! And the party now have a sympathetic villain to defeat!

Fuck that would be AMAZING

I basically agree; it's an awesome concept, but it still needs a load of prep work to be usable and I doubt alchemy is likely to play enough of a part in my games to justify doing said prep work even if I do persuade my group to play GURPS again. I kind of wish it had been a supplement rather than an article, so that it had space to do a full range of ingredients and elixirs. Ingredients would probably be setting-specific though.

It'd be nice to have a full supplement on the system. It really feels like it needs more expansion and ingredients/potions

GURPS BlackOps for 3e was basically Enemy Unknown/Original Xcom with a heavy dose of MiB.

Would a Contact (Armoury(Melee Weapon)) give me similar benefits as the perks Better (Gear) and Cheaper (Gear) for melee weapons?

Maybe. Depends on your GM and how many points you invest.

As promised, Gray's current sheet. A huge and complex mess of a thing, but one I'm quite happy with.

Character have ability l"jet of stone shards" or like, and after he use it he cover himself with 1 DR of "stone scales", and he can stack such armor up to 6 DR.
How to model such ability?
DR with cumulative and link to IA?

Innate Attack (Crushing/Piercing++ or what have you)
Link
Affliction (Range C, self only, grants advantage: 1 DR, cumulative, nuisance effect: max 6 DR, Malediction 1)

There's also a pretty big difference between SL 9 and defaulting to a 6 or something. With 9 you just need a few tries and extra time before you can do most challenging (+ or - 0) task.

How comes gigantism is 0 point? -2 to disguise or shadowing is rarely relevant for a fighter and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages

It also comes with much heavier and more expensive armor and being easier to hit, and the biggest benefit is an attribute discount, meaning Gigantism doesn’t bring a lot to the table on its own.

It really shines if you grapple, or bring in Combat Writ Large

I love IQ separated from Will/Per!

Would an Extra Attack with "Signature Move only, -X%" limitation be gamebreaking?
I was thinking on giving it to some animals, like Great Cats for their Pounce: First Attack is AoA(Determined) Claw/Grapple and the second attack is AoA(Strong) Bite/Neck (or skull, depending on the cat).

Cheaper, probably yes (but less of a discount than you would get with a specialised Merchant contact).
Better, seems like it depends on skill level.

+1 to be hit with most attacks really sucks.

I don't think it's unbalanced, but that seems rather complicated compared to just doing it as AOA(Double).

I like Charisma as its own attribute and IQ for 15 points!

Can attacking maneuvers besides Attack be used as part of AoA (Double)? It sounds awkward considering the necessary caveats like disallowing another AoA(Double) and Defensive Attacks.

I was considering something along the lines of Contact (Dwarven Swordsmith; Armoury (Melee Weapons), skill 18). Good to know it's plausible!

Good lord

How many points have you guys got?!

Doesn't seem that much compared to what I've heard about other long running campaigns. I've seem Kromm commenting about his players accumulating 800 or so points.

No. There are confusingly two meanings of 'attack' in GURPS:

(1) An Attack manoeuvre. This consists of a step action and one or more attack actions (depending on whether you have extra attack, are making a rapid strike or dual-weapon attack).

(2) An attack action. This consists of one attack roll.

AOA(double) gives you an extra attack action not an extra attack manoeuvre.

I want to buy a few points of Sumo Wrestling Sport for my character background but honestly I feel it would be waste of points. Is there something neat (hopefully in combat) that I can do with it that Sumo Wrestling can't?

I'm still confused. Are you saying AoA allows me an extra attack action, which could benefit from options like Telegraphic and Deceptive Attacks but doesn't allow attack maneuvers like AoA and Defensive Attack?
Wouldn't that mean I actually need the Extra Attack advantage in order to let Big Cats do their pounces (at least the way I see how it works)?

Character created in Feb 4 2016
202 points in (May 25 2016)
407 points in (Dec 31 2017)

586 days and 205 points between the latter two, on average 0.35pts/day, 2.45pts/week, 10.79pts/month. With weekly sessions, that means that you actually are "averaging two or three points, per session".

Backdating to Feb 4 2016, 112 days, you'd get a character who started with 163ish points. Since that's a really weird number to start at, I'm going to guess that it was closer to 150 (+50 in disadvantages) and you maybe had more frequent sessions in the start?

I haven't been following your campaign, I'm sorry to say, but it looks neat.

user, youre not doing much work towards removing the stigma of GURPS maths....

But bravo on the analysis!

>Are you saying AoA allows me an extra attack action, which could benefit from options like Telegraphic and Deceptive Attacks but doesn't allow attack maneuvers like AoA and Defensive Attack?

Yes.

>Wouldn't that mean I actually need the Extra Attack advantage in order to let Big Cats do their pounces (at least the way I see how it works)?

No, Extra Attack doesn't give you an extra manoeuvre, you need Altered Time Rate for that. There's no way of getting multiple all-out-attack manoeuvres in one manoeuvre.

Realistically, most cats are going to take a little time between the initial grapple and the bite.

Not really. Combat sports are only really useful for winning sporting competitions, earning money as an athlete, coach or instructor, etc.

Don't worry, I've never actually played GURPS.

What do you play then?

Nothing, really. I've got some OSR stuff planned, though, and I recently got DFRPG in the mail.

The last time I played was Drakar och Demoner five or so years ago.

>Not really. Combat sports are only really useful for winning sporting competitions, earning money as an athlete, coach or instructor, etc.
That's too bad, but thanks for the clarification. I might have better luck asking GM if I can use PK's houserule to buy Sumo Wrestling up as technique.

Rereading relevant information with this in mind, I think I could represent it basing off Grab and Smash (MA p.118) and Teeth (MA p.115):
AoA (Double) from ambush, first attack is a Grappling to torso as Telegraphic Attack followed by Targeted Attack (Brawling Bite/Neck) that receives +2 damage. Keeping the bite counts as grapple with two arms so it's as if the cat is holding the prey with 4 arms, making it quite safe to hold him and keep worrying each turn.

Does the DFRPG box contain rules from the MA and LT or only the basic set?

It's a mix and kind of its own thing in some respects. The armor is using Low Tech rules, for instance.

Anything in particular that you're curious about?

Woah. I didn't know DFRPG was using LT armor rules. Tell me more, please.