GURPS General

Hard to say. Low Tech and High Tech offer a great, if scattered, look at technological progress from the stone age to today and just flipping though them can give you ideas for a game to run.

Martial Arts is neat too, though the second half gets a little hard to read. Styles are organized alphabetically rather then by use and it ends up feeling like several are redundant.

Sword and Sorcery's defined, for me, by powerful heroes and corruption, dangerous magic. If the heroes do use magic it tends to be less powerful, but also more 'natural' or at least used with more wisdom and control.

Grimwyld is a long running TL 4 Sword and Sorcery game I've been playing in. In it 'good' magic taps natural elements like lightning or fire, communicates with spirits or fae. Bad magic tends to tap into a lovecraftian void-god eager to devour everything. People using it can do amazing things, but at a terrible cost. It's 'low magic' insomuch as the real work tends to get done with guns and swords, while a person with even a single magic power they can call one is set apart from the masses.

I hope that helps? Like I'm not exactly sure what you need.

Yes, I want stuff for that, summed in a tl;dr as I'm a freshie.

Hope this helps.

Some notes:

S&S doesn't really distinguish between 'magic', 'psi', 'advanced technology' and 'cinematic martial arts' (pressure points and hypnotic hands are totally appropriate skills for sorcerers). Treat them all as a single power, with whatever name you feel is appropriate. Likewise, there is basically no dividing line between demons, 'elder things' and aliens in a lot of the stories.
Magic is usually bad news. People who use it tend to be crazy and often physically weird... sorcerors often seem to blur the line between human and alien/demon, sometimes due to ancestry, or just picking up weird mutations from magic exposure.
Primitiveness is almost a superpower. Primitive people have a deep psychic connection to their pre-human ancestors. A whole lot of shit is justified by 'barbarian instincts'. However, like most sources of weird shit in S&S, it comes at a price; primitive people are prone to becoming degenerate savages.
Forces for good are rare and unreliable. The gods are distant, generally uncaring and often not that nice anyway. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Science leads to decadence and degeneracy. Still, there is usually room for heroism and good men may prevail in the face of all odds.
Any given setting usually has one of Lovecraftian alien-demons or fairies. Fairies tend to be based on scandinavian mythology (i.e. elves, dwarves and trolls are the most common types) often with Christian elements (fairies fear church bells, there are references to them owing a tithe to the devil, etc.) Fairy S&S blends into Tolkien style fantasy, so I would generally recommend focusing on the Lovecraftian as a more distinct fantasy genre.
Apart from alien-demons the main monsters are prehistoric animals. Sometimes you see dinosaurs, but giant snakes, ape-men and sabertooth tigers are the usual staples. Another you might see are humans who have reverted to a monstrous state; they are usually pale, subterranean and cannibalistic.

Noted. Want to give me a rundown on that?

>Still using outdated version of the PDF

The current OP PDF basically covers everything in the FAQ and has a comparison of the magic systems.

Threadly reminder.

So, I'm working on a conversion of the Battle Network series of megaman spin-off games. Right now I'm working on statting up the various battle chips, mostly the more iconic ones, and I have a few questions.

Firstly, do you see any issues with converting all damage to flat numbers? It seems pretty viable to me, though I'm worried there's a balance issue I'm missing, or it might just flat-out be boring.

Secondly, the biggest snag I've hit so far, is the "Barrier" and "Aura" chips, which I'd really like to get right, as they're a pretty iconic part of the series, and I'm not sure how to work them in GURPS.

Barrier chips are pretty straightforward, they give you a shield with X HP that gets absorbed, before the barrier breaks. DR with Forcefield and Ablative, pretty simple. However, the hang-up with them, is that they will always block at least one attack totally. Even if it's the 1 HP version, it doesn't matter if it's hit with a 1 damage feather duster, or a 300 damage death laser, it WILL stop that one attack completely. How would you represent this?

The "Aura" type chips are a bit more complicated. They give you a barrier with a value of X, and it will totally stop any attack that deals less than X damage. If they have 300 HP, then any attack below 300 is stopped dead, and anything 300 or above breaks the shield. In addition, much like Barrier, there's no "Bleed-through". The attack that breaks the Aura doesn't do any damage, no matter what it is, it just gets the shield out of the way, and makes the target vulnerable.

Speaking of traits, can we talk about disadvantages? It seems some nuances about them are sometimes missed in the Basic.

For example, I always thought Bloodlust were a disadvantage for homicidal maniacs that go out of their way to murder someone but them I've seem a post explaining it's not like so and it could very well represent the ruthless pragmatism of trained warriors, commandos making sure the sentry is dead and advanturers stabbing the fallen troll in the heart to make sure it's down. After this explanation this disadvantage started appearing more frequently in my characters.

For starters, what exactly Honesty entails? It's obvious choice for the goody two-shoes characters but what about pulp detectives? They do their best to follow the law but sometimes, like when their chief shuts down the investigation, maybe because he's involved, they may break it so they can go after the crooks. Would such character have Honesty? Or would it be a quirk, "Honest until it gets on the way to capture criminals"?

Flat damage can get boring, and it makes DR *really* good because there’s no need to worry about high damage rolls or whatever. If the enemy only deals 4 damage, DR 4 makes you totally immune; compare this with needing DR 6 to keep you 100% safe from Attacks that deal 1d damage. Additionally, flat damage implies the attack either hits solidly or misses entirely. That’s fine for grid-based vidya, but a more detailed system should probably allow for nicks and grazes (low damage rolls) and dead-center hits (high damage rolls).

For Barriers, I wanna say something like Cosmic, No over penetration, +300%. Auras are indeed tricky. Maybe something with Gadget: Breakable and the Cosmic modifier given above?

Replicating exact mechanics usually doesn't work very well, especially when converting from one medium to another. I'd generally recommend trying to make something that embodies what the thing you are emulating represents.

However, I think maybe you could do the total invulnerability thing with an Impulse Buy point which converts the damage to a Flesh Wound, plus something to top up your HP (seems like a fair use of another Impulse Buy point, or could be a special effect of the first one only being usable with the Flesh Wound rule). Alternatively, a one-use Insubstantial which only triggers when the shield breaks.

The thing with Auras breaking if they let damage through seems like a limited variation of Ablative. It's effectively Ablative (-80%) + Not-Ablative (Accessibility, only against attacks which don't exceed DR, -10%) (+72%). Alternatively, call it a Nuisance Effect.

>Barrier chips are pretty straightforward, they give you a shield with X HP that gets absorbed, before the barrier breaks. DR with Forcefield and Ablative, pretty simple. However, the hang-up with them, is that they will always block at least one attack totally. Even if it's the 1 HP version, it doesn't matter if it's hit with a 1 damage feather duster, or a 300 damage death laser, it WILL stop that one attack completely. How would you represent this?
Super Luck (Aspected: Defenses, -20%; Only Success, no Critical Sucess, -30%; PM, -10%) [40] divide by 5 (one shot advantage like Favor) so [8]

>For starters, what exactly Honesty entails? It's obvious choice for the goody two-shoes characters but what about pulp detectives? They do their best to follow the law but sometimes, like when their chief shuts down the investigation, maybe because he's involved, they may break it so they can go after the crooks. Would such character have Honesty? Or would it be a quirk, "Honest until it gets on the way to capture criminals"?

Seems like a quirk, yes. A disadvantage you can ignore when you really need to isn't much of a disadvantage.

Alternatively, you could do it as a Code of Honour, Obsession, Fanaticism or even Intolerance (Criminals).

>The "Aura" type chips are a bit more complicated. They give you a barrier with a value of X, and it will totally stop any attack that deals less than X damage. If they have 300 HP, then any attack below 300 is stopped dead, and anything 300 or above breaks the shield. In addition, much like Barrier, there's no "Bleed-through". The attack that breaks the Aura doesn't do any damage, no matter what it is, it just gets the shield out of the way, and makes the target vulnerable.
DR with All or Nothing (Sorcery: Protection Spells)

What about the good boy in a mystery setting? He would certainly have Honesty but how him act when the rest of his crew breaks in someone else's property to investigate who kidnapped billy?

How can I model a pile bunker? Impaling innate attack with armor divisor and gadget limitation?

If a character breaks the law, they either don't have Honesty or managed to make their Self-Control Roll. A really pressing reason to break the law, or lack of faith in the authorities who are upholding local law is probably going to give someone a bonus to their self-control roll for Honesty.

That works. It could also be Piercing.

Alternatively, just stat it as equipment. The basic design is just a gun which fires a spike instead of a bullet. Take literally any firearm, add a bit of weight for the spike and recovery mechanism, reduce ammunition weight to account for lack of projectile and wield it with an appropriate skill (probably spear or an unique skill).

Low tech for the history lesson. Thaumatology for the sweet, sweet magic rules.

Martial Arts, Low Tech and Low Tech Armor Loadout made me read quite a lot about weapons, armors, metallurgy and the history of combat.

How to simulate economics in GURPS? like I have a bunch of villages and cities producing all kind of goods (food, primary materials, goods, services).

I just want to make a base low tech world and see how it can grow, which cities are dominant...

Bio Tech for it's diverse and relatively in-depth take on biotech. For a GURPS book it's very tightly focused, but what it aims to do it does spectacularly.

>What's your favorite setting book?
Dungeon Fantasy

Can a character without Weapon Master compete with other that has it?
Assuming the WM will cost at least 20 points, that's +5 skill the non-WM-guy could purchase for his favorite combat skill, that's much higher chance to successfully apply skills like disarm and sweep or you could for example get 5 points into TA(Skull), 12 points (+3) in skill to soak the rest of hit location penalty and maybe the leftover in Signature Gear to get a better weapon. WM has a lot going on to it but I think you could do some neat stuff with the point you would save not getting it.

ST12 katana telegraphic AoA (strong) swing to neck (x2 damage) averages 34 injury
Conclusion: Kaishaku-nin had Power Blow.

Your math is shit.

>ST12
>34 injury
Nigga, you math?

You are right, swing damage for ST24 is 4d+2, not 4d+1 so +1 from the weapon and +2 from AoA sums 3d+5, multiply average by 2 and you get average 38 injury.

Power Blow doubles ST, so calculate damage as ST 24, for swing that's 4d+2. Katana damage is sw+1 so 4d+3. AoA (Strong) adds 2 so 4d+5. Average is 19 but cutting damage to neck doubles it so 38.

Your math is way off, but the correct math supports your point even better. With actual average injury sitting below 20, instant death by decapitation is an unlikely thing, making seconds useless if gamed out. However, there are some other things to consider.

>Focused Fury
Stacking AOA (Strong) and Mighty Blow knocks it up to 1d+8 or 3d+1 after converting adds to dice for an average of 22-23.
>Fine/Very Fine Weapons
Someone who’s tasked with being a second isn’t going to use just any blade, and if we’re talking seconds for important people, they may already have a blade of that quality. I think it’s safe to assume a further +1 or +2 damage from that.
>Helpless/Unresisting Target
RAW, any obviously lethal attack against a helpless target or one not actively opposing you instantly kills the target. I personally instead treat it as max damage, and this still produces a more respectable 24-28 injury with your options and a max of 42 assuming the best of all of my options above.
>Custom techniques
Not included in above options due to not being quite RAW, Martial Art’s rules for custom techniques allow adding a further +2 or +1/die for -4 to skill, easily countered with the second’s Evaluation and/or Telegraphic Attack even if it’s never bought up.

Ah you never stated that you were including Power Blow in the initial equation. I thought you we’re griping that seconds needed even more damage from Power Blow even after getting the damage wrong and were shooting for something in the 60s. My apologies.

>No weapon Master for +2/die
>No 2h grip for +1

I included 2H grip stats. Weapon Master was ignored out of wanting a less cinematic solution.

>less cinematic solution.
>Power blow

I didn’t include Power Blow either dude. What are you on about? Chill with the meme arrows.

When does a grenade explode after being armed?

3-5 seconds after being armed, typically.

On whose turn? At the end of it, or the beginning?

End of your turn X seconds after arming.

I'm yet to see where my math's off but I did forget about Focused Fury. I initially omitted fine weaponry on purpose but after reading about kaishakunin I now now they were usually the best swordsman in the household so it makes sense they would have at least a fine katana.
Custom technique (Kaishaku) sounds nifty.

No problem, I admit my wordings were bad. In my defense it was supposed to be just a random note that would be buried by an "I love Sorcery" post. I didn't think it would became a real discussion.

I totally forget about 2H grip katana. Shame on me.
Weapon Master is cinematic but
Unusual Training (Power Blow, Decaptation on unresisting targets only) is considered realistic.
though probably Focused Fury, two handed Fine Katana and custom technique is probably even more realistic.

Thank you. Is that from somewhere in the books? I haven't found it

Basic p.277
>“Fuse” is the number of seconds it takes for the weapon to detonate once readied.

What's the chance of getting Destiny (Will be made into a statue) and actually getting a statue sculpted for the character instead of being petrified?

It depends on the DM. So no chance on not being petrified.

OP PDF has a lot of childish misspellings that need to be fixed, though. I mean, they accidentally put a u in "flavor" right there on the cover.

We don't speak Amerikaan here mate.

Sorry Muhammed, you're on an American board discussing an American game.

Take it to /int/, ya dweebs.

How about you go with Destiny (will do something heroic) that will make him a statue instead of letting the GM's sense of humor play you?

Consider the following: you can have Destiny (will be made into a statue) and then buy it off when you have the statue sculpted after you. In general the disadvantage should be scary, but some disadvantages are fitting to be bought off. Just make sure to get the points before the worst scenario happens.

Yeah it’s not a cut and dry thing, but remember that WM does help with certain penalties, leading to scenarios where the character with WM has higher effective skill than the character with higher base skill. For example, let’s look at two characters, one with Broadsword-18 and WM (Character A) and another with Broadsword-23 (Character B).

If both are attacking once, B is obviously better off and can use the relative +5 for deceptive strikes, hit locations, and contests of skill. If both go for two attacks via rapid strike, then B is still ahead with ESL 17 vs. A’s ESL 15. However, at three or more rapid strikes, A is ahead with ESL 12 vs. B’s 11. Similarly, if both are beset by multiple attackers, mounting penalties to Parry mean A can keep parrying for longer.

Weapon Master really shines when the fighter is facing a one-on-many fight.

How is that S&W lite PDF coming along lite-user?

I think the closest thing you are likely to find is the trade rules from Spaceships 2, but that's more focused on stuff PCs can do (i.e. buying and selling good) than figuring out the flow of trade.

Is there a way to make your weapons and armor scale with your character if they grow/shrink?

I want my punches and kicks to deal shock damage like Shocking Touch, is this the correct way to model it as advantage?
>Burning Attack 1d+1 (No Incendiary Effect, -10%; Follow Up, Unarmed Strikes, +0%; Magical, -10%) [6]

dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com.br/2013/07/changing-dials-in-gurps.html
enragedeggplant.blogspot.com.br/2017/02/sorcery-lightning-spells.html
Reading these two articles, I think I got it wrong and the correct advantage would be:
>Burning Attack 1d (No Incendiary Effect, -10%; Surge, Arcing, +100%; Follow Up, Unarmed Strikes, +0%; Magical -10%) [9]

Still somewhat in the research phase. I think I have a good grasp of what S&S means, now I need to find the mechanics that replicate it. Social stuff is surprisingly important, since many heroes become involved with murky alliances and can claim thrones, so I'm going to peg this add-on as being roughly Lite-sized. Still thinking about magic.

By the way, found an errata for Natural Weapons (Pyramid #3/65):
>Unbalanced: Your weapon has a bad weight distribution, so you can’t parry in the same turn you attack with it, and vice versa. Incompatible with Cannot Parry and Poor Defense. -30%.
>Lightning Whip: Natural Weapon (Burning; Destructive Parry, +40%; Disarming, +20%; Extra Reach, 1-4, Ready maneuver necessary, +90%; Flexible, +30%; Light 4, -20%; Poor Defense, -20%; Single, -20%; Surge, Arcing (Power-Ups 4, p. 21), +100%; Swing-Capable, +20%; Switchable (Power- Ups 4, p. 17), +10%; Unbalanced, -30%) [16].
So Unbalanced is not compatible with Poor Defense yet Lightning Whip contains it.

They have social engineering books, check em out in the mega

I saw Symbol / Synatic magic recommended last thread, will second that recommendation. Less GM intensive than say RPM, but still as flexible, and would take up at most 1 - 2 pages

wweek.com/portland/article-1616-rubbish.html-2
Apparently Scrounging is a perfectly valid skill for a spy.

That's a really complicated idea. Such a simulation would require figuring out the demand in each area and how well the demand can be met. Remember that demand is going to be dependent on factors like security and stability, political X factors that are hard to figure out with just a balance sheet.

First time using GURPS, and I'll be DM'ing. My campaign idea involves an alternate world where the Mongol Empire flourished well into the 21st century and have made it to TL 9, and are invading a separate alternate world that's basically 15th century England, and it's the party's job to sort it all out. A couple questions for you all:
1. What's the best way to capture the skirmishy and hunty style of the Mongol Empire with modern technology?
2. About how many points should I start the party out at, so as to make dudes with guns a serious threat but not an overwhelming one?

Economics is complex, pretty much a clusterfuck that hasn't really been figured out after centuries of stubborn mathematical analysis (and social anylisis too, nice try Marx). But a simplistic system that gives a rough idea of the general prosperity of a region or country could possibly be created. As a quick example, some sort of 'point-buy': discrete points that represent local prosperity (that is to say wealth, regional importance, stability, etc) are distributed across nodes (representing population centers and other economically significant locations) and arrows connect these nodes (these are causal arrows, what nodes support which ones' prosperity through what means). As an example, a highly centralised and prosperous region around an important population center should have many farming villages, some mines or quarries that directly support it. Of course, it's probably a shit system, but if a sleep-deprived retard could think of something, then surely something much better could be created by more competent people?

1) Take a page from WH40K and stick your Future Mongols on motorcycles.
2) I highly recommend 250 points or so and suggest looking at Action for templates and rules to use to make guns not be a death sentence.

For simple you just need the size of a market and it's trade balance.

Large, wealthy cities have a large demand for just about everything except for manufactured goods that are produced there. There's no reason to ship steam engines and rifles to 1860 London, for example.

Population serves as a cap for prosperity. A place with a high population can be poor, but a place with a low population can't have a rich, powerful market.

Non-luxury foodstuffs ignore prosperity for demand. People can't stop buying food when times are tough..

So something like..

London

Market Size Modifier: +10 (Gigantic)

Produces: Manufactured Goods (Clothing, Industrial, Weapons, China, Ect)

Advantages: Sheltered Harbor, Easy Sea Access, Navigable Rivers, Defenseable

Trade Routs:
Calais (117 sea miles, +sheltered, -pirates, -politically unstable)

Antwerp (210 sea miles, +sheltered, +politically stable)

Portsmouth (230 sea miles, +coastal, +politically united, -Portsmouth is where your Gran goes on holiday)

Good.
Add something like Flux from 3e cyberworld, tag descriptions, rules for creating trade hubs and you write first draft of GURPS Merchant Prince splat

Forgot pic

The Shrinking advantage has the Can Carry Objects enhancement and Power-Ups 4 says that is also valid for Growth.

If you want it to work with literally any kind of shrinking or growing effect, I have no idea.

Adjustable Clothing spell from GURPS Magic or a similar crafting imbuement from Pyramid 3-99.

>Still thinking about magic
You can do a lot of the effects used by S&S magic users with things like Channeling, Medium or Oracle. Other 'magic' is basically just mundane skills with access to fantasy drugs and poisons, cinematic versions of Hypnosis and Brainwashing or cinematic martial arts skills like pressure points and hypnotic hands. I think the only other really important element of S&S sorcery is summoning monsters.

I think one thing you kind of need to include in any setting-level economics rules for a game is comparative advantage, which determines which way goods flow and what is cheapest where.

Let's say that you have two production centres; a lowland farming village and a highland farming village, supplying a large city with basically unlimited demand for what the farmers produce. In the HFV each farmer can manufacture 10 units of food or 10 units of fabric. In the LFV each farmer can make 20 units of food or 30 units of fabric. At first it seems like nobody in the HFV can possibly make a living, because they are out-competed by people in the LFV in both categories. However, in the LFV, nobody wants to grow food, because in order to do so they have to give up the opportunity to make fabric which is more profitable. In the HFV, they can't compete with the LFV's fabric, but they can sell food. Even though they produce less food per worker than the lowland village, the lowland villagers refuse to grow food and prefer to sell fabric and buy their food from relatively inefficient highland farms.

That's how poor areas have functional economies even though more advanced ones have better factories, more intelligent populations and a host of other advantages. So long as the relative cost of something is right, you can make a living producing it.

If I am blind but can see through my familiar's eyes, do I knock points off of the Blindness disad?

Also, whats the best way for seeing through my familiar's eyes, well, least expensive I should say?

1: Yes, migratory/situational
2: Well, there should be some spell that lets you see thru others eyes, jsut have it so that you know that spell, but its bound to your familiar only?

Dungeon Fantasy 5:Allies has that as an ability you can get if you have familiar. CBA to look right now to give you a copy/paste or even a page number, though.

Blindness [-50] + No blindess (granted by familiar, -40%) [30]

Wouldn't this mean you can only see when your familiar around, as opposed to actually seeing through the familiar's eyes?

From page 24 of DF5.
Shared Sight (+20 points or +15 if combined with Shared Thoughts): You can see through your familiar’s eyes. Add Mind Reading (Accessibility, Familiar Only, -80%; Long Range 1, +50%; Sensory Only, -20%) [15]. Also add Mindlink (Familiar) [5] if Shared Thoughts (below) is not taken.
Shared Thoughts (+15 points): You can send your thoughts to your familiar; this is the counterpart to the Telepathic lens – see New Meta-Trait: Familiar(p. 21) for details. Add Avatar [1]; Mindlink (Familiar) [5]; and Telesend (Accessibility, Familiar only, -80%; Can tell if sending is successful, +10%) [9]

You need to remove Blindness to be able to see thru magic or have familiar who see thru sonar or other non-vision sense.
>B, 124
>If you have Blindness, you cannot purchase superhuman vision abilities.
>Note that Scanning Sense and Vibration Sense are not vision; you may take either of these traits in conjunction with Blindness, at the usual point costs.

1) Depends on what effect you want. If you still have to travel slowly, still get -6 in combat, and still have the problems associated with Blindness then no.
2) Mind Reading (Granted by Familiar, -40%; Sensory Only, -20%) [12] + Mind Link (Familiar) [5].

>migratory/situational
Did you mean Mitigator?

I would look at Mind Reading (Sensie). I think that’s what it’s called. It’s from Powers.

Yeah, I suppose it would be a agreement between GM-Player for most of it, but represented in the Dis category as such.

You don't need Long Range if you have Mind Link IIRC -- you automatically succeed at less than interstellar distances in the same dimension. But what do I know? Go with the official printed version.

I forgot Accessibility, Familiar only.

So No-Blindness (GBF, -40%)?

or something like "only on mind readed senses -60% to -80%" (i'm just dislike mitigator modificator, yeah)

Alrighty, here's the pitch for my first campaign. Hopefully I haven't mangled the lore up too badly.

pastebin.com/FRJfFzhm

Does Faith Healing and Chi Healing bypass Magic Resistance?

As GM said.

I have a question about Dungeon Fantasy. I've got a character who uses a quarterstaff, and I want to cap one end with silver and the other end with meteoric iron. The snag in my otherwise sound plan is that only metal weapons are eligible for those materials. I welcome any suggestions.

Get a spear with an extra spear head at the other end, with the blunt modifier (damage is crushing, no change to cost or weight) on both ends, and that perk that lets you use a spear with the quarterstaff skill like a quarterstaff.

Don't read him

>Flanges, Spikes, or End Caps
>Blunt, hafted weapons such as clubs, mauls, round maces, and sticks may be given flanges or multiple small spikes – in game terms, the two features are equivalent. These give +1 to crushing damage when swinging or thrusting. Base cost is +40%. No effect on other stats. Applicability: Hafted crushing weapons.
>Most TL2+ maces, flails, and polearms with crushing attacks are already flanged or spiked. Unflanged versions of typically flanged weapons do -1 crushing damage. CF is -0.3. Applicability: Flails; maces other than round ones; morningstars; polearms.
>Wooden staffs typically have end caps to increase striking damage. Weapon stats on tables already account for these. Staffs may lack these, for -1 to swinging and thrusting damage, -$5 base cost, and -1 lb. weight. Applicability: Staffs.