GURPS Technomamcer

This setting was built for Third Edition but is of course still usable with GURPS Fourth Edition.
Recently Pyramid #3/115 Technomancer came out which updated some templates, added some backstory for whats been going on since it was published, and had articles to adapt it to the GURPS Action! and the GURPS Monster Hunters lines.  See my review here.
So what is the setting all about?

Technomancer

Its earth just like ours, until the Atomic Bomb was tested.  This unleashed magic into the world, though it took a second more powerful bomb for people to really start to understand what was unleashed on the world.

It uses modern technology mixed with the default GURPS Magic system but looked at with modern eyes.  Industrial magic and mass production of enchanted items is a thing.

This makes for an easy to play modern fantasy world, just use real world maps in most cases.

Since things have come through the dimensional hole and magic warps living beings a lot of the standard critters exist, though twists like Atomic Liches and radioactive zombies add a scary change.

Books like Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter or The Case of  the Toxic Spell Dump and many others could easily be adapted, in whole or in part to this setting. 

This month in GURPS

May 2018 brought us...

GURPS Magic: Artillery Spells

This supplement to the default GURPS magic system is a sort of counterpoint to GURPS Magic: Death Spells, where Death Spells gave us a nice assortment of spells for killing a foe (often in rather spectacular ways) this hves us spells for mowing down cannon fodder.

Both books give ideas on how to build these kinds of spells and include 2 spells from most of the standard colleges.  This is nice as it lets almost any type of mage have some method of killing their foes.  These spells tend to burn through FP and many require higher levels of magery so are more suited to experienced and powerful mages rather than those just starting out.

Some of these spels are pretty obvious but there is a good mix of creative and interesting ones and regardless its nice to have them built and designed for you!

An idea posed on the forum was to have a crowd control version of these and I hope to see that supplement myself.

Pyramid #3/115 Technomancer

This months issue brings us one dedicated to the the GURPS Third Edition setting by the same name.

GURPS Technomancer is an original setting where the atomic bomb punched a dimensional hole in reality letting magic and things into our world.

This issue of Pyramid revisits that setting with some nice articles, it is a very meaty issue.

Technomancer Needs Hunters! by Kelly Pedersen

Looking at the setting through the eyes of GURPS Monster Hunters and provides alterations to the templates along with setting fluff and ideas for merging the two settings.  It also goes over magic, updates some gear and ideas for skills.  Overall its a very nice article that inspires but it has some nice crunchy bonus bits. Wildcard College! gets a callout with some notable advantages and the articke eds with some rather nice monster writeups.

El Paso Vice by Paul Stefko

Remember Miami Vice? Paul uses that for inspiration, stirs with ideas from GURPS Action and bakes in the Technomancer oven and comes up with something  suitably cheesy and fun!

Drugrnners were bad enough, but give them magic and your facing a whole other level of trouble.

This was a fun read and gives some good advice for taking your cinematic Action game in a new direction.

It includes a few new spells, things like tactical flying carpets, exotic guns andeven some history and plot hooks to get you off to a fast start.

Eidetic Memory: Merlin Declassified by David L. Pulver

This months column explores a lot of background and possible plot hooks and adventure ideas. It even includes some new spells. Hard to discuss this one without revealing too much but it was a good read.  And it does not neglect the Killer Penguins!

But the real gems buried in here are magical crowdfunding and the magical internet, or SoulSpace.

Revised Templates, Come Fourth! by Kelly Pedersen and David L. Pulver

Technomancer has halflings, but these aren't the cute Tolkien knock offs your used to. Instead that is the local term for chimera or half man half animal beings mutated by magic.

This article saves the GM a lot of work by converting them to Fourth Edition stats and abilities.

It also includes several demonic and other supernatural templates.

Very crunchy and stat heavy.

Random Thought Table

Questions and Technomancers by Steven Marsh

This months column explores the advantages of "Like what you know, but different" and is good fodder for GMs working out a setting.