Realm Management: New Widdershins

 GURPS Realm Management  is a supplement that lets a gamemaster create a "realm" with some fairly simple stats that can be used as background flavor or part of a political type campaign. Players can even play the leaders of different realms as a competitive political campaign. As a playtester I built a couple of kingdoms for my Chalice World setting using it.

In one of my current games our group are playing leaders of a band of refugees from a small town in Colorado in modern day that escaped from a world ending event by Elder Things. The group just reached a nice place ot settle down and build anew and the GM will use GURPS Realm Management to help run this portion of the campaign. So lets see what happens....

Starting Out

The valley we have arrived at is a modest one, about 10 miles across and maybe 50 miles long with a river running from a north pass to a south pass and a small lake in the middle. We had several days to ransack our old town for supplies before the gate to this world was complete and picked up more supplies from a National Guard Armory along the way here. Oh, the valley is somewhere along the trunk of the world tree and magic is now a thing.

Were going to say our new town is about 50 square miles for a realm Size Value of +6.

Our population is 306 people, money is kinda weird at this point  but lets base it on our old standard, especially since it most impacts our starting costs. lets say average wealth for $2,600/month.

Our base value (p. 29) is thus $1,560.

Adding up our collective  goods we have $2,214,494 plus a bunch of vehicles and material not currently priced. This includes a lot of canned and dry goods as we had planned for a long trip with no idea what the terrain was going to be like. Frankly our vehicles could have been a waste too but they helped us haul as much as we could during the short time we could keep the gate open. We basically piled everyone and everything we could into vehicles and lined them up like the starting line at NASCAR or something then rushed the gate when it opened.

Starting Resource Points cost (Base Value *0.5) or $780 each, giving us a whopping 2,839 RP to be divided up among Agriculture Points, Luxury Points, Natural Resource Points, and Workforce Points. That influx of capital makes sense for spending heavily on starting resources to build our town. One might wonder why or how it should apply to Natural Resource Points but consider that it helps us get what we want out of the ground or water in a quicker manner than if we had fewer people or less equipment. Also processing it will be much easier with our tools, generators, and solar panels.

Misc Starting Stats

Lets list some general stats before getting to the meat of building New Widdershins.

Population: 306 all healthy and mobile. We do not need ot worry about carrying capacity at this point as we have plenty of food stores and the land is likely to support a much larger population once we start farming.

Citizen Loyalty: Very Good (+3) seems appropriate here. Leadership just saved about 1/3 of the old town from an apocalypse and the towns people are remarkably resilient, self reliant, and practical. We also have that small town loyalty to each other and everyone is wanting to work for the common good, at least for now.

Infrastructure Rating: 0 Not good! This gives us -5 (improvised equipment) for most things.

Control Rating: 2 is I think about right, we have a frontier situation but a strong leader in the town sheriff and he has 23 deputies and staff for 7% of the population. People are also used to obeying the laws of modern USA.

Conformity Rating: ConR3 fits our town pretty well, though an easy argument for ConR4 could be made.

Openness Rating: OR4 Mildly Open is the highest we can have without spending anything so lets call it that.

Government Type: Right now it is arguably Anarchy with a small group of leaders most of the town respect and trust to get things done and keep them alive. We will probably go to a representative Democracy like everyone is used to at some point.

Economy Type: Traditional is probably where we are at for now.

Education Rating: Should be 4 based on TL8 but our town seems very educated and includes a lot of military vets.

Management Skill: Default is 12 but we have high point leaders and overall a lot of very competent people in town. Each +1 costs +5% to Realm Value and we likely have Usually Reliable Management for another  +25%.

Habitality: Good (14; +1) We just got here so don't know the seasons but we have a couple of people with Naturalist so can make a good guess. Excellent fishing, something called pig apples that are very plentiful (kinda like potatos), nearby forest with game (already hunted some deer), and plains grass that smells like water melon and is edible. We also brought some grain of our own and have chickens for eggs and eventually meat. Plus cats and dogs to keep vermin under control.

Reaction-Time Modifier (RTM): +1; Adding things up we get 0 from TL8, +1 from Management Skill, and +0 from Complexity for a net +1.

Summary

That gives us a starting point.  Next up are modifiers and tweaking the numbers above as the GM provides more input (or GM Fiat).  I'll likely post some of that tomorrow.

GURPS Madwand

 I have a friend trying to convert Earth Dawn and Shadow Run to GURPS, one thing hes trying to get is pattern items and thread magic. Trouble is the description I am given is not helpful towards building a system.  So I asked him if he ever read Madwand by Roger Zelazny as that might be where they got the idea. I read this book as a teenager so hopefully remember it well enough.  Here is my attempt to describe that system.

Magic is both a force and a material. Magicians can see it as threads floating in the air and will it to move. Sophisticated mages can even learn to tie it in knots and anchor these threads to objects so they can carry the threads with them and not be so dependent on what happens to be nearby.  Later on in the book the protagonist learns to perceive and shape the threads as clouds and possibly other shapes, granting new ways to use them. Some of my inspiration for converting this system is The Stuff of Raw Magic (GURPS Thaumatology, p. 277-229)

Magery (Thread)

Magery allows mages to see these threads and manipulate them.  Roll Per + Magery to see threads and Will + Magery to move them.  Threads come in different colors, essentially aspected mana with different colors having different capabilities.

The problem is the threads are common but not ever present and they need to be in contact with something to achieve an effect. Threads can be moved at Magery/yards per turn.

If other magic systems are in the setting this can be purchased as an alternative ability to other forms of Magery.

Thaumatology

Thaumatology allows a mage to skillfully manipulate threads to achieve various effects. Anyone with Magery (Thread) can see and move threads around, even activating them. But that is child's play.  Real magicians learn how to tap the energy in a thread to actually cast spells or move them around.

Bind Thread (Raw Mana)

This advantage allows the mage to bind and store 1 point of raw mana or a thread per level. It costs 5 points per level and a mage is limited to Thaumatology/2+Magery in levels. See Raw Magic Store, GURPS Thaumatology, p. 228.

Using a Thread

A thread is essentially stored energy and can be tapped for many effects. Each thread is aspected and works best for similar effects.

A single thread can do one of the following things...

• Provide 5 energy to power a spell or magic working.
• Fixate or stabilize and enchantment by providing 100 energy to an appropriate enchantment or the duration of an appropriate spell.
• Grant a +3 skill bonus to casting an appropriate spell.
• Directly affect a subject it is in contact with. Each thread counts as a Thrust attack (ST5 +Magery) or effect effect for the purpose of manipulating something or doing damage to it. The exact effect varies by aspect.

Threads of Many Colors

Every thread has its own color, which tells the mage what aspect it has.

• Black is water aspected and can extinguish fire, cool, or even freeze things.
• Blue is air aspected and manipulates the air, it does damage as a gust of wind and can clear things, its especially suitable for area and cone attacks.
• Brown is earth aspected and can physically crush or move objects without harming them.
• Green is life aspected and especially suited to healing. Treat damage as healing.
• Red is aspected towards fire and can do burning damage
• Yellow is spirit aspected and can manipulate emotions. Treat as a QC between its effective ST and the Will of the subject to incite or inspire a given emotion.

These are obviously just a small list of examples and what aspects are available in a setting is up to the GM. The frequency of appearance of threads is also an important choice. In some settings they may be everywhere, in others they may only appear in certain areas or distilled from magical beings or items and need to be carried around for use. As a rule of thumb each thread should be worth about 5 character points in effect and cost a FP to activate for a single turn. This is envisioned by mages as causing the thread to pulsate. Multiple threads can be bound together to create more powerful effects, but cost 1 FP per level used.

Dueling With Thread

Mages can move threads they see towards someone and once the thread touches them activate it by spending 1 FP.  Since non mages cant see them until they pulse this can be a nasty surprise! However once a thread is pulsed or energized it beeomes clearly visible and can be dodged, blocked, or even parried. The threads have a physical form and will not pass through things, though they appear weightless.

Mages can fight each other over a thread, this is a Quick Contest of Will + Magery (Thread) with the winner moving the thread as they desire up to the lower of margin of success or Magery.

Experienced mages have learned that slowly moving threads around the battlefield, while subtle and hard to defend against is rather slow and awkward. Mages can thus learn to bind threads and swing them as weapons, typically using Whip, Lasso, or Net  to hit. They can also be bound into an object such as a sword or staff and pulsed for extra effect when they strike a target.

Summary

This is obviously a bare bones magic system but it does have an interesting flavor and can be used with other magic systems for more variety.  The Raw magic Store advantage allowing threads to be used as temporary attacks (or relying on one just happening to be where you need it) is a nice perk but probably not over powered.  Essentially your using them as limited attacks of about the same point value at the cost of 1 FP/use and have to spend points on other abilities such as Thaumatology and a specific variant of Magery.  Pretty equivalent to a use of alternative abilities and Abilities at Default from GURPS Powers. This also factors in the the cost in time and effort in find and capturing the threads in the first place.

In Madwand threads were the initial use, but later he could see and manipulate them as clouds and perhaps other shapes.  This can be represented by adding Area Effect or treating threads as nets.

 Skills as Powers

So I have been pondering this idea off and on for awhile now and two recent interactions over the past few months have brought some of this to the fore and coalesced a few things.

I like GURPS Powers and a powers based magic system is intriguing.  It has the benefit of being inherently balanced when compared with other powers based character types. It does have disadvantages compared to tech based types though, especially as tech level increases.

GURPS Supers was probably the first book to attempt top deal with the disparity between buying stuff off the shelf and building it with powers. Basically you paid for the difference between the starting equipment and what it could do better.

I later suggested and others have debated the value of a cost reduction for powers that duplicate gear such as dividing the cost by 5 (based on the internal payload only, alternative ability pricing, or costs character points modifiers). We also have the Accessory perk.

GURPS Power-Ups 1: Imbuements by Sean Punch aka Kromm also approaches this in a way with using powers to modify weapons. Later expanded on in Pyramid articles to include armor and other gear.

Christopher Rice also created Metatronic Generators, first introduced in Pyramid #3/46 Weird Science. Its seen a few additional articles and more in his campaigns and hopefully will someday see a full treatment as a standalone supplement.

Recently someone asked for help in converting Shadow Run and Earth Dawn to GURPS and he wants to use Sorcery as the core spell system but a skills based magic system for additional subsystems.

Also I have started playing a non cinematic gadgeteer in our "one shot" campaign while one of our regular players has been working extra hours during the holiday season. This is a horror campaign where we started off as 75 point everymen and progressed very rapidly to 150 point characters and have only just started to slow down in growth.

Combining both these things for inspiration and looking over old material I thought I would post this as yet another example of how GURPS can do something in many different ways, depending on what the group wants.

Basic Premise

Take a power and create it on the fly as a penalty to a skill roll. We have seen a couple of examples and different ways to do this, go read Boil and Bubble: Magical Ability Defaults from Skill by Christopher Rice for instance.

You back? Good, here are some related ideas....

• Its Pure Chemistry, Pyramid #3/28 Thaumatology II by Christopher Rice allows Temporary Enhancements for potions and such.
• The Magic of Stories, Pyramid #3/13 Thaumatology by Kelly Pedersen is built around Book/Path magic but could be inspirational here.
• The Daughter of Necessity, Pyramid #3/46 Weird Science by Roger Burton West is a powers based approach to invention and Gadgeteer that is also inspirational. Specifically it has a way to determine Complexity (used for invention) based on the trait costs and then applies that to skill rolls.
• Sufficiently Deranged, Pyramid #3/122 All Good Things by Phil Masters. The first half of the article works well with devotional magic and time spent and could be a useful part of the converted magic system for my friend. The second part is based on Syntactic Realm Magic (GURPS Thaumatology, same author).

These ideas can be merged into a skills as powers system, including magic, weird science, alchemy, story telling, etc.

The Story Teller

This individual can tell a story, sing a song, recite a poem, or even give an impressive speech that can shape reality! Take an appropriate skill such as Enthrallment or Musical Influence, add in supporting skills such as specific story specialties (The Magic of Stories), music, poet, or writing specialties (perhaps even Artist) taking the role of weird sciences (Sufficiently Deranged) and determine effects and skill penalties using Boil and Bubble: Magical Ability Defaults from Skill, Daughters of Necessity, or one of the other systems above.

This lets a character achieve effects based on the story told, mood generated by music or art, etc.

 

The Spirit Worker

This individual works by gathering spirits of various types and persuading them to do specific things. Take an appropriate skill such as Ritual Magic (Spirit Worker) and add specialized skills based on types of spirits, Otherwise, see Story Teller above.

The Ritualist

As above but start with Thaumatology and add different magical specialties. The colleges in GURPS Magic are a perfect example and already suggested as Hard skills using the Ritual Magic option (p. B242).

The Chi Specialist

Why not something similar for martial artists? Go with Esoteric Medicine (manipulating your Chi) or perhaps Body Sense and various Chi skills, perhaps treating the five Taoist elements as separate sciences with optional specialties.

The possibilities are endless, but this is a blog post not a GURPS article or supplement. Besides most of the mechanics are already described in the referenced material!

Insiders Peek: Nordland Bestiary

 Douglas Cole of Gaming Ballistic launched a kickstarter for a full color bestiary for the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS). I knew from prior experience this was going to be a very good book and went in as much as I could afford, even adding the VTT tokens for Foundry as an add-on though I don't have a license (I'll give my copy as a late Christmas present to someone who does). Also bought the hard copy as I know it will be excellent in quality and appearance, even if I am unlikely to be playing face to face instead of over the internet. His products are just that good and well worth supporting!

The author shared a preview copy with some people to get feedback and gave me permission to post this sneak peak.

Overall Impression

As expected the layout is very nice! I like that each entry gets a good picture and each picture includes a shadow of a Viking to help scale things. The descriptions, stat blocks, and summaries all are easy to read and pleasing to the eye. Also included is just enough humor to make reading it fun. The way an entry is laid out it will be very easy to just turn to a page and have the relavant information jump out at you. The addition of the creature reference cards, standup art, and Foundry tokens will also be very useful in helping the GM and players get a fast feel for each creature.

As should be no surprise to anyone who has bought material from Gaming Ballistic, were getting good value for our money here!

Introduction

Honestly? This was a pleasant surprise!  I expected the standard bit, but what I saw was so much more useful and fun. As this is for a specific setting the author was able to tailor some things. The "Not Norse Mythology" cosmology section was brief but gave a good feel for the Nine Worlds and had me thinking for a moment "I didn't realize the void was like that!"  The entry blends together the Lovecraftian Elder Things into the setting in a very fitting manner that suits the mythology. The origin and function of each of the Nine Worlds works well and is very evocative, while being fairly close to the source mythology as I recall it.

But you know what really stood out and made me take notice?

The section on faerie and how it blended with Irish and European folklore as well as common tropes into what feels like a cohesive cosmology.  Also the trait descriptions for various advantages and disadvantages really works for me. It made me want to play in the setting.

The Creatures

The bulk of the bestiary is of course the creatures, and I have only seen up to the letter E in the sneak peak. 

• Aesir: What would a Norse bestiary be without some Aesir? So far only the Dark Pack are here but boy do they stand out as fearsome and fun foes! Not just wolves, but undead wolves that keep coming back!
• Alfur and Faerie: We get some standards from folklore but also some new, or at least relatively unknown critters as well. Further the examples fit together in a way that gives is chaos and diversity, yet flows well enough that new creatures are easily inspired. Frankly, they just make better sense as a whole than I have often seen.
• Animals: Each animal entry covers several known species, typically with a collage of pictures. Animals are often overlooked but they provide not only low level foes but also useful companions and background. We have the staples here, and a few odd ducks that you wont always see.  Also of course there are dire and giant versions.
• Demons and Elder Things: They have a set place in the cosmology and we get to see some interesting and scary varieties.
• Dragons: A nice variety here too, with more to come; These are typically creatures of Jotunheim and come in a good variety of scariness.
• Elementals: They hail mostly from Nifleheim which I found an interesting choice and contrast with the typical elemental and para-elemental planes we see in That Other Game.

I wont go into detail on the specific creatures, we have so many good ones and some nice creatures to bring a gleam to any DMs evil or appeal to the avarice of most delvers.

Summary or Buy This Now!

This project promised a great deal, and no surprise its delivering on that promise. I am confident that not only is it going to be well worth my money, it will help generate even more goodness for GURPS, The Fantasy Trip, and Dragon Heresay in the future.

Living Magic

 Recently I was watching Magi on Netflix and was reminded of the wild magic used by elves in The Hallows series by Kim Harrison. Both settings have magic as a living thing, with the Hollows wild magic is little eyes that are avatars of a goddess and in the Magi series magic is based off souls and energy that comes from them.

Here is an idea for duplicating that concept.

Spirit Ally with Injury Tolerance: Diffuse! (Magic, -10%) [360]

This allows the spirit to do various powers with the special effect that it envelopes or flows over the subject. This typically includes elemental shaping but not creation effects as it can condense water or move air. The power must be less than 360 points and have the Magic PM, typically Affects Substantial, No Range or Melee based are included in the modifiers.

Mages then summon the ally to do their bidding by giving it specific instructions. In both settings the base are nonsapient so orders typically require a Concentrate (fitting for magic) and abilities are really limited only by imagination.

Perhaps different effects each require a skill roll to achieve, except for alternative abilities representing learned commands (much like Learned Prayers in Divine Favor or Sorcery).

Obviously this could be just a special effect for regular power builds or perhaps an alternative to an existing spell casting system. In that case perhaps replace the typical Magic power modifier with a variant that allows Affects Insubstantial attacks to counter the spells. Essentially a dispel magic is shattering the cohesion of the spirit, or perhaps even killing it.

Example Detectives

Detectives can come in a wide variety and a campaign could easily have several types working together to solve cases. So here are some examples with brief notes on notable traits and descriptions about how they worked and what made them memorable.

The goal of these entries are not full write-ups but to give you an idea how to emulate certain things and show the breadth of options in what might seem a narrow niche.

Baretta

Baretta was a tv detective in 1970's.  He was a plain clothes detective and had a pet cockatoo. He was considered a master of disguise.

I don't recall the series all that well but he was a tough guy, good at billiards, and pretty smart - though not a genius. He also had several regular informants.

Attributes: IQ 14, ST 12, HT 12.

Skills: Acting; Disguise; Fast-Talk; Games (Billiards); Guns (Pistol)

Advantages: Contacts (Streetwise); Legal Enforcement Powers; Pet.

Columbo

A personal favorite. Columbo seemed like he knew who the bad guy was on first encounter and then spent the rest of the episode trying to prove it. His catch phrase "Oh, just one more thing" could be a use of Fast-Talk as it throws the suspect off and they say something they often immediately regret and definitely did not have prepared. He is a blue collar worker type, despite apparently being one of the police forces better detectives. Despite most of his cases being High Society, I would not give him Savior-Faire (High Society). I would however give him Diplomacy at IQ as he manages to not offend anyone he does not want to, and even then does it in a manner that makes it hard to really call him out on it. I would give him Empathy based not just on his instinct for people but how he reacted to them, he seemed to really care about and understand most people.

Columbo is an example of a likeable but not cinematically so, face type and uses social skills to get the bad guy to incriminate themselves or even confess.

Attributes: IQ 14-16; Per 16+.
Skills: Acting; Body Language; Criminology; Detect Lies; Diplomacy; Fast-Talk; Law; Observation; Search; Sleight of Hand.

Technique: Elicitation (Fast-Talk) - see Pyramid #3/54 The Civil Arts.
Advantages: Charisma, Empathy; Intuition; Legal Enforcement Powers.

Commissioner McMillin

McMillin was a police commissioner, much higher ranked than typical for a player character. He was notable as a detective for the power he could bring to bear as the head of the police department. He was a former lawyer and solved cases that occurred at high society events where he was present with the aid of the police force. This could work in a campaign where one PC runs interference for the rest and helps them get the aid and tools they need.

Attributes: IQ 12+

Skills: Administration; Criminology; Law; Leadership; Politics; Savior-Faire (High Society); Savior-Faire (Police).

Advantages: Charisma; Handsome; Legal Enforcement Powers; Patron (San Francisco Pole Dept.); Rank (Police) 5?; Very Wealthy.

Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen was an author, dilettante, and amateur detective who had the help of his police inspector father in solving crime. His father would bring him in as consultant or Ellery would be doing a story or requested by someone to solve a murder and he would have his father at hand to make the arrest. While most people freelancing for this kind of irritate the police who see them as competition and possibly disrespectful the father son relationship allowed it to work.

Attributes: IQ 14
Skills: Criminology; Intelligence Analysis; Writing.
Advantages: Ally (Police Inspector)

Kolchak the Nightstalker

Kolchak was an investigative reporter who stumbled on supernatural or alien mysteries. He wasn't really impressive in most ways but had a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time. Also caught more than a few lucky breaks in escaping deadly danger. While normal police would not cooperate with a reporter, player characters are another matter. An investigative reporter does not have police resources, nor a paying client but they can get access to many things with press credentials. And a camera makes many people a bit more wary. The trick here is most reporters are assigned not just a "beat", but specific stories so they lack freedom to act on their own leads. In modern day however independent media makes this more possible - if still financially risky.

Attributes: average.
Skills: Photography; Writing.
Advantages: Luck; Serendipity.

Lady Blue

Lady Blue was a short lived tv series with a very violent gun toting protagonist. Very much like Clint Eastwood's Dirty harry character.  Fun show, notable for her tendency to shoot things or people. Not every detective has to be subtle or a genius :)

Lord Darcy

Lord Darcy was a detective in the late 1900's on an alternate earth. This was a series of novels and short stories. He uses magic to solve crimes but primarily with forensic magic that finds and analyzes clues. He was very smart, being called in by the King and others for very sensitive investigations.

Attributes: IQ 15; DX 12
Skills: Criminology; Diplomacy; Forensics; Shortsword; Savior-Faire (High Society); Soldier; Thaumatology
Advantages: Ally (Sean O' Lochlainn, Sorcerer); Claim to Hospitality; Intuition; Languages, Language Talent; Status 3; Wealthy.

Magnum P.I.

Thomas Magnum was a private investigator who did security work for a very wealthy guy and lived in a guest house on his estate. He was a retired naval commander and pretty much a tough guy kind of detective. Though not as hardboiled as say a noir genre one. He was a former SEAL and Intelligence Officer so has some unusual skills and contacts. Very social and generally likeable. He is a good mix of social and connected with solid combat ability. He very much fits into the Action series type.

Attributes:
Skills: Carousing; Diplomacy; Electronic Operations (Security); Electronic Operations (Surveillance); Guns; 
Advantages:  Charisma 2; Courtesy Rank 5 (Navy); Very Handsome;

McCloud

McCloud was a cowboy on assignment to the New York City PD. He was good with a gun, horse, and lasso. He tended to be rough around the edges and as an out of towner had no local informants. He was above average in most respects and quite the charmer when he wanted to be and a good brawler. The concept of an out of towner could fit in with a group, the new guy needs a local to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't go too off the rails.  But his actions can often be smoothed over as an outsider who simply doesn't know better, and yes ma'am well discipline him. He was actually used that way several times by the Chief of Detectives in charge to sort of rile things up but retain plausible deniability.  He was very likeable, (essential for the role of getting away with things) but I would call it Charisma more than actual skills. he had a knack for figuring things out and what the bad guy wanted that I think is best represented by Criminology and Detect Lies.

Attributes: Probably 12 across the board.
Skills: Brawling; Carousing; Criminology 14+;Detect Lies; Guns (pistol); Guns (Rifle); Lasso; Riding; 
Advantages: Attractive; Charisma 2; 

Nero Wolfe

Nero Wolfe is a reclusive detective who relies on another to do the legwork for him.  He then pieces together the clues and presents the evidence to the police. As such he does not need combat or first hand investigation skills so much as brain power and the ability to piece it all together. He is reputed to be a genius and has an eclectic skill set.

Attributes: IQ 16
Skills: Criminology; Intelligence Analysis.
Advantages: Reputation; Wealthy.

Quincy, M.E.

Quincy  was a medical examiner in the late 70's tv series. He typically found something odd doing an autopsy and when his boss or the main police detective wanted to go for the easy answer he would stick his nose in and investigate himself.  He wasn't great or subtle in most of these investigations but got the job done. Had to be rescued fairly often and in real life would have been fired. One thing we found out later was he was a retired Navy Captain so he probably knew how to handle a gun. While in many places you can be an M.E. without being a doctor it was required where he worked so he had full medical training. He was stubborn and very smart, often out thinking the other cast members.

Attributes: IQ 16
Skills: Boating (Sailboat); Chemistry; Diagnosis 16+; Physician; Physiology; Research; Sex Appeal; Surgery.

Advantages: Charisma 2; High Manual Dexterity 1; Intuition; Tenure*.

*Tenure is normally used for professions where its almost impossible to be fired. However nothing about the advantage says it has to come from professional channels. It could represent someone too good or dangerous to fire (including social and political repercussions), has very rare skills or abilities, survives through blackmail or other hold over his superiors, or just plain old nepotism.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes has already been written up in GURPS so I wont repeat it here, except for some Fourth Edition contributions. Basically though he is a solid archetype. Socially awkward, a real genius (though not the smartest in the family), and solves crimes through deductive reasoning (Intuition with Hypersensory and Reliable) and an insane ability to notice the smallest detail (Pyschometry with Hypersensory), Photographic Memory, and an Encyclopedic type Wildcard skill.

Starsky and Hutch

This pair of police detectives were the tough guy mold and also worked undercover. I dont think any real stats need be inferred. The style of two buddy cops with complementary but similar skill sets was the main thing that stands out. They both had good driving and shooting skills as well as decent Acting.

Summary

While one detective type is the norm in most campaigns it is easily possible to have a full team of different types.

• The Sponsor or Patron is often the leader and can help smooth things over legally, and offer resources. This could be a high ranking official or even a high Status and respected patron.
• The Sleuth is the investigative genius, able to put it all together.
• The Technician is often a Forensics specialist but could also be a pathologist or other specialty who can find and interpret clues.
• Reporters and Darn kids can offer plausible deniability and outside help.
• Hardboiled tough guys are a classic and most player groups will have at least one person eager to fill the role.
• The Charming face who has lots of Contacts and Influence skills to ferret out information.
• The reclusive desk jockey or Nero Wolfe type is a solid choice for a solo campaign but hard to run in a group.

Of course several roles can be combined, and most should have a mix of capabilities. If the campaign is to have a strong focus on solving mysteries and investigating it is best to have some overlap, yet also unique abilities.  Overlap lets the players do more together and unique abilities (including significantly better skills in one area) can give each character a chance to stand out during the game.

Mystery campaigns can be very satisfying but take a lot of prep work by the GM and creativity as well as good note taking skills.

How to be a GURPS Detective

 I have played a few detectives in GURPS and my current favorite character is in a Monster Hunters type supernatural horror campaign that is in hiatus (the GM likes to skip around between several campaigns, so we will get back to it eventually). Running a good detective takes a lot so here are some ideas.

GURPS Resources

GURPS Mysteries is the go to book for playing a detective, especially a procedural one. It covers a lot of material, real world and fictional mystery solving, useful traits, GM tips, etc.

GURPS Action 2: Exploits is good for a cinematic and more fast paced investigation.

GURPS Classic: Cops is from GURPS Third Edition so some of the gear may need rework but goes into a lot of detail on law enforcement and playing someone from those professions.

GURPS Social Engineering is very helpful at the social aspect and this is an important part of most investigations.

Transhuman Space: Transhuman Mysteries is a good resource for science fiction mysteries, even if you do not use that setting.

Pyramid #3/10 Crime and Grime

Pyramid #3/47: The Rouges Life

For the GM

Before allowing a player to build a detective you should make a few decisions on how you want to run the campaign and let the player know.

Will Mystery be Important?

If solving mysteries are important to the plot you need to make sure the players have a good chance of solving them. So make sure they have key traits that will be useful and not too many things that will get in the way or derail the plot. Ideally you want the players to work at it, too easy and they are unsatisfied and too hard and they get frustrated.  This will be easier to manage in a group where you know the players.

If mysteries are not important, let he player know so they do not get their hopes up.  Managing Expectations (above) is a helpful resource here.

Time Management

If everyone is participating in solving the mystery that is terrific. However in most groups you will have your puzzle solvers and your combat and action types.  The time needs to be managed so no single player is left sitting out most of the game session, much less the majority of them!

If only one player is trying to find clues and solve the mystery you need to keep the time short, or do individual sessions. An easy way to do this is to handle things with die rolls, such as skills or even the use of spells and powers. This is likely to be unsatisfactory to the player hoping to figure things out though. So set proper expectations.

What Traits?

What traits are allowed depend on the genre and setting. However, as GM you have a lot of wiggle room. Some abilities seem to be supernatural, yet with the right modifiers could be merely cinematic. Oracle (Digital), Psychometry and senses with the Hype sensory modifier are good examples of taking an obviously supernatural trait and making it "merely" cinematic.  Sherlock Holmes instead of Lord Darcy for example.

High skill levels and especially certain powers or spells can make many investigations trivial. They also make the character feel special. In a campaign where the mystery is just a quick plot device and not meant to be something to spend considerable time on researching supernatural and cinematic abilities are the GMs friend. They let you easily justify the character finding the next link or whatever you need them to do and keep things moving.

In a more mundane setting they may not be allowed and if you want the players to take a lot of time investigating this is a good thing. But even here something like Intuition can help nudge things along as needed.  Especially if one player is the detective and the rest are waiting around for the fighting.

For the Player

So you want to be a detective?  GURPS really lets you shine in this roll and in a lot of possible ways.

You really need to get with the GM and be sure your on the same page as to what rules will be used and how much of the campaign will be focused on finding things out.  If you want to be a detective and the GM plans on simple mysteries or wants them solved in a few minutes time you should put fewer points into these abilities.  Even if much of the time is solving things you likely will want other skills so keep that in mind!  Also if others are going to be involved what will they be doing while you investigate?

The first decision is what style and type of detective you want to be. GURPS Mysteries lists common archetypes and goes into skills and advantages that can be useful. Note that Spiritual Advisor costs the same as a 150% Ally and should probably be built as such. GURPS Action 2: Exploits is more for fast paced gaming but offers solid advice that is useful at any pace.  Both supplements will be useful in building your character.

Since I am not aiming to write Mysteries 2: The Detective here as a blog post I wont go over much more but want to stress this again. It is very important to be on the same page as the GM and to not take too much screen time away from others.

How to share?

Hand tasks to offscreen Contacts or Patrons.  Many things can take a lot of time and be boring to play out, Contacts can do a lot of that for you.  Also you do not need high reliability levels for most tasks.

Get others involved. That stealthy ninja type? Let them break into things to get clues.  The mage or psychic? They can find out information normal methods can't (though countermeasures are likely for known powers). The muscleman or deadly warrior can be your backup in risky meetings. Fighter types often have high HT and can be good at Carousing, let them find out basic info or even lure suspects into a trap for capture.

Sometimes You Have to Do it Yourself

If you never get to use your skills what was the point of paying for them? Again, be on the same page as the GM!  A good GM will let you do some stuff on your own but do not expect it to happen all the time, nor for very long.  When its your private moment try to be well prepared and have your modifiers and questions ready to go.  Also, try to be entertaining for the others at the table. Most players will want thier own screen time but they will be a lot happier when not doing anything if the ones who are at least put on a good show. Its really boring to watch a bunch of die rolls and someone take  minutes to decide what questions to ask or how they are going to break into something.

Prepare common mission items in advance. Its usually faster to tweak to the situation than to come up with a plan on the fly. Also have page references handy.

Example Detectives