Aersalus Season 1, Session 11 Attacking the Bandit Camp

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Skeleton Man

Are We Ready?

After locking up the latest batch of prisoners we finish up the day doing minor odds and ends and preparing for the battle ahead. When we wake up...

Listens heads out to his morning meditations and hopes to get the spirits ok on using Snowstorm to trap the bandits. On his way out the door the impromptu mayor asks him about the bandits, concern is food is too short in supply to take care of them. Listens lets him know they are aware of that but have not had the time to do a proper trial. His team has to keep going out for supplies and to stop bandit raids, not leaving time for administrative or other work that needs to be done. However, he feels it should all be over very soon, within the next few days one way or another. He is a little light on details in case the bandits have a spy in town.

Listens then heads out to his rock to meditate.

The spirits are not happy with the snowstorm idea and as he finishes he notices the tauren Rhum waiting nearby. Rhum says its time to go after the bandits, since we discussed that the night before Listens is not sure why he felt it needed to push the issue up but guess the tauren is impatient to die. Listens almost tells him if he is impatient and unhappy with his leadership he should take over as team leader but alas the Duke assigned him to the task and yielding it would violate rules, oaths, and perhaps common sense as well as getting everyone killed. The tauren does not seem to like planning, relying instead on his considerable strength. Good for most things, but not as much when up against superior number numbers and unknown magic. (FYI Listens has spent 57 points on Rank, plus more on supporting traits like skills, Legal Enforcement Powers, Status 3, etc.).

Apparently Unit 7 has also wandered off (Player called into work) so the team goes looking for him. His trail ends at the edge of the forest, turns out he went on a spirit walk. A squirrel spirit (same one who met Trapper a few days ago) says he is there while the cog does his own thing. Down a warrior Listens asks if the team is ready to go anyhow. On the one hand we are down a valuable member, on the other the bandits will be expecting trouble if we delay another day as they would be expecting the ones we killed or captured the night before to return with the towns "tithe"

We decide to go now and the team agrees to meet at the edge of town in an hour.

Listens casts some echoes (Charms, preset saved one use spells) to help buff the group.

Trapper gets a cart and loads it with bombs.

Rhum says his good byes to the innkeeper.

The Battle!

The squirrel hauls the cart at supernatural speeds so we get there by afternoon.

Trapper has disguised his abused skeleton minion as a bandit and he takes the cart up to the gate. The guard was going to let him in but is overruled by someone else since the minion did not give the password. The guard climbs over and looks things over, getting blown up in the process.

Rhum charges the wooden gate, breaking through and scaring most of those inside (mental stun).

Trapper breaks for the nearest bush, a moment later Listens heads for the same bush. Trapper indignantly objects but Listens points out it was the only one Listens could reach and Trapper had plenty of others he could have ran to.

Trapper starts sniping the guards atop the wooden walls. Rhum and Skeleton charge inside and start dispatching guards on the walls. Rhum cleaving them with his great axe and the skeleton doing acrobatic flips and knocking them to the ground.

Listens calls for the Lady of the Silvered Lake.

Rhum is getting peppered with arrows, a minor nuisance. But also taking a lot of damage from a magical effect.

Listens Casts his elemental blast spell and knocks a guy back a few yards but the bandit stays on his feet.

Listens tries two more spells but is pretty much useless, Rhum, Trapper, and his skeleton are however easily wiping out the bandits.

Then the boss shows up. Dogskull appears next to Rhum and takes him out with a single spell.

Trapper hits him with two bolts, minimal effect. Listens goes all out, this was what he was saving his energy for and casts as big a chill spell as he can. Crit fails.

Luckily the GM had apparently used all his Doom points earlier in the fight and Listens still had several Impulse points left, goes for the reroll and it succeeds doing 50 FP damage to the bandit leader - Dogskull. He drops like a rock.

A spirit claws its way out of the bandit, looks around and then flees north. Listens quickly goes to Rhum, checking for life. He casts a big healing spell (75 HP) with the help of the squirrel and Trapper.

Rhum is alive but spirit barely attached.

The spirit lady returns, saying she had done her part in rescuing the women and children. She wants her tithe of a child. The kid does not want to go. Listens takes her aside to see if he can explain things to her but the Spirit insists on payment. Listens points out the the agreement required consent and the chosen child appears too young to consent. Give him a minute to see what can be worked out. Trapper kind of goes off and is upset Listens would trade a child to a spirit and Listens tells him to just wait a few.

Meantime the GM is surprised at my characters actions as well. 

I, whose name on the groups Discord is "The Logically Evil One" which I think was given me by the GM replacing the Insanely Evil One or some such am both pleased and slightly offended at the same time.

Listens talks to the girl, who appears to be about 2 and explains how these spirit fostering's usually work. She as an aura indicating magical talent and most spirits would teach her great things, though this one does not seem like the usual nice spirit Listens is used to. Its her choice and she declines so Listens goes back tot he spirit and informs her of the childs choice and ask if another volunteer would be acceptable. She declines, getting angry and demands the girl and says Listens cant stop her. Listen calmly explains that a deal is a deal and she is breaking it, she should just keep his eye.

Th spirit wants to fight over it so Listens calls in his spirit father (A high ranking water spirit and ambassador to the Draculari Empire). This is a Patron with costs Impulse Points and I had been saving my last one for just this eventuality.

An argument ensues, the lady departs, turning Listens eye into dust. The nearby spirits do a bit of talking, Murk is surprised whom Listens father was, the squirrel and him have a past, and the skeleton does as well. We get some name dropping, Trapper now knows the name of his skeleton, and father lets us in on a few clues and events. GM was extra talkative and in an exposition mood (Possibly from over tiredness as the game had gone on much longer than usual).

The crystal sphere of clairvoyance is something more than we thought (not a surprise) and is apparently a highly desired item and bad luck to possess.  We go over who touched it first and its Trappers. Trapper tries to give it away or bury it but is advised that anyone who finds it will know its belongs to Trapper and come looking to force him to give it to them. So he hides it in his "Personal Pocket".

The bandits are all shrunk and put in a little wood box, kind of mini-statues.

Everyone else is packed up and taken to a kind of spirit road for a fast trip back home.

Father creates a new building next to the constabulary to make room for everyone, they have a chat about things and Listens learns more about the spirit fish, Misha. Its a local spirit of place for the shoreline.

We let the town know the bandit probelm is solved. Father spirit departs from the mediation rock Listens uses just on the edge and above the town and summons/creates a huge Kani crystal at the site.

Listens had already planned a shrine and this indicates the best place for it and strengthens it as well.

The kani crystal will attract attention, its incredibly valuable and people will want to carve it up and steal it. Likely even the Duke.

Aftermath

The game ended there and its our season 1 break, after this we head to another town.

I need to talk with the GM about some rules changes he is making and get him some paperwork. He mentioned changing some spells, the Spirit Bank, and who knows what else. Plus of course I may spend some saved CP.

Background stuff Listens is going to work with a stoneshaper and build that shrine so the towns people can make offerings to it. Likely in return for some protection and great fishing. Also clearly designating it as a shrine will deter some bandits and the Duke from messing with it. Listens will be sure to point out that it was made by a spirit powerful enough to create or conjure such a large crystal and that irritating such a spirit is a bad idea. Get some Kani crystal, in return for pissing off two powerful spirits.

Rhum is still unconscious but he appeared to be leaning towards becoming another shenin or a spirit warrior. So being on the edge of death for a bit is a good way to resolve that issue and further connect with the spirit world.

Unit 7 has been wanting to be come "a real boy" and seems set for that too.

Trapper has his own rules that are being changed to cope with, Quick Aim and Disappear at the least. But is well suited to expand with a variety of options.

A long ending but I think the funniest one I have had in awhile, that moment when everyone thought Listens was going to force the child into slavery was delightful. Listens had a privalged childhood and with his traits easily gets along with most spirits and even people (even if that hasn't recently seemed to be the case), grew up in a society that respected spirits, and has a father that is a spirit. Thus spirit fostering seems to him to be a wonderful thing, it can be lonely but you learn unique things and have unusual opportunities. He was very naive, but it made sense to me and got those still at the table involved.

Not sure what will happen to the girl, orphans in a TL3 society usually have it rather hard. But taking her with us? Not likely a good idea.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 10 The Battle of the Pigs

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Skeleton Man

Back at WolfTrap

Listens arrives at his body to find Unit 7 and Murk playing a game of Lejune over his body. He wakes up and gets a little info but is interrupted by screaming. The group run towards the yelling, sounds like some townsfolk in trouble.

A cart of people headed into town were attacked by bandits and giant porcupine pigs, affectionately called porkypines. The others who were in town head over to deal with this too.

Turns out to be a trap, as Listens quickly finds out by getting peppered with crossbow bolts. Something that is turning into a very bad habit.

The bandits appear to have some good leadership and planned to lure the group into a fight and then ambush them with bandits hiding in the trees. Luckily this time was wearing his armor, its very expensive silk armor enhanced to fight spirits so he has been leaving it packed for routine travel. It helps a little, though he still gets hurt.

Trapper dashes for a tree and uses the cover to snipe the bandits.

Raum tosses an axe at a bandit but its reflected back at him, hitting him in the shoulder.

The bandits then toss a fireball at us, Listens probably would have died but Raum covers him with his own body, 

Unit 7 charges a porkypine that charges the group.

 There are three of the porkypines, one fire mage (Listens thinks its a witch since he didn't sing), and several bandits, most of whom are hidden in the trees sniping at us.

Unit 7 works hard at one of the porkypines, they seem to be very resistant to injury. A skeleton ally of Trapper tries to help but breaks his sword and gets rather frustrated. turns out to be quite the acrobat though!

Two others charge Raum and he has some issue killing them but keeps them busy, especially since one charged the other by accident.

Trapper pretty much takes out the bandits.

Listens gets a lucky crit on a chill spell and takes out both the pigs.

Aftermath

Overall a tough fight but one we won pretty handily, though some of that was luck.

The warriors perform their role very well.

Listens was not built as a fighter and I chose poor songs (paths) for fighting, mostly being a support character with excellent healing and some light buffing spells.

Trouble is the group really has little need of most of his buffs, the skill levels are so high that an extra +1 or 2 just is not significant. He can't add DR or direct damage buffs and has limited direct offense himself.

Talked with the other players after the game and he has one buff that can help Trapper do more damage against heavy armored types. Listens is not a bad character or design, just fragile and easily hurt while being a priority target (since he's a mage most sapient's think he's the dangerous one). However, he is good at a lot of noncombat activites.  The lot we picked up included a magic boomerang he might try out. His Wood singing might help him hit better with it. He really needs to figure out better buffing or defensive spells though. Maybe a Parry Missile Weapons spell for all those crossbows and bows being used.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 9 Recon and a bargain

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Bandit Camp

Listens is taken to the bandit camp by Snaffles. It is surrounded by a magical barrier and they seem to be using dark magic. There are a lot of different ways to use magic in Aersalus, Listens being a spellsinger and a shenin (shaman) and a bit of so called low magic is is mostly inborn gifts or those granted by spirits.

He is also familiar with several other types and it appears these guys are using witchcraft, in the setting this is dark magic and might explain a connection to the spirit Mama Blood, though she did kill some bandits in a prior session.

Listens walks around the barrier, avoiding getting to close as it will likely alert them and is probably harmful as well. He estimates 20 to 30 bandits plus support people, including children.

Snaffles suggests a deal with a local lake spirit may be possible though he seems uncomfortable dealing with her. They go to this spirit, Akachakh, the Lady of Silvered Waters and talk. She seems largely unconcerned with the bandits but offers to help in exchange for one of the children. Listens considers everything and makes the deal, losing his eye as collateral, to get it back if he gets a child to be a fosterling of the spirits.

These arrangements are rare but not unheard of and the child will lose time among humans but likely gain powerful spirit gifts in return for their service. Since the children will likely soon be orphans and fostering them off to a friendly family a difficult if not impossible task Listens feel that at least one will be interested. The spirits help may not be required but the presence of witches is concerning.

Akachakh seems to have no interest in Mama Blood at all, despite the majority of the local spirits being terrified or at least wary. This loses her points in Listens book, but many spirits are hyper focused on their own domains and not interested in what happens outside of that.

Listens then heads back to his boy and finds Seven has joined Murk to guard it. They have had some interesting if somewhat personal and private conversations.

Back in Town

Rhum has been talking to Rhiato and Meri and paints a picture of Wolftrap in its prime, or at least what he thinks it might have looked like. He gives it to the innkeeper Meri who is touched by it.

Trapper unhappily and rather begrudgingly finishes the task of counting and sorting the found loot. He also does some coordinating with the locals and our healer Tesseikai.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 8 Logistics is a Pain

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

We make it back to town and put the loot in the cellar. The team is entitled to 10%, the town another 10%, and the Duke gets the majority 80% as it was found on his lands.

Listens delegates handling the chests to Trapper as he has the most delicate touch and some of those locks look complicated and the contents may be fragile. Altan is likely the best choice for a proper evaluation but Listens does not fully trust him yet. Best to get a list then go into details later.

After morning meditations and appeasement rituals to the spirits Listens heads to the constabulary and checks in on the days plans. He figures the bandits are consuming vital resources and a trial should be done so, both for morale and possibly to reduce their drain on town resources. So sends Unit 7 to go measure them for disposal. Trapper has plenty to do and Rhum has his own things going on as well.

Unit 7 reports back that the quartermaster is short on supplies, a few weeks or a month is all. Doesn't sound urgent but it will take time to gather supplies so Listens goes to get the details. Turns out that the town is getting a large influx of people from those leaving their farms and such and will run out of food in a few days, not weeks.

Immediate threats are the bandits, the powerful spirit Mama Blood, and starvation.

The bandits are probably doable but will take some time to find.

The spirit is likely far too dangerous for us to address directly.

Supplying the town is the easiest and safest option, but only a temporary one as we need to concern ourselves with over foraging.

Listens then talks to Kohana (head town merchant) to check some details and figure out options. Hunters are scared to go out due to the spirit, this is a big contributor to the food shortage. Buying supplies is about a month out due to travel time.

Listens thinks the incoming tribe of water folk may be able to help, give them some money in return for food and supplies but that's still about a week out.

He considers organizing a mass fishing event, at least for a day or two. Some concerns over sea monsters if going too far out. Listens decides to see if he can find the bandits.

Utility of a Shen

Listens casts a spell to summon a local spirit for directions to the bandit camp, going for the leader as he seems well known and distinctive "Dogskull" A spirit possum appears "Snaffles", riddled with fleas and attitude. He knows where Dogskull is but needs something in return. Listens bargains ineffectively then comes up with the idea of ridding Snaffles fleas with a spell. It works and Snuffles offers to show Listens ot the camp but Listens is too slow in physical form so takes his spirit and drags it along for the ride.  Listens asks Murk to watch over the body while he travels and seals the deal for him to become a spirit companion.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 7 Bargains Made

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Relic Recovery

(Day after the bandit fight)

The group heads out in the late morning after doing some local and personal errands. Rhum struck a deal with a young bandit to get a crystal stolen by them from a farmers widow and a shrine on her farm. It is a good cause, though one that may complicate things legally. Listens wants Trapper to scout ahead but Rhum is impatient to recover the artifact as the deal he struck with the spirit gives him a lingering wound until he returns the crystal.

Listens talked with Murk earlier, who seemingly feels almost rejected that Listens didn't immediately agree to a partnership. Listens is a little surprised given the power of the spirit and that since it is a land crab it would typically be more averse to traveling. Hence the getting to know each other stage. Murk really does seem bored here though and looking for some excitement and new sights.

He invites Murk along, given they are looking for a spirit crystal and he knows the area his advice may be helpful. At the least its more time getting to know each other and they engage in minor chitchat along the way.

Pretty Snake

Near the cave entrance we encounter the bandits guardian, a giant 5 headed snake.

Trapper and Listens are still wounded from the previous days fight. Trapper is off in the thickets scouting the cave so feels safe in sniping the besatie but it can see him and tries to kill him with laser beam eyes! Thankfully the thicket provides a lot of cover. Listens calls up his now signature mist as a defensive measure and the two bruisers go up to the snake. Rhum pretty much decapitates 4 out of 5 heads, the other killed by Unit 7 with two spears stabbed through the eyes.

We head into the cave and find loot hidden by the bandits. The kid does not find what he was seeking, wont tell anyone what it was though. We do get the crystal so our primary goal was met.

Trapper finds a secret door and asks Rhum to open it, pretty much breaking the stone door in the process. We explore a winding staircase down deep and find another door, this one with a combination puzzle lock which Listens figures out. (its related to the theology of spirits, his bailiwick).

.Inside are 3 large treasure chests, 3 smaller ones, misc scattered and mostly rotten items, and a central pedestal with a glowing crystal.

Listens cautiously examines it and with the help of Murk figures its a spirit related relic and the room is shielded from prying eyes. Carefully checking it out it appears to be a scrying device that can look anywhere (at least within the ranges checked) the user can clearly visualize and has seen. It wont see areas described by distance.

Listens is trying to decide if it should remain and is tied to the room or spirits here when Rhum picks it up and runs his own tests. Not having shattered or depowered we decide to leave with it as we cant re-secure the room.

Bargain Complete

We head back to town but stop at the farmhouse as its almost on the way. Listens holds onto the crystal for safekeeping in case we encounter more combat along the way.

We meet the widow and Rhum and Listens approach the shrine, Listens a pace behind Rhum as he is the one who made the deal but he wants to witness the completion in case anything comes up. He hands the crystal to Rhum who places it into he tree (shrine) and the local forest and farm suddenly come alive with new growth.

The grateful widow thanks us and offers shelter and food for the night. Listens pays her even though she tries to refuse. He tells her that she is going to need money to quickly get back on her feet, even with the spirits blessing. The group spends the night and everyone awakes healthy and refreshed, even the wounded.

We head back to town, putting the chests into our celler and leaving the rest for the next session.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 5 & 6

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Two short sessions combined.

Marching Home

On our way back from the farm the group is ambushed by bandits. They start off by almost killing Listens with a crossbow bolt (Major Wound). Listens managed to recover enough to call a protective mist to make the group harder to hit. Trapper moves to the edge and snipes a few, Unit 7 goes to the edge and tanks the incoming fire, and Rhum goes out and starts cutting bandits into pieces.

We grab some prisoners and continue on to town.

Next session we get to town, lock the prisoners in our half rebuilt jailhouse.

Rhum scares most of them unconscious in an effort to question them and takes one kid downstairs to make a deal with.

Unit 7 takes a well deserved nap (Player gone)

Listens communes with the spirits, meets a new one

It whispers something into Listens ear that he almost understands but sounds familiar.

Listens goes back to base campo, finds out about the deal and is displeased with the minotaur who seems keen on doing his own thing, even when it may interfere with others or the mission.

The real center of attention though was Trapper who brokered a deal over some eggs he found and makes a fair amount of coin and a crystal knife.

Looking at Wealth in GURPS

 

Having more money is an advantage and less a disadvantage as it affects your starting capabilities. However, access to wealth is more complicated and will be very campaign specific. For instance, after the campaign begins how do you continue to get income? Jobs, passive income, or adventuring?

There are a number of options, but they have been expanded upon in supplements so here is an overall look.

Starting Wealth

see p. B25

You start off with a base amount of money and goods assigned by the GM, typically based on Tech Level (p. B27). Then pick your Wealth level which can be a disadvantage or advantage and modifies that base starting amount. Partial Multi-Millionaire (GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports; p. 26) offers additional fine tuning.

This can get very expensive, but fair is fair, starting with a lot of money is a huge advantage.

Additional fine tuning can be done using one or more of the following.

Signature Gear (p. B85) gives 50% of the average (not your own) campaign starting wealth per point. There are a couple of caveats that come with this too.

Signature Assets (GURPS Spaceships 2, p. 27) I an enhancement to Wealth that multiplies starting wealth by 5% per +1% but only towards SM+2 assets, say a starship. It is capped at +20% for +100% of starting wealth (yours not the campaign average as it’s applied to the Wealth advantage).

You can also trade points for money (p. B26).

Finally, you could apply Potential Advantage (p. B33) Heir to Wealth, meaning you pay half cost but get half the starting wealth at the beginning. This one can be abusive though so GMs should be wary as Wealth increases multiplicativity you can get more than you paid for.

All of this affects how much you start the campaign with, not how much you earn on a regular basis. Though certain levels of Wealth may be a prerequisite for certain jobs.

Income During Play

Generally, you get money from working or adventuring. Independent Income and Debt (p. B26) can represent passive income or regular expenses. This is limited to 20% of your starting wealth. But unlike Trading Points for Money or Signature Gear this is affected by your Wealth level.

Ongoing Expenses

This includes Debt, Cost of Living (p. B265), and whatever comes up.

 

That it?

For most campaigns the above is probably just fine. You know how much you start with and have ways to get more money during the game, even a base line cost of living.

But there should be some other options, so here are some ideas.

Patrons and Benefactors

A Patron (p. B72) is a government, organization, or person who helps you out. Make the Appearance Roll and they offer some aid or advice. The Equipment modifier (+50% or +100%) means they will give you gear.

Hmm, asking for a loan you don’t have to pay back is rather like income, isn’t it?

So Patron (Sponsor, Fans, etc.) with Equipment, +50% can give you campaign average starting wealth. More for the +100% level! This could just as easily be a reliable supplier of goods for you to sell.

Not as dependable as Independent Income but it is another possible source of income or goods. Minimal Intervention is also an obvious limitation.

But what about say the scientist looking for help to cover inventing costs or a captain looking for a new ship?

Patron (Bank/Investor)

You have a good track record of borrowing money and paying it back. Banks or investors are willing to loan you money because they are confident, they will get it back with interest or another bonus. How much you can get is limited by the Patrons’ assets.

Equipment (+50%) gives you up to campaign starting wealth. Failing the Appearance roll means you couldn’t reach them, or they just did not want or could not offer you the money.

Minimal Intervention (-50%) You get what they think you need is a fair way to price the Patron choosing if the loan is appropriate or not.

Temporary Disadvantage (Duty or Debt) lasts until you pay them back. Debt is easy, just pay that amount each month. Duty might mean you get sent on jobs for them to pay them off, or perhaps just to cover the interest till you pay back what you borrowed.

Signature Assets (+1% and up) if it were allowed can give you +5% more money per +1%. +50% would be +250% of your Starting Wealth (up to the Patrons resource limit). Since Equipment (+100%) does not mention a limit this seems weaker or less valuable. However, I like the idea of it being tied to your Wealth advantage (normally minimally useful after the campaign start) and an actual cap the player and GM both already know rather than an arbitrary limit the GM applies if just using Equipment (+100%).

 

Lets wrap this all into a new modifier to keep things simple and avoid confusion with how the modifiers may normally work.

Enhanced Credit

This modifier to Patron (usually a bank but might be anyone willing to lend) represents your value to them as a reputable borrower. When you want to ask for equipment or money from a Patron make its Appearance roll and submit the request. Administration or other skills may help, and the Patron decides what is appropriate and reasonable as far as the loan is concerned. Success allows you to borrow up to 50% of your Starting Wealth (not the campaign average). The value of the loan should be limited to what can reasonably be expected to be paid back or written off. Resource Value (GURPS Boardroom and Curia, p. 10) is a good cap on what can be written off. Repayments should include interest or other benefits to the Patron. GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports (p. 27) has suggestions for a space campaign, otherwise use what is appropriate for the setting.

Statistics: Enhanced Credit is a metatrait consisting of the following. Equipment, +50%; Minimal Intervention, -50%; Signature Assets, +10%; and Temporary Disadvantage, Duty, -10%. +0%.

Edited

While I like the Patron who can give equipment as an idea, the Enhanced Credit and Patron as lender just isn't good enough. I was thinking about how PCs could afford something unusually expensive but I don't see anyone wanting to pay points for this kind of thing. Not after a night sleep anyhow.

I'll leave it up for posterity and there is some decent stuff here, but this will need more pondering.

Review of GURPS Power-Ups 10: Skill Trees

 This is really an Alternate GURPS type of Supplement. I personally love skills over classes, however skill lists can be pretty long - especially in a game system designed to support all genres and settings.

GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes offers ideas for adding to or replacing the primary attribute set and this does something similar for skills.

In GURPS you roll against attribute + skill to accomplish most tasks. Picking a good mix of skills lets you fine tune a character to suit your tastes and needs. This lets multiple characters of the same basic type or role feel very different. However, it can be overwhelming and new players often miss important skills.

Even experienced players can do this, or misremember a skill and what it does. Wildcard skills (introduced in GURPS Basic) are one way to deal with this problem but they are very cinematic. GURPS Power-Ups 7 Wildcard Skills explores and expands upon them.

GURPS Power-Ups 10: Skill Trees is another way of handling this issue, less cinematic and more like Talents. Skills are grouped into broad categories called Trunks with subcategories of Branches, Twigs, and Leaves.

This feels more like a narrative game if used and the concept is more intuitive than a long skill list.

For example you could have a Trunk called "Animal" (listed in the supplement) and animal skills are included in it. You can do the same with Talents but they have at least two drawbacks.

1. If the affected list is large enough its often just as good to just buy the the primary attribute.
2. With a high enough Talent you can be just as good using a skill at default plus Talent as a trained person. I never really liked that myself.
3. In many cases the Talent does not cover as much as you would like, notably trivial rarely used skills are rarely explicitly included. Power-Ups 3:Talents  mentions the idea of simply including some of those for free but it can be a time taker at the game table.

It includes 26 skill trunks and enough guidance to make more that suit a specific campaign.

For example in an IOU or other college based campaign each major course of study could be its own skill Trunk. Each student would learn Scholar as a part of core academic training but also something like Natural Sciences or about half the other listed trunks would suit a Academic Divisions or Departments and each student would learn such a trunk but add detail of specific branches, twigs, and leaves that suited their interest and class schedule.

Some Examples

A specific martial style would typical be a branch and practioners could train up subcategories of twigs and leaves to represent their individual choices and flair.

This would suit Ritual Magic (optional version of the default magic system) rather nicely.

Lets say I wanted to use this for Shaman.

Shaman

Aptitude for interacting with spirits and peoples attitude towards them.

Main Skills: Autohypnosis, Diplomacy, Dreaming, Esoteric Medicine, Exorcism, Fortune-Telling†, Meditation,  Occultism, Public Speaking, Religious Ritual†, Ritual Magic†, Savoir-Faire†, Symbol Drawing†, Thaumatology, Theology†.

Other Skills: Any Current Affairs, Expert Skill, Hobby Skill, or Professional Skill relevant to gossip, rumor, paranormal activity, or anything that may be attributed to spirits.

That list took me less than 5 minutes to build using examples in the book, I took bits from two existing trunks.

It lets me build a shaman who is less cinematic than using a wildcard but results in a pretty clean sheet compared to buying and listing each skill separately.

If I wanted to give it more oomph, say in a campaign where spirits were real.

I could apply From Skills to Advantages (Pyramid #3/44 Alternate GURPS II) or simply apply modifiers to a trunk or subcategory. For example Add Cosmic and Reduced Time to do things faster. Most enhancements would likely be overpowered with a prerequisite Cosmic for each type. This might be a good thing to consider if doing this for a campaign or another edition of GURPS.

Summary

Overall I am not sure how much use this will see in my campaigns. Largely because were all used to the current method and changing will take some getting used to.

On the other hand I am considering partial implementations such as 

Skill Boosters such as some magic items and software that can enhance someone trained or not this can replace Talents in that roll. Its a bit broader but feels better to me, at least narratively.

Specific Training Programs or Martial Styles could benefit from this with no real hassle for my players or me as the GM in tracking something new. We just treat it roughly like a Talent. And I would include the Untrained Tasks section (p. 17) in this.

Offhand I would love to see this in GURPS 5e or perhaps a supplement bundled with Alternate Attributes and wildcards (which may need redoing for this as an Alternate GURPS GM Guide.

I also feel it is better for lower point campaigns where you want people to not be incompetent at related material.

 

Aersalus Season 1, Session 4 The Bloodbath

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

In Memorium Christian

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

The Blood Filled Dawn

Tesseikai appears to have been the only survivor of the group that was at the farmhouse tending to people. Listens spends most of the night watching over her, waiting for her to be able to give a report on what happened and making sure her spirit is not damaged as well as tending to her physical wounds.

His Restoration spell fails to restore her finger and he thinks the magic of Blood Mama is the cause.

She does not want to stay but Listens orders her to stay, citing medical authority. Rhum seems to feel she should be allowed to do what she wants, leading to some tension but Rhum backs down as Listens asserts his rank and position to back up what Rhum seems to feel is minimal healing skill or status. He seems convinced she is the better healer, ignoring the the wisdom that healers make lousy patients.

Listens talks to  Raito and informs him that he intends to investigate the farm and would like additional backup. Raito has been moving people closer to town for increased safety, again impressing Listens with his leadership.

Come the dawn they for a small group of soldiers and the magisters team to investigate. Trapper seems to have spent much of the night making a clockwork prosthetic finger for Tesseikai, which she appreciatively takes.

Trapper is tasked to scout just ahead as the best tracker, Listens feels that others walking through first may erase some valuable clue that Trapper is best equipped to find. However, Rhum tries to rush ahead and go his own way. Listens notes the unwillingness to follow orders or perhaps work with the team and ponders solutions when things are not quite so urgent.

Blood, Lots of Blood

The group travels through an eerily quiet forest and reaches the farmstead.  They see lots of blood, everywhere but no bodies.  Trapper scouts the place around while Listens takes overwatch and switches his perception between the material and spirit worlds in hopes of spotting something, anything useful and keeping the group from being surprised.

It appears bandits raided the farmstead and likely the fighting attracted Blood Mama who then killed almost everyone.  Far as Listens and Trapper can tell a few bandits (likely 4) made it out alive. Trapper follows tracks and will come back to them later. Listens, not much of a tracker saw spiritual markers that helped him see more than most. Also the crops and plants in thee area are withered, as well as stuff in the root cellar which rapidly rotted.

Aftermath

We called it there, short game. good one overall but the group needs to develop more cohesiveness and desire to work together. Our background is that were new to each other, so that's ok but my job as character and player is to make that happen.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 3

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

In Memorium Christian

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Wolftrap, Day 3 and 4

We continue to wander around fixing what is needed and seeing to supplies.

Listens heads to the cliffs, finding a good place for his morning meditations. Its high up, about a 100 yards above the water, he considers jumping but decides its too risky, it would likely not kill him but would be embarrassing and a waste of resources as he heals himself. Still he considers it a minor goal to work towards if this becomes main base.

He spends the predawn and after dawn time listening to the spirits, they are definitely around but seem very quiet for some reason. He also looks for the waterfolk, though its far too early for them to arrive if they choose to act on the captains message.

After awhile just listening and enjoying the fresh air and feel of the wind and sea air he heads to town to get started on the days work. 

On the way he stops by the hut of the town wise woman and healer. Jyrki iul Heino

They chat for awhile as she is cleaning bandages, he uses his magic to speed things up and dry them, she has skill but no apparent ability with songshaping. She mentions the plague that wiped out a town about 8 months ago, and children who broke their legs helping the foresters yesterday. She is quite wiling to share local news and advise Listens on what the town needs. He knows most of it already but the research is still good. She does not really believe him when he says they intend to take care of the bandits but is glad for the supplies and the work done so far. The town is very wary of promises and not trusting of the new duke. Not a surprise after the last one and it will take time to earn their trust.

He heads into town.

The rest of the team is up and about as he arrives, most having already headed out. Rhaum spends the day escorting Altan, not a fun duty but a needful one. Altan can be quite irritating and disrespectful and Rhaum tries to learn him some manners. They start at the Inn before heading out to the farms.

Trapper continues learning the lay of the land and hunting for food for the Inn. The innkeeper Meiri and him are building a good relationship. He brings her a rare bird (super large bird of prey, nearly the size of an adult human) and she asks him to find its nest and bring her the contents.

After talking with the quartermaster to make sure Jyrki gets her supplies Listens looks for the forester. He is curious about what is going on in the area, the spirits are too quiet and of course he has to talk about the injured kids. He expects Riato has already worked to prevent more accidents but still Listens should offer his help. Listens casts a spell and asks the spirits for directions, they should easily find a group of wood cutters chopping down trees after all. The spell works, but at first he does not see the spirit that arrived. Eventually it gets his attention, a land crab. They introduce themselves, the crab is named Myrk the Lurk, though he prefers Myrk.

Murk leads him to the foresters and they have a shirt discussion. Apparently the children were overly excited and trying to be helpful. Getting too close to falling trees.

Riato points out something odd about a stand of dead tress. As a woodsinger, any tree he considers odd is worth paying attention too. The trees have had all the moisture drained out of them and then just broke off. Also moisture has not returned, even though its been months and the rains should have affected the wood. Myrk thinks it reminds him of something and he agrees to ask around. He vanishes into the ground.

Listens wanders around a bit before heading back to town and Myrk pops out of the ground with news.  They head to the inn for beer and mutton (two things Myrk expressed love for) and talk. Meiri is still less than thrilled to see Listens but is at least polite and welcomes his coin. Listens finds a table at the back and sets the land crab on the table, ordering meals for them both. Meiri is rather surprised to hear a talking crab and quickly fetches their food. Listens was expecting her to tell him he could not sit on the table, but supposes she was unwilling to insult a talking crab. Others in the inn take notice as ell and the table remains theirs till Raum and Altan come in.

Raum and Altan had a good day collecting taxes, though some of it was in barter rather than coin. Raum appears to have made a deal with a local spirit, return a kana crystal to it that as stolen by bandits. Listens anticipates a problem from Altan over the matter but will address it then.

They all head back to the constable station. 

Unit 7 is back after scouting unsuccessfully for the bandit camp but found a bonecarver. The bone carver and the corpse appear to not be getting along. Listens looks at the corpse, politely asking if it wants to talk but is ignored and so lets it be. Not really his area as much as nature spirits and even those he tends to leave be if they so desire.

The corpse does however seem to have taken a definite shining to Trapper. It turns its head to look at him periodically.

Raito calls listens outside for a chat. He explains to Listens that his hand is turning blue, a sign of big trouble. Listens bandages it to cover up indication and offer some pain relief. They hear a scream form the wilderness and run to investigate. 

Tesseikai come stumbling into town, gravely wounded.  Listens shouts for help, using his best sailor voice and tends to her wounds with a quick Lesser Succor spell.

Earlier Myrk had warned him about Blood Mama a vampire like spirit that drains blood form groups of people and was imprisioned but somehow released and its making all the spirits nervous. They are not her favorite prey but hungry enough she will go after anything. Listens is worried as the group goes into the forest to see who attacked Tesseikai but they need to check for other survivors as she was not alone.

She is missing a finger but likely she can repair that herself, if not Listens has a Restoration spell.

Aftermath

A few other things happened but Listens is unlikely to know about them so you'll have to read about them in the GMs recap. Myrk expressed an interest in becoming a companion and Listens said to wait a week, make sure he is making a good choice as Listens lives a dangerous life and will be traveling.

A land crab is not my first idea of an allied spirit but its a cool direction and I like Myrks personality.

GURPS High Dives and Cliff Diving

 I have a character in a campaign who is part water spirit and one of his gimmicks is being a great swimmer and diver, also a water mage sailor.

For reference he has Swimming -17; Amphibious; Breath Holding 2; Catfall (Accessibility, only to land in water, -50%); Temperature Tolerance 2; and the perk Smooth Diver. The latter lets him dive without making a splash.

We came across a cliff over the water outside town and he wanted to cliff dive from it. The skill penalty appeared to make this an impossible task. Since it was a 100 yard tall cliff that irked me a bit but not by much as it is a ridiculously high height to jump form. However, it appeared that normal heights also seemed way too hard to do. So I went to the forums!

After a few days reviewing the rules and discussing them on the Steve Jackson Games GURPS forums I came up with a reasonable chance at making more normal cliff dives.

The results are....

GURPS Diving

Quoth, p.B431 "When striking water or a similar fluid, a successful Swimming roll (or vehicle control roll, if “ditching” a vehicle) means a clean dive that negates all damage. This roll is at a penalty for

velocity; use the speed penalty from the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. 550)."

Normally it says to read the speed as column 3 on that table, so this wording led me to use column one instead.  At least two others feel that the normal usage is what was intended and I am going with that.

I might ask the line editor when he is back from vacation to be sure and to see if errata should be submitted.

So what is our penalty?

World Record is 60m (-36 skill original way or (-9) the other way)

Standard dive of 85-92 feet (-25 or -26) or (-7).

Reality check thus says use the more typical number.

Highest dive from a diving board is 192'10"* for (-8 to skill)

*Lazaro "Laso" Schaller (Switzerland/Brazil) in Maggia, Ticino, Switzerland, on 4 August, 2015. 

Want some video?

90' dive (Skill-7)

10m dive (about 33 feet) (Skill-5)

3m dive (Skill-4)

Standard diving boards (spring) from 1 to 3m high. (Skill -0 to -4)

If you make the skill you take no damage, fail and you take falling damage into a soft object. At these heights its unlikely to kill you, though the higher dives may very well knock you unconscious so better have someone in the water to rescue you!

Catfall subtracts 5y from falling distance, a great help[ at lower dives and about a +1 effect at higher distances. more importantly it allows a DX roll to grant half damage if you fail that clean dive Swimming roll.

Swimming is used to avoid damage and to move around in the water after your dive.

Sports (Diving) lets you know the rules for the sport, trivia such as record holders and famous diving spots, and perhaps most importantly to look good when diving. Use it or Acrobatics to do things like flips, tucks, and somersaults when diving. Modifiers as per Acrobatics, +1 for Perfect Balance, +2 for 3D Spatial Sense.

High Dive (H) is a technique that lets you buy off the penalty to Swimming when making a dive to avoid damage.

Catfall with Accessibility, only to land in water, -50% is a bit more realistic than regular Catfall so may be more easily allowed in a noncinematic game. Make no mistake, its still cinematic though!

A high diver will need Swimming and can benefit from Sports (Diving), a level of Temperature Tolerance for cold water, Fit or Very Fit, high HT and DX, and perhaps First Aid, Hiking, or even Climbing to get to out of the way spaces.

At Swimming -5 for an Olympic level athlete I think GURPS Diving is reasonably good at letting your character play a great athlete even in a realistic campaign.

Alien or non realistic campaigns may consider Amphibious, DR (Tough Skin), Breath Holding, and a few other things to spice it up.

Special Thoughts

At least 12 feet of water is advised for high dives and clear water is best to help avoid obstacles like high rocks or see other swimmers.

Telescopic Vision can help see what you are diving into from high above.

Good quality equipment and conditions such as a good platform, minimal wind, and clear area  might be good for +1 to +2 quality bonus.

Use Time Spent to help with those tougher dives. Though in a sport your unlikely to get more than a minute to set yourself up.

This is just another example of how GURPS can add to your campaign by giving players or NPCs something cool and fun to do without a lot of special rules or handwaving.

 

Aersalus Season 1, Session 1&2

 The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

In Memorium Christian

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

The Trek Begins

Duke Tellengeri has decided to fix up his territory. By beating his brothers, the duke (Tellengeri) gained legitimacy and additional funds and prestige. He leveraged the newfound wealth to create a merchant empire which he then used around 1/3 of to purchase the land from Duke Jutaharro who had no heirs after the Second War of the Ashen killed them all. The old Duke was more into graft than his people and there is a lot of poor sentiment among the citizenry. He has embarked upon a big renewal and rebuilding project.

Along with almost a hundred others the team is dropped off near Wolftrap which is the largest town in the area. This will make several teams

Forestry Team, led by Riato a woodsinger and forester

They will go off to check on the wilderness, primarily the huge forest called "The Great Green" which is an unusually temperate and warm forest for this near arctic area.

Mining Resources Team led by Jarrah?

The goal is to see how the known mines are doing, what needs to be done to get them back to full production, and possibly find new mines.

Mappers#1

Goal is to survey and map the area.

Mappers#2

Goal is to survey and map the area

Aid Team #1 (Us) led by Listens to Ocean

Our team is going to be based in Wolftrap but will circumnavigate the area. We are to bring justice to the towns, collect taxes, and increase prosperity and well being of the regions citizens. Listens is an accomplished spellsinger, Ministry trained healer, Shen (shaman), and magistrate so is leading the team. He also has good experience with working people, being a long time fisherman and sailor. The team also includes a taxman (Altan ru Chuulaii) to collect the taxes. Since dispensing justice and collecting taxes are not too popular we also have three capable bodyguard's and security people who are also good at other things, helping the teams versatility and overall mission.

Rhum and Unit 7 are both very strong and Trapper provides ranged support.

Aid Team #2

This team will head in the opposite direction as Aid Team #1. It includes one magical healer and several Ministry Trained healers as well as a couple of other spellsingers.

We know they have Water, Wind, Stone, and Wood covered.

 Wolftrap

We all roll into town after being dropped by airship a day or so away. Wolftrap has seen better days, it is a port town with a nice freshwater lake nearby. Fed by two aqueducts, one from the lake and another from the mountains. Listens spends the most of the second day checking the first one out and cleaning it.

We meet Meiri the innkeeper who promptly decides to price gouge us for rooms. Listens does not like that kind of corruption and mentions how if she is charging that much for her rooms she must be doing very well indeed - and our tax collector will be glad to hear of her prosperity.

Altan's ears perk up and he is quite pleased to have a conversation with her, she of course is less so.

(Tried to pull an Eastwood here, letting the towns people know we are not to be cheated or trifled with as a strong first impression. Eastwood would have done it better).

Much of the town is in ruins or burned out and we head over to the remains of the Constables station. It has most of the stone walls, a basement, and a few cells.  Trapper investigates the basement, bringing up a corpse and a couch for it to lie on. The corpse appears appreciative. Trapper also fixes the boiler and we get heated floors for the evening.

Next day Trapper does more work on the building, as well as some others from the large group and then goes hunting for food and supplies for the inn. He also meets Toragana, the local tanner and exchanges hides and such. He also makes friends with Tessikai, a young healer and water singer (probably part of Aid Team #2).

Unit 7 is unhappy at waking up to find Listens had already left and is talked into helping out on repairs.

Rhum makes friends, he talks Trapper into getting food for Meiri and the inn and visits the blacksmith Jetei iul to get supplies for hauling wood he cuts down from the forest for rebuilding. Also meets the local miller Molomo.

Listens has a chat with Kohana an Kekkonen about the town. Kohana advises that annoying Meiri was not wise as she is an important town figure. Listens explains what happened, letting him know he will not tolerate corruption but understands his advice and will see what he can do. While they are talking a ship sails into port and having a plan (GM coached) Listens excuses himself during a lull in the conversation saying as an old sailor he wants to meet the ship.

Turns out the ship is run by an old friend, Captain Junras who gives Listens the lay of the local ocean and mentions a community of waterfolk nearby. Listens appreciates that and hopes to get them trading with the town. Listens also buys the entire ships worth of grain for the town. It will help the largest town in the area get on its feet faster, especially with winter coming and helps out his friend who would have to sail it the rest of the way up the coast, trying to sell it as much as he could and possibly not selling it all. This also gets him back to main port faster for another run. he offers Listens an investment opportunity in a ship which Listens takes him up on. Ideally hoping to encourage more shipping to the area.

Player Summary

A good first two session, its been several months since we last played. One of our players who was supposed to rejoin us died recently and it would have been nice to see him again. The rest of us were dealing with personal issues as well, everything from losing a beloved pet, to surgery, pinched nerves (or minor stroke), to the normal maladies we seem to have. It was good ot get together, both sessions were short but we got a lot done and got to start digging into this world that Christopher has rebuilt.

GURPS Golfing

Watched Rising Impact, an anime on Netflix about golfing recently and decided to stat out Golf.

Sports (Golf) is an Average DX based skill.

The goal is to hit a ball into the hole in as few shots as possible.

There are three main types of swings in golf, the Drive, Slice, and Putt respectively.

.Average driving distance is 200 to 224 yards.  (ST 10 or 11); 70% of amateur golfers hit 250 (ST 12 to ST 13), Average PGA distance in the 2020's is 300 yards (ST  15) with the longest drive in history 787 (ST 39!). Various factors, especially wind can make a big difference in distance.

So lets set Driving distance at ST*20

Putts dramatically fail outside of 10 feet. A golf hole is 4.25" in diameter (SM-7) with -1 to hit at 9 feet, so that works. Skill 12 would be 5 or less under 9 feet to hit the hole. But Aiming should apply for +3 and club quality for Acc 1 (fine clubs) or Acc 2 (Very Fine).

A professional could get the +4 routine task modifier for another +4 (newcomers might cave under pressure and not get that).

So we have target -7, Aiming bonus of +3 to +5, routine for +4 meaning against a skill 12 we get an effective skill of 12 to 14 depending on club quality.

That works out rather nicely!

 A slice is the ball curing towards the dominant hand due to a slight spin on the ball. Normally you do not want to slice, but sometimes you need to angle the shot to avoid a hazard on the course or angle it to work with the wind. Sounds more like adjusting to the situation so we will ignore this kind of stroke in favor of circumstantial penalties.

So what does this give us?

Sports (Golf) (A) DX

This is the skill to play a good golf game. Driving distance is ST*20 with a bonus to ST of +1 for Skill DX+1 or ST+2 for DX+2. Wind speed may add or subtract from a drive, each 2 MPH is 1 or 2 yards. The golf hole is -7 to hit, plus range penalties (p. B550), and additional penalties for terrain or wind may apply. Treat rough or sand as -1 to -4. Add wind speed to the range penalty when making drives with a crosswind. When driving (rather than putting) add +4 to hit the hex and use the Scatter rule (p. B414) to determine where the ball landed. When putting assume you miss the hole by 1 foot per margin of error.

Trained golfers may opt to use the Precision Aiming rules (GURPS Gun Fu, p. 12. or GURPS High Tech, p. 84)

Note that professional golfers will also invest in Games (Golf) (E) IQ for a through understanding of the rules.

Useful perks include Bank Shot, Bend the Bullet, and Deadeye from GURPS Gun Fu; and Eye for Distance (GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks).

A new perk also seems appropriate.

Read the Green

 Grants +1 skill and allows Time Spent modifiers (base time 1 turn) when making a putt.

Looking at GURPS Streetwise

 Streetwise is one of the influence skills, meaning it can be used to replace a reaction roll in the appropriate circumstances. It is an Average skill, typical of them, though Carousing is Easy and Diplomacy is Hard, the rest are all Average skills.

What do the rules say its used for?

GURPS Basic, p. 223 says its the skill to get along in rough company and "You may substitute an Influence roll against Streetwise for any reaction roll made in an underworld or “bad neighborhood”  situation; see Influence Rolls (p. 359)."

GURPS Social Engineering, p. 30 says "Streetwise isn’t the same as Intimidation; the latter makes you seem dangerous and hostile, while the former conveys that you know your way around. "

This can be a bit risky as a failed Influence roll (p. B359) can get you a worse reaction than not using an influence skill, and the roll is resisted by Will. So if you are going to rely on it its a good idea to be very good at it.

Additionally the skill lets you ask for information among criminals and seeming like you belong there rather than are an undercover enforcement officer or perhaps a criminal rival. Specifically it helps you find the criminal element, or those catering to it (such as corrupt police), know a good bribe price, and perhaps find the local "action".

It is not used to buy things (use Merchant) but at least it can help you seem like a legitimate customer and perhaps find venders of illegal wares. Also Streetwise at 12+ cancels the normal -3 to Merchant for buying illegal goods.

Overall a decent skill, but can be risky to use and perhaps lacks flavor and oomph for that cinematic expert. So here are some additional suggestions.

1) Allow Optional Specialization (p. B169) for certain types of criminal elements. Examples Docks/Ports; Gangs; Neighborhoods; etc.

2) Add techniques such as...

Fits In (H) Streetwise-3, purchased up to Streetwise (at 4 points) to offset the penalty for obviously being a stranger in the area.

Cutting Out (H) Streetwise-4 to pick an individual out of a group to use your skill on. Social Engineering, p. 81)

Hinting (H) Streetwise+0 (up to Streetwise +6) for being subtle enough in your questions that observers might not pick up on it. (Social Engineering, p. 81).

I really like this one as its often a good idea to be discreet when asking about illegal activities!

3) Certain perks and other advantages can of course also help. "In the Know" (Social Engineering, p. 79) grants +2 to finding an illegal connection, such as a fence.

Star Heist: End of Mission 1

 After six game session the team completed their first mission. It was loosely based on an old and frankly not very good movie called "Deadlier than the Male".

After the game we did a post session summary and the two players left (one had to go to work) seemed happy. Two NPCs Dr. Kirkpatrick (Ugler healer) and Captain Slater (Human analyst) did a lot of work in the background that helped out. However, no one seemed to feel they were overwhelming or too important to the game. They contributed information that the players were able to use but it was mostly behind the scenes and they were not involved in decision making.

I think that they filled roles the players had not really focused on and did not make any big decisions for the group was a big contributor to them seeming useful and fun to interact with but not taking any of the spotlight away from the player characters.

Notable NPCs..

Dr. Kirkpatrick is the ships doctor and was useful in saving one PC's life as well as providing opinions and detail on autopsies and medical reports. Also helped the team diplomat with psych profiling.

Captain Slater is the ships captain and mission lead but his specialty is statistical analysis, this was intended to help me give the players guidance if they got stuck and to spend the required hours of research and slogging through paperwork that many cases would require but would be rather boring to the players. With him going through the paperwork and videotapes they could focus on more active tasks.

Sam and Snick are the ships engineers, mostly intended to keep the ship running and repair things. They had some interaction with the players but were very much background characters.

Bear the security specialist was intended to protect the ship so the players don't have to and to act as reinforcements if they got into a fight. Mostly background, some interaction but he stayed out of things this mission.

JJ the ships pilot (PC) did some Streetwise, that did not directly help but got them a taste of the bad guys when one of them tried to assainate him with a poisoned cigar. Other than that he mostly played chauffer. That is the job of the teams driver/pilot but I want him to be able to get more directly involved, this is the area I feel the most disappointed in so far. If the player remains only the chauffeur I feel he will get bored and so I am hoping he comes up with some directions to grow in that we can work with.

He with the long name that I cannot pronounce and hence cant remember is the groups decker and rigger. Still concerned with the robot allies and being good enough at driving to make the JJ feel redundant but so far it hasn't come up much. He was frustrated at not being able to use his computer hacking abilities but the players opted for a mostly law abiding team and role which hampers the effectiveness of one who is mostly designed to break into other peoples computers. However, the player is smart enough to know this was going to be an issue so its more of a challenge to work around than a serious obstacle, so far anyway. He did get to hack one persons computer which got them the really big clue they needed to decide the case so we both felt good about that.

Duri the diplomat (final PC) did the bulk of the front and center work as this was mostly a working the people kind of mission. I think everything went well there and he was not greedy about the center stage, just that is the way the cards fell. I suspect his character will be the most useful most of the time as talking to people is rarely illegal and tends to come up a lot.

I explained the roles of the ships crew in more detail at the end of the last game. Paying for a ship and its crew is a bit extravagant so they have other duties. Captain Slater, Dr. Kirkpatrick, and the engineers can review various cases by going through paperwork and making recommendations. So they can cover a lot of rather routine cases as background and earn their keep that way. The full team is only needed for major cases and the field team is mostly the PCs with occasional help and support from the NPCs.

General GM Thoughts

NPCs provide a lot of the flavor in a campaign, which is great but they come with a big risk. For example a spacefaring or seagoing campaign often needs NPCs to flesh out the crew. They need to be competent but not overwhelmingly so or at least not prone to taking over the campaign from the players. In this case I assigned them important roles but ones that are more backup or background. So far its working out and I think will continue to do so.

The Research Skill in GURPS

 For my Star Heist campaign I expect the Research skill to see a lot of use and wanted to add some detail. Obviously you can apply task difficulty modifiers for more difficult questions, but some research should take more or less time - especially in a world with computers and a version of the internet readily available!

So here is a version I came up with, thought I would share.

Research

see p. B217

Research is a common task in the Star Heist setting, and computers greatly speed it up. The default time for a Research roll is based on the complexity of the question.

Trivial: Summed up in a short sentence and something commonly asked. Search databases are used to these questions, making for fast and accurate answers. Time 1 turn, +4 to skill. Examples: Nearest place to eat or shop for common item.

Simple: Typically, one or two sentence questions with one or two simple qualifiers. Time, up to a minute, no task modifier. Examples: The best place in town for a good steak.

Average: A question with several parameters but not a complicated subject matter and one with plenty of data available. Time, 5 minutes, no task modifier.

Complex: Typically, on a specialized subject, often a scientific or legal question that requires precision and detail. Time 1 hour, -2 to -5 skill, complementary skill bonus.

Amazing: This is something on the level of research for an academic paper, involving multiple refinements to the search after reviewing results. Another skill is typically required to properly refine the questions. Time, 1 day, -5 to -10 skill.

Comprehensive: Sometimes more than a single answer is needed, even the top few answers might not provide enough data. For example trying to research a world to prepare for an expedition. In this case multiple people can assist. Let each researcher make a skill roll suited to their own capability and skill mix and compile everything into one neat package. Alternatively researchers may assist the overall project by taking on some of the workload, in which case each competent assistant (Skill 12+) can offer a complementary roll to the overall project. This is only applicable on large data as with small projects multiple researchers tread too much of the same ground and may even confuse things with conflicting bias.

Computer Software can be a great help here. Most computers will have search programs available; this is considered basic tools. However, a search routine and database optimized for the subject gets a quality bonus (+1 or +2) and reduces the time spent by one step.

As one might note, it is inspired by the Invention rules, with the time and penalties lowered and the addition of the Trivial category. For a cinematic campaign, or one where the person making the skill check might be an AI additional traits might apply. For example why not a variant of Gadgettering to further reduce time and penalties?

As a friend remarked, this setup can be applied to other skills, I intend to use it for science skills for example.

Game Session: Star Heist, Session 0

 We had our first session, which was an introduction. We talked over some things and dealt with some questions. A few rules questions, the players all have an older version of GURPS Ultra-Tech than I which has a few errata and other differences. Notably TL11 for Rainbow Lasers and the setting is TL10.

Some questions about the laws and legal systems among various worlds. Who knew that adventurers might want o play fast and loose with the law?

We introduced the characters to each other and they got their mission brief so they have two weeks to make plans and ask questions which will represent their 4 week trip.

Adam (JoeJim): Psychically linked twins and the starship pilot.

Geoff (Sigretto Leiter al-Biq): Decker, Rigger, part cyborg, and wannebe combat monster with a bionic arm. Not sure how all the allies are going to work and I have serious reservations about the arm but we shall see.

Bo (Tickle): Diplomat and trained martial artist. Uses Escrima with some high tech sticks (neurolash) so should be pretty effective.

NPC's-------------------

Exeter (Starship): SM+9 research vessel, 4g Reactionless, Jump 4.

Ben Slater: Mission Lead, Analyst, ships captain.

Bear: Bloodkatt, 6 legged cat that looks like a small panther (SM-1), old Sargent type (not a Drill Instructor). Knight! making him a combat monster and also ships Tactical Officer/Gunner.

Dr. KIrkpatrick: Healer!, ships medic and a Ugler (small bird like alien's). 

Sam: Asst. Engineer, a leathery starfish shaped individual, very curious and loves taking things apart just to put hem back together.

Snick: Chief Engineer, a reptile man, much more serious than his assistant.

So one of the player characters is crew, the other two are passengers but everyone works for the insurance company. as the Pc pilot is effectively two characters this lets the players do the field work with a solid crew to watch the ship and provide occasional backup. the ship has room for a few more people, especially if they will take bunk rooms. This gives me mission flexibility.

Star Heist: Campaign Notes 3/30/2024

 Three players, a Decker, Diplomat, and Pilot in the campaign starting this Sunday. The Decker has been a pain, due to wanting lots of Allies and some odd choices. I had hoped to have listed a good amount of programs to help everyone do their jobs, and the ships crew fully fleshed out.

However, the work on Allies should be useful for the rest of the campaign and might even make a writing project down the line.

GURPS Template Toolkit: 3 Starship Crew helped me flesh out some of the crew, though wildcard skills covered the Medic and Engineer already.

What was the deal with Allies you ask? The player wants to be what was in Shadowrun a Decker and a Rigger and wants allies to control various drones, robots, an arm, and to help with hacking. The idea being that a TL10 computer can be small or tiny and still handle a decent Complexity level which determines IQ. He feels its better to have multiple AI on a drone, each assigned to one task rather than one smarter AI with more points in skills. Given how Ally and Ally Group works, its a fair idea. Though Allies are one of the most abuseable advantages in GURPS.

This resulted in a lot of the last two weeks being spent on robot and AI templates and rules. We shall see how it works, anticipate some changes needed.