Pyramid Scheme Pyramid #4/3 Sci Fi Issue

 

Putting Science in Your Fiction

Interesting article. Its very niche in that its for scientific discoverers rather than inventions. So it is useful for survey missions, background character goals and campaigns where such development is desired. Included is advice on getting others involved, a very useful addition.

The Divine Pacific Republic of Datastan

A location that is a tiny remote island. Basically its for Cyberpunk.

More Options for Metatronic Generators

Expands on an article from Pyramid #3/46 Weird Science. Basically a way to handle powers as gadgets that have a monetary cost instead of a point cost.

Space Zombies

A colony ship with a zombie problem!

Lord Kelvin's Icebox

An Infinite Worlds setting, this one is a dying earth that is entering an Ice Age, Infinite Worlds is really an under exposed setting for world hopping that is rich in adventure possibilities. In fact it can also dovetail with Kromm's Putting Science in Your Fiction article above.

Mind Over Time

Psychic powers to manipulate time.  This is done in the format introduced in GURPS Psionic Powers and has a good breadth of abilities and a few novel ones.

Ghost Planets

Three abandoned worlds for GURPS Space.

Reign of Action

This one provides detail to adapt GURPS Action! to the Reign of Steel setting.

The Toughest Race in the Solar System

An interesting idea is the exotic race. Includes examples, suggestions, and rules for a variety of tough races in the marathon variety.

The Murrinres Portals

A weird portal or gate system between worlds or even different dimensions.  Interesting plot ideas here.

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

A grab bag of ideas and rule options for some rather extreme sports.

Random Thought Table: Gone But Not Forgotten

Thoughts on exploring known or misunderstood locations.

Other Reviews

Mailanka's Musings

Dungeon Fantastic

Pyramid Scheme Modern Action Issue

Issue 2 of the latest GURPS Kickstarter is aimed at modern day adventuring. Lets see what we have...

Into The Forbidden Zone

This article describes three real world locations that were abandoned during modern times. Its a departure from the author wo is best known for his fictional mini-settings. He briefly describes each location and has a few extra paragraphs of inspiration for running them in various genres.

The Phoenix Program

This describes the counterinsurgency portion of the Vietnam war. It is well researched and includes rules for the PC's to run their own operations.

Phoenix: Birds of Prey

This companion article describes various military units and how characters can be modeled.

Three Steampunk Monsters

Three interesting takes on old classics and suitable for most horror campaigns.

Secret Masters

This was my article and I will have some designers notes up that incudes material cut for space, primarily examples. GURPS has several conspiracy settings and solid rules for trying to uncover conspiracies, or even keep them hidden. What I felt was lacking was a simple way to actually run o be in charge of a conspiracy. This was my way to allow behind the scenes manipulation of organizations.

The Checkpoint

A very useful and fairly generic article describing a road based checkpoint and how its run. One of the more broadly useful articles as it covers temporary and permanent checkpoints with enough detail and explanation that it can be easily adapted.

The Company

A covert organization from the authors old Action! campaign this worked example of a modern day adventuring company can be dropped into most Action and Monster Hunter settings.

Derelicts on Ice

An interesting adventure exploring a ships graveyard off the coast of Greenland.

The Hunter's Reliquary II

Some items for a Monster Hunter campaign, includes the usual magical weapons but also some interesting choices for utility items.

El Rancho Fin Del Camino

An interesting location entry. This is a remote ranch house.

Highway Stars

A bunch of modern day vehicles all statted up and ready to go.

Random Thought Table: Get Paid, Heroically

Goes over the idea and troubles of making money in a modern day setting as an adventurer. Some useful material here for those not working for a regular job, and even those that are.

Other Reviews

Malianka's Musings

 

Pyramid Scheme: Fantasy Issue

 So the kickstarter is out and at this point most backers have their copies of the three issues. This is my review f the Fantasy issue.

Other reviews are listed here. Mailanka and Dungeon Fantastic

Toxic Grimoire

This introduces the Poison college for GURPS Magic with 40 spells, most of them new to this issue and a handful of existing spells from other colleges. There are some really neat and innovative spells here and if your a fan of GURPS Magic this is a very nice addition.

Utatsumi

This is ideas for poem magic and is heavily influenced by Japanese lore. It discusses the metaphysics behind poem magic and some specifics for Japanese culture and how it could influence these mages. It is not a new magic system but provides ideas for working with GURPS Magic, Sorcery, and Ritual Path Magic.

The Demonic Temple of Felltower

This is a Dungeon Fantasy adventure. I wont go into details as that would be a spoiler.

Healing and Purification Ritual Path Magic

A collection of premade spells for the Ritual Path Magic system. One of the reviewers wondered what is the point of building spells for a flexible magic system. The thing is that while anyone could come up with these spells that doesn't mean they would. Christopher Rice made several spells nd they are playtested (I'm in a campaign that used them) so they have had a chance to observe and address any unforseen consequences. Also just as with spells as powers someone else building them saves the reader time and may be done in a way that reader would not have thought of.  The Succor spells in this issue for example are done in a way I would not have thought of.

Fraxinetum

A historical location in southeastern France in the late ninth century. Like all of Matt Riggsby's stuff it is well written and researched.

Basically the story is a small band (reportedly) took over a castle almost by accident. Very useful fodder for adventurers doing the same in your campaign!

Tactical Looting

This is ideas for a dungeon run on the clock.  Resource management is essential to much adventuring, yet many dungeons let you rest between fights and bypass that problem. Kromm gives lots of advice for these speed runs and even if your not into that the "How Long Does it Take" section gives handy times for certain common delving activities.

Stilpnotita, the City of Lamps

This is a city on the elemental plane of earth and its an interesting base for adventurers. Basically a settlement in a large cavern lit by lots of lamps, from whence it gets its name. It is in my opinion really well thought out and has some useful ideas.

Supernatural Energy

This is my article so I'll refrain from offering an opinion and just say what its about. It is two sections, the frst takes a fresh look at Magery and imagines how it could have been built if it were designed for GURPS Fourth Edition from the ground up instead of being relatively unchanged from the original GURPS.  Also looks at how to make Magery work better for powers based magic such as Sorcery.  The latter is mainly ways for mages to cooperate with each other and duplicate feats possible in various magic systems. The second portion focuses on tapping external energy such as ley lines, fires, storms, etc. I was inspired by psychic vampires and shows such as Lost Girl so tapping emotions are also referenced. I use a lot of this material in my Chalice World setting, for Sorcery and Vampires.

Pandemonium

An alternate earth setting where the landscape is littered with demons, both petty and powerful. A lot of reference to GURPS Infinite Worlds but really it can be used as a standalone setting concept or inspiration. I found it interesting, though obviously incomplete due to space limitations.  Maybe it will get its own supplement.

Fusion Alchemy

Christopher Rice keeps adding to and tweaking his Metatronic generator rules and this time its adapted for alchemy.  Good article and can be ported into other genres as tech or supers based drugs.

The Cube

An interesting puzzle room. Basically its a cube that rolls around inside a larger cube and you have to maneuver it next to a wall in the right position for a door to match up.

Random Thought Table (Lack of Speed Kills)

This is some really good GM advice for helping keep the game moving along.  Probably worth the price of the issue all by itself as odds are you have run or played in campaigns where this would have been helpful.

Overall I loved this issue and can't wait to see more feedback on it and the others.  If things go well this may be an annual thing.  I will point out as an author on the project, we had specific guidelines on how long each article had to be.  Several articles would have merited much more space, while some were a concise and natural fit at the targeted word count. With good feedback on the SJG forums and purchase of issues when they eventually go on sale for those who missed the kickstarter we may see some of these get more detail.

Pyramid Scheme Post #2

 The next announcement post about the upcoming Pyramid special has come out.  Actually several days ago, but things been rather hectic. Sign up here to know when it launches!

The second of three issues will be themed for Modern Day/Action.

Articles at Launch

• El Rancho Fin del Camino - Matt Riggsby [ready to use locale, with map]
• Derelicts on Ice - Carolynn Ivy Stein and Steve Stein [ships to explore]
• Secret Masters - Rory Fansler (thats me) [character options for an illuminated campaign]

My article was written just for this issue and is very similar in concept to The Captains Boat which was a well received article I wrote for Pyramid #3/71. Both took a simple idea and ran with it to affordably build a character matching a common stereotype.  I ran with this one a bit more, bent one rule to make it work, and ran out of space trying to squeeze everything in.  So look for designers notes in the future, if this funds. Thank you to Steven Marsh and Sean Punch for not only their usual sterling editorial work but also giving the concept room to breath.

Stretch Goal Articles

• The Phoenix Program - S.A. Fisher [real world Vietnam info]
• Three Steampunk Monsters - Phil Masters [monsters!!]
• The Checkpoint - Michele Armellini [generic encounter]
• Into the Forbidden Zone - J. Edward Tremlett [real-world lost locales]
• Phoenix: Birds of Prey - S.A. Fisher [more real world Vietnam info]
• The Hunters Reliquary II - Christopher R. Rice [more options for GURPS Monster Hunters]
• The Company - Sean Punch [GURPS Action expansion]
• Highway Stars - Roger Burton West [popular vehicles using GURPS vehicle stats]

This kickstarter will be starting later this month, might be scheduled for a short window so save your money!

Some rumors on the forums that this is a restart of the magazine. That has been confirmed as not true. Instead this is another version of the PDF challenge that did so well last year, just using the themes from Pyramid as the organizing structure.  Its my hope that we see one or two of these things a year, in addition to the regular monthly new GURPS supplement.

Designers Notes: Names Have Power

Personal Stuff

Names Have Power is my fourth published article for Pyramid, but is actually the first one of those to be written. I wrote it for issue #3/66 The Laws of Magic and was disappointed it did not make it in, but it was up against some strong competition.
I wrote it with the help of fellow authors in a now defunct writers group and thought it was good.
Looking back at it some 4 years later and with more experience plus Steven Marshes notes, it left a lot to be desired. Especially in organization, as I tried to cover as much as I could in as short a space as possible.
We left a Powers as Magic section on the cutting room floor as the editor found it too confusing, partly because I tried to explain an entirely new magic system in 212 words!
As much as I like that system I would have gone with Sorcery had it been published when I sent in this article. Since other constructions for magic as powers were left in those systems could still see benefits from this article.
Also cut out and moved around was some stuff on Syntactic or Symbol magic.
My goal in writing this article was to give the GM and players options to add True Names to a campaign, regardless of the magic systems in use.  This article achieves that and I am proud to have written it.  In fact, though I am happy and proud of every article published so far, this one was more personal than the rest. After 4 years seeing it in print makes me very happy indeed.

What the Article is About

True Names are an important concept in several magic traditions and fiction, from Egyptian lore (which inspired the Path of Ren for Ritual Path Magic) to various Symbol and Rune systems and perhaps most notably the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin.
GURPS Thaumatology has some information on the topic, but I was happy and proud to be able to expand on it. I hope the readers find this article worthwhile.
What is in it?

• Researching True Names using the Invention rules and other methods.
• GURPS Magic spells and related notes.
• Optional rules for Ritual Path Magic, including a new Path.
• Modifiers for Magic as Powers.
• Some ideas on Symbol Magic
• A discussion on various Traits, including some new ones,
• Some fluffy flavor text that is meant to explain and inspire the use of Names as power.

Review of Pyramid 3/114 Mind Over Magic

So here is my review of this issue

The Incanters Grimoire

Written by Christoper Rice (Who made the Incanter class and system) this is mostly a Grimoire of spells for that system.  It also converts a lot of Ritual Path Magic spells into Incanter spells which is an efficient use of space.  The new spells are a good mix of spell types, and some are pretty creative.  Since spell design rules are already pretty solid this is not my favorite article.  However there are some nice variations and suggestions for new crunch in various boxes.

Pre-written spell lists? meh  New Crunch? Yay!

Names Have Power

My article so I'm biased, hence no review.  Talks about True Names and how to use them with a variety of GURPS magic systems.

Eidetic Memory: Glass Magic and the Specularii

As I started to read it I was disappointed that the spells were basically elemental.  However David Pulver redeemed himself (personal taste) with the second half of the article.  The Specularii is a magical style and includes most of the expected spells related to glass I would like to see.  In lore glass and mirrors have strong divination and gate related connections and this style does well at making a versatile utility class.

Artifacts of Evil

Paul Stefko creates 7 rather interesting items using Ritual Path Magic.

The second section Dealing With Evil Artifacts is a nice bonus that gives a table listing modelers for making indestructible artifacts.

The Carnie

What if the Joker was a Bard? Ever heard of the Circus of Crime?

Sean Punch creates a nice spin on the classic Bard for Dungeon Fantasy and this is easily the most inspiring and fun article to me in this issue. These guys are really odd and while not right for every campaign but can add a nice change when they are.  They are a mix of Bard and Thief in play but the perspective change strikes me as a lot of fun.

I am now inspired to create carnival troupes for my setting.

Random Thought Table: Zero-Sum Game

Some interesting ideas here as usual.  I especially like the variation on Trademark.

Overall a very pleasant and highly useful issue, with some really fun ideas as well.