Designer Notes, Part 3: GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Updating GURPS Classic

 

Another important goal for me with this supplement was to update 3e material that has not yet been updated and was related to spirits.

GURPS Classic has a lot of great material and most of it is easily ported to 4e. GURPS Religion and GURPS Spirits are still very useful, even if some of the mechanics have to be reworked. GURPS Cabal, GURPS In Nomine, and GURPS Voodoo are all fascinating settings that have not yet been updated. I believe this is mostly because an update does not need to do a lot to cover mechanics and other things that may need an update. The settings themselves are still very useable. With no formal update for any of these on the announced horizon I wanted to see how much I could cover to make a prospective GM's workload easier.

GURPS Cabal, GURPS In Nomine, and GURPS Voodoo received an update to their magic systems and some powers in GURPS Thaumatology, GURPS Powers, GURPS Magic, and GURPS Basic.

Some spirit powers however still needed either an example build to show how to update or new modifiers to make them work. Some of this material was in other 4e material, especially Pyramid and GURPS Horror. But its scattered and can be hard to find, especially if you do not have the supplements. Even if you do the GURPS library is extensive and sometimes things are tough to find.

GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits thus has a lot of new modifiers and explains ways to use existing abilities to emulate some of these effects. I also tried to grab some of the more interesting or difficult spirits to make sure the possible builds was versatile and compatible as possible with published material. Jumper gets a lot of love here that may be useful to a GURPS Cabal spirit.

For another example the Personal Power lens is basically an attribute list that lets you combine it with a spirit template or lens type and have a ready to go foe. Secondary attributes such as Dodge already included. I benchmarked these so that the Minor lens matches the small elementals in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and the Elite lens matched the default Angel character in GURPS In Nominee.

Speaking of GURPS In Nomine I did not intend this to take the place of an update for that setting but I really like it and some of the concepts fit a broader narrative of spirits and folklore or fiction. So I put a few things in here.  If the setting is updated they may get used or they may not, if someone wanting to run the setting using 4e rules wants to use them they can choose to use this or not. The goal was just to provide as much material to cover as large a variety as possible.

Easter Egg

Here are some thoughts on using TT:Spirits to adapt the GURPS In Nomine setting.

The Elite personal attribute Lense was benchmarked against GURPS In Nomine angels and demons, leaving rom for the archangels and princes to use the Paragon attribute level. Different racial templates could be used but my first choice would probably be Imbuing Spirit. This makes them normally insubstantial but they can either use powers or spells to affect the physical world or possess people.

Different Choirs and Bands would modify this, perhaps requiring a host be a Puppet to possess them or Alternate Form to create a Host. I wanted to add a bit to Alternate Form for such a host, including an enhancement to Alternate Identity but decided it was too specific for this supplement. Additional notes…

Awareness (Symphony) becomes Illuminated.

Each Choir or Band has their own Power and they also have Celestial or Infernal as appropriate. I didn’t set out to make powers for each Choir or Band but Traveler and Dream/Nightmare are obvious examples that could fit.

Word-Bound and Sacred Word! are obvious.

Add the desired magic system, GURPS Magic in 4e is almost the same as in 3e, though new options are available. And with that you can pretty much update your GURPS In Nomine to the current edition. Most powers are easy builds, a few require more work that I wish I could have done for this supplement.

Designer Notes, Part 2: GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Example Builds

One of the requests for this by a few people was to make affordable builds for allies. Spirit Ally can be rather expensive and I was limited to RAW but there were a few things that were done to help in at least some cases. However, even a weak spirit has a lot of advantages and is thus correspondingly expensive.

Simple Fetish

A weak spirit bound into a fetish. This can be an Ally used to maintain spells in Book/Path magic, grant powers through Granted by Familiar, and adding one or more Powers (sets of related abilities) take direct action. This is a weak spirit that is killed if the fetish it is bound to is destroyed. This can be altered by adding Unkillable or other traits. Statistics: Personal Power, Minor [-40]; Fetish [-50]. -90 points.

Familiar Spirit

A classic, typically a small animal (and thus less expensive) mostly a way to get powers (including extra levels of Magery or Energy Reserve) at a discount using the Granted by Familiar limitation. Statistics: Embodied Animal [24] + animal template. 24 points plus the animal template which is often under 50 points, especially if the IQ is not bought up much.

Super Scout

This is a minor spirit that cannot materialize or affect the material world but is an effective invisible and insubstantial.  This is a basis for such a scout. Statistics: Minor [-40]; Unmanifested Spirit [149]. 109 points.

Designer Notes, Part 1: GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits (Devotion PM)

This is a very crunchy work and I had a lot of goals I wanted to meet with it. One of those was to come up with a generic power modifier for spirits that fit my understanding of the nature of them. The Spirit PM (GURPS Powers, p. 28) is for people getting help from spirits, not really about being a spirit.

What I first came up with was a 0% rather generic PM but my editor wanted it to be more specifically outlined and described. In doing so I came up with the Devotion PM which is similar to the Pact limitation used for priests as part of the Divine PM. Spirits are generally very focused or passionate about the things they care for or engage in vices or have other traits GURPS would call a mental disadvantage. 

I created several new power groups, leaving a lot on the cutting room floor. The published version has 27 specific power groups, though a few are modified versions from other supplements. I also included a list of Power Modifiers I felt especially appropriate in other supplements, mostly GURPS Horror and GURPS Powers.

The Devotion PM can be applied to most of them and though it is a generic -10% the value can be adjusted based on the spirit and what disadvantages apply. The Trickster power has a specific example of this. I listed some ideas for most of the Powers, mostly the concept rather than a list though to save room. The explanation for the Devotion PM gives the structure and each power gives a guideline relevant to it.

For example the Traveler power could take Compulsive Behavior for never staying in one place too long, exploration, etc. Or perhaps a Sense of Duty to their rider for a winged steed. The Psychopomp power could take Sense of Duty to religious adherents, "Those who died in battle", or anything else appropriate to getting the recently deceased to where they need to go.

GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits

 Its published! GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits is finally released.

This is my second supplement, both on the subject of spirits in GURPS. It is more crunchy than GURPS Powers  Totem and Nature Spirits.

It is a collection of templates and lenses, making it a tough edit but useful for GMS to quickly put together spirits for their campaigns. However a big part of this book is also explaining how various traits work and apply in the context of a spirit.  So it goes into explanation on many traits, hopefully clearing up some details and questions I have seen come up. Also adding quite a few new modifiers to current advantages.

Those modifiers like Preset for Jumper or Warp, Display for Clairsentience, a couple of goodies for Binding, and many more should be useful in campaigns not using spirits as well.

Some core advantages like Special Rapaport also get expanded options.

Template Toolkit Spirits

 Sent in notes on the last edit of my supplement which has been announced as on schedule for a Feb release.

I am not posting details yet, though expect some designers notes after its out.  However, I did want to get it out there. Its been a long road, about 4 years to get this out from pitch to publication. It was part of an earlier manuscript where I intended to do as bunch of stuff in one Powers style supplement. Looks like I pitched it June 2020 and it was awhile after that before the contract was approved and signed.

I am very happy with this supplement. Totem and Nature Spirits left a lot on the cutting room floor, the subject was simply too broad to include everything. I did the best I could to hit what I thought was the important highlights but so many totems were left out for space.  However, with TT:Spirits I managed to get pretty much everything I wanted into it.  I'll go over that in a bit more detail after publication.

TT: Spirits

The supplement I have been working on has been sent to the editors for final draft. Hopefully it wont be too long before an editor is assigned and start working on it. At least two other projects are ahead of me in line though.

Template Toolkit: Spirits changed a fair amount from my initial draft and may change again before final publication.

It originally was built around templates, lenses, and prebuilt powers. The goal was for a GM to be able to just add up various packages to have a new spirit. Playtesters found that too complicated (there were a LOT of prebuilt abilities and lenses) so I thinned it down and went more towards the approach of GURPS Powers than Template Toolkit Characters or Races.

It still has lots of templates, a healthy amount of lenses, and plenty of prebuilt abilities. The main difference though is in building power sets and referring to those in GURPS Powers and GURPS Horror the GM has an inspirational list to work from. Many abilities are really simple and this change is easier to read and use.

I do not know what it will look like when its through editing but I am proud of this supplement and hope a lot of people get good use out of it.

Besides abilities for spirits it also goes into detail on various advantages to answer questions I have seen come up in games and on the forums. That material can be useful for games without spirits as well.

Review: GURPS Classic Spirits

 As I edit my supplement I am going through various supplements to see how the current manuscript compares.  The quality of these older books is really awesome and most of them are far larger than GURPS Template Toolkit: Spirits will be. That is ok, though my purpose is not to write a definitive book on spirits but serve more as an update on some of the mechanics. though many of the materials I am looking at are Third Edition they still have substantial value even without an update.

Lets review one such book.

GURPS Spirits

At 128 pages this volume covers its subject rather well. The author Steve Kenson has written a LOT of RPG material, including contributing to Pyramid, GURPS Infinite Worlds, GURPS Magic, and GURPS Thaumatology, He also wrote for many other systems and is now working at Green Ronin Publishing according to his website.

Chapter 1: The Nature of Spirits

This is a brief description or listing of various types of spirits and includes some information on how various cultures viewed the soul and afterlife. 

Chapter 2: Worlds of Spirit

This evocative chapter covers many possible spirit worlds and helps the reader organize them into similar types and function. it does a good job of  connecting a number of prior GURPS works so that the reader can put together the pieces the way that best suits their campaign. it is my favorite chapter.

Chapter 3: Spirit Abilities

Though valuable for the Third Edition of GURPS this chapter shows its age the most and is the least useful for those using GURPS Fourth Edition. You can clearly see the style of Third Edition which was less modular and prone to scope creep with vague advantages with inherent limitations. This made for complex powers that were not readily translated into other uses.

Chapter 4: Spirit Templates

Though suffering from the problems in chapter 3 the templates can still be useful as most traits retain the same name and general function in the current edition of GURPS. I converted some of these in my supplement, the attribute +4 for Angels for example matches those in GURPS In Nomine and I used that attribute assignment for my more powerful spirits.

That said the descriptions and narrative parts of the templates are still useful and well written.

Chapter 5: Characters

This chapter describes various roles characters may take in a campaign involving spirits and includes a number of templates.  Most of the templates will work as is, though costs will need to be adjusted. A few advantages and skills have changed but most of the material here is useable, at least as inspiration.

This chapter also includes a discussion on various traits useful for campaigns involving spirits and a number of advantages. most of the advantages are part of Fourth Edition though details may vary. One exception is Ectoplasmic Projection based on GURPS Supers so it was a poor fit for Fourth Edition which substantially changed how those kinds of things work. It would best be built now as a combination of Duplication, Telekinesis, and summonable Allies.

Chapter 6: Spirit Magic

This chapter describes a form of magic that also appeared in GURPS Castle Falkenstein and GURPS Voodoo. In GURPS Fourth Edition it is called Book/Path magic and has its own chapter in GURPS Thaumatology.

Chapter 7:  Campaigns

The last chapter in the book describes how spirits can fit into various campaigns and GURPS settings.

Summary

I really loved this book when it came out and its still a valuable reference and a supplement I recommend to anyone who wants to use spirits in their campaign. The mechanics are mostly out dated but the bulk of the book is not about the mechanics, instead focusing on background and information that is useful regardless of the edition your using.

In fact I would say that this book can be used to help a GM in many other game systems, or even writing their own spirit related fiction.