Rules I don't Use, Replace, or Revise

 I really love GURPS but nothing and no one is perfect and there are a few things I do not really like. This is the topic for several bloggers this week so I shall try to chime in with a few comments.

Other posts that are up on this this week are...

Author Christopher Rice

Of Paper Men and Plastic Monsters

Of Paper Men and Plastic Monsters Guest post by Kallaz

Worlds Beyond Earth

Lair of the Chaotic GM

Mailanka's Musings - Psi Wars

My Comments

A few advantages I feel are overpriced or just kinda flakey with mechancics.

Penetrating Vision is priced well for the first level but after that you get significant diminishing returns and I would use the Size Speed Range Table to give it a logarithmic range.

The Min ST capping damage at *3 I like for most campaigns but there should be an advantage to ignore that cap, a perk is probably to low so maybe  a 5 point advantage to ignore that? Only used in highly cinematic or supers campaigns though. Unlike others I feel it is a realistic limit.

Unaging and Regrowth are overprices, though Unaging as Immunity to certain attacks can be worth it. this is a common refrain and PK posted some suggestions here.

Possession by default you die without a host.  I really wish Possession had been written differently and wish we had an Alternate GURPS Pyramid still going to propose alienate ideas. A lot of the modifiers have hidden effects that can muddle the whole thing.

Binding could use a lot of love for some modifiers. Retraction, binding a body part, etc.

As Worlds Beyond Earth by Eric the Red posts above on Jumper and Warp I would like them to be more closely aligned in how they work. In fact I would rather they were one ability with modifiers!

Maybe something like ...

Vanish

Costs 100 points.

You can disappear from one location and reappear in another! This takes 10 seconds, which can be changed using Reduced Time or Preparation Required. It takes an IQ roll to successfully appear at the desired target, this takes a penalty for range using the SSR (p. B550), apply Long-Range (Powers, p. 108) or Reliable to reduce these penalties. If you can travel to other planes of existence, time, or worlds add a modifier.

+50% to Time Travel, +0% if can only travel in time and not distance.

+50% to add World jumping, +0% if can only jump to other worlds but not go any physical distance.

+50% to add Plane Jumping, +0% if can only jump to other planes.

Then add some of the modifiers under Warp and Jumper and include limitations for how many planes you can cross. Also add IQ penalties for world jumping and plane travel, use the entry in Basic for Infinite Worlds. The author of Worlds Beyond Earth has a point on how many worlds you can get to and I would need to ponder on that if I was actually going to publish this ability or use it in a campaign but that seems rather unlikely so I'll leave the idea here.

Also I would like to see the modifiers for Lord of My Domain applied not to Jumper but to something else, say Status (probably requiring a minimum level). Owning your own dimension seems a legit use of high Status and modifying a dimension seems a poor use of Jumper which should be able to get you into any dimension.

On the other hand I at least address one of his complaints in my upcoming Spirit Template supplement.

Enthrallment and Imbuement

I like the idea of these but with no obvious mechanics they are hard ot implement and tweak in a campaign, I feel that is a waste.

Gadgeteer and Inventing

I prefer the rules in After The End but would take them farhger if I could write a supplement on Gadgeteering. Applying a consistent set of rules that apply to various TL, Magic, Medicine, Gadgets, etc.

Magical Enchanting

GURPS Magic has very time consuming enchanting rules, suitable for a low fantasy setting with few magic items. I would like a system that could be tweaked for faster enchanting and covered more options. This has been addressed somewhat in various places such as GURPS Technomancer and Pyramid but I would love it to be gathered in one place.

GURPS Infinite Worlds: The Osiris Worlds

It starts off with references to GURPS Egypt and adds some dates and updated information since that supplement was originally published. it then goes on to describe three alternate worlds for the Infinite Worlds setting.

Osiris-6

The premise is the Pyramids were built by aliens (or something). A lot is left to the GM but some description of the builders is given to jump[start the mystery.

Osiris-3

The Pharaoh appears to have made an unholy alliance with some supernatural force and raised a dark armor of ghouls to conquer neighboring kingdoms.

Osiris-7

In this timeline Cleopatra worked well with Mark Antony and Egypt and Rome became a stronger alliance and more successful overall.  This world has a bit of clockpunk and other exotic tech level to it, possibly a good basis for a clockwork or even steampunk setting in later years.

Summary

I was a bit let down by this supplement, on the other hand it was only $4 so it was very short.  The material was good, just not enough here to do more than whet the appetitive. Still a useful addition to Infinite Worlds and starting points for some adventuring.

As I reviewed this supplement I updated my Infinite Worlds setting/genre page to reflect more current information and links.  You can see links on the right for various GURPS genres or go to the GURPS Settings page on this blog for more detail and links now and as I update them. That is very much still a work in progress as I update everything from my old format.

Week in Gaming 5/5/2022

So my gaming has taken a bit of a hiatus and some mixups.

The Monday game ended that campaign and we started a new one, had a session 0 this Monday. My guy  took several hits and was healed so went negative four separate times!

The Friday game died and will be restarting in a few weeks, I need to make a character and have some ideas, just need to get to it. 

The Saturday Dresden Fate game is still going on as is the Sunday Magic Vegas campaign but both are every other week and both missed a few games due to external events.

That said I need to get more regular about these recaps.

On another front I have been busy lately! Did a two week playtest for my upcoming supplement GURPS Template Toolkit: Spirits

Been working on this after the playtest and its not going in the right direction, added 2k words after the playtest as I have gone through my notes and though I cut some stuff during the playtest I am now over word count. Too early to worry about that though, I'll likely add more before I am ready to start trimming again. My deadline is June 30th.  Also been working on some projects for a friend and a couple of other things GURPS related.

Going over my notes Template Toolkit: Spirits was contracted June 2020 (that includes an outline) and we had several months of back and forth discussion before we got a contract and agreed on the content and format. Originally we were not even sure it was going to be an entry in the Template line and the playtest manuscript reflected its mixed origins. I decided to cut some material and make room for other stuff making it a better fit for the Template Toolkit line.

 So it will have been 2 years from contract to the final draft getting sent in, well over a year waiting in the playtest queue and likely several months after I send in my final draft before it gets published. If I am going to get the projects I want completed before my time runs out I will need to speed things up somehow. So sending in my next pitch soon after this one is sent in and hope I can get approval instead of waiting till after this is actually published (likely early next year).

Gaming Ballistics new web shop is live!

 Check out the new website!

Its much better organized and sorted, for example here is the DFRPG section and they also have Dragon Heresay and The Fantasy Trip.

Marital Arts: Travelers Path

 

Martial Styles -Travelers Path

The Travelers Path is a utilitarian hunting style practiced by centaurs. Those who practice it at expert levels tend to do it professionally and support the tribe by hunting game and defending it from enemies. It is thus more a way of life than a simple combat style and includes numerous useful optional skills.

Students

5 points

Students are expected to work under supervision and provide support in the hunt.

Skills: Bow; Thrown Weapon (Spear); Running; Spear

Optional Skills: Hiking

Optional Techniques:

Perks:

Advantages:

Hunters

12 points

Once past the training stages practioner's earn the title of hunter and are expected to bring in food for the tribe. Some also train in the crossbow, using their feet to help draw it. This is time consuming but can make for very powerful single shot attacks against very big game or armored foes. Additionally at this level more optional skills are taught, such as Bolas and Lasso for slowing down or capturing game and Kiai or Whip for startling and herding them.

Skills: Bow (A) DX [2]; Fast Draw (Ammo) [1]; Fast Draw (Bow) [1]; Fast Draw (Spear) [1]; Running [2]; Spear [2]; Thrown Weapon (Spear) [2].

Optional Skills: Bolas; Breath Control; Crossbow; Hiking; Kiai; Knife; Lance; Lasso; Navigation; Spear Thrower; Survival (Plains); Whip.

Optional Techniques:

Perks: Special Exercises (Kiai); Strong Bow.

Advantages:

Trackers 

+6 points

In addition to the training for Hunter those with the title Tracker have proven ability with the Bow and Tracking

Skills: Bow DX+1 [4]; Tracking (A) Per+1 [4]

Optional Skills: Geography/TL4 (Regional); Stealth

Optional Techniques:

Perks:

Advantages: Acute Vision 1 or 2 [2,4]

Heroic Ability

Heroic Archer, Weapon Master (Bow) [20], Weapon Master (Spear) [20], Weapon Master (Calvary)* [30], Zen Archery.

*Weapon Master (Calvary) includes Bow, Lance, and Spear

Review: GURPS Infinite Worlds: Nightreign

 GURPS Infinite Worlds: Nightreign is a setting book for the larger Infinite Worlds setting and is specifically a Horror themed work.

The Infinite Worlds setting was designed to showcase the versatility of GURPS by letting adventurers travel from world to world. It is both a time travel and a parallel worlds type setting, allowing the creative GM to create all sorts of genres and mix it up to keep a campaign fresh. GURPS Infinite Worlds: Worlds of Horror written by the popular author Kenneth Hite is a broad setting book with a lot of small horror settings seeds. This book is a full length worked horror setting based in a divergent history of 1700's America, after the American Revolution.

Concept

During the American Revolution an opening into another dimension was created that infected the eastern seaboard with a dark miasma called "The Bleak", plunging the region into darkness or twilight. The classic horrors emerged and slaughtered thousands, forever changing that worlds history.

Magic is available to the PC's, though it often has a dark price.

Nuts and Bolts

I really liked this setting, its dark but teases some hope and in some ways is post apocalyptic. The Bleak is a good well explained concept that makes use of the Corruption mechanic described in GURPS Horror, though you wont need that book to understand its effects.  GURPS Magic is the default assumption but rules are included to use Ritual Path Magic, Book/Path from GURPS Thaumatology, and some other subsystems. In my opinion it currently has the best description of shamanism as well. The authors worked with existing material from GURPS Thaumatology, GURPS Monster Hunters 6: Holy Hunters, and even my book GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits that works out very close to my own Shamanic Powers based magic (not published or even approved yet). Though we disagree on a few points, such as the implementation of Spirit Empathy the overall feeling is very similar, which I appreciate and have been waiting to see in print for a very long time. The authors also expanded on modifiers found in GURPS Powers which is a welcome addition and I may implement some of those ideas myself.

Included is a good explanation of the history since the divergence with a good explanation of its effects on the political situation and of course life as a whole.

The Enemy

The obvious enemy here are the unhuman and other types of monsters, but plenty of other options exist as well.  From rival world jumpers to local politics a campaign in this setting can go in many directions and keep things fresh. I like the set up here if the Bleak, its effects (subtle and otherwise), and the various monsters. Vampires and Werewolves are given a page or so each with enough information to give the GM ideas and references for the actual stats. A few new monsters are introduced as well but the bulk of this supplement is background material. It really leverages prior works such as GURPS Horror to fit in as much new content as possible.

Week in Gaming

  This is a weekly entry on my RPG activities and related news. The purpose is to track and organize my thoughts. I also hope to inspire people by showing them different ideas and possibilities with GURPS, an option I have at the moment as I am in 3 GURPS campaigns.

Games

Monday (Hylen)

The last session was mostly background stuff, only one player really got to do much, the rest of us being busy with the more routine stuff about building New Widdershins. The one character is an oddball character and seems to prefers to do things by himself so he had the bulk of the evening doing things only he could do. When one player gets the bulk of the screen time it can be a problem as everyone wants their time in the sun and especially to have fun. The GM and player thus need to at the least put on a good show, preferably with stakes the other players have an interest in (though not without taking away their agency) and trying to manage the time. It can be a difficult task for any GM and most of us slip into letting some players dominate the game at various points. Sometimes this cant be helped, other times the GM needs to manage things better.  But when it happens that does not necessarily mean a boring game for everyone. For example the player brought up certain ideas that were overall useful and the GM had him find some interesting items, crystals that expand into walls with various shapes and prosperities; and an ancient supply cach we have yet to figure out. Everyone had a stake in the new find as it could help with the town building and the byplay between player and GM was entertaining.

One player got to capture some goats and we already had pens. Another managed to dodge the amorous attention of an NPC (I think that was about it for his screen time) and Dan was mostly organizing the building - meaning I told the GM what I thought all the NPCs should be working on.

We also did a lot of background number crunching, mostly using GURPS Realm Management and GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3: Daily Life and Economics.

GURPS Low-Tech and its companions continually surprise me with just how much is in there, you don't use them often in most campaigns so tend to forget all the stuff they have. People often talk about using Harn to help world build but the Low-Tech series is more portable to various settings whereas Harn is very medieval Europe focused.

As for building the town? We got a surprising amount done.  Dan had some pushback on some of his priorities, the GM even making the remark that he though Dan was trying to rush things but I pointed out we have only a few months of gasoline left and little more than half a year on Diesel. Wanting to get the big stuff done while we have fuel as after that a lot of our tasks will get much more labor intensive.

Next game might be a feast and the GM has done a LOT of number crunching and we should be able to gloss over most of the background stuff. Still most players will not have much free time and that limits his opportunities for running an entertaining game for everyone.

Friday (GURPS Technomancer)

We did a restart as the GM felt his initial idea wasn't going to work out very well so rebuilt our characters. The two of us are now playing field agents for the FBI in the generic 1980s.

We did the character building during the week and this was a short couple of roleplaying scenes of our characters getting to know each other.

Saturday (Dresden Files, Fate)

Our off week for that campaign.

Sunday (MagicVegas, GURPS Thaumatology and Political Intrigue)

My character Dr. Wu got to meet the remaining PC and had more screen time, though still not really a part of the group yet. It felt like half the game was the Druid delegation working on their pet project of building a Other Worlds gate network for exploiting resources.  As next session Dr. Wu is supposed to meet with their lead delegate (already met his assistants, one of which is a PC) and I think her magic tradition has a world they would like access to this could be a hook for her getting more involved.

This is a tricky campaign to run as everyone is from a different magical tradition and we all are looking to push forward conflicting agendas.  Most campaigns players are a team, here were more rivals that sometimes have to work together.

I made some work on updating my tradition (Taoism) for Book/Path but spent most of the time for that campaign on learning more about its magic system (Book/Path from GURPS Thaumatology) which has a lot of house rules and tweaks.

I also need to figure out more about what fetishes' (special magic items) she has and hope to have that all done by next game.

Writing

My GURPS published material (plus some Kickstarter stuff not showing up there)

GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits had a bump in sales this past month which was nice.

The friend I am trying to help with his Shadowrun and Earth Dawn conversion has ben exploring Sorcery, Book/Path, Ritual Path Magic, and my Affinity magic system and seems to be settling in on Affinity magic. I did not update the grimoire (Chapter 3 of my personal players draft) but did come up with a few ideas in trying to tweak it for him.  One of those ideas is adding Threshold Magic from GURPS Thaumatology blended with Corruption and a custom backlash or soak mechanic.

Also got a bit of inspiration for my Social Magic system that was originally inspired by the Dragon Knight series by Gordon R. Dickinson but which has taken on a life far beyond my initial concept.

Magic

Speaking of my magic systems, I now have at various stages of development: Affinity Magic, Symbol Enchantment, Sigil Magic, Social Magic, Spirit Magic, Shamanic Powers, and Faerie Magic, 

Hopefully you will get to see all of them someday!

General GURPS Stuff

Not much new this week, but Gaming Ballistic has released early copies of its Bestiary to backers. It is REALLY nice!