We interrupt your browsing for a special infomercial from T Bone’s GURPS Diner. Hmm. Well, since we can’t run actual infomercials here, I can at least show you the script. (Cue T Bone [TB], in cheap suit before polyester-curtained background. Flashes slick grin and points at camera.) “GURPS gamers! Need to lay on the Leprechauns, but don’t know where to start? Do your Ogres lack oomph? Are you loving 4e’s new-found support for all creatures big and small, but frustrated by scattered rules?” “Help is on the way! Introducing a big new game aid in a tiny package: GULLIVER Mini for GURPS 4e! “ (Cheesy video effect of a…
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GULLIVER rules expansion for GURPS
Many a GURPS newcomer (and some experienced players too) ask: Can GURPS handle huge and tiny creatures? You bet! And it does so well, too. But even in GURPS 4e, the built-in tools are lacking in spots. A little added clarification and exposition fills in the gaps, giving you all you need to unleash beings of any size in your game. What is it? The original GULLIVER for 3e is an old, nut-made fan-crafted expansion for the GURPS 3e roleplaying game. It explores many topics, mostly dealing with character/creature design and physical performance. (It does so thoroughly, and is renowned for its volume.) The newer GULLIVER Mini for 4e is…
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FEND: Fully Enabled Defenses (GURPS 4e/3e)
Defense stats in GURPS are based on skill divided by two, an odd mechanic not used elsewhere in the game. What if defense used full skill, just like any other skill-based action? This GURPS rules hack is a look at a simple, single, “for the heck of it” rules change, followed by the usual commentary. As always, it’s yours to use, abuse, or refuse, as you choose. History v1.0: Created 2003/04/28 v1.1 update (2009/07/27): Modified for use with 3e or 4e. Using Full Skill for Defenses There’s one funny bit in the GURPS skill system. Nothing that need ever actually bother anybody, just a little oddity that’s so basic to…
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Edge Protection: Armor enhancement for GURPS 4e and DFRPG
Edge Protection is a simple suggestion for a new GURPS armor stat which, together with DR, realistically simulates any level of armor rigidity vs flexibility and associated effects. It nicely handles some situations that current armor rules don’t, yet is no more complex than the existing flexible armor rules it replaces. History v1.0: Part of old article Gird Your Loins!. v2.0: 2007.03.27 Taking the edge off GURPS handles flexible armors like mail as follows: the wearer suffers one point of “blunt trauma” damage per full 10 points of damage (5 points if crushing) that doesn’t penetrate DR. In addition, some of these armors have a split DR score that offers…
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T Bone’s rules of dilettante game design, Part II
More navel-gazing, following an earlier inward journey of pretentious self-discovery (aka Part I). Back in the days of GURPS 3e, there were quite a few areas of rules that were “broken” – or at least problematic – in a wide range of ways. (4e is much improved in this regard!) Many gamers worked up house rules and patches to address these. I placed a big collection of my re-workings (developed with the aid of many helpful folk, especially a fellow going by the handle Dataweaver) into a big “3e overhaul” I named GULLIVER. While moving old site and GULLIVER FAQs to a new FAQ page, I extracted some “GULLIVER game…
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Game design musing: It’s about time (Part III)
Part 3 of 3. If you thought the articles were geeky before, be warned: it gets worse here.The past two articles: Part IPart II Jumping into the new: Action points, Version 1 In the last episode, I detailed some of my early endeavors at gaming more varied action times. Enough of that. Here’s another general method: action points. I can’t point to any single system as an example; I’ve seen many variations in home-brew games or as options for existing systems. One reader (see comments in first article) points to an AD&D version from an old Dragon magazine. The idea is simple: give each character some number of “action points”…
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Game design musing: It’s about time (Part II)
More on the subject of attack time and pacing in RPG combat systems, focusing on a couple of old home-brew efforts. Continued from Part I: On to another round of writing. I planned to wrap this up, but it looks like there’s going to be a Part III as well. (One note: With occasional digression, I’m discussing melee, not ranged, combat.) Recap Looking at how a few game systems (including some I haven’t mentioned) handle action time and pacing in their combat systems, the below seem par for the course: Combat actions take place in turns, with a default of one attack per turn. Under turns, there’s typically no mechanism…
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Star Frontiers to GURPS 4e conversion notes
Star Patrol wants YOU! Got a Star Frontiers game you’d like to bring over to GURPS? (Okay, so that proposition made more sense in 1997. But do please play along.) Here are some notes to help those characters make the jump. First, a bit of intro It’s hard for me to say what I liked so much about Star Frontiers when I picked it up way back when. Part of it was production value: the books weren’t anything fancy (pretty primitive by today’s standards), but there was so much packed into the box: multiple books, maps, colored counters, more. A lot of components for a simple game. The game’s play…
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Game design musing: It’s about time (Part I)
Gear up, spelunkers! It’s time for a dizzied descent into the dankest depths of game-design geekdom. In a very old blog post I briefly pondered the topic of action pacing – especially combat pacing – in RPGs. Below are some thoughts on how three major game systems tackle the topic. A caution in advance: while I know my GURPS, please accept my apologies where I mangle HERO; it’s been a long time since I last played. And I really risk disservice to D&D, as my only familiarity with 3e rules is from perusing the books, not actual play. Corrections to my text are greatly welcomed. Timing Basics In the three game…
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GURPS house rules best left homeless
GURPS gamers are a rules-tweaking, happy lot of home-brewers, Hastur bless ’em. But among the crunchy’n’nutty house rule suggestions that come up in forums, websites, and actual games, there are always a few that should be shown the door back out of the house. Below are a few such. I was hoping to make it a Top 10 list, but I’m stopping far short of that for now. Actually, I’m glad I can only think of far fewer than 10 offhand! (Needless to say, the below is opinion; if one of the items already fits into your game to much acclaim, good on you. Witless opining is what blogs are…
