This is a monthly r/GURPS thread for anything and everything related to your own campaigns. Tell us how you and your friends are making out. Update us on the progress of your game. Tell us about any issues you've run into and maybe we can help. Make suggestions for other players and GMs.

This is a monthly r/GURPS thread for anything and everything related to your own campaigns. Tell us how you and your friends are making out. Update us on the progress of your game. Tell us about any issues you've run into and maybe we can help. Make suggestions for other players and GMs.

I am making a bunch of stuff for GURPS in Elder Scrolls using my own custom stuff and a lot of the additions in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. One thing I am working on is making GURPS Magic feel more war-mage friendly using some of the option rules from GURPS Thaumatology. My version of Elder Scrolls is High Mana and magic is very common, so common that people use it for farming and you can reasonably expect a normal person to know a spell or two by age 30 or so. Now, they are not "wizards" but they know some useful spells that make day to day life easier. Shrines grant real blessings, scrolls are cheap enough that a farmer can afforded them, potion are the same. I am setting this is up so everyone reading gets the point that this is not a setting where magic is rare, "mystical", or poorly understood; rather, magic is normalized. Now, that being said, I am wondering if my changes lead to as situation where the height of wizards are so powerful that they can't be defeated by the height of archers/melee warriors.

I don't think so, but I am worried about the spells that can just end of fight losing the downsides of range; like Stun or Flesh to Stone. There are plently of scrolls and items to counter magic, so I might just be paranoid, but I would love input. Here are my ideas for changes:

Spell Range & Accuracy

By the unmodified rules, combat magic is short-ranged. A Regular or Area spell suffers a skill penalty equal to its distance in yards from the target (−1 per yard), and most Missile spells have low maximum ranges — a fireball reaches only fifty yards, where a common archer outshoots it. To bring spellcasting into line with the war-magic of this setting, where a skilled battlemage is a genuine battlefield threat and a master is terrifying, these rules extend the reach of all four kinds of magical attack, with every extension scaling off the caster's Magery. Range becomes another expression of magical talent: the gifted reach farther, the master farther still, and the untrained Magery 0 caster operates at the unmodified baseline.

Rule 1 — Magery Grants Penalty-Free Distance for Regular & Area Spells

Each level of Magery adds one full hex (yard) of penalty-free distance before range penalties begin to apply to a Regular or Area spell. In practice, subtract the caster's Magery in yards from the distance to the target before computing the penalty. A Magery 3 caster suffers no penalty out to three yards, then the normal progression resumes from there.

In ordinary battlefield casting this shifts the −1-per-yard curve outward by the caster's Magery: a Magery 3 mage striking a target eight yards away figures the distance as five yards (−5) rather than eight. The benefit also applies to ceremonial casting (Rule 2), shifting that reckoning outward in the same way. Because of how range penalties scale, the penalty-free distance matters greatly at close range and very little at long range — it sweetens the near work without inflating the far.

In ceremonial casting, the lead caster — the one who makes the skill roll — determines the penalty-free distance from their own Magery. The Magery of assistants and spectators does not contribute to range.

Rule 2 — Ceremonial Regular & Area Spells Use the Speed/Range Table

When a Regular or Area spell is cast as ceremonial magic, it no longer suffers the brutal −1-per-yard distance penalty. Instead, it reckons range using the Size and Speed/Range Table (the same table used for ranged attacks): roughly −2 at five yards, −4 at ten, −7 at twenty, −11 at fifty, −13 at one hundred yards — further reduced by the caster's penalty-free distance from Rule 1. A ceremonial caster who can see the target may therefore illuminate, heal, read, or harm anything within sight at a manageable penalty — but every such casting takes at least ten seconds, often minutes, requires assistants, and remains subject to the ordinary perils of ceremonial work (a roll of 16 always fails). This is prepared, ritual war-magic: siege-breaking, mass blessing, battlefield-spanning effect, paid for in time and exposure rather than in steep penalties.

This rule applies only to spells that would otherwise use the default −1-per-yard penalty. Spells that already use a different range system are unaffected: Information spells keep their native Long-Distance Modifiers, and any spell with its own special range scheme (such as the Gate spells' distance bands) keeps that scheme. The ceremonial upgrade replaces the bare per-yard penalty and nothing else.

Rule 3 — Missile Spell Range Scales with Magery

A Missile spell's ranges increase with the caster's Magery level: +5 yards to 1/2D range and +10 yards to Maximum range per level of Magery. A Magery 0 caster throws at the spell's printed ranges; the scaling begins at Magery 1.

Worked Ranges & Notes:
Fireball (printed 1/2D 25, Max 50): at Magery 1, 1/2D 30 / Max 60; at Magery 3, 1/2D 40 / Max 80; at Magery 5, 1/2D 50 / Max 100.

Lightning (printed 1/2D 50, Max 100): at Magery 3, 1/2D 65 / Max 130; at Magery 5, 1/2D 75 / Max 150.

The slower growth of 1/2D relative to Max means a high-Magery caster can reach far but shoots accurately only at moderate range — extreme-range shots still suffer the 1/2D damage falloff.

Rule 4 — Missile Spell Accuracy Scales with Magery

A Missile spell's Accuracy rises with the caster's Magery, by +1 per two levels, rounding up. As with any Accuracy bonus, it applies only when the caster Aims — a snap-cast Missile spell gains none of it.

At Magery 5–6 the bonus brings a Fireball to Acc 4 — better than a common longbow — so the master who Aims can land the long shots Rule 3's extended ranges unlock.

The Four Lanes of Magical Reach

Taken together, these rules sort magical attacks into four distinct roles, each keyed to Magery and each with its own battlefield character.

Missile spells are cast in hand and resolved with an attack roll against the Speed/Range Table, their ranges and Accuracy both rising with Magery (Rules 3 and 4). A talented thrower becomes competitive with archers at medium range; a master out-reaches and out-aims them. This is the mage as direct ranged combatant.

Battlefield Regular and Area spells use the −1-per-yard penalty, shifted outward by the Magery penalty-free distance (Rule 1). They are close-range, talent-gated, and fall off steeply past the penalty-free bubble — fast and personal, but exposing the caster to the foe who closes the gap. This is the mage striking at arm's reach in the press of melee.

Ceremonial Regular and Area spells use the Speed/Range Table (Rule 2), again shifted by Magery (Rule 1), reaching across a whole battlefield — but slowly, with assistants, and chancily. This is prepared war-magic: the ritual circle that breaks a siege or blankets a field, the channel-three working writ large, dependent on time and protection the way a screened formation depends on its counter-magic cover.

Information spells are untouched by these rules, keeping their native Long-Distance Modifiers and their reach of many miles for a competent specialist. This is the mage as scout, spy, and strategist — the role the unmodified rules already grant, and the one in which even a cautious caster who avoids the front line remains formidable.

The result is a battlefield on which the lone battlemage is a close-to-medium threat whose reach measures their talent, while the prepared ritual group is what projects magic across distance. The folk-caster, the trained battlemage, and the ceremonial circle each hold a distinct and lore-consistent place — and because every lever runs through Magery, the whole forms one system rather than a handful of separate exceptions.

Hi there! Found out about transhuman space but the short description I found of the main book didn't exactly give me a clear vibe of what's the setting is about. Could anyone point out some neat stuff about the setting that could get someone's interest flowing?

Strength (the JoJo stand, representing the Tarot card Strength)

No TL (it's a unique shape-shifting Stand, that is spiritually bound to its user and looks like a TL6 freighter ship)

No cost (can't be produced)

SM+11 (~30 000 tons, 200 yards, dST/HP 200), streamlined

Systems:

Front hull: [1] Steel Armour (dDR 10)

[2-4] any of the Reconfigurable Systems:

Robot Arm (dST 200)

Steel armor belts (6 belts, dDR +10 to any system)

Structural reinforcement (up to 3 systems, dHP +15%, +30%, +60%)

Cargo hold (1500 tons)

Passenger seating (2000 seats)

Production line (produces $1,5M/day, aids repair)

Hangar Bay (1000 tons capacity, 200 t/min loading)

Maw (d-Damage 28d-1 crushing, connects to digestive system)

Digestive system (300 tons capacity, d-Damage 5d crushing)

[5,6] Cargo hold (3000 tonnes of ballast)

Center hull:

[1] Steel Armour (dDR 10)

[core] Caged Spirit (Stand power, 5 magical Power Points for any onboard systems)

[3-5] Reconfigurable Systems (same as above)

[6,7] Cargo hold (3000 tonnes of ballast)

Rear hull:

[1] Steel Armour (dDR 10)

[Core] Control room (fully automated except 1 captain and mini-habitat for him)

[3-5] Reconfigurable Systems (same as above, with additional):

Naval engine (-1 Power Point, 0,005g, max speed 20 mph)

[6,7] Cargo hold (3000 tonnes of ballast)

Overall:

Crew: 1 (the captain/stand user, to whom the ship is bound, the rest is fully automated)

Regeneration: 2 dHP/hour (plus fully automated repair)

Can turn a system into Digestive system to crush the opponents onboard.

The stand user can use telekinesis on ship's interior details that are detached from the main mass, but still located inside of the ship.

Transformation of and into smaller and larger systems is also possible, but it'd be a mouthful to write them out.

The Stand's power is able to create mass to a certain extent: if the stand user dies, Stand dies with him, and the colossal ship transforms back into a regular 6-seat motor boat.

I'm a brazilian student, already dm GURPS. Sadly i have less free time than before, so i would like to play a nice campaing. My english understanding is mediocre and i speak it badly.

If someone knows were i can find PT-BR or patient DMs tables, help me find that RPG joy again.

Thank you for the atention.

Refers to the rules on page 47 of Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2.

I'd like to cost out some other forms using Basic Set animals like the tiger shark and large boar, but I don't understand how they derive the cost of the forms. For example, the Tiger (Monsters, p. 56) is 119 points as is the Bear.

Or is this ability in DFRPG costed out using GURPS Powers (which I do not own) and then just printed as is in Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2?

Does anyone have any templates/flowcharts they use to simplify building a balanced character? Like chose at least 1 social skill, then n of x traversal skills (hiking, climbing, acrobatics, etc). I was looking for something that would make filling the skill section out on the character sheet quicker and easier, without having to skim through the whole book of skills, and to make sure that characters have a decently versatile, and balanced spread of skills?

So one of my players bought "talks to animals" and chose pigeons. There are lots in urban areas so it's an interesting choice. In the last game she didn't like one of the NPCs so she asked her pigeon friend to "bomb" him...

It broke my brain trying to figure out what skill to use for "pooping on someone while flying."

Suggestions?

**TL;DR** For the mechanical side of it I’m using the templates in Dungeon Fantasy 9 for reference. As for the roleplay aspect of it, I figure the spirit just goes on a rampage until the players do something that I feel would be antiquate to calm/purify it, or they reduce it to 0 hp first.

As for the long version, I’m running a campaign set in a magical university and I’m having an end-of-summer bonfire celebration as a welcoming/naming ceremony for the new students (a couple days after the start of the school year). There’s a big wooden pier built in a clearing a ways off into the woods away from the main campus complex. At sunset the pier is lit and a short ceremony is held to name/initiate new freshmen, and invoke the school’s spirits (mascots) to bless them. Otherwise the rest of the night’s festivities are just a gathering to socialize and mingle with your new classmates.

Well this year, someone has gone wrong and angered a local nature spirit, or freed a trapped entity from under the school grounds. In any case, there’s a malevolent spirit rampaging through the forest now and posing a danger to anyone in its path— and of course it’s the players’ responsibility to put a stop to it. I’m not sure of its exact form but I’m thinking probably fiery, red and black, and possibly adding wind or other elements to it? The school’s mascot is an alpaca-phoenix (name pending) and I’m considering using a corrupted form of it as the monster, possibly too disfigured by the corruption to be recognizable, or possibly being fused with some of the other animal mascot spirits? As for how to defeat it, I’m not sure exactly but I figured just incapacitating it the old fashioned way with damage will suffice, otherwise any sufficiently creative solution the players come up with I would accept. I have also considered having one or more of the other school spirits show up to aid the players, or help them even be **able** to take it down, ala power-of-friendship-power-rangers-style-laser. Any suggestions on how one might go about purifying/pacifying an angry spirit in GURPS?

I’ve also considered the possibility that the “uncontrollable spirit” was actually part of the ceremony, and it’s actually tradition that each year they ‘release’ it as a test for the new students, and that would explain why the teacher didn’t/couldn’t do anything to stop it. (The spirit’s not actually corrupted, they just transformed its appearance to seem out of control and disguise its true nature)

Does anyone have any rules or systems they like to use to track time as a resource? In particular I’m running a magical university campaign right now and I want an easy way for players to be able to make meaningful trade offs of how they spend their time. I imagine an easy way to do this would be to just allot players a certain number of points a week representing blocks of time that aren’t preoccupied with prior obligations and they can elect to spend these studying, socializing, adventuring, or whatnot. And if they want to free up more blocks they could try to skip a class or miss some sleep.

So dos anyone have experience with managing time or quantifying it as a resource?