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.

Weekly /r/GURPS Discussion thread. Feel free to talk about anything and everything GURPS related.

• What are you currently playing or running?
• What custom rules does your group play with?
• Have any fun custom items, advantages, skills, or whatever else to share?

For a urban fantasy game I am deciding which magic system to use.

I have GURPS Magic and GURPS Thaumatology Ritual Path Magic (Sorcery and Thaumatology only to get inspiration).

Do I miss something or are the energy costs for the spells extremly different?

A fireball (3d6) costs 18 energy in Ritual Path Magic and 3 energy in GURPS Magic.

On the other side if you put the spell into an enchantment it costs nothing - you pay for it as you buy it with character points.

Ritual Path Magic is way more flexible but the spell cost is way of compared to magic and makes a "combat spell-slinger" impossible.

So is the idea with Ritual Path Magic that you use trinkets (enchanted items) for your heavy hitting spells?

I like the flexibility of the system but I fear that the mage player will be way overwhelmed as the calculation of the energy cost of a "improvised" spell is really complicated. Any ideas to make this easier?

Can I perform a weapon attack with my hands?

Hello everyone.

I need a help with forming a spell for an RPM mage so he could make useless firearms of one enemy or all enemies in some area. I suppose, that Lesser Destroy Matter is suitable effect for it, but I am not sure about spell modifiers list. Obviously there should be considered Area of Effect, Range and Duration; but should there be any other? Affliction, Altered Traits and Bestows a Penalty seems to be designed to change charater stats, but I'd like to manipulate with equipment. Way with Greater Destroy Matter when caster destroy firearm's ability to shoot for a time is quick and dirty, but I find a situation when all strikers in enemy guns are suddenly broken more magical and mysterious.

Hello, I'm working on my GURPS tabletop RPG, and in this world, it's similar to ours, with one key difference: there are supernatural phenomena, similar to those in the Supernatural TV show and the SCP Foundation. There is also a secretive organization protecting humanity from both the knowledge of the supernatural and the supernatural beings themselves. I'm wondering what some of the best conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific ideas would be for my world. And what gurps books could I use for some more ideas for pseudoscience and or the supernatural. Many thanks!

A vague idea I’ve got for my next RPG blog article;

Upscale (most who live here are well paid urban professionals, Comfortable Wealth and Status 1) apartment building in a nice neighborhood, 5 floors high (plus a basement and roof), one large apartment residence per floor. TL 8, probably America, the building was completed back in 1990.

Each apartment has its own cast of NPC inhabitants with their own backstories, secrets, plot hooks and personalities. Not to mention maps of each flat and contents/“treasures.” Physical stats for walls, doors, locks, security systems, etc.

My current ideas for NPC residents of the apartment building includes; Hacker, gearhead mechanic/inventor, wealthy art collector, undercover spy, beat cops patrolling the neighbourhood (ok, not residents but still relevant NPCs), family of four, old man, eccentric writer, criminal in hiding.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Books and page numbers I should consult for this project?

Note: This was originally going to be a comment on this post, but it got too long and Reddit wouldn't let me post it there, so here it is here.

First off, not a Naruto officiando, so take this with a grain of salt.

I think you may have forgotten an important element of Ninjutsu, namely, Requires Gestures -10%. I never watched Naruto, but I've seen enough clips and memes to know that they do crazy shit with their hands. That's a limitation.

If they also have to speak a word in order to activate the Ninjutsu (I can't clearly remember if they do or not, but I seem to recall them shouting out the name of the Ninjutsu every time they cast it) that's Requires Incantation -10%. That's -10% if you need to shout it out loud, or -5% if you can whisper it quietly, but still couldn't activate it if gagged.

If Ninjustu can be cancelled out by other Ninjutsu or other abilities, then that's a Nuisance Effect -5%

If Ninjutsu requires a skill roll, that's either Requires IQ Roll -10% or Requires IQ-Based Skill Roll -10%

If they cost FP, that's Costs Fatigue -5%/level

If Ninjutsu abilities require extra casting time, that's Takes Extra Time -10%/level. Each level doubles the time the ability takes to activate.

Don't use a separate advantage to reduce casting time, just remove levels of Takes Extra Time. Consider assigning a level to the final Power Modifier like Ninjutsu 1 -50%, Ninjutsu 0 -40%, Ninjutsu 2 -60%, etc., to represent different levels of Takes Extra Time.

"Magery for Chakra Natures: Using Magery to determine access to chakra natures. For example, Magery 1 unlocks one nature (e.g., Fire), while Magery 2 unlocks two (e.g., Fire and Lightning)."

This seems like a bad idea. Magery doesn't do this, and if you're building powers as advantages, then you don't even need to have Magery in the first place. If you want to not have powers as advantages, and instead treat each Ninjutsu like a spell, then use Magery and use the (X number of) College(s) Only limitation.

The total number of colleges, or in this case, Natures, matters a lot. If there are four in total, then being able to use only 1 is worth -30%, being able to use 2 is worth -20%, and being able to use 3 is worth -10%. On the other hand, if there are 30 different Natures, then being able to use only 1 is worth -40%, 4 is -35%, 8 is -30%, 11 is -25%, 15 is -20%, 19 is -15%, 23 is -10%, and 26 is -5%. It all just depends on how many Colleges/Natures there are in your universe. This is all assuming that you ought to treat Colleges as Natures, maybe you oughtn't, I'm not a Naruto expert.

"Chakra Control: A 5-point/level advantage where each level reduces the FP cost of abilities by 1."

That particular advantage is worth 30 points per level, not 5. It's something akin to Indefatigable [30/level]. If you want this to only help with Ninjutsu, then aspect it like: Indefatigable (Accessibility: Only for Ninjutsu abilities -20%) [24/level], or don't if ninjas who are good at conserving chakra for Ninjutsu are also good at conserving energy when exerting themselves.

My main question is about handling high-speed movement, jumps, and aerial attacks, which are so common in Naruto. Should I use Super Jump? Or focus more on enhanced acrobatics/mobility rules from Martial Arts? I want to capture the dynamic ninja combat style but keep it balanced.

Absolutely use Super Jump [10/level], there's no other possible way to capture what goes on in Naruto, throw Martial Arts straight out the window for this one. For super speed you'll also want Enhanced Move (Second-Nature +150%) [50/level]. This lets you move at your full Enhanced Move without taking time to accelerate, without having to make control rolls, and allows you to make any combat maneuver while moving above your Basic Move. If you want speedster characters, this is the main way to go if you want to do it cheap (the fact that Enhanced Move doubles move-speed with each level means that the speeds climb up like crazy really fast).

Your final Power Modifier for your Ninjutsu should be something like:

Ninjutsu -40% plus -10%/level = Costs Fatigue 1 -5% + Nuisance Effect: Ninjutsu can be neutralized with special abilities -5% + Requires Gestures -10% + Requires Incantation -10% + Requires Ninjutsu Roll -10% + Takes Extra Time -10%/level

If there are people who can cast Ninjutsu without moving their hands, or who can do it quietly, or without speaking, call that Motionless Ninjutsu 0 -30%, Quiet Ninjutsu 0 -35%, Wordless Ninjutsu 0 -30%, Motionless and Wordless Ninjutsu 0 -20%, etc.

I strongly recommend building all Ninjutsu as Alternate Abilities to each other. This is super important for keeping 'sorcerer' type GURPS characters from being ungodly expensive.

If you want some Ninjutsu abilities to be 'learned advantages' or innate advantages, and others to be like learned spells, then treat Magery as one of the Alternate Abilities for other Ninjutsus. For example, something like:

Ninjutsu [9]: Magery 4 (Alternate Ability x1/5) [9]

Ninjutsu Clone [115]: Affliction 1 (Duplication 1 (Duplicated Gear +100%, No Sympathetic Injury +20%) [77] +770%, Cumulative +400%, Accessibility: Self Only -20%, Contact Agent -30%, Melee Attack (Reach C, Cannot Parry) -35%, Ninjutsu 0 -40%, Alternate Ability) [115]

Ninjustu Invisibility [8]: Invisibility (Switchable +10%, Can Carry Objects (Light Encumbrance) +20%, Ninjutsu 0 -40%, Alternate Ability x1/5) [8]

Hope this helps! Have fun with your Naruto game!

If I buy this book can It be played without the character one? I would like to get the character one down the track but can only afford to only get the Campaign for now. If I have to wait till I get both books then I might aswell save up and wait to get both at once.

The Basic Set says:

Carry on Back: 15xBL. Thus, you can carry more than you can lift by yourself . . . but every second that your encumbrance is over 10xBL (that is, Extra-Heavy encumbrance), you lose 1 FP

Does this mean that a mount can carry a rider up to 10xBL, or is there another rule for the maximum load a mount can carry on its back?

For example, does this mean that the generic heavy warhorse listed in the Basic Set with ST 24 could carry up to 1152 lbs. on its back, and the generic elephant with ST 45 could carry up to 4050 lbs. on its back?

~

I'm partially asking because the Basic Set lists a generic Donkey as having ST 15, and the 10xBL for a ST 15 entity is 450 lbs., more than enough to carry an adult human, but the description for the donkey specifically says:

"Sturdy, but too small for an adult to ride"

Does this just mean it would be too small for an adult to ride practically, because the donkey would be too heavily encumbered to move very fast? I've ridden donkeys before, so its not like donkeys in general are too small to be ridden in real life. Or is there some reason why specifically a ST 15 donkey wouldn't be strong enough to carry a human on its back?