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.

Holiday Adventure Time!

Let's gooooo! We got a new contest up for the GURPSers. Write a short #GURPS "Holiday Adventure" (ideally a Nov-January 1 one) in 500 words or less.

https://forms.gle/yjjt32ZvHz4bg8Ky7

thaumatology is a book i always hear getting reccomended as somthing to read before customizing rules and making your own magic system, and powers even suggest using it to add to powers systems, but i have a hard time understanding why.

there is no hiding the fact its definitely an older book, which mainly explains ways you can change magery and the implications of each type of change, but i dont understand what advice it gives that makes it worth reading now, it seems like alot of gurps later books focuses on advantages as a more balanced and mechanically easier thing to customize and play with, even though munchkin exists so nothing is truly perfect, but ive found myself rereading this book alot and i dont know what im missing

so i wanted to ask about what magic systems you people have made using advice and or help from thaumatology, AND OR powers.

im sure in reading what other people made using its advice wil help me better understand why its so often reccomended, it just seems like magery+ the book, which feels outdated considering all the newer releases always fixate on powers?

so i was watching some hxh with my sister and there is a point where a character is explaining to the audience in narration that the reason a particalur character is so hard to fight is because his internal energies are quiet so its hard to tel which part of his body is being focused on to detect the on coming attack.

i know this is a common trope, it has shown up in jjk, dragon ball, hells paradise, but i was wondering how mechanically you could simulate it in a game.

yes there are deceptive attacks, feints, manuvers, but its just not the same thing because a big part of this trope is in hiding their attack they arent making it more difficult to throw, Example Netero aura is naturaly quiet he isnt waiting at the alst minute to relelase it to throw somone off, that reads more as a trait, yuta from jjk has so much ce that when reinforced its so big you cant tel lwhat is imbued or what isnt, also reads as a trait

so i was wondering if this was somthing youd have to setup as a detect vs obscure, or if detect could be used as a part of defensive combat the way precognitive parry is, or if this means when running systems like this they are better modeled as magery so you can play with alot of optinol rules
that arent necessarily fair with cp based advantages

sorry about spe.ling my keyboard is janky

So, imagine superman in GURPS. Not fit to his most impressive feats, but more to the vibes of his average appearance. The superman who gets stuck in alien goo and needs batman to save him with the adhesive.

It takes a LOT of points to be Superman-lots of no-weakness DR and a VERY high ST. Flight and heat vision don't come cheap either. I'd put him at about 800-1000 points.

Now say we want him to have a nemesis. Lex Luthor. The Brains. He's got high IQ and a lot of points in skills. He's rich as god, has some useful allies hired on retainer, has a few powerful friends who watch his incriminated butt for him. Oh, and he's President of the Goddamn United States (The rules for pricing this are a little vague, but its safe to say it WON'T cost more than superman's DR.)

But here's the thing. If I wanna match Lex to Supe's point total? Lex has like, 300 points left to spend. There's a reason for this.

For all Lex's world-shaping power, supes can zip into his office and splatter him into red mist before ANY of that power can stop him. Of course, Supes has code of honor. Lex as well has a sort of "Narrative deterrent" given the fallout that would fall on supes's head if he killed him. But still. Supes can ice him in one round.

The higher the stakes get--the closer Lex gets to "winning" in some way besides surviving superman--the less these "soft" protections start to matter.

This is all well and good, if that's the tension you want in your game. GURPS takes a realistic perspective on Superman and it's showing you how that kind UNHEARD OF physical potency would threaten entire institutions.

But what if you're NOT trying to run a game about two giants with their hands on the throat of the world? What if you imagine a WORLD of super-powers, where superman isn't unique, just kinda high-tier? In this world, if Superman beelines the oval office, he'll have 3 super-powered-secret-servicemen on him in seconds.

This is probably closer to the kind of game you'll want at your table; dueling giants is less compelling if you have a party of PC's to worry about.

***Here's where Setting-level discounts come in. I'd give characters in this world something like 20% off the point value of straight-forward "super powers." What will that do for my setting, and my players' character gen?

My superman player gets 20% off almost everything. He's a lot stronger now.

This is fair! In a world filled with NPCs with super-powers, the fact that superman has his powers isn't NEARLY so EARTH-SHATTERINGLY important. The simple fact that super-powers aren't THAT SPECIAL means random people everywhere either have them or are at least better prepared to deal with them. That alone simply makes these powers less practical and impactful for a PC to have.

But how's Lex doing? He doesn't get the discount at all--but his character sheet is still quite different.

His allies benefit from the discount, making them stronger even though he hasn't spent more points on them. Being president of a US with super-powered soldiers is even more expensive--but that's because it's simply a stronger advantage now.

Lex's abilities to lie, bribe, and manipulate are all unchanged on paper--but with all these powerful NPC's just flying around everywhere, those social skills are a LOT more valuable in this world. For this reason, a player can pay full price these abilities without feeling bad about missing out on the powers-discount.

Hi my dear GMs and players, how's it going? I'm only now starting to get the hang of creating less usual things in GURPS and was wondering: What are the coolest things you've created in GURPS? Especially in terms of a character's power or special move, and how did you build it in GURPS?

I’ve been playing GURPS for 30 years, and I’ve always wondered this:

Why isn’t combat a “contest role”? Sword skill vs dodge, with all the mods applied?

And does this “feel better “ than rolling a hit then finding out it was dodged?

And could this be a change for 5ed (if that ever happens)

The Intolerance disadvantage is -5 points if you're intolerant against a single large group or -10 points if you're intolerant against everyone not like you in some way...but what about the middle ground? What about Intolerance of several large groups (say, sexual minorities, primitive 'savages', AND regressive traditionalists)? Safer to split the difference and charge -7 points or say it's a -10 Intolerance: All 'uncivilized' people? (uncivilized to them).

I'm going to play a superhero GURPS campaign using the Supers module and I want to create the Ten Shadows. Could you help me? 150 base points and 50 disadvantage.