|
Yeah, it's requests that are basically infodumps that worry me the most. "I find a computer terminal, then roll research to find X Y and Z" when the players are going in a direction that wasn't planned can get a little stressful at the table. Basically, it's hard to pretend to be the Internet, I guess is what I'm saying. I'm getting better at it as I learn what kinds of things my players tend to investigate, but I still try to have something down in advance because it's been happening a lot.
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 00:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 16:47 |
|
|
King Hotpants posted:Yeah, it's requests that are basically infodumps that worry me the most. "I find a computer terminal, then roll research to find X Y and Z" when the players are going in a direction that wasn't planned can get a little stressful at the table. Basically, it's hard to pretend to be the Internet, I guess is what I'm saying. I'm getting better at it as I learn what kinds of things my players tend to investigate, but I still try to have something down in advance because it's been happening a lot. Ah. Well, in real life I am The Internet (proper nouns, please!) so it's a lot easier.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 01:39
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:Yeah, it's requests that are basically infodumps that worry me the most. "I find a computer terminal, then roll research to find X Y and Z" when the players are going in a direction that wasn't planned can get a little stressful at the table. Basically, it's hard to pretend to be the Internet, I guess is what I'm saying. I'm getting better at it as I learn what kinds of things my players tend to investigate, but I still try to have something down in advance because it's been happening a lot. In a tabletop or irc game if a player asks for a multiple topic research attempt on anything that's not trivial, I'll usually say, "Alright, you're going to be busy looking stuff up for the next few hours. What's everyone else doing?" to buy a little time to decide what he could reasonably find based on his rolls for each topic. In a forum game it's easier, since there's not much of a time constraint on me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 02:26
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:Yeah, it's requests that are basically infodumps that worry me the most. "I find a computer terminal, then roll research to find X Y and Z" when the players are going in a direction that wasn't planned can get a little stressful at the table. Basically, it's hard to pretend to be the Internet, I guess is what I'm saying. I'm getting better at it as I learn what kinds of things my players tend to investigate, but I still try to have something down in advance because it's been happening a lot. The best trick for this is to just quietly file the serial numbers off whatever you had planned, paste in whatever he was looking for, and then sub it in as if it was the original plan. This is basically the secret to smoothly running a live game. You let the players go in whatever direction they want, but somehow that direction is always the one you prepared material for.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 02:54
|
|
|
Make sure you add mushrooms in there somewhere too. Hey, is the GURPS GM Screen worth buying?
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 04:24
|
|
|
The Oldest Man posted:The best trick for this is to just quietly file the serial numbers off whatever you had planned, paste in whatever he was looking for, and then sub it in as if it was the original plan. This. You need a plan A, but just because the players don't follow it exactly doesn't mean you can't use the stuff you prepared for it. If they start hacking computer terminals instead of talking to the mayor, they still get the same information, and if they go through the underground cave instead of cutting the roof off you can still use the same fight. As long as they don't know what they avoided it doesn't matter.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 05:02
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:Yeah, it's requests that are basically infodumps that worry me the most. "I find a computer terminal, then roll research to find X Y and Z" when the players are going in a direction that wasn't planned can get a little stressful at the table. Basically, it's hard to pretend to be the Internet, I guess is what I'm saying. I'm getting better at it as I learn what kinds of things my players tend to investigate, but I still try to have something down in advance because it's been happening a lot. Infodumps are one of the reasons I'm glad I don't play GURPS in person. I like to be able to think about what I'm going to post. There's always times when I don't have any information available, but I figure those times its ok to say there's nothing available. Even if a person is a master hacker, if the information isn't on the computer they're hacking, then they aren't going to get it. No matter how low they roll, if the information isn't there they can't get it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 21:44
|
|
|
I just got Low-Tech and a few of the e23 supplements, so I'm thinking about doing a Crusades game, or something generic that lets me do a swordsmen wandering around the desert game. Edit: and I have encountered my big problem with GURPS, particularly in running historical games: as soon as I go look through my piles of books I find like 5 different things I want to run just as much. Gotta figure out which setting I can tell the best story in, I guess. long-ass nips Diane fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jun 15, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2011 23:31
|
|
|
I checked Mass Combat after the mention here, and daaamn. Now I'm way too tempted to run a game.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2011 14:40
|
|
|
Has anyone here ever done a game in GURPS with GURPS Illuminati? I love the apophenia played half way for humor but with dark edges tone of their more conspiratorial splats, but I've never played in or run a game that wasn't incredibly mission oriented. You could fit level screens and loading areas into the way that my group typically plays. EDIT: Now I sort of want to run a GURPS Deadly Premonition.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2011 22:47
|
|
|
Impermanent posted:Has anyone here ever done a game in GURPS with GURPS Illuminati? I love the apophenia played half way for humor but with dark edges tone of their more conspiratorial splats, but I've never played in or run a game that wasn't incredibly mission oriented. You could fit level screens and loading areas into the way that my group typically plays. I've run a few, and if that's the way your group likes to play you can still run one, it'll just take a bit more effort. You still need to have concrete goals in a less mission-oriented session, just to keep people on task and stop them getting bored. If your plot is about the terrible mind controlling chemicals in McDonald's secret sauce, you just have to break that idea down into chunks that your group is okay with handling.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2011 22:54
|
|
|
Does anyone know what book the Energy Reserve advantage is in? I've looked in the core book, Magic and Thaumatology and I'm not finding it anywhere. e: I know what it does, I'd just like a page number to point at.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2011 04:31
|
|
|
Epsilon Plus posted:Does anyone know what book the Energy Reserve advantage is in? I've looked in the core book, Magic and Thaumatology and I'm not finding it anywhere. It's in Powers, page 119.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2011 04:44
|
|
|
It's also in Dungeon Fantasy 3.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2011 05:02
|
|
|
The Oldest Man posted:The best trick for this is to just quietly file the serial numbers off whatever you had planned, paste in whatever he was looking for, and then sub it in as if it was the original plan. All choice is an illusion in Tairn World. The Matrix has you, poster.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2011 06:06
|
|
|
DiscipleoftheClaw posted:All choice is an illusion in Tairn World. The Matrix has you, poster. Watch out for friendly fire.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2011 06:28
|
|
|
GURPS looks really interesting, and I've got an idea for a game I want to do, but I'm low on money right now and all the books (or ebooks) that it looks like I need are really expensive. I looked at GURPS Lite, but it seemed to be missing a lot. Any way to get into this stuff cheaply?
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2011 23:35
|
|
|
Sam. posted:GURPS looks really interesting, and I've got an idea for a game I want to do, but I'm low on money right now and all the books (or ebooks) that it looks like I need are really expensive. I looked at GURPS Lite, but it seemed to be missing a lot. Any way to get into this stuff cheaply? GURPS Lite is probably your best bet, really. Thing is with GURPS, once you buy the Basic Set that's all you need. Period. The other books like Action and Dungeon Fantasy only supply templates and alternate rule suggestions, but you could certainly run a Dungeon Fantasy-esque game without it at all.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 01:09
|
|
|
I would hesitate a bit to just plunk down the cash and just run a game. I learned from someone else, and it helped quite a bit. It does take some time to get used to keeping everything in your head. Can you find a local game you'd want to join as a player? A local shop might have games posted. I would bet there are forum games you could look into, as well. Also, the PDFs are expensive, but wow, they are incredibly well-formatted.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 02:08
|
|
|
Twobirds posted:I would hesitate a bit to just plunk down the cash and just run a game. I learned from someone else, and it helped quite a bit. It does take some time to get used to keeping everything in your head. The PDFs are also OCR! Super handy for searching, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 12:54
|
|
|
Twobirds posted:I would hesitate a bit to just plunk down the cash and just run a game. I learned from someone else, and it helped quite a bit. It does take some time to get used to keeping everything in your head. I can't really go to games right now, and I don't know if I could join a forums game without knowing the rules. Also, I'm using unreliable stolen internet, so there's a pretty good chance of me going missing from a game for a few days, which I don't want to do.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 14:57
|
|
|
Sam. posted:I can't really go to games right now, and I don't know if I could join a forums game without knowing the rules. Also, I'm using unreliable stolen internet, so there's a pretty good chance of me going missing from a game for a few days, which I don't want to do. Yeah, the only issue is the internet one. Honestly, I think it's a lot easier to learn to play systems online. The joy of GURPS is that you only really need to learn the character creation rules - once you have a character, you can just narrate your character's actions, and it's the GM's job to convert that into game terms. Between this thread and any decent GM willing to work with newbies, you should be fine, if you can post!
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 16:14
|
|
|
Gau posted:Yeah, the only issue is the internet one. Honestly, I think it's a lot easier to learn to play systems online. The joy of GURPS is that you only really need to learn the character creation rules - once you have a character, you can just narrate your character's actions, and it's the GM's job to convert that into game terms. Between this thread and any decent GM willing to work with newbies, you should be fine, if you can post! You may have mistaken GURPS with PDQ, I think. While what you describe is reasonably common, perhaps distressingly so, GURPS more than most games will reward a player that is actually willing to learn the rules of the game.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 16:38
|
|
|
Winson_Paine posted:You may have mistaken GURPS with PDQ, I think. While what you describe is reasonably common, perhaps distressingly so, GURPS more than most games will reward a player that is actually willing to learn the rules of the game. Yes, as they go on, they can learn the rules. But as a starting player, GURPS can be a LOT to take in - so I teach the character creation system, the basics of skills and what your stats do, and then go from there. When they desire more knowledge of how things work (often from hearing more experienced players at the table/forum talk about what they're doing and why), they can go to the books or ask me!
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 16:51
|
|
|
Gau posted:Yes, as they go on, they can learn the rules. But as a starting player, GURPS can be a LOT to take in - so I teach the character creation system, the basics of skills and what your stats do, and then go from there. When they desire more knowledge of how things work (often from hearing more experienced players at the table/forum talk about what they're doing and why), they can go to the books or ask me! Well sure, but this is not an advantage GURPS has over any other game, really. I mean if I am teaching L5R to someone and they want to know how to stab a guy or something, the same thing happens?
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 17:28
|
|
|
Gau posted:Yeah, the only issue is the internet one. Honestly, I think it's a lot easier to learn to play systems online. The joy of GURPS is that you only really need to learn the character creation rules - once you have a character, you can just narrate your character's actions, and it's the GM's job to convert that into game terms. Between this thread and any decent GM willing to work with newbies, you should be fine, if you can post! I've been looking at the GURPS games in the PbP forum, and a lot of the stuff on the character sheets doesn't seem to be listed on the GURPS Lite thing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 17:41
|
|
|
If you can provide us with examples, I'm sure that we can bring light to the darkness!
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 17:46
|
|
|
Sam. posted:I've been looking at the GURPS games in the PbP forum, and a lot of the stuff on the character sheets doesn't seem to be listed on the GURPS Lite thing. Well, GURPS Lite is just that, a truncated version of the full rules. So some of the more esoteric advantages and disads aren't listed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2011 17:54
|
|
|
There's really no good way to play GURPS without at least one copy of the Basic Set. I have the PDFs and two people in my group have the books and that seems to cover the five of us pretty well. If you can just afford one book, get Characters. It's $30 and it'll at least give you character generation plus the basics of combat. Campaigns is incredibly useful, don't get me wrong, but if I could only have one I'd take Characters.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2011 10:10
|
|
|
Hi, everybody! I bought the GURPS GM Screen and I figured I would share with you delightful people just what it's about. I paid about 25 bucks for the screen, and it comes with the following components:
Overall the product is fairly solid, and the screen is sturdy enough to hang pieces of paper from (handy if you are tracking Initiative). The inclusion of the conversion notes make it useful if you're trying to work with one of the older sourcebooks that are out of print like GURPS Swashbucklers or Black Ops and you're not entirely sure what one advantage/skill/etc. translates to. It is really clear that this product was supposed to help herald in the then-new edition of GURPS 4th, but the tables itself on the screen are organized somewhat haphazardly. It'll take a little bit of getting used to, and while I wouldn't mind a more usable layout, I'm not exactly complaining because it does have a fair amount of info that you would want to keep handy as a GM. Plus, GURPS art. Can't go wrong with that. The GURPS GM screen is broken up into the following sections: Outside left flap: Critical Hit Table, Critical Head Blow Table, Critical Miss Table, Unarmed Critical Miss Table, Damage from Thrown Objects (callout box) Outside right flap: Task difficulty (sidebar), Cover DR Table (sidebar), TL modifiers, TL Familiarity, Geographical and Temporal Scope, Physiology Modifiers, Equipment Modifiers, Language Modifiers, Time Spent (on skills), Critical Success and Failure (callout box), Size Modifier and Reach (callout box) Inside left flap: Melee attack modifiers (Attack maneuver, posture, situation, other actions by attacker, target, visibility); Active Defense Modifiers (Defender equipment, maneuver, posture, situation, nature of attack, other actions by defender); Random Human and Humanoid Hit Location Table, including notes section for each body part. Left page: Ranged Attack Modifiers (Attack maneuver, situation, attacking from moving vehicle/mount, opportunity fire, other actions by attacker, special targets, targeting systems, visibility); Size and Speed/Range (callout box); Firearm Malfunctions (Mechanical or Electrical Problem, Misfire, Stoppage, Explosion) Right page: Fright Check Table, Long Distance Modifiers (callout box), Probability of Success, Posture Table, Critical Spell Failure Table (sidebar) Inside right flap: Quick Reaction Table, General Injury: Lost Hitpoints, Lost Fatigue Points, Throwing Distance, Maneuever Table, Damage Table (callout box) And that's it! I can answer some more questions about this but I think you can buy it for five bucks on the e23 store at this point and make your own. Support local game stores and SJgames etc, but I don't even know if this is still in-print. aldantefax fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Jun 23, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2011 18:44
|
|
art (lol) on the outside
|
How are there 5 and a half character sheets? Is one of the back sheets missing?
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2011 18:48
|
|
|
Yeah. Character sheets are two front/back pages, and actually, the last 3/4 of the remaining character sheet missing. So really it's 5 1/4 instead.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2011 19:28
|
|
|
Picked up the Basic Set and some other stuff cheap at a used book store. This seems like a really nice system. One question (I'll probably have more later): Why is HP so low compared to weapon damage, even with DR from armor added? It seems like people will die from a few shots from most guns at TL 5 or above. Is there something important I'm missing?
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:05
|
|
|
Sam. posted:Picked up the Basic Set and some other stuff cheap at a used book store. This seems like a really nice system. One question (I'll probably have more later): Why is HP so low compared to weapon damage, even with DR from armor added? It seems like people will die from a few shots from most guns at TL 5 or above. Is there something important I'm missing? Because most people die from being shot, if they don't receive medical care? (GURPS is focused on modeling reality. To quote, "Armor is IMPORTANT.")
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:07
|
|
|
Sam. posted:Picked up the Basic Set and some other stuff cheap at a used book store. This seems like a really nice system. One question (I'll probably have more later): Why is HP so low compared to weapon damage, even with DR from armor added? It seems like people will die from a few shots from most guns at TL 5 or above. Is there something important I'm missing? You're supposed to die from a few shots from guns! GURPS is a pretty realistic combat system, as such things go, and things tend towards being very lethal, especially at higher TLs. If you use the limb damage rules (which you should, like a real gangster) even at low TLs a blow from a club can easily cripple a hand or an arm, at least temporarily!
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:09
|
|
|
Is there a particular setting or concept you'd need people absorbing lots of ammo?
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:09
|
|
|
You don't actually start dying until you're at -1xHP. That means that for average people with 10 HP, getting shot once or twice from a pistol is unlikely to kill you immediately, though a rifle will definitely wreck your poo poo. Of course, if nobody stabilizes you, you'll probably bleed out. In the Equipment chapter they even talk about what armor is prevalent at different tech levels, and they talk about the fact that around TL 5-6 most armor goes away since it really won't do much against firearms, but around 7-8 when kevlar vests exist armor starts to come back since it's catching up to the kind of punishment conventional weapons can do.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:18
|
|
|
Post-apocalyptic. I get how GURPS is supposed to be realistic and IRL getting shot can hurt you pretty badly, but it seems like bad gameplay for PCs to die in one or two turns.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:22
|
|
|
Sam. posted:Post-apocalyptic. I get how GURPS is supposed to be realistic and IRL getting shot can hurt you pretty badly, but it seems like bad gameplay for PCs to die in one or two turns. There are some ways around that, but the basic solution is to avoid getting shot at. Or shoot first. Guns are dangerous, by design. Besides, it takes awhile to actually die - you don't make a test until you are at full -HT which gives Joe Sixpack a twenty point threshold. The other solution is to wear armor.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 16:47 |
|
|
No, gameplay just models reality a lot more. If getting shot can kill a PC, then they're going to be a lot more averse to gunfights and/or wear body armor. In reality, unless a character gets shot in the head, getting shot once isn't too big of a deal as long as rudimentary medical care is available. You take some damage, go into negative HP, make some rolls, and might pass out from shock. But as long as you're not left for dead, you'll get out of it okay. Edit: Yeah, what Winson said.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2011 01:25
|
|