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Old 09-06-2017, 04:54 PM   #8
Kelly Pedersen
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: Statting a GURPS magical house

I agree that a) this is something the GM should do, rather than the player (since players building Allies can be a little broken, and also because the GM can add interesting surprises and twists to the Ally if they build it, which is a shame to give up the opportunity for), and b) that a formal "racial template" isn't really necessary if this is the only example of its type likely to show up in the campaign (the main benefit of a racial template, treating it as a single trait with one cost, and not worrying about disadvantages applying against the disadvantage limit, doesn't apply for Allies anyway, because there's no need to have them conform to a disadvantage limit in the first place).

I do think it's reasonable to stat this as an Ally rather than a Patron, however. Given that the players are dealing with very high point costs, even a high-stat thing like this will probably be within the point budget as an Ally. Also, the Patron approach seems to me to be more appropriate for something like the Starship Enterprise, or at least a similarly large ship, where its abilities and capacities are actually not that well-defined (so just rolling the Frequency of Appearance to see if it will help is appropriate) and that won't be getting directly involved in the characters' actions all the time (i.e., it stays in orbit when the group goes down to the surface, and its intervention is then confined to a handy beam-up or orbital bombardment). Whereas it sounds like the magic house, here, will probably be involved much more heavily in the character's day-to-day activities, and if the Moving Castle is the model, it's capabilities are actually pretty defined, and not all that expansive.

So, all that said, here's a stab at a character sheet for Howl's Moving Castle that you can hopefully adapt to your player's needs:

Moving Castle

[1463]

Attributes [975]
ST 500 (SM +7, -70%; No Fine Manipulators, -40%) [980]
DX 9 [-20]
IQ 10
HT 12 [20]

HP 500
Will 10
Per 10
FP 0

Basic Lift 50000
Damage 51d/53d

Basic Speed 5 [-5]
Basic Move 5

Ground Move 5/10
Water Move 1

Advantages [611]
Claws (Hooves) [3]
Compartmentalized Mind (1) (Controls, *1/2) [25]
Damage Resistance (5) [25]
Damage Resistance (15) (Top only, -40%) [45]
Enhanced Move (Ground) (1) [20]
Extra Legs (4 Legs) [5]
Cannons 1-3, each Huge Piercing Attack 15d (Inaccurate (-3), -15%; Increased Range (x10), +30%; Increased Range (1/2D Range only) (x5), +10%; Limited Use, 1 shot/day, slow reload (requires 30 seconds per shot), -35%; Rapid Fire (+2), +40%) [156]
Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]
Injury Tolerance (No Blood; Unliving) [25]

Disadvantages [-123]
Appearance (Ugly) [-8]
Cannot Kick [-5]
Fragile (Flammable) [-10]
Horizontal [-10]
Mute (Mitigator: Can speak internally, -20%) [-20]
No Fine Manipulators [-30]
Restricted Diet (Flammable material, Very Common) [-10]
Social Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10]
Unhealing (Total) [-30]
Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25]

Packages [0]
Machine [25]
Quadruped [-35]

Some notes:
I used this image as a reference to build this. I actually built it with the Spaceships system initially, to give me a sense of how much ST/HP, DR, and HP it should have.

Throughout, I've assumed that Calcifer, the fire spirit that powers the Castle, basically is the Castle for character purposes - hence why it has an IQ score and mental disadvantages.

The Damage Resistance is based on the fact that it has wooden walls over most of it, but iron on the top.

The Cannons there represent the cannons the Moving Castle has on its roof. I don't recall if they were ever fired in the movie - what I've got there represents what I think is a reasonable thing for medieval-looking cannons to be doing. Probably a little low, damage-wise, actually, but they're already tying up a lot of points.

The Appearance is because the Castle isn't exactly an architechtural masterpiece, and indeed looks rather ramshackle.

Mute with the Mitigator limitation is because while the Castle can't "speak" outside itself, someone can still talk to Calcifer. The price is based on the idea there there's the Mute disad, and then a countering "Not Mute" advantage, normally worth 25 points, but in this case, limited to "internal only", which is worth 1/5th normal cost. Mathematically, this is the same as a -20% limitation on Mute.

Wealth (Dead Broke) means that the Castle doesn't come with any gear (separate from the stuff it's paid points for), and the "owner" needs to supply anything they want for that out of their own pocket.
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