01-15-2021, 10:50 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2020
|
My Alternate Attributes
After reading through Power-Ups 9, I've decided to take a crack at designing my own Attributes and Secondary Characteristics. I would love your feedback and constructive criticism, and hopefully help with some potential problems I haven't been able to crack. Or if you think I've got good ideas here, please let me know!
My Goals
Basic Attributes
Secondary Characteristics
Possible Problems
Last edited by MrCrowley; 01-16-2021 at 01:31 PM. Reason: Typo |
01-15-2021, 11:31 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: My Alternate Attributes
From my perspective, it seems unbalanced. Some suggestions:
Agility should govern defensive actions. Dodge should be equal to Agility/2+3 (rounded down) and Block and Parry being based off the (AGL + combat skill relative level)/2+3 (rounded down). Other uses are for full body actions. Dexterity should govern offensive actions. Any attack roll should be based on Dexterity, as should any fine motor control use. Increase DX cost to 10 CP/level. Fighting should just disappear, as should Action Points and Robustness Threshold, as they are difficult to balance. Action Points just add needless complexity to combat while Robustness Threshold can be replaced by a setting rule that allows characters to purchase up to their HP in DR (Semi-Ablative, -20%; Tough Skin, -40%) [2 CP/level]. Damage should be unchanged. Swing damage is not unrealistic, I can deal much more damage swinging a baseball bat than poking someone with it, and the difference caps at +2d at higher ST. Basic Speed determines turn order and should provide a bonus to Fast-Draw Contests (based on [AGL+Per]/4, keeping fractions), so it can be worth 1 CP per +0.25 CP, and Per cost can be reduced to 5 CP/level. Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 01-15-2021 at 11:40 AM. |
01-15-2021, 03:26 PM | #3 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: My Alternate Attributes
I'm not sure what you mean by "technical skills" here. The obvious reading is things like Armoury, Mechanic, and so on, but those are IQ-based in vanilla GURPS.
__________________
The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
01-15-2021, 03:31 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Mar 2020
|
Re: My Alternate Attributes
|
01-16-2021, 06:22 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
|
Re: My Alternate Attributes
You might want to look at David Pulver's “Playing With Health” article in Pyramid #3/83. While the nominal purpose of the article is to suggest ways to increase the importance of HT in the game, out makes some interesting arguments about dividing physical skills up along DX, Speed, and Per.
In a nutshell, the article suggests moving long-ranged missile combat skills to Per (i.e., Beam Weapons, Bow, Crossbow, Innate Attack, Liquid Projector, Gunner, and Guns), and suggests some others where the question of whether to assign them to Per or DX is more debatable: shorter-ranged attack skills (Bola, Blowpipe, Spear Thrower, Throwing, Throwing Art, Thrown Weapon) and some vehicle operation skills (Piloting, Driving, and Boating). You might consider using a base of (Agl+Per)/2 for these. It also suggests the possibility of moving melee combat skills to (Speed×2): Boxing, Brawling, Cloak, Fast-Draw, Judo, Karate, Lance, Net, Parry Missile Weapons, Shield, and all melee weapon skills. But you're pretty much already doing the something like that with your Fighting characteristic. Incidentally: since Speed is only used for initiative (which only cares about the order and not the difference) and Dodge, you could make Speed into something that works more naturally with skills by doubling its calculated value and saying that Dodge is Speed/2 instead of Speed. This also suggests that vehicle operation skills, which provide a vehicular dodge score, might more naturally be based off of Speed. |
01-16-2021, 08:07 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Mar 2020
|
Re: My Alternate Attributes
Ooh, I like the idea of basing vehicle skills off Speed x 2. I disagree that Per plays a huge roll in ranged weapon skills after you've identified your target (though Bad Sight should certainly give you a penalty) based on my real world experience with Bow Sport and Guns
Last edited by MrCrowley; 01-16-2021 at 08:13 AM. |
01-16-2021, 08:16 AM | #7 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: My Alternate Attributes
Can I suggest renaming your sawn-off DX as "Precision"? It will save confusion.
__________________
The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
Tags |
alternate abilities, alternate gurps, power-ups 9 |
|
|