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Old 02-28-2018, 04:47 PM   #1
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Very High Level Action

So, the recent GURPS Shadowrun thread got me thinking of running GURPS games in a World of Badass/Crapsack setting like Shadowrun. I have been thinking about using the following rules for representing such settings:

1. PCs (and important NPCs) start at 400 CP while unimportant NPCs start at 200 CP (yes, your 80 year old granny has a rocket launcher and knows how to use it).

2. The Wealth advantage/disadvantage does not exist. Everyone starts with the base starting cash for average Wealth and can spend CP to increase their starting cash (1 CP gives an extra +50% starting cash). There is no such thing as Signature Gear. Character growth comes as much from earning cash as it comes from earning CP.

3. Every PC must possess Serendipity 1 and can purchase it as high as the GM allows (Serendipity uses can also be spent in place of CP for cinematic rules like Bullet Time or Flesh Wound). Cinematic rules that cost CP are explicitly allowed and encouraged.

4. If magic exists, it is much cooler than GURPS Magic, and tends to follow the rules of Syntactic Magic and Magical Powers. If augmentations exist, they are much cooler than the augmentations in Ultra-Tech or Bio-Tech, and functions more like Powers than technology.

What do you think?
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Old 03-02-2018, 09:13 AM   #2
ericthered
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Default Re: Very High Level Action

That's a valid play style, I think. As the back of Characters says: "Anything You Want."

Starting PC's at 400 points has been done. Monster Hunters is the most prominent example, but there are other places where it happens in individual games. Gurps will handle this level of play.

Point level vs. comparative power level is an interesting discussion. If you're in a stat-normalizer world, 150 points can feel world class. On the other hand, if a normal highway bandit has 100 points of mostly combat, 150 will feel just beyond the curve. My personal taste is to let the PC's be exceptional (and the NPC's less so), but There are settings where such a build makes sense. Particularly ones where various powers and high point racial templates are all over the place. But to me it feels like simulating one of my least favorite parts of video games and/or D&D.

Restricting wealth is a fine campaign switch. As is for requiring serendipity, Luck, or impulse buy higher purpose. I'm well aware of the first, and I've used the second.

Number 4 is an odd statement. I think you mean "Magic is either bought with powers or with a flexible system", and "Augmentations are bought as powers, but paid for with cash". being "More Awesome" than existing systems is a strange statement. Perhaps you mean more cinematic?

Anyway, Gurps will certainly do it. It just doesn't leverage much of what sets gurps aside from other systems.
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