Things for a fantasy game

[Kolikeos]

I started running a fantasy campaign. Kind of medieval with wizards and magic swords and monsters. Taking a lot of inspiration from D&D settings.

I have the two basic set books, but there are a few things which I feel are missing.
*Ready made enemy statistics. There are a few, but not nearly enough. Where can I get more?
*Magic Items. Healing potions and magical weapons are a staple of fantasy settings, but I couldn't find almost anything about magic items. Yes, there is a sections named "magic items" and some of the skill descriptions state that they can be used to brew potions, but I don't want to have to invent everything from scratch. I want some magical equipment to be readily available like the weapons and armor in the "equipment" section.
For example, if one of the characters wants to use "herb lore" to create a healing potion, how does it work? What would be the effects of the potion? How much would it cost to just buy one?
*Spells. Yes, I know there's a GURPS book for spells, but I just bought the basic set books and am not going to buy another book just yet.

Thanks in advance!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Kolikeos

I started running a fantasy campaign. Kind of medieval with wizards and magic swords and monsters. Taking a lot of inspiration from D&D settings.

I have the two basic set books, but there are a few things which I feel are missing.
*Ready made enemy statistics. There are a few, but not nearly enough. Where can I get more?
*Magic Items. Healing potions and magical weapons are a staple of fantasy settings, but I couldn't find almost anything about magic items. Yes, there is a sections named "magic items" and some of the skill descriptions state that they can be used to brew potions, but I don't want to have to invent everything from scratch. I want some magical equipment to be readily available like the weapons and armor in the "equipment" section.
For example, if one of the characters wants to use "herb lore" to create a healing potion, how does it work? What would be the effects of the potion? How much would it cost to just buy one?
*Spells. Yes, I know there's a GURPS book for spells, but I just bought the basic set books and am not going to buy another book just yet.

Thanks in advance!

Magic will answer some of your needs. It has Alchemy and Herb Lore rules that supply you with a list of over a hundred standard potions.

It also has many more spells and thes include ones for enhcnting arms and armor and a system for pricing same.

I wouldn't try and do a long-running or broad-based Fantasy game without Magic.

There are some monsters in Fantasy and some more in Banestorm but the sections invovled are small.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Kolikeos

*Ready made enemy statistics. There are a few, but not nearly enough. Where can I get more?

There are several free resources with occupational and racial templates:
GURPS Historical Folks
Natural Encyclopedia
It Came From the Forums

For help putting them together, check out the Homebrew Monsters thread.

[ULFGARD]

I'd second the "no long running game without magic".

As for enemy stats... I usually only care about a handful of skills or abilities, so it's quite sparse to generate. For instance, my orc warriors might have Broadsword-12, Shield-12, Bow-12 ST-13 DX-11 IQ-9 HT-12 with HP-15 and Per-10. No need for much more unless something else comes up (for instance, the party is trying to sneak through orcish territory, in which case I'd need to determine the "typical" tracking skill, or the skill of an individual). And with this as a basis, I can create "champions" or "rangers", etc., just by adding skills and/or tweaking attributes.

It's a sparse move, somewhat arbitrary, but MUCH quicker and to the point. If I'm unsure, I build a "basic" orc character from scratch to see if the power level matches the PCs, though by now I'm pretty good at gauging it. (And it isn't always necessary to gauge it -- a high powered party might fight the very same orcs as a lower powered one if it makes sense to put them there, and likewise a lower powered party might end up facing a MUCH more powerful enemy or group of enemies if they do something stupid).

Finally, if you want some magic items and potions, the DF line might be good (although you'll still need magic to make good use of it). There's a lot of good info in there.

Hope this helps.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Kolikeos

*Ready made enemy statistics. There are a few, but not nearly enough. Where can I get more?

In addition to digging for fan-made material or crafting your own (recommended!), there are a few published resources. The Creatures of the Night series brings...mostly wierd, exotic monsters. Typically more for a horror-ish game than 'go into the cave and chop up everything' styles. Dungeon Fantasy 2 and Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, on the other hand, are aimed directly at the latter. They may be above the power-level of your campaign, though, as the DF line is intended for parties of 250-point heroes (or better)

Originally Posted by Kolikeos

*Magic Items. Healing potions and magical weapons are a staple of fantasy settings, but I couldn't find almost anything about magic items. Yes, there is a sections named "magic items" and some of the skill descriptions state that they can be used to brew potions, but I don't want to have to invent everything from scratch. I want some magical equipment to be readily available like the weapons and armor in the "equipment" section.
For example, if one of the characters wants to use "herb lore" to create a healing potion, how does it work? What would be the effects of the potion? How much would it cost to just buy one?
*Spells. Yes, I know there's a GURPS book for spells, but I just bought the basic set books and am not going to buy another book just yet.

Thanks in advance!

GURPS' basic, though not universally beloved, answer to all of this is GURPS Magic.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Kolikeos

*Spells. Yes, I know there's a GURPS book for spells, but I just bought the basic set books and am not going to buy another book just yet.

If you're not wanting to buy Magic, you'll need to build abilities through the advantage system. You'll find, that's actually more D&D-like than the GURPS spell system. The Magic system is much more structured than D&D, which is both good and bad, depending on your point of view.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I wouldn't try and do a long-running or broad-based Fantasy game without Magic.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

GURPS' basic, though not universally beloved, answer to all of this is GURPS Magic.

In general, I disagree (and agree with the "not universally beloved"): I strongly dislike GURPS Magic. Sitting down and creating magic spells through the advantage system may take some time and getting used to, but it's easier to create "spells as power" than to create new spells from scratch and figure out how to balance them. The point cost of the "spells as powers" balances it for you.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Sitting down and creating magic spells through the advantage system may take some time and getting used to, but it's easier to create "spells as power" than to create new spells from scratch and figure out how to balance them. The point cost of the "spells as powers" balances it for you.

If the OP wants help statting out particular spells-as-powers, I'm sure there are many forumites (myself included, time permitting) who would be happy to lend a hand.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

If the OP wants help statting out particular spells-as-powers, I'm sure there are many forumites (myself included, time permitting) who would be happy to lend a hand.

Absolutley, I'm pretty sure many of us would be willing to help.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kolikeos

Taking a lot of inspiration from D&D settings.

Since nobody specifically mentioned it (outside of DFM1) you might want to look into the Dungeon Fantasy series (especially DF 1-3) since it's a genre specific worked example for just that kind of game.

[Kolikeos]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

There are several free resources with occupational and racial templates:
GURPS Historical Folks
Natural Encyclopedia
It Came From the Forums

For help putting them together, check out the Homebrew Monsters thread.

Awesome! Thanks a lot!
Is there a similar compilation for magical items or spells perhaps?

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

If the OP wants help statting out particular spells-as-powers, I'm sure there are many forumites (myself included, time permitting) who would be happy to lend a hand.

Thanks. The spells as powers seems to be a good idea, I think it'll work for me. The problem is that I'll need to build every ability from scratch. Thanks for anyone willing to help!

I have a plants and flowers themed mage in my game. The player has described what her abilities do, but so far I've just been winging it as we go, without writing any specifics on her character sheet.
So I tried making up advantages based on Affliction, Innate Attack, Binding and Healing that will work for her. Took me lots of time.

Binding: The mage shoots magic plants that entangle the enemy.
This is a level 15 binding, with the following limitations: One shot, Costs 2 FP per use, Trigger (very common, flowers), Reduced range (1/5). 15 points.

Innate attack: The mage shoots plants that either cut everyone in the effected area or poison them. This is actually two different attacks, I used the "alternative attacks" rule to combine them.
Cutting plants: 1d+1 damage. Area effect (4 yards). Limitations: Costs 2 FP, Trigger (very common, flowers). 16 points.
Toxic plants: 1d damage. Area effect (2 yards), Contact agent, Cyclic (3 cycles after the first, resistible). Limitations: Resistible (HT-3), Trigger (very common, flowers), Costs 2 FP. 13 points, but only 3 as "alternative attack".

Affliction: The mage shoots plants that either strangle or blind the enemy. This is again two different affliction combined with "alternative attacks". I noticed that those afflictions are very much "save or die" effects, and I don't like that. The chance of them taking effect is small because enemies can both dodge the initial ranged attack and then resist with HT (and DR) easily. But if it does work it effectively eliminates that enemy from the fight because the effect remains for one or more minutes, with chocking that nearly assures death.
How would I go about making it more likely to work, but at the same time give the enemies a chance to fight it like with binding?

Healing: As it is in the book, it's way too likely to fail and just waste away the mage's FP. How would I go about making it more useful? Can I have its rolls based off HT instead of IQ? That would make it way more likely to work.

Utility plants: She can use plants as animated ropes, this can be used to fetch items from a few yards away, or to make climbing easier. I really don't know what to use here.