New, Eager, and Overwhelmed

[Ronvarone]

So I just started yesterday, and I use that term loosely. I spent at least four hours staring at a book that made no sense to me because I wasn't used to the format. Anyway I'm wondering if anyone can help me create a character?
As far as playing goes I'm sure the GM and the other players will help but I can't ask them about creating a character during a game now can I?
There are just two things. I wish to be an undead human or elf I don't care. And a wizard. which books should I look at what should I be putting points into? Or hey you just happen to have an undead character lying around.

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by Ronvarone

As far as playing goes I'm sure the GM and the other players will help but I can't ask them about creating a character during a game now can I?

Uh, why not? My group has been playing for years and the players still run characters by me. I would think a little hands-on assisted character building would be the best way to get what you want in a PC and not have one heck of a confusing and frustrating first session for you, the GM, and all involved.

BTW, which book?? The Forumites can help more if we know what you have access to.

[Ronvarone]

I was looking for advice, and I'm a really quiet guy at times. And answers that were answered we quick and weren't really delved into. We're running 3.5 and I a lot books from them. So I'm asking which one should I be looking in.
I started making a character then someone asked me a question that I didn't know how to answer and I had to start over by his standards or something.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Ronvarone

We're running 3.5 and I a lot books from them.

Do you mean GURPS 3rd Edition Revised? SJGames never went in for the whole "let's pretend games are software" (except in the case of Frag; but that's an obvious connection).

At any rate, I personally don't appreciate players making characters for my games sight unseen, and I suspect most GURPS GMs are the same way. It's my setting, I know what's in it better than the player does and it's my campaign so I know what kind of characters suit it better than the player does. I suggest you try to get the GM to help you outside of your normal game sessions; perhaps by email.

[mlangsdorf]

The primary book for wizards is GURPS Magic. You can play a wizard with only the basic set, but GURPS Magic has more information.

For putting together your first character, you probably want to use templates to give you some guidance. They're described in Chapter 7 (p 258) of the Basic set.

There's a template for a very basic wizard on p260 of Basic. There's a vampire template on p262. Putting those two together would get you a simple undead wizard.

If you have access to GURPS Magic, there's a lich template on p160 which is a bit cheaper than the vampire. GURPS Fantasy has Elves, more undead options, and more wizard options.

You really should discuss your character concept with the GM. He may have opinions on what kind of character you can play, or limit how many character points you can spend. Even the cheapest undead wizard is going to run 150+ CP, so it may not be an option in a low-powered game.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

The primary book for wizards is GURPS Magic. You can play a wizard with only the basic set, but GURPS Magic has more information.

Assuming the setting even uses one of the systems in that book, which was likelier in 3e, IME, but still not guaranteed.

For putting together your first character, you probably want to use templates to give you some guidance. They're described in Chapter 7 (p 258) of the Basic set.

Correct for GURPS 4th edition, but if he's playing 3eR there was a sidebar with some proto-templates near the beginning, IIRC.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ronvarone

So I just started yesterday, and I use that term loosely. I spent at least four hours staring at a book that made no sense to me because I wasn't used to the format. Anyway I'm wondering if anyone can help me create a character?
As far as playing goes I'm sure the GM and the other players will help but I can't ask them about creating a character during a game now can I?
There are just two things. I wish to be an undead human or elf I don't care. And a wizard. which books should I look at what should I be putting points into? Or hey you just happen to have an undead character lying around.

Actually you really should talk to the GM and find out what kinds of undead his game even has.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Ronvarone

So I just started yesterday, and I use that term loosely. I spent at least four hours staring at a book that made no sense to me because I wasn't used to the format. Anyway I'm wondering if anyone can help me create a character?
As far as playing goes I'm sure the GM and the other players will help but I can't ask them about creating a character during a game now can I?
There are just two things. I wish to be an undead human or elf I don't care. And a wizard. which books should I look at what should I be putting points into? Or hey you just happen to have an undead character lying around.

For starters, everything you need to build your character is in GURPS Characters (although you may want to reference GURPS Campaigns), except possibly an unded meta-trait. I don't remember that one. The selection of spells in the two core book is also small, so you'll want GURPS Magic which contains all the spells (or many hundreds of them anyway).

The way point-based RPG character creation works, is you start with a perfectly average human, with an average value in each general characteristic (called attributes in gURPS, which also happens to be standard RPG design parlance), and tabula rasa approach to skills and acquired abilities, and with an average social position, in terms of wealth and social status and so forth.

To make your character, you take this average individual and apply changes to it. Almost all changes have a point cost (a few cost zero points, for instance the change of giving him a name almost always costs zero points).

Changes that can be assumed to be desirable from a general point of view, have a positive point cost, meaning you pay points for them. You "buy" them.

Changes that can be assumed toi be un-desirable from a general point of view, have a negative point cost. You get points for applying them to your character. You're bribed to take these. GURPS wants you to choose a few so-called disadvantages for your character (without caring which ones) and so you get rewarded for it.

Some changes are applied as packages. These are species templates, although called racial templates in GURPS jargon, and meta-traits. Human is the default, the norm, os there's no racial template for it, but there are various racial templates for elves.

A racial template is a collection of attribute modifiers, advantages and disadvantages, and sometimes skills, that you buy as a package while paying the sum cost of all package components. Thus in GURPS it's mostly convenience, although racial templates can sometimes give access to traits that you cannot have otherwise in a particular world, for instance humans cannot have the advantages Parabolic Hearing or Telescopic Vision, since it is outside of human genetic variety (no human - in that particular world - is ever born with those traits), but some elf racial templates contain one or both of these.

Meta-traits serve a variety of purposes, but function a bit like racial templates.



The challenge of point-based character creation in RPGs is that you have to think, and you have to analyze and break down your character concept, into its component parts, before you can express it via the game-mechanical choices you make during character creation.

A "wizard" is generally more intelligent than average. A "mage" might not be and a "spellcaster" isn't necessarily, but etymologically, "wizards" have to be clever.

So one of the first changes you want to apply, is to buy your character's IQ attribute up. Buy several levels of IQ. The core book tells you that this costs 20 points per +1, which is expensive, but well worth it.

Secondly, if the GURPS Magic magic system is used in the campaign (which is no necessarily the case - GURPS has alternative magic systems, and your GM might have built his own), your character needs some levels of the Magery advantage in order to be able to cast spells, and sometimes in order to learn them at all. They also make him function as if his IQ was higher, for the purpose of casting spells, and using the Thaumatology skill (which represents knowledge of magic theory).

For instance if you buy IQ 14 and 3 levels of Magery, then for the purpose of magic, your character functions as if he is IQ 17.

Remember to buy Magery 0 before Magery 1. Magery 0 costs 5 CPs, and each level after that costs 10 CPs. That can be a bit confusing, but Magery 0 gives you some neat benefits.

You can buy Magery level 1 and up cheaper, by taking Limitations on it, which serve to reduce the point cost. For instance you can buy Fire Magic-Only Magery, for 6 CPs per level. For your first character, you should not do this, however, because it's better to have wide advancement options open for you, until you know what kinds of spells, which "Colleges" of spells, you think are fun and useful to use. (Note you can "stack" normal Magery and Limited Magery, so that for instance your character can function as if he has Magery 1 generally but Magery 4 for the purpose of spells from the Healing College. Magery 1 costs 10 CPs (plus 5 CPs for Magery 0), and the three levels of Limited Magery costs 6 CPs each).

You also need spells, and the Thaumatology skill, and if you're going to use attack spells, you will probably want to learn the Innate Attack skill.

In GURPS Characters, page 170, there's a table showing the cost of skills at various skill levels relative to the controlling attribute.

For spells and for Thaumatology, think of the controlling attribute as IQ+Magery, which in your case is 17.

Spells are all either Hard or Very Hard, so you can see that it costs you 1 CP to buy a Hard spell at skill level 15, and 2 CP to buy a Very Hard spell at skill level 15. And that's the skill level you should aim at, for a starting character. Look through GURPS Magic (or the small selection of starting spells in the core book) and select a couple dozen spells, and remember to buy prerequisite spells.

Your character might need to try talking his way out of trouble, and for that you can try using the Fast-Talk skill. That's an IQ/Average skill (the difficult levels are often abreviated E, A, H and VH), and you don't necessarily want much of it. Just pay 1 CP to buy it at IQ-1, which is 13, and then if you find that it's fun and useful in play, you can buy more of it later.

Your other attributes also need to be looked into.

If the GURPS Magic spell system is the magic system used, then spellcasting costs Fatigue Points, so you'd like to have more of these than an average person has. You can pay 20 CPs to buy your Health (HT) attribute up to 12. This gives you 2 more fatigue points as part of the cost, and generally makes your character hardier. You can also buy 4 levels for Extra Fatigue for 3 CPs each, total cost 12 CPs (total cost 32 CPs including the cost for +2 HT). This means you have 16 FP, many more than the average person.

You can sell down Strength and even Dexterity to get more points. Selling ST down to 9 or even 8 fits the stereotype of the physsically frail wizard, and you are bribed with 10 CPs per -1 to ST. Note that your ability to carry stuff is quite impaired by this, though. At ST 7 you can carry slightly less than half of what an average human (ST 10) can carry. ST 8 is a little under 2/3, and ST 9 is about 4/5.

You can sell Dexterity down to 9. It has a lot of effects on your character, but you get a 20 CP bribe for it.

You do need some defensive ability, though, and purchasing the Staff skill fits the character concept. It's on page 208 and is DX/A, so assuming you followed my advice and "sold down" DX to 9, you pay 1 CP to get the Staff skill at skill level 8.

Or if you didn't sell DX down, yu might want to pay CPs to get the STaff skill at skill level 10. That route is a somewhat more physical character.

You should also take some disadvantages. They help a lot to individualize your character, plus you're bribed for taking them. One disad often worth taking for a spellcaster, is Unfit which costs -5 CPs (that is, you get a 5 CP bribe), or the more extreme version, Very Unfit which costs -15 CP.

These gimp your Fatigue Points, but only for the purpose of physial activity. FPs you spend and recover on spells are unaffected. That's a fairly good way to simulate a physically frail character who has a lot of magical energy he can use.

You should also sell your Speed derived stat down to the nearest whole number. Or buy it up to the next higher whole number. With HT 12 and DX 9, your Speed is 5.25, and so I suggest you take -0.25 Speed which costs -5 CPs.

Or if you did not sell down DX, and it is still 10, then your Speed is 5.5, and then there is some sense in you paying 10 CPs to buy Speed up to 6.0. This means your character reacts and moves faster.

The above are just examples of some of the changes you can apply to your character. A real GURPS character has at least 3 times as many changes as the ones outlined above, and often 5 or 8 times as many.

Do remember that if there's a skill your character hasn't bought, he can only use it at default, for instance Riding which defaults to DX-5 so that your character has a Riding skill of 4 (or 5 if you didn't "sell down" DX), or not at all because there are a few skills that do not have defaults - they can only be used by those trained in them.

Apart from defaults, the only thing you get for free is the ability to speak, understand, read and write one single language. Everything else must be bought.

[Rendu]

Is it possible to sit down with your GM some time before the actual game starts? Character creation can be a lengthy process, especially for the inexperienced, and there can be a lot of back-and-forth between GM and player.

I started making a character then someone asked me a question that I didn't know how to answer and I had to start over by his standards or something.

This statement kind of worries me. If you're being bullied by another player who needs to show off his command of the rules. bring it up with the GM. If you're being bullied by the GM, get out NOW! Gaming should be fun, first and foremost. Don't stress out over it. If your GM doesn't understand that you're unfamiliar with the system, and isn't willing to cut you some slack for that, then I would try to find another GM.

[Anders]

Try looking at GURPS Lite.. That will give you a basic understanding. Add frills as needed.