GURPS Power Ups suggestions

[Refplace]

Couldn't find a thread going back a few months.
With Pyramid ending in a few months we will soon see our last Alt GURPS issue (maybe even today, still refreshing). I would love to see some of that material and other items like stuff from PKs site and alt pricing for abilities like Regrowth as perhaps a Power Up issue.
Anyone else?
Suggested Items from this thread

• Gadgeteering and Invention rules
• Techniques, including noncombat ones
• LogST
• Benchmarks

[whswhs]

A systematic guide to designing techniques, especially non-combatant techniques, could be useful.

[Phantasm]

Gadgeteering and Inventing. PLEASE!

[A Ladder]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Gadgeteering and Inventing. PLEASE!

This one. 100%.

Making up new stuff, making modifications to existing things (permanent vs temporary), inventions that cross TL, examples at various TLs (especially TL3, 6, and 8), etc.

Include pricing components (monetarily and with character points), a how-to for scrounging (what you can get and what you have to buy), how facilities and wealth interact with making stuff, etc.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Gadgeteering and Inventing. PLEASE!

No, offense, but I don't see this happening because these represent a conceptual flaw in the rules. Like Strategy and Tactics they require the PLAYER to come up with something. For Strategy/Tactics a successful roll means the CHARACTER has a plan, but the PLAYERS don't get one, for Inventing/Gadgeteering the player first has to come up with something to invent and then the GM has to OK it before any rolls are made, so outside of genres that can support any weird ideas the players come up with they shouldn't be allowed.

Also note that they shouldn't be used for the players improvising gear and traps.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by scc

No, offense, but I don't see this happening because these represent a conceptual flaw in the rules. Like Strategy and Tactics they require the PLAYER to come up with something. For Strategy/Tactics a successful roll means the CHARACTER has a plan, but the PLAYERS don't get one, for Inventing/Gadgeteering the player first has to come up with something to invent and then the GM has to OK it before any rolls are made, so outside of genres that can support any weird ideas the players come up with they shouldn't be allowed.

My players do come up with a lot of weird stuff, and we operate mostly in TL7-11^. "Take what you know works and go gonzo with it" is one player's mantra when it comes to some stuff, so much that I as a GM can't keep up half the time.

For instance, just recently I had a group of flying saucers working off Tesla-tech (coil levitation and electromagnetic force fields, mostly); my one player who is playing an electrical engineer (and is an electrician with knowledge of Tesla's theories IRL) salvaged part of the saucer and has begun tinkering with it to make other stuff Tesla theorized but never had a working prototype for. (He doesn't have Gadgeteering, but even the base Invention rules are somewhat letting me down.) Another player does have Quick Gadgeteering, but hasn't yet really used it to MacGyver anything.

Some assistance for both the GM and the Gadgeteer player would be greatly appreciated in this instance.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Gadgeteering and Inventing. PLEASE!

This would have my vote too ! Mixing base, DF, AtE and Mars Attack rules in a single book...

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

This would have my vote too ! Mixing base, DF, AtE and Mars Attack rules in a single book...

What I really need here is not power-ups. It's rules for coming up with new gadgets without being a transcendent genius. For example, there are vast numbers of musical instruments on Earth, and someone has to have invented each of them. But it really shouldn't take a Gadgeteer, or even an engineer, to invent the bullroarer or the balalaika. Or, if you prefer weapons, the shortsword or the bolas.

In my current campaign, the PCs have gone to a shipwright and asked to have a new ship made at +22% scale. I'm really not sure what the shipwright is rolling against, or with what difficulty. The price looks to make the ship Average or maybe Complex, but the penalties for that are just insanely high.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by whswhs

In my current campaign, the PCs have gone to a shipwright and asked to have a new ship made at +22% scale. I'm really not sure what the shipwright is rolling against...

Carpenter or Engineer (Ship hulls) would be my call.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by whswhs

In my current campaign, the PCs have gone to a shipwright and asked to have a new ship made at +22% scale. I'm really not sure what the shipwright is rolling against, or with what difficulty. The price looks to make the ship Average or maybe Complex, but the penalties for that are just insanely high.

I'm working on straightening out the inventions rules, in the same space navy campaign that made so much use of Back to School. Building a modified ship with the same technology isn't a new invention. A new arrangement of sails, or method of ballasting, might be.

If the shipwright has plans on hand for a ship similar to what the PCs are asking for, he'll likely offer them that. TL1-3 ship plans aren't engineering drawings in the modern sense, but a set of rules of thumb about how many structural members you need, and what thickness everything should be.

If the PCs are asking for something bigger than the shipwright has built before, he'll need to make an Engineer/TL1 (Ships) roll to figure out how his scaling rules should be applied, and he'll likely err on the side of caution. This will make the ship heavier than it strictly needs to be, but that's better than having it break in a storm. Refining ship designs takes time and trials, even today.

If the PCs aren't asking for something larger than he's done before, but want a size he doesn't have plans for, I'd give the shipwright Engineer +2 or so to design it.