Hey total newby here

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't have all of the campaign prospectuses; I didn't keep them around at the start. I could certainly do a list of the campaigns I've run over the past quarter century, though not right at this moment; I need to catch a bus. . . .

Well, I know you've got real work to do, but if you ever get a moment to compile the list, I'd enjoy sharing it with my gaming group. (I'm also mulling over a plan to teach a summer class on role-playing games where I could see your list broadening the horizons—even blowing the minds—of the folks whose prior experience has been primarily with traditional fantasy computer RPGs.)

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by Dalin

I've enjoyed reading about your creative campaigns since the old Pyramid forums. Have you kept a running list of them, perhaps with the blurbs from your campaign prospectuses? I'd love to see such a thing if it exists. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a GURPS supplement called The Campaigns of William H. Stoddard.

Just in case you weren't aware, Jeff Wilson did host logs of some of those campaign. They are still available through the wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140928...com/wstoddard/

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

And "Y" ability is only usable "X" times per day is Luck, to a 'T'. Which is why I don't care about those gamist things in other games.

The difference, at least to me, is that die rolling is itself inherently an external meta-game activity. Meta-game adjustments to it are invisible to the characters. On the other hand, trying some particular attack move is an in-game choice of the character. There'd have to be some in-game reason why you can only do that three times, as an arbitrary limit will be sharply visible.

That kind of in-game limit is easiest to get away with in magic, because you can always just say "that's the way magic works". It's much harder to do with anything that supposed to be "normal" activity.

The narrative solution is to try to think of reasons why the character simply doesn't choose to do that attack more than three times a day. That's easier with some abilities than others (particularly some sort of super-attack while he's in the middle of a life-or-death combat), and of course the spur-of-the-moment rationale can be hard to improvise for many players.

GURPS appeals to me because I can build the character I want to play

Also why I like GURPS. I can still remember reading the 1e Basic book and being amazed as how naturally and how well it could fit all these ideas I'd had but could never shoehorn into D&D / Rolemaster / etc. classes. Also a reason to like TFT, but it wasn't as versatile, and very DF focused.

You can build whatever you want in Fate, too, but that's more because of the lack of mechanics than any particular support for breadth (or anything else). When the game mechanics are just "write down five (or seven) things about your character" and "you can have a +2 any time you think of a reasonably plausible reason some phrase fits the situation and you want to pay a Fate point", then obviously you've got a lot of flexibility.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Also why I like GURPS. I can still remember reading the 1e Basic book and being amazed as how naturally and how well it could fit all these ideas I'd had but could never shoehorn into D&D / Rolemaster / etc. classes. Also a reason to like TFT, but it wasn't as versatile, and very DF focused.

I remember getting introduced to Man to Man and loving the combat system as AD&D was, to put it bluntly, a mess. I then discovered GURPS 1st edition and it became my RPG of choice. I even wrote up a set of guidelines on how to use GURPS Magic in D&D (which I have updated to make it more flexible)

The convoluted way the old DMG1 showed how to convert between AD&D, Boot Hill, and Gamma World only served to show that having a different system for each genre was not a good idea.

I also remember Heroes and Champions and really didn't like all the min maxing nonsense and the largely 'you want to have spell x? Well build it' mentality.

[adblue]

So its been a while since I started this thread, but I recently began the campaign I was asking advice about. Does anybody have any advice for the first few sessions? I currently have two players, one is playing a pilot for hire, and the other one is a witch/detective. Whats a good way to integrate these two occupations into one quest?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by adblue

So its been a while since I started this thread, but I recently began the campaign I was asking advice about. Does anybody have any advice for the first few sessions? I currently have two players, one is playing a pilot for hire, and the other one is a witch/detective. Whats a good way to integrate these two occupations into one quest?

The obvious one is the witch/detective hires the pilot,or has a sponsor that does and possibly the pilot as an escort.

[Donny Brook]

What if the detective hired the pilot.

[Anaraxes]

The witch/detective is tracking down the ancient cultural MacGuffin somewhere in the wilds of Africa / the Pacific / South America. They'll need to hire a bush pilot to get there.

Or you could flip it around. The pilot is recently back from a trip, relaying ridiculous stories he heard from natives on the trip. The witch/detective is part of his audience, and perhaps the only one that realizes those stories might not just be superstition.

[adblue]

Oh sorry I didnt specify. They already work together as a sort of hired gun agency. They work case by case. I'm just worried one will be more involved in a given case than the other I suppose. I'm gonna steal some of these ideas anyways though.

[adblue]

Also whats some general advice for early sessions? This group tends to go a bit off the rails but not to an unmanageable degree.