My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps

Opellulo · 12-23-2020, 05:46 AM

Hi all,
After a 10+ year hiatus I decided to return to Gurps with a short adventure set in the excellent Gurps - The Witcher setting and It's a roller-coaster experience I want to share.

All started because a positive Covid test stranded me home for almost a month and I needed something to hold to my sanity before going bananas Chtulhu style (Great Ancients are trivial when you have to care to a 2 years old that cannot exit home). So I journeyed in something really ambitious: a short adventure in Rolld20 with friends from different countries that doesn't even share the same language (Italian and Spanish sounds similar but are way different). And... Did I already say that nobody knew Gurps and for one player this was the first experience ever with roleplay? The heights desperation pushes you!

Anyway I divided the party by language and put the non-humans on one side, so they could have a "private language" and a broken level "common language" then I gave everyone pre-made character sheets based on their ideas: quite weirdly each player choose a different take on fantasy stereotypes that together complemented quite nicely. Finally thanks to the books, videogames and TV Show everybody got an idea on how the setting worked so I was relieved of the most difficult task.

The adventure itself is a "small town (supernatural) mystery" with a bunch of fights to spice things up. I expected a bit of clumsiness but, after the first hour of warm-up the things started to run really smoothly and it was a blast for everyone: me included since the newbie catch a couple of really important details that gave momentum to the investigation.

During those winter holidays we'll have the second (and presumably last) session. But yeah, nice things can born from the weirdest of places :D

Anders · 12-23-2020, 05:47 AM

Sounds great. So what happened?

Say, it isn't that bad! · 12-23-2020, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders

Sounds great. So what happened?

Seconded. :)

Tinman · 12-24-2020, 10:20 AM

Welcome back to GURPS.
During the summer, I ran a GURPS DF campain for 5 of my friends kids who could not go to camp. They were scattered all over 3 time zones in the US.
They loved it & 3 are still playing on Sundays.

Opellulo · 01-08-2021, 03:02 AM

Sorry for the late reply but I'm not used anymore to check forums regularly :P. Anyway here are some more details on the adventure, first meet the characters:

Alastar "something" (he changes his surname constantly because his true one is dangerous to throw around) - Spanish Player, Pathfinder and D&D veteran
He is a noble born bounty hunter and de-facto party leader, a martial character that likes money and good life when is not running from a vengeful brother that inherited the title.

Evalon "The painted One" - Spanish player, veteran of multiple RPGs
A war refugee that grew up as a streetchild learning to survive with a quick hand, a smirk and some untrained illusion magic (he never found a mentor or academy to learn to properly channel his inner chaos)

El'Dehlgin "Kas" - Italian Player, some experience with Pathfinder
An Aen Sidhe elf (in the witcher world those are the "standard" ones, not the extradimensional ones that I didn't have the time or will to template) a pretty run of the mill ranger with a murky past as a scoia'tel commando.

Halbrim von Tavartar - Italian player, newbie
A dwarven alchemist with a couple useful formulas and photographic memory (the idea behind this PC was creating one with invaluable unique skills so the player may be involved more often)

The Adventure is pretty standard: Rurik Veld, a very shifty noble, hired the party to catch a group of runaways that stole something valuable from him. In reality those are miners that were hired by the marquis to prospect and find ancient dwarven mines and tombs that are abundant in the area. Those miners succeeded but refused to trespass because the mine they found was sealed by magic runes. So the marquis breached the seals himself and this unleashed a bunch of vengeful spirits that are now haunting the hamlet.
Most of the adventure is about setting the tome, I'm really trying to sell the idea of the haunted village so I'm inserting random spooky elements (that could be hooks for eventual future adventures) and I have also created a limited cast of defined NPCs which can be useful for hints if the investigation became struck. So far the party is keeping a good speed and rhythm, and in the next session there will be a major fight and, if they are quick enough, they could probably solve the case and have the final boss encounter (which will be the Marquis and/or some Witcher wights depending on their choices and morals).

The players are really digging the game so far, for the veterans it's refreshing to have a fantasy roleplay game that's not focused on combat. Weirdly enough the only mechanic they are taking time to adjust are the skill checks: for some it feels "wrong" to have to roll low numbers :D

Opellulo · 02-19-2021, 06:59 AM

And the first chapter is done! (it took me 4 sessions instead of the planned 2 but I think this meant that we had a good time)

So the Halbrim player sadly had to left but two new players and their characters joined:

Erthan
A former witch hunter that had his world view shattered when he fell in love with a sorceress he was tasked to watch upon (i suppose in a way is what he did). This witch awakened something in him so he can now perform some low level fire magic (this will be an important plot point but don't tell them). They had to split when his former comrades come to burn both at the stake; she fled and he survived thanks to this new powers but now, scarred and on the run, he is after this mysterious girls that stole his heart.

Maika Veld
It was a NPC that a player took over. He's the heir to a small barony: an idealistic, and quite naive, fighter with poor real world experience but a lot of potential. He wish to become a knight to defend his people but the troubles caused by his greedy father game him a bad awakening on the "realpolitik" of being noble born.

The chapter ended with this cool fight against two very nasty skeleton/wights and a materialized specter. The curse was lifted, a lot of really awful history come to surface and now they have to face the consequences on how to handle what they discovered.

I rewarded them with a generous amount of points so they can tailor better the pre-made PC i gave them, and in exchange, they refined their backgrounds kindly giving me a lot of hooks i can use to push further their adventures. The starting characters were built under a strict "no magic, no cinematic" rule (i assembled them as a sort of fantasy special-ops) but now i have lifted this restrictions so I cannot wait to see which kind of nonsense i will have to bargain with :D.

Oh Glicol how i missed all this!

Ottriman · 02-20-2021, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Opellulo

The players are really digging the game so far, for the veterans it's refreshing to have a fantasy roleplay game that's not focused on combat. Weirdly enough the only mechanic they are taking time to adjust are the skill checks: for some it feels "wrong" to have to roll low numbers :D

I understand that, rolling high = good, is very much the norm in most RPGs today.

bocephus · 02-20-2021, 04:20 AM

Ya, I have this odd dichotomy as well. I "grew up' with Roll high to win, and now its roll low (for most things).

I also find it odd that I have a more random success/fail with 3d6 than D20 which I always enjoyed a statistically high amount of success.

Sounds like you are doing well though having a group of 5 players :)

I struggle to keep a consistent group of 3 with a few floaters. sometimes I have 3, sometimes they are all there and I end up trying to manage 7 players over zoom.

But like many, I JUST WANNA PLAY!!!!

Anaraxes · 02-20-2021, 05:42 AM

Of course, you still want to roll high for damage after you roll low to hit.

This helps prevent people from showing up with loaded dice with manufacturing flaws. Beware of players that insist on using a separate set of dice for skill checks and damage :)

Stormcrow · 02-20-2021, 06:17 AM

I have never understood the RPGer's need to viscerally feel whether they're supposed to roll high or low, rather than just knowing the rules of what you're rolling for. The outcome will be the same whether or not you know ahead of time whether a high roll or a low is better. And when people reject entire game systems because they're used to wanting to roll in the opposite direction... I just don't get it.

12-23-2020, 05:46 AM	#1
Opellulo Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rome, Italy	My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps Hi all, After a 10+ year hiatus I decided to return to Gurps with a short adventure set in the excellent Gurps - The Witcher setting and It's a roller-coaster experience I want to share. All started because a positive Covid test stranded me home for almost a month and I needed something to hold to my sanity before going bananas Chtulhu style (Great Ancients are trivial when you have to care to a 2 years old that cannot exit home). So I journeyed in something really ambitious: a short adventure in Rolld20 with friends from different countries that doesn't even share the same language (Italian and Spanish sounds similar but are way different). And... Did I already say that nobody knew Gurps and for one player this was the first experience ever with roleplay? The heights desperation pushes you! Anyway I divided the party by language and put the non-humans on one side, so they could have a "private language" and a broken level "common language" then I gave everyone pre-made character sheets based on their ideas: quite weirdly each player choose a different take on fantasy stereotypes that together complemented quite nicely. Finally thanks to the books, videogames and TV Show everybody got an idea on how the setting worked so I was relieved of the most difficult task. The adventure itself is a "small town (supernatural) mystery" with a bunch of fights to spice things up. I expected a bit of clumsiness but, after the first hour of warm-up the things started to run really smoothly and it was a blast for everyone: me included since the newbie catch a couple of really important details that gave momentum to the investigation. During those winter holidays we'll have the second (and presumably last) session. But yeah, nice things can born from the weirdest of places :D __________________ “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

12-23-2020, 05:47 AM	#2
Anders Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Gothenburg, Sweden	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps Sounds great. So what happened? __________________ “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius

12-24-2020, 10:20 AM	#4
Tinman Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New York City	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps Welcome back to GURPS. During the summer, I ran a GURPS DF campain for 5 of my friends kids who could not go to camp. They were scattered all over 3 time zones in the US. They loved it & 3 are still playing on Sundays.

01-08-2021, 03:02 AM	#5
Opellulo Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rome, Italy	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps Sorry for the late reply but I'm not used anymore to check forums regularly :P. Anyway here are some more details on the adventure, first meet the characters: Alastar "something" (he changes his surname constantly because his true one is dangerous to throw around) - Spanish Player, Pathfinder and D&D veteran He is a noble born bounty hunter and de-facto party leader, a martial character that likes money and good life when is not running from a vengeful brother that inherited the title. Evalon "The painted One" - Spanish player, veteran of multiple RPGs A war refugee that grew up as a streetchild learning to survive with a quick hand, a smirk and some untrained illusion magic (he never found a mentor or academy to learn to properly channel his inner chaos) El'Dehlgin "Kas" - Italian Player, some experience with Pathfinder An Aen Sidhe elf (in the witcher world those are the "standard" ones, not the extradimensional ones that I didn't have the time or will to template) a pretty run of the mill ranger with a murky past as a scoia'tel commando. Halbrim von Tavartar - Italian player, newbie A dwarven alchemist with a couple useful formulas and photographic memory (the idea behind this PC was creating one with invaluable unique skills so the player may be involved more often) The Adventure is pretty standard: Rurik Veld, a very shifty noble, hired the party to catch a group of runaways that stole something valuable from him. In reality those are miners that were hired by the marquis to prospect and find ancient dwarven mines and tombs that are abundant in the area. Those miners succeeded but refused to trespass because the mine they found was sealed by magic runes. So the marquis breached the seals himself and this unleashed a bunch of vengeful spirits that are now haunting the hamlet. Most of the adventure is about setting the tome, I'm really trying to sell the idea of the haunted village so I'm inserting random spooky elements (that could be hooks for eventual future adventures) and I have also created a limited cast of defined NPCs which can be useful for hints if the investigation became struck. So far the party is keeping a good speed and rhythm, and in the next session there will be a major fight and, if they are quick enough, they could probably solve the case and have the final boss encounter (which will be the Marquis and/or some Witcher wights depending on their choices and morals). The players are really digging the game so far, for the veterans it's refreshing to have a fantasy roleplay game that's not focused on combat. Weirdly enough the only mechanic they are taking time to adjust are the skill checks: for some it feels "wrong" to have to roll low numbers :D __________________ “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

02-19-2021, 06:59 AM	#6
Opellulo Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Rome, Italy	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps And the first chapter is done! (it took me 4 sessions instead of the planned 2 but I think this meant that we had a good time) So the Halbrim player sadly had to left but two new players and their characters joined: Erthan A former witch hunter that had his world view shattered when he fell in love with a sorceress he was tasked to watch upon (i suppose in a way is what he did). This witch awakened something in him so he can now perform some low level fire magic (this will be an important plot point but don't tell them). They had to split when his former comrades come to burn both at the stake; she fled and he survived thanks to this new powers but now, scarred and on the run, he is after this mysterious girls that stole his heart. Maika Veld It was a NPC that a player took over. He's the heir to a small barony: an idealistic, and quite naive, fighter with poor real world experience but a lot of potential. He wish to become a knight to defend his people but the troubles caused by his greedy father game him a bad awakening on the "realpolitik" of being noble born. The chapter ended with this cool fight against two very nasty skeleton/wights and a materialized specter. The curse was lifted, a lot of really awful history come to surface and now they have to face the consequences on how to handle what they discovered. I rewarded them with a generous amount of points so they can tailor better the pre-made PC i gave them, and in exchange, they refined their backgrounds kindly giving me a lot of hooks i can use to push further their adventures. The starting characters were built under a strict "no magic, no cinematic" rule (i assembled them as a sort of fantasy special-ops) but now i have lifted this restrictions so I cannot wait to see which kind of nonsense i will have to bargain with :D. Oh Glicol how i missed all this! __________________ “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

02-20-2021, 04:20 AM	#8
bocephus Join Date: Apr 2019	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps Ya, I have this odd dichotomy as well. I "grew up' with Roll high to win, and now its roll low (for most things). I also find it odd that I have a more random success/fail with 3d6 than D20 which I always enjoyed a statistically high amount of success. Sounds like you are doing well though having a group of 5 players :) I struggle to keep a consistent group of 3 with a few floaters. sometimes I have 3, sometimes they are all there and I end up trying to manage 7 players over zoom. But like many, I JUST WANNA PLAY!!!!

02-20-2021, 05:42 AM	#9
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps Of course, you still want to roll high for damage after you roll low to hit. This helps prevent people from showing up with loaded dice with manufacturing flaws. Beware of players that insist on using a separate set of dice for skill checks and damage :)

02-20-2021, 06:17 AM	#10
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	Re: My remote, multi-language, introductory return to Gurps I have never understood the RPGer's need to viscerally feel whether they're supposed to roll high or low, rather than just knowing the rules of what you're rolling for. The outcome will be the same whether or not you know ahead of time whether a high roll or a low is better. And when people reject entire game systems because they're used to wanting to roll in the opposite direction... I just don't get it.