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Old 07-18-2013, 07:25 PM   #1
Tzeentch
 
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Default Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

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Originally Posted by Steven Marsh View Post
We aim to please, with Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay! It's got new GURPS gear, weapons, and rules of interest to shootists, including modern-day equipment, centuries-old weaponry, a fictional arms manufacturer (with history and firearms stats), and more.

Give your game the shot in the arm it needs, with Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay. Pick up this issue by itself or subscribe today to load your "magazine clip" for months of gaming goodness!
Here's a brief rundown of the articles:


Modern Warfighter: Gear
Slowly but surely you'll be getting an entire book out of this :) This article covers the non-weapon gear for a modern warfighter that currently doesn't have an entry in the gear books. It also goes into some detail on military uniforms (I kept this very generic and rules legal) because that's actually a rather interesting subject all by itself (this is kept very generic and I avoided US-centric absolutes when possible).

More information on body armor that extends Tactical Shooting? Check pp. 8-9

Need stats for the Switchblade missile/UAV? That's on p. 13 under Loitering Munition.

Curious about those barricades you see around bases and embassies? On p. 14 they are described under Multi-Cellular Defense Barriers.

What are the stats for modern FROG gear and other infantry uniforms? Check p. 8 easy peasy.

Canine tactical harnesses? See p. 11 my friend. I got it all covered.


The Devil's Chariot
The very image of badass Russian hardware for decades: The Mi-24 Hind. Han's left no detail unmentioned in this article, especially for applying this vehicle to a GURPS Action campaign.

The article covers the Mi-24V in detail, including information on the electronic warfare systems, what you can attach to the hardpoints, the flight controls, and even the seat layout (no graphics, unfortunately).

The guns obviously get the Han's level of detail and there NINE new weapons with full stats and background information provided.

Curious as to what was contained on the survival gear of the crew? Did you know it had 20 water-purification tablets? Well now you do, because Hans has listed everything (with High-Tech page references).


Eidetic Memory: Brock-Avery Guns
The manufacturer may be fictional, but the guns have detailed backgrounds and at least one is listed for every major era of play. The grave gun was particularly interesting and I had to look it up (yes, they really existed). A good example of how to take a theme and apply to something that is usually considered just an appliance.

BTW the mention of Transient Lunar Phenomena was pretty interesting. Need to see if I can get a database of those locations :)

Dodge This
Douglas "Crunch King (in training)" Cole wrote this article to address the common question of "why is it so easy to dodge ranged attacks in GURPS?" After all, even in Rifts you have that -10 to dodge and that's hardly a paragon of realism!

Well, he breaks it down for you. So complete is the article that I don't really know what else to say. IF a player ever gripes about the dodge rules, especially the notes from Tactical Shooting, I'll just print this off and hand it to them without saying a word. Maybe a grunt of command to actually read the entire thing.

What's also interesting is that he extends the rules for Parry, Block and Dodge to cover all sorts of ranged attacks (and not just thrown weapons) - even spells!

The Nock Volley Gun
Sometimes seen, never really described, this article is about a particularly interesting historical weapon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nock_gun). That alone isn't very exciting or novel, but what sells it are the optional rules that really spell out why this thing remains a historical artifact :)

I found the rules regarding the insane muzzle blast of this gun to be particularly noteworthy!


Magic Bullets
Need to put a diamond shard in your bullets to hunt that monster? This article has you covered, my friend. Obsidian cored rounds with a wolf tooth enamel coating? It's just an order away!

This article extends the already voluminous list of "special loads" for bullets as seen in Horror, Monster Hunters, and Pulp Guns.

Random Thought Table: Make Each Shot Count
Here Steven discusses using ammo itself as a pacing mechanism instead of just a largely forgotten bit of character sheet accounting. As he notes, many people approach this from a video game perspective where acquiring ammo is something you can do at a dead sprint with daemons spitting blood a footstep behind and you can casually load it even underwater or while on fire.

IMO this is one of the best Random Thought Tables in a long time, and I'm sure there will be a lot of GMs who get their eyes opened to these types of game balancing and plot pacing concepts.
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Old 07-18-2013, 09:20 PM   #2
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

I'm very pleased to see that my estimates for the IOTV with ESAPI and SBI came within one point of DR and two pounds of those in the article, especially after half the people I showed them to thought they were far too high. Altogether an excellent article (and issue!).
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Old 05-02-2015, 10:49 PM   #3
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

I'm necroing this as I have a specific question regarding the article Dodge This.


In Move and Attack (Evasive) the character is given the use of Parry in defenses, which is normally denied to Move and Attack. Why was this done?

Was it just so they'd have 2 forms of defense?




I'm of the mind to remove defenses entirely and allow the incoming attack penalty to apply to all attacks, not just ranged... as it stands anyone using this already practically foregoes attacks and defenses (the penalties are very stiff, minimum -6 to non-Ranged DX and defense skill rolls).
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Old 05-03-2015, 01:54 PM   #4
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
I'm necroing this as I have a specific question regarding the article Dodge This.


In Move and Attack (Evasive) the character is given the use of Parry in defenses, which is normally denied to Move and Attack. Why was this done?

Was it just so they'd have 2 forms of defense?
Nope.

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I'm of the mind to remove defenses entirely and allow the incoming attack penalty to apply to all attacks, not just ranged... as it stands anyone using this already practically foregoes attacks and defenses (the penalties are very stiff, minimum -6 to non-Ranged DX and defense skill rolls).
Not sure where you get the minimum -6 from. You may select any penalty you like from -1 to your encumbered move, and your skill use takes double that penalty, and defenses take the full penalty. It's only -6 if you choose -3 to hit you and to your own defenses.

Ultimately, I figured that the penalties to skill and defensive use substituted for the "no parries" rule already in place. This isn't specifically Move and Attack, it's a variant, so don't port the rules from one into the other.

No one will prevent disallowing defenses, but this article was about Dodging. I'll admit that if I did the numbers, I've forgotten the result, but the point of this one isn't to substitute for Dodge, it's to make the kind of motion that one tries to make by "moving evasively" to a game where Dodge is declared after a hit roll is made. I've seen objections in games I've played, and heard them here on the boards, where that sort of "telepathy" breaks suspension of disbelief.

No one objects - or rather, perhaps, I don't see nearly as much objection - when you declare Dodge after someone swings at you with a sword or stick. Easier to rationalize that you see the hit's going to miss you. But that's just not usually possible with bullets - this is the Gunplay issue, after all.

In short: this move is for ranged attacks. For hand-to-hand fighting, use the RAW. If your encumbered Move is 5, you may select a penalty to shots trying to hit you from -1 to -5. You will take -2 through -10 to your attacks, and -1 to -5 to Block and Parry. You may (in this example) move up to 2.5 yards (likely dropped to 2 due to hex use) and must move at least 1.
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Old 05-03-2015, 03:42 PM   #5
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

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Originally Posted by DouglasCole View Post
Nope.
Hmmm. Okay.

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Not sure where you get the minimum -6 from.
Brain fog. It was late (like really late, almost 8 hours past when I'd normally have gone to sleep) and my mind was saying "This replaces the normal -2 to hit for Move 5... so.. ergo..".

Obviously upon rereading with no Brain Fog, Move and Evasive penalties to hit stack (with high enough Encumbered Move).

Quote:
Ultimately, I figured that the penalties to skill and defensive use substituted for the "no parries" rule already in place. This isn't specifically Move and Attack, it's a variant, so don't port the rules from one into the other.
Okay. I'm converting it to a Movement Option, thus useable on 'Move' and any 'Move and' (just not Slams).

Thus the questions to see how your intentions line up with what I'm trying to import.

Quote:
...this article was about Dodging. I'll admit that if I did the numbers, I've forgotten the result, but the point of this one isn't to substitute for Dodge, it's to make the kind of motion that one tries to make by "moving evasively" to a game where Dodge is declared after a hit roll is made. I've seen objections in games I've played, and heard them here on the boards, where that sort of "telepathy" breaks suspension of disbelief.
Yeah, I knew that. The Brain Fog was just interfering.

Quote:
No one objects - or rather, perhaps, I don't see nearly as much objection - when you declare Dodge after someone swings at you with a sword or stick. Easier to rationalize that you see the hit's going to miss you. But that's just not usually possible with bullets - this is the Gunplay issue, after all.
In my "Harsh Reality" games I require the Players to declare Defense intentions before attack rolls are made (on a critical failure on the attack I let them "take back" the declaration, some misses are just that obvious). Same on my side of the table.

I was rereading the Gunplay article last night to see what I'm going to add to the Harsh Reality Ruleset.



Now... since I've got your attention let's rap a moment about why Ranged attacks only suffer -2 (or Bulk whichever is worse) and Melee suffers double to hit penalty? Was this to discourage 'suicidal charges' on gunners?
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Old 05-03-2015, 03:46 PM   #6
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Now... since I've got your attention let's rap a moment about why Ranged attacks only suffer -2 (or Bulk whichever is worse) and Melee suffers double to hit penalty? Was this to discourage 'suicidal charges' on gunners?
-2 or Bulk in addition to the regular penalty. So if you take -3 to your foe's defenses and are shooting, you're at -6 (for the Evasive movement) plus -2 or Bulk, so if you're shooting an M16 with Bulk -4, you're at -10 when shooting and -6 for melee.
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Old 05-03-2015, 04:51 PM   #7
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/57: Gunplay

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-2 or Bulk in addition to the regular penalty. So if you take -3 to your foe's defenses and are shooting, you're at -6 (for the Evasive movement) plus -2 or Bulk, so if you're shooting an M16 with Bulk -4, you're at -10 when shooting and -6 for melee.
Ahhhh... yes. That clears that right up.


I kept reading "still have" as meaning "unchanged" and not regarding "additional pain" as meaning add these penalties together:

"Ranged attacks still have the additional pain of suffering from -2 or the Bulk of the weapon, whichever is worse, and you lose any previously acquired Aim bonuses."
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