GURPS: The Witcher (finished project)

[Grunker]

Finally! Took me long enough. After what seems like years of work, I finally finished my GURPS: The Witcher project on this cold day of January, thanks to a well-earned winter holiday from uni.

I've been working on the project on-and-off for around three years. This finished version includes a supplement for Characters and one for monsters and other secrets (recommended for GM's only). The plan is to release a Campaign setting further down the line, but right now, I want to get on with my own campaign and start writing.

There are a lot of people who deserve credit for their help during the work I did with 'Witchers and their World.' Specific credit and foreword will be present in Characters, but for now, tons of praise and thanks should be given to the communities of sjgames.com and The Witcher Wiki, which were two invaluable resources in creating these supplements. Specific credit should be given to Bruno, Gnomasz, Langy and vierasmarius from these forums.

A few things of note:

1) On GURPS rules and red threads: On one or two occasions, I break RAW a bit or add some not-so-universal add-ons to the rules. This supplement is first and foremost made for the purposes of my own campaign, and I wanted to be faithful to setting and mechanics feel of The Witcher over strict, no-nonsense adherence to GURPS. However, whenever I diverge even the slightest from RAW or something similar, I specifically point that out in the supplement. The rules that break most with "traditional GURPS" are the rules for Toxicity. To revert this to feeling GURPSian again, just make witcher potions require HT rolls to avoid tox damage and let that be the end of it. Simple :)

2) On monster entries: Monster entries are not listed in the usual way that GURPS handles such. I dislike GURPS' layout because I don't find it very useful for quick reference during play.

3) On general layout: I am not a layout-wizard. I stand by the content of the supplement, but I realize the layout won't win any beauty-contests. I hope it's bearable for anyone who'd like to use it. If anyone volunteers to edit layout, just send me a PM and receive my gratitude. Obviously, it would be quite a bit of work.

4) On master-copies: Should you want to edit these documents for your own purposes, don't hesitate to contact me. I will send you the master .odt documents. Just remember to credit me in edited copies. Thank you.

Finally, please point out errors and don't hesitate to comment, critique and so on and so forth. Editing the documents is very easy, so I'll be fixing and updating constantly (and I'll make sure to change the URLs as I do).

That said, for anyone who is interested, here are the downloads:

DOWNLOAD GURPS: Witchers And Their World - Characters

DOWNLOAD GURPS: Witchers And Their World - Monstrum

(right-click and select "save as" to save the .pdf on your computer, or if you have trouble opening the .pdfs in your browser)

[Agent]

Congratulations on the completion!

As I haven't read the book(s?) or played the games I can't say too much on that front, but looks interesting. Will keep it in mind if ever I do absorb some of the setting and want to adapt it.

On general layout: I am not a layout-wizard. I stand by the content of the supplement, but I realize the layout won't win any beauty-contests. I hope it's bearable for anyone who'd like to use it.

I think that it's entirely fine.

[Grunker]

Originally Posted by Agent

Congratulations on the completion!

Thanks!

On the subject of layouts, another user is reworking the files into letter-format. If I receive such copies from him, I'll make sure to upload those to the OP.

[Yorunkun]

Wow. Thanks for going through the trouble of writing this up and sharing it here.
Just skimmed the first PDF and found it very accessible.

A totally minor thing I noticed: On page 12, I think you confused "probably" with "properly". Anal, I know. Just FYI.

Also, I would have moved the templates and lenses to chapter one or two, but that's just me.

Anyways, really good work. Again, thanks.

[Grunker]

Originally Posted by Yorunkun

Wow. Thanks for going through the trouble of writing this up and sharing it here.
Just skimmed the first PDF and found it very accessible.

[...]

Anyways, really good work. Again, thanks.

Thanks!

A totally minor thing I noticed: On page 12, I think you confused "probably" with "properly". Anal, I know. Just FYI.

Like I said: editing these things really is 0 trouble. So feel free to point out even mistakes as small as these.

Also, I would have moved the templates and lenses to chapter one or two, but that's just me.

Lenses?

The reason templates come so late is that The Witcher template really is sort of a summary for the entire thing. It draws from almost all aspects of the supplement. At least, that was my logic, to the extend that there was one.

I guess the practical reason is that I couldn't finish the template before I had finished the manual, haha.

[corwyn]

Again, congrats on finishing.

I think DX on the Witcher main template should cost 40 points unless I'm missing something. I went there first and at first glance I thought this was for 3e due to attribute costs.

[Dark Archon]

I can't just walk by. Where is Unfazeable in Witcher's template? There should be at least mention of Killjoy, also. To quote Geralt:

Aedd Gynvael and its pile of trash, a huge stinking heap of garbage that I have to enter because I'm paid to do so, because I was created to deal with the filth that fills others with fear and disgust. I have been deprived of the ability to feel, so I was not able to feel the horror of that disgusting squalor, so I would not retreat nor flee before it, full of dread.

[Dark Archon]

Also, I don't understand: do the silver-coated weapons bypass monster DR or no? In Characters:

A sword made of solid silver has an Armor Divisor against monsters vulnerable to silver of (4) instead of the normal (2) provided by a silver-coated sword.

In Monstrum:

Non-magical sword made of solid silver (silver-coated weapons are not enough!) usually has an Armor Divisor of (2) against the supernatural DR of monsters.

Which one is right? I personally think it is to be first one; otherwise, silver-coated weapons make no sense.

Also, supernatural DR of monsters seems to be too high for me. In books it was rare for normal people to kill monsters, but nonetheless possible (in one story peasants almost killed the rarest gold dragon, and that wouldn't be possible with him having DR 20-30). In game Siegfrid was going to kill cockatrice without Geralt's help and mention Order to be fighting monsters quite successfully. IMHO, monsters should use Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction), which can be overridden by silver weapon armor divisor.

[Dark Archon]

Also, cockatrice (skoffin) can't turn people to stone, that's a fairy tale. You can read about this in the last book, chapter 3.

[Grunker]

Originally Posted by Dark Archon

Also, I don't understand: do the silver-coated weapons bypass monster DR or no? In Characters:


In Monstrum:


Which one is right? I personally think it is to be first one; otherwise, silver-coated weapons make no sense.

Also, supernatural DR of monsters seems to be too high for me. In books it was rare for normal people to kill monsters, but nonetheless possible (in one story peasants almost killed the rarest gold dragon, and that wouldn't be possible with him having DR 20-30). In game Siegfrid was going to kill cockatrice without Geralt's help and mention Order to be fighting monsters quite successfully. IMHO, monsters should use Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction), which can be overridden by silver weapon armor divisor.

Monstrum is wrong! I'll correct that straight away! Thanks for noticing that! It's an artifact from an earlier edition.

You think the DR is too high? I was pretty much shooting for "difficult, but not impossible" for normal steel weapons for most monsters.