[Action] But less Action-y. (adapting Action 4 to noir or conspiracy)

[apoc527]

Fairly simple question here. I love Action. Everyone here loves Action. Action 4: Specialists is an amazing toolbox (if Basic is a giant tool chest with old school screwdrivers, Specialists is a power drill and box of bits).

Let's say I want to use Action for somewhat less Action-y genres like noir or conspiracy? What traits are missing from Action that should be added back in? What is in Action that is entirely inappropriate for noir or conspiracy?

Ultimately, the question may be moot as the game I'm thinking of using this for will be a combination of Action! and Monster Hunters with starting PCs at the 150 to 200-point level.

Main issue: I just want to make sure I'm not leaving out certain important social traits that I won't notice are missing from Action or MH until it's too late. "GM: So, who has Charisma? Players: That wasn't in the templates!"

[A Ladder]

I'm not the most familiar with Noir or Conspiracy genres so take this with a grain of salt: I don't think you need to tweak anything IMO.

Just have your players take disadvantages that focus on the grim/flawed and self destructive ideologies that are so prevalent in Noir fiction. Maybe to make it more "Gritty" introduce the bleeding rules from basic and disallow the more cinematic options / powerups.

The templates in Specialists can fit into those genres rather well. You have the detective, conspiracy, and criminal past templates that coupled with a fatalistic disadvantage set can make a hardboiled detective easily.

(Templates like Social Engineering, Bon Vivant, and Command have Charisma btw)

[Victor Maxus]

I am a dire hard fan of Noir (I've seen The Maltese Falcon, Asphalt Jungle and Out of the Past a dozen times each) ((And I saw Double Indemnity when it played in the theaters last summer)). I sure hate to say this, but GURPS Action has no place with noir style of story telling. The heart and soul of Noir tales is average, everyday sort of people, police, private detectives, criminals and so forth facing danger and mystery and working their way through it. Take The Maltese Falcon, in both the novel and the movie, Sam Spade doesn't even carry a gun. The grand total body count in the film is 3 and the hero doesn't kill any of them. Very often in these stories, the heroes are beaten in fights and very rarely kill anyone. Violence and combat are less common in these stories. Noir is an atmosphere and a style, and GURPS Action is designed to recreate the 1980's action films like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and others. Any one of those movies have more people die in them than any 10 noir films combined.

All that being said, there is still hope. Some movies, which were inspired by Noir films have had some good action sequences in them. Heat, LA Confidential and Reservoir Dogs are some examples. So it can be done. I think you have to add back in more detailed social interaction and investigation type skills and have moments of intense meetings between the PCs and suspected bad guys and henchmen. And speaking of henchmen, you can't dismiss them so easily. Take out some of the rules of Action that allow heroes to defeat the cannon fodder NPCs. Make it a bit more of struggle.

The same can be done for conspiracy style adventures and see Bourne Identity and Mission Impossible film series for inspiration.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by apoc527

Main issue: I just want to make sure I'm not leaving out certain important social traits that I won't notice are missing from Action or MH until it's too late. "GM: So, who has Charisma? Players: That wasn't in the templates!"

I'd be greatly surprised if Charisma isn't prevent both in the Action vol. 1 templates and in the vol. 4 Lenses.

Vol. 1 has, unless I'm misremembering, a list if disallowed or discouraged advantages (or one of each), including a bunch of social advantages, so take a look at those. Many of them would be useful in a less action'y Action campaign.

Same with skills. I know there is a list if removed skills in vol. 1, and you'll want to include some of those back into the character creation process for your campaign, although not necessarily all. I mean, you can continue to omit Strategy, as one example. The PCs aren't going to be generals or colonels, or even fill such a role temporarily.

[evileeyore]

Unless the 'Noir' he's aming for is Gumshoe? Ala Chinatown/The Tale of Two Jakes, The 'tamer' Sin City titles like Yellow Bastard, Blade Runner, The Dresden Files, Brimstone, etc...


More action, more Raymond Chandler less Dashiell Hammett*.





* Ignoring all of Dashiell's contributions to the Pulp Gumshoe genre, I'm looking at you Red Harvest!

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by A Ladder

I'm not the most familiar with Noir or Conspiracy genres so take this with a grain of salt: I don't think you need to tweak anything IMO.

I disagree. Slightly. I think he'll have to make a few changes.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Unless the 'Noir' he's aming for is Gumshoe? Ala Chinatown/The Tale of Two Jakes, The 'tamer' Sin City titles like Yellow Bastard, Blade Runner, The Dresden Files, Brimstone, etc...

The OP wants "noir or conspiracy".

We can't be sure what that means, but given Victor's post, it's sensible to assume that the the trope-mix that the OP is after is one that isn't actually "noir" and is instead something that it would kinda sorta make sense to attempt to do with GURPS Action (whereas according to Victor GURPS Action is entirely incompatible with noir).

So I think the conclusion is that it's not particularly fruitful to obsess over the exact meaning of the word "noir", if the intent is to help the OP. He wants something, and he thinks GURPS Action is the best path achieve that something as quickly and affortlessly as possible. He's probably right.

[apoc527]

Thanks everyone. This should help:

What I'm after is Dark*Matter, the old TSR/WotC Alternity setting. It's something along the lines of Conspiracy X, GURPS Illuminati (but more serious), low-powered Monster Hunters, the Dresden Files, and movies such as Ronin, The Bourne Series, Alien Hunters, and a mishmash of other movies and styles.

It's not really "noir" in the vein of the Maltese Falcon at all. It just isn't Commando either.

There's no doubt that GURPS Action provides a suitable base -- the question is rather "what else do I need to add, if anything, to make sure it all works?"

It's very much The X-Files crossed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

So, as I was saying -- mishmash of GURPS Action and Monster Hunters, but lower-powered than both (to start). Something in the 150-200 point range.

Some helpful links: RPG.net Review and Semi useful Wiki entry

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by apoc527

Thanks everyone. This should help:

What I'm after is Dark*Matter, the old TSR/WotC Alternity setting. It's something along the lines of Conspiracy X, GURPS Illuminati (but more serious), low-powered Monster Hunters, the Dresden Files, and movies such as Ronin, The Bourne Series, Alien Hunters, and a mishmash of other movies and styles.

It's not really "noir" in the vein of the Maltese Falcon at all. It just isn't Commando either.

Well, "Ronin", my all-time favourite movie, is neo-noir. If you liked that then you'd like "Heat" too. Although more so than being "neo-noir" both are action thrillers. And that may in fact be what you're after. I like movie action, but I prefer movies with a brainier slant, and I've found that the combination of action and thriller is often very satisfying to me.



I think if you want less action'y then yes of course you must integrate social advantages more into the character creation process, relative to what GURPS Action posits, but in addition to that, the Background Lenses from Action vol. 1 also helps to ground the player characters (and created NPCs) in the world, because it defines them as having come from somewhere and as having had past experiences. Especially non-standard Lenses, ones other than the major five.

Oh, and you should make use of CFs (which I think are absent from Action vol. 1) and of course Languages (which IIRC aren't absent from Action vol. 1 but are somewhat underplayed).

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Vol. 1 has, unless I'm misremembering, a list if disallowed or discouraged advantages (or one of each), including a bunch of social advantages, so take a look at those. Many of them would be useful in a less action'y Action campaign.

You're misremembering. There's a list of suitable advantages, which contains many social advantages though I didn't compare that list to the Basic Set social advantages. But the Action list contains Charisma, Social Regard, Wealth, Cultural Adaptability, and Cultural Familiarity and many others.