GURPS Dragon Empires Characters

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by badmudderfugger

I'm going to use the extra-effort in combat rules from the Basic Set and Martial Arts to help make the game more cinematic (and to give the guys a mechanic similar to the action point mechanic from 4E).

Can you share specifically what books/PDFs you have as resources? That could play a role in the recommendations you get.

FWIW, I'd give players access to almost all cinematic skills, techniques, and advantages. Pathfinder is a setting that really calls for outsized heroes. And are you permitting firearms? Early firearms are suitable for Pathfinder (and would make sense in the Asia stand-in).

[badmudderfugger]

My GURPS collection includes the Basic Set, Ultra-Tech, High Tech, Low Tech, Bio-Tech, Martial Arts, Magic, Thaumatology, Powers, Fantasy, Horror, Space, Banestorm, Infinte Worlds and Supers in print versions.

Great call on the firearms too! Hadn't thought of that. :)

[Wildcat]

What are you using for the campaign's technology level? It seems to me like Golarion is either TL4 or TL3 with one level of extra TL available as an advantage (or many levels of extra TL for the folks salvaging technology from the crashed spaceship -- the Technic League, I think is the name).

It might not even matter. Would any of the characters be using TL4 equipment for what they want to do?

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by badmudderfugger

Spells:
Apportation 14, Armor 14, Blur 14, Complex Illusion 15, Continual Light 14, Create Fire 14, Darkness 14, Deflect Energy 15, Deflect Missile 15, Explosive Fireball 15, Fireball 15, Great Haste 14, Haste 14, Ignite Fire 14, Illusion Disguise 15, Invisibility 15, Lend Energy 14, Lend Vitality 14, Light 15, Minor Healing 14, Recovery Energy 16, Shape Fire 14, Shield 15, Simple Illusion 15, Sound 14.

I don't know if you care about prerequisites, but Invisibility requires more Light/Darkness spells than you seem to have listed here.

For NPCs and enemies, I have a standard blank stat block that I use but don't always fill in completely (depending on how much detail I need). Basically, it's a table that includes sections for attributes, skills, standard attacks, important traits, etc. It makes it really quick for me to design NPCs. I never count up point totals for NPCs, and often give them abilities that I don't even know how to stat with points.

Extra Effort, as mentioned upthread, can add a lot of fun options to combat, especially if you include the stuff from Martial Arts. I like it because it allows fighter-types to use FP as a resource. In high-powered games, FP becomes more important than HP.

Extra Effort can also help keep PCs alive, especially if it's not available to NPCs (or only to the important enemies).
Healing magic is essential for combat-heavy fantasy games. You may want to give the caster Major Healing, which is a much more powerful healing spell than Minor Healing.

In general, the Dungeon Fantasy series of sourcebooks provides lots of support for "D&D"-style GURPS games, although the default options are a little more over-the-top cinematic with all the knobs turned on than you seem to be going for. Still, there's a lot of material in there that could be useful for any fantasy game.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Wildcat

GURPS does a great job giving mages incentive to use a quarterstaff. If I'm reading right, Tadanobu's parry with his quarterstaff should be 10 -- 5.5 for 11 skill, +3 base parrying, +2 for a quarterstaff.

Indeed, and parrying is its major use for many mages. Having skill 15 in your combat spells is well worthwhile, since that enables you to dispense with gestures and thus cast while you have your staff ready for combat. Increasing staff skill to 12, for 2 cp, will improve Tadanobu's parry to 11, which improves the odds noticeably.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Indeed, and parrying is its major use for many mages. Having skill 15 in your combat spells is well worthwhile, since that enables you to dispense with gestures and thus cast while you have your staff ready for combat. Increasing staff skill to 12, for 2 cp, will improve Tadanobu's parry to 11, which improves the odds noticeably.

Yeah. Assuming a straight-up attack that allows a parry at full skill, Parry 11 would stop 62.5 percent of attacks, compared to 50 percent for 10, right? Is there a chart I could find somewhere that has the success probability for different target numbers?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Wildcat

Is there a chart I could find somewhere that has the success probability for different target numbers?

Basic set, p171.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Basic set, p171.

Aha! I don't know how I had missed that so many times. So much easier than trying to chart it all out in a spreadsheet. At least it verifies that I had done my math right.

[badmudderfugger]

OK, made some revisions to the Nagaji Sohei. Here's the new version:

Ramakai
Nagaji Sohei

ST 13 HP 13 Basic Lift 34 Ground Move 6
DX 13 Will 11 Damage 1d/2d-1 Water Move 1
IQ 11 Per 11 Basic Speed 6
HT 11 FP 11 Basic Move 6

Combat:
Naginata: Attack 17, Parry 12, Reach 1,2, Damage: Swing 2d6+5 cut (cannot parry this turn), Reach 2, Thrust 1d6+5 imp
Sweep (Naginata): Attack 16 (attack normally and if Ramakai hits, roll Quick Contest of Sweep vs. target’s ST, DX, Acrobatics or best grappling skill. If target loses, he falls down)
Thick Hide: Damage Reduction 3
Dodge 10, Parry 12

Social Background
Cultural Familiarities: Nagaji (Native).
Languages: Nagaji (Native); Minkaian (Accented/None).

Advantages
Combat Reflexes (+2 to Fright Checks, +6 on all IQ rolls to wake up or recover from surprise), Thick Hide: (DR 3), Night Vision 4 (reduce darkness penalties by 4), Weapon Mastery: Naginata (bonus damage and

Perk
Weapon Bond: Naginata (+1 to effective skill with Naginata)

Disadvantages
Code of Honor (Sohei), Discipline of Faith (Asceticism), Enemy (Rival Faith Sohei) (Medium-sized group (6-20 people)) (9 or less), Selfless (12 or less), Sense of Duty (The Weak) (Large Group), Stubbornness, Vow (Poverty) (Major).

Skills
Acrobatics 14, Armory (Melee Weapons) 11, Climbing 13, Fast-Draw (Polearm) 16, Karate 13, Polearm 16, Riding (Equines) 12, Running 10, Scrounging 11, Shadowing 11, Stealth 14, Tactics 9, Theology (Kofusachi, the Laughing God) 12, Wrestling 12

Techniques
Sweep 16

Gear:
Naginata swing Dam:2d+5 cut Reach: 1,2, Attack 17, Parry: 12 (cannot parry and do swing attack in same round); thrust Dam:1d+5 imp Reach: 2 , Attack 15, Parry: 12.

[badmudderfugger]

I don't know if you care about prerequisites, but Invisibility requires more Light/Darkness spells than you seem to have listed here.

I'll take a look at the Wu Jen again in the GURPS builder. I may have screwed something up when I built the guy, but I thought that the program used to automatically add any prereques required. I'll also take a peek and see if I missed something when I figured out the Wu Jen's parry bonus.

I've also put together a quick reference sheet for my players that has all the Maneuvers listed (including a couple from Martial Arts), a list of Extra Effort options the players can use (including use of the TV Action Violence and Shake it Off rules, as well as the Extra Effort in combat options from the Basic Set and Martial Arts), as well as all Attack and Defense options. Hopefully this will help the guys get up to speed on the rules quickly.

Next up, a few NPCs for the session.