Gaming Ballistic - GURPS Content Posts

[DouglasCole]

The Cavalry (our supers team) responds to the explosion of a bomb outside a church; we correctly deduce a second bomb is waiting for us, on a timer and remote detonator. We disarm it, and execute a spectacularly successful series of clue-finding investigations that leads us to another potential murder - and it is a murder, not a terrorist attack. Or rather, it's both. We arrive in time to fend off a very dangerous foe, who escapes.

Aeon Supers Campaign S2E1

[DouglasCole]

Discussions with Christopher produce the Rule of 14 for plot details of tactical significance. A mutually acceptable assumption of what a player whose character has a high Observation, Perception, Search, or similar skills will get as part of the room description, as opposed to having to ask the GM for details.

[philosophyguy]

I like this rule of 14 for passive abilities. I think the 14 threshold works for this campaign because skill levels are so high; I'd be interested in playing with a threshold of 12 for lower-powered characters.

[johndallman]

For Action, the number could sensibly be 10+Abs(BAD).

[Wavefunction]

Originally Posted by johndallman

For Action, the number could sensibly be 10+Abs(BAD).

I'm not sure, I think you'd use the same value, but subtract BAD from skill to find Margin of Success.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by philosophyguy

I like this rule of 14 for passive abilities. I think the 14 threshold works for this campaign because skill levels are so high; I'd be interested in playing with a threshold of 12 for lower-powered characters.

The reason I picked 14 is it's the 90% success level. With that assumed role, you're justified in saying "this will come to me just by being there."

Another way to go would be to use 14 if you're passing through, but use 10 if you're staying for a while under no time pressure. That's "taking extra time" with a +4 bonus, giving lots of room for sensory input.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by philosophyguy

I like this rule of 14 for passive abilities. I think the 14 threshold works for this campaign because skill levels are so high; I'd be interested in playing with a threshold of 12 for lower-powered characters.

FWIW, I've been assuming an eleven was rolled. It's essentially a Rules Option for Steven Marsh's "This One Goes To 11" for one specific skill which you can turn on and off.

[Varyon]

The Rule of 14 is inspired, although it needs a different name (GURPS "Rule of n" typically means a skill/attribute cap in various situations, not an automatic assumed roll).

As for other skills it could apply to, Stealth comes to mind. Basically, a character with high Stealth just naturally moves more quietly, and might subconsciously stick to shadows and otherwise obscure himself. I think you're looking at something like a -5 to Stealth at typical walking speeds, so a DX 10 character using it a default has a natural MoF 14, one with Stealth 14 has a natural MoF 5, and one with Stealth 24 has natural MoS 5. Shadowing would be similar - a character with Shadowing 20+ simply blends into a crowd without even thinking about it. Influence and Knowledge skills could also make some use of it - people tend to trust the guy with Diplomacy 20, animals flock to the dude with Animal Handling 20, the guy with Connoisseur (Wine) 20 immediately notices the 2009 Bordeaux hidden between lesser wines on the shelf, and the guy with Explosives/TL6 (Demolition) 20 never forgets to make use of a shaped charge when blowing holes in walls.

[DouglasCole]

Thursday is GURPSDay, and below you can find the blog activity from the last seven days.

Over the last week, there have been 48 GURPS-Related posts from our list of 38 blogs that have popped up on the radar screen, and includes for the first time the Ironemblem Gaming blog, which is hosted on Tumblr. Apparently getting a tagged RSS feed from Tumblr is pretty easy, so yay. Not every blog posts about GURPS every week, but some are ridiculously prolific! The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.

As always, if you're interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line.

GURPS Day Summary April 1 - April 7, 2016

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Varyon

The Rule of 14 is inspired, although it needs a different name (GURPS "Rule of n" typically means a skill/attribute cap in various situations, not an automatic assumed roll).

How about "Roll of"? As in "Roll of 11", "Roll of 14".