Dice and Lives: Gurps Content Posts

[JoelSammallahti]

I've been blogging for a couple of weeks now, mostly about crunchy stuff I've worked on for Sleepless Nights, a vampire-centric secret magic campaign in the planning stage, but some other stuff as well. I'll put up a comment in this thread when I post something new.

Some stuff so far:

Vampire racial template (350 points!)
Optional traits for vampires, including "thirst defects" that set in when you go without blood for a whole night
Vampirism power, including 20+ fully detailed abilities with 5 levels each
Related templates, including vampiric Alternate Forms
Vampire killing martial arts style, including a secret technique so dangerous, it was declared an abomination by Kromm!

An alternative alchemy system: part one (so you want to buy an elixir) and part two (so you want to be an alchemist, and maybe make a homunculus or some philosopher's stone)

Magic house rules: part one, for the blood-sacrificing, voodoo-doll-pricking ritual magician (part two coming up tomorrow)

Gonzostan campaign plans (a different campaign)


I'll be posting more about Sleepless Nights as it gets underway, and other gurpsy things as I work on them, with a focus on crunchy bits. I hope someone will find something useful in one of my posts.

[philosophyguy]

Thanks for sharing this blog. You write very well, and I enjoy how you walk through the thinking behind your templates in order to illuminate the mechanics.

If you haven't already, you should get on Douglas Cole's Thursday is GURPSday list so he can distribute your blog updates in his weekly post.

[Dragondog]

Very interesting reading. I liked the Vampire template, in particular the Vampirism power modifier. Definitely something I'd consider the next time I do vampires.

A couple of comments/questions on the mechanics:
* Energy Reserve: If you only have access to it at night, how can time before dusk count for recharge?
* Terror works on either those who see you or those that hear you, not both.

[The_Ryujin]

While not to big into vampires, I do like the vampire killer close combat style you made. It has a lot of potential to be expanded to handle other monsters that have weak points.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Welcome to the brotherhood of bloggers who blog too much! Decoder ring is in the mail.

[JoelSammallahti]

Originally Posted by philosophyguy

Thanks for sharing this blog. You write very well, and I enjoy how you walk through the thinking behind your templates in order to illuminate the mechanics.

Thanks! I know I rarely get a chance to actually use much of the rpg stuff I read, but I love it when I get to see other peoples' design notes and reasoning, and when they draw attention to some clever little idea or bit of confusion they've had.

[JoelSammallahti]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

A couple of comments/questions on the mechanics:
* Energy Reserve: If you only have access to it at night, how can time before dusk count for recharge?
* Terror works on either those who see you or those that hear you, not both.

Well caught! I'll have to update Terror. Regarding Energy Reserve though, do you have a better suggestion for this special limitation? Powers gives two levels of Slow Recharge, -20% for 1/h and -60% for 1/day. But this ER doesn't recharge gradually, it recharges once a night, all at once. I just tossed -30% out there as a guesstimate.

[JoelSammallahti]

Originally Posted by JoelSammallahti

Magic house rules: part one, for the blood-sacrificing, voodoo-doll-pricking ritual magician (part two coming up tomorrow)

https://diceandlives.wordpress.com/2...-rules-2-of-2/ - that's part two, with Thaumatology-based temporary enhancements for spells, and lots of other uses for supporting skills.

[Dragondog]

Originally Posted by JoelSammallahti

Well caught! I'll have to update Terror. Regarding Energy Reserve though, do you have a better suggestion for this special limitation? Powers gives two levels of Slow Recharge, -20% for 1/h and -60% for 1/day. But this ER doesn't recharge gradually, it recharges once a night, all at once. I just tossed -30% out there as a guesstimate.

As I think about an answer to this, I come to the conclusion that this might be a more complex issue. If I at level 5 use all of my 20 ER just before sunrise or at level 1 use the meager 4 ER right after dusk, I will have all of them back at dusk. If we only count the 12 hours the ability is active, this means that the level 5 example has to regenerate 20 ER in one second at the moment the ER is back again. This would be more than Extreme Regeneration. At the other extreme, 4 ER would regenerate in 12 hours.


So I would suggest something like:
4 ER (Nocturnal; Accessibility: Only at night, -20%) [9.6/level] + Regeneration.
Regeneration Level 1: Halfway between a -50% limitation to ER [-6] and Regeneration (Regular; Accessibility: Only at night, -20%; Limited Use, 1, -40%) [10] would be [2]
Regeneration Level 2: Halfway between a -40% limitation to ER [-4.8] and Regeneration (Regular; Accessibility: Only at night, -20%; Limited Use, 1, -40%) [10] would be [2.6]
Regeneration Level 3: Halfway between a -30% limitation to ER [-3.6] and Regeneration (Regular; Accessibility: Only at night, -20%; Limited Use, 1, -40%) [10] would be [3.2]
Regeneration Level 4 and 5: Halfway between Regeneration (Regular; Accessibility: Only at night, -20%; Limited Use, 1, -40%) [10] and Regeneration (Fast; Accessibility: Only at night, -20%; Limited Use, 1, -40%) [20] would be [15]

So in total, I'd make it something like L1 [12]; L2 [22]; L3 [29]; L4 [54]; L5 [63].

[JoelSammallahti]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

So in total, I'd make it something like L1 [12]; L2 [22]; L3 [29]; L4 [54]; L5 [63].

I don't think that works out. You've got levels 1, 4, and 5 costing more than just an unmodified ER of the same level. Personally, I think that sort of recharge needs to be a part of the advantage itself, and that's why I added that custom limitation. However, I really appreciate you putting so much thought into this, it's great to have my design decisions challenged this way. Thanks!