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Old 03-10-2008, 04:27 PM   #21
vitruvian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: My first GURPS campaign- Dark sword and sorcery with stone age elements.

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Does that change your answer? I'm still a newbie, so I'm not sure.
Well, yeah - if the spirit never leaves your body to act independently, whether in spirit or material form - no manifested beasts, rocky giants, wind vortices, etc. - then just skip Ally entirely. It's just a special effect.

Now, for each spirit you have inside you, define a Power. The Power Modifier can include things like needing to make a Will roll to make the spirit do as you say, as well as Temporary Disadvantages representative of the spirit's personality partially taking you over.

You only need Ally if the demon or spirit can sometimes act independently of you, even if under your command. Even some cases of that (okay, wind spirit, keep deflecting all those arrows away from us) could just be abilities with lasting durations or, at most, a level of Compartmentalized Mind with those same Temporary Disadvantages. The latter could be nice, actually, if it's possible for the demon to retain control of your body if your own mind is momentarily enthralled by somebody's else's Mind Control....
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Old 03-10-2008, 05:02 PM   #22
Rskennan
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: My first GURPS campaign- Dark sword and sorcery with stone age elements.

My reason for wanting to use Ally is that it's actually cheaper and simpler (I can hand a demon write up over to the player when he defeats one) than using than doing powers separately.

Since the spirit is limited to the body, wouldn't this actually be a weaker version of ally than a normal ally? I'd think that if an advantage accomplishes most of what you want, but is actually limited from its usual versatility, there's no harm in using it to accomplish what you want. Am I wrong?

Another benefit that I see for using ally, is that there might be cases where you need to know what abilities the demon/spirit has in order to let it take over for a few minutes (I just had that idea). The demon retains its full consciousness, and is actually still alive inside the Godeater. He doesn't digest it down to it's advantages and disadvantages. I also want to remind the player of that as much as possible. There will often be negotiations with the spirit, etc.

So, is there any reason why it's absolutely wrong to use ally, and if not, where do I apply the disadvantages?

Here's an idea- is there any disadvantage (from any source) that makes a character temporarily take on the disadvantages of others? If so, I could make a template for all Godeaters that includes the specific brand of Modular Ability they use, and that disadvantage.
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Old 03-10-2008, 07:27 PM   #23
vitruvian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: My first GURPS campaign- Dark sword and sorcery with stone age elements.

Quote:
Since the spirit is limited to the body, wouldn't this actually be a weaker version of ally than a normal ally? I'd think that if an advantage accomplishes most of what you want, but is actually limited from its usual versatility, there's no harm in using it to accomplish what you want. Am I wrong?
No, it can work, but the Allies themselves will have to be pretty powerful. They'll start off with the Spirit template, but if they have any abilities that affect the physical world, they'll need Affects Substantial both on their Insubstantial and on those specific abilities. Alternatively, you can base them around Possession (Spiritual) and not have to deal with Insubstantial, since they're always 'in' you - but then they might have to take control in order to use their powers for you.
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Old 03-10-2008, 07:32 PM   #24
Skallagrimm
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Default Re: My first GURPS campaign- Dark sword and sorcery with stone age elements.

I am one of the players in this campaign. However, I'm not the Godeater so I don't have a strong opinion on any of that material. My only suggestion there is that I think preference should be given to a relatively simpler solution from the player's perspective. I've known the Godeater player for a long time, and I do not think that he would enjoy having a mechanically complex power in a GURPS game.

I have a misgiving about my character though, and I was hoping someone here might illuminate it.

During character creation, one of the options I liked was the idea of a wildcard skill. When I was reading it, the other game mechanic that it struck me as similar to would be the Cover that characters get in Ron Edwards' Sorcerer. Like, pretty much if you were making up Sherlock Holmes you could give him the skill Detective! and use it for most of the things he would make rolls for. The real difference between a wild card skill and Cover is that in Sorcerer, everyone has a Cover. Also, you only get one of them so the GM really can't get too restrictive about what you can/can't do with it.

Okay, but where exactly do you define the line where the domain of the skill begins and ends? All the normal skills in GURPS are exceedingly specific. I just sunk 80 points into a wildcard skill, and I'm wondering if down the road I won't find myself wishing I'd spent the points on something less open to interpretation.

I'd love to hear from anyone with actual play experience involving wild card skills.
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Old 03-10-2008, 07:56 PM   #25
Rskennan
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: My first GURPS campaign- Dark sword and sorcery with stone age elements.

I just sent you an email about this. There are a few ways we can go.
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Old 03-11-2008, 12:08 AM   #26
Rskennan
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: My first GURPS campaign- Dark sword and sorcery with stone age elements.

By the way, thank you everyone, for your help.
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