Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-10-2019, 02:41 PM   #21
adblue
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Default Re: Hey total newby here

Ok thanks for all the help! The idea for the campaign is that it takes place on a world that isnt exactly earth but is similar to earth from the era between the early 1920's- mid 1950's. Its also something of a low magic setting (People have prophetic visions, and there's this magical fog that messes with radar.) The planet is actually a moon of a large gas giant and it has a sister planet that also has life. The plot i'm writing is that the heroes are sky cops, and have to search for a rocket scientist who was kidnapped by an evil sorceress/aviatrix. They think she wants to build a missile but she actually is planning to build a rocket and invade this other planet (which has kind of a flash Gordon/John Carter theme.) Is there a good book for aviation tropes?
adblue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 03:54 PM   #22
khorboth
 
khorboth's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
Default Re: Hey total newby here

I'm getting a real Sky Captain vibe from this. Sounds awesome.

Quote:
Originally Posted by adblue View Post
Is there a good book for aviation tropes?
There's a steampunk book on vehicles which may have some material for you, though I don't own it so hopefully someone else can maybe chime in.

Given the genre, I wouldn't sweat the details of the vehicles overmuch. Just state what they can do and move on. While there are some really crunchy 3rd edition books on vehicle creation and some detailed rules in 4e, the genre doesn't need to be that accurate. As J. Michael Straczynski once said: The ships move at the speed of plot.

I'd recommend High Tech for equipment lists and ideas. It's way more than weapons, though those are there too.
khorboth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 04:26 PM   #23
Gef
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Yucca Valley, CA
Default Re: Hey total newby here

Hi adble, welcome.

You've mentioned low magic. One way to do it, without buying more books, is to allow PCs to take supernatural advantages (they're marked with a little symbol in the book). To keep magic "low" you might want to require limitations such as Costs Fatigue, Unreliable (12 or less), Accessibility (requires magic words and gestures), and Accessibility (stopped by cold iron). Obviously, season to taste to fit your concept, but these limitations will give the advantages the "feel" of magic and cut their price by half.

GURPS has multiple magic systems to suite different campaign styles, but the "standard" one has an advantage of modest price which then entitles you to buys spells as skills, rather cheaply, so a wizard has a whole repertoire of spells. That's more geared for high magic than low magic. If you require every magician to buy his abilities as advantages, even at half price because of the limitations, a magician won't have a broad repertoire, just 1 or a few signature effects.

If that sounded arcane to you, don't worry, it'll soon become second nature. I agree with the folks who say you can do everything with the basic set, and that steampunk and martial arts would be useful.

Final note: The GURPS combat system is unique. Have an arena session to break it in before you start your real campaign. Just assign some stats and have people square off, like Sword-and-Shield guy versus Spear guy, to see how reach works and what a difference a shield makes. Have a gunfight at 20 paces, with Fast-Draw. Try it with modest skill levels of 12-15, and then with over-the-top skill levels like 20 where you can soak penalties for tricky moves. Get players involved if you can, but do it as a solo exercise otherwise.

And have fun!

GEF
Gef is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 04:54 PM   #24
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: Hey total newby here

The level of magic described so far doesn't really call for giving characters any kind of magical abilities, or using any of GURPS' magic systems. It's just some supernatural setting elements.

Though certainly if you wanted characters to have magical abilities, stuff Gef says may apply.
__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident.
Ulzgoroth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 05:48 PM   #25
Gef
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Yucca Valley, CA
Default Re: Hey total newby here

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
The level of magic described so far doesn't really call for giving characters any kind of magical abilities, or using any of GURPS' magic systems. It's just some supernatural setting elements.

Though certainly if you wanted characters to have magical abilities, stuff Gef says may apply.
I mentioned it, because adblue mentioned a sorceress. Of course she's an NPC, and if the PCs can't use magic themselves, stuff Ulzgoroth says may apply.
Gef is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 09:21 PM   #26
adblue
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Default Re: Hey total newby here

I'm thinking the most powerful magic users in the setting are like melisandre from A song of Ice and Fire. Like they can get visions and see things that are far away , maybe have some light pyromancy if its a good day, but if they want to do something really scary they need to do some sort of ritual. I'm going for sort of a situation where magic is a thing, but almost every magical thing has another explanation. I want to make the players paranoid.
adblue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 09:43 PM   #27
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Hey total newby here

Quote:
Originally Posted by adblue View Post
I'm thinking the most powerful magic users in the setting are like melisandre from A song of Ice and Fire. Like they can get visions and see things that are far away , maybe have some light pyromancy if its a good day, but if they want to do something really scary they need to do some sort of ritual. I'm going for sort of a situation where magic is a thing, but almost every magical thing has another explanation. I want to make the players paranoid.
You can do that without needing to use a spell-based approach to magic. For example, take Burning Attack (a form of Innate Attack) with a -10% modifier for Magical (defined in GURPS Powers; it includes both the existence of high- and low-mana areas, in the latter of which rolls to use magic are at -5, and the existence of counterspells and anti-magic abilities). You can apply the same modifier to advantages such as Blessed, Clairsentience, Intuition, or Oracle for divination.

Bill Stoddard
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 10:01 PM   #28
tbone
 
tbone's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Hey total newby here

Quote:
Originally Posted by adblue View Post
Is it pronounced Gurps or Jerps?
Great question! It's funny – all these years playing, and I never even once considered the possibility of soft-G "JERPS". Even though it actually makes more sense, coming from "generic"! But sensible or not, the game's always been hard-G "GURPS".

(In any field, you can always expect great questions from a newbie. Welcome aboard, adblue!)
__________________
T Bone
GURPS stuff and more at the Games Diner: http://www.gamesdiner.com

Twitter: @Gamesdiner | RSS: here ⬅︎ Updated RSS link | This forum: Site updates thread (occasionally updated)

(Latest goods on site: GLAIVE Mini levels up to v2.4. Update to melee weapon design tool, with more example weapons and commentary.)
tbone is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 05:28 AM   #29
fengmd
 
fengmd's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: USA
Default Re: Hey total newby here

Hey, welcome to the Forums!

As a sort-of-newbie (started seriously delving into the mechanics of the system about seven months ago), I'm going to say that GURPS has so much to it that it can feel overwhelming at times. I've tried introducing the system to probably half a dozen seasoned D&D GMs and they're thrilled at first, but once they started looking at the Basic manual (which is over 600pgs), they turned tail and ran.

For newbies, character creation is going to be a challenge because you will need to determine the character-point values for all your PCs and NPCs. I don't know what would be good for your campaign, but in the group I run with, we tend to run about 300 CP characters, which lends itself toward very cinematic characters, even minor superhero, but not epic. I view the CP limit as a great constraint because you really learn how to get the system to work for you to get the effect you want.

Anyhow, I'm just going to throw this advice in here: find an experienced GURPS group to play with before you try GMing a GURPS game. Also, trying to 100% replicate a character's abilities from popular tv-shows or anime, can be like getting lost down a rabbit hole if you don't have something to keep you grounded like these forums. Spend the money and get GCA (GURPS Character Assistant) because it's better than GCS, imo.

Also, if you want to talk more about this you can always reach me on Discord: fengmd#5279

I hope I don't sound too discouraging. I know how awesome it feels at first to see the potential of GURPS, but the system is more advanced than intermediate systems like D&D. I'd start with the Basic 4E manual. Powers would probably be a better manual to look into after that than one of the Thaumatology (GURPS magic) books.

Last edited by fengmd; 03-11-2019 at 10:40 AM.
fengmd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 09:17 AM   #30
Apollonian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
Default Re: Hey total newby here

I'm gonna throw a bit of a wet blanket on things here:

GURPS will definitely be able to build any setting you want. However, given what you've described, I'd take a quick look at the Savage Worlds RPG. It's more limited than GURPS, but it does do one thing very well: Two-fisted, pulpy action with special stuff like magic, weird tech, and so on.

GURPS, as other people have said, is a toolkit. You can use it to tune your setting and game to be pretty much exactly what you want, but it'll take time, effort, and system mastery. Savage Worlds will do what you've asked for out of the box. (It won't do much else, though.)
Apollonian is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:39 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.