More Star Frontiers conversions (aka: humor me...)

[d_ns]

Wanted to toss this out there for the crowd to rip into. I'd love some constructive feedback, as I am new at this GURPS 4th business.

First, my take on screens:

Spoiler:  

Screens are defensive systems built into a belt, and must be worn to be effective. They provide DR 40 versus some specific type of damage, dependent upon the type of screen in use. No more than one screen belt may be worn at a time, and are typically powered by two attached C cell batteries, though a standard adapter cable is provided to pull power from a belt pouch containing a D cell, or a small backpack containing an E cell.

All damage that hits a screen ignores any standard armor divisor prior to the damage being applied to the screen in question. Any damage that exceeds the DR (not including the pass-through crushing damage from an Inertia screen) will apply the armor divisor as normal.

Two C cells provide enough power to stop 20 points of accumulated damage before being totally drained. A D cell will stop 50 points, and an E cell will stop 100 points. If the damage in question is not lethal, but instead would cause a resistance roll against HT, the negative modifier to that HT roll should be considered the total damage stopped (e.g. a stopped hit from an electric stun wand would count as having caused 5 points of “damage” for power consumption purposes).

The only exception to these rules is the Inertia screen, which does pass through some damage to the wearer. For every two full points of damage stopped by the screen, a single point of crushing damage is inflicted to the wearer, though any additional armor remains effective against that damage.

The four kinds of screen include:

• Albedo: Stops damage from laser weapons only.
• Inertia: Stops kinetic damage from bullets, needles, explosions and normal melee weapons. For every two full points of damage stopped by the screen, a single point of crushing damage is inflicted to the wearer, which may be stopped by any additional armor he or she is wearing.
• Gauss: Stops electrical attacks, including electro-lasers, zap gloves and electric stun wands.
• Sonic: Stops all sonic attacks, be they lethal or subdual in nature. Sonic screens stop all sound in or out of the screen, forcing the wearer to rely on sign language, signals or radio for communication while the screen is powered up.

Turning a screen on or off is a ready action, for which Quick Draw skill can be learned.

Each costs $2,500, weighs 3 lbs. (not including D or E cells, if used), and is legality class 3, TL 11.

I've also taken a shot at the three standard non-human races, and present them here for you to mercilessly belittle, er, provide positive feedback on:

Spoiler:  

Dralasite (5+ points)

4 Switchable bought on all four normal limbs
4 Alternative Ability (Arms can be Legs)
4 Alternative Ability (Legs can be Arms)
3 Tough Skin (DR1)
5 No Vitals (spread throughout the body)
1 Hermaphromorph (limited control, seasonal, extra time)
6 Acute Taste/Smell +3
1 Penetrating Voice (bellows voice)
1 Racial Skill (Detect Lies, Per-2)
16 +1 ST; +2 more Lifting Strength
10 +1 HT
-20 -1 DX
-10 -0.5 Basic Speed
-10 Invertebrate (-50% - use ½ BL to calculate lift, carry and pull)
-10 Colorblind

If you have a DX of 12 you may purchase
7 1 Extra Arm, Switchable, Alternative Ability (can be a leg)
For every three full points of DX above 12, you may purchase this an additional time.

Common Quirks: Fond of scented steam baths; Wears no clothing; Fond of Vrusk; Likes bad jokes and terrible puns (may rise to the level of an OPH); Prone to being philosophical and thoughtful; No apparent desire for fame or fortune, valuing the quality of their ideas instead.


Yazirian (30 points)

8 Flight (Gliding, Small Wings, Low Ceiling)
1 Nocturnal Vision (+3 Night Vision, -3 Poor Vision in brighter than dim light,
Often corrected for with dark goggles)
12 Battle Rage (+2 Striking Strength [10], +2 to hit in melee combat [10]; Only trigged with a successful roll against Battle Rage skill [IQ/VH, defaults to IQ-6] [-30%]; Causes 2 FP loss as soon as the fight is over [-10%])
20 +1 DX
20 +1 IQ
-20 -2 ST
-5 -1 Will
-6 -2 FP

Common Quirks: Clannish; Life Enemy (can rise to the status of a larger Vow or even an Enemy);


Vrusk (50 points)

5 Ambidexterity
10 Double-jointed (arms only, -30%)
15 8 Legs
15 Comprehension (bought as Intuition)
4 DR 1 (Carapace, susceptible to contact attacks, not Flexible, -20%)
2 Acute Taste/Smell +1
20 +1 DX
-10 -1 ST
-10 -1 HT
-1 Incompetent (Swimming)

Common Quirks: Hardworking and practical; Life revolves around work and corporation; Love for beauty, harmony and order;

So, huh, what do you think? What have I forgotten, what have I misunderstood, and what have I bollocksed up entirely?

[mearrin69]

I doubt I'll have any useful feedback for you but I'll take a look. I'm very interested in what you come up with as we may play SF again someday and I'd rather use GURPS than the hinky old-school rules.
M

[d_ns]

Originally Posted by mearrin69

I doubt I'll have any useful feedback for you but I'll take a look. I'm very interested in what you come up with as we may play SF again someday and I'd rather use GURPS than the hinky old-school rules.
M

I've had great advice on here to use Ultra-Tech as a primary resource, and it's proven quite helpful. No need to reinvent any of the weapons, or non-screen armor types, as they're effectively already there. And then some, if you want to increase the options from the limited scope of the original game.

My to-do list includes the Sathar, looking into robot and computer rules, and adapting the standard Spaceship rules to suit the standard FTL implications of Knight Hawks, and the weapon systems.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by d_ns

My to-do list includes the Sathar, looking into robot and computer rules, and adapting the standard Spaceship rules to suit the standard FTL implications of Knight Hawks, and the weapon systems.

There are essentially no standard rules in Spaceships about FTL. There's a Stardrive modukle but the rules about how it works are entirely up to the GM. It can be Hyper, Jump or Warp in any flavor.

Incidentally, I built a couple of SF ships just to have some sort of stats to match duing the first Spaceships playtest. There wasn't anything really hard about it.

[vierasmarius]

For the Screens, you should take a look at the Force Screens in UT (pg.191). They provide Semi-Ablative DR (as opposed to your designs' Ablative DR), and are available in a few variants, such as Energy, Kinetic and Velocity (blocks only fast-moving attacks, like the Shields in Dune.) They aren't normally available in man-portable form until TL 12^, so if your conversion is lower tech than that you could easily justify toning down their DR. Throwing Flexible on the Kinetic Screen would be a nice tweak too, allowing a bit of blunt trauma to get through even if the attack is fully resisted.

[lwcamp]

Giving Dralasites the Invertebrate disadvantage seems to go against their "feel" in the original game - they were stronger all around than humans, even at lifting, carrying, and pulling. The fact that they are biological invertebrates (lower case "i") does not mean they need to be GURPS Invertebrates.

You might also want to trade in the Acute Taste/Smell of Dralasites for full-on Discriminatory Scent.

For that real old-school feel, you could try making all armor ablative - your skein suit will protect you from a few shots, but will eventually wear down.

Luke

[d_ns]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Giving Dralasites the Invertebrate disadvantage seems to go against their "feel" in the original game - they were stronger all around than humans, even at lifting, carrying, and pulling. The fact that they are biological invertebrates (lower case "i") does not mean they need to be GURPS Invertebrates.

I agree, it does go against SF, but how would you depict the ability to squeeze into tight places, and the lack of a bone structure to break?

You might also want to trade in the Acute Taste/Smell of Dralasites for full-on Discriminatory Scent.

I'd honestly not seen that one, so it makes good sense to me. Perhaps with some sort of susceptibility to airborne chemicals?

For that real old-school feel, you could try making all armor ablative - your skein suit will protect you from a few shots, but will eventually wear down.

I'll look into that - is it referenced anywhere in the rules that you can recall, or shall I invent it whole cloth?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by d_ns

I'll look into that - is it referenced anywhere in the rules that you can recall, or shall I invent it whole cloth?

Whole cloth.

You'd need to be careful that TL8 kevlar didn't end up being a better deal than a new ablative armor.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by d_ns

I agree, it does go against SF, but how would you depict the ability to squeeze into tight places, and the lack of a bone structure to break?

To squeeze into tight places, you can use Flexibility: Double Jointed (pg. B56). I would also add Extra-Flexible (pg. B53) to all Dralasite arms.

For no bones to break, you can use Injury Tolerance: Unbreakable Bones from Powers pg. 53. Add the modifier Cosmic - crippled limbs only last until a new limb can be regrown +50% and you should be good to go. A more accurate build for Dralasite limb powers might be Regrowth (with a limitation for limbs only) plus Regeneration (with a limitation of only for regrowth). However, this ends up costing a LOT!

Originally Posted by d_ns

I'll look into that - is it referenced anywhere in the rules that you can recall, or shall I invent it whole cloth?

Under the Damage Resistance advantage, it lists the rules for Ablative and Semi-Ablative armor. Just make it a house rule that in your GURPS Star Frontiers game all armor is Semi-Ablative. This should address Fred Bracklin's earlier word of caution. Or make all armor fully ablative, but this makes low tech armor like mail and plate rather wonky. Or maybe just "soft" armor is semi-ablative (or fully ablative) - like cloth armor, Kevlar, and skein (or albedo for lasers, and so on) while a clamshell cuirass or suit of plates acts like normal.

Luke