Modular templates

[Stormcrow]

I was wondering if there have been any published examples of modular templates as described in GURPS Template Toolkit 1.

[ericbsmith]

Not really, but there has been a slow move in that general direction.

GURPS Martial Arts was the first book I'm aware to do something like this with skills. Each Character Template allocated a certain number of points (usually 10-30) to spend on a specific Martial Arts Style.

GURPS Supers is the first book I'm aware that used Background Lenses for the templates. These lenses were not really uniformly built, and had varying point costs, but each Template was given the option of adding a Background Lens to it.

Then in GURPS Action 1: Heroes each Character Template was required to choose one of the standardized 20-point Background Lenses. The book made four standard lenses, and had a quick synopsis of six more lenses.

Next GURPS Monster Hunters 1: Champions offered ten 15-point Motivational Lenses, which were similar to the previous Background Lenses. These included 30-points in abilities as well as -15-points in disadvantages, and interestingly many of them added some options to the various trait choices the player could make as part of the main Character Template.


Now, if you go back a long ways I even wrote an article for Pyramid v2 called Mini-Character Lenses, where I came up with what are basically background skill lenses similar to the ones described in Template Toolkit 1. There were two follow-up articles in the same style written by Stephen Dedman called Lens-Men I & II, but sadly those two articles are no longer available.


The Modular Templates suggestion just kind of takes all of these ideas and mashes them up together, where the entire template is designed around using these types of lenses.

[Infornific]

GURPS Action 4 Specialists is basically a modular template system. There's a suggested base template for 100 points and then various 25 point lenses that can be taken and combined as need. So if you wanted a police detective, take Law Enforcement and Detective Work. You could probably write up something like that for Dungeon Fantasy or other genres if you wanted.

In a fit of boredom I crunched most of the Action lenses into 10 point lenses. Not too hard - usually just drop an associated advantage and halve the points spent on skills. Smaller modules would be useful either for more variety in low point gains or if you want characters with broad skill sets.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Infornific

GURPS Action 4 Specialists is basically a modular template system. There's a suggested base template for 100 points and then various 25 point lenses that can be taken and combined as need. So if you wanted a police detective, take Law Enforcement and Detective Work. You could probably write up something like that for Dungeon Fantasy or other genres if you wanted.

In a fit of boredom I crunched most of the Action lenses into 10 point lenses. Not too hard - usually just drop an associated advantage and halve the points spent on skills. Smaller modules would be useful either for more variety in low point gains or if you want characters with broad skill sets.

Action 4 is awesome. Those packages can be used to build a lot of concepts. You can also build your own for a good deal less work than building a whole template. I've got a number I built for Infinite worlds.

Halving the packages to make NPC packages sounds awesome. I hadn't thought of that.

[Stormcrow]

I'll have to take a look at Action 4.

[Humabout]

I adapted Action 4 to fantasy for my own use already and it was pretty easy. I've even included martial arts specialties and am working on a bunch power-ups for it, too. I should put this stuff up on my blog...

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Humabout

I adapted Action 4 to fantasy for my own use already and it was pretty easy. I've even included martial arts specialties and am working on a bunch power-ups for it, too. I should put this stuff up on my blog...

Yes, you should. :-)

[Anders]

"Pointless Slaying and Looting" is a modular system for building Dungeon Fantasy characters written by Sean Punch. I think it's in Pyramid #3/72.

[mouthofgod]

Originally Posted by Humabout

I adapted Action 4 to fantasy for my own use already and it was pretty easy. I've even included martial arts specialties and am working on a bunch power-ups for it, too. I should put this stuff up on my blog...

I second this! I would like to see what you came up with.

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Anders

"Pointless Slaying and Looting" is a modular system for building Dungeon Fantasy characters written by Sean Punch. I think it's in Pyramid #3/72.

That's a quick character generation system but it's almost an alternate form of GURPS. It uses Wild Card skills only and Destiny Points are built into the system. It's not really modular. It's handy of you want a simplified GURPS and could be used for Action, Space Opera, etc. There's another version for Dungeon Fantasy.

There's another one called "Five Easy Pieces" in Pyramid #3/113, also by Sean Punch. That is a modular system where you pick five 50 point modules to create a DF character. That's a little freer form than Action Specialists but Action assumes more similarity among character abilities than Dungeon Fantasy does.