Starting a new campaign, setting, genre. I could use some major help!

[Raekai]

This is our official unofficial guide for this new campaign. I'm with a new set of folks (well, mostly) too. I'm used to high-fantasy low-tech with fighters and wizards and swords.

Where do I start? I'm really nervous about taking High-Tech stuff on. Guns and their rules scare me a little. Also, where can I find books about this kind of stuff? I'm willing to put down quite a bit of dough for these guys because I love GURPS with such a burning passion. Who has easy rules? Who has ideas? Who knows what books I should touch on?

The whole idea is that this campaign is set in the near future, and is very likely to at least start in Japan. They want something action-y and gritty, but they also ask for good story, plot, etc. They're looking at a yummy plot full of corrupt government and underdogs rising from the dirt to take them on! They'll each have weird (probably psionics) powers or special access to military tech or something to help even out the playing field. Code Geass might be a really good example for something like this especially because I freaking love that show! It's got mechas, and weird powers, and corrupt government, and underdogs, and Japan!

I'm willing to do what it takes to make this thing a success. I've just never played with modern stuff in GURPS so this is a big change for me! Buildings, vehicles, guns... How do I do it? I'm really mostly scared about guns... I'm used to bows!

As for the tech... I'm not too concrete on it yet. I'm thinking just about anything you see in that first video. Nothing is too fancy-schmancy and I don't think that we've quite perfected warp drives yet. Although, I do think I want some alien stuff in there. Not quite to a Star Trek level though. I don't think we really plan to spend too much time on spaceships. Plus, it should be darker and grittier.

Honestly, I'm just super nervous... Anything helps!

Thanks a million!

[tshiggins]

Okay, let's back up, here, a bit. If you jump in to the details of the gear, without any framework, you'll have no criteria by which to start making decisions about how to get to the campaign you want.

Firstly, remember that GURPS skews toward the realistic, in most situations. Based on what I saw in that video, the word "realistic" doesn't belong in the same room as the write-up you do for a campaign that emulates that setting. You could probably create the opponents of "Purple Hair Protagonist" (PHP) with Ultra-Tech and/or Transhuman Space, but there's no way PHP fits into a realistic sci-fi setting. He's a superhero in a sci-fi setting, and that's all there is to that.

So, it looks like the gear mostly fits in with GURPS TL 10 -- battle-suit exoskeletons with integrated Command-and-Control hardware (HUDS, communications, mature "Future Force Warrior" systems, etc.) and big honkin-guns. The air-craft and the scorpion robot could come straight out of "Reign of Steel." (The cannon in its tail could be a TL10 Blaster Cannon, Ultra-Tech, p. 123. Everything else could easily be TL 10 high-powered lasers and missiles of various sizes.)

However, PHP guy does stuff that no battle-suit could protect someone against. He's got Enhanced Time Sense (Basic p. 52) and huge amounts of Super Jump (Basic p. 89), at the least, as well as a personal force-field that nobody else does, a high strength stat, and melee weapon that has a crap-ton of armor divisors. He's basically a fast combat brick with blasters and a fancy sword. That all says "Supers," to me.

So, basically, your campaign setting is, "Superheroes in a TL10 world" -- which describes a lot of anime, pretty well, actually.

(Alternatively, PHP could be a cyborg with TL 11 super-science against TL 10 straight-science mooks, but that could be even tougher to explain....)

At this point, you can start your campaign design. Why do supers exist, in this world? Where do they come from? What are their practical limits (character-point budget)? What sorts of powers do they have? Are they all variations on a theme (which may imply a "design" of some sort, and thus a "designer"), or are they as varied as the characters in Marvel or DC? How long have they been around? How long have regular humans known about them? How do regular people react to the presence of such beings?

The answers to those questions force you to flesh out the rest of the world. You'll probably have a wide variety of attitudes about the supers, based on the societies in which they're found. Since you're new to this sort of thing, you may want to base the campaign on Earth, about 150 years (or so) in the future, and put together a timeline of how you think things will go. Figure out when the supers show up (and why), and determine how they impact the future.

At that point, you have a solid framework, and you can start making decisions about gear that fits with your setting. You'll know what's available and what isn't, and most importantly you'll know why. That, in turn, helps you map out the types of characters you want to see, and that guides your players.

Once you've gone through that process, you'll have a much better handle on how things are supposed to work, because you've already looked into them as part of the decisions you had to make. After that, it's a matter of running a few combats, in some "dry run" scenarios, until you and your players get a handle on how sci-fi combat works -- and what you have to do tweak it to make it less realistic, so you can have the sort of action seen in that video.

(Hint: In realistic future military combat, anything that gets spotted pretty much dies instantly, at ranges measured in miles. If you want the sort of melee combat seen in most anime -- including the type portrayed in the example video -- you need to dial the "realism" level way, way down. That's why I thought of supers.)

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

--SNIP--

You absolutely rocked my world! I don't think that I've ever received better starting advice, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. And, yes, there will be some Supers about this whole thing. Actually, I had a small conversation with the guys about it. They wanted to be "normal" and I told them the same thing: they will die that way. So we all agreed on weird powers or higher-tech stuff for the PCs.

Your insight into the whole Supers thing is really invaluable. I need to give them origin, purpose, etc. and that is something that I hadn't even thought of. I'm going to say that they are either psionics, alien-based, or implants. I think bio-engineering could be cool, right? Let's make the super-soldiers!

On that same note... I really feel like this fits well. Plus, the name matches up. Cyberpunk 2077. I'm aiming for some sweet TL 10 Cyberpunk High-Tech Supers action!

[Snaps]

Yeah, from watching that video what you are looking at is a Supers Game dressed up as Anime Cyberpunk.

Think of it like this: That guy in the video would probably kick Spider-Man's ass, and my write up for Spider-Man was over 1500 pts.

I'd recommend something like a 500 point Super-type game, but where their "powers" come from things you've defined in the game. Psionics, Power Armor, Cyberware, etc.

As for equipment, make it easy on yourself. For games like this what I do is tell the players that it's a standard TL 8 or 9 game, but that higher tech stuff is out there. If the players want it, they have to pay points for it.

So I let players buy standard stuff, but if they want a plasma pistol, combat armor, or something like that sword in the video, it's prototype equipment and they have to build it with character points as an advantage.

That's how I'd do it anyway.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Raekai

You absolutely rocked my world! I don't think that I've ever received better starting advice, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. And, yes, there will be some Supers about this whole thing. Actually, I had a small conversation with the guys about it. They wanted to be "normal" and I told them the same thing: they will die that way. So we all agreed on weird powers or higher-tech stuff for the PCs.

Your insight into the whole Supers thing is really invaluable. I need to give them origin, purpose, etc. and that is something that I hadn't even thought of. I'm going to say that they are either psionics, alien-based, or implants. I think bio-engineering could be cool, right? Let's make the super-soldiers!

On that same note... I really feel like this fits well. Plus, the name matches up. Cyberpunk 2077. I'm aiming for some sweet TL 10 Cyberpunk High-Tech Supers action!

Yeah, you could go with a bio-engineering origin that inadvertently unlocked super powers, all of which are psionically-based. The super soldiers were used in some nasty war, or other, that resulted in a dystopian high-tech setting. However, after the war, those who created them tried to terminate the soldiers as so powerful they threatened the new order of things. So, the few surviving super-soldiers are constantly hunted, and must fight to survive.

[Aneirin]

If your players want to be normal, they can still live.

One book you should really have a look at is tactical shooting.

It is like martial arts for guns. Also gives lots of tips and pointers for players on how to stay alive and gm's to make things both syrvivable and realistic (like pointing out in police shoot outs over 70% (can't remember exact number, may be higher) miss.

[fifiste]

OK - now I want to run a PsychoSquad game.

[vicky_molokh]

Is this really supposed to be run in GURPS at all? It gives off all the vibes of some sort of supers system (MHRP?) that whswhs is actively discussing in the other subforum.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Is this really supposed to be run in GURPS at all? It gives off all the vibes of some sort of supers system (MHRP?) that whswhs is actively discussing in the other subforum.

I am absolutely certain that I want to run it with GURPS. There isn't a shred of doubt in my mind. It's what we all have experience in, and we all decided that it could be done through GURPS.

On another note, I really just need help with guns. How can I teach myself how to play with them? Where are the best, clearest, easiest or whatever rules? I do like the sound of that Tactical Shooting book though.

[vicky_molokh]

No, get Gun Fu instead.