Diceless GURPS: Mechanical Discussion

sonic232 · 10-21-2015, 08:39 AM

I tried doing a search, and that function seems broken for now, but I'll post my thoughts on this here. Over the years since GURPS has come out, various mechanics, both built into Basic Set and coming out in supplements like Power-Ups: Impulse Buys and Power-Ups: Wildcards have come out for various ways of achieving success while ignoring the dice rolls through Destiny Points and spending your Character Points. My intention is to use these to outright REPLACE the dice entirely which would make for easier chat-based games and encourage descriptive roleplaying to give bonuses and penalties. What I propose is as follows:

TASK RESOLUTION:

Take skills as usual, but always assume a base roll of 11. Apply modifiers as usual. This means that Parries and Dodges will always tend to fail without bonuses and most competent adventurers will succeed without penalties. If you don't like this, adjust your base roll based on the feel for the campaign: An easier, lighter campaign may assume a base roll of 9, giving defenders in combat an advantage unless the attacker starts to use Deceptive Attacks. Potentially, combat should require a different base roll (this is something to be discussed.

A few major questions would be: Should the defender and the attacker assume different base rolls? Who should get priority? Should it be assumed that both the Defender and the Attacker succeed their rolls, thus requiring points spent to force a failure on somebody else? Or should it be assumed that the defender is assumed to lose and needs to spend points to avoid the attack using a Diceless system?

CONTESTS:

Again, assume a base roll of 11. This basically means that the highest adjusted skill will tend to succeed. Keep this in mind! Skill bonuses and penalties to the situation can still apply. This makes tracking skill bonuses and penalties very important to Diceless GURPS. Your success or failure literally hinges on giving yourself benefits and giving your foe as many penalties as you can.

DAMAGE:

Convert every 2d to a 7. If its an odd number of dice, the last die adds 4. (9d = 28 [8d] + 4 [1d] = 32) becomes Then apply any other additions or subtractions. Spend an Impulse Point, Wildcard Point or Destiny point to make it 6 damage per die. Apply all other rules as usual. Speaking of...

BUYING SUCCESS: GURPS Impulse Buys + Destiny Points + Wildcard Points

Suddenly this becomes VERY important to the game. Contests can become Bidding Wars using Impulse Points, Destiny Points and Wildcard Points to buy success. Encourage players to purchase Destiny and Wildcard skills and enforce this effect. Buying a critical success in combat should not be allowed unless it is against a Mook.

Additional Concerns:

How should Complementary Skills work? Would just invoking the skill (so long as it is above the base roll) allow you to gain its benefit?

10-21-2015, 08:39 AM	#1
sonic232 Join Date: Jun 2006	Diceless GURPS: Mechanical Discussion I tried doing a search, and that function seems broken for now, but I'll post my thoughts on this here. Over the years since GURPS has come out, various mechanics, both built into Basic Set and coming out in supplements like Power-Ups: Impulse Buys and Power-Ups: Wildcards have come out for various ways of achieving success while ignoring the dice rolls through Destiny Points and spending your Character Points. My intention is to use these to outright REPLACE the dice entirely which would make for easier chat-based games and encourage descriptive roleplaying to give bonuses and penalties. What I propose is as follows: TASK RESOLUTION: Take skills as usual, but always assume a base roll of 11. Apply modifiers as usual. This means that Parries and Dodges will always tend to fail without bonuses and most competent adventurers will succeed without penalties. If you don't like this, adjust your base roll based on the feel for the campaign: An easier, lighter campaign may assume a base roll of 9, giving defenders in combat an advantage unless the attacker starts to use Deceptive Attacks. Potentially, combat should require a different base roll (this is something to be discussed. A few major questions would be: Should the defender and the attacker assume different base rolls? Who should get priority? Should it be assumed that both the Defender and the Attacker succeed their rolls, thus requiring points spent to force a failure on somebody else? Or should it be assumed that the defender is assumed to lose and needs to spend points to avoid the attack using a Diceless system? CONTESTS: Again, assume a base roll of 11. This basically means that the highest adjusted skill will tend to succeed. Keep this in mind! Skill bonuses and penalties to the situation can still apply. This makes tracking skill bonuses and penalties very important to Diceless GURPS. Your success or failure literally hinges on giving yourself benefits and giving your foe as many penalties as you can. DAMAGE: Convert every 2d to a 7. If its an odd number of dice, the last die adds 4. (9d = 28 [8d] + 4 [1d] = 32) becomes Then apply any other additions or subtractions. Spend an Impulse Point, Wildcard Point or Destiny point to make it 6 damage per die. Apply all other rules as usual. Speaking of... BUYING SUCCESS: GURPS Impulse Buys + Destiny Points + Wildcard Points Suddenly this becomes VERY important to the game. Contests can become Bidding Wars using Impulse Points, Destiny Points and Wildcard Points to buy success. Encourage players to purchase Destiny and Wildcard skills and enforce this effect. Buying a critical success in combat should not be allowed unless it is against a Mook. Additional Concerns: How should Complementary Skills work? Would just invoking the skill (so long as it is above the base roll) allow you to gain its benefit? Last edited by sonic232; 10-21-2015 at 08:43 AM.