The One Ring to GURPS 4th Ed conversion

[Zanfire]

I don't know if many people knows young The One Ring RPG, which focus on the Mirkwood area of Tolkien's Middle Earth. I love the game and the setting, but I' m trying to convert it to GURPS because the original rules are a bit lacking on the "precision" side.

I'm quite new to GURPS, even if I knew it by years, so I'd like to receive opinions from experts on the work I'm doing. If you have some time, please take a look to this and share your opinion :)

http://zanfire.blogspot.it/2013/07/t...on-beta-1.html

Moreover I can use an advice from you experts: I need to create a "Foul Smell Aura" for a monster. This should be an Affliction effect with Area of Effect (aura+emanation?), which automatically (this is very important: no attack roll! Only resistance roll!) force all enemies (selective?) inside the area of effect to make a HT roll to not becoming nauseated.

Thanks for attention and good game everyone!

[Aneirin]

Regarding the aura, you will also want it sense based on smell.

Treat it like a poison:-

Method of attack - Sense (smell)
Onset - Instant
Cycles - 2 cycles 5 seconds
Resist - HT (possibly a bonus of +1 or +2 if using a wet cloth over the nose or similar, you know those PC's will think of it!)

Failure leads to nauseua

And gives the monsters who are immune to it ummonuty or resistance to the poison.

[Walrus]

Foul Smell Aura

Affliction (Area Effect, Aura, Emanation, Melee, Nauseated). If it can't be turned (as it seems to be), add Always On. You can add Persistent and Drifting if it's actually some chemical, or don't add if it's actually more magical corruption.

Aura doesn't require attack in the first place.

Don't forget that you don't need points for monsters which aren't supposed to be PCs, Allies or Enemies.

[Anaraxes]

What's the real difference between "absolutely no resistance roll before you make a HT roll to avoid nausea" and "resist with HT or become nauseated"? Yes, there are small mathematical differences (one's a Contest and the other isn't), which you could jigger by applying some modifiers. But in terms of feel in gameplay, it should be the same. Nasty creature appears, everybody checks, some people fail, their buddies hopefully win the fight, earning the right to taunt the others for their weakness in the future.

[Zanfire]

Originally Posted by Walrus

Affliction (Area Effect, Aura, Emanation, Melee, Nauseated). If it can't be turned (as it seems to be), add Always On. You can add Persistent and Drifting if it's actually some chemical, or don't add if it's actually more magical corruption.

Aura doesn't require attack in the first place.

Don't forget that you don't need points for monsters which aren't supposed to be PCs, Allies or Enemies.

Thanks all for the advices. I think this is the best option (i was thinking about something quite similar after all) for now.

What tricked me is that Aura has a Melee C limitation, so it seems to be a very short-reached effect, but if I can combine it with Area of Effect, than that's it.

The poison idea is very interesting, but I'm still not so fond about poisons, so I must study that section before truly understand which is the better way to represent this foul smell aura (I admit I'm very tempted by the poison option, which seems very suitable to this situation).

About the rolls , it's almost a matter of keeping the things running smoothly, by limiting the number of dice rolls. And yes, some players will taunt the ones who fails ;) !

[Mr_Sandman]

If its an ability of a monster, and will never be available to a PC, ally or enemy where points have to be calculated, you don't really need to build it with advantages at all. Just describe the effect, for example "roll vs HT upon entering X yards of the creature, and every tenth combat turn in the area of effect, to avoid becoming nauseated, retching on a critical failure."

[Jeff BlackJack]

Affliction [47/level]
- area effect 4 +100%, emanation -20%, cosmic: no die roll +100%, smell-based +150%, irritant: nauseated +30%, secondary incapacitation: retching +10%. Total: +370%.

*the monster takes a Ready Maneuver and activates the smell. Everyone in a 4 yard radius rolls HT. Failure results in nausea for duration equals margin of failure in minutes. Failure by 5+ results in retching for the same duration. Each level beyond the first gives -1 in the resistance roll.

Optional Modifiers:
- Reduced Duration: -10% for 1/3 duration, -20% for 1/10 duration or -35% for 1/60 duration (seconds instead of minutes).
- increase Area Effect to 16m and add Dissipation for a more realistic approach. The more distant the target are the more bonus he receives to the roll: add the distance in yards as a bonus to resistance roll. Max distance is 16 yards. Total: +50% for 16yd or +0% for 8yd max range.
- Reduced Time +20%: the monster can activate the power as a free action on his turn.
- Wall 2: permeable (+60%) creates an opaque area that completely blocks vision. Alternatively, you can buy Obsure: Vision both with a link.

Hope it helps.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman

If its an ability of a monster, and will never be available to a PC, ally or enemy where points have to be calculated, you don't really need to build it with advantages at all. Just describe the effect, for example "roll vs HT upon entering X yards of the creature, and every tenth combat turn in the area of effect, to avoid becoming nauseated, retching on a critical failure."

If you build it with character point mechanics, you can be sure that its effect is one a character ability could have, and therefore can be represented by existing dice mechanics. You don't end up making up a new game mechanical process to clutter up the system and confuse players (or yourself). That is, you avoid growing barnacles over the clean lines of the ship of GURPS, and you keep things (a bit) simple(r).

Of course, if you're not going to care how many points your monsters are built on, you don't have to actually calculate the point cost. You can just do it as a design exercise.

Bill Stoddard

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by whswhs

If you build it with character point mechanics, you can be sure that its effect is one a character ability could have, and therefore can be represented by existing dice mechanics. You don't end up making up a new game mechanical process to clutter up the system and confuse players (or yourself). That is, you avoid growing barnacles over the clean lines of the ship of GURPS, and you keep things (a bit) simple(r).

Of course, if you're not going to care how many points your monsters are built on, you don't have to actually calculate the point cost. You can just do it as a design exercise.

Bill Stoddard

My description uses an existing dice mechanic, a success roll vs HT. What it doesn't use is the character creation mechanic of advantages, enhancements and limitations.

If there is no way that a PC or NPC who's point total I need to know is going to have the ability, I don't feel I need to follow the character creation mechanic. Usually the advantages, disadvantages, limitations, enhancements, etc. are a useful shorthand for notation of an NPC's or monster's abilities. However, if I have a clear idea in mind for an ability, and it would be more effort to create it using the character creation system than it would be just to make note of the effects, I skip on using the character creation system. After all, I'm not creating a character, as such.

That isn't to say that exercising one's GURPS-fu, to see if you can make exactly what you want using advantages, limitations and enhancements can't be a fun challenge. But I'm not going to expend a lot of effort on it if I'm putting together a session for my players, and want to just stat up a monster or opponent, and move on. In this case, I'm less concerned with the overall simplicity and elegance of the entire GURPS system, and more concerned with ease of use for me. Of course, I'm not developing the game, or writing for publication. I'm an end user.

The only way I can see that this approach could come back to bite me is if somehow a PC gained the monster as an ally, and I needed to determine its point cost. If that did happen, I'd feel comfortable getting as close as I could with the existing advantages and modifiers, and estimating the cost.

[namada]

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