Pyramid #3/26: Underwater Adventures

[Stripe]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Shouldn't thrusting weapons suffer less drag than swinging weapons?

Wait. They don't? Heck, the one time my group did an underwater adventure, I just waved my hand (something I never do) and said all the swung weapons in the group were used at a ST-2 penalty to the wielder and were +2 to defend against. I'm not saying that was at all realistic, just that's how much harder I thought swinging things underwater would be.

I'm downloading the issue now. :)

[Dinadon]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Shouldn't thrusting weapons suffer less drag than swinging weapons?

Err, they do. Thrusts get -reach to damage, swings get -reach per die. Or you referring to only the attack role part?

[Gudiomen]

I saw this Pyramid issue on e23 before Kromm announced it here, even thought about opening a thread... what I meant to ask was this:

Rules for underwater action and combat are published in a Pyramid issue, this got my attention. I thought this sort of stuff was going to be in GURPS books... I always thought of Pyramid as being complimentary, but not featuring essential stuff.

Granted, "essential stuff" is pretty subjective. But this is the sort of rule you'd see get referenced. And as far as I know there isn't a reference in the books towards a Pyramid issue or article so far. We have templates, optional rules and such... but this kind of struck me as core crunch.

So the question is, are the rules for underwater combat and stuff going to be published in a GURPS line book, like Action or something?

Edit: I can guess there was some thought about this, I'm curious on the rationality behind this decision.

[Kromm]

Not to cast any doubts on Roger's fine work, but the fact is that I heard that there would be rules for underwater action in Pyramid . . . oh, on December 7 or so. It wasn't in any way part of some master plan for GURPS, and the existence of Roger's article doesn't preclude those rules or more detailed ones built on them showing up in a book with "GURPS" in the title. About all it means is that Roger might be paid again for his efforts. Goodness knows, lots of important GURPS book content has come from articles in Roleplayer and the various Pyramid incarnations.

[Gudiomen]

Nice to know, thanks.

[Steven Marsh]

To expand a bit on Kromm's (entirely correct) answer, I've been trying to bring back that sense of weird-and-wonderful novelty that frequently accompanied new issues of Roleplayer. As a GURPS fan, it was always a delight for me to crack open a new issue of that magazine and see "cutting edge" ideas and rules. "A 15-page article devoted to character stats for horses?!? How cool is THAT?! Mass combat rules for GURPS?! YES!!"

And if's there's a huge demand for more aquatic-oriented goodness as an official GURPS supplement, then these rules will almost certainly be reprinted/modified/tweaked and included there. (We already do that with e23; we generally frown upon a new supplement saying something like, "This character uses a Talent that was only defined in Supporting Cast: Age of Sail Pirate Crew -- so you need to go buy that for this to make any sense!")

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

"Mass combat rules for GURPS?! YES!!"

You mind-read my go-to example!

—

I doubt that anybody realized that the mass-combat rules would grow from an article to a major section or even a chapter in several worldbooks, become Compendium II material, and then go on to inspire their own GURPS Fourth Edition supplement (which we'll be printing, by the way!). If any article has that potential, it's one with solid crunch . . . like this one.

[PK]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Shouldn't thrusting weapons suffer less drag than swinging weapons?

They do. Look at the (admittedly contrived) example -- the glaive gets -3 damage when thrusting versus -9 when swinging.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

They do. Look at the (admittedly contrived) example -- the glaive gets -3 damage when thrusting versus -9 when swinging.

The skill penalty though is the same, yes?

[jacobmuller]

Originally Posted by Stripe

[SIZE="4"]If Kromm makes one more pun -- ONE MORE -- the baby seal gets it

See, they Are smarter than most folk assume. There's folk I know who don't even get blatant jokes, never mind puns.