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Old 08-02-2005, 09:47 PM   #1
the adventurer
 
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Default GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

I've got this idea to run a one session demo of GURPS with the local gamers to try and get them interested in GURPS.

The current setting idea? Half-Life (You know the PC Game)

It'd be easy to make some sample characters, a bunch of ordinary Scientists, Office Workers, Maintainance Workers, and Security Guards.

And the plot of the demo would get to the action quick, the PCs are on their way into the bowels of the Black Mesa research Fasility when the Resonance Cascade occures, plunging the elevator the PCs are riding to work deep into depths. The now Rag Tag group of PCs start making their way to the surface, running into hostile invading aliens and soldiers looking to silence them for what they've seen.

Easy as I pie. Now I just need to figure out how to stat out head crabs and the Lighting Shooting dudes...
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Old 08-02-2005, 10:37 PM   #2
Robocoastie
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

WOW! Talk about a lot of combat and die rolling. And don't forget all the mod's for levels of darkness, cover and so on.... count me IN!! Just my kind of detail!
LOL.

Is you're idea to allow any GURPS character design? magic/psi/medieval/modern or just realistic modern like the actual computer game?

If you have the strategy guide with all the maps in it it's basically one giant dungeon crawl! May want to stretch reality more by having "fatigue and health packs" they can loot and pick up occassionally just like ammo so that they don't have to "camp" out for a day in a stinking (literally) room.
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Old 08-02-2005, 11:09 PM   #3
Allister MacLeod
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

Ok.. Head crabs are about the size of a human head, right? That'd be mmm.. about a foot in diameter, or a little less? That'd be size mod -5. They take a few shots from a 9mm Glock handgun to kill. If each bullet does an average of 8 damage, and they can take two before needing a HT roll to avoid going down, then they've got somewhere between 16 and 20 hitpoints.. or maybe a little DR. Once they've taken a certain amount of damage they seem to keel over pretty reliably--perhaps this is because of low HT.

On the ground they move quite slowly, but they have a very fast and accurate head-pounce attack. I wasn't sure how to model their ability to turn corpses into headcrab zombies.
EDIT: Perhaps the zombification can be modelled as an Innate Attack. Once the crab has sucked on a corpse's head for long enough, it becomes attached to the zombie and the zombie's arms begin to mutate. In the original Half-Life, I don't think headcrabs would jump off a zombie, but from what I've read, they can do so in HL2.

Head-Crab Template [-132]

Size Mod: -5 (10-12" across)

ST 10 [0] HP 15 [10]
DX 10 [0] Will 4 [0]
IQ 4 [-120] Per 4 [0]
HT 4 [-60] FP 4 [0]

Basic Speed 3.5 [0]
Basic Move 1 [-10]

Advantages
Injury Tolerance (No Head, No Neck, No Vitals, No Eyes) [22]
Damage Resistance 1 (Shell) [5]
Doesn't Breathe [20] (headcrabs are often seen underwater with no ill effect)
Doesn't Sleep [20] maybe?
Infravision [0] to go along with no eyes
Super Jump 1 [10] maybe
Sharp Teeth [1]
Innate Attack (melee, on dead corpse only, turn to zombie, takes preparation ?? minutes) [15]

Disadvantages
No Fine Manipulators [-30]
Cannot Speak [-15]

Last edited by Allister MacLeod; 08-03-2005 at 12:00 AM. Reason: set up zombification attack as Robocoastie suggested
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Old 08-02-2005, 11:17 PM   #4
Robocoastie
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

corpse to zombie:

wouldn't it basically be like casting Zombie spell except they turn into the headcrab zombie. So now they have another set of stats that could vary based on the host. Since they never fail at this though instead of it being a spell it becomes an advantage worth oh 15pts? and takes 4 secs/turns to perform.

?
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Old 08-02-2005, 11:46 PM   #5
Allister MacLeod
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

Xen Slave-Alien (Vortigaunt) Template [131] thanks Wonder Lemming

Vortigaunts are brown aliens about 2m tall, with a single large eye in the center of their head, surrounded by several smaller eyes. They are relatively skinny and have a stooped posture, by human standards. They have the ability to channel some sort of electric charge, shooting green lightning at threats. They also have a third arm. thanks Gunnerj.

Slave Aliens generally seem to be able to take more punishment than humans, being maybe 150-200% as durable. They might have fairly high ST, since they look pretty muscular, and some of them are employed/enslaved as factory workers on Xen. Not sure whether to add extra ST as part of the racial template, though. Their careful and observant ways seem to justify a racial IQ of 11. They probably have high HT, since they seem indefatigable and are pretty hard to kill.

ST 10 [0] HP 20 [20]
DX 10 [0] Will 11 [0]
IQ 11 [20] Per 11 [0]
HT 13 [30] FP 13 [0]

Basic Speed 4.75 [0]
Basic Move 4 [0] Generally they move much slower, but who knows how fast they can run?

Advantages:
Blunt Claws [3]
Extra Arm [10]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Innate Attack: 2d Burning (Green Lightning, takes recharge -10%) [9]
Affliction 1: Revive ((Extra Life, half HP, min. 1HP -20%: 20cp) +200%, usable on dead only -20%) [28]

Skills:
Innate Attack (Green Lightning)--10 [1]

Last edited by Allister MacLeod; 08-04-2005 at 03:55 PM. Reason: change green lightning attacks to match W. L. suggestion
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Old 08-03-2005, 12:10 AM   #6
Allister MacLeod
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

Headcrab Zombie

Basically when a corpse has been zombified by a head-crab, the zombie takes its traits from the host body, with the following exceptions. First of all, the head-crab eats the brain, thus bringing the IQ down to 4. Also, the zombification process causes some sort of mutation of the arms, turning the hands into long claws. These grant ST 14 if the host's ST was lower, and Blunt Claws [5]. In addition, the zombie gains Injury Tolerance (Unliving) [20] and Dependency (Head-Crab, constantly) [-25].

I guess it makes sense to treat the head-crab itself as Skull+Face hit locations on the zombie.
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Old 08-03-2005, 06:27 AM   #7
The Benj
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Allister MacLeod
Ok.. Head crabs are about the size of a human head, right? That'd be mmm.. about a foot in diameter, or a little less? That'd be size mod -5. They take a few shots from a 9mm Glock handgun to kill. If each bullet does an average of 8 damage, and they can take two before needing a HT roll to avoid going down, then they've got somewhere between 16 and 20 hitpoints.. or maybe a little DR. Once they've taken a certain amount of damage they seem to keel over pretty reliably--perhaps this is because of low HT.
Of course, it could have something to do with them having a fixed amount of Health and that they die automatically at 0 Health.
I really don't think they need a 4 HT. They don't ever get tired and they're pretty fast.
I'd recommend Easy to Kill, if anything.

Quote:
Head-Crab Template [-132]

Size Mod: -5 (10-12" across)

ST 10 [0] HP 15 [10]
DX 10 [0] Will 4 [0]
IQ 4 [-120] Per 4 [0]
HT 4 [-60] FP 4 [0]

Basic Speed 3.5 [0]
Basic Move 1 [-10]

Advantages
Injury Tolerance (No Head, No Neck, No Vitals, No Eyes) [22]
Damage Resistance 1 (Shell) [5]
Doesn't Breathe [20] (headcrabs are often seen underwater with no ill effect)
Doesn't Sleep [20] maybe?
Infravision [0] to go along with no eyes
Super Jump 1 [10] maybe
Sharp Teeth [1]
Innate Attack (melee, on dead corpse only, turn to zombie, takes preparation ?? minutes) [15]

Disadvantages
No Fine Manipulators [-30]
Cannot Speak [-15]
Okay, Move 1 and Super Jump 1 gives them a broad jump of...
-2 feet. {(1x2-3)x2}
Of course, we could base it off their ST. Which gives us:
2 feet {(2x2-3)x2}

Not quite the 15 or so feet that they jump in the game, is it?

I'd suggest a racial Jumping Skill of 12, plus Super Jump 2, for a broad jump of:
36 feet {(6x2-3)x4}
Which lets them jump 18 feet, without the 2 seconds of Concentration beforehand.
I'd also rule that you use half your Jumping to determine the Move in a second, as well as the max broad jump. Otherwise they'll take multiple seconds to jump the distance, which doesn't work.

I'd also say their Perception is more like 10. They're not oblivious, just animalistic.

On the subject of their HP, I'd say they probably only have about 5, but that they also qualify as Unliving, so Piercing damage is divided by 3.
Which is why it only takes a couple of good whacks with a crowbar, but it also takes a couple of pistol shots.
I'd personally put their general ST at 5, really.

Which brings me to their attack damage. For starters, I'd giving them racial Brawling of 12, both so they can bite reliably and for the +1 damage. I'd give them Fangs, judging by the vicious, long teeth inside their underbelly maw.

I'd probably swing them Striking ST +5, so they can bite for 1d-2 Impaling (oww).

So they:
1. Leap and Slam (the Slam isn't hugely important, as it'll only be 1d-2 cr), though they do it pretty reliably (Jumping 12+4 for Pouncing+4 for All-Out Attack-5 for attacking the face=15)
2. Grapple the face (DX 10+4 for All-Out Attack-3 for grappling the face=11)
3. All-Out Attack (Strong) Bite the face for 1d Imp
4. All-Out Attack (Strong) Bite the face for 1d Imp
5. All-Out Attack (Strong) Bite the face for 1d Imp
...

Alternatively, that could be sped up to:
1. All-out Attack (Double) in order to:
-Leap and Slam
-Grapple the face
2. All-Out Attack (Strong) Bite the face for 1d Imp

Or even:
1. All-out Attack (Double) in order to:
-Leap and Slam
-Bite the face for 1d-2 Imp
, for an even faster approach.
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Old 08-03-2005, 09:51 AM   #8
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

Wow, you guys are great. This is exactly why I love this forum, because GURPS heads like you guys really know your stuff.


Quote:
Is you're idea to allow any GURPS character design? magic/psi/medieval/modern or just realistic modern like the actual computer game?
Ordinary modern humans. It'd lose the world's flavor to let them have special abilities and backgrounds.

There will be crazy alien weaponry and super science however.
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Old 08-03-2005, 10:08 AM   #9
GunnerJ
 
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

Quote:
Xen Slave-Alien Template [94]
<snip>
Don't forget, the Xen Slaves (and soldiers, and all Xen life, I think) have an Extra Arm.
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Old 08-03-2005, 11:09 AM   #10
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Default Re: GURPS: Half-Life (For demo)

I like this idea, I may have to try it myself.

On another note, I noticed this thread and a Dark Sun thread and was wondering if another catgory "GURPS Conversions" wouldn't be a good idea to pack these various threads in for easy access...
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