Further Up the Spire - GURPS blog

[ArchonShiva]

Karma as an alternative to giving everyone Luck:
http://archonshiva.com/blog/spire/?p=117

(I keep posting other stuff, such as session reports, but they aren't GURPS-heavy, so I don't update this thread for those)

[ArchonShiva]

Forgot to post about this one. Alternate rules for running away, based on a old musing on Dungeon Fantastic:

Defeat and Running Away

[ArchonShiva]

Writeup on Breath Points, my simplified alternative to The Last Gasp:
Fighting to Exhaustion

Also, a bunch of new session reports with pictures all around the blog.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Forgot to post about this one. Alternate rules for running away, based on a old musing on Dungeon Fantastic:

Defeat and Running Away

I like the topic, and I think it deserves its own thread.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Writeup on Breath Points, my simplified alternative to The Last Gasp:
Fighting to Exhaustion

Also, a bunch of new session reports with pictures all around the blog.

I like this idea. Or rather, I really like the 'one pool of stuff I have, three pools of what I'm recovering' idea. Its just mentally simpler than last gasp. No offense to Mr. Cole. I don't know how much I like the numbers, but I haven't played with it.

The system seems to give yet more power to a two on one team-up: a person defending twice a turn either is very good or is going to run out of breath fast. Not to mention the possibility of tag teaming a foe.

Is there a reason evaluate doesn't gain a breath point? I'd have though it takes as little action as aiming.

I like how it hurts builds that rely on a high dodge score: yes, those archetypes exist, but it should be an expensive archetype (compared to what it costs now) and its for the robust swashbuckler with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy. I don't know that'd I take it all the way down to -3 though.

[ArchonShiva]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I like this idea. Or rather, I really like the 'one pool of stuff I have, three pools of what I'm recovering' idea. Its just mentally simpler than last gasp. No offense to Mr. Cole. I don't know how much I like the numbers, but I haven't played with it.

The main thing I like abut it is that it makes being tired have an immediate effect on combat endurance, and FP/Exhaustion traps, attacks or hazards now really mean something - twice I've had players, through a combination of the above and their own spending, have to fight with 2-3 BP on the table. It's rather painful.

Originally Posted by ericthered

The system seems to give yet more power to a two on one team-up: a person defending twice a turn either is very good or is going to run out of breath fast. Not to mention the possibility of tag teaming a foe.

The original aim was to have front-line fighters switch out occasionally to catch their breath. Yes, ganging up on someone is going to be nasty, as it should be - if you're fighting six peasants, you have to either be good enough to take them down quickly, or have high enough defenses that you can really hang in there them. Note that spending Exhaustion to regain BP means that even a normal combatant can spent 25 BP without stopping, if they don't plan on getting into another fight.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Is there a reason evaluate doesn't gain a breath point? I'd have though it takes as little action as aiming.

It does in my rules, I miscategorized it on the blog post (fixed).

Originally Posted by ericthered

I like how it hurts builds that rely on a high dodge score: yes, those archetypes exist, but it should be an expensive archetype (compared to what it costs now) and its for the robust swashbuckler with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy. I don't know that'd I take it all the way down to -3 though.

Under 3e I favored Dodge over PD on most of my characters, and they very rarely get hit, - enough that I've never been comfortable with the +3 under G4. So "-3" (which I call "+0") should be fine, and I really like the interplay of +2 for 1 BP vs +1-3 for 1-3 BP.

To be fair, I'm also very harsh to armor: Encumbrance affects all DX-based skills unless taking enough Extra Time for a bonus, and counts double against skills where it's already supposed to matter, as well as "Arcane" spellcasting. Sure, nothing's penetrated the halfling cleric's plate so far, but he hasn't been hitting very often either.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

To be fair, I'm also very harsh to armor: Encumbrance affects all DX-based skills unless taking enough Extra Time for a bonus,

If the motivation was adding harsh realism, then it's unrealistic. Even heavy armour isn't as bad as people unaccustomed to wearing it tend to believe.

[ArchonShiva]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

If the motivation was adding harsh realism, then it's unrealistic. Even heavy armour isn't as bad as people unaccustomed to wearing it tend to believe.

It's a DF game. It's not concerned with realism: this rule exists very specifically to make unarmored combat a reasonable choice, which it realistically isn't. Fleet thieves and lumbering knights, it's a stylistic element.

That said, while GURPS is absolutely right that armor isn't as restrictive as most people assume (the -8 of d20 is ridiculous), the extra weight carried does make one spend more energy, and a blanket -1 to -3 (which is hardly a harsh penalty in DF) is a pretty good stand-in for that, and easier to remember than post-battle FP. It's not egregiously unrealistic.

[ArchonShiva]

I only bump the thread for actual GURPS rules posts, but it's been four months of just (GURPS) session reports and pictures of miniatures, so I figured I might as well remind people this exists.

If someone doesn't know where to start, these two are probably my favourite reports, if only in terms of pictures:
Smuggler's Daughter
Deep Correspondent

This one has been flagged by others as my most useable content:
Light Theming and Mood

[dripton]

Thanks for bumping the thread; I hadn't read your blog before. I need to avoid showing it to my players or they'll expect me to make nice terrain like that.

Do you have the details of your Floating Disc spell? I've considered adding one to my DF game, but have been waffling on the cost. This is one of those spells that's super-useful if you can maintain it all day for free, but only slightly useful if you can only keep it going for a few minutes at a time. I'm leaning toward 2 FP per 100 lbs. at Move 3, half to maintain. Double for Move 6.