Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

One thing I'd probably do different than the Pointless article does in more fine-grained games is have Minor Abilities, five of which equal a single Major Ability (so each has a nominal value of 4 points). Examples of Minor Abilities would be knowledge of a foreign language, a specialty in a single skill (rather than the broad Wildcards), knowledge of a single skill not in any of your Wildcard lists at the level of your highest Wildcard (essentially a wildcard version of skill adaptation), maxing out a specific Technique, and other super-perks that can help define a character. I'd also only ever allow five of those Minor Abilities; that number cannot be increased during play.

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

I really hope not.

As an Alternate style 'Starter Edition', maybe - but to my mind its a step too far from GURPS. You can't build quick characters this way and then simply add/switch to raw GURPS later.

If you want to play FATE then do so, don't mangle GURPS into some kind of FURPS.
If this is the way GURPS '4.5' was to go, I'd be sticking with 4.0, and buying far fewer new GURPS products.
Why not just use GURPS, that has finer granularity - and you don't need to roll everything up into little packages.

I'm also not convinced that its quicker or easier to build a character.
Templates give a much cleaner set of choices. - although I do admit that the format for a Pyramid article maybe doesn't present the packages in the easiest way to scan through and make choices, and I am far more familiar with the existing template format and the DF templates themselves.

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

You very nearly can. The Archetypes spell out precisely what the effects on the character's statistics are, and the Major/Minor Abilities tell you what Traits they grant the character. The Wildcards are just that - Wildcard skills. The only real issue are the Heroic Flaws. The simplest solution here is to just leave them as-is when converting to "full-blow GURPS" as their own Disadvantages. Honestly, Heroic Flaw would make for a decent Disadvantage in any standard GURPS game. It wouldn't necessarily be fast, but it would be fairly simple to convert a "Pointless" character into a standard GURPS character. And, of course, there's nothing preventing you from tacking standard GURPS Traits/Skills onto an existing "Pointless" character.

Yeah, I think this is purely a (necessary) victim of the format. Simply going though and adapting the standard DF templates with this system would help quite a lot - PK gave an example of how a Cleric might look.

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

Sure you can; everything has a defined price and trait list.

Because it can be too fine, and you should only need the fine granularity for a very few things.

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

Sure you can 'convert', but it's not all plain sailing:

What does the [10] point package for 'Warrior Training' contain?
The Heroic Flaws are effectively new [-10] point disadvantages which should really be 'converted; - and they use a DP mechanic instead of SC's
Using standard skills isn't really going to work very well from a full on WC starting point.
I don't see Magical Colleges! converting nicely either - or anyone actually wanting to - not that I think WC colleges should replace the standard spells.
Shapeshifting (Alternate Form) won't easily fit into the Major/Minor Abilities model.

The model has its place, but in my opinion it should not become the 'standard' model for GURPS as it loses too much.

I still think Templates are simpler and quicker.

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

As stated in the text, it's an Unusual Background. Those don't contain anything - they're basically a "this trait should be rare" tax (or in this case, a "niche protection" tax).

As I said, Heroic Flaw could easily be a new Disadvantage in a standard GURPS game. Failing that, yes, you could take the suggested Disadvantages listed and have the character instead choose [10] worth of those per Flaw.

Standard skills cost a lot less than Wildcards, which can make building a character with both Wildcards and standard skills feasible. If you want your Knight to have some decent skill with a crossbow as a backup weapon, you can save a lot of points by picking up Crossbow instead of Archery!, for example. I'd imagine Power-Ups 7: Wildcards has some ideas on blending Wildcards with standard skills, but I don't have that book so I can't really say for certain.

I'm personally more fond of RPM than the standard magic system, so Wildcard colleges are fine by me. This is more of a preference thing than anything else - if you prefer the standard magic system over Wildcard Colleges, you likely don't want to use Pointless Slaying and Looting for magic to start with.

So break away from Pointless Slaying and Looting for that. Alternatively, simply having an Alternate Form is a Major Ability and allows you to replace your Archetype, Abilities, Heroic Flaws, and/or Wildcards (maybe) with new ones while in the Alternate Form. When choosing Abilities and Wildcards, you can specify them as only being available in the Alternate Form, at a slight discount - at 5, 15, 25, etc Abilities/Wildcards, you get another for free (this approximates the 90% discount of AF, but grants it a little early). Alternate Form requires 5 seconds to go fully into effect, but you may act normally (using either your standard template or a predetermined mixture of the two) during this time.

EDIT: Actually, let's just go ahead and put that in the format of the article. As noted above, this is a Major Ability, costing two "slots."

Alternate Form. A single Alternate Form, which allows you to exchange your selection of Archetype, Abilities (with the exception of Alternate Form), Heroic Flaws, and (if the GM allows) Wildcards with another predetermined selection. The change requires a Concentrate Maneuver to initialize and takes 5 seconds to go into effect, but you may act normally during this time (at the GM's option, you may have an in-between form during this time). You may also designate certain of your Abilities and Wildcards as only available in your Alternate Form. This gives you a slight discount - at 5, 15, 25, and so forth Alternate Form-only Abilities or Wildcards you get an additional one. This is built as Alternate Form (Active Change +20%, Reduced Time +20%).

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

A 10 point 'tax' to be a 'Fighter' that's rough. There's no such 'tax/niche protection' for the Scout - Heroic Archer has no prerequisite, nor for the Thief (who suffers niche infringement in standard DF anyway).
The Bard archetype seems to be largely missing anyway.

Wildcards don't work for RPM, or so GD says - and he should know.
I'm sure GD will find a way to roll RPM into this scheme (especially given he's already said he's writing a MH version!)

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

No. I disagree. What would be nice is if each line could get a "quick-starter" edition like this instead of GURPS Lite (or both). This would get new players used to the rules without plunging them into character creation.

I doubt (extremely) that this would replace the standard way of doing things. This is why it appeared in a Alternate-issue of Pyramid. It's so different from the cannon that that is pretty much the only place it logically makes sense. Again, as I stated above a "quick-starter" for Dungeon Fantasy (which we have), Monster Hunters (which I finished last night), and Action (which I might start later this week) would be ideal for new players to start off with GURPS. Then use that to tap into the narrative market more. GURPS is the opposite side of FATE. I've GMed both and that statement is so true it makes my nose shrink every time I say it. GURPS is all about the story dynamic - just in the opposiste way. FATE is sort of like National Treasure with Nicolas Cage. Sometimes it doesn't make sense, but it's fun. GURPS is like Gravity's Rainbow - it can be complicated and detailed...but it's also fun.

As a single uber-skill covering all Paths...they really don't. I've tried poking at it multiple ways and it always leads to the same conclusion: "This is overpowered - ditch it."

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

Oh, I certainly agree. Personally, I feel the Ability should probably have something else thrown in - general Striking ST would fit. As written, however, it pretty clearly is a tax to be a Fighter (or, rather, to get access to a lot of useful abilities - Defender, Run and Hit, Swift Strike, Two-Weapon Fighter, Forceful Strike, Massive, Might Leap, Rage, Toughness, Weapon-and-Shield Fighter, and Weapon Specialist).

I should have been clearer. RPM Path skills are in many ways like Wildcards already, so Wildcard Colleges makes standard magic somewhat more akin to RPM, which is why I had no objections to them.

Re: Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons
 

I'm inclined to agree. Quick-start is good, and this is excellent stuff for introducing new players, but sooner or later you need to deal with the fact that this is GURPS. All of those packages need to be unpacked for ongoing development, or variant use in other campaigns that don't quite fit the original purpose. What this format does is to take a chunk of the usually front-loaded heavy lifting of character generation and kick it down the road a bit.