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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Can Defensive Imbuements work with advantage DR? I was pretty sure only worked with gear DR

I've had a 25 DR fantasy character, neat yes, but hardly the ticket to immortality in worlds of myriad ways to get armor divisors, majorly brawny weapon masters and super brawny non weapon masters and assorted spells that either can get past DR or are 'Save or X' effects

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavefunction (Post 1935422)

How sexist of you, women can be beefcakes too, ask any female bodybuilder. :p

beef·cake
ˈbēfˌkāk
noun informal
an attractive man with well-developed muscles

Emphasis mine. If she is identifying as male... then one shouldn't describe him as female. ;)

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyanW (Post 1935375)

Last time I played a character that was identifiably a barbarian (but not a Barbarian), which would have been about 10 years ago, I served as a spy for the paterfamilias of a prominent family.

I played a Mongol-esque (with a touch of Tibetan) horse nomad in a more-or-less Legend of the Five Rings game. I was a nasty, animal-hide wearing person of no delicacy, who might be able to compose good poetry extemporaneously but I still put butter in my tea and smelt of horses.

I also have repeatedly played various kinds of large lunkheads in light armor with big two-handed weapons, although none of them have been particularly shirtless or midriff baring, because that's stupid in most cases (Shirtless Savage barbarians and Coleopterans excepted). I also think sculpted "boob plates" are some sort of bizarre attempt to kill off female warriors.

I'm rather more likely to associate the word "barbarian" with the latter type than any real-world culture, because 1) I'm never in a Roman-style campaign where the real-world context of the word would make sense and 2) it's an insulting term in anything approaching a real-world context.

In a Conan-esque context, Barbarian is a word of pride. It has been reclaimed, so to speak, by the big hairy two-handed-weapon wielding tribal cultures of fantasy worlds.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavefunction (Post 1935422)

In a Conan-esque context, Barbarian is a word of pride. It has been reclaimed, so to speak, by the big hairy two-handed-weapon wielding tribal cultures of fantasy worlds.

That's because Howard didn't cotton much to city-folk's behavior and he was equating 'civilized' with 'lying arsehole weasels' in his Conan stories.

Conanesque barbarians should have a strong steak of honor and pride, and be prepared to back it up with Two-Fisted justice!

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyneras (Post 1935303)

Coleopteran's start with DR 5 (Can't wear armor) [15], Shirtless savage adds 4 character points of DR, but CWA DR costs 3 pts per DR, so that's 1 left over. In addition it adds the option for for another 6 to 10 character points in DR, or an extra 1-3 DR(CWA).

So a Shirtless Savage Coleopteran would be DR 6 to DR 9. Well armored but hardly invincible.

This assumes you go the CP equivalence route, which I tend to favor. If you got the alternate route and let them just invest more CP in these options it becomes a range of DR 7 to DR 12. If I had a player who really wanted to do this I'd suggest starting at the minimum and buying their way up in play.

Okay, guess we just have a lot of assumption clash here. I wouldnt drop Tough Skin, as it is perfectly valid to stack Tough skin underneath normal DR.

Not sure Id stick to a CP total either... the price of the DR isnt how the level of the DR gets limited on the template (on any of the templates mentioned, actually). They just say how much DR you can buy, and then how much it costs. So Shirtless Savage either costs less (because you keep Tough Skin, like I do, but upgrade to Cant Wear Armor, as you suggest), or more (because you dump Tough skin and upgrade to CWA, as you suggest).

Oh, and I was using Colepteran's power up to DR 6 from DF 11. But yes, it would start at DR 5 (CWA) + DR 2 (CWA, TS), and go up as power-ups are allowed to be purchased from there. DR 7 for no weight out of the gate is pretty impressive all on its own though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavefunction

Current total = DR 124.

Is there any reason not to All-Out Attack at this point?

NOTE: This is an insanely high level build, requiring enormous point investiture, I'm just pointing out what can be done.

I salute your attention to combinations :). That said, beefcake/cheesecake protection may not be allowed to Coleopteran's, as they are Hideous racially, and I dont think it would be something you could buy off... even with the option under Shirtless Savage. Can a "class" template option let you buy off a racial disad? So that is 21 less points to the 500+ point combo you got going there :)

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruno (Post 1935455)

In a Conan-esque context, Barbarian is a word of pride. It has been reclaimed, so to speak, by the big hairy two-handed-weapon wielding tribal cultures of fantasy worlds.

Oohoo! That summons an image of the Zaporozhian cossacks with one saying, "no no, we need to confront their oppressive and subalternating discourse! We are barbarians! Then we can shatter their hegemonic paradigm with an axe."

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

I took Beefcake to explicitly indicate that males can have it too, but the main issue with a Coleopterans is the fact that they have Appearance (Hideous), and you need to be at least Attractive for Bulletproof Nudity to kick in.

Now obviously giant bug men (or women) are repulsive to humans, and DF is human-centric - but this does raise the question of how even slightly monstrous barbarian races (like any goblin-kin) gets such a power-up? It should clearly work with each other (if their Appearance is bought up to the equivalence of attractive) even if it doesn't work on humans. Although this does quickly start to enter a the very messy situation where you ask if an orc who is attractive to other orcs is now more or less attractive to humans... and what about to other goblin-kin or elves...

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton (Post 1935581)

... you need to be at least Attractive for Bulletproof Nudity to kick in.
.. this does raise the question of how even slightly monstrous barbarian races (like any goblin-kin) gets such a power-up? It should clearly work with each other (if their Appearance is bought up to the equivalence of attractive) even if it doesn't work on humans. Although this does quickly start to enter a the very messy situation where you ask if an orc who is attractive to other orcs is now more or less attractive to humans... and what about to other goblin-kin or elves...

If I were GMing this, I think I would avoid this mess by simply ruling that the "Bulletproof Nudity" genre switch is about what's Attractive to the audience, not what's Attractive to any particular in-game individual or species.

After all, there's no realist in-game justification for the Bulletproof Nudity rule. Rather, the rule is a way to model some of cheeseball genre conventions specific to visual media like film, tv, and comics.

Some people who are against all meta- or genre-switches like to justify the rule in-game by saying "you get a defense bonus because the enemy is so distracted!", or similar. In my view, that's not really RAW, since if that were true, then the bonus would only apply against living, sentient targets who find you Attractive, and that's not what the rule says. On the contrary, by RAW, it seems to me that it ought to work against all sorts of things that can't possibly find you Attractive, like zombies, swinging blade deathtraps, etc etc.

I think it's better to justify it by saying "you get the defense bonus because that encourages you to show the audience your buff physique!". That's really much more what is going on in the genres the rule is quoting.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polydamas (Post 1935502)

As noted earlier, shattering unfair hegemonic paradigms with axes is the entire raison d'etre of literary barbarians:

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'By This Axe I Rule' - Robert E. Howard

Tu entered with the law tablet, laying it reverently on the table.
Kull shouldered aside all who stood near him and stood up alone.
“Hear, people of Valusia,” he exclaimed, upheld by the wild beast vitality which was his, fired from within by a strength which was more than physical. “I stand here -- the king. I am wounded almost unto death, but I have survived mass wounds.
“Hear you! I am weary of this business! I am no king but a slave! I am hemmed in by laws, laws, laws! I cannot punish malefactors nor reward my friends because of law -- custom -- tradition! By Valka, I will be king in fact as well as in name!
“Here stand the two who have saved my life! Henceforward they are free to marry, to do as they like!”
Seno and Ala rushed into each others’ arms with a glad cry.
“But the law!” screamed Tu.
“I am the law!” roared Kull, swinging up his axe; it flashed downward and the stone tablet flew into a hundred pieces. The people clenched their hands in horror, waiting dumbly for the sky to fall.
Kull reeled back, eyes blazing. The room whirled to his dizzy gaze.
“I am king, state and law!” he roared, and seizing the wand-like sceptre which lay near, he broke it in two and flung it from him. “This shall be my sceptre!” The red axe was brandished aloft, splashing the pallid nobles with drops of blood. Kull gripped the slender crown with his left hand and placed his back against the wall. Only that support kept him from falling but in his arms was still the strength of lions.
“I am either king or corpse!” he roared, his corded muscles bulging, his terrible eyes blazing. “If you like not my kingship -- come and take this crown!”
The corded left arm held out the crown, the right gripping the menacing axe above it.
“By this axe I rule! This is my sceptre! I have struggled and sweated to be the puppet king you wished me to be -- to king it your way. Now I use mine own way! If you will not fight, you shall obey! Laws that are just shall stand; laws that have outlived their times I shall shatter as I shattered that one! _I am king!_”
Slowly the pale-faced noblemen and frightened women knelt, bowing in fear and reverence to the blood-stained giant who towered above them with his eyes ablaze.
“I am king!”

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians

Quote:

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton (Post 1935581)

There's an anime with cute cockroach girls. That could inspire a take on the idea.