Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Cells and bullets gone
I switched to my trusty blade
And kept on fighting

— Excerpt from "Low-Tech Isn't No Tech"

To be sure, the most obvious backdrop for technology in gaming is either the modern-day technothriller or futuristic sci-fi adventure. That doesn't mean pre-industrial heroes are stuck banging rocks together and swinging from vines! Human ingenuity is at its keenest when technology is sharply limited – as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

Unfortunately for the GM, invention isn't always easy when the campaign is set in a low-tech world, involves travel to such a time or place, or is a post-apocalyptic mashup. In those situations, how things work is a matter of historical record, which means "make stuff up" tends to backfire. But take heart, because Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III is here to inspire with both raw technology and what it implies for culture, economics, and warfare!

• Weapons in GURPS are nigh eternal, breaking only in extreme circumstances: critical failure, parrying an ogre's club, and so on. Yet historically, The Broken Blade was the risk that prompted knights to carry backup weapons and armies to travel with armorers. Douglas Cole's new rules for robustness, breakage, and dulled edges add not only realism but also risk, excitement, and a reason to keep a knife in your boot.
  
  
• Traders and merchants predate the concept of currency. Wherever demand is higher in one place than another, Purveyors of the Priceless can make a profit. Christopher Rice shows how to handle a trader's starting wealth (even in a setting where Wealth doesn't exist), offers eight new perks for merchants, and provides plenty of rules for bartering and selling. Easily determine how much stock you have, how and where to sell it, and how much gold (or cacao) you'll be rolling in.
  
  
• If you want to engage in speculative mercantilism on a grand scale at TL3, your best option would be to dive into the Medieval Sea Trade. In this month's Eidetic Memory, David Pulver provides detailed rules for playing port-to-port traders – including full vehicle stats for a merchant ship, 36 common types of cargo (and rules for seeking out specific ones or generating them randomly), and what's involved in ferrying passengers or someone else's freight when you lack a shipment of your own.
  
  
• Confucianism was felt at every level of life in medieval China. Its belief that people could be "perfected," rising on their own merits and virtues, spawned a bureaucracy that spanned centuries. Matt Riggsby explains why Knowledge is Power, with an in-depth look at the imperial civil service and the grueling exams required to advance through its levels. Will you spend decades struggling with the curriculum, drop out, or give in to the temptation to cheat?
  
  
• Few makers of musical instruments occupy a place in the public consciousness – but everyone has heard of "Stradivarius." The name immediately brings to mind finely crafted violins, passed down from musician to musician over the course of centuries. Yet who was The Music Maker and how did he become the archetypal artificer of stringed instruments? Learn about Antonio Stradivari (with full GURPS stats) and discover why his hometown of Cremona lends itself to historical adventure.
  
  
• The "-punk" suffix is popular nowadays, from the well-known "steampunk" to such odd takes as "atompunk" and "stonepunk." It's a simple concept at heart: Start with a real historical setting and then introduce fantastic inventions. But giving gadgeteers free reign to build anything can wreck the game. In Tempered Punks, Graeme Davis gives the GM a variety of ways to balance the scales, so that the players' creative freedom doesn't turn into the GM's worst nightmare.
  
  
• And no trip to the past is complete without our usual features, including a Random Thought Table that shows why plot devices and technobabble aren't just for sci-fi, and a Short Bursts that will make you glad you have access to roadside assistance.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

I'm so glad Doug finally got that article published! That is a shining gem right there. Love Matt's and David's articles, too. Knowledge Is Power couldn't have landed at a better time; I'm in the middle of a Chinese kick, lately. Great job, guys!

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

I agree.

It's funny. Cherry Blossom Rain had a couple of elements I really wanted expanded on, but I felt that GURPS couldn't really easily handle, so I ended up ignoring. The first was moment-to-moment fatigue, and the second was sword durability, because I feel both are pretty important to the chambara genre.

And what does Cole publish? I used to joke he was a ghost writer for my campaign, but I was kinda serious. His stuff literally addressed my problems.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Combination of designer's notes and "How could I have forgotten . . . " for yesterday's release of The Broken Blade in Pyramid #3/87 - Low-Tech III.

Shields are a bit problematic with TBB because they have too much of one stat, and another is strangely absent. I fix this: Shields Will be Splintered (Shields in The Broken Blade).

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Damn you Kromm and Doug, you've found a way to wrangle another $8 bucks outta me :P

Note helping with me trying to find a way to buy off my Struggling disadvantage heh.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Yeah, I tossed up some Designer's Notes of my own. Overall, the issue's pretty amazing. I've been using Broken Blade for a long time so I know how awesome it is. Really glad to see that it got the cover for this issue - it deserved it. I also have to admit that Matt's article is suspiciously something that I needed for both my fantasy campaign and my supers setting for a specific character. Overall, really great issue.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

That, and Jon Black's article, are definitely things you wouldn't see in most gaming magazines, but are really cool.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Minor style nit: the promo text for The Music Maker doesn't specify who wrote it, while all the others do.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

It's one of the reasons why I love GURPS - it doesn't just have to be all crunch, all the time. We have some truly amazing scholars who write what amounts to an essay - but in gameable form. I may be alone, but that's pretty incredible to me.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

It's all for the greater glory of GURPS anyway. :)

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

I too find it awesome.

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

The Broken Blade article is wonderfull. I really love it.
After a few fights, I find it very simple to use.
But I have a question. How do you handle it with the Cross Parry option for MA p.121 or when the parry or block is in the DB marge?

Thanks :)

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Good question - maybe take 1.5x the Breakage Threshold (so the threshold for each weapon goes up by 50%) but apply full damage to each.

So if you have two weapons with ST 8 (say two large knives or something, books not with me), and cross parry a blow with 9 points of damage, you'd compare 9 to 8 x 1.5 = 12, and parry with no problem. I think Failure Increment might be 2 for this one, and it would not change.

If you parry a 15 point blow the same way, then you'd apply the 15 points to the threshold of 12, and since that exceeds the threshold by 3, you'd make a HT roll for each weapon at -1, because you're over the threshold by one full increment for failure, but not 2.

This has the advantage that if you cross-parry with (say) a ST 6 parrying dagger and a ST 10 sword, you can just adjust thresholds to 9 and 15, and apply one damage total to each.

Do not re-calculate the failure increment, I'd say.

Thanks for the comments!

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

The Broken blade system is very good and after numerous fights using it I have some questions:
-Anybody try to use something similar for armor?
-How to adapt the spells (Weaken, Shatter, Explode, Ruin, Repair or Shatterproof M116-118) of the Making and Breaking College. This spells mainly remove or restore HP. And this is the Robustness (HT score) that is testing in Broken Blade.

For example of situations I have in mind, I think of the fight in GoT where the steel sword of Sam is broken/shatter by the magical hit of a white walker (my idea of the Shatter spell). Or in the Snow White and the Huntsman when the Huntsman block with a shield a projection of glass shard than eats the wood of his shield.

For Shatterproof I think that is just a +2 bonus to HT, or it possible to do a variable bonus proportionnet to Energy. But I not sure how to handle others.

In addition how to simulate, in HT tests, the effects of acid, extreme heat or cold attack to weaken or destroy armor and weapon?

Thanks

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Pagan (for some reason it's not letting me quote you)*:

Remainder refers to how much is left over once you've evenly divided as much as you can. The remainder is the numerator (the number on top) of the remaining fraction. In this case, you have an end result of 1 and 2/6, meaning a remainder of 2, so 1d+2. The safety threshold is basically the highest amount of damage where rolling all 6's won't risk damaging the weapon.

*EDIT: I see now that you've deleted your post. I'll leave this up in case someone else has a similar question (original was on why a MinST 8 weapon has a threshold of 8, when 8/6 is 1.333).

Re: Pyramid #3/87: Low-Tech III
 

Varyon,

Thanks for the quick response. Yeah, I figured it out right after I posted and reread that section of the article, so I deleted the post.