A little lost
 

Hi Forums!

A little background about myself, I've been playing DnD for about 10 years now, and I have never tried any other system (shame!).

I have had my interested piqued by GURPS, and I bought a few of the books that I think would be necessary to convert my DnD party to GURPS(Basic Set, Powers, Martial Arts, Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers).

I am the GM, and I'm looking to move from DnD 5E to GURPS. I'm building my player's characters for them, and once we're all a bit more comfortable with the system I will let them rebuild. I've lurked around here a bit, but I'm still finding it a bit hard to work out what kind of skills and abilities I should be going for.

I've only just finished reading the Basic Set books, and I've skimmed the rest, so this is sort of my first attempt at building a character. I am using the Gurps Character Generator to help me.

I have 5 PCs (so far), and I'll present them to you quickly here. I've tried to remove them as much as possible from the DnD class, and distill them into the character (which is partially why I want to try GURPS). I've also got a TL;DR backstory. They all work for a well funded but kind of shady organisation. It's a low-ish fantasy, low magic, TL3 setting. There is regular combat, but not necessarily every session.

Innkeep turned Ranger

Urban Bounty Hunter

Half-Orc Barbarian

Effeminate Half-Elf warlock beholden to a devil

Gnomish Skyship Captain/ Swashbuckler


I'm just going to go over what I have for the Innkeep turned ranger. Please tell me if I'm being dumb, missing something, could improve something. I am basing it off the Scout from DF1. I haven't statted the ally yet.

Points are 250/-35.

ST 11 [10]
DX 14 [80]
IQ 12 [40]
HT 13 [30]
PER 13(+1) [5]
HP 13(+2) [4]

Ally (Always there, 100% pts) [20]
Animal Empathy [5]
Night Vision 3 [3]
Speak With Animals (All Land -40%) [15]
Talent Animal Friend 1 [5]
Talent Outdoorsman 1 [10]
Honest Face [1]
Strongbow [1]
Heroic Archer [20]

Vow (Protect all animals in need) [-10]
Greed (12) [-15]
Wealth, Struggling [-10]

Armory (Bow) IQ-1 [1]
Animal Handling IQ [1]
Body Language Per-1 [1]
Bow DX +4 (18)[16]
Camo IQ+1 [1]
Climbing DX-1 [1]
Fast Draw (Arrow) DX +2 (16) [1]
First Aid IQ [1]
Herb Lore IQ-2 [2]
Shortsword DX (14) [2]
Sleight of Hand DX-2 [1]
Survival (woods) Per +1 [2]
Survival (Plains) Per [1]
Tracking Per +1 [2]
Navigation (Land) IQ[1]
Naturalist IQ-1[1]
Vet IQ-1 [1]

I think it's probably dumb to stat everything at once, so I'll wait for feedback before statting up the next one. Thank you in advance for any comments!

Re: A little lost
 

Off the top of my head. Where did you get the -40% limitation for all land? I might go -20%
Also Combat Relfexs seems a good fit and adds to your Fast Draw skill.

Re: A little lost
 

The first thing that comes to mind with that Innkeep/Ranger is that he sure could use the Stealth skill.

Re: A little lost
 

In the basic set, page 87 it says

Combat Reflexes does indeed look good. I am not sure what to drop.

Re: A little lost
 

Yeah that is the tough question all the time :)
With D&D you had fewer choices so just went with what was allowed.
The point system of GURPS means always having to pick and choose which is the hardest part of building a character. What do you want more than something else? However what you wind up with is uniquely yours so the end result is typically more satisfying.
But remember that as you bring in the rest of your players.
Those Templates in DF: Adventurers were built mostly to help make that part easier. Speaking of which what level are these D&D characters?

Re: A little lost
 

Well, you might save a little by pruning a level of IQ... Actually DX too, though I probably wouldn't do that.

I don't think there's any way you can scare up points for Combat Reflexes without accepting a capability hit somewhere, either dropping an Attribute level and not buying up skills, or giving up a significant Advantage.

To add some fiddly small change things like Stealth, you could just take a few Quirks.

Re: A little lost
 

The characters were level 8, so I think 250pts is a reasonable choice.

I was advised to limit disadvantages to 35. Is that reasonable? Could I go up to say 50 and let them take a few quirks?

Re: A little lost
 

For normal human characters or equivalent (not superheroes, gods, alien monsters, or the like) I often go by the "50% of character points" guideline, which would let you go up to -125 points in negative traits (lowered attributes, disadvantages, and quirks).

You could absolutely let them add up to five quirks! Even if you want to be conservative about disadvantages, you could certainly let them have -50 points (half of 100) or -75 (half of 150) without being excessive. That would give you a little more room.

Re: A little lost
 

35 and 50 are good numbers to limit Disadvantages to. Most people here on the forums like bigger Disadvantage limits. 50 is the usual recommended level for dungeoneering style fantasy games (as D&D of all editions tends to be).

Re: A little lost
 

Yeah I genrally go for a 50 point cap as more than that can really be an issue in effectiveness but it is far from a hard rule.
Quirks are great little roleplaying bits so I encourage those.

Not sure on how the level matches up and hoping someone familiar with recent D&D versions will speak up.

Re: A little lost
 

Honestly, level 8 might be better fit by a bit more points than that. Perhaps 300 or so?
You certainly could go to 50 but I won't say the 35 is a bad idea.

I'd definitely allow the usual 5 quirks in addition to whichever limit, though.

Re: A little lost
 

For starting gurps players a lower Disadvantage level is not a bad thing. I'll second the comment about using -5 in quirks and add that leaving a couple of quirks blank at game start is an option too.

If your the GM you can always increase the point total of the characters too.

Re: A little lost
 

I usually prefer to only have disadvantages that really are core to the character concept and that the player is willing to play, not just add them to get a few more points. As a GM, I'd rather give the character a few extra points than have a disadvantage that I'm going to have to police.

Re: A little lost
 

I'd say they should have at least 1 point in Professional Skill(Innkeeper).

Re: A little lost
 

Would Bartender be a better fit? I think I'm happy to let everyone take a few quirks, so Stealth and Bartender are definitely skills I can grab.

Re: A little lost
 

Isn't there an innkeeper mixed profession lens?

Re: A little lost
 

I found an innkeeper template that's apparently on Dungeon Fantasy 10 (I don't have the book though.) It's a full 250 point character rather than a lens though.

Re: A little lost
 

The Innkeeper there is equivalent to a professional adventurer; the party role is a bit of a jack of all trades. It's slightly silly, with a bit of an assumption that you're beaning things with a cast iron frying pan.
There's no 50 point lens for dabbling in that template.

However it's a good template to pillage for things for a character who's got a bit of innkeeper/bartender background. The professional skill is indeed Bartender. It also presents the Improvised Weapons (Kitchenware) perk which lets you treat various kitchen tools as real weapons; since these are cheaper than real weapons, that's pretty handy for a starting character.

Re: A little lost
 

I think that I must have made my own 50 point innkeeper lens. Maybe I can find it for you.

Re: A little lost
 

Re: A little lost
 

That's a little prosaic for DF, I think.