Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Hi all,

I have had a plan to run a Fantasy campaign set in a world of my own creation for some time now. After a bit of thought, I've decided to run this using the GURPS system, but I am almost a complete newbie to it (recently I partook in a 3-part Star Wars mini-campaign as a player, using the GURPS rules), and I'd like a bit of advice from seasoned folk. In addition to my newbieness, a have a group with not much experience of the system.

The decision to use GURPS was made after some nice chat on another gaming forum, and I have been given copious amounts of "start small, add more as you go" types of tips. I have the core books, and will use Fantasy, Low Tech, Magic and Thaumatology (and maybe Martial Arts) as the campaign progresses. But for now, I'm thinking small, and thus just the core.

My main problem, though, is I'm used to gaming systems with clear structure and levels when it comes to characters. I'm finding it hard to wrap my mind around how powerful a character feels using a certain amount of character points.

Originally, I had planned on running a D&D campaign, beginning at level 1. Essentially, I guess, I'm asking how many character points in GURPS would give an approximate feel of similar power levels as 1st level D&D characters? I was thinking of using either 75 or 100 points, with a max of 25 or 50 points of disadvantages. Does that sound about right?

Secondly, I would also like some advice on nice amounts of point rewards to keep the characters slowly but steadily improving over time?

Many thanks for any and all advice thrown my way!

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I have seen 50+level*50 points suggested on these boards, perhaps even by Kromm. This is what I use as a rule of thumb. But it can't be more than that, for in GURPS you can spend your points any way you like.

A 100 point generalist could be beaten by a 25 point specialist. So there's no way to really define how powerful a character is in a given area, e.g. combat, by looking at the points alone.

But 100 points sounds about right.

The books suggests about 1-5 points per session.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I tend to give 1 point for simple attendance, 1 point for participation, 1 point for decent roleplaying, and 1 point for either outstanding roleplaying or an exceptionally good solution to a problem. Maybe 2 points for the last if someone is really spectacular, but that's rare. I'll be more generous than usual if a character went through the wringer, provided that the player made it a dramatic scene and didn't whine about unfairness or retreat into sullen silence.

Bill Stoddard

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Eek. Get in that combat section and make some generic mooks and play some mock combats before gaming. Get to know the combat system as well as you can.

Here's how I make characters:

We all sit down at the table. I am the only one with books. We do a really quick, "what type of character or you going to play" session. Then, I suggest Attribute stats as fast as I can. "ST 12, DX 13, IQ 12, HT 12," just as fast as I can and I tell them the point total and where to write it on the sheet.

Then, they all listen at once as I read the Advantages aloud. I suggest an amount to spend and some of the given Advantages as I get to them, (e.g., "Combat Reflexes" for most all warrior-types).

Then, they all listen and take Disadvantages as I read them aloud.

After that, we do the same for skills. I help them tally the skill levels as we go.

After that, we chop points off because they will have too many.

That is excellent advice. More than the two Basic Set books and Magic and your head is going to be swimming. You'll be overwhelmed as it is. Adding Martial Arts and all those others will break you.

I have Fantasy. Almost never use it. I don't have Thaum'gy. Low Tech is still being crunched up by my brain. It's pretty tough.

It's relative. If every soldier, goblin, merchant, and pick-pocket on the street is a 100-point character, then your 100-point PC's are going to feel very weak.

Basically, most suggest 150 points with a disadvatage limit (page 11 of Characters) at half that, or -75 points. That's what all my fantasy campaigns have been.

Dungeon Fantasy, a great line of books, has 250/-50-point PC's, IIRC.

Here's the official rundown (p. B487):

1. Feeble (under 25 points);
2. Average (25-50 points);
3. Competent (50-75 points);
4. Exceptional (75-100 points);
5. Heroic (100-200 points);
6. Larger-than-Life (200-300 points);
7. Legendary (300-500 points);
8. Superhuman (500-1,000 points);
9. Godlike (over 1,000 points).

Read "Power Level," B487, for more information.

Honestly, I wouldn't try to simulate that part of D&D exactly. GURPS combat is extremely deadly.

I'd try 100/-50 or 150/-75 to start out. They won't be overpowered if you nix or keep to a minimum supernatural and cinematic traits.

See Awarding Bonus Character Points, p. B498.

Footnotes: zero to five, averaging two or three points, per session.

Know that if I had it to do over again, I would start with Dungeon Fantasy. DF 1, 2 are excellent, almost essential to the fantasy genre.

Good luck!

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I definitely agree with Stripe here. You wanna get a sense of how powerful a 100pt character is? Make some, and put them in an arena. I like the depth of his answer so I'll keep quoting him for reference, even though my advice differs a tad.

These are some very high stats, 140pt worth. Make sure you understand the advantage "Talent" - the variations listed are just samples. Talent is the key to making capable characters AND differentiated characters. Make sure you realize that the suggestion not to allow "Weapon Talent" is not the same as disallowing talents that include weapon skills. The point is to keep them focused; a narrow focus (5pt talent) is actually the most cost-effective.

But you can work out some guidelines. Skill 12 is entry-level professional, or journeyman in the guild system. The rule of thumb is that routine circumstances give a +4 bonus; that means skill 12 succeeds on 16 or less on routine jobs, like making a common tool from decent materials in an equipped workshop, as long as it's not a rush job. (The analogous +4 bonus for combat skills is the Telegraphic Attack described in Martial Arts.)

So, a typical journeyman professional has average attributes, Status 0, Wealth Average (more of each than a serf), 8 points in an Average skill, and maybe 5 points if you require Rank in a guild and apprentices are Rank 0. That's 13 points, before personal traits.

Give the journeyman a few years to gain more experience, rising to skill 15, and submit his masterpiece. He now has guild Rank 2 (for 10 points, granting Status 1), Comfy Wealth (10 more points), and 20 in his main skill. The average man of status has 40 points plus personal traits, so call him a 50pt character with 25 in disads (probably including Dependants). If he has IQ 12, a militia commission, or some other significant (costly) advantage, he could still be built, easily, on 80 points with 40 in disads. So a mere 100 still puts a starting character above an average pillar of the community.

And I suggest 100pt characters, with 50 in disads, but doubling the recommended rate of point awards, especially to match the feel (not the detail) of DnD level advacement.

Here's why I think 100 is plenty, for a starting fighter:

ST 13 (30)
Will 12 (10)
Combat Reflexes (15)
Talent +4 (Bow, Fast-Draw, Hiking, Shield, Shortsword, Soldier; 20)
Very Fit (15)
Weapon Master: Shortsword (Pact -10% to serve the war god; 18)
Disads (-50)
Bow-14 (2)
Brawling-12 (4)
Broadsword-16 (from Shortsword)
Farming-9 (1) - or substitute the profession of your father
FD/Arrow-16 (2)
FD/Knife-15(1)
FD/Sword-15(1)
Hiking-13 (1)
Knife-15 (from Shortsword)
Scrounging-10 (1)
Shield-16 (4)
Shortsword-18 (16)
Stealth-10 (2)
Soldier-14 (2)
Swimming-10 (1)
Thrown Knife-12 (4)

Sure, he needs more Per, more Move, and more skills; Survival would be nice, and social skills like Carousing. As a staring character, he SHOULD need more of something.

Here's a kid who can attack three times in one second (telegraphic rapid strike) rolling against 16 for each, damage 2d+3/cut if he hits. (The target gets a bonus to defend against a telegraphic attack, but gets penalized for multiple defenses on the same turn, resulting in a high likelihood that at least one of the trio connects.) With a medium shield, he parries on 15, or blocks at 14. Frankly, I think this is significantly better capability than a 1st-level DnD character.

I could illustrate the point with a wizard, too. The key advantage is Energy Reserve (basically, Extra Fatigue) for Fave College Only (-40%) and either Gadget (a wand works out to -40% or so) or Requires Familiar. For 18 points, you get an extra 30 points of spell energy.


Thaumatology is all about tweaking the magic system. It helps if you understand that system pretty well to start with. I think the Martial Arts book is a greater benefit; you need the combat options in there to help a warrior keep up with a wizard.

Search on this forum for terms like newbie and advice, and you'll find plenty of folks have asked the same question you have and gotten fairly detailed responses from collective.

GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Level to GURPS translations are rough at best.

Keep in mind that due to the amount of variation in charachter builds, you can get a lot of different types of characters fro 100 points. Get a handle on that. The example that you'll see thrown around the forums is that of the 100 point of accountant vs the 100 point warrior. The accountant, with his points burned up in accounting, math, administration etc, wouldnt stand a chance against 100 points of minmaxed lethality.

For the D&D game your thinking of running, Id recomend getting Dungeon Fantasy 1 (Its 8$) and it will give you and your charachters templates to build off of. Be warned, the templates in there are a fairly high point value, so I recomend looking at Eric B Smith's guidlines for DF on a budget.

Finally, keep in mind that the only thing that charachter points are really useful for is differentiating characters from each other. People who spend more points on Advantages and Skills will be better in certain areas than those who spend their points elsewhere.

Nymdok

p.s. I think Kmunoz did a GURPS conversion of Keep on the Borderlands and Collective restraint did a conversion of White plume mountain if your interested.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Think of GURPS starting character levels as an approximate description of how capable the characters are, in general, compared to ordinary people.

Then ignore character points as power levels. Once you start playing, they don't really measure your character's "strength" anymore. Anytime you want to measure your character's abilities, you're going to do it in reference to some specific activity, but your total character points don't measure that.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

It's funny. DnD 3E introduced Challenge Ratings for DMs to figure out what enemies would be a good match for their PCs. Prior to that, DMs just picked out their encounters based on experience and intuition, and GMs of nearly all other games have kept doing that. Heck, I'm sure that a large number of DnD 3E DMs never bothered with Challenge Ratings at all.

In GURPS, you just have to kind of pick your enemies based on common sense. Here are some guidelines for enemy defenses:

1. Don't give your enemies more Damage Resistance (DR) than your average PC can dish out on an average hit. Players will get frustrated when their weapons consistently fail to penetrate armor. There are exceptions, of course, like when it's one giant enemy, and the PCs are trying to find a weakness, but for run-of-the-mill encounters with goblins, orcs, and bandits, use this guideline.

2. For enemies who are just supposed to die, keep HT scores relatively low (less than 12, definitely.) When one mook keeps making his consciousness check, despite all of the damage, it's amusing. When all of them keep making consciousness checks, it's frustrating.

3. Mooks with high active defenses can be equally frustrating for players. If your PCs keep succeeding in their attack rolls, but all of the goblins have dodge 12 and keep dodging, that is very frustrating. In such a situation, you can encourage your players to try the feint rules or the deceptive attack rule, but if this slows down combat, there can be a problem.

4. Hit points are important, but they are less of a concern, I've found. As long as PCs do damage to enemies, players tend to be pretty satisfied. In general, humanoid mooks should have 8 to 12 HP, and monsters' HP can vary.

Here are some guidelines for enemy offense:

1. Enemy weapon skill should not be more than 2 levels higher than the average PC, unless that enemy is a boss or something. If you do have enemies with high skill, try teaching your players how to make good use of it through feints, deceptive attacks, and targeting hit locations.

2. Be careful with weapon damage. GURPS can be fairly unforgiving of taking huge hits. If an enemy can do more than the average character's HP after DR reduction in a single average hit, the players should be very aware of that. That enemy is extremely dangerous.

I hope that those help.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

When you run your mock combats you my want to consider bringing your players in on the last one. It will help them get a feel for three things
1) 1 second combat rounds
2) GURPS lethality
3) Combat sequence / options

All of these are imortant to have some familiarity with for a smooth session (if it includes fights)

A lot of D&D converts (IME) think they can do a LOT more in a 1 sec round than is reasonable (e.g. move to an attack position, swing a wepon and speak a paragraph) The short rounds don't let you do much in each one, but you get more of them and more detail. practice with the combat sequence and the most common options until they are very familiar.

GURPS doesn't increase PC hit points like that other game. A 350 point bad@$$ will die with the same wounds as his 50 point prepubescent nephew. He should be MUCH harder to hit and wearing better gear to soak up damage if he is hit, but he is not substantially more durable.
Somewhat related to this is the compete ubersuck of being outnumbered in melee combat. 5th level fighters may be able to wade through legions of goblin mooks, but 200 point fighters need to be wary of two or three of them working as a team, circling, keeping range and overwhelming his defenses.

Having everybody know what dice to roll and when (for the most part / basic stuff) will make the game go a lot more smoothly. Let your payers test drive a few mooks around in the arena before they take their new favorite PCs in to combat. Have them AoA with an opponent in range and see what happens to them when they get no defense roll next turn. Have them reload a crossbow for 4 (it is 4 right?) seconds while their friends are whacking opponents every turn. Have them take damaga and have to deal with shock penalties, reduced movement and fright checks.

Speaking of fright checks, this is an excellent tool for a GM to use to change the flavor of experience for PCs. Have the newbies roll at substantial penalties for their first encounter with horrible death, or their own major wound etc. As they get more experienced, reduce or eliminate the penalties and then eventually just stop having them roll for 'common adventurer' kinds of horrific things.

e.g. Havin a dead body fall on you would freak out lots of normal people, including newbs on their first adventure. After a while, you will need to throw more disturbing things at them if you want to create a creepy atmoshphere (one of their friends gets messily killed and splatters all over them, or rises from the dead and comes after them).

Good Luck

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Yes: 1 to draw, 1 to load, 2 to cock (which is really 1 to draw the string back, and 1 to ready into firing position): Aim on the 5th turn, fire on the 6th. Fast-Draw shaves off a second, and not aiming shaves off a second. Firing a heavier crossbow with a mechanical aid to cock it takes longer.

However, crossbows have a huge advantage over bows that may be lost on newbies: The pop-up attack. Sorry, I forget the page number, but the gist is that you can crouch behind cover, a boulder or a big shield, ready your crossbow, pop up and fire only briefly exposed, then duck back down to reload, as you see depicted with firearms in plenty of Westerns. Archers can't use this trick, so they need guards, which means that a bow, firing every fourth turn with aim, actually has a lower rate of fire PER MAN if each archer has a shield bearer.

This is a perfect example of how the GURPS combat makes a lot of sense when you really get into it, which is why you've gotta take the time for some practice runs. Otherwise you wind up with players who think the system is broken, in this case asking why anyone in their right mind would use a crossbow, when in fact they haven't learned the system. There's a recent thread along this line as an object lesson: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=75609

GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Why can't archers use this trick?

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Two things to keep in mind: first, when you're working with classes, you can be reasonably sure that any character will be balanced and appropriate for your game, and classes tend to have built-in niche protection. GURPS doesn't do that, so you'll need to keep a closer eye on chargen to make sure that the characters people are making are appropriate for your game (no meek scholars in a hack and slash game, no street thieves in a game about courtly intrigue) and that they have the appropriate skills and abilities for the kind of character they're supposed to be, and you'll have to enforce niche protection yourself (if you care about that sort of thing).

Second, when you're working with levels, characters tend to get better at everything at once: they get stronger attacks AND they hit more often AND they get better defenses AND they get more HP AND they tend to acquire higher status AND they learn more special abilities AND they get more uses per day AND AND AND. In GURPS this isn't automatic and players tend to improve the skills and abilities they use the most (like a fighter who spends all his points on buying up his favorite weapon skill). If you want players to spread their points around so that they improve everything at once, it may help to provide them with a wide variety of challenges (so that they'll realize that it doesn't help to be too overspecialized), or point out that there are other ways to improve your character than just getting good at one thing; for instance, the aforementioned fighter could learn Tactics, Strategy, Leadership, and Administration if he wants to lead soldiers, or improve his outdoor survival skills so that he can live in the wild if he has to, or buy up Status, Reputation, Wealth, and Contacts if he wants to be a social climber, etc. Or he could just learn how to use more weapons, which will come in handy when they all get captured by slavers who make him fight other gladiators using whatever weapons they give him...

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

In the game, the reason is because of the rule on pop-up attacks. As to what it's based on in terms of real-world physics, I would have to guess that it's because the archer has to hold his bow-string under tension, while the crossbowman has a mechanical device to do that for him. Once he's cocked the crossbow, he's no longer pulling against 150#. It is historically accurate as far as I know; google "pavise".
GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

If you design your own fantasy templates, keep them as cheap as you can, limit IQ and DX mods to +/- 1 over human, 2 at the most for really special cases, and make sure they include something that a human can't have, either an exotic advantage or a disad that won't count against the limit on individual disads. If templates are expensive relative to starting cost, they leave no room for customization. For supernatural abilities, EITHER use spells to model them for all races OR use advantages, but don't mix and match, until you have plenty of experience running both kinds of abilities to see why I made this suggestion.

And speaking of disads, if I buy IQ 15 for 100, then lower Per and Will back to 10 each for -25 each, I still have average Will and Per, and a big edge withh all IQ-based skills. Certainly, there are people like this, brilliant but absent-minded and meek. The catch is, reducing Per and Will count as 50 points against the disad limit. If you don't enforce this, you will skew the system toward extremely high skill levels. You may see bang stats referenced in these forums:

IQ! = IQ+1, Per -1, Will -1 for net 10/level
DX! = DX+1, Speed -1/4 for net 15/level
HT! = HT+1, FP -1, Speed -1/4, for net 2/level, what a bargain!

Bang stats are okay in templates you design and actually a good part of the reason to buy a template, but outside of that, I highly recommend enforcing the rule on disad limits until you get the hang of things.

For character design at this stage, do not allow Weirdness Magnet, powerful omnipresent enemies, or anything else that basically requires you as the GM to do a load of extra work. Also, do not allow scads of overlapping disads. For instance, "Honesty" is really "Code of Honor: Obey the Law" and shouldn't get full credit if combined with another CoH. Think about all the strictures in the proposed personal code and then price it accordingly. Likewise do not allow an endless stack of reaction penalties: They hate me because I'm a monster, and because I'm ugly, and because I stutter, and because I'm shy, and because I have an Odious Habit of eating them, but at least I have no other character defects!

Do enforce social consequences. For instance, if I'm a wizard with Magery 3, a dozen spells at skill 15, and a large energy reserve with which to cast them, you might reasonably require that I have Comfortable Wealth and Status and/or Social Regard, whatever is appropriate to accomplished wizards in your game world. If I have combat skills at 16+, you might demand that I have military rank, or maybe an outlaw reputation.

We all know people, and we can't represent everyone of them as a contact. Otherwise, every salesman would be a superhero because of his networking skills. That said, do require every player to define some relationships, even if it's not in game terms. For instance, healthy but unwealthy parents of a grown son might not really count as patrons or dependents, but that doesn't mean that the character would be indifferent to news of them.

GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Keep in mind also as you run the game differences between d&d and Gurps will show up, quite probably in ways you don't quite expect. A few differences to keep in mind.

1: No built in requirements for the D&D magic item Christmas Tree. While Gurps characters will certainly appreciate magic items or fantastic items they are a lot less dependent on them as they level up. A gurps character is much more defined by his character sheet than by his equipment sheet. High quality mundane items in Gurps last a lot longer on a characters equipment sheet than they do in D&D.

2: Related to number 1 treasure in general is a bit less of a campaign driver in Gurps than in D&D their is no Wealth by level that characters are measuring themselves against and its lack creates less pressure to reset the characters equipment list every couple of sessions. Also keep in mind that starting wealth for characters might vary significantly between P.C.s depending on what starting wealth advantages/disadvantages they select.

3: Assuming low access to supernatural/exotic advantages P.C.S tend to remain essentially human even if they are tend towards the heroic tier. Mundane threats and enemies that could have killed them at the beginning of the campaign might still be able to do so months into the campaign with a lucky hit. Combat as has been mentioned before is deadly in Gurps and even encounters with simple animals like a pack of hungry wolves or a wild boar can be appropriately deadly.

4: Character niches can blur and to a certain extent probably should blur in Gurps, depending on how two characters spend their points a "wizards" skill in quarter staff might be as good as the parties "fighters" skill in broadsword (for that matter the wizard might prefer to learn broadword or pole arms himself).

5: Damage matters a lot more in Gurps you have a much smaller injury threshold (of course you also tend to take less damage in Gurps as well). Wounds and knockdown are very real possibilities, and even simple damage can give you shock penalties pushing you at a greater disadvantage to your actions.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

So, is it fair for the rich kid to outfit the other PCs? Is it fair for the PCs who sank all their ponts into combat stats to thus have the kind of fine weapon that only great wealth can buy? Absolutely, because as Matron "Mama" Morton sang in the musical Chicago, "The system works, the system called...reciprocity."

GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

The Basic Set explicitly recommends that this not be done. For good reason, I believe. Doing it the other way invites people to go all munchkin with character creation.

Bill Stoddard

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

About 100 points for level 1 characters are a fair game (I think it's been said before, though). I did a level 1 DnD (3rd ed.!) Fighter conversion a while back, using the 100 points limit, set up as a typical GURPS Occupational template (here. I think it illustrates the level quite well.

Since DnD level progression is quite fast, I'd recommend going with the standard 1-5 points GURPS suggests, averaging 3 per session. It usually gives the players the ability to raise one skill one level per session, thus adding slowly to their power, while still giving them the option to save points for DX og IQ or ST on rarer occasions.

Also, in GURPS Fantasy (p. 114), there are a lot of pre-made occupational templates that makes both PC and NPC creation a lot easier (and faster), so you might want to acquire that book even before game-start as a guide. (You can, if you want to keep it simple, use the templates and discard the rest of the book, though)

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Nice! Thanks for all the advice so far people, keep it coming if you have something more to add.

I like the idea of running some test combat, to get used to the system. I had planned a character building day before the campaign even started, so I'll be able to run it at that (probably before character generation, so people can have an idea what can be done).

I had been given the tip of being very involved in character generation as the GM, to ensure a decent balance. I'm pretty confident in the maturity of my gaming group, and that they'll avoid the min/maxing path- but then, gamers always surprise GMs in ways they never predict. Nevertheless, I'll be there to make sure balance is maintained.

Many of the things I'm hearing about GURPS is very pleasing- I like natural growth of characters, I like the feeling of mortality, I like as a GM to create encounters on "feel" not by points and rules.

As for transcribing character levels, I do understand that's not how GURPS works, I was just after clarification for a similar starting point. After that, I'm not fussed how things progress too much.

From what I'm hearing, 100 points with max of -50 disads is sounding like the right spot, so I'll be sticking with that. I've been trawling through the books and created a few racial templates to fit the races in my game world, ranging from around 20-30 points max. I don't think that's too much of a chunk out of a character's points (it's well under what the rooks advise) and only slightly changes them, but hopefully with enough character to set them apart from humans.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Don't do this, though, with their built characters. Rather, give them a moderate length combat, no more than an hour of play time, with pregens, to give them an idea of what they can do with what stats, skills, and equipment. That way they'll be better able to decide how they want to build their actual characters.

Do a solitaire combat on your own first, so that you kind of know where the rules are. That inspires confidence in the players (and in you!). You might even want to draw up your own flowchart of what you do in what order.

Bill

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Yep, got that. My guess was what you also mentioned- that by playing in a combat or two, they'll figure out some stuff that they'll want their own character to do from their experience in the test run.

The solitaire run is a very nice tip, though. Gives me something to do at work one night when on a boring night shift!

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I encourage my players to design their characters efficiently. In fact, I look them over and suggest ways they can do so, like, you've got a ton of points sunk into half a dozen skills that are central to your concept, and a rep for being good at them, why don't you consolidate that into a talent, which includes a reaction bonus from the same folks, and free up some points? I don't want any confusion between what the rules allow and what the GM is okay with; they should be the same thing, and I'll make a houserule against anything I don't like, with an in-campaign justification where possible. When I start something new, however, I make it clear to players that things are in flux, and that some houserules may be coming down the pike as I finetune the setting, so there are no hard feelings later.

I once had a player in fantasy cyberpunk campaign like Shadowrun build a wizard (named Vecna) with a creepy bionic eye and arm. Other players noted that he seemed extremely capable as a wizard and also had extremely capable cyberware. Where did he get the points? From limtations, of course. Certain situations could render both his magic and his cyber useless, but he felt no need to tell his cronies about his weaknesses! Did he "rape" the system, or power game, or min-max? I don't think so, because I as the GM new how the bad guys could trap him, and he knew I knew, which forced him to act at all times in a way to minimize the risk. I never trapped him, but given the way those limitations dictated his decisions, I can hardly say that they never came to bear, or call them free points.

A tip on designing races: Think of some exotic advantages that aren't exotic for them. For instance, even if most dwarves lack vibration sense, but some have it, just like some humans have lightning calculator.

GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Some of the rules are on Combat Cards, which you can download from Warehouse 23 and print for each player. -GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

A word of encouragement: Most of the rules for the tactical combat system are much easier to do than to explain.

Here are some things to try:

1) Guy with a spear (reach 2) versus guy with a broadsword (reach 1). Tip: Have spear guy stop just out of range and Wait, declaring he will attack if sword guy closes.

2) Build a couple of equivalent knife-fighters, one with the technique Feint maxed out. Have him alternate Feints and real attacks while the other guy just attacks.

3) Two guys with shields and swords (reach 1). When first guy attacks, have second guy "retreat" sideways (reduce bonus for retreat by 1), to his attacker's non-shield side. Second guy gets his turn, he now steps to his foe's flank, completing a "run-around" attack. This gives -2 to the other guy's defense AND avoids the defense bonus of the shield. HOWEVER, the clever git who did this is now facing the wrong way, so he has to use a backstrike. That means he's at -2 to hit AND at -2 to his next defense.

Seriously, the last one is a great example of something easier to show than tell.

Play some matches between skill 12 cadets, skill 16 experts, and skill 20 masters. Remember that the cadets will make telegraphic attacks. Also remember that the system is at its best without weird stuff (magic, ultra-tech, cinematic skills) - master it before you add the fantasy elements.

Good luck and have fun.

GEF

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I cap the disads at -50, unless there's a good reason like a cool character concept that needs the extra points, regardless of the starting point total. With more, you either have a freak show or a bunch of disads you're usually ignoring, thus just giving free points.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

You can run a fantasy game with just the Basic Set and Magic, truth be told, though Fantasy is one of the best 4e supplements and can help out quite a bit. Thaumatology is handy if you have specific changes you want to make to the magic system and need to know how to do it. For a D&D-type game, you won't use much of Low-Tech at all. You're best off with Dungeon Fantasy for this game, using Treasure Tables for more gear. And Martial Arts ... another great book, but one you can utterly shun for this kind of game. It will just add complications. Ask someone to point you to a good summary of Telegraphic Attack for backstabbing; that's the only part of Martial Arts that you'll want for a first game.

So go with Magic and Fantasy. Keep it simple.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Sorry, I should clarify that one of the main reasons for the switch to GURPS is that the more I read D&D, the more I disliked it. It felt too much like a MMORPG. I ended up going with GURPS because of its realism, something which I enjoy immensely when roleplaying.

Ok, realism, with some fantasy and cinematic elements thrown in =P

But when it all comes down to it, I'm not a big fan of simple hack n' slash, I want more depth than that.

The main reason I brought up D&D is that it's what I know, but it's not what I want to run. My goal is to run a Fantasy campaign in a semi-realistic manner, something I don't feel is possible with the other game, but definitely a realistic goal when running GURPS!

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Regarding Mooks and other "low level" NPC´s and encounters I recommend keeping the primary attributes in the 9-11 category. That is to say in the average range. This still makes them dangerous to most 75-100 pt pc´s in Gurps but they don´t have Dodge 11+ or weapon skill at 15+ and dice out 2d++ of damage.

It was mentioned earlier that some players buy down the secondary attributes. We (my group) allow it for up to -4 for per and will and -3 for hp and fp and -1 in basic move and basic speed. It does not count against disad limits so it´s common for us to see a Wizard with IQ 15, Per 12 and Will 13 BUT we have learned that it does not skew the game as one would think since all of these stats are important.

Both Will and Per have also skills based on them, will is very important when it comes to avoiding mind spells and fright checks. Low Per can kill you in a dangerous game were you (the PC) needs to notice things and it helps to notice the archer firing the arrow at you 30 yards away if you want the option to dodge or block.

HP are worth their weight in gold in any combat heavy game since they go fast as soon as you start to get any damage. FP are necessary for anyone in a fight and wizards for spells, using FP to increase your damage or assist you in defending yourself.

Example of a NPC guard as I would write him and most if not all off NPC´s.

Generic Guard small city large township with some random ads.

ST: 10/10 thr 1d-2 sw 1d DX: 10 IQ: 9 HT:10/10 Dodge: 8 Move: 5 BS: 5 Will 10 Per 11 Parry B-8/S-9 +DB Block: 9+DB Armor DR 2 Torso, arms, legs, hands. DR 4 Head. Face: 0
Ads: Combat ref on 6 or less, High Pain Threshold on 4 or less.
Broadsword - 11 1d-2cr/1d+1cut Shield - 12 Spear -12 1H 1d imp/2H 1d+1imp Observation - 12 Local Law - 8 (+4 for basic regulations) Solider on 9 or less - 8+ 1d3. Crossbow 11 1d+2 Area Knowledge Local - 11.

Guard Captain Large Town or a small city or a Sgt.
ST: 11/11 thr 1d-1 sw 1d+1 DX: 11 IQ: 10 HT: 11/11 Dodge: 9 BS: 5.5 Move: 5 Will 11 Per 11 Parry 10 Block 10 DB: 2 Armor DR 4/2 Mail, Torso, arms, neck, head, DR 2 hands, legs and feet. Face 0
Ads: Combat Ref on 10 or less, HPT on 7 or less.
Broadsword -14 1d cr/1d+2 cut Shield - 13 Tactics - 9 Leadership - 9 +1d3 Local Law - 10 Area Knowledge Local 12


I usually write them up like this and then if there is a very special NPC I write him up, named and in little bit more detail but not that much. Easier that to create every character that you want your party to meet, that could take weeks.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I would recommend 100 pts -40 or -50 disads and quirks.

Just watch the PC creation carefully for someone that has never played or seen Gurps they tend to go overboard at their first character. Specially if they are used to DnD style games.

For example we had for one night a DnD player with our group that wanted to play a Priest/Monk with some divine spells.

He was something like this.

ST: 7 DX: 9 IQ: 17 HT: 15
Ads: Magery 0 Magery +4 Clerical spells, Luck 15 pt
Disads: Bad Temper on 6 or less, Alcoholic, Honesty on 6 or less, Gluttony on 6 or less.
Skills: Brewery 21, Innate Attack Fireball 22, Staff 18, Theology 20.
Spells: Major Healing 25 Fireball 20 Monks Banquet 24 Continual Light 20 Invisibility 25.


That was it. That is the whole character. Most of his points went into 2 DX based skills and very few spells. And of course his disads made him almost unplayable.

Gurps requires much more diversity that DnD. It´s not unusal for characters to have 15-40 skills and/or spells.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I challenge the SJG forums to explain (for the benefit of NMatuzic and any other new players and GM's who might be reading) why this is a bad character build. Not just vague "balanced character" type warnings, but concrete examples of why this character would be an un-fun disaster to play.

Can we do it? Or is this a valid Fire-ballin', Major-healin', Lager-brewin' build?



First thing I noticed was the ST7, DX9 combo. This character is begging to be grappled. He has no close combat skills and will never be able to break free if grabbed.



Second he has the Invisibility spell at 25, but no stealth skill, and no unusual background. In other words he lives in a world where people are known to turn invisible, and where people will be expecting such shennanigans:



Guard 1 (Klorglarg the Hateful): So..., I think YugThog the Despicable has been cheating at dominoes ever since he got here.

Guard 2 (Xindgorguth the Repulsive): You can't cheat at dominoes, you've just had a run of bad luck.

Guard 1 (Klorglarg the Hateful): But he ALWAYS wins, how can that be luck LOUD CLANG IN THE BACKGROUND What was that!?!"

Guard 2 (Xindgorguth the Repulsive): I don't see anything, it must be an invisible dude. Throw that sack of flour out there whle I activate my helm of Invisible Dude Seeing. Anyway, YugThog the Despicable, is a stand-up guy! He wouldn't cheat you..."

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Well, to start with, what kind of god offers a list that includes those particular spells? The deal with divine magic is that (a) you get to ignore prerequisite spells, but (b) you don't have unlimited choice of the entire spell list, but only the particular spells that the GM decided were a logical fit to that particular god's domain. Who is this guy worshiping, the God of Munchkins? Those five spells make no sense as making up the domain of a god of anything I can think of. It really looks as if the GM just said, "OK, fine, tell me what god you worship and what spells they provide"—and that's an abdication of the GM's responsibility to require characters to fit a halfway sensible narrative.

Bill Stoddard

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

To be fair and honest the GM did send the player away to either build a new PC or radically change this one. He had been shown few normal PC´s as a example and offered a character build by the GM but he refused. He newer came back. If you want to see a "normal" PC for that campaign there is a link in my signature.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Well the GM DID not approve this PC, he was build with out any contact with the GM except "I want to build a staff fighting beer drinking Monk". And the Gm though he would get a Friar Tuck type not a Priest of Invisible God of Banquets and Cooking.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

I had one that only granted Minor/Major Healing, Fireball/Explosive Fireball, Continual Light, and Sleep/Mass Sleep. His weapons were the rapier, kusarigama, and boomerang.
He was the god of "cliches", though "JRPG Tropes" is what I would have called him if I knew the term at the time.
Of course, he was more of a character concept than anything else, as I have a built-in aversion to clerical magic.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Here's a simple 8"x8" arena battle map I drew up tonight real quick (hand-drawn using GIMP) with 1" printed hexes, the correct scale for GURPS: http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9537/gurpsarena.jpg

Print it with no margins (not margins set to 0) for the correct scale.

Here's a real quick, simple example of combat using only the Basic Set and my arena:

Jace the Ace
Attributes: ST 12 [20]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 12 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-1/1d+2; BL 29 lbs.; HP 12 [0]; Will 10 [0]; Per 10 [0]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 7 [15]; Basic Move 7 [0].
Dodge 10 (12); Parry 10 (12); Block 10 (12).
Advantages: None.
Disadvantages: None.
Skills: Shield (DX/E)-14 [2]; Shortsword (DX/A)-14 [4].
Equipment:Medium Shield (DB 2); Shortsword (1d+2 cut/1d-1 imp); Leather Armor on all locations (DR2).

Vs.

Baracus the Brute
Attributes: ST 14 [40]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 8 [-40]; HT 12 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14 [0]; Will 8 [0]; Per 10 [10]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0].
Dodge 10; Parry 11.
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [5]; Fit [5].
Disdvantages: None.
Skills: Two-Handed Axe/Mace (DX/A)-14 [8].
Equipment: Great Axe (2d+3 cut).


Jace and Baracus both duck under the portcullis, their weapons and equipment ready. Jace is in E-1; Baracus is in E-8. The combat begins as the iron gates slam closed behind them.

Round 1:

Jace has the higher Basic Speed so he goes first ("Turn Sequence," p. B363).

He takes one look at the towering Baracus and decides he doesn't want to charge right into battle with the mountain.

Instead, he chooses to study his adversary and takes the Evaluate maneuver (p. B364). This ends his turn.

Baracus isn't so prudent. Instead, he charges forward, roaring and swinging his huge axe above his head. He takes the Move and Attack maneuver (p. B365) allowing him to move forward 6 hexes (his Move score) and swing his Great Axe. Since his great axe has a reach of 1 or 2 (see "Reach," p. B269), and he has it readied for a reach of 2, he stops after five hexes of movement and swings with all his might. Baracus is on hex E-3 and there is one empty hex between Jace and he.

However, since he took the Move and Attack maneuver: "he has a flat -4 to skill, and his adjusted skill cannot exceed 9." Skill 14 - 4 = 10, so his skill is 9 since it can't be above 9.

Baracus makes his attack roll (see "Attacking," p.B369) and rolls three, six-sided dice. Each one shows a three on it's face for a total of 9. Since he rolled a 9 and his adjusted skill is 9, that's good enough to hit.

Jace must now defend (see "Defending," p. 374). He can chose to Block, Parry or Dodge. Since he has a medium shield and it is providing a Defense Bonus (DB) of 2 (see Shields and Defense Bonus," p. B374) all of his Active Defense scores are the same: 10 + 2 = 12. DB increases all Active Defenses, not just Block.

Since he'd rather not parry a heavy weapon (see "Parrying Heavy Weapons," p. B376), he chooses to block with his shield and rolls against that skill. He rolls a 10 which is less than his block score of 12, so it's successful.

Baracus' axe glances off Jace's shield with a loud chop.

Unfortunately for Big B, this means two things. One, he didn't hit Jace and his turn is over. Two, since he's using a weapon with the “‡” mark under its ST statistic, it becomes unready after he attacks with it. He won't be able to attack with it on his next turn! The greataxe puts him at a disadvantage in this one-on-one duel.

Round 2:

Jace sees his opportunity and attacks. Since he has a weapon with a Reach of 1 and there is an empty space between them, Jace must take one step to go one hex forward. That's okay because the Attack maneuver (B365) allows him to take one step.

But, remember that Evaluate maneuver he took on his last turn? That gives him a +1 to skill to attack this turn. Jace thrusts his shortsword toward Baracus' torso. He makes his attack roll against his shortsword skill of 14 + 1 = 15 and rolls a 12. That's good enough to hit!

Now, Baracus must defend. He can't parry with his axe because it's still unready from him swinging it on his last turn. He can't block because he doesn't have a shield. He must Dodge.

Baracus' Dodge score would be a 9 (Move of 6 + 3 = 9), but he has the Combat Reflexes Advantage which gives him a +1 to all Active Defenses.

Baracus rolls an 11. A failure! That means Jace hit!

Jace rolls his damage for a thrusting attack. For someone with ST 12 and a shortsowrd, that's 1d-1 impaling. He rolls one, six-sided die and it shows a 4. Since it's 1d-1, that would result in a roll of 3.

But, it's impaling damage, and any impaling damage that penetrates armor does twice the amount rolled. See Wounding Modifiers and Injury (p. B379). That's a total of 6 damage!

Blood gushes out of the stab wound in his side of Baracus' stomach and spills onto the sand. The mighty warrior growls in pain and anger.

This ends Jace's turn.

Baracus must ready his axe if he wishes to attack with it again. He decides to take the Ready maneuver (B366) and hefts his axe above his shoulder.

Note: If he could have attacked, Baracus would have been at -4 to skill due to injury. Whenever you suffer injury, reduce your DX and IQ by the number of HP you lost – to a maximum penalty of -4, regardless of your injuries – on your next turn only (see "Shock," p. B419).

This ends Baracus' turn. His axe is ready.

Round 3

Jace decides to go for the kill. He stabs again, this time straight for his opponent's heart. The heart counts as "Vitals," which is -3 to skill to target. See Hit Location (p. 398).

Jace rolls against his modified skill of 14 - 3 = 11 and rolls a 9. That's good enough to hit!

Baracus has a Parry of 11, which is higher than his dodge of 10 -- but if he parries his greataxe will become unready and he won't be able to use it to attack on his turn! So, he chooses to Dodge.

However, not only does he choose to Dodge, he chooses to Dodge and Retreat. See "Active Defense Options," p. B 377. Adding the retreat option to a dodge gives him a +3 to his dodge score. There's almost no reason not to add a retreat option to an active defense in this case unless you cannot back up (against wall, a ledge or lava pit, etc.).

So, Big B steps back to E-4 and rolls against 10 + 3 = 13 and rolls an 11. Good thing he added that retreat. He would have failed otherwise and Jace's sword would have been sticking out of his chest.

Jace has the option to follow Baracus and does so. He moves to E-3. You always have the option of following a retreating opponent and normally will wish to do so.

Now, it's Baracus' turn. Since his greataxe has a reach of "1,2*" and he has it readied for Reach 2, Baracus must step back one hex to E-5 and swing. Again, taking one step in any direction is allowed with the Attack maneuver.

Baracus doesn't specify a hit location. Page B398 says, "If you don’t specify a hit location, you are attacking the torso."

Baracus rolls a 14, which is just barely good enough to hit.

Jace decides to be the one to back up this time. He decides to take a retreating Block. Retreating while blocking (or parrying) adds +1 to the active defense score instead of the +3 to a retreating dodge score. He rolls a 10 against Skill 10 + Shield DB 2 + 1 retreat = 13.

Again, Baracus' axe slides off Jace's shield and he backs away from the giant. Baracus follows him. Baracus is on E-3 and Jace is on E-1, back against the now-closed portcullis.

He's in a sorry state. Down on hit points and his axe is unready again.

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Round 4:

Again, Jace springs forward to E-2, slashing his sword at Baracus' neck. The neck is -5 to skill to target, but a cutting attack to the neck does a lot of damage. Jace needs a 9 or less (skill 14 - 5 for neck = 9). Jace's attack roll is good; he rolls an 8.

Baracus takes a retreating dodge again, jumping back to E-4. But, he rolls a 14! Failure!

Cutting blows to the neck give a wounding multiplier of x2 instead of x1.5. Baracus is probably going to be in trouble.

Jace's swing damage is 2d and with his shortsword, it's 2d cut.

He rolls a 12 on the dice, and since Baracus isn't wearing armor, that's a gory 24 points of damage! This is what's called a "major wound." A major wound is any single injury of greater than 1/2 your HP. See "Major Wounds," p. 420. Bookmark page 420 in fact as it is referenced often.

Whenever you suffer a major wound, you must make an immediate HT roll to avoid knockdown and stunning. On a failure, you’re stunned. You fall down and can't do anything until you make an IQ roll on your turn. Then, after that turn, you can start taking actions again. You can take active defenses until then, but they are at -4 and you can't retreat.

So, it's a pretty big deal.

What's even worse is that Baracus is at -18 HP. That's in really bad shape, if not dead. See p. 419 for all the basic rules on hit point levels. This would make a good bookmark as well.

Since Big B has Less than 1/3 his HP, his Move and Dodge are halved. Since he's at less than 1 hit points, he is in immediate danger of collapse. He must make a HT roll at the start of his next turn at -1 per full multiple of HP below zero (he's at -18 so that's one multiple of 12). Failure means he'll fall unconscious. Success means he can act normally, but must roll again every turn to continues fighting. Yikes!

We're not done yet, folks. Oh, no.

Since Baracus is at less than -1xHp (i.e., less that -12), he make an immediate HT roll... or die.

That's right. they've been fighting for only four seconds and big, mean, tough Baracus has only been hit twice and there's a chance he'll be dead on the second hit. Just goes to show, no matter how tough you are, you get hit square in the neck with a full-force blow from a sword, chances are, you're dead.

Baracus is a tough mother, though. Even at He rolls an 8 against his modified HT of 11 (12 - 1 for HP level = 11) to remain alive. He still has to make an immediate HT roll to avoid knockdown and stunning, though. He rolls an 9 for that.

Blood fountains from his neck and spills everywhere, but he manages to remain standing.

Now it's Baracus' turn. Since it's the start of his turn and he's at less than 1 HP, he has to make a HT roll (at -1 for being below -12 HP) or collapse. He makes it on the dot with an 11. He barely manages to hold on.

He's at -4 to attack from the shock of injury.

To offset this, Baracus bravely steps back to E-4 and takes an All-out-Attack (Determined) maneuver (p. 365). The maneuver gives him a +4 to skill to hit, but he'll get no active defenses until his next turn. All Jace has to do is make his attack roll and Baracus is hit. But, he's got to survive Baracus' greataxe first!

Baracus rolls against his modified skill of 14 - 4 shock + 4 determined = 14. He targets a random location (see "Random Hit Location," p. B400) and rolls a lucky 7.

Jace attempts a retreating block and backs to E-1 and Baracus follows him (moving to E-3). Jace rolls a 14! It's Baracus' turn to roll damage.

But first, he has to roll on the Hit Location Table (p. 552) to see where his blow landed. He rolls an 8: right arm.

He then rolls a tremendous 2d+3 cutting damage and gets a 12 total.

Now, Jace is wearing leather armor on his right arm and it has a DR of 2. DR subtracts from basic damage. That means Jace takes 12 - 2 for DR = 10 points of damage, x1.5 for it being cutting damage for a total of 15 points of injury!

However, injury over HP/2 cripples an arm. All additional damage is lost. Since Jace has 12 HP, that means any damage over 7 is lost.

It's way worse than that for Jace, though. If injury to a body part before applying the above limit was at least twice what was needed to cripple it, the body part is not just crippled but destroyed. A cutting attack or explosion severs a limb. See "Dismemberment," p. B421.

Jace's arm is lopped clean off leaving only a blood-squirting stump! He didn't just drop his sword, he lost his right arm!

Any crippling injury is a major wound. Jace must make an immediate roll against HT to avoid knockdown and stunning. He rolls a 13 and fails.

Jace drops to the floor, blood pouring out of his stump.

Victorious, Baracus drops his axe and sinks to his knees clutching his neck. In moments, he too will join Jace in the afterlife as his precious lifeblood pumps at at a rate of 1 HP per minute (see "Bleeing," p. 420). He'll roll against death at each multiple of 12. That means he has about 6 minutes before death is likely to take him.

Hope you enjoyed this combat example and the battle map!

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Well here is a real simple one...DX 9.

You are in combat, someone kills a bad guy...he falls...his dead body now takes up 2 hexs...AND REQUIRES A DX ROLL TO CROSS. You can multiply that by the number of baddies. By round 2-3 of most fights I end up charting the snake path to avoid having to make DX rolls. Hell even with a DX of 13 my current PC has tripped a time or two. Our current mage went DX 10 and even that is a roller coaster ride. Dead Bodies, Crossing between ships in combat, moving down a ledge at anything more than 1/hex per round, etc, etc, etc. All those DX rolls become a 50/50 crap shoot (at DX 10)... god forbid if the GM inficts a roll with a negative modifier. Our mage is a temporal/spatial specialist and has cast spells and used FP (Flight/Levitate) just to avoid making a DX roll.

Of all of the Primary Stats in a Fantasy Game I would never buy down DX, followed closely by HT (hidey ho black death).

*** EDIT...note for newbies...in GURPS getting to your feet is a two round action...round 1 get to knees/crouch...round 2 get to your feet (unless you have Acrobatics and/or the Snapstand skill then a success roll knocks it down to 1 round). That's it...that is all you are doing. No attacking no real moving while you are doing it If you try fighting from the prone you really cannot move and are fighting at hefty penalties (tho for a spell caster offense would do ok). I have seen a judoka more then pull his weight in combat just by dumping enemies off their feet and neutralizing 2-3 enemies **forever**

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Note that "round" is not a GURPS term. This isn't quite a mere terminological point. GURPS does not view combat as divided up into "rounds" for characters overall; rather, each character has a "turn" on which they act, and then a next "turn" on which they act again, and for that character time is divided up into THEIR personal turns. You need to bear this in mind to make full sense of the rules.

Bill Stoddard

Re: Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice
 

Emphasis: This is a better option than Wait in most 1-on-1 situations.

He also can't Retreat because of the Move+Attack (not that he did in the example, but it bears stating explicitly if we're doing examples).

Dodge = Speed + 3, not Move + 3.

Note that you don't always have the option of following a Retreating opponent; you may use your Step for that (or at any other time on your turn) if you haven't already used it to close.

I did! Great example of realistic combat. Fighting with sharp things is really dangerous, kids.