Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

I've started to make a conversion of the Warhammer 40.000 (Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader) universe to GURPS rules.
There are some threads that already deal with this subject

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=67296

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=76795

They have been a great source for inspiration.

But there are some areas that I wish to integrate into my campaign.

Starships

Does anyone have good ideas for using the 40K specific stuff - warp drive, lack of computers etc. with GURPS rules?

Psy

I've emulated psy by using a variant of the GURPS magic system. Not quite done yet but comming well of.

Corruption

Any ideas on what to do with corruption?

Character Generation

I've made some homeworld templates that can be used in character generation to get the feel of the world

Tech Priests & tech

I've always loved the concept in W40K that tech priests was making sure that technological equipment didn't fail, by apeasing the tech spirits. I want to make tech priests a kind of ... well .. priests... With some kind of magic (lacking a better word at the moment) that allow them to do just that. But I'm not quite sure right now how I'll proceed with that.

One thing I don't want to touch is Space Marines at this point.


This project is just in the preliminary phase. And I'll be very happy about input of any kind.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Just so long as you do it for The Greater Good, Gue'vesa.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

For some reason, spaceships look the most interesting for me right now. I suspect ships will have to get Unkillable I for the right feel, though.

Off-topic: calling in an airstrike, an artillery barrage, and a Leman Russ drop in the middle of a space hulk corridor was hillarious.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

I got no real ideas to give you, only pointers. So here it goes:
Most of this can be done with GURPS: Spaceships and GURPS: Space. I've toyed around a bit with the Spaceships rules to build one of the ridiculously big (but oh so awesome) 40K battleships. It can be done, though the table for starship HP and other statistics has to be extended.
I've tried something akin to this myself, but I cannot remember if anything came out of it though. I've never had to use rules for Psi. Though I think I remember about another thread specifically dealing with this take on 40K Psi.
No idea. However, if you are going to treat Psi and the like as magic, you can just as well use the rules for "Black Magic" (found in GURPS: Magic).
I've also done this. Templates for different types of worlds. It's a nice touch I think.
IIRC, GURPS: Thaumatology has rules for Spirit-based magic. Might look that up.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Now to actual ideas:

Technical devices should be treated as characters - the more compex the device, the more complex the character. First, if a device is fiddly, and can reasonably display its opinion of the user in the course of 'normal' operation, the character should make a Reaction Roll, with appropriate modifiers (e.g. +1 for every 2 Margin Of Success on some techy skill roll). An important factor in such rolls is the random number of likes and dislikes on the device's part - if you played RT you should have 10 working examples.

The second is that Engineering and similar skills should be rather limited. Only Operation skills should be more-or-less freely available.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

For Psy, I'd suggest using (or picking up and using) Thaum: Magic Styles coupled with forcing Fright Checks on any critical failures (possibly even failures, depending on how nasty you want it to be) and possibly Tainted Mana from Thaumatology.

A nice middleground between Fear Checks on every failure and only on crits is to write up a table (or if I can find mine, I'll post it) based on the Psychic Phenomena table from DH and roll on that for any failure. Any criticla failure naturally invokes a Fright Check.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Thanks for the replies.

I've been off line from the site for a while with too much lab work but I've managed to put a little together.

See the following posts

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Homeworld

Every character must choose a homeworld from the following or one from another source. All disadvantages (other than stats) counts as homeworld disadvantage (see p. 12).

Feral worlder [15]

Iron stomach: Resistant (+3) to poisons [5]
Primitive: New disadvantage – Primitive[-10] (-2 on all TL skills based on IQ)
Rite of passage: Rapid healing [5]
Wilderness Savvy: Outdoorsman 1 [10]
Max extra HP +20% [0]
+1 ST [10]
+1 HT [10]
Superstition: Choose -15 point from Delusions, Disciplines of faith, obsessions, phobia


Hive Worlder [10]

Accustomed to crowds: ...
Caves of steel: 5 cp in TL skills either IQ/E or IQ/A and Streetwise at IQ [2]
Hive bound: New disadvantage – Hivebound [-5] (-1 on IQ checks outside hive)
Wary: +2 on ini checks to avoid supprise [5]
-1 HP [-2]
Charisma 1 [5]


Imperial worlder [8]

Blessed Ignorance: -2 on all hidden lore skills [-5]
Hagiography: Area Knowledge – Imperium IQ [1]
Theology (Imperial Creed) IQ-2 [1]
History (Imperium) IQ-2 [1]
History (War)IQ-2 [1]
Liturgical Familiarity: Literacy – Low Gothic broken [1]
Speak – High Gothic accented [2]
Literacy – High Gothic broken [1]
Superior Origins: Will +1 [5]

Void Born [5]

Charmed
Ill Omened: Social Stigma – void born [-5]
Shipwise: Pilot (spacecraft – choose one) DX-1 [1]
Crewman (space) IQ [1]
Environmental Suit DX-1 [1]
Navigation Space IQ-1 [1]
Void Accustomed: Resistant (+8 to HT) (Space Sickness) [3], G-experience (Micro- or Zero- G) [1]
Will+2 [10]
ST-1 [-10]
HP +1 [2]

Mind Blank

Forge Worlder [10]

Fit for a purpose: use 10 pt on one or more levels of one talent (not psy) [10]
Stranger to the cult (new disadvantage) [-5]
Credo Omnissiah: Technical Knock (new advantage) [5]



Noble [10]
Status 2 [10]
Comfortable [10]
Enemies – choose one or more enemies for a total of -20 pt
Contact groups for a total of 10 pt [10]
Will -1 [-5]
Charisma +1 [5]




Schola Progenium [12]
6 pt from Theology (Imperial Creed), Philosophy, History, Savoy Faire (Ecclesiarchy), Savoy faire (Administratum)
4 pt from Karate, judo, Bow, Broad Sword, Staff,
2 pt from Guns, Beam Weapon

Intolerance (low lifes) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Emperor) [-5]
Will +2 [10]

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Wealth

Starting wealth

The starting wealth of characters in the 41st millennium is 500 Thrones. But remember that 80% of this wealth must be put in non-adventuring gear.

Cost of living
The cost of living is given by the status of the character. And goes as the following

Status Example Cost
8 The Emperor NA
7 High Lord of Terra, High Inquisitor, 15.000.000
Sector Lord 1.500.000
6 Planetary Commander 150.000
5 Rogue Trader, SM chapter commander 15.000
4 Navy Admiral, 1.500
3 Navy Captain 300
2 Business Leader 75
1 Merchant, Military commander, 30
0 Ordinary citizen 15
-1 7
-2 2

Job Income

The average income of a job is 75 Thrones per month but it can vary between 60 and 90 Thrones. This is of cause adjusted by the wealth level of the character.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Advantages


Old Advantages

Extra HP
The GURPS characters book suggest a maximum of 30% of ST score. Since the 41st millennium is more deadly than ever this limit is raised to +50%. Some characters will come across bonuses to this (like from Feral Worlder). These bonuses are added (so a feral worlder will have a maximum of extra HP 50+20=70%). Extra HP above this maximum should cost 4 cp/HP.

New advantages
There is a few home world advantages here (marked by H). They can only be acquired at character creation by selecting the appropriate home world package.

Corpus Conversion

Discipline Focus

Power Well

Psy Power [5]
The character gets access to learn 1 new psy power. Remember that his psy rating must be at least 3 to use discipline powers.

Psy rating 0 [5]
The character is a latent psyker. He can not learn any powers but he can use the psyniscience skill.
Psy Rating [10/level]
The character must have Psy Rating 0 to take higher levels.
This advantage allows the character to learn psy powers. The level of the talent is added to the character's IQ to determine the level of the psy powers (see the section on psychic powers). The character can learn a maximum of Will-10 psychic powers per level of this talent (discipline powers count as two powers). The powers the character has access to is chosen when psy rating is increased. The number of powers does NOT increase retroactive if the character later increases his will score.
The maximum level for this advantage is 10.
Normally this advantage cannot be chosen without taking Sanctioned Psyker or a severe social stigma or secret.

Technical Knock [5]
If a weapon jams during combat. The character can incite the weapon spirit to work again. Make a IQ check to unjam the weapon for the rest of the combat.


Wary H [5]
The fast pace and the danger of the hives make the residents of these places more jumpy and quicker to react in dangerous situations. Hivers gets +2 on initiative checks to avoid surprise.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Disadvantages


Old disadvantage

Sense of duty
Emperor: Since it's only towards one person the value should be -2 but since the Emperor = the Imperium the value should be -10. But it's the one duty that can be bend most so final value for Sense of Duty (Emperor) is only -5

Social Stigma (Mutant)
Mutations is a fact of life in the 41st millennium. But most people shun mutants like the plague. Mutations is at least a -5 social sigma – often more severe.

New disadvantages
There is a number of home world disadvantages here (marked by a H). They can be bought of using character points. But it costs twice the value of the disadvantage to buy it of.

Blessed Ignorance H [-5]
The subjects from the Imperial core worlds are kept in the dark from the more foul things of the universe. They have a hard time wrapping their head around obscure knowledge. They get -2 on all hidden lore skills.


Hivebound H [-5]
People that have lived all their lives in a hive often suffer from nervousness whenever away from hive. They get -1 on IQ checks whenever they are outside what resembles a hive.

Primitive H [-10]
The hardy people of the feral worlds have precious little contact with technology. Therefore they learn to distrust it and seldom get a good feel about technological equipment. They get -2 on almost all TL skills based on IQ.

Stranger to the Cult H [-5]
The inhabitants of the forge worlds see the cult of the Emperor through the lenses of the Cult Mechanicus. They have -1 reaction modifier vs. the Ecclesiarchy and they have -1 to Theology (Imperial Creed)

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Psychic Powers

Psychic powers work like spells with a few modifications.
Psy talent
First of most of the powers does not have prerequisites other than one must have psy talent 3+ in order to learn the discipline powers (also some powers require certain advantages). So most powers can be learned by any psyker.
The Veil
There are no mana. There is the veil. The weaker the veil the easier it is for the psyker to use his powers but it also becomes increasingly more dangerous.
For areas with strong veil the use of psychic powers are very hard. Only psykers with powers at skill level 20+ may use their powers. And all powers are preformed at -5 to skill level. And the effective psy rating of the psyker is half normal. It is not possible for a psyker to push his power in an area with strong veil. A psyker will never trigger psychic phenomenon or peril of the warp in a strong veil area.
Normal veil is what is described in the rules.
Weak veil is an area where the warps seeps through to the normal world. All psychic powers are used at +5 to skill level. In weak veil all psychic phenomenon are rolled at +3
Very weal veil. This situation is only a step away from an open portal to the warp. A very weak warp always triggers a psychic phenomenon and the psyker should toll at +5 on the psychic phenomenon table.

Psychic Phenomenon
If a psyker uses his powers at normal power there is always a potential for disaster. If the player rolls a critical success or a critical failure or if the three dice show the same number. The he triggers a psychic phenomenon. Roll on the following table with +3 for a critical failure and -3 for a critical success.
To roll for psychic phenomenon roll 3d, add the appropriate modifiers and consult the following table:
less than 8: Minor sensory disturbance. Eerie sounds, sulphurous stench, chill air etc.
9-10: Harmless physical effect. Mirrors break, plants die,
11-12: Distracting physical effect. Sudden wind tries to push everyone around, gravity reversed for a brief time etc.
13-14: Disturbing distracting effect. As above but imposes a fright check. Blood rains from the sky, ghostly images appear etc.
15+ Trigger Peril of the warp.
Peril of the Warp

Power level
It's possible for a psyker to use his powers more carefully or to push beyond his normal limits.
If the psyker uses his powers at a lower level than his normal it's called Fettered. His effective psy talent is only half normal value AND he takes -5 to his skill check to activate the power (for a total penalty of half psy talent + 5).This can only be done by psykers with 2 or more levels in psy talent.
The advantage of the fettered use is that it only triggers psychic phenomenon on a critical faliure and NEVER triggers peril of the warp.
If the psyker on the other hand chooses to push his powers he opens himself more to the warp than is normally advisable. The psyker gets a bonus to his effective psy talent of +1 to +3 (psykers choice) but the use of the power ALWAYS trigger a psychic phenomenon and anything that normally would trigger a psychic phenomenon adds +5 to the roll.



Skill level
All minor psychic powers are IQ/H skills and all discipline powers are IQ/VH. You always add your psy talent to your IQ score for calculating skill level. If your effective psy talent changes for some reason then you use the altered level in you skill level.
The energy cost of a psychic power are reduced by high skill level.

Maintaining powers
To maintain a power that has been activated the psyker need to roll vs. his skill of the power. If the psyker has more than one maintainable power active he rolls at -3 per extra power beyond the first. The psyker never triggers psychic phenomenon or perils of the warp when rolling for maintenance.

Minor Psychic Powers

Call Creature
Call Item
Chameleon
Deja vu
Distort Vision
Duration: 1 second
Cost: 1 (cannot be maintained)
With this power, you disappear and your image reappears in another space no more than 10 meters away. Until the end of the next round you are effectively invisible to all other creatures.
Dull Pain
Fearful Aura

Flash Bang

Float

Forget Me

Healer

Inflict Pain
Regular; Resisted by HT
Duration: 1 second
Cost: 1. Cannot be maintained
The target of the spell feels an intense pain and must make a will roll to avoid crying out. He also have -2 to all DX rolls and DX based skills for the next round. (Half penalty for HPT and double for LPT).


Inspiring Aura

Knack


Force Bolt
Missile

Cost: 1 per 1d+2 damage beyond the first. The psyker need not do max damage.
You create a force bolt that can strike your opponent with devastating force. The powers does up to 1d+2 damage per level of psy talent.



Telepathy
Duration: 1 minute
Cost: 4, 4 to maintain.
You can send your thoughts into the minds of others around you. This power can be used in two ways. a) Send into the mind of one person. b) Send to all sentient beings in an area.
The max range for this power is 1 km per level of psy talent (use Long Distance modifiers to skill level). The max area affected is a radius of twice psy talent.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Tech Priests

The Tech Priest of th Cult Mechnicus are the keepers of technological knowledge. They maintain the technological equipment of the Imperium through a combination of holy rituals and scientific know how.

The initiates of the Omnissiah have their bodies reconstructed to a degree. Throughout their careers they tend to become more and more machines as they replace more and more of their bodies with machine parts and the fleshy bits starts to wither away. The high ranking members of the Priesthood of Mars are among the oldest humans in the Imperium.


The Tech-Priest gains the Mechanicus Implants upon initiation into the Priesthood.


Mechanicus Implants:
Electro Graft: Allows the character to take advantages that lets him connect to machines.
Electoo Inductors
Respirator Unit: Gives the character Resistant (Airborne Toxins & Gas weapons) (+8 HT to resist) [5]
Cyber Mantle
Potentia Coil
Cranial Circuitry


Tech Priests all are trained in their religious ritual and have the Mechanicus Implants. As a minimum they have the following advantages:

Mechanicus Implants [5]
Clerical Investment [5]
Religious Rank (0) [0]
Power investiture (Mechanicus) [10/level]



Tech-Priest Template




The rituals of Omnissiah

The Priesthood of Mars have learned a number of rituals. They work like GURPS spells (see GURPS p. 77).
The Tech-Priests are NOT affected by the Veil.
The energy cost of the rituals are reduced like normally by high skill level.

The following rituals can be taught to Tech-Priests (See GURPS Magic)

Machine Speech
Summon Machine
Machine Control
Seek Power
Lend Power
Steal Power
Magnetic Vision
Radio Hearing
Manipulate
Apportation
Levitate
Flight
Flash
Light
Lightning

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

First off, I like the thread topic. WH40K is one of my favorite settings, though I haven't gamed much in it. That said, a few questions about the new traits you're introduced. Hopefully this will be taken as the constructive criticism it's intended as. =P

Hivebound: It's not clear what would qualify as "resembling a hive". To be more clear I'd probably swap this out for Agoraphobia, or at least define a bit more explicitly what situations trigger the penalty. Also, how broad is the penalty? IQ, Per, Wis, and related skills? Or only IQ and IQ skills?

Blessed Ignorance: Should have more effect than just penalizing Hidden Lore (after all, that could be done with a -1 point Incompetence Quirk). Perhaps reducing several such skills (ie, Occult, Thaumatology etc) and giving a penalty to Fright Checks until "familiar" with a particular threat. The disadvantage value may have to be raised, though, especially considering the number of Mind Shattering Horrors From Beyond the Walls of Sanity you tend to find in 40K....

Technical Knock: Is this based on the Immediate Action technique? It sounds similar, though based on IQ instead of IQ-based shooting skill. If you're not familiar with the Immediate Action rules, check Tactical Shooting pg 17 and 44, or the Guns skill in Characters (pg 198-199).

Psy Power: I'm a little confused by this advantage. Is this required for each psy "spell" a psyker wishes to learn, on top of the normal cost of his Psy Rating and the skill in the power itself?

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Hidden Lore is, by definition, hidden. It also has no default. This is far more likely to be an Incompetence(Occultism) quirk, or even just a feature of using Occultism at default. Learning a Hidden Lore at all means you've wrapped you're head around it, and you need to learn it in order to use it.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

About the homeworld templates: Most of the traits I just modified on the run and didn't really look back. So all criticism is good :)

Blessed Ignorance: True both of you. But I don't like the incompetence quirk - the cannot learn part is not really what I want. Will look into this.

Hivebound: Will also need a better rewrite - or better yet I'll modify it over something like stuttering - a disavantage that gives a penalty to a broard range of skills - and then with a limiting factor - only in a hive.



Technical Knock.... Damn you are right. - That have to go...

Psy: You are right. It needs a rewrite.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Glad to help! Especially if it means I can nitpick... =P

That's actually why I suggested Agoraphobia. At the (15-) level it's the same value [-5] and can usually be resisted, leaving the subject with "just" a -1 to DX and IQ. It's triggered by wide open spaces, which would make sense for someone raised in enclosed, twisted passages. If that's not exactly what you want, it's at least a good place to start.

Not necessarily. It could just be an advantage that represents "full investment" in the Immediate Action technique. The technique is Hard and defaults at -4, so increasing it to max costs the same [5]. All you have to do is change it from IQ roll to IQ-based Guns or Gunner roll. However, if you want it to apply to all guns, or even further to different kinds of equipment... well, not sure how to go about building that advantage. Perhaps some sort of "Machine Empathy"?

I'll stick around and lend a hand if I can. If most Psykers only have a handful of psy abilities, it might be easier to build them as Alternate Powers, in which case Psy Rating becomes a Power Talent. Each power could still have an associated skill. In fact, that's how GURPS Psionic Powers handles it (though with several Psi Talents instead of just one). If you don't have that book, I'd highly recommend it.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

As noted elsewhere, I kind of burned out on the 40k universe a while back so please take the comments with any suitable amounts of salt.

As noted previously, starships seem to be out of the box GURPS Spaceships with some modifications from the later books in the series. For some inspiration you can check out Heimdallr's thread over on Dark Reign here.

I would imagine that it's not too hard to add some Characters options over the "hardware" to evoke some of the good ideas in Rogue Trader.

Glad that's working for you. It never seemed to suit the flavour of the universe in my mind, thus I used a variant of Powers and added some "Reality Bites Back" and "Black Magic" variants from Thaumatology. The gist of this was that psykers ended up with a "safe threshold" (evocative of Threshold-limited magic) but could continue to draw beyond this level at the threat of disruptive effects, i.e. "warp taint." It seemed to work well enough, taking a stance of seduction over the punitive approach of the official 40k RPG. That is, rather than "Oooh, you rolled a 9 so suffer the consequences!" it was more, "Yes, you're at the reach of your natural abilities. Yet if you only draw from that well of power you'll be able to survive or help out your comrades. I mean, it's only this once..."

YMMV as to which is the more appealing approach. I personally feel the latter mimics the background the 40k universe more than "Roll for Psychic Phenomenon" but then, well, I would. ;)

Oh, and psyker powers were just Powers, of course. Standard power modifier that drew a number of "Energy Reservoir" (which was determined by pre-packaged Psyker Grade) dependent on the cost to the character. The advantage of the power tended to outweigh the limitations of usage when based against the infinite power source that they could draw from.

"Reality Bites Back," as above, worked for me. I just avoided the pseudo-karma system that confused the official systems' "Corruption" just isn't worth the bother. Put another way, just stick with the description that "corruption" is a function of contact with the warp and don't bother with the idea that "killing is socially bad, therefore not good, therefore corrupt."

It's actually amazing that a universe that is purportedly predicated upon shades of moral grey actually takes an absolute mechanism to model this (more out of confusion, though).

This is simple to model as is. Powers with a Pact.

Don't worry. They're easy to do as well. :D

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

I'm only vaguely familiar with the setting, but as mentioned above, Black Magic sounds like a good way to model corruption; rules are in a boxed section in GURPS Magic and generified in Thaumatology.

For tech priest, you might go with tech-based skills BELOW the TL of the devices they maintain, which yields a penalty. Then allow them to buy off the penalty for specific devices as techniques (er, rituals). And maybe make Hidebound a requirement to enter the priesthood; anyone who isn't actually Hidebound would act that way as part of a Discipline of Faith.

GEF

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Huh? Drugs are a way to Slaanesh, conspiring to Tzeentch, and killing to Khorne. (I'm not sure if saying that maintaining bad hygience is the way to Nurgle.)

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Well, I think the issue here, is that to us looking at the 40k universe from the outside, everything seems to be shades of grey. After all, yes the Imperium are the "Good Guys" but not in the way we typically see the good guys, as it is a totalitarian government, and if you disagree with them in any way you're a heretic and killed. But if one were to actually live in that universe, it very much would be absolute in terms of it's morals. Because of the existence of the chaos demons and the like. So, within the universe it is very black and white, it is only with an outsider's view of the universe that it's all shades of grey. Also, looking at it from the inside, one shade of grey (which is your only choice as a human, the Imperium) is more white than the others. Just saying.

Re: Bringing GURPS into the 41st millennium
 

Okay, the throw-away comment seemed to go from A to D without going through B and C.

If you will forgive me, this is the kind of thing that causes much confusion in the game setting. There is a difference between something being morally abhorrent and something being absolutely so. Thus, killing is bad within a given set of mores, but not necessarily so absolutely in all cultures. Also, it tends to conflate the object with the emotion/process.

Thus, corruption as result of direct contact with the warp? Fine and dandy? Because you took the Pulp Fiction of going to "powder your nose" does not mean that you're going to become a victim of Slaanesh.

That is why I say that there is confusion in the game mechanics and published materials on this matter, or at least from the supplements that I have read. While it is presented as one thing it is often represented as cultural mores, but then the rules do not extend to carry this through (because it would be horrendously complex to do so!).

I guess to be productive out of this segue I would merely argue that if you're going to deal with Corruption then leave it to people that have direct contact with the warp (which can include contact through a proxy artefact, book or whatever), but not because you happen to do some wetwork on "innocents."

Cultural relativism, aye. One of the better justifications for the somewhat sketchy writing in the GW universe is that increasingly materials are being written from the perspective of the Imperium of Man, thus explaining the materials that you see in, say, The Radical's Handbook, Disciples of the Dark Gods, etc. Thus, progression/research in the Adeptus Mechanicus is not orthodox, therefore heretical, therefore bad, therefore evil, therefore Chaotic.

It actually has a certain amount of genius to it if one takes it that way since it does present cultural absolutism.