Thread: Ideas for Yrth
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Old 10-15-2020, 02:52 AM   #28
Astromancer
 
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Default Re: Ideas for Yrth

Quote:
Originally Posted by cvannrederode View Post
For this, I will refer you to the box on page 31 of GURPS Banestorm. To summerize, Yrth is not meant to be realistic, or plausible. But it is meant to be coherent.

For all the magic and what not, humans in Yrth are still, well, human. This is so over the top that he's superhuman (at least in my book). He's so one-dimensionally min-maxed to Earth Magic that he's no longer (IMO) a character at all. He's just a piece of construction equipment that needs to be protected from the enemy. A MacGuffin.

And the rules apply to NPCs just as much as PCs. It's a play balance thing...you'll notice that all the NPC stat blocks in Banestorm include point totals.

I don't mean to antagonistic, nor do I want to harp on your play style. It's just that personally, my sense of play balance and narrative consistency just doesn't jell with 255 points in IQ and Magery. There's a lot of potential for story telling in your idea. Having Robert Del a Pole as a emigrant with IQ of 13 and Engineering/TL8, Geology, and Hydrology at 13 or 14, perhaps 15, as well as teaching ability, some charisma and latent bardic chops, and a passion for seeing his project done makes for good drama. Not only does he have to deal with the political aspect, now he has to learn to apply his TL8 skill base to TL3 technology and magic, and figure out how to get it done.
I see your problem now. You see Robert Del a Pole as a dramatic character rather than a background device or macguffin to allow the PCs to set up their stories as warriors, diplomats, scouts, and general troubleshooters. And you see the drama happening at the dig rather than in the courts and chambers of the powerful in the lands the canal does or doesn't pass through. Myself, I never even contemplated Robert and the PCs needing to meet.
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