Originally Posted by bocephus
One thing I didnt see anyone address (or I missed it) is the point value of your setting/PCs.
You need to set the expectations of your world by establishing the base point value. This will greatly influence the PCs access to advantages. Advantages can quickly overbalance your campaign if you arent a little bit careful in the beginning. You can always correct up, but trying to dial a char back after the fact is a painful process for everyone.
To give you a very coarse idea of what I consider some of these stories you have mentioned in GURPS terms (and this isnt precise just to eyeball stuff) you have to look at the advantages more than the skills. Also remember that these stories arent written with balance in mind, so allowing a PC to become one of these char may not really give the outcome either of you expects.
Aragorn vs Lan Mandragoran
Aragorn really doesnt have too many advantages that come out in the story, though there are some that might be assumed. He's what I would call a typical adventurer in my world you could probably build him on 150pts with a little bit of fudging for skills. I dont recall anything that indicated Combat reflexes but he did seem to have quite a high skill with Sword and bow.
Extended Lifespan 2ish
Ally Elves
Ally horse
History Dunedien
Destiny
maybe some increased perception
extra languages Elf and Dunedien (if that is a separate language)
Hard to kill
Will
DX, ST, HT?
Most of the rest of what he did could be nitpicked, but I think I covered the broad strokes of his advantages. He never struck me as a "supers" char. He was just a human that was a little more than human. If you dropped Aragorn in GoT he wouldn't be out of place and other than his 'Lore' and skill advantage from long life he would be pretty much competeing on even terms IMO. He for sure had some disadvantages but this response will be long enough without that...
Lan has boat loads of small advantages though a fair chunk of them are tied to his bond/ally. He also seems to have his own and its hard to be sure where Lan stops and the Bond starts.
Attributes ST, DX, HT, Will, Perception (Im not sure about IQ vs just higher skill levels) - all at multiples of bonus (this alone pushes him well beyond Aragorn) Compared to 10/10/10/10 char, I would estimate he was ST+4, DX +2 maybe 3, HT +4, Will +2, Perception +3 or 4 (though you might stick some of this under the Bond price, he was already a weapon master before the bond)
He has a Destiny for sure
Signature gear(s) Sword and cloak for sure
Equipment bond(s) Sword
Weapon Master
Combat reflexes
Ally Horse
Languages several reading and writing
Alternate Identity (some GMs might toss this under Destiny, but I think Lan really had what amounts to an Alternate Identity advantage as a warder, or if you see it the other way his royalty was the alternate, either way it opened doors that would have been closed to a regular warder)
Ally (at least 20pts in Moraine) with all her magic she's a higher point value char than Lan
He had a lot of little abilities that I would put on the "Bond" and you would have to figure that out as well, though it wouldnt cost as much with the big disad of what happens to a Warder when his Aesedai dies.
Less sleep +4 and some kind of Modified Recovery that only applies to sleep (this is probably the Bond or its a combination of advantage and Bond)
Extended Lifespan ~1 (it was never very clear to me how long warders CAN live if they aren't taken out in battle, I was left with the impression that some of the older 'non-combat' warders were abnormally old) OR it might just be Longevity that keeps him from most of the conditions of aging or some combination of both
I would say Lan is at minimum a 250pt char, likely more around 300 but it depends on how you build out the "Bond". He doesnt seem to have a great deal of disadvantages that he cant overcome, and he buys off Loaner by the end and you might argue he also buys off No sense of Humor at some point. If you dropped Lan into GoT he would be over powered, especially if you port the Bond abilities and Moraine (who would probably be a ~350pt char).
The bigger question you need to address is where do you want the PCs to be when they start, halfway through, when they finish. This will inform most of your encounters, and much of your adventure options. Less points is more realistic but your players will have less abilities to roll against, especially if they focus on combat skills. Less inherent Advantages for the PCs means more like "real life" and less like Supers.
Oh Combat is another thing you need to look at in parallel to the Magic system, how realistic and complicated are you going to allow combat to be. I tried gaming a realistic sword and board combat and it took 3 hours and most of it was parry and feint and missing. Realistic combat is LETHAL (when someone finally gets hit) but boring to me unless there is a complete skill imbalance, but it is one of the pieces of the GURPS tool kit. My personal suggestion it to limit combat to the Basic books and keep it in the cinematic side to speed things up a little. (for sure keep GURPS Martial arts out if you want to speed combat up and not overwhelm new players with too many options).
Someone already suggested it, but it feels like you need to limit your PCs to Basic books and Low Tech, and you need to decide on your magic system which might add Magic and/or Thaumatology.
You are biting off a really BIG bite wanting to make your own world out of the gate. GURPS has a learning curve even for experienced DM/GMs, its not impossible but you might want to talk directly with some GMs to get a little more grounded in what it takes to build a world (I speak from experience here, now that I have a more experienced player joining in and asking questions, I have found a LOT of development holes in my world. Not so much that it doesnt work, but more that I had never actually documented it)
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