Keeping you players alive for dummies

[fsbof]

Howdy,

my group and I are going to plunge into GURPS as complete greenhorns soon.

We're playing a western style scenario with some supernatural horror tropes on the low key.

Therefore my players may pick some supernatural abilities if they choose to, but again, those are suppossed on be on the low key, too. They might play lightning fast gunslingers, mysticists with a connection to the spirit realm and so forth, however they won't grow magic armor, won't become supernaturally tough and won't have access to magic healing.

They'll encounter the usual, worldly threaths in such a world, but also supernatural ones like a rampaging wendigo from native folklore or an unregistered midnight express from hell. The latter ones will be rare, but still.

So: how do I keep them alive? :D

From what I get so far, GURPS tends to be quite deadly and all in all, we like it that way. Still, that also begs the question about player survivalability.

Tipps I've already read up on are:

-Don't have your hostile NPCs do targeted attacks, at least not to the face, skull or vitals.

-Keep most NPCs at moderate skill levels.

-Encourage your players to tackle problems smartly, not gunz blazzzing.

-Be generous with starting XP.

-Go with "Survivable Guns" (not a fan of that one tbh)

-Give players some reroll ressource, like Shadowrun's Edge

[whswhs]

Encourage them to buy up their HT.

When you get down to fully negative hit points (that is, if you have, say, 11 HP, and take 22 points of damage, you are reduced to -11 HP), you have to roll to survive. If you have HT 10, you have a 50% chance of survival; on the average you'll die at -22 HP. But if you have HT 12, you have a 75% chance of survival; on the average you'll die at -44 HP, which takes a lot more injury to get to. With HT 13 or higher, on the average you won't die until you get to -5 times your HP, at which point you're considered to have been physically destroyed.

Spending 20 points on boosted HT is a worthwhile investment, for this and other reasons.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Encourage them to buy up their HT.

When you get down to fully negative hit points (that is, if you have, say, 11 HP, and take 22 points of damage, you are reduced to -11 HP), you have to roll to survive. If you have HT 10, you have a 50% chance of survival; on the average you'll die at -22 HP. But if you have HT 12, you have a 75% chance of survival; on the average you'll die at -44 HP, which takes a lot more injury to get to. With HT 13 or higher, on the average you won't die until you get to -5 times your HP, at which point you're considered to have been physically destroyed.

Spending 20 points on boosted HT is a worthwhile investment, for this and other reasons.

And if that much on HT is too much, Spending a lesser amount on Fit/Very Fit and/or Hard to Kill is a reasonable substitute. I'd suggest Fit (5 points) for any physically active character as a matter of course.

When it comes to options rather than character builds, I agree with the others about 'survivable guns' - I don't like it and have never used it.

For an option to allow re-rolls there's 'Influencing Success Rolls' on p.347 of Campaigns I've not used it because I'm not a fan of spending XP for short-term one-time benefits. However, the rule can work with a pool of special points given out as well as XP, or if you and your group are okay with it, used as-is.

My usual method of reducing lethality of guns is to have the NPCs just shoot at the torso unless a shot is a wild shot or otherwise truly unaimed. I've found that random hit location rolls mean that sooner or later someone takes a bullet to the neck or skull. That said, a plain torso hit with a full-power rifle can kill quite easily.

That leads to another way of reducing general lethality - choice of NPC weapons. Don't have them use rifles much, and try not to use shotguns at very short ranges where the shot's all in one mass and does huge damage (B409). Assuming you're using High-Tech, and have a wide range of pistols to choose from (the choices at TL5 in Characters are extremely limited), try and stick to pistols that don't do Large Piercing (pi+), or that do less than 2d pi+.

[Mark Skarr]

Have a conversation with your players. How lethal do they want the game to be?

Just because GURPS can be lethal doesn't mean you have to use all those rules. Figure out how dangerous they want combat to be, and go from there.

Find out how your players want to deal with the perceived lethality. No matter what anyone else tells you--if your players are happy and having fun, you're doing it right.

[JulianLW]

All these are good ideas (though I don't really like Survivable Guns, either), but the most expedient would be to start the campaign with one (or maybe two) tokens for each player that they can exchange for a single use of the "Flesh Wounds [5]" advantage. This is a houseruled advantage (from Malainka, I think) that's basically an aspected Destiny point that is usable once per session to turn a single injury into a 1 HP injury (though maintaining any damage effects, such as crippling). For more, see "Flesh Wounds" in Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys.

You don't have to make this trait available to your players, but giving them one or two uses of it could be a good way to both teach your players about how deadly combat can be in GURPS and to help their starting characters survive a couple of combats. Let them exchange the tokens whenever they want - they'll probably wait until there's a lethal injury and use the tokens for a second chance to get away....

[Fred Brackin]

Avoid Survivable Guns. It would protect he monsters at least as much as the PCs (probably more since at least some of the opposition wouldn't be using guns).

Make at least 1 level of Luck mandatory. A lot of serious consequences begin with a bad die roll.

Yes, invest in HT and HP strategically. 1 to 2 more HP will shift the target's "Major wounds" threshold by a pt which can mean not being crippled by a limb wound and/or not even needing to roll v. Knockdown and Stunning.

[The Colonel]

Remind your PCs that they're not playing "that RPG" - combat is not the default resolution mechanic. PCs will live a lot longer if they don't get into combat all that often.
Also, for more survivable combat, have a look at tactical shooting and consider turning up the difficulty of actually hitting anything. Lots of sound and fury but very few actual hits is entirely genre appropriate for a Western.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Yes, invest in HT and HP strategically. 1 to 2 more HP will shift the target's "Major wounds" threshold by a pt which can mean not being crippled by a limb wound and/or not even needing to roll v. Knockdown and Stunning.

The added HP are certainly a good idea. You can also get them free as part of buying up ST. Higher ST pays off in lots of ways.

[Kesendeja]

One of the best things I've found to help survivability is the use of Impulse Points, from Power Ups 5 - Impulse Buys.

You can use character points to buy the effects, but Impulse Points are a renewable resource that generally cost 5cp per point.

These can be used to alter dice rolls and environment in a variety of ways.

[Donny Brook]

I found this house rule that I now use cinematic campaigns.