Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunter Powers in Standard Games

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by shkspr1048

Would the powers out of Dungeon Fantasy and Monster Hunters unbalance more traditional games (if such things exist in GURPS)?

I don't think so. Perhaps the species Talents, because some or all of them may be too sweet for a realistic campaign, but all the other traits are built according to the RAW, so if you accept that GURPS point costs are inherently balanced, then no, they won't unbalance your game.

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I don't think so. Perhaps the species Talents, because some or all of them may be too sweet for a realistic campaign, but all the other traits are built according to the RAW, so if you accept that GURPS point costs are inherently balanced, then no, they won't unbalance your game.

Pickaxe Penchant is fine. Forest Guardian is not. Every scout-type character in the world will want Stealth, Camouflage, Bow, Fast-Draw Arrow, and Survival. To be able to raise them all for 5 points is way too cheap.

[Dustin]

Similarly, Craftiness (DF11.35) is a little too sweet for my taste, but I'm considering a ban on all 5-pt Talents in future games anyway.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Dustin

Similarly, Craftiness (DF11.35) is a little too sweet for my taste, but I'm considering a ban on all 5-pt Talents in future games anyway.

Why not just raise their cost a little?

Raising the cost is always preferable to "banning", to my mind. Otherwise I wouldn't be a fan of Unusual Background.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Gnome

Pickaxe Penchant is fine. Forest Guardian is not. Every scout-type character in the world will want Stealth, Camouflage, Bow, Fast-Draw Arrow, and Survival. To be able to raise them all for 5 points is way too cheap.

Not as much in a modern game.

[panton41]

Originally Posted by Gnome

Pickaxe Penchant is fine. Forest Guardian is not. Every scout-type character in the world will want Stealth, Camouflage, Bow, Fast-Draw Arrow, and Survival. To be able to raise them all for 5 points is way too cheap.

In DF they're both are limited to racial templates, which is usually seen as an allowable way to break the suggestion to not include combat skills in templates. I'd simply require the same thing in a more general game.

[Kromm]

A lot of DF racial Talents are halfway between true inborn Talents and Job Training. They're essentially Job Training with the usual strictures pertaining to maintenance and duty replaced with "I was born into this and have lived with it all my life!" That is, DF being old-school fantasy, its races come with default cultures that define vocations. Were I to port those Talents out of old-school fantasy and into other genres, I might well only allow them as Job Training.

That said, I don't see what's so "overpowered" about Craftiness. I think it's a defensible real-life gift, being a natural deceiver, and the skills covered are all examples of things that GURPS splits up rather too finely for many gamers' liking. The whole lot would be a generic "Deceit" skill in quite a few systems, and even many GURPS fans have difficulty with Camouflage vs. Stealth, Shadowing vs. Stealth, or needing both Acting and Disguise for impersonation.

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by Kromm

That said, I don't see what's so "overpowered" about Craftiness. I think it's a defensible real-life gift, being a natural deceiver, and the skills covered are all examples of things that GURPS splits up rather too finely for many gamers' liking. The whole lot would be a generic "Deceit" skill in quite a few systems, and even many GURPS fans have difficulty with Camouflage vs. Stealth, Shadowing vs. Stealth, or needing both Acting and Disguise for impersonation.

Agreed! In fact, before DF11 came out, I invented a 10-point talent called "Sneaky" which included all the same skills plus a few more (Sleight of Hand, Filch, Pickpocket, Escape). It was a must-have for rogues, and it even granted a reaction bonus among other underworld types.

Off-Topic: Does anybody agree with me that some advantages are actually overpriced for DF? The most glaring example to me is Injury Tolerance: Homogenous, which appears on some racial templates and as GBF powers in DF5. In a world with guns, this advantage is worth the 40 points, because bullets usually do some kind of piercing damage. In a world with swords, I would feel pretty ****** paying 40 points and still getting my arms chopped off just the same...

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Gnome

Off-Topic: Does anybody agree with me that some advantages are actually overpriced for DF? The most glaring example to me is Injury Tolerance: Homogenous, which appears on some racial templates and as GBF Its in DF5. In a world with guns, this advantage is worth the 40 points, because bullets usually do some kind of piercing damage. In a world with swords, I would feel pretty ****** paying 40 points and still getting my arms chopped off just the same...

It's not really a tech issue. Impaling and piercing damage have been the primary combat threats since it occurred to someone to start sharpening the sticks. Swords are just over represented compared to spears and arrows in most fantasy than is probably historically accurate.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by RyanW

It's not really a tech issue. Impaling and piercing damage have been the primary combat threats since it occurred to someone to start sharpening the sticks. Swords are just over represented compared to spears and arrows in most fantasy than is probably historically accurate.

Problem is, GURPS tries to balance out low tech damage types, as opposed to the realistic 'well, impaling really is just better'.