Optimized Shaolin Monk in a Western

starslayer · 12-31-2016, 09:10 PM

One of the things that I like the most about GURPS is that bringing a knife to a gun fight is almost surely a way to die.

As such, Ransom has it right, the only way your monk is going to be able to be able to fight with gunslingers, riflemen, and natives with bows without having supernatural powers is going to be to use stealth, duplicity, and tactics to assure that any combat takes place on his level.

With that said, playing a monk in a non-supernatural western should not be about trying to lay down the kung-fu beats on armed gunmen. That's a battle you will loose. However advantages like 'honest face', 'pitiable', and 'charisma', and disadvantages like 'honesty' can make a very convincing individual, have a talent for speaking to others, and the skill to back that up allowing the individual to be a silver-tongued peacemaker, only needing to resort to stealth and duplicity for the most stubborn of foe (and hopefully by nature of them being so stubborn, able to be manipulated into a situation where there superior firepower does not apply).

Be sure to look into 'vow: No guns', which should be worth a pretty hefty amount of bonus points to help balance out what's going to be a more difficult to balance concept then 'expert gunslinger and law man'.

So much is going to rely on a few critical rolls that having the highest level of luck you can get it also going to be important (A gunman can fail there a few shots as long as there dodge is high enough or they are behind enough cover to keep shooting; you only get to talk the armed gang out of gunning you down at 40 yards when you walk out with arms extended once)

12-31-2016, 09:10 PM	#4
starslayer Join Date: Dec 2006	Re: Optimized Shaolin Monk in a Western One of the things that I like the most about GURPS is that bringing a knife to a gun fight is almost surely a way to die. As such, Ransom has it right, the only way your monk is going to be able to be able to fight with gunslingers, riflemen, and natives with bows without having supernatural powers is going to be to use stealth, duplicity, and tactics to assure that any combat takes place on his level. With that said, playing a monk in a non-supernatural western should not be about trying to lay down the kung-fu beats on armed gunmen. That's a battle you will loose. However advantages like 'honest face', 'pitiable', and 'charisma', and disadvantages like 'honesty' can make a very convincing individual, have a talent for speaking to others, and the skill to back that up allowing the individual to be a silver-tongued peacemaker, only needing to resort to stealth and duplicity for the most stubborn of foe (and hopefully by nature of them being so stubborn, able to be manipulated into a situation where there superior firepower does not apply). Be sure to look into 'vow: No guns', which should be worth a pretty hefty amount of bonus points to help balance out what's going to be a more difficult to balance concept then 'expert gunslinger and law man'. So much is going to rely on a few critical rolls that having the highest level of luck you can get it also going to be important (A gunman can fail there a few shots as long as there dodge is high enough or they are behind enough cover to keep shooting; you only get to talk the armed gang out of gunning you down at 40 yards when you walk out with arms extended once) Last edited by starslayer; 12-31-2016 at 09:14 PM.