GURPS Monster Hunters: what will you do with it?

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Ah, then you're going to love MH4.

Just wish to point out that, AFAIK, this is the first mention of No.4

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Just wish to point out that, AFAIK, this is the first mention of No.4

It is? I could have sworn he mentioned a fourth book on Twitter.

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

It all comes down to believability. Not realism, mind you, but believability in the sense of "suspension of disbelief."

To whit, let's say that in a game, the heroes occasionally find themselves so overwhelmed that they retreat and instead call in the police or SWAT. That means that the police/SWAT are the cavalry -- they're better-equipped to deal with this monster menace than the PCs are. So why on earth are the PCs risking their lives to do it? Eventually, it becomes harder and harder to believe that this crew of "ragtag monster hunters" is really doing a better job by getting involved themselves than if they'd just figure out what's going on, inform the police, and move on.

This depends on the nature of the game. I tried to run a game that was based off of the mutual support group from the Dresden books. The idea was that they were pretty much normal people, maybe with powers at a moderate but not remarkable point level say 200 but I tend to ignore specific point totals. I wanted it very gear based but as they had no official sanction they also had real limits to what they could do legally.

So calling in swat could be done, but could well cause the group to go prison as well. As far as magical concerns well the magical swat groups either didn't care or could sometimes be called in. They can get support if the agencies consider it important enough for them to care, but that does not mean they care about a few people getting eaten by werewolves.

That is still a game I would like to run, and would love to see supported.

[the adventurer]

I'm hoping to run a campaign set in the late '70s about a group of individuals (bikers, truckers, sleuths, daredevils, Federal marshals, and other adventurers)who travel the highways hunting down the creatures that plague America's dark corners. Characters are mostly ordinary folks who have been pulled into this life by happenstance, who have banded together in a loose affiliation known as The Highway Defense League. Because no one should have to face the dark road alone.

Is this something Monster Hunters should be able to cover?

[nondescript handle]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

[...] To whit, let's say that in a game, the heroes occasionally find themselves so overwhelmed that they retreat and instead call in the police or SWAT.
[...]
Nah, no giant monsters initially -- it's hard to keep The Secret when you're fighting Godzilla in the middle of downtown. [...]

In my opinion you can have either a setting in which a band of reformed vampires, werwolfs, wizards and highly trained mortals can make 911 calls to ask for assistance in dealing with a zombie outbreak, or a setting with The Secret, but not really both.

Like blacksmith wrote, in a setting with The Secret, the "SWAT problem of non-cinematic monsters" doesn't exist, because calling in the cavalry and thereby revealing The Secret is as destructive as any Zombiecalypse.

And in a setting where dealing with tentacled minions of the Old Ones is a normal part of a SWAT teams duty you don't need super-cinematic monsters to keep the SWAT team out, because in that setting the obvious monster hunter campaign is "the PCs are the anti-monster SWAT squad of the Sheriffs Office of Example County".

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

It is? I could have sworn he mentioned a fourth book on Twitter.

I sit corrected sir. Dialled the wayback machine a month, and there it is.

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by nondescript handle

In my opinion you can have either a setting in which a band of reformed vampires, werwolfs, wizards and highly trained mortals can make 911 calls to ask for assistance in dealing with a zombie outbreak, or a setting with The Secret, but not really both.

My point was that you can have a secret swat, but such organizations might not care about low level threats.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

My point was that you can have a secret swat, but such organizations might not care about low level threats.

They also can't be everywhere and are a limited resource. I think the original question was why not just call 911 and have the normal police deal with it. But if they don't know about supernatural threats they won't handle them very well. Vampires tend to be strong, fast, and can't be killed with bullets.

Also what are you going to say on a 911 call if supernatural elements are not known to exist? "Help there's a gang of vampires attacking people down at the pier?" Good luck getting the 911 operator to send help, and lets not forget response time can be 20 minutes or sometimes more. Good luck with that.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Hmm... let's just say, "More expensive than a delver, less expensive than a black op," and leave it at that for now.

Fair 'nuff. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

The lowered-powered ones? Sure. I'm beefing up zombies a bit, for example, but in a contest of Sheriff vs. Slow Zombie, the Sheriff is almost certainly going to win. Now, in a contest of Sheriff vs. 20 Slow Zombies, the outcome is far less certain.

Awesome. That's sounds right in my sweet spot.

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Ah, then you're going to love MH4.

Damn youse! *Gets out wallet*

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

It all comes down to believability. Not realism, mind you, but believability in the sense of "suspension of disbelief."

I've also heard this termed "verisimilitude."

[PK]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

I sit corrected sir. Dialled the wayback machine a month, and there it is.

In the middle of writing it now, BTW . . . I think people will be surprised at how versatile it is, given its rather plain title.