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Old 06-06-2013, 06:18 AM   #1
Gnomasz
 
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Default High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

I've started prepairing for a TL3 fantasy campaign for summer. I decided to stop walking the fine line between "just some adventurers" and "they could actually take over the kingdom if they really tried." I want the PCs to be clearly superhuman - I'm thinking about 1000 points now.

I don't have any experience with so high powered campaigns. I really need some advice, especially on character building. Are Supers worth a try, despite genre difference? Or is there maybe something more fitting? I already have Powers and Magic - I need character templates more than traits.

Additional question: is there something special about this book that would suggest buying hardcover Supers over pdf or the other way? I don't mean general discussion about formats but this book specific. Two things come to my mind:
Are there many tables? My e-book reader handles Caravan to Ein Arris worse than some 200-pages pdfs.
Is there much page-flipping while using the templates?
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Old 06-06-2013, 08:49 AM   #2
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

There really isn't a whole lot in the way of tables, but you may have to do a lot of page flipping.
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Old 06-06-2013, 08:56 AM   #3
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

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Originally Posted by Gnomasz View Post
Are Supers worth a try, despite genre difference?
IMO yes. Buy powers with the power modifier Magical-10% and you can have all sorts of seriously powerful sorcerers. Probably less flexible but more powerful specialists than standard mages.
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Old 06-06-2013, 11:05 AM   #4
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

I bought Supers for a high-powered fantasy campaign similar to Battle Chasers but ended up using Dungeon Fantasy instead and am very glad I did, despite my reluctance for doing so.

There are no formatting benefits to the PDF, other than the fact that it's a searchable PDF and not a big heavy chunk of dead tree. You'll do no more or less flipping than with any other big GURPS book.

In addition to the character templates, most of which are 250-500 points, IIRC, the canonical examples of superpowers are handy. Say you want to make a lightning bolt innate attack; it's already done for you in the book.

Other than that, I've not used the book much. It's not a must-buy for high-point fantasy. GURPS Powers, which you already have, is much more so.

The Archtype template, which kinda mimics Superman, is 2,000 points. The Brick is 1,000. The Super Mage, which uses GURPS Magic, is either 250 or 500 depending. Supers handles the Strength attribute differently than in other books or would give you some idea of where they were at.

Have you checked out the Dungeon Fantasy series? It would be so much better than Supers for this.

I've heard that the Monster Hunters series has what, 450-point templates? I forget.
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Old 06-06-2013, 11:38 AM   #5
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnomasz View Post
I've started prepairing for a TL3 fantasy campaign for summer. I decided to stop walking the fine line between "just some adventurers" and "they could actually take over the kingdom if they really tried." I want the PCs to be clearly superhuman - I'm thinking about 1000 points now.

I don't have any experience with so high powered campaigns. I really need some advice, especially on character building. Are Supers worth a try, despite genre difference? Or is there maybe something more fitting? I already have Powers and Magic - I need character templates more than traits.
It wouldn't be totally useless although most of the templates are 250 or 500 pointers. It does have some very good advice about high-powered combat.

Quote:
Additional question: is there something special about this book that would suggest buying hardcover Supers over pdf or the other way? I don't mean general discussion about formats but this book specific. Two things come to my mind:
Are there many tables? My e-book reader handles Caravan to Ein Arris worse than some 200-pages pdfs.
Is there much page-flipping while using the templates?
You'd only need to use the templates when writing down characters based on them. I wouldn't recommend trying to read Supers or any other other GURPS book on a regular sized Kindle.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 06-07-2013 at 11:48 AM.
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Old 06-06-2013, 11:38 AM   #6
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnomasz View Post
I've started prepairing for a TL3 fantasy campaign for summer. I decided to stop walking the fine line between "just some adventurers" and "they could actually take over the kingdom if they really tried." I want the PCs to be clearly superhuman - I'm thinking about 1000 points now.
My group's high-power fantasy campaign has PCs that are clearly superhuman on 500 points. That's enough for a standard DF template plus 250 more in awesome species templates, ridiculous Allies, sick power-ups, etc, or enough to completely buy two entire DF class templates, including Attribute plusses, from scratch. 1000 might get a little crazy unless you want them to have actual superpowers (eg: that one guy in Thieves' World who just happens to be the unkillable avatar of the Goddess of War walking around with a day job. You could go nuts with that kind of stuff on 1000 points), or each be that badass personally plus the king of their own city state with a boatload of social advantages or something.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnomasz View Post
I don't have any experience with so high powered campaigns. I really need some advice, especially on character building. Are Supers worth a try, despite genre difference? Or is there maybe something more fitting? I already have Powers and Magic - I need character templates more than traits.
Depends on what kind of templates you want. Powers and DF 1 and 3 are probably going to have the most to potentially offer if the campaign is at all dungeony, but Supers has a few that can be ripped directly to high-powered fantasy, sure.

ETA: Actually, the more that I think about this, the better combining Supers with DF 1 & 3 sounds to me if you want easy templates for a 1000-point game. Now I'm picturing Elder Spawn Renaissance Rubber Men, Ogre-Plus Swashbuckler Acrobats, Speedster Acrobat Thieves, Speedster Nightstalker Mystic Knights, Speedster Swashbuckler Knights, Celestial (or Infernal, or Catman, or Ogre) Renaissance Sages and Artificers, Brick Ogres, and Mesmerist Evil Clerics! (rounded out with the 250-point Face Man template from Action 1!) (I'll be in my bunk...)

Last edited by Gold & Appel Inc; 06-06-2013 at 01:05 PM.
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Old 06-07-2013, 11:04 AM   #7
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

Thanks!

I think I'll get Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers, and Henchmen for the players who want less human competence and more supernatural oomph. I can probably handle super strength and other superhuman abilities with Powers. Next Level is tempting me a bit with Spell-Archery, but it's just not enough compared to a bunch of lower powered templates (125 points is still a lot IMO).
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Old 06-07-2013, 12:30 PM   #8
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

First of all, I love Henchman.

Next, if you're considering both Adventurers and The Next Level, get it and go ahead and get Dungeons too. Those are the three core books to DF. If you have one and three, might as well get the second too, right?

If you're interested in The Next Level, then you'll be interested in Power-Ups. It's awesome. It has combat power-ups like Cleaving Strike and leveled perks like Slayer Training. The only thing more awesome than those names is what the traits do.

I didn't want to move to Dungeon Fantasy series because I thought it would be restrictive or change the way GURPS is played. I wanted to play GURPS "my way." Well, come to find out, all it did was augment my GURPS fantasy gaming. In no way did it put it in a little box and say, "this is how you must play GURPS fantasy." I can't recommenced it highly enough. It's really great for fantasy role playing.

Honestly, give it a try. I promise you, even if you don't stick with it, it will greatly enrich your GURPS fantasy role playing and it will go a long way toward helping you make a better high-point fantasy game.
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Old 06-07-2013, 12:42 PM   #9
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnomasz View Post
Thanks!

I think I'll get Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers, and Henchmen for the players who want less human competence and more supernatural oomph. I can probably handle super strength and other superhuman abilities with Powers. Next Level is tempting me a bit with Spell-Archery, but it's just not enough compared to a bunch of lower powered templates (125 points is still a lot IMO).
Henchmen is good stuff, but the DF core templates are only 250 points, and a sizable chunk of that is usually in attributes that aren't necessarily human competence. With 1000 points, I have trouble seeing a need to shave down your core even further than that!

Well, all the DF templates do boast a combat skill of at least...12 I think? So if someone wanted to build a character who seriously couldn't hold their own with a weapon you'd need to make adjustments
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Old 06-07-2013, 01:11 PM   #10
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Default Re: High Powered Fantasy - will "Supers" help me?

1000 points might necessarily let you take over the world in a modern game, where you're fighting against tanks and bombers, but is absolutely godlike at TL 3: take something like ST 35 [250], DR 25 [125], Doesn't Breathe [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Breaking Blow, and Power Blow, and little short of a ballista bolt or live burial will even slow you down.

Alternatively, Fantasy has advice on building minor gods as characters. It's essentially the Spirit meta-trait, Unkillable 3, and loads of extra FP (it's assumed gods will know some spells). He total cost is 662 points, so in a 1000-point game, your other abilities will be impressive but it won't necessarily be impossible for a mortal to best you in a sword fight, say. Which does fit how gods are sometimes portrayed in legends.
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