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Old 11-22-2019, 08:03 AM   #1
Kromm
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Default GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Fundamentally
It is the fundamentals
That are mental fun
— Ancient Geek Proverb
In theory, GURPS has the depth and breadth to handle any genre, any game world. Yet you want the system to conform to your campaign or play style, not vice versa. It's easy enough to arrange this on the level of optional rules or even entire supplements – just pick what you like and discard the rest. Traits demand more patience, as there are lots of them, but sorting through them all is a manageable task. Where it gets really rough is with the fundamentals: the dice used, the way rolls work, and so on. Attributes are a prime example of such things.

GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes aims to help GMs get their hands dirty in this regard. It delves into the nitty-gritty of renaming, repricing, rescaling, subdividing, adding, and subtracting basic attributes and secondary characteristics; recalculating the latter from the former; and then adjusting other traits, point budget, and behavior in play to accommodate the revisions. Alternate Attributes doesn't aim to spoon-feed – you'll still have to do a lot of thinking and more than a little math to adapt its advice to your needs – but it offers multiple perspectives on how to figure out what's important and what's superficial to you campaign, and what's right and wrong for your gaming group.

Because at heart, it's your game!


Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-0157
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Old 11-22-2019, 08:25 AM   #2
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Got it.

Looking forward to reading it. Thanks Kromm.
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Old 11-22-2019, 09:14 AM   #3
Raekai
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

49 pages of my favorite subject ever? Oh, how silly I was to think that I might have to wait until GURPS 5E before having official support for messing with attributes (other than ST and HP, of course, which have great fixes in Knowing Your Own Strength and Conditional Injury). I'll be looking for Kromm's own attribute suggestions, which is something I've tinkered with using in my own—

Hey, why am I still typing? I gotta read!
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Old 11-22-2019, 09:43 AM   #4
Kromm
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Be aware that I have eased back on my personal preferences here because it's advice for all campaigns, not just mine!
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Old 11-22-2019, 11:18 AM   #5
Raekai
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
Be aware that I have eased back on my personal preferences here because it's advice for all campaigns, not just mine!
Fair enough! Though, if you don't mind re-opening that old questions given that it's relevant again, would you still personally opt for something like "four physical, four mental (one of them social), and four supernatural" as you put it?

That's the way I've been working it in recent games and it has worked rather well, though this new book will definitely help me better put the right skills in the right baskets. It feels like less of a departure than adding social attributes for wealth, status, etc. Breaking up DX into gross movement (Agility, AG) and fine movement (Finesse, FN), breaking up IQ into book smarts (Intellect, IN) and social smarts (Presence, PR), and rounding out Will (Willpower, WL) and Perception (Keenness, KN) into their own attributes is nice because everything can sit at 10 points/level. Then, I coupled that with Knowing Your Own Strength and Conditional Injury. It worked very well.

In addition, I also used Keenness for ranged attacks, though I think I would use On Target in the future and make aiming use Keenness. At the same time, it doesn't seem crazy to make a Coordination secondary attribute that's equal to (Finesse + Keenness - 10)—I don't think I'd go with division by two because that would make Coordination too expensive.

Still, I have a hard time deciding if Agility or Finesse should pair with Keenness for hand-eye coordination. It seems like Finesse would make more sense—Coordination and Fine Motor Ability are tied by Fast-Draw, and I'm surprised that Surgery didn't end up under Coordination. It might not be crazy to have Coordination = (Agility + Keenness)/2 and also Reflexes = (Agility + Keenness)/2. Dodge, etc. would then be based on Reflexes/2 (which, yes, adds another layer of division, but I like keeping the formulas for Coordination and Reflexes similar).

Though, a lot of coordination uses both gross movement and fine movement. Maybe Coordination could be (Agility + Finesse + Keenness)/3. That would put it at 30 points/level. It would be a very broad attribute, so breaking it down into Enhanced Reflexes [20/level] (for Dodge, Parry, Block) and Enhanced Dexterity* [10/level] (for Guns, Surgery, etc.) would make sense too. It makes sense to go broad than to have three attributes: one for FN + KN, one for AG + KN, and another for AG + FN + KN. Granted, that does make active defenses a bit cheaper...

*The term 'Dexterity' returns!

I didn't mean to go on for so long, but I'm glad I got that out of my head.

I love this new book, by the way, if that's not crazy clear by my enthusiasm for the topic. Even for the stuff I knew I wouldn't get as much use out of, my eyes feasted from cover to cover. My generic winter holiday has come early!

Last edited by Raekai; 11-22-2019 at 11:33 AM.
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Old 11-22-2019, 12:39 PM   #6
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

I just posted my review.

Short version? Its a heavy read (especially chapter 1) and not for everyone, but if you like to tinker its a great read and I will be using several ideas from it for my campaigns.
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Old 11-22-2019, 01:06 PM   #7
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
Be aware that I have eased back on my personal preferences here because it's advice for all campaigns, not just mine!
What would your personal preferences be?
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Old 11-22-2019, 01:16 PM   #8
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Just what I wanted.
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Old 11-22-2019, 01:34 PM   #9
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Bought it, skimmed it, curious what people's favorite bits are. I'm really glad we now have a Kromm-approved approach for making ST cheaper at higher TLs. A lot of other stuff (and this is very YMMV) struck me as cases of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but the book is long and dense and it's possible I'm missing other things that solve significant problems.
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Old 11-22-2019, 01:49 PM   #10
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Default Re: GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Thayne View Post
Bought it, skimmed it, curious what people's favorite bits are. I'm really glad we now have a Kromm-approved approach for making ST cheaper at higher TLs. A lot of other stuff (and this is very YMMV) struck me as cases of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but the book is long and dense and it's possible I'm missing other things that solve significant problems.
Oh! I forgot to add that ST thing in my review but I will add it now.
The first chapter struck me a lot as what you say.."If it ain't broke, don't fix it" but Chapter 2 really gets into the meat of things. I covered a lot of that in my review.
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My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items)
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