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Old 05-20-2016, 04:58 PM   #1
Ah_Ftagn
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Riverside County, California
Default Equipping Improvised NPC templates

As a GM (and the only person in my groups that actually owns the GURPS core book myself), I am constantly frustrated by the fact that players often request rules clarifications after forcing me to improvise NPCs.

While the GURPS GM Screen I purchased from the E23 store is a MASSIVE help in this matter due it's information on skills, stats, and derived stats (including damage tables for melee weapons), there is a slight problem in that weapons and armor tables are not included among them. While I understand the reasoning behind this (Namely that it makes it harder to distribute rules information without permission), it is frustrating when a player takes your session off the rails... I like the idea of having NPC templates for these situations with multiple equipment choices

If Steve Jackson Games offered the ability to purchase PDFs from E23 that included full (or tech level specific) equipment charts from the Basic Set, this wouldn't be an issue, but since that isn't currently on the table, what's a good, simple, and space-efficient way to create printable NPC templates with multiple options for each type of gear?

(Note: This is specific to gear and space saving techniques. I already know about time-saving techniques using just basic/derived stats and bonuses/penalties to Wildcard skills, and already put that advice into practice.)

Please, do not suggest copying down the charts of equipment. This is time consuming and may run afoul of this portion of the online policy due to the method of storage I use for game aids (Dropbox):
---
Post (or make available for download) forms, charts, tables and text from one of your games?

No; that is a violation of copyright. We understand that it is convenient to gamers if some forms and charts are online, and we have already posted many of them ourselves. You should look at our page for the game you are interested in, to see if perhaps we have already posted the material you want. But we can't give permission to put more and more of each game on the web . . . eventually the whole text would be online, for free, and we couldn't sell any books . . .
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Old 05-20-2016, 10:26 PM   #2
dfinlay
 
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Default Re: Equipping Improvised NPC templates

Alright. I have 3 possible recommendations:
  1. If you have a pdf copy of the relevant books, you could always print off those pages. If you have a physical copy, you could stickie note the relevant pages.
  2. GCA and GCS (two different electronic GURPS character sheet editors) both have equipment lists built in. Drag and drop the items into the sheets and it'll calculate everything for you.
  3. Improvise. Look at enough weapon entries to get a general feel for what they are like and then guess at the details in game. It won't break your campaign if that one guard's axe did sw+1 or sw+3 instead of sw+2 damage. (This is the version I tend to do. After all, I made up his ST fairly arbitrarily anyway, so the number's already made up.)
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Old 05-20-2016, 11:11 PM   #3
Captain Joy
 
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Default Re: Equipping Improvised NPC templates

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ah_Ftagn View Post
I am constantly frustrated by the fact that players often request rules clarifications after forcing me to improvise NPCs.
Please elaborate.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dfinlay View Post
GCA and GCS (two different electronic GURPS character sheet editors) both have equipment lists built in. Drag and drop the items into the sheets and it'll calculate everything for you.
I can't imagine playing GRUPS without one of these.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dfinlay View Post
Improvise. Look at enough weapon entries to get a general feel for what they are like and then guess at the details in game. It won't break your campaign if that one guard's axe did sw+1 or sw+3 instead of sw+2 damage. (This is the version I tend to do. After all, I made up his ST fairly arbitrarily anyway, so the number's already made up.)
And, as time goes on, you build up a stable of NPC that you can draw from. The trick will be to have it organized in such a way that you can find the NPC equipped how you want when you need him/her.
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Old 05-20-2016, 11:20 PM   #4
Phantasm
 
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Default Re: Equipping Improvised NPC templates

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Originally Posted by Captain Joy View Post
And, as time goes on, you build up a stable of NPC that you can draw from. The trick will be to have it organized in such a way that you can find the NPC equipped how you want when you need him/her.
3"x5" index cards were a godsend for GMs back before everything became electronic, and even today having everything in small digestible chunks in a database program is probably easier to look at for guards, mercenaries, brigands, etc.
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Old 05-21-2016, 12:19 AM   #5
evileeyore
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Default Re: Equipping Improvised NPC templates

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
3"x5" index cards were a godsend for GMs back before everything became electronic...
It was good enough in my day and still is today!

/shakes cane at whippersnappers and mutters something about "getting off my lawn".


I couldn't imagine using a compy at the table for anything other than ease of doing a keyword search in a pdf (and even then I usually have the page number for the relevant rule already in my notes).
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