A little help will be appreciated...

[Hello World]

Okay, so in the new campaign I'm going to be running, I'm trying to get all of the information on the world before it turns into a monster infested country and then afterward (where the majority of the game takes place). The players will get to wander around a city before it turns into a massive chaotic mess. Now, I've gotten a couple of the regular enemies they'll run into figured out, as well as some of the more important npc's. I've been told I also have a decent mythology starting to form by two people I've asked to check it (neither of them know about gurps at all, so yeah...)


Now, one of the more important npcs is going to start out as a 'street rat' type character... in other words, he's about 18-19 and has lived on the street his whole life. Hes starting out as a 50pt (maybe more if it's needed, but I'm hoping to keep it around that area) character same as the pcs and is naturally going to gain power after the whole catastrophe starts.

The trouble comes in that everyone is going to be gaining power that fits: who they are, what they've done, their past, etc, etc... I know he's going to be one of the few kind people the players will ever meet, and I know what type of person he'll be much later on... but I don't know what powers would fit him at first, and especially not after he's chosen as a guardian (imaginative title, I know) by a scarily powerful race that shows up after this all starts (this is also going to happen rather late game).

All I have is the Basic Set, and while I can make abilities I'd rather do as little of that as possible. I suppose I just came here for suggestions, and will appreciate any tips from more experienced people.

[Agramer]

Originally Posted by Hello World

Okay, so in the new campaign ...

Can you be please more precise and/or elaborate:

What is the setting: fantasy,today,scifi

When is the setting: ancient/middle ages,wild west,today ,close future ,far future(I have a feeling youll talking about fantasy but am not sure).

How much points will PCs be originally built uppon...how much do you intend to give them after whateverhappens...will all points go into some abilities or also into skills/stats

Is magic common/rare/nonexistant...psionics?....superpowersOfsomekind?

Do you intend to give each 1 "power/ability" or a packadge...

What general purpose those abilities should be for:combat,generalist...?

Will it be hack/slash setting/game or ...?

Do you have some other guidlines those abilities should fall into..or help lead setting/campaign in some direction?

...

[Hello World]

Originally Posted by Agramer

Can you be please more precise and/or elaborate:

What is the setting: fantasy,today,scifi

It's going to be Modern Fantasy (there's still technology, but there's also supernatural, magic, etc... but most of that is only noticable after the catastrophe)

When is the setting: ancient/middle ages,wild west,today ,close future ,far future(I have a feeling youll talking about fantasy but am not sure).

The when is modern, all the supernatural stuff has just been hidden as to where most people never even knew it existed.

How much points will PCs be originally built uppon...how much do you intend to give them after whateverhappens...will all points go into some abilities or also into skills/stats

50 points. There's going to be this substance that everybody will be trying to gain that helps them gain power... they pretty much ingest it to become stronger and stronger, but at first it'll be a bit more difficult to gain... It wouldn't take too terribly long for the players to gain 100 points.

Is magic common/rare/nonexistant...psionics?....superpowersOfsomekind?

It's going to be rare until after the catastrophe. There's going to be psionics, magic, super powers, etc... afterward as well

Do you intend to give each 1 "power/ability" or a packadge...

For the players I was just going to give them points

What general purpose those abilities should be for:combat,generalist...?

For the npc it will be combat.

Will it be hack/slash setting/game or ...?

There will be a lot of fighting, but I'm also going to have a story for them to follow (if they're not too busy gutting crazed lunatics that is XD)

Do you have some other guidlines those abilities should fall into..or help lead setting/campaign in some direction?

Well, all of the npcs are going to be there to do one of three things: Advance the story, Help the players, or give the players a challenge. Most of them are going to alternate between all three, but this character is just going to provide the first two.

fyi, the catastrophe is going to be a cult trying to mix two rituals together to summon a high fiend, but instead something went wrong and the entire country has been pulled elsewhere.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Well, the first thing I would say is that, unless this NPC is intended as an Ally, Enemy, Dependent, or Patron to one or more of the PCs, then you don't need to worry about his point value. Points are for PCs. NPCs should simply have the abilities you think are appropriate. Trying to do every NPC on a point budget will just give you headaches, and it won't be a good guideline for balance anyway - an NPC can defeat a PC who has 10 times as many points, if the NPC takes advantage of tactics and exploits the PC's weak points.

That said, here are some suggestions.
There's a variety of ways a street rat character can go. I'm assuming you want to keep the general "street person" feel, so I won't bother suggesting cleaning himself up and becoming an upstanding citizen. :-) Even within the street role, however, he can do various things. If you want to keep him relatively honest, he can become a fixer - someone who can find what you need, put you in contact with the right people, and knows what's going on. The key skills for this would be Streetwise, Scrounging, Current Events, and Area Knowledge. This can shade into a more grey character with the addition of some Savoire Faire: Mafia, Observation (for casing locations), and Interrogation.
He could also go more purely criminal, with skills like Pickpocketing, Lockpicking, Stealth, and other skills supporting a crime-based lifestyle, becoming a useful contact when the PCs need something lifted quietly.

If the world is non-mundane, you have a variety of options. Magic, for example, has lots of spells that would support a shady street lifestyle. Give him a few levels of Magery, possibly limited to only a few colleges, and have him pick up levels of spells like Lockmaster, Apportation, etc.

[Jeminai]

1 : Make sure you have both parts of Basic
2 : Delay your game
3: Save money
4: Buy Powers
5: Buy Martial Arts
6: Buy Magic
7: Read them
8: Come up with more ideas
9: Give the poor PC more points (100?)
10: run your game

4-6 are really all one step that should be done simultaneously.

[Jeminai]

Oh yeah, You should also buy GURPS GCA so you can make and keep track of many characters much more easily.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Jeminai

1 : Make sure you have both parts of Basic
2 : Delay your game
3: Save money
4: Buy Powers
5: Buy Martial Arts
6: Buy Magic
7: Read them
8: Come up with more ideas
9: Give the poor PC more points (100?)
10: run your game

4-6 are really all one step that should be done simultaneously.

Steps 2-7 are unnecessary. All he needs should be in Basic. And the 50 pt character is an NPC, unless I totally misread the OP.

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Steps 2-7 are unnecessary.

I'd consider Powers necessary for anyone who wants to make his own advantages, either that or looking on these forums for that stuff

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

I'd consider Powers necessary for anyone who wants to make his own advantages, either that or looking on these forums for that stuff

He said he wanted to do as little of that as possible, and you can easily just slap a few modifiers on advantages from the Basic Set without needing Powers.

Oh, and to be a little more helpful, check out this thread. Has lots of pre-built abilities you can steal.

[Azinctus]

Originally Posted by Hello World

For the npc it will be combat.

50 points (with some disadvantages) is fine for a street urchin. But 100 isn't enough to have a super powered character in a modern world.

At 100 points the most effective combat build is likely to be Dexterity, Health, Combat Reflexes (all three improve Dodge), Guns (Rifle) and an assault rifle.

To buy enough Damage Resistance (DR) to be able to shrug off bullets costs 120 points (DR 40 should be enough for that, but look out for armor piercing ammunition).

Flight, Ice Jets, Powerful Magic, Super Speed (called Altered Time Rate in the book) and such super powers are really expensive.

Of course if it is a Mad Max type world perhaps guns are rare and a cheap super power would be useful. In X-Men 2 there is a boy who can throw fireballs that's a pointless power in a world with guns but in Mad Max's world that would be a significant power because it doesn't need to be reloaded.

That said, I'm not the super powers expert and other people may be able ot suggest good stuff on a budget.

Can you tell us more about the kind of fights you are going to have in your game?