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[thalcos]

Because I usually write my adventures for multiple game systems (though always start with GURPS!) I often discover how different systems can start changing the narrative of an adventure.

Just for fun, I just did a deep dive into one of those instances. I just posted a video that compares a Shoggoth attack across Call of Cthulhu, D&D, and GURPS to see how it might turn out.

(For those of not up to speed on your Lovecraft, a shoggoth is a massive amorphous blob capable of dissolving everything in its path...)

In this scenario, four WWII soldiers stumble upon a Shoggoth and unleash their firepower on it hoping to survive. The odds are very Lovecraftian...though it makes a fantastic argument for GURPS' mechanics.

[jacobmuller]

I really enjoyed this system comparative analysis.
How many character pts were the GIs? I remember converting an average CoC pc to GURPS and they're about 50cp. But then these are meant to be experienced troops ��

[sir_pudding]

Since I mentioned it elsewhere, my totally-not-a-shoggoth-for-legal-reasons, the chaos ooze in "More Psionic Threats" (Pyramid #3/80: FantasyThreats and Pyramid: Dungeon Fantasy Collected) is, possibly, a better shoggoth than the straight port to 3e GURPS in GURPS Cthulhupunk of the CoC stats. Apparently, in thalcos's model the GI's lose 81% to the chaos ooze, instead of the other way around.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Since I mentioned it elsewhere, my totally-not-a-shoggoth-for-legal-reasons, the chaos ooze in "More Psionic Threats" (Pyramid #3/80: FantasyThreats and Pyramid: Dungeon Fantasy Collected) is, possibly, a better shoggoth than the straight port to 3e GURPS in GURPS Cthulhupunk of the CoC stats. Apparently, in thalcos's model the GI's lose 81% to the chaos ooze, instead of the other way around.

Well he did specifically say "The odds are very Lovecraftian"... so 20% survival is actually kinda generous IMO for four random WWII soldiers stumbling onto one with no foreknowledge or prep for anything other than a mundane encounter.

Lovecraftian encounters are generally very lethal to the participants and low on characters that start as 'horror' experts. So its usually a full on normie vs an Ancient interdimensional Horror.
Had to edit my origial comment after actually viewing the video, my original comment was based only on whats written here and that really isn't accurate to the video Thalcos made. I also had to actually do some of the math because I have never gamed with Grenades so I wasnt sure how far they could be thrown etc... so I listed those thoughts below.

In that video the GURPS soldiers had a 70% survival rate vs the 3e conversion. The only thing I couldn't tell, was how he was dealing with Shock/Injury/Wounds for the soldiers. The creature has the ability to do a single attack for 8d cr (with a low average roll being 28cr damage) that should be enough to eliminate a Fit 12HP soldier a fairly high percent of the time (more than 50%) in my opinion.

The soldiers seemed to be 125pt or so (Thalcos didnt really give us the point value which was probably an oversight but relatively easy to reverse engineer) but nothing crazy or outside conventional boundaries.

So yes the party might have some people survive but unless it takes 2 rounds for the creature to get out of the bunker and close to engage, AND giving the soldiers the time to realize transitioning to a grenade is smarter than just shooting the weapon you have at hand.... I still feel like your going to kill most, if not all, of the group (Grenades have a 3-5sec cook off, so the creature gets at least 2 rounds of little damage before the grenades start going off)

Basic lift of 12ST is 29lbs, Grenade has weight 1, 1/29 gives us .034, with a Distance mod of 3.5
+2 for the throwing skill, st12 becomes ST14*3.5=49yds (make if 50 for easy math, x3 covert to feet 150ft "max effective throwing range").

On the map he used in the Cthulhu assessment this shows a really short initial engagement distance. If the creature can close quickly your average soldier might not have time to realize that he NEEDS to start shooting let alone stop shooting to transition to the grenades. Thats really what the GURPS scenario hinges on....

If it goes like this "Holy crap what is that... (watches as the mass roils out of the bunker and begins to move towards them from 50ft away) .... I dont care its coming for US!! light it up!! (shooting 1, 2, 3, its still coming, someone grabs a grenade and throws it in at 20ft distance, 4, 5) one attack round and Boom goes the first grenade) .... but now its on top of you doing LOTS of damage each attack"

Or does it go "Dude Shaggoth 12 oclock get some grenades in it before it gets out of that hole, 3 of 4 lob grenades and the bazooka guy fires, Shaggoth finally heads for them moves 10ft and 3 grenades go off inside it), its still 40ft away and the bazooka guy lobs his grenade in, while the others start firing as they move away as much as possible while doing so....

Those are 2 VERY different outcomes from the same encounter.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by bocephus

Had to edit this after actually viewing the video, my original comment was based only on whats written here and that really isn't accurate to the video Thalcos made.

In the video, they used the 3e stats from GURPS Cthulhupunk, in which the GIs win most of the time. These stats were, typical for Cthulhupunk, just a straight port from Call of Cthulhu.

As a response, I suggested he try the (original for 4e) chaos ooze instead. In that sim the ooze wins 81% of the time. This is not in the video.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

In the video, they used the 3e stats from GURPS Cthulhupunk, in which the GIs win most of the time. These stats were, typical for Cthulhupunk, just a straight port from Call of Cthulhu.

As a response, I suggested he try the (original for 4e) chaos ooze instead. In that sim the ooze wins 81% of the time. This is not in the video.

Oh I thought he said he converted it to 4e.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by bocephus

Oh I thought he said he converted it to 4e.

I think he just switched HP to ST. More importantly the original stats were just straight ported from CoC (which is mentioned in the video) like the thing has 63 CoC HP so they gave it 63 GURPS HP, and it lacks DR completely.

When I wrote "More Psionic Threats" I looked at both CoC's and Pathfinder's shoggoth stats, as well as a reread of the relevant parts of Mountains of Madness but I didn't directly port any other game's statistics. The chaos ooze is all original GURPS 4e design.

Now I'm obviously biased, and it's written for DF, so it's probably not as serious as I'd have written it for cosmic horror. I also somehow left off Regeneration! But otherwise it's, possibly, a better shoggoth.

It certainly works in the model more like what I'd expect a proper shoggoth to do.

[thalcos]

The main 4E change I made to the shoggoth was making it Homogenous, vs. using the custom rules in the Cthulhupunk book (which were again lifted directly from Call of Cthulhu, where it took 1 point of damage from all attacks equally). Otherwise, I left it largely the same.

The Chaos Ooze is a WAY better interpretation of a shoggoth, and had I known about it, would have taken a minute or so to discuss how quickly it flips the entire fight on its head.

[thalcos]

This month on my free adventures blog, there's a brand new Star Wars adventure - The Unknown Command!

A band of rogues and smugglers assemble to pull off the heist of a lifetime. In an unusual move, the Imperials have evacuated the mining planet of Kortatka, and a vault of precious yellow spinpria is left nearly unguarded. And the one person in the galaxy with the keys to the vault just got stranded on the planet. Can the PCs pull off the perfect heist?

Star Wars isn't always the easiest to model in GURPS (cue Stormtrooper armor debate...), so I took the easy path and mostly used existing equipment from Ultra-tech, and used psionics rules for some light Force abilities on one character. Because it's a heist adventure, it doesn't really venture deep into GURPS mechanics, so it should be easy to modify to whatever Star Wars mod you like to use.

As always, the free adventure includes pregenerated 150-point characters, handouts, and VTT tokens and assets to make it easy for GURPS GMs to grab their friends and play. Enjoy!

There are now 25+ free GURPS adventures on 1shotadventures (!), many of which cover some of GURPS' more unusual genres that might make for fun one-shots.

• GURPS Action - Minutes... Not Hours
• GURPS Atomic Horror - Those the Comet Bring!
• GURPS Banestorm - The Moon of Thorns
• GURPS Conan - Queen of the Red City
• GURPS Cliffhangers - The Lost Jewels of Eire, The Uncanny Curse of Sekhmet, and The Phantom Jungle
• GURPS Ice Age - Canyon of the Snow Cairn
• GURPS Dark Ages Horror - Lands of the Dark Wicche
• GURPS Arabian Nights - The Third Hall of Uzrah
• GURPS Espionage - Never Forget to Die
• GURPS Greece - The Honey Tree of Pelion
• GURPS Harry Potter - The Warlock's Tunnel
• GURPS Horror - The Festering Locusts of Fenmore
• GURPS Horror - The Mound in the Yard
• GURPS Old West Horror - The Black Mine of Teihiihan and GURPS Old West Horror - St. Cecilia's Blasphemous Bordello
• GURPS Fantasy - The Cold Bounty
• GURPS Horror - The Strange & Sunken Fate of Karl Heinrich
• GURPS Imperial Rome / Horror - The Feast of Odoacer
• GURPS Steampunk - Martian Awakenings
• GURPS Swashbucklers - The Siren's Citadel
• GURPS Swashbucklers / Horror - Thrusher Manor
• GURPS Star Trek / Prime Directive - Who Tracks the Steps of Glory?
• GURPS Fantasy Solo Adventure - The Dragon's Demise and Beyond the Vale of Madness.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by thalcos

This month on the blog, I return to the 1930s to offer up another GURPS Cliffhangers adventure!

In The Uncanny Curse of Sekhmet, the PCs are hot on the trail of a notorious bank robber. After chasing the gangster across fascist Italy, the heroes stumble into the plans of a desperate and dangerous society of global conspirators. Soon, they are sent tomb raiding across Egypt in a race to find a secret that has been buried for thousands of years...

One of my players just posted her notes (with some minor spoilers) from our first session of this adventure. We had a blast. Next session tomorrow.