My GURPS Questions

[Warden]

Being quite new to Gurps, I envision a good few questions arising. I'll gather them here:

pg 16 Size Modifiers
I don't get it. If playing a dwarf, is he SM 0 unless I take the 'Dwarfism', wherein he is now SM -1?

If so, what confuses me is, if I do take 'Dwarfism', the text seems to say you can be a dwarf in a dwarven race:

A member of any race may be a dwarf. Scale down height by a factor of 0.75 from the racial average, and modify racial SM by -1. Otherwise, the rules remain the same.'

[Walrus]

Template of the dwarven race may include SM change as in Basic, p.261 (SM-1). Additionally dwarven character may suffer dwarfism, which give him additional SM-1. Totally he would have SM-2.

Also it may be useful to read about racial templates in Basic, p. 260-261.

[Fnugus]

Dwarfism is only a disadvantage if it is compared to normal specimen of your race, because you stand out/are shorter, which transcribes to SM-1 plus a few other obvious consequences.

An entire race race of dwarves having SM-1 is not a disadvantage, just a feature.

[ClayDowling]

Size modifiers are always relative. If you were in a campaign of all dwarves, all the time, and you were only fighting dwarves, the size modifier would wash out completely.

And if you're looking for a fantasy game, you've come to the right system. Dungeon Fantasy for the type of dungeon-delving adventures you always wanted, but other systems just wouldn't allow. Banestorm give you a varied and detailed world setting, with plenty of options for different types of fantasy. And if none of that floats your boat, there's the Fantasy genre book to help you build the world that you do want.

After burning out on other fantasy games, GURPS helps revitalize my interest in the genre.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

Size modifiers are always relative. If you were in a campaign of all dwarves, all the time, and you were only fighting dwarves, the size modifier would wash out completely.

Interestingly, that's not quite the case.

Target SM modifies ranged attacks. Shooter SM does not. So ranged dwarf-on-dwarf violence occurs at shorter ranges. This only washes out if your dwarves also happen to scale their Basic Move in proportion to their height.

[Grouchy Chris]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Target SM modifies ranged attacks.

It also modifies melee attacks.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Grouchy Chris

It also modifies melee attacks.

SM does not modify melee attacks in the big list of modifiers going from p.547-549 of the Basic set.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

SM does not modify melee attacks in the big list of modifiers going from p.547-549 of the Basic set.

Do we have to have this conversation every time this comes up?

Originally Posted by Size Modifiers, B19

It [SM] is a modifier to rolls to hit you in combat and to Vision rolls made to spot you.

Also the FAQ. SM is not meant to only apply to ranged attacks.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Do we have to have this conversation every time this comes up?



Also the FAQ. SM is not meant to only apply to ranged attacks.

<shrug> There's a mistake _somewhere_. I have normally taken the p.547 list as the most authoritative.

My statement that SM is not among its' modifiers is still correct. If SM is meant to apply to melee combat p.547 should be errated and the FAQ did not do that.

I have just checked and there is no errata for p.547 so there is no step where you modify the roll to hit for SM.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

<shrug> There's a mistake _somewhere_. I have normally taken the p.547 list as the most authoritative.

Is the list meant to be comprehensive, or merely illustrative? If the latter, then there's no contradiction between the p. 19 reference and the absence of SM from the melee list.