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Old 09-16-2015, 01:21 AM   #21
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Naruto is an anime set in a very alternate world. It has ninja who live in isolated villages where they are apparently taught to leap before thy can walk.

Though these ninja frequently have superhuman physical and martial arts abilities there main source of power is their "chakra" an internal energy identical to what is called "chi" more often in other settings.

They use this chakra to power magical abilities that are called "jutsus". The main characters will know many jutsus and some of them are incredibly powerful.

The title character (Naruto) has as his signature ability "ShadowCloneJutsu!" (you have to shout out the name of your jutsu when you use it) which maps well to the Gurps Power of duplication. If Naruto exerts himself he can make dozens or even hundreds of shadowclones. Definitely a multi-thousand cp character.

Flexibility of Powers isn't really an issue so much as the power level/cp cost of characters in the setting. This is a very high level setting even for Supers.

That's one of the first things to not get caught up in. Focus on the effect, not the fluff.

If someone has what appears to be duplication but does not use the proper extent of what duplicates would provide then duplication might not be the right way to approach it.

For instance 'making thousands of clones' ;
Are they real, or just shadows (could be illusions)
Can they do seprate actions or are that all linked to a single action (could be extra arms with range, with the bodies being special effects)
Do they have noncombat uses (if no then a special effect on an innate attack may be applicable)
Is there some way to identify the 'real' pc (if so then duplication will likely not apply at all).

I would expect someone who can make thousands of course if themselves to be able to accomplish essentially any task, with just light carpentry skills they should be able to almost instantly erect massive structures and build bridges, read thousands of books simultaneously clean their house in seconds (or just build a new one when the existing one gets dirty). Via the grappkibg rules they should be unbeatable in combat against any foe they actually can damage or hold. If that's not this power I don't think it's duplication.

Last edited by starslayer; 09-16-2015 at 01:27 AM.
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Old 09-16-2015, 11:51 AM   #22
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

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Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
That's one of the first things to not get caught up in. Focus on the effect, not the fluff.
I said it matched very well with Duplication and ShadowCloning does. It lacks all of the possible limitations you mentioned.

About the only limitation might be that the clones don't seem to have all of Naruto's hp As Naruto appears to have an epic number of hp it might actually be possible for those hp to be divided between Naruto and several hundred clones.

Doesn't that mean that Naruto has to have hundreds or even thousands of hp? Yes, it's that kind of setting.
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Old 09-16-2015, 12:39 PM   #23
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
I said it matched very well with Duplication and ShadowCloning does. It lacks all of the possible limitations you mentioned.

About the only limitation might be that the clones don't seem to have all of Naruto's hp As Naruto appears to have an epic number of hp it might actually be possible for those hp to be divided between Naruto and several hundred clones.

Doesn't that mean that Naruto has to have hundreds or even thousands of hp? Yes, it's that kind of setting.
No, there is actually a "real" Naruto who still has all of his own hit points. His duplicates hit just as hard as he does but poof out of existence the moment they get hit by anything.
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Old 09-16-2015, 07:31 PM   #24
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
No, there is actually a "real" Naruto who still has all of his own hit points. His duplicates hit just as hard as he does but poof out of existence the moment they get hit by anything.
Most of the time but not always.

Possible (mild) spoilers for the Naruto anime.









For example in the Forest of Death section of the Chunin exams Naruto created 4 clones, used Transformationjutsu on 3 of them to make them look like the people he was with and sent them out to fight some Earth ninja for an hour while his group got some rest.

Obviously the clones didn't achieve a decisive victory but it's extreme unlikely they went untouched for an entire hour either.

There are other scenes where clones engage in melee without going "poof". Somehow Naruto can make them tougher if he wants to. We know he can distribute his chakra evenly throughout a dozen clones.
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Old 09-17-2015, 09:33 AM   #25
lachimba
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Sydney
Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

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Originally Posted by jj234 View Post
Now that I'm pseudo-familiar with the rules I've run into the issue of whether to homebrew my character's powers or whether to build them around the Powers book. For my specific character, making a whole new magical subsystem seems most appropriate, but nowhere in the books does it permit me to do anything of the sort!

In terms of GURPS main rules books there is

the Basic Set
Powers
Thaumatology
Martial Arts (and Technical Grappling introduced a significant change)

And that's about it almost every other rule builds off the concepts in those books. Those that don't e.g. Low tech cover subsets or e.g. various Pyramid articles are extra/alternative rules.

I don't think there is any other way to do Magic or Powers using GURPS that isn't using rules from one of those existing books. You'd just be doing a variant.

If you come up with a new way your either using the rules without knowing it, or you've discovered a blindspot in the GURPS rules everyone missed.
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Old 09-17-2015, 10:01 AM   #26
whswhs
 
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Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

To me this is a question not of "right" but of efficient use of my time and effort.

On one hand, whenever I run a campaign, I almost surely have house rules. These may be chosen from optional rules within an existing system (GURPS has tons of optional rules), or they may be new optional or alternate rules that I make up to get a specific effect. That takes some careful thinking to make sure I don't unbalance the system, but it doesn't take a lot of slog.

On the other hand, there's the question of having mechanics to cover a set of magical practices, or superpowers, or advanced technology, or something else of that sort. Building anything like that takes a lot of time. So first I'm going to look and see if one of the existing systems already does more or less what I want (for example, my current GURPS campaign uses path and book magic). If it works right generally, I may add in a few specific new effects: new spells, new rituals, new tech, whatever. If I don't find what I want, I'm going to see if I can build what I want out of what already exists—for example, creating a magic system using the powers rules. That already has a fair bit of slog to it; see Chinese Elemental Powers for an example. Only if I can't figure out how to do that will I set out to create something entirely new. I did that once for a faerie-based campaign, defining an entire system of magical effects and ways of accomplishing them, and it was really a lot of work.

You always have to trade off "how much effort is this going to cost me?" for "how vital is this to getting exactly the narrative or dramatic effect that I want?"
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Old 09-17-2015, 11:16 AM   #27
Rasputin
 
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Default Re: When to homebrew and when to use the system?

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Here is the question that I am asking: is GURPS made to be homebrewed with or am I restricted to using the material provided?
For a player, I'd say yes, unless the GM says otherwise. The Basic Set gives a good baseline, and reasonable expectations. Telling your GM, "Hey, I have a new magic system I cooked up over summer break, and I want this character to use it," is changing how he runs his game, and the "reality" of the game itself.

For a GM, however, the sky is the limit. If you want to write up a new magic system, go right ahead. Be sure to make sure your players are on board, and understand what the system does. Also, be prepared to accept the idea that the players might figure out a loophole in your spiffy new system, and use it to wreak havoc all over your game.

Most of the rules in my games come from the books, though I pick and choose those as I see fit. My hexcrawl rules come from outside GURPS, and I customized them for my own use as well, but the players don't directly interact with them.
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