GURPS Monster Hunters: what will you do with it?

[aesir23]

Damn, I had convinced myself that today was the day that this book would finally come out.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Comics Blade and Comics Hellboy are probably roughly equivalent, if anything Blade is more powerful.

I disagree, Hellboy is very very close to invulnerable and often takes on beings of immense power. Blade's power levels have creeped in both directions over the years, but he's never been one of the heavy hitters.

To frame it in the vernacular, Hellboy would wup him easy.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by aesir23

I disagree, Hellboy is very very close to invulnerable and often takes on beings of immense power. Blade's power levels have creeped in both directions over the years, but he's never been one of the heavy hitters.

To frame it in the vernacular, Hellboy would wup him easy.

The heavy hitters of the B.P.R.D. world are invariably defeated by ritual, knowledge, or trickery. Marvel comics on the other hand has guys that just fight, and Blade's stood shoulder to shoulder with Mobius to defeat Dracula. It's hard to compare the two settings, since they are so different (and I'd say Nightstalkers/Blade The Living Vampire often strays out of the Monster Hunters genre into superhero comics).

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The heavy hitters of the B.P.R.D. world are invariably defeated by ritual, knowledge, or trickery.

True, but often not before Hellboy goes toe to toe with them for a couple of rounds.

Anyway, I'm prepared to agree to disagree, I just wanted the dissenting opinion heard.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by griffin

Never seen the series or read the comic. Which of the templates would the character fall under? Why would he make a great monster hunter?

The series is fairly awesome, it's more of a Action game than a Monster Hunter game but Chance would easily be as good as a Champion. He's a assassin turned bodyguard, and would be a Commando (with some detective stuff in there too) MH-wise. He's got some slick moves, I highly suggest Netflix'ing the series.

Originally Posted by griffin

I've never read the series for this character either. I gather she's from a setting which is very magical where the monsters are known to exist by the genral public. I'm not sure this would disqualify her, but possibly. What template would she fill in GURPS MH?

Yeah, the original back story was the supernatural critters didnt come out of the 'coffin' till a few years beforehand, before that would work as Blake did a bunch of slaying of vamp's as extra-legal activity. She'd probably be a Witch or a Slayer, maybe a bit of both.

Don't actually try to read the series though, or at least beyond the first few books its very...well, its just terrible. I'll leave it at that, Google the series if you are curious.

Ghostdancer

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by griffin

I've heard Harry Dresden is a wizard who's a private detective. I assume he's a decent shot with firearms. How powerful a wizard is he? Does he use magic that's fast or slow?
EDIT: Ok, I'm working my way through the series on Netflix instant view.

Thanks,

I'd highly recommend the books. More specifically, I'd recommend the audiobooks read by James Marsters, I'm absolutely hooked on them.

I would not recommend the TV show very highly, I only watched the pilot, but it had little more than a passing resemblance to the books in my opinion.

[Whitestreak]

One of the running threads over on Jim Butcher's forums was that the TV could be considered to be something that Harry Dresden consulted on, after his files were published.

I've found the game interesting, but the second book is a true Dresden Files sourcebook. Lots of fun information, although there is a limit - I forget which book was the cutoff point. It does have lots of spoilers, though, so beware.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by Whitestreak

I've found the game interesting, but the second book is a true Dresden Files sourcebook. Lots of fun information, although there is a limit - I forget which book was the cutoff point. It does have lots of spoilers, though, so beware.

I agree, the game is very well done. Perhaps the MH line will give us some more tools to convert it to GURPS.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by griffin

Not familiar with the character. Which GURPS MH template would the character fall under?

Well, as I first posted, he might have to be a mix of several of them, at a higher point level. If I had to pick one, there's a Monster template, right? Despite his definite skills as a gunslinger and a spellcaster, his main deal is having survived being a living man trapped in Hell for 11 years, fighting in pit duels where his body got tougher and tougher and better at healing itself, then getting recruited as an assassin. So definitely some DR (although bullets can achieve some penetration), some Injury Tolerance, Hard to Kill or just a really high HT, Regeneration, etc., and really hairy melee combat skills. Then you add in the firearms and the magic and being able to teleport anywhere in existence given a shadow to slip into... yeah, you probably don't want to use him.

And yet he's not a Mary Sue type of character, not at all.

Originally Posted by griffin

Hellboy might be too superheroic. I'll need to re-watch the first film and check the second one.

Not familiar with any of the other characters. Can you provide some brief details and indicate description of which GURPS MH template they'd fall under?

Well, I'm only familiar with the templates from this thread, don't really know what all they involve yet.

Mr. Monster is basically just a big muscular guy with big guns and a lot of knowledge about how to kill monsters who goes out in a skintight costume and kills monsters.

Elsa Bloodstone is a Marvel character; due to exposure to her father's fragment of the eponymous Bloodstone, she's superhumanly strong, durable, and fast, regenerates a bit, like that. She's also been trained since infancy in how to hunt down and kill monsters with guns, knives, shovels, whatever's handy.

El Hijo del Santo is the luchador (Mexican masked wrestler) El Santo's son carrying on the family tradition. Many of El Santo's movies had him fighting variations on the Universal movie monsters with wrestling moves or submachine guns as convenient.

Ashley Williams, better known as Ash, is played by Bruce Campbell and the star of the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness movies. No real training or powers, but knows how to use a boomstick (shotgun), chainsaw, or just his bare hand (he lost one that now serves as the mount for a prosthetic hand or attachable chainsaw) to kick monster butt, always with a wise crack. Actually, on powers, the guy is just unreasonably tough to put down, even in brawls with superhumanly strong monsters.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Whitestreak

One of the running threads over on Jim Butcher's forums was that the TV could be considered to be something that Harry Dresden consulted on, after his files were published.

I've found the game interesting, but the second book is a true Dresden Files sourcebook. Lots of fun information, although there is a limit - I forget which book was the cutoff point. It does have lots of spoilers, though, so beware.

I recommend the books over the show, but the version in the books could be considered a bit powerful for ensemble adventuring, including with the four team members already picked. After all, he can fairly easily Fuego! up a lance of white hot fire intense enough to cut through most of an office building, amp up his deflective shields enough to not just deflect bullets or charging monsters but to surround himself in the force field equivalent of a hamster ball and ride a massive explosion to safety, and many more tricks besides. And that's just when he's not pulling out all the stops and doing something like animating a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton from the museum and charging into battle on its back...

[tmedwards]

Originally Posted by griffin

That one definitely occurred to me but I haven't seen the series or read any of the books.

The books are made of pure win. I'll go out on a limb here and say that you probably wouldn't regret reading them.

Originally Posted by griffin

I've heard Harry Dresden is a wizard who's a private detective.

Yes, he's you man if you have problems with magic. He really is in the phonebook under "Wizard", even though that gets him the occasional "do you do parties" kind of calls as a result. :)

Originally Posted by griffin

I assume he's a decent shot with firearms.

Not so much with firearms, but he's got magical solutions for that sort of thing—his blasting staff, force jewelry, etc.

Originally Posted by griffin

How powerful a wizard is he?

He'd probably be a good fit for a MH team if that's what your asking—able to hold his own without being so powerful that he'd make the rest of the team superfluous. He teams up with various and sundry others—friends, acquaintances, and enemies alike—of varying power levels, fairly often in the books.

Originally Posted by griffin

Does he use magic that's fast or slow?

Both.

Originally Posted by griffin

EDIT: Ok, I'm working my way through the series on Netflix instant view.

I didn't discover Dresden—or any of Butcher's work, really—until after the TV series came out, so I never watched it. A friend of mine who was, a Dresden fan at the time, and did, watch the show, and wasn't overly impressed—he can be kind of a purity snob though, so I didn't take it to mean the show was bad, just that it played fast-and-loose with the book series.