GURPS Monster Hunters: what will you do with it?

[Humabout]

I'm really happy to see wildcard skills getting some more treatment. The concept behind them is fantastic, and I've used them in a couple of games to pretty good effect. I've found (largely stealing from Kromm on this one) that they work great as a "This is the niche I'm awesome at" skill and then itemize everything else. I'm assuming from what RPK has said so far, that this was his approach from the start, plus he expanded on their use.

I'm quite curious to see just what he did add in terms of rules to expand their utility. I've always played fast and loose when WC skills were in play, since they are so expensive. Any speculation on what would be a good improvements for WC skills to offset their enormous cost?

[PK]

In retrospect, the stench made sense. Demons embody the worst qualities of life, so a pack of demonic boars would be angry, stubborn, mindless . . . and unbelievably foul. At least it had made them easy to track to this abandoned building. Everett tried not to dwell on it as he yanked his axe out of the porcine corpse and turned to cover Danielle’s flank. With a fetish in one hand and sword in the other, she was screaming some demand of Chango. He didn’t catch the specifics, but assumed that it worked when the Hellboar began smoking and squealing.

Everett barely heard the hoofsteps over the noise. His infrared-adapted eyes easily picked up the creature, scrambling across the far side of the room towards the large boarded-up window. “One got away from Scott!” he yelled, “I'm going after it – see if he’s okay!” Not waiting for an acknowledgment, he triggered his adrenaline gland, willing energy to his legs as he ran. The room blurred by as he made it to the window a moment too late – almost close enough to touch the thing as it crashed through the boards.

Drawing his knife as he fell, Everett managed to land on the monstrous swine – cursing gravity as he felt his ankle crack against the sidewalk. Before the prey could recover, he opened up its throat, then shifted to pin it to the ground as it bled out.

A human scream grabbed the champion’s attention. Everett looked up into the face of a teenage girl as she ran over from across the street. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed, “What’s going on? Should I call 911?” She was staring in horror at the beast’s razor-sharp tusks.

“It’s . . . an advanced case of rabies, ma’am,” Everett explained, bearing down on the struggling creature as casually as possible, “It’s infected a few local dogs, but we have it under control. You are vaccinated, right?”

The teenager’s protests of, “ . . . couldn’t pay me enough to be a dogcatcher . . .” were barely audible as she ran from the scene. Even with his broken ankle, Everett couldn’t help grinning.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

The teenager’s protests of, “ . . . couldn’t pay me enough to be a dogcatcher . . .” were barely audible as she ran from the scene. Even with his broken ankle, Everett couldn’t help grinning.

It's funny. In Deadlands when weird (nonsentient) crap first started showing up, the sheriffs shoved off dealing with it to the town dogcatchers. At least according to GURPS Deadlands: Varmints the dogcatcher really does deal with crap like that.

Also: Squeee, waiting for Thursday. Hopeful thoughts!

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Also: Squeee, waiting for Thursday. Hopeful thoughts!

You sound like a robot when you do that *g*

Keep hope alive!

...but have a backup plan :|

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

You sound like a robot when you do that *g*

Keep hope alive!

...but have a backup plan :|

Reading back on it I get more this type of vibe. Though a robot would be more career-related.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

It's funny. In Deadlands when weird (nonsentient) crap first started showing up, the sheriffs shoved off dealing with it to the town dogcatchers. At least according to GURPS Deadlands: Varmints the dogcatcher really does deal with crap like that.

Whereas in Monster Hunters, it's just a good cover story. (Well "good" for values of "good enough to fool gullible kids," at least.)

Also: Squeee, waiting for Thursday. Hopeful thoughts!

Not tomorrow, but soon, soon. Believe me -- I want to see it come out at least as much as y'all; that's one of the reasons I'm providing so many sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes posts. At least this way you get a nice "appetizer sampler plate" before the main course finally hits. :)

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Whereas in Monster Hunters, it's just a good cover story. (Well "good" for values of "good enough to fool gullible kids," at least.)

Enjoyed the vignette. Does it actually appear in the MH text? Hope to see more of these before the release, which I wish were sooner. Hope the artwork is really good.

Not tomorrow, but soon, soon. Believe me -- I want to see it come out at least as much as y'all; that's one of the reasons I'm providing so many sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes posts. At least this way you get a nice "appetizer sampler plate" before the main course finally hits. :)

Darn! I was really hoping to be able to buy it and printout to take to my game session this weekend. The GM runs a zombie game at local cons - used to run a zombie campaign but that game ran out of steam and now we're doing a weird Twilight Zone/pirates in the carribean/Riverworld sort of game.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Humabout

I'm really happy to see wildcard skills getting some more treatment. The concept behind them is fantastic, and I've used them in a couple of games to pretty good effect. I've found (largely stealing from Kromm on this one) that they work great as a "This is the niche I'm awesome at" skill and then itemize everything else. I'm assuming from what RPK has said so far, that this was his approach from the start, plus he expanded on their use.

I'm quite curious to see just what he did add in terms of rules to expand their utility. I've always played fast and loose when WC skills were in play, since they are so expensive. Any speculation on what would be a good improvements for WC skills to offset their enormous cost?

Although I believe it belongs in a more general book, one thing I'd love to see is an explanation of buying up skills from Wildcard skills.

For instance, I like being able to give a character a baseline Wildcard! skill and then buy up 1 or two skills.

For instanc, say I have two different characters both having good cinematic capability with ALL guns, but one specializing in pistols and the other in sniping. So both have Gun!-14. But then I want the gunslinging pistol character to have Guns (Pistol)-18 and the sniper to have Guns (Rifle)-18. I'd like each of these characters to be able to buy up their individual Gun skills from Gun! rather than having to buy them starting from scratch.

The baseline distinction between the characters is these two skills. There are other ways to distinguish them and they'd be used as well - Zen Marksmenship, Gunslinger, etc. However, I think that clarifying how to buy up a single skill from the baseline Wildcard! skill would be very useful.

NOTE: This has been discussed in a number of threads but I've never seen an official ruling. If it is dealt with in GURPS Action or GURPS Gun-Fu please let me know.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by griffin

Although I believe it belongs in a more general book, one thing I'd love to see is an explanation of buying up skills from Wildcard skills..

I would guess that the next Powerups book will likely deal with wildcard skills. So we will see if this pops up soon.

[Hanuman47]

Originally Posted by griffin

Although I believe it belongs in a more general book, one thing I'd love to see is an explanation of buying up skills from Wildcard skills.

For instance, I like being able to give a character a baseline Wildcard! skill and then buy up 1 or two skills.

Why not do treat individual skills as Techniques?