Gurps on Television

[Fred Brackin]

Having seen multiple examples of Gurps-relevant material on the tube in the last few dasy I thought I'd start a thread for collecting them.

NCIS:Los Angeles(10/25)-Tactical Shooting. Spymaster extroadinarire Henrietta Lang is seen practising the Mozambique Drill at the range.

Mythbusters(10-26)-High tech. C4 really is very stable. You can set it on fire and drop an anvil on it and it won't explode.

Mythbisters(10/26)-Martial Arts. You actually can build a working Flying Guillotine (listed as "Decapitating Hood" in the Silly Weapons box on p.223). You can throw it, saw off somebody's (at least if the somebody is a pig) head in something like a single Gurps Turn and bring ti back to you. If you practiced with it for more than an afternoon it might even be usable in combat. _Really_ wasn't expecting that one to work at all.

Gurps is all around you if you just look :). Anybody else got some?

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Mythbisters(10/26)-Martial Arts. You actually can build a working Flying Guillotine (listed as "Decapitating Hood" in the Silly Weapons box on p.223). You can throw it, saw off somebody's (at least if the somebody is a pig) head in something like a single Gurps Turn and bring ti back to you. If you practiced with it for more than an afternoon it might even be usable in combat. _Really_ wasn't expecting that one to work at all.

Totally agree. That one was surprising, but I rather like the way they rigged the 'sawing' motion. Looks super-painful and dangerous, at the least, even if it wouldn't fully decapitate someone.

[Tyneras]

This I gotta see! Any links? I'm not sure what I would use for keywords to get the right episode.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

This I gotta see! Any links? I'm not sure what I would use for keywords to get the right episode.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/

"Flying Guillotine" seems to be the ep title and this page has a 27 minute clip with that title. I don't know if it will have everything you want. I haven't checked it out.

The schedule has been being that the Wed. 9:00pm Eastern ep on Discovery has been new while the 8:00pm ep was a rerun from the previous week. There may be a weekend repeat as well.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Mythbusters(10-26)Mythbisters(10/26)-Martial Arts. You actually can build a working Flying Guillotine (listed as "Decapitating Hood" in the Silly Weapons box on p.223). You can throw it, saw off somebody's (at least if the somebody is a pig) head in something like a single Gurps Turn and bring ti back to you. If you practiced with it for more than an afternoon it might even be usable in combat. _Really_ wasn't expecting that one to work at all.

I saw that, and it was frightful. I think if you removed the requirement of retrieving the head, it would be much easier to wield in combat. And even if it didn't succeed in decapitating you, it would cause really grievous wounds. Even if you remained conscious and able to fight, I think it would be terrifying, maybe even requiring a fright check. I guess the hood part could enhance the panic.

[Mister Ed]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/

"Flying Guillotine" seems to be the ep title and this page has a 27 minute clip with that title. I don't know if it will have everything you want. I haven't checked it out.

Actually, it isn't a 27 minute clip. It is 14 smaller clips totalling 27 minutes, none of which, sadly, show much from the actual show.

If you HAVE seen the show, there are some interesting behind the scenes things, though.

[Bruno]

The Flying Guillotine episode is waiting for me on my mothers Tivo right now. I'm looking forward to that this weekend.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Gurps is all around you if you just look :). Anybody else got some?

Not from television, but Gillian Bradshaw's historical novel "Island of Ghosts" is an excellent example of GURPS' Ally Group.

The POV character is a Sarmatian nobleman who has been forced into military service for the Roman empire, in Britain, along with a unit of about 500 other Sarmatian heavy cavalry under his command (and 2 other units under the command of other nobles). His command over most of the 500 is formal, I guess Military Rank comes closest, but one of the squadrons in the unit, about 30 horsemen, are his personal body guard, sworn to protect and serve him. So the novel illustrates a distinction in GURPS that doesn 't exist in some other systems such as BESM, Hero System an Sagatafl, where you just have Followers, Units or Flunkies.


Another example of a GURPS trait is from Turtledove's "Colonization" novel, the first book in the sequel to his "World War" tetralogy. The reptilian "Race", who (try to) invade Earth during the 2nd World War, are a good example of one of the change-resistnat disads in GURPS. I think Hidebound comes closest, although it's not spot on. This is shown throughout the original tetralogy, but there's a specific example in "Colonization" that nails it home.

The "Race" have abducted or bought one human child, and tried to raise it as one of their own, a female that they name Kassquit. At some point during her teens she requested to have a mirror installed in her cabin aboard an orbitting starship. As a human she's significantly taller than the lizards, but the lizard responsible for installing the mirror nevertheless put it up at the standard height, the height they always use for personal mirrors, so that Kassquit has to squat down partially to be able to see her own face. I just found that very illustrative of their lack of adaptability.

(Note, this is not a serious spoiler for the series. Also note that I have only read "Colonization" so far, so please don't post any serious spoilers for later books. The "Race" is also probably very inspirational for any Traveller GMs or players who would like a better understanding of the Vilani subspecies of humanitii.)

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

(Note, this is not a serious spoiler for the series. Also note that I have only read "Colonization" so far, so please don't post any serious spoilers for later books. The "Race" is also probably very inspirational for any Traveller GMs or players who would like a better understanding of the Vilani subspecies of humanitii.)

That's a great series of books. Very enjoyable. I do think Hidebound is probably the closest GURPS trait to represent The Race's 'non-adaptable' thinking. To be honest, it maybe even should be more extreme than Hidebound - only a -2 penalty doesn't seem right, seeing as it normally takes them hundreds of years to come up with a new design of tank (or whatever).

[tg_ambro]

I recall a very literal example of "GURPS on TV" in episode of The Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy. I think it's one where they're going through some kind of magic chest, and he finds, among other things, a copy of the roleplaying game "DURPS".

I think Anthony De Mello also showed up on an episode, so it was a pretty damn cool show.