Playing GURPS with the help of FoundryVTT

[nick_coffin]

Our motto is "Your GURPS, Your Way."

For me that means that our GURPS Game Aid ('GGA' is a reasonable acronym) gives you the option to let GGA to handle the boring stuff (like taking basic damage, subtracting DR, and multiplying by the wounding modifier to figure out injury) without forcing you into any specific rule. After all, GURPS is nearly infinitely customizable.

You may not use hit locations. You may not use wounding modifiers. You might use a different injury system or strength system. We eventually want to support all of those, but we will not force you to use any specific one. But if you need it and we've coded it, you can opt into it and let GGA handle the math.

For instance, let's talk about applying damage. The "Apply Damage Dialog" (ADD) presents the standard options -- hit location, wounding modifier, DR, and some lesser used rules like shotgun damage, explosion damage, injury tolerance, etc.

A lot of that data is automatically loaded into the ADD based on the damage type and modifiers, the target's hit locations and DR, etc. But you can override every single one of those inputs. You aren't forced to do things the 'standard' GURPS way if you have a different house rule.

[pierseb]

I’ve always wanted to introduce players to GURPS but without the GM experience of running it, I find I have hard time internalizing it. Yes, I know, chew the cow one bite at a time... ;)
This is a great playing aid. FG is tempting but this looks much more accessible.
Does it handle items? Let’s say you find a magic sword, can you add it to your inventory without editing your character with GCA/GCS?

[Nose66]

Originally Posted by pierseb

Does it handle items? Let’s say you find a magic sword, can you add it to your inventory without editing your character with GCA/GCS?

That is a complex topic (and we have had many, many discussions about it).

The short answer: Not yet... but I am literally taking a break from coding our support for Foundry Items, so it will be soon!

Longer answer: An item (equipment) in GURPS isn't just a piece of equipment. It may also provide some other function (i.e. a sword provides a melee attack). And this other function may require the character creation tool to calculate the correct level.

This is why we made exporting and importing as quick as possible (especially if you save your character export files to the "Special" save location, see the Users Guide section "Special Export Location" https://bit.ly/2JaSlQd).

Because, in the end, you will have to go back to your character creation tool (GCA/GCS).

That being said, we see the value of making "in game" items (equipment) that can be given to characters, so I am working on that now.

[Nose66]

Tip of the week:

If you hold down SHIFT when you click on a rollable item (Attribute, Attack or Skill level, or On-the-Fly formula), it will be a Private roll. Only you can see the results.

If you hold down CTRL when you click on a rollable item (Attribute, Attack or Skill level, or On-the-Fly formula), it will be a Blind roll. Only the GM and Assistants can see the results, and everyone else will see "<Player name> privately rolled some dice"

[pierseb]

Just saw the GURPS Game Aid Preview 2 of v0.9.5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHmclwxWxlE

Nice :)

Have you decided on how you are going to manage items?

[Nose66]

Originally Posted by pierseb

Just saw the GURPS Game Aid Preview 2 of v0.9.5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHmclwxWxlE

Nice :)

Have you decided on how you are going to manage items?

We have a plan... and hopefully it will provide 80% of what you need to play.

We still hold to the idea that character creation needs to be handled elsewhere. It is a complex problem (Kromm told me he thought of it as a game within a game... I'm paraphrasing, because I can't remember the original quote), and I completely agree.

While we expect that most items will be created and maintained in the character creation tool, it would be nice for the GM to be able to award certain items to players as loot, or items in a shop, etc.

We are building a user interface where the GM can create a piece of equipment in Foundry, and they add to it the GURPS related "features" (as we call them). For example, a sword has a feature of a melee attack, etc. One of the trickiest problems was how to determine the skill level for that sword? In a different character, it would be a different value. And we didn't have a solution until we built the "Skill tree" function for the On-the-Fly formulas in the 0.8.11 release.

So now, when you build that sword, you can also enter in an OtF for the skill, for example:

[Broadsword|DX-4|Rapier-4]

And the number isn't calculated until the equipment is given to a character (and recalculated everytime the sword changes hands, or the character re-imports). And this solves a lot of issues. The calculation of those skill levels (Broadsword, Rapier, etc.) is still being done by the character creation tool, which handles all of the complex character logic, and we are just picking the best one (including the modifiers) for that character.

[benz72]

Is item quality tracked separately or as part of the item (e.g. a Fine broadsword, or a Dwarven Orichalcum warhammer)?

[Nose66]

Originally Posted by benz72

Is item quality tracked separately or as part of the item (e.g. a Fine broadsword, or a Dwarven Orichalcum warhammer)?

We do what the character creation tool says. As far as GCS goes, I know that the quality is part of the name, and then usually a modifier on the object that gives a +1 to some skill (or damage).

But once that data is exported and imported into Foundry, we just get a name, like "Fine broadsword", a skill level and damage. The increase in the skill level (or damage) was calculated by GCS and sent to us. We only present what the character creation tools send to us.

Think of our Game Aid the same way that you would a paper charactersheet. We aren't there to build your character... we are there so you can roll dice. We have lots of functionality (through chat commands, On the Fly formulas and macros) for you to do some really cool things when it comes to rolling dice.

[nick_coffin]

Originally Posted by benz72

Is item quality tracked separately or as part of the item (e.g. a Fine broadsword, or a Dwarven Orichalcum warhammer)?

If you create the item in GGA, you would add any bonuses to the value, weight, or damage based on the quality manually. If a fine broadsword gives you +1 damage, and the standard broadsword damage is sw+2, you would (at the moment) add a melee attack feature with sw+3.

That said, we will consider creating named modifiers to equipment so you can take a standard sword and add modifiers to it!

[Nose66]

We just released GURPS Game Aid for Foundry VTT v0.9.5

We now have Items, yeah!

Release video: https://youtu.be/20t6FM41BpQ

BTW, If you’ve been on the fence about adopting Foundry because of the cost, you might find this interesting from the Foundry Discord:
Saturday, May 22
- State of Foundry Virtual Tabletop post on Patreon (public) and Foundry Hub
- Anniversary Sale Begins (20% off!)