04-06-2023, 08:24 PM | #31 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
It's also an irrelevant detail if the PC side has any survivors because basic bleeding is always stopped by bandaging that anyone can do.
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Fred Brackin |
04-06-2023, 09:12 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Most definitely alone
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
I strongly recommend both Luck (and Serendipity), and I also give out a limited, free version of both. Those boons are handed out for anything that helps the game: hosting, bringing food, taking notes, drawing characters, 3d printing miniatures, etc. Players can hoard them as well, so the guy who brings snacks several times in a row might have some accumulated Luck chips to burn.
Given that you are doing a Western theme campaign, you might even want to hand out poker chips to track them. I used poker chips for regular Luck as well. Rather than handing out one reroll per hour, I figured out how long we were likely to play and handed out that many chips. I strongly encouraged players not to use them all in a row, but I didn't sweat it if one Luck point was used 45 minutes after another one--especially since some Luck usage occurred in a few minutes of play time, but across hours or days of game time. If you like the idea of poker chips for Luck, another twist I triedwas green poker chips for luck, and black ones for bad luck. If a player had something unfortunate happen to them, I would offer (or they could ask) for a luck chip, but it also came with a black chip too. I could call in a black chip to make them use three rolls and take the worst, or I could call one in to allow the opposition to use them like Luck. I am not sure anyone was actually willing to make that bargain.
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Build a man a fire and he's warm for the night. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. |
04-10-2023, 12:43 PM | #33 |
Petitioner: Word of IN Filk
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Longmont, CO
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
I second this wholeheartedly. Unless you're trying something borderline impossible, a reroll can often make all the difference in the world. You don't even have to justfy it in-game as the character being lucky - it can simply be "I'm just that good."
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“It's not railroading if you offer the PCs tickets and they stampede to the box office, waving their money. Metaphorically speaking” --Elizabeth McCoy, In Nomine Line Editor Author: "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger" |
04-10-2023, 03:24 PM | #34 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
I'm certainly aware of this option. On the other hand, I don't like Luck, and don't encourage my players to take it, and I don't think I've ever had a player do so. But I see very few character deaths. I think this is partly because GURPS combat isn't very lethal, unless a character has Bloodlust or acts as if they had it; you have to reduce a character with N hit points to -N hit points by inflicting 2N injury points to even have to roll for survival. And it's partly because players who know that combat CAN be lethal play their characters as prudently cautious, rather than as if they were action movie heroes who knew the director was on their side. The knowledge that death is possible concentrates the mind wonderfully.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
04-10-2023, 04:08 PM | #35 | |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Athens of America
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
Quote:
Most 'deaths' will not occur in combat. After one side has been entirely knocked unconscious (or has fled), the question of taking prisoners or not...would be where most deaths happen, if the winners decided to finish the opposition. My one exception in 30+ years was a talented, ambidextrous fencing weapon master. It was fairly common of him to DWA rapier/rapier and have both be targeted attacks on the eyes. His base skill for the eye shots was 12/12 (w/Luck) and a defender would start -1 for defending each end of a DWA. Damage was Imp 1d+4. Hitting with 1 and rolling average was 28 points of damage. Treatment in Low Tech was healing magic or die. Hitting with both and average was 56 points. Max damage would be 80 points...1 round. He was a bit of an edge case however.
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My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.-Foch America is not perfect, but I will hold her hand until she gets well.-unk Tuskegee Airman |
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04-10-2023, 04:38 PM | #36 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
Quote:
I haven't looked into the wound infection rules, but it's definitely the case that the MA bleeding options can make any injury to a high-bleeding location (mainly vitals, possibly also veins and arteries) into something potentially deadly without magic or unusually advanced medicine. The MA extra major wound effects tables also can kill people. Of course 'don't turn on optional rules that are tailor made to turn injuries into deaths' is perhaps painfully obvious as a suggestion for the title question.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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04-10-2023, 04:50 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
Depends on the level of realism you want, but in general if you want to simulate westerns:
Luck: all main characters seem to have this. Stormtrooper marksmaship academy: Seems that most NPCs have maximally 1 point in guns and never take aim maneuvers. Clean wounds: This varies from western to western, but wounds do not tend to get infected, do not hamper the hero a lot, heal fast and cleanly and so on. Exact rules used depends in choice of realism level but ranges from "flesh wounds" to just ignoring the crippling rules. Then more generic things: High HT(and fit and hard to kill) keeps characters alive in GURPS. Combat reflexes is a cheap thing to decrease the probability of being hit Extra HP is always nice to cause less of those pesky HT rolls in the first place. |
04-10-2023, 06:33 PM | #38 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
Well, here's hoping fsbof updates us on how things went. XD
I'm late to the party, my credentials are lacking, but I'd like to share what I've learned the hard way (by failing at it!). The most important thing is make sure everyone knows and wants this game. I don't just mean the system, I mean everything; the system, the setting, the group composition, etc. Yeah, this applies to any tabletop RPG, but much of the other advice falls under it. There's only so much you can do when you're all new to both the system and the setting, but much of what has been suggested falls under it. High Pain Threshold is pretty important unless the setting means combat is "dodge or die". Those shock penalties can make hitting back difficult in combat. I think I've seen just about everything else. Oh, if you're going to mess with disease or poison, then encouraging players to take some level of Resistance to those things may be a good idea. Like Fit and Rapid Healing, they don't cost a lot of CP but can go a long way. If you, the GM, do not plan on throwing those things at the players, then never mind. Consider just giving players an Extra Life or two at the start of the campaign. Explain that they are not the unmodified version of the trait from Basic Set Characters, let alone the kind you get in video games. Nor are they supernatural Extra Lives. Basically, if a player is not doing something stupid that gets them killed, you'll handwave the situation to some extent, letting them survive but costing them an Extra Life. Exactly how it works out in-game will vary according to the circumstances e.g. maybe the PC is completely unharmed and can resume whatever it was they were doing, or maybe the rest of the party will think they're dead until the story allows a reunion later on (next session?).
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My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :) |
04-11-2023, 06:58 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
My play groups have a house rule that allows characters with minor injuries (less than half their HP) to roll vs HT to regain HP every day, even when they are exerting themselves. Very useful if you have to travel several days to the next adventure, but don't have a week to waste lying in bed, waiting for your wounds to finish healing up.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do. Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.) Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue |
04-11-2023, 07:00 AM | #40 |
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
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Re: Keeping you players alive for dummies
Another house rule might be to track individual injuries and allowing first aid for each, thus multiplying the effects of first aid.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do. Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.) Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue |
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combat, old west, survival |
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