new player group here

[racefrog]

Hey All,
We are a group of 5 or 6 DnD players looking to change things up. We got gurps lite and the 2 basic books for characters and campaign. We are making 150 point characters w/ 75point penalties(5 of which can be quirks). GM is going with a modern setting, but adding vampires and werewolf type stuff in there. We have made a bunch of characters, but one of our players wants to make a plant monster that is 5 small plants that sometimes form up into 1 human shaped/sized monster. Was just wonder if anyone on here would be able to help w/ that, or maybe just give suggestions. The idea he likes the best so far is to make 5 small 30-40 point characters.

Thanks!

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by racefrog

Hey All,
We are a group of 5 or 6 DnD players looking to change things up. We got gurps lite and the 2 basic books for characters and campaign. We are making 150 point characters w/ 75point penalties(5 of which can be quirks). GM is going with a modern setting, but adding vampires and werewolf type stuff in there. We have made a bunch of characters, but one of our players wants to make a plant monster that is 5 small plants that sometimes form up into 1 human shaped/sized monster. Was just wonder if anyone on here would be able to help w/ that, or maybe just give suggestions. The idea he likes the best so far is to make 5 small 30-40 point characters.

Thanks!

I'd go with alternate form. Your main form is the small form with 4 plant allies.the alternate form is your pulled together body. The ally plants have the minion advantage so that you don't have to worry about them doing what you want. If one plant dies, you'll have to pay points to buy it back ("grow" it back if you prefer) but can still form into your main body together without it being weaker.

EDIT: Oh, and welcome to GURPS!

[whswhs]

If the character is always a plant, I would go with Duplication and maybe a modest level of Shrinking, with Link so that they always have to be used together.

[racefrog]

thanks! we are checking into these ideas. we are still slow :)

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by racefrog

Hey All,
We are a group of 5 or 6 DnD players looking to change things up. We got gurps lite and the 2 basic books for characters and campaign. We are making 150 point characters w/ 75point penalties(5 of which can be quirks). GM is going with a modern setting, but adding vampires and werewolf type stuff in there. We have made a bunch of characters, but one of our players wants to make a plant monster that is 5 small plants that sometimes form up into 1 human shaped/sized monster. Was just wonder if anyone on here would be able to help w/ that, or maybe just give suggestions. The idea he likes the best so far is to make 5 small 30-40 point characters.

Thanks!

OK, with the caveat that I'm not y'all, and you can do what you want . . .

Are you guys experiencing GURPS for the first time? Because you're embracing a lot of complexity the first time out. That's great if it's what you all want, but there are some GURPSy as well as some system-independent issues you might run into.

150 point characters with -75 in disads.

Personally, I might suggest, for your first time out, 150-200 points but only -30 points in disads, plus five quirks?

My personal experience - and your game might be different! - is that people will feel they MUST take those -75 points in disadvantages in order to "plus up" to the full 225 "beneficial" points spent. This can result in fairly handicapped characters, or people taking disads they can't track or play at the same time.

Others will probably have different experiences, but my personal tendency is to recommend 1-3 disads in the 10-point range, plus if there are any "social glue" disads you want to hand out to ensure that the party is coherent ("OK, murderhobos, everyone needs to take Sense of Duty (Companions) for X points, because we're not playing an inter-party conflict game this time around, plus everyone gets "Pathfinder's Group" as a patron, but that carries with it the Very Hazardous Duty that they are required to explore one horrific bottomless tomb per month.")

This doesn't mean you can't do the full -75 points. But I've found that while GURPS suggests up to 50% point limit in Disads, players are happier with more points and a lower disad percentage.

Players coming over from D&D where effectively "Alignment" is the only restriction on character behavior might find seven 10-point disads tough to play. (5e's background descriptions come the closest, actually - turning those into Disads is not a bad idea. hmmm.)

Lite and two Basic books

Unless you're using Lite as a quick reference for "roll 3d6 under target number" type stuff, it's redundant with the Basic Set. Still, making characters using Lite and then expanding where needed isn't a terrible way to go.

Unless, of course, you're doing dungeon delving, in which case there's a Kickstarter you might be interested in . . .

Ah, but I note you've gone with "a modern setting, with Vampires and Werewolves."

I might suggest you pick up - if you can - the Monster Hunters series, and specifically the Sidekicks volume, which gives you templates for 200-point heroes in a modern setting with vampires and werewolves . . .

You will also do well to look into GURPS Horror, which is (in my opinion) tailor-made for this, since it's the closest thing to a fleshed-out Bestiary that GURPS has in 4e. Well, other than all the Dungeon Fantasy Monsters stuff you can steal.

I am not trying to up-sell you, though it probably seems like it. The setting you have chosen (modern day, with monsters) just happens to have received the "Worked Example" treatment. Starting as sidekicks and growing to full-fledged hunters would be a spectacular way to grow the campaign, and can be accomplished by handing out a higher rate of character points after each session.

one of the characters wants to play 5 small monsters combines into a big one

This is a good character concept . . . and supported by GURPS.

The one thing I'd caution from the players' perspective here, is that Mr Five Monsters will be taking five turns for each of the other players' one. This has vexed me in more than one other campaign as a player. It's not a character power thing, it's a spotlight time thing.

Anyway, welcome aboard!

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

I'd go with alternate form. Your main form is the small form with 4 plant allies.the alternate form is your pulled together body. The ally plants have the minion advantage so that you don't have to worry about them doing what you want. If one plant dies, you'll have to pay points to buy it back ("grow" it back if you prefer) but can still form into your main body together without it being weaker.

Originally Posted by Basic Set

If your Ally dies through no fault of yours, the GM will not penalize you. You may put the points spent on the deceased Ally toward a new Ally.

No, you don't have to pay any extra points to replace an ally that failed a death check.

[racefrog]

wow that's awesome , we are breaking it all down lol thanks for the help

[Refplace]

Lot of ways to do this.
Allies was already suggested.
Duplication 4 (Shared Resources, -40%) [84]
Instead of Alternate Form, since everyone is a plant anyhow go with an Alternate Ability.
So buy any power or powers up to 84 points at 1/5 discount. You can only use the Alternate Abilities when all your dupes are merged. That means the main form is tougher since it has full HP and another power it can use.
I advise buying Unkillable 1 [50] and extra HP on your basic form (not with the AA discount) so your weaker duplicates are tougher. Losing a duplicate is annoying and costs points.

The Ally route would be Ally (Plant Selves, built on 25%, Constant; Minion, +50%; Summonable, +100%) [10] per Ally so 40 points for 4 minions.
OR Ally (Plant Selves, built on 50%, Constant; Minion, +50%; Summonable, +100%) [20] per Ally so 80 points for 4 minions.
OR Ally (Plant Selves, built on 75%, Constant; Minion, +50%; Summonable, +100%) [30] per Ally so 120 points for 4 minions.

Note that after 7 identical Allies look at Ally Group for a discount.
And Ally Group could be the basis for an Alternate Ability just like the Duplication power in this case.

It depends what you want, both are decent builds. For weaker forms ally is cheaper and that Shared Resources (splitting your HP among the forms) can hurt. On the other hand when you merge duplicates you remember everything they learned so its good for spying. You would have to but Mindlink and Telesend (plus take the time before dismissing them) to do that with Allies.

[acrosome]

I'll second one major topic that Doug brought up:

Horror 4e is the best genre supplement ever made for GURPS 4e. Possibly the best supplement ever for GURPS, full stop. (Though Martial Arts and Tactical Shooting give it some pretty stiff competition.) The amount of work and brain trust that went into it is simply astounding. It could be a textbook for a horror literature course. It is worth spending money upon.

However, monster hunting is not quite the same genre as horror, so:

I personally am not an over-the-top type of guy, but Monster Hunters is easily the most popular GURPS worked setting. So if what you're looking for here is Buffy or Dresden files or similar Being Awesome stuff- and it seems like it, given the character concept you're discussing- then you'll probably like it a lot.

Loadouts: Monster Hunters is handy, too, and actually predates the Monster Hunters series. (Oddly.) It also covers how an investigation in that genre should be worked, to prevent the GM from having to amuse himself as the players generate new characters. It's a great resource for the players.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Horror 4e is the best setting supplement ever made for GURPS 4e. Probably ever for GURPS, full stop. (Though Martial Arts and Tactical Shooting give it some stiff competition.) The amount of work and brain trust that went into it is simply astounding. It could be a textbook for a horror literature course. It is worth spending money upon.

Technically, Horror is a genre supplement, like Fantasy or (mostly) Space. Banestorm is a full length setting supplement; it's a quite different animal. Martial Arts is mostly a mechanics supplement, though it does have some genre material—and again, it doesn't contain any setting material at all.

Which is not to deny that Horror is a really, really good genre supplement. It's been an example for my own work of how to do that sort of thing well—though I can't imitate the key step "Get Ken Hite to write it."