GURPS Action!

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Paul

Kromm's giving it the ol' Dungeon Fantasy treatment. We should be able to release the first installment in early August.

FWIW, the first installment is put to bed and the second is fully outlined and half-written. To end speculation, my primary focus is "team-based thrillers" (like Heat, Ocean's Eleven, Ronin, Sneakers, or the recent MI movies), not "lone, over-the-top action heroes." Most gaming groups have 4+ players, and many have 6, 8, or even 10 gamers . . . and you can't run a game with 10 lone-wolf Woo characters. It just doesn't give any of them enough spotlight time. So when Paul says "Dungeon Fantasy treatment," he truly means it: large teams of specialists working together toward criminal or tactical goals. The "action" part comes in through the back door: violence is always a solution, and reality won't be getting in the way.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Kromm

<snip> violence is always a solution, and reality won't be getting in the way.

Oh goody goody gumdrops. :-D

[AOTA]

That sounds great. I will be getting this when it comes out.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

FWIW, the first installment is put to bed and the second is fully outlined and half-written. To end speculation, my primary focus is "team-based thrillers" (like Heat, Ocean's Eleven, Ronin, Sneakers, or the recent MI movies), not "lone, over-the-top action heroes." Most gaming groups have 4+ players, and many have 6, 8, or even 10 gamers . . . and you can't run a game with 10 lone-wolf Woo characters. It just doesn't give any of them enough spotlight time. So when Paul says "Dungeon Fantasy treatment," he truly means it: large teams of specialists working together toward criminal or tactical goals. The "action" part comes in through the back door: violence is always a solution, and reality won't be getting in the way.

What about small groups - two or three players? Also will it handle Black Ops which is pretty much teams of uber-characters, not to mention something like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

I'm happy you're doing the treatment, but I'm more interested in something that can do a GURPS version of Feng Shui/Shadowfist.

BTW, the MI movies are probably closer to what I'm looking for but the first one at least had Ethan Hunt as the primary focus when it came to action. I really don't want to see yet another GURPS book that holds back and dials things down going for a more realistic treatment. Time to pull out the stops.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by griffin

What about small groups - two or three players?

That's almost a different genre. Since I'm getting small PDFs for this, I have to focus. My chosen focus is less-uber, more-balanced teams with cinematic-yet-balanced skills. I think this will support more gaming groups, who appear to average 4+ players. Also, con games benefit a lot from "genre redux" rules, and those typically have 6-12 sign-ups.

Originally Posted by griffin

Also will it handle Black Ops which is pretty much teams of uber-characters, not to mention something like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

Definitely not. The supernatural element has no place in the stuff I'm going for. I'm gunning for caper movies, crime thrillers, military squad movies, spy thrillers, etc. "Bug hunt" (like both of your examples, IMO) is a valid genre, but another PDF series. :)

Originally Posted by griffin

I really don't want to see yet another GURPS book that holds back and dials things down going for a more realistic treatment. Time to pull out the stops.

I'm not especially dialing things down, but there are two caveats:

1. I'm aiming to support teams, not lone supermen. An amy of one is great in a movie, but no fun for anybody not in the spotlight in an RPG. So while Ethan Hunt is wonderful, his break-and-enter skills, driving skills, and marksmanship skills will go on three heroes who specialize in breaking the team in, driving the team around, and picking off the team's enemies.

2. I'm aiming to support "unrealistic" where that means "cinematic," but not where that means "supernatural." There will be no aliens, magic, psi, etc. As I said, that's another genre. I think it would be smashing to see a series that takes on everything from Big Trouble in Little China to X Files -- and possibly Blade, Underworld, and even Hellboy -- but that has so little in common with 1980-present, team-based cop-soldier-spy-thief thrillers that I can't see a way to fit it all into a few 16- to 32-page PDFs.

I would say that the movies most inspirational to my work were ones with fairly competent teams of specialists. In alphabetical order, Heat, Inside Man, Layer Cake, Ocean's Eleven, Ronin, and The Usual Suspects were all foremost in my mind. I'd also give a nod to Banlieue 13 for parkour, Enemy of the State for ridiculous surveillance tech, Entrapment for chicks in tight catsuits nicking stuff, Léon for assassins, Shoot 'Em Up for gunplay, and The Transporter for driving. I'm not going for kung fu action theater, because that's a narrow subgenre that merits its own PDF series.

I'll be honest and say this isn't all action but the subset of action that's late 20th/early 21st-century team-based thrillers. It's just that Action is a shorter title. And who's to say that somebody won't write Action 4, 7, and 15 to cover loners, bug hunts, and kung fu theater? Nothing I'm writing in Action 1 or 2 is in any way inimical to that.

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by Kromm

FWIW, the first installment is put to bed and the second is fully outlined and half-written. To end speculation, my primary focus is "team-based thrillers" (like Heat, Ocean's Eleven, Ronin, Sneakers, or the recent MI movies), not "lone, over-the-top action heroes." Most gaming groups have 4+ players, and many have 6, 8, or even 10 gamers . . . and you can't run a game with 10 lone-wolf Woo characters. It just doesn't give any of them enough spotlight time. So when Paul says "Dungeon Fantasy treatment," he truly means it: large teams of specialists working together toward criminal or tactical goals. The "action" part comes in through the back door: violence is always a solution, and reality won't be getting in the way.

So.. so wait. How exactly is this "action"? MI1 wasn't exactly what I'd call an action movie, and MI2 is the Ethan Hunt Show with a couple of NPC-ish goons to have assorted extra skills and not get any more spotlight time than necessary.. exactly the kind of thing you say you want to avoid. Ocean's Eleven wasn't even remotely action. I haven't seen the other movies, so maybe they're better examples of the genre you're trying to write up.. but as it is, I don't get it.

[Gamer_Zer0]

two words: Team Work took place in every single one of them....

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Xplo

So.. so wait. How exactly is this "action"? MI1 wasn't exactly what I'd call an action movie, and MI2 is the Ethan Hunt Show with a couple of NPC-ish goons to have assorted extra skills and not get any more spotlight time than necessary.. exactly the kind of thing you say you want to avoid. Ocean's Eleven wasn't even remotely action. I haven't seen the other movies, so maybe they're better examples of the genre you're trying to write up.. but as it is, I don't get it.

That's my point too. I just don't get it. Where's the action? Ronin certainly qualifies. I've never seen Heat. Ocean's 11? Sneaker's I can see in a couple of areas for the cinematic computing.

Most of the group/team oriented action films I can think of are in genre's that won't be dealt with. Magnificent Seven, Hellboy, Predator (to a lesser extent), Aliens (the early part at least), and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I think "The Italian Job" would qualify as an action film. Maybe "The Untouchables" - Kevin Costner and Sean Connery version.

I hope at least the title will be Action: Modern or Action: High-Tech since the cinematic gaming should be covered in a wide range of tech levels and genres.

The focused document described doesn't appear to be what I've been looking and have advocated over the years. I'm rather surprised that given that Kromm says this is written "on spec" or something similar, that the marketoids didn't at least do a Pyramid survey or two on the topic.

[robkelk]

I just realized something...

Originally Posted by Kromm

To end speculation, my primary focus is "team-based thrillers" (like Heat, Ocean's Eleven, Ronin, Sneakers, or the recent MI movies)

This is a superset of what I call "caper flicks" - movies I watch to see how a detailed plan comes together in the first half of the story, and how it doesn't survive contact with the "enemy" in the second half...

Sounds like fun!

[El Guapo]

Originally Posted by robkelk

I just realized something...

This is a superset of what I call "caper flicks" - movies I watch to see how a detailed plan comes together in the first half of the story, and how it doesn't survive contact with the "enemy" in the second half...

Sounds like fun!

I know! I thought I was in bizarro world when I looked at the forums and people are complaining about Kromm writing some pdfs about team-based thrillers. How could this not be good?