Newbie GURPS GM Seeking Advice

[Gef]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Do a solitaire combat on your own first, so that you kind of know where the rules are.

Some of the rules are on Combat Cards, which you can download from Warehouse 23 and print for each player. -GEF

[Gef]

A word of encouragement: Most of the rules for the tactical combat system are much easier to do than to explain.

Here are some things to try:

1) Guy with a spear (reach 2) versus guy with a broadsword (reach 1). Tip: Have spear guy stop just out of range and Wait, declaring he will attack if sword guy closes.

2) Build a couple of equivalent knife-fighters, one with the technique Feint maxed out. Have him alternate Feints and real attacks while the other guy just attacks.

3) Two guys with shields and swords (reach 1). When first guy attacks, have second guy "retreat" sideways (reduce bonus for retreat by 1), to his attacker's non-shield side. Second guy gets his turn, he now steps to his foe's flank, completing a "run-around" attack. This gives -2 to the other guy's defense AND avoids the defense bonus of the shield. HOWEVER, the clever git who did this is now facing the wrong way, so he has to use a backstrike. That means he's at -2 to hit AND at -2 to his next defense.

Seriously, the last one is a great example of something easier to show than tell.

Play some matches between skill 12 cadets, skill 16 experts, and skill 20 masters. Remember that the cadets will make telegraphic attacks. Also remember that the system is at its best without weird stuff (magic, ultra-tech, cinematic skills) - master it before you add the fantasy elements.

Good luck and have fun.

GEF

[Hannes665]

Regarding Mooks and other "low level" NPC´s and encounters I recommend keeping the primary attributes in the 9-11 category. That is to say in the average range. This still makes them dangerous to most 75-100 pt pc´s in Gurps but they don´t have Dodge 11+ or weapon skill at 15+ and dice out 2d++ of damage.

It was mentioned earlier that some players buy down the secondary attributes. We (my group) allow it for up to -4 for per and will and -3 for hp and fp and -1 in basic move and basic speed. It does not count against disad limits so it´s common for us to see a Wizard with IQ 15, Per 12 and Will 13 BUT we have learned that it does not skew the game as one would think since all of these stats are important.

Both Will and Per have also skills based on them, will is very important when it comes to avoiding mind spells and fright checks. Low Per can kill you in a dangerous game were you (the PC) needs to notice things and it helps to notice the archer firing the arrow at you 30 yards away if you want the option to dodge or block.

HP are worth their weight in gold in any combat heavy game since they go fast as soon as you start to get any damage. FP are necessary for anyone in a fight and wizards for spells, using FP to increase your damage or assist you in defending yourself.

Example of a NPC guard as I would write him and most if not all off NPC´s.

Generic Guard small city large township with some random ads.

ST: 10/10 thr 1d-2 sw 1d DX: 10 IQ: 9 HT:10/10 Dodge: 8 Move: 5 BS: 5 Will 10 Per 11 Parry B-8/S-9 +DB Block: 9+DB Armor DR 2 Torso, arms, legs, hands. DR 4 Head. Face: 0
Ads: Combat ref on 6 or less, High Pain Threshold on 4 or less.
Broadsword - 11 1d-2cr/1d+1cut Shield - 12 Spear -12 1H 1d imp/2H 1d+1imp Observation - 12 Local Law - 8 (+4 for basic regulations) Solider on 9 or less - 8+ 1d3. Crossbow 11 1d+2 Area Knowledge Local - 11.

Guard Captain Large Town or a small city or a Sgt.
ST: 11/11 thr 1d-1 sw 1d+1 DX: 11 IQ: 10 HT: 11/11 Dodge: 9 BS: 5.5 Move: 5 Will 11 Per 11 Parry 10 Block 10 DB: 2 Armor DR 4/2 Mail, Torso, arms, neck, head, DR 2 hands, legs and feet. Face 0
Ads: Combat Ref on 10 or less, HPT on 7 or less.
Broadsword -14 1d cr/1d+2 cut Shield - 13 Tactics - 9 Leadership - 9 +1d3 Local Law - 10 Area Knowledge Local 12


I usually write them up like this and then if there is a very special NPC I write him up, named and in little bit more detail but not that much. Easier that to create every character that you want your party to meet, that could take weeks.

[Hannes665]

I would recommend 100 pts -40 or -50 disads and quirks.

Just watch the PC creation carefully for someone that has never played or seen Gurps they tend to go overboard at their first character. Specially if they are used to DnD style games.

For example we had for one night a DnD player with our group that wanted to play a Priest/Monk with some divine spells.

He was something like this.

ST: 7 DX: 9 IQ: 17 HT: 15
Ads: Magery 0 Magery +4 Clerical spells, Luck 15 pt
Disads: Bad Temper on 6 or less, Alcoholic, Honesty on 6 or less, Gluttony on 6 or less.
Skills: Brewery 21, Innate Attack Fireball 22, Staff 18, Theology 20.
Spells: Major Healing 25 Fireball 20 Monks Banquet 24 Continual Light 20 Invisibility 25.


That was it. That is the whole character. Most of his points went into 2 DX based skills and very few spells. And of course his disads made him almost unplayable.

Gurps requires much more diversity that DnD. It´s not unusal for characters to have 15-40 skills and/or spells.

[Stripe]

Here's a simple 8"x8" arena battle map I drew up tonight real quick (hand-drawn using GIMP) with 1" printed hexes, the correct scale for GURPS: http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9537/gurpsarena.jpg

Print it with no margins (not margins set to 0) for the correct scale.

Here's a real quick, simple example of combat using only the Basic Set and my arena:

Jace the Ace
Attributes: ST 12 [20]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 12 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-1/1d+2; BL 29 lbs.; HP 12 [0]; Will 10 [0]; Per 10 [0]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 7 [15]; Basic Move 7 [0].
Dodge 10 (12); Parry 10 (12); Block 10 (12).
Advantages: None.
Disadvantages: None.
Skills: Shield (DX/E)-14 [2]; Shortsword (DX/A)-14 [4].
Equipment:Medium Shield (DB 2); Shortsword (1d+2 cut/1d-1 imp); Leather Armor on all locations (DR2).

Vs.

Baracus the Brute
Attributes: ST 14 [40]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 8 [-40]; HT 12 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14 [0]; Will 8 [0]; Per 10 [10]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0].
Dodge 10; Parry 11.
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [5]; Fit [5].
Disdvantages: None.
Skills: Two-Handed Axe/Mace (DX/A)-14 [8].
Equipment: Great Axe (2d+3 cut).


Jace and Baracus both duck under the portcullis, their weapons and equipment ready. Jace is in E-1; Baracus is in E-8. The combat begins as the iron gates slam closed behind them.

Round 1:

Jace has the higher Basic Speed so he goes first ("Turn Sequence," p. B363).

He takes one look at the towering Baracus and decides he doesn't want to charge right into battle with the mountain.

Instead, he chooses to study his adversary and takes the Evaluate maneuver (p. B364). This ends his turn.

Baracus isn't so prudent. Instead, he charges forward, roaring and swinging his huge axe above his head. He takes the Move and Attack maneuver (p. B365) allowing him to move forward 6 hexes (his Move score) and swing his Great Axe. Since his great axe has a reach of 1 or 2 (see "Reach," p. B269), and he has it readied for a reach of 2, he stops after five hexes of movement and swings with all his might. Baracus is on hex E-3 and there is one empty hex between Jace and he.

However, since he took the Move and Attack maneuver: "he has a flat -4 to skill, and his adjusted skill cannot exceed 9." Skill 14 - 4 = 10, so his skill is 9 since it can't be above 9.

Baracus makes his attack roll (see "Attacking," p.B369) and rolls three, six-sided dice. Each one shows a three on it's face for a total of 9. Since he rolled a 9 and his adjusted skill is 9, that's good enough to hit.

Jace must now defend (see "Defending," p. 374). He can chose to Block, Parry or Dodge. Since he has a medium shield and it is providing a Defense Bonus (DB) of 2 (see Shields and Defense Bonus," p. B374) all of his Active Defense scores are the same: 10 + 2 = 12. DB increases all Active Defenses, not just Block.

Since he'd rather not parry a heavy weapon (see "Parrying Heavy Weapons," p. B376), he chooses to block with his shield and rolls against that skill. He rolls a 10 which is less than his block score of 12, so it's successful.

Baracus' axe glances off Jace's shield with a loud chop.

Unfortunately for Big B, this means two things. One, he didn't hit Jace and his turn is over. Two, since he's using a weapon with the “‡” mark under its ST statistic, it becomes unready after he attacks with it. He won't be able to attack with it on his next turn! The greataxe puts him at a disadvantage in this one-on-one duel.

Round 2:

Jace sees his opportunity and attacks. Since he has a weapon with a Reach of 1 and there is an empty space between them, Jace must take one step to go one hex forward. That's okay because the Attack maneuver (B365) allows him to take one step.

But, remember that Evaluate maneuver he took on his last turn? That gives him a +1 to skill to attack this turn. Jace thrusts his shortsword toward Baracus' torso. He makes his attack roll against his shortsword skill of 14 + 1 = 15 and rolls a 12. That's good enough to hit!

Now, Baracus must defend. He can't parry with his axe because it's still unready from him swinging it on his last turn. He can't block because he doesn't have a shield. He must Dodge.

Baracus' Dodge score would be a 9 (Move of 6 + 3 = 9), but he has the Combat Reflexes Advantage which gives him a +1 to all Active Defenses.

Baracus rolls an 11. A failure! That means Jace hit!

Jace rolls his damage for a thrusting attack. For someone with ST 12 and a shortsowrd, that's 1d-1 impaling. He rolls one, six-sided die and it shows a 4. Since it's 1d-1, that would result in a roll of 3.

But, it's impaling damage, and any impaling damage that penetrates armor does twice the amount rolled. See Wounding Modifiers and Injury (p. B379). That's a total of 6 damage!

Blood gushes out of the stab wound in his side of Baracus' stomach and spills onto the sand. The mighty warrior growls in pain and anger.

This ends Jace's turn.

Baracus must ready his axe if he wishes to attack with it again. He decides to take the Ready maneuver (B366) and hefts his axe above his shoulder.

Note: If he could have attacked, Baracus would have been at -4 to skill due to injury. Whenever you suffer injury, reduce your DX and IQ by the number of HP you lost – to a maximum penalty of -4, regardless of your injuries – on your next turn only (see "Shock," p. B419).

This ends Baracus' turn. His axe is ready.

Round 3

Jace decides to go for the kill. He stabs again, this time straight for his opponent's heart. The heart counts as "Vitals," which is -3 to skill to target. See Hit Location (p. 398).

Jace rolls against his modified skill of 14 - 3 = 11 and rolls a 9. That's good enough to hit!

Baracus has a Parry of 11, which is higher than his dodge of 10 -- but if he parries his greataxe will become unready and he won't be able to use it to attack on his turn! So, he chooses to Dodge.

However, not only does he choose to Dodge, he chooses to Dodge and Retreat. See "Active Defense Options," p. B 377. Adding the retreat option to a dodge gives him a +3 to his dodge score. There's almost no reason not to add a retreat option to an active defense in this case unless you cannot back up (against wall, a ledge or lava pit, etc.).

So, Big B steps back to E-4 and rolls against 10 + 3 = 13 and rolls an 11. Good thing he added that retreat. He would have failed otherwise and Jace's sword would have been sticking out of his chest.

Jace has the option to follow Baracus and does so. He moves to E-3. You always have the option of following a retreating opponent and normally will wish to do so.

Now, it's Baracus' turn. Since his greataxe has a reach of "1,2*" and he has it readied for Reach 2, Baracus must step back one hex to E-5 and swing. Again, taking one step in any direction is allowed with the Attack maneuver.

Baracus doesn't specify a hit location. Page B398 says, "If you don’t specify a hit location, you are attacking the torso."

Baracus rolls a 14, which is just barely good enough to hit.

Jace decides to be the one to back up this time. He decides to take a retreating Block. Retreating while blocking (or parrying) adds +1 to the active defense score instead of the +3 to a retreating dodge score. He rolls a 10 against Skill 10 + Shield DB 2 + 1 retreat = 13.

Again, Baracus' axe slides off Jace's shield and he backs away from the giant. Baracus follows him. Baracus is on E-3 and Jace is on E-1, back against the now-closed portcullis.

He's in a sorry state. Down on hit points and his axe is unready again.

[Stripe]

Round 4:

Again, Jace springs forward to E-2, slashing his sword at Baracus' neck. The neck is -5 to skill to target, but a cutting attack to the neck does a lot of damage. Jace needs a 9 or less (skill 14 - 5 for neck = 9). Jace's attack roll is good; he rolls an 8.

Baracus takes a retreating dodge again, jumping back to E-4. But, he rolls a 14! Failure!

Cutting blows to the neck give a wounding multiplier of x2 instead of x1.5. Baracus is probably going to be in trouble.

Jace's swing damage is 2d and with his shortsword, it's 2d cut.

He rolls a 12 on the dice, and since Baracus isn't wearing armor, that's a gory 24 points of damage! This is what's called a "major wound." A major wound is any single injury of greater than 1/2 your HP. See "Major Wounds," p. 420. Bookmark page 420 in fact as it is referenced often.

Whenever you suffer a major wound, you must make an immediate HT roll to avoid knockdown and stunning. On a failure, you’re stunned. You fall down and can't do anything until you make an IQ roll on your turn. Then, after that turn, you can start taking actions again. You can take active defenses until then, but they are at -4 and you can't retreat.

So, it's a pretty big deal.

What's even worse is that Baracus is at -18 HP. That's in really bad shape, if not dead. See p. 419 for all the basic rules on hit point levels. This would make a good bookmark as well.

Since Big B has Less than 1/3 his HP, his Move and Dodge are halved. Since he's at less than 1 hit points, he is in immediate danger of collapse. He must make a HT roll at the start of his next turn at -1 per full multiple of HP below zero (he's at -18 so that's one multiple of 12). Failure means he'll fall unconscious. Success means he can act normally, but must roll again every turn to continues fighting. Yikes!

We're not done yet, folks. Oh, no.

Since Baracus is at less than -1xHp (i.e., less that -12), he make an immediate HT roll... or die.

That's right. they've been fighting for only four seconds and big, mean, tough Baracus has only been hit twice and there's a chance he'll be dead on the second hit. Just goes to show, no matter how tough you are, you get hit square in the neck with a full-force blow from a sword, chances are, you're dead.

Baracus is a tough mother, though. Even at He rolls an 8 against his modified HT of 11 (12 - 1 for HP level = 11) to remain alive. He still has to make an immediate HT roll to avoid knockdown and stunning, though. He rolls an 9 for that.

Blood fountains from his neck and spills everywhere, but he manages to remain standing.

Now it's Baracus' turn. Since it's the start of his turn and he's at less than 1 HP, he has to make a HT roll (at -1 for being below -12 HP) or collapse. He makes it on the dot with an 11. He barely manages to hold on.

He's at -4 to attack from the shock of injury.

To offset this, Baracus bravely steps back to E-4 and takes an All-out-Attack (Determined) maneuver (p. 365). The maneuver gives him a +4 to skill to hit, but he'll get no active defenses until his next turn. All Jace has to do is make his attack roll and Baracus is hit. But, he's got to survive Baracus' greataxe first!

Baracus rolls against his modified skill of 14 - 4 shock + 4 determined = 14. He targets a random location (see "Random Hit Location," p. B400) and rolls a lucky 7.

Jace attempts a retreating block and backs to E-1 and Baracus follows him (moving to E-3). Jace rolls a 14! It's Baracus' turn to roll damage.

But first, he has to roll on the Hit Location Table (p. 552) to see where his blow landed. He rolls an 8: right arm.

He then rolls a tremendous 2d+3 cutting damage and gets a 12 total.

Now, Jace is wearing leather armor on his right arm and it has a DR of 2. DR subtracts from basic damage. That means Jace takes 12 - 2 for DR = 10 points of damage, x1.5 for it being cutting damage for a total of 15 points of injury!

However, injury over HP/2 cripples an arm. All additional damage is lost. Since Jace has 12 HP, that means any damage over 7 is lost.

It's way worse than that for Jace, though. If injury to a body part before applying the above limit was at least twice what was needed to cripple it, the body part is not just crippled but destroyed. A cutting attack or explosion severs a limb. See "Dismemberment," p. B421.

Jace's arm is lopped clean off leaving only a blood-squirting stump! He didn't just drop his sword, he lost his right arm!

Any crippling injury is a major wound. Jace must make an immediate roll against HT to avoid knockdown and stunning. He rolls a 13 and fails.

Jace drops to the floor, blood pouring out of his stump.

Victorious, Baracus drops his axe and sinks to his knees clutching his neck. In moments, he too will join Jace in the afterlife as his precious lifeblood pumps at at a rate of 1 HP per minute (see "Bleeing," p. 420). He'll roll against death at each multiple of 12. That means he has about 6 minutes before death is likely to take him.

Hope you enjoyed this combat example and the battle map!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Stripe

Round 1:

Note that "round" is not a GURPS term. This isn't quite a mere terminological point. GURPS does not view combat as divided up into "rounds" for characters overall; rather, each character has a "turn" on which they act, and then a next "turn" on which they act again, and for that character time is divided up into THEIR personal turns. You need to bear this in mind to make full sense of the rules.

Bill Stoddard

[Gef]

Originally Posted by NMatuzic

...they'll avoid the min/maxing path...

I encourage my players to design their characters efficiently. In fact, I look them over and suggest ways they can do so, like, you've got a ton of points sunk into half a dozen skills that are central to your concept, and a rep for being good at them, why don't you consolidate that into a talent, which includes a reaction bonus from the same folks, and free up some points? I don't want any confusion between what the rules allow and what the GM is okay with; they should be the same thing, and I'll make a houserule against anything I don't like, with an in-campaign justification where possible. When I start something new, however, I make it clear to players that things are in flux, and that some houserules may be coming down the pike as I finetune the setting, so there are no hard feelings later.

I once had a player in fantasy cyberpunk campaign like Shadowrun build a wizard (named Vecna) with a creepy bionic eye and arm. Other players noted that he seemed extremely capable as a wizard and also had extremely capable cyberware. Where did he get the points? From limtations, of course. Certain situations could render both his magic and his cyber useless, but he felt no need to tell his cronies about his weaknesses! Did he "rape" the system, or power game, or min-max? I don't think so, because I as the GM new how the bad guys could trap him, and he knew I knew, which forced him to act at all times in a way to minimize the risk. I never trapped him, but given the way those limitations dictated his decisions, I can hardly say that they never came to bear, or call them free points.

A tip on designing races: Think of some exotic advantages that aren't exotic for them. For instance, even if most dwarves lack vibration sense, but some have it, just like some humans have lightning calculator.

GEF

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by NMatuzic

The decision to use GURPS was made after some nice chat on another gaming forum, and I have been given copious amounts of "start small, add more as you go" types of tips. I have the core books, and will use Fantasy, Low Tech, Magic and Thaumatology (and maybe Martial Arts) as the campaign progresses. But for now, I'm thinking small, and thus just the core.

You can run a fantasy game with just the Basic Set and Magic, truth be told, though Fantasy is one of the best 4e supplements and can help out quite a bit. Thaumatology is handy if you have specific changes you want to make to the magic system and need to know how to do it. For a D&D-type game, you won't use much of Low-Tech at all. You're best off with Dungeon Fantasy for this game, using Treasure Tables for more gear. And Martial Arts ... another great book, but one you can utterly shun for this kind of game. It will just add complications. Ask someone to point you to a good summary of Telegraphic Attack for backstabbing; that's the only part of Martial Arts that you'll want for a first game.

So go with Magic and Fantasy. Keep it simple.

[NMatuzic]

Sorry, I should clarify that one of the main reasons for the switch to GURPS is that the more I read D&D, the more I disliked it. It felt too much like a MMORPG. I ended up going with GURPS because of its realism, something which I enjoy immensely when roleplaying.

Ok, realism, with some fantasy and cinematic elements thrown in =P

But when it all comes down to it, I'm not a big fan of simple hack n' slash, I want more depth than that.

The main reason I brought up D&D is that it's what I know, but it's not what I want to run. My goal is to run a Fantasy campaign in a semi-realistic manner, something I don't feel is possible with the other game, but definitely a realistic goal when running GURPS!