Advice needed for new fantasy campaign - Page 3

pfooti · 05-31-2011, 08:54 PM

Hi, um, GURPers.

I'm ramping up to run a fantasy campaign using GURPS rules and could use some advice. I'm a pretty experienced (since 1985 or so) role-player in a lot of games, and have been a PC in GURPS campaigns in the past. Running a GURPS campaign, however, seems like it will be a trifle challenging. Here are some specific questions I have, feel free to criticize the questions as well- I'm not necessarily sure I'm asking the right ones (or point me at the post I missed when I was trying to search these forums). Anyway.

I'm trying to build a campaign in a TL2-5 world. Specifically, it will be a fairly long large time-spanning campaign that starts during a dark age after an empire falls and eventually culminates in a roughly magical/alternative TL5 storyline (that I originally wrote for the Eberron campaign setting back in the D&D 3.5 days). Characters will change over time, I intend the overall campaign arc to last about five hundred years and to have the PCs bouncing around in the timeline a bit as the story demands.

One thing I'm happy about (which is why I feel optimistic about this endeavor) is that I have a pretty clear idea in my head (and on paper) about the campaign setting, the basic events that should form the story arc, and the overall "feel" of the game. I'm shooting for somewhere between high- and low- fantasy. I'm a big fan of the Fafhrd stories and want to capture a bit of that feel in the play. Not really Tolkien-esque high fantasy, but not pox-ridden, malnutrition-prone low fantasy either. I'd say more high than low, with a gritty combat feel that still can turn a touch cinematic at times.

I have purchased the basic Characters and Campaigns books and want to make sure I spend my money wisely on other books.

One thing I'm worried about is developing a good fantasy combat system. I don't intend this to be a primarily combat-oriented game (elsewise, I'd just be playing a D&D derivative), but I do want combat to be interesting and tense. I'm considering allowing Weapon Master and Trained by a Master in to make life exciting for most combatants, but I am worried a bit about balance issues.
Anybody have any suggestions about character creation guidelines? I'm thinking something like 125 points, 60 disads, or so. I'd like to see most characters advance to ~200 or so (that's what, around 30 sessions?) before retirement.
Any advice on good sources for classical fantasy races and monsters? There's a couple of good-looking bestiary books, and I can always stat my own for specific set-piece monsters, but I'd like a nice array of grumkins and stalkers to toss in for when life gets exciting. I'm not sure if my FLGS has any of these books for me to flip through, I'd hate to buy a book sight-unseen without a recommendation.
My intention is to mostly use armor and shields as DR without tracking item HP of shields and armor (while I like realism, I like streamline a bit more).
How does the general hit-location system end up playing out in practice in a Fantasy game setting? I'm worried specifically about the PCs getting their feet crippled or figuring out a way to consistently stab their foes right in the eyeballs. I'm really torn on this- I don't like the diffuse-damage, no-crippling system that's prevalent in most D&D-inspired games, but at the same time, I'm not wild about making it possible for the PCs to run around "headshotting" all the enemies- I want combat to be challenging, for a party of even advanced characters to fear that warren of orcs. Any advice about handling combat events is really welcome.
Here's a big one: the Magic system. I also own the Magic book (as I played a wizard in a PbP game a while back), and imagine that my PCs might not have the patience to deal with the complexity of the skill-based magic system. Ideally, I think I would want to do some kind of hybrid- allow for both skill-based magic and magic-as-advantages (as psionics are handled, right?) The world needs skilled wizards to enchant stuff, but also speedy energy-channelers to help the Adventurers melt the faces of their foes. Specifically, in order to maintain the Adventuring Party's ability to Adventure, while still keeping combat pretty lethal, I will need to introduce some kind of long-form healing spell. Something that takes an hour or two to cast, but heals a lot of bodily damage would mean the party's not laying up for months between trips into the wild, but at the same time, I don't really want a "cleric" to be necessary for this party either.
Are there any lists of pitfalls new GURPS players tend to hit? I come from a heavy character optimization background in other games, and typically provide some heavy oversight to my players (I don't require them to do that, but I do try and prevent abusive combinations).

It may sound like I'm writing a heavy-combat campaign, but that's not really true. It's just to me that combat is where a lot of my design choices will be tested, as that's the place where a lot of PC and NPC death will occur based on mechanistic die rolls. The interaction, puzzling, and role-playing I've got a handle on.

Anyway, thanks for reading this long post and for any help you can give.

05-31-2011, 08:54 PM	#1
pfooti Join Date: May 2008	Advice needed for new fantasy campaign Hi, um, GURPers. I'm ramping up to run a fantasy campaign using GURPS rules and could use some advice. I'm a pretty experienced (since 1985 or so) role-player in a lot of games, and have been a PC in GURPS campaigns in the past. Running a GURPS campaign, however, seems like it will be a trifle challenging. Here are some specific questions I have, feel free to criticize the questions as well- I'm not necessarily sure I'm asking the right ones (or point me at the post I missed when I was trying to search these forums). Anyway. I'm trying to build a campaign in a TL2-5 world. Specifically, it will be a fairly long large time-spanning campaign that starts during a dark age after an empire falls and eventually culminates in a roughly magical/alternative TL5 storyline (that I originally wrote for the Eberron campaign setting back in the D&D 3.5 days). Characters will change over time, I intend the overall campaign arc to last about five hundred years and to have the PCs bouncing around in the timeline a bit as the story demands. One thing I'm happy about (which is why I feel optimistic about this endeavor) is that I have a pretty clear idea in my head (and on paper) about the campaign setting, the basic events that should form the story arc, and the overall "feel" of the game. I'm shooting for somewhere between high- and low- fantasy. I'm a big fan of the Fafhrd stories and want to capture a bit of that feel in the play. Not really Tolkien-esque high fantasy, but not pox-ridden, malnutrition-prone low fantasy either. I'd say more high than low, with a gritty combat feel that still can turn a touch cinematic at times. I have purchased the basic Characters and Campaigns books and want to make sure I spend my money wisely on other books. One thing I'm worried about is developing a good fantasy combat system. I don't intend this to be a primarily combat-oriented game (elsewise, I'd just be playing a D&D derivative), but I do want combat to be interesting and tense. I'm considering allowing Weapon Master and Trained by a Master in to make life exciting for most combatants, but I am worried a bit about balance issues. Anybody have any suggestions about character creation guidelines? I'm thinking something like 125 points, 60 disads, or so. I'd like to see most characters advance to ~200 or so (that's what, around 30 sessions?) before retirement. Any advice on good sources for classical fantasy races and monsters? There's a couple of good-looking bestiary books, and I can always stat my own for specific set-piece monsters, but I'd like a nice array of grumkins and stalkers to toss in for when life gets exciting. I'm not sure if my FLGS has any of these books for me to flip through, I'd hate to buy a book sight-unseen without a recommendation. My intention is to mostly use armor and shields as DR without tracking item HP of shields and armor (while I like realism, I like streamline a bit more). How does the general hit-location system end up playing out in practice in a Fantasy game setting? I'm worried specifically about the PCs getting their feet crippled or figuring out a way to consistently stab their foes right in the eyeballs. I'm really torn on this- I don't like the diffuse-damage, no-crippling system that's prevalent in most D&D-inspired games, but at the same time, I'm not wild about making it possible for the PCs to run around "headshotting" all the enemies- I want combat to be challenging, for a party of even advanced characters to fear that warren of orcs. Any advice about handling combat events is really welcome. Here's a big one: the Magic system. I also own the Magic book (as I played a wizard in a PbP game a while back), and imagine that my PCs might not have the patience to deal with the complexity of the skill-based magic system. Ideally, I think I would want to do some kind of hybrid- allow for both skill-based magic and magic-as-advantages (as psionics are handled, right?) The world needs skilled wizards to enchant stuff, but also speedy energy-channelers to help the Adventurers melt the faces of their foes. Specifically, in order to maintain the Adventuring Party's ability to Adventure, while still keeping combat pretty lethal, I will need to introduce some kind of long-form healing spell. Something that takes an hour or two to cast, but heals a lot of bodily damage would mean the party's not laying up for months between trips into the wild, but at the same time, I don't really want a "cleric" to be necessary for this party either. Are there any lists of pitfalls new GURPS players tend to hit? I come from a heavy character optimization background in other games, and typically provide some heavy oversight to my players (I don't require them to do that, but I do try and prevent abusive combinations). It may sound like I'm writing a heavy-combat campaign, but that's not really true. It's just to me that combat is where a lot of my design choices will be tested, as that's the place where a lot of PC and NPC death will occur based on mechanistic die rolls. The interaction, puzzling, and role-playing I've got a handle on. Anyway, thanks for reading this long post and for any help you can give.