[GURPS Lite] Creating My First Adventure, Maybe Converting?

[Mulsiphix]

My wife and I played our first GURPS Lite combat simulation today. We played several rounds until it was ridiculously familiar and then stopped (most characters were well below 0 HP but still making their health rolls. I am aware of the adventure Caravan to Ein Arris but was hoping to start with something smaller and preferably something we are more interested in.

We love fantasy and would love to do a basic fantasy/dungeon-crawl adventure but I am having trouble finding an adventure that would give us a great tour of the remainder of GURPS Lite. Our goal is to move onto GURPS Basic or GURPS Dungeon Fantasy using the basic set once we graduate from Lite and build our own adventures. But for now we still need to break in the system. I was hoping some of you folks could give me some adventure ideas or recommendations (products for free or purchase) that might help us with this. Any feedback would be greatly welcomed.

Note that I am new to GM'ing. GURPS is the first pen and paper RPG I am learning to play (long time Battletech player). I'm finding it difficult to take simple ideas and overviews for adventures and really flesh them out.

[Blind Mapmaker]

GURPS is a bit lacking in adventures compared to systems like D&D or Pathfinder. For Dungeon Fantasyesque games I've been getting good mileage out of Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics. They are not perfect for one-player games and you have to ditch (or mook) a lot of monsters to make it work, but they have pretty interesting crawls. Converting is hard for a beginner GM, though. If you are interested, I still have converted stats for DCC #10 and #38 and I could translate them to GURPS Light (and back to English).

Another option would be to use Expeditious Retreat Press' One on One Adventures. I've bought these when there was a sale, but I never got around to reading them, so I can't say much about their quality. They are ready-made for one GM and one character, though.

Both these options are about as large (or larger) as Caravan to Ein Aris, though. For smaller stuff you could go worse than AEG's Adventure Boosters series. True, they are far less interesting than the mentioned products, but they are very short and dirt cheap. I can give you some stat conversions for the linked module if you want.

Edit: Upon re-reading your post I realized that you want help creating an adventure more than pre-made adventures. Adventure design is not that hard, but it probably helps to play one or two adventures before doing so.

For Dungeon Fantasy best start off with a boss monster and why it is in the area. Say a vampire who feeds on the humans in a village and lairs in an old, ruined castle. Then start making this boss more interesting. Maybe the vampire can only feed on strangers staying in the area. So now you have a hook to get your character into this, your character is bitten and the next visit could be deadly. Then think about the location and add what's expected, e.g. ruined walls, crows everywhere, an extensive old dungeon, a safe room with no windows and an iron door where the vampire sleeps in his coffin. Maybe add an unexpected element, but don't overdo it. The vampire could have an interest in reading and therefore a large library. Then add some initial challenges, low-strength (or surprised) monsters or traps or maybe even finding the lair, e.g. dumb, but resilient skeletons. Have a larger challenge in-between, like a cunningly disguised pit trap. If you want to draw it out, have a series of smaller challenges while your player searches for the big bad. Then finish of with the boss monster and maybe one or two lesser monsters, though adding lesser monsters can be tough if there is only one player character.

The key is to include some unexpected things, while not going off on a tangent. You've got to give your player things they expect and some surprises. If you got can describe things vividly, that's a plus, but always give your player a chance to act. If your player comes up with unexpected ways to solve a problem, let them unless they are patently ridiculous. Don't make this too hard. An attribute roll on a highish attribute is enough challenge for a implementing a good idea. It helps if you can include non-combat challenges as they are less rules-bound and offer more of an opportunity for roleplaying. Don't worry too much about stats in the beginning. Attributes, weapon skills, active defence and damage resistance are plenty.

[Mulsiphix]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker;1400506For Dungeon Fantasyesque games I've been getting good mileage out of Goodman Games' [I

Dungeon Crawl Classics[/I]. Converting is hard for a beginner GM, though. If you are interested, I still have converted stats for DCC #10 and #38 and I could translate them to GURPS Light (and back to English).

I own quite a few of these. I loved the premise of the line and when d20 was going out Goodman Games had unbelievable sales ($1 each iirc. I have 37 of the 52 for 3E!) on DTRPG. I own both of these and would LOVE your conversions. I can't tell you how excited I am!

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Another option would be to use Expeditious Retreat Press' One on One Adventures.

They sound like they would be perfect for us. I'll have to do some digging and see if any of them were reviewed positively. Looks like there is a Compendium of the first 10 for $18 over at e23. Very nice =)

[Blind Mapmaker]

Originally Posted by Mulsiphix

I own quite a few of these. I loved the premise of the line and when d20 was going out Goodman Games had unbelievable sales ($1 each iirc. I have 37 of the 52 for 3E!) on DTRPG. I own both of these and would LOVE your conversions. I can't tell you how excited I am!

Glad to be of help. Any preference of which one I should do first? I probably won't have the first one ready before Monday. I got to review the files and my stats are in German. Would you like stats for all monsters or a paired-down version? Only GURPS Light stats or also more comprehensive ones? I guess I have to look up what GURPS Light actually includes first.

They sound like they would be perfect for us. I'll have to do some digging and see if any of them were reviewed positively. Looks like there is a Compendium of the first 10 for $18 over at e23. Very nice =)

They are alright, but I wouldn't use the word perfect. They're very straight-forward and would probably fit on 8-9 regular DIN A 4 pages. The art is pretty horrible and you would have to spice them up a bit to make them really interesting. I basically added a intro, a couple of evil clerics and a disgusting internal organ zombie to the module I linked to make it interesting for a group of raw beginners.

Good to know they are on e23, though. Didn't find them with a quick search (the search engine could use some work). If you don't have to be penny-pinching, you probably won't regret buying that 18$-bundle. If you are using GURPS Lite even partially to save on money, I would put those 18$ towards GURPS Basic and Dungeon Fantasy 1-3. That's a better investment if you already have the Dungeon Crawl Classics.

[DAT]

For a One-on-One adventure, another thing to consider is your player. What type of character is she interested in playing?

A Cleric or Holy Warrior up against a dungeon full of skeletons - no problem.

A Thief with only impailing weapons against a dungeon full of skeletons - problem.

[trooper6]

I think my advice is for making your first adventure...don't make the adventure yet.

This is what I'd recommend.

1) Come up with an idea of the location of the campaign...this could be a city, a kingdom, a small town, etc. Don't go too crazy. But it should be something that has a bit of potential (or actual) conflict built in. For example, "The game starts in the March of Silverpoint. Silverpoint Village is a small community in the foothills of the Ironbridge mountains at the southern most edge of the Kingdom of Garland. The Ironbridge mountains are home to monsters of all types and the Marquis of Silverpoint line of defense protecting the rest of the kingdom from monster invasion. (this sets up D&D sort of kill monster quests). The current King of Garland is well liked, but has been quite ill for some time. He has two children, a daughter and a son. The daughter is older and is well regarded throughout the Kingdom. The son is an irresponsible wastrel, yet he is the heir. Neither is married...and there is concern that if the King were to die the kingdom would fall into Civil War (this sets up some political adventure possibilities). Recently, gold was found in the Ironbridge foothills and Silverpoint Village is finding itself flooded with gold seekers wanting to venture into the monster infested hills to seek their fortune. (This is sets up some financial/trading quests, gives justification for outsiders to be in the village, and can set up some more conflict).

So you have given a really basic sense of the world with some big overview conflicts built in. Then...

2) Have your wife make her character. Ask her, after telling her about the world a bit, what sort of character she'd like to make. Make the character with her and ask her questions that will get her to think about her character's background, motivations, and goals. Ask her about her character's childhood...who her parents were. Ask her about what she loves and hates and fears. Ask who here friends are. Just get her to get a character connected to the world and that is interesting. I would discourage you from going for the D&D standard "adventurer" who has no connection to the world...who just adventures with no particular motivation.

Let's look at two character concept possibilities.

a) (your wife needs a lot of coaxing).
Her: Um...I want to make a fighter!
You: Okay, do you want to be a noble? a Knight? a Squire? a Sellsword? a soldier of the Silverpoint village guard?
Her: Hm. Can I be someone who came because they hear about the gold?
You: Sure, so you are a prospector. Where did you come from and why did you come?
Her: Can I be an escaped Gladiator? ... And I think that if I can strike it rich I can pay off the bill for my freedom...and maybe also the bill for the freedom of my...little sister who is still enslaved?
You: Sure. Okay, so you are from the neighboring Lightning Empire--they are expansionist and very authoritarian. They have a very strict caste system with slaves at the bottom and the five-headed God at the top (they are a five person council) Slaves, if they can escape, will often escape to the Kingdom of Garland.

Now this is enough for you to start off with some stuff. The character has motivation: get money to buy self and sister out of slavery. That is good motivation. Also, there is some conflict in there. You can have slave hunters come after the character, you can have people recognizer her as a gladiator and think she is awesome, or want to challenge her. So there is some stuff to do.

Option b (wife doesn't need much coaxing)
Her: Oh, I want to be the daughter of the Marquis. Can I do that?
You: Sure.
Her: I want to be skilled at fencing and riding and all the courtly skills. I bit of a tomboy growing up, but good looking and charming. My father wants to marry me off to the Prince...but I want to stay and run the March when my father dies.
You: Okay...but you are not yet betrothed to the Prince...that is something that your father wants.
Her: Sure! I want to be good at leadership and intrigue.
You: Do you have any siblings?
Her: No, I'm an only child, which is why I want to stay here. Oh, I have an idea, can I be in charge of the village watch?--Captain of the Guard sort of thing?
You: Sure.

By now, you have enough for this character as well. But your wife might have more ideas to deepen the character.

Once the character is created, then you think about the adventure.

For the first one, it looks like she wants more straightforward fighting so I'd probably do something like: The character starts off in town gathering supplies and hearing gossip. Give some gossip, but also talk about how some prospectors have been going missing. The PC goes off into the hills to start prospecting. While looking for a good dig site they come across a cave complex. (Small). Have some bandits in the caves. They have been robbing and killing prospectors. So the PC goes through the cave and kills the bandits (hopefully) and rescues someone interesting (the hook for the next adventure).

For the second one it looks like she wants a bit more politics, so maybe I'd go with something like--maybe the PC is invited to participate in the Spring Tourney--or something like that. It is a series of three events that would test the skills of all the young nobles--a melee event/joust for strength, a Grand Ball for Grace, and some third thing for Intelligence--maybe some sort of scavenger hunt with clues. At the event I'd have her competing against both the Prince and the Princess as well as some other nobles. What would be the most interesting? Maybe she learns that whichever of the two (Prince or Princess) to the best match will become the heir...and maybe this Tourney has got a lot of people angling to impress their Highnesses. And maybe it turns out the Princess is really quite terrible...a cheater and ruthless and dishonorable. So now what will she do? The adventure will basically be the three events, but throw in some court intrigue. If she ends up liking the Prince then throw in some problems...like the Princess tries to sabotage her, or she has to rush home because her home is being invaded by monsters from the mountains.

The adventure itself should be small. 2-3 things to do. But it should be tailored to fit the sort of character & skills your wife makes. And it should connect to the larger world and it should open up things to point to further adventures based on the outcome of this one.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

[mehrkat]

This might seem like a strange suggestion but couldn't you have standard character creation with gurps lite and just make up the supernatural stuff

For instance she wants to play a wizard who can see magic -- then just say "you can see magic" ditto for sharp hearing or seeing at night. If she wants a magic bolt. Look up the stats for arrow and get rid of the bow. Magic claws or a shocking grasp look up the stats for a spear and use those.

The nice thing about GURPS. The really nice thing about GURPS is that you can look at GURPS and think about "real world" affects of stuff. That means you can just add stuff and estimate the real world affect yourself.

When you have multiple characters some day you'll want to be a little more careful about making sure the characters are equal with the "added" abilities.
But if you have players that are willing to bend a bit and tweak characters as you go you should do fine.

[whswhs]

I actually have hardly ever run any published adventures. This is partly an artifact of my gaming history: I started played Dungeons and Dragons in the 1970s, before TSR published their first adventure, when the only way to play was to have someone create their own dungeon—or wilderness, and I quickly went over to creating wildernesses. I remember when I first saw Blackmoor, a substantial part of which was the first scenario I'd ever seen, and was totally perplexed about what I was supposed to do with it.

But aside from history, I personally find that a different approach suits my needs better: I make up adventures, or, more precisely, situations and problems. This lets me tailor them to the interests of my players, the abilities of their characters, and my concept of the game world. You could say that what I offer is bespoke rather than off the rack. I've gotten a large part of a campaign by exploiting hints in two players' character designs and backstories.

I don't necessarily recommend this to you, or to everyone. But I wanted to mention it as another approach. I've been pretty happy with its results.

Bill Stoddard

[Mulsiphix]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Glad to be of help. Any preference of which one I should do first? I probably won't have the first one ready before Monday. I got to review the files and my stats are in German. Would you like stats for all monsters or a paired-down version? Only GURPS Light stats or also more comprehensive ones? I guess I have to look up what GURPS Light actually includes first.

I think I prefer them to be the full GURPS Rules. I don't plan on being in GURPS Lite any longer than I have to. I am eager to break into the basic set (which I do own). I'm very excited to expand my options. I just want to make sure I have down the super basics before I move onto full GURPS itself. I'll probably run something smaller, probably homebrew after all of the advice given here, in GURPS Lite before I move onto enjoying the DCC titles. Don't worry about time though. I leave for a week on Monday [06-29-2012] and won't be back until the following Sunday [07-08-2012]. Thank you so much for this!!

[Mulsiphix]

I love what I am reading. I think I am going to go ahead and go forward with the method trooper6 described (thank you so much!). I really like the thought process example for dungeon design that Blind Mapmaker suggested as well (thank you!!). I feel I can come up with the story on the fly, at least enough for her to have fun. My only primary concern now is figuring out NPC's and monster stats. Is there a good way of going about this? Do I want to give them all advantages/disadvantages or do I want to keep them super basic? Should I try and stat out every person she is likely to encounter?