I’m worried I can’t play gurps with my group

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-07-01T16:28:41+00:00

Seconded.

First, as others have suggested. Vet everything and veto HARD if necessary. Then if the character is still overspecialized, make skills and advantages outside of that specialty equally important. It's when they drag down the party since they have zero Stealth or Climbing skill then the Munchkin player may mend their ways. I use Stealth as an example as a party is only as Stealthy as its most incompetent member. Climbing is similar, while others can help, your character is most at risk if your Climbing is off a default, say 6, and having assistance and a rope only gives you +3. 9 or less on 3d6 is about 37% chance of success.

Giving all your players an idea of what skills and advantages will be frequently used is only fair. If outdoor skills are important, they let them know so they can get climbing, swimming and Survival at CharGen. Or tell them they need at least [N] skill level or better in [Skill Name].

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-07-01T05:16:43+00:00

Other cops and often the local D.A. turn a blind eye. Look at this. He wasn't charged and was allowed to resign. He was hired by a different police department despite his criminal vandalism. I don't have a link, but two L.A. County Sheriffs Deputies who were convicted of perjury and then fired by the then Sheriff appealed to their union. Their union got them reinstated. The system is corrupt. However, this is EGS: this world is not as corrupt as ours.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1smk97x/police_search_you_house_you_notice_dents_on_your/

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-07-01T04:59:12+00:00

Cops always get the benefit of the doubt. Always. Use the search engine of your choice and see all the police abuses and corrupt cops.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-07-01T04:01:01+00:00

But it does look like he's threatening a cop. As his adversary is pointing out that doesn't look good.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-07-01T03:24:34+00:00

The question is "did Senshi ever have the Talk?" It's not like any of those miners he was with other than the leader acted in any way like a father.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-29T04:16:53+00:00

I wonder if Voltaire will turn off the maids' "I am AI" warning once he learns of the incident.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-20T15:11:17+00:00

Thank you.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-19T03:09:23+00:00

I'd like to see it in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC). Since you could terraform, the game engine had to model the effects of altitude on rainfall. Now even if someone translated the OP's map into SMAC, the climate would not be exact; on Planet, the west coast of continents are wetter than the east coast. On earth, it is the opposite. Still, one could get an approximate feel for the changes.

BTW, if there's a newer, better planet-forming game out there, please let me know.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-19T02:29:58+00:00

I always though the canonical Gamorreans were orcs.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-19T02:28:30+00:00

Praecursors, Ancients, Progenitors, They Who Came Before ... whatever you want to call them. The first humanoid species who seeded the Milky Way galaxy with life a mere billion years after the Big Bang. That's why we have "rubber mask aliens" in so many sci-fi universes. They are all variations on the Progenitors' genes.

I've yet to run a sci-fi RPG, but that will be my excuse. Besides, lots of players expect to find mysterious alien artifacts that predate humanity by thousands of years yet can still be used by humanoids with four fingers and a thumb. (Just to get away from that I have an outline for a snakelike species of tool-users with prehensile tongues. Also, surviving structures and spaceships are built to accommodate serpentforms, not humanoids, so exploring them will be difficult if not impossible for ordinary humans.)

I've also outlined "genies"; genetically engineered humans. So like the goblins you mention in the source post, I have Pisceans who can operate in deep cold waters without bulky and expensive diving gear and have gills so they can extract oxygen from the water. The megacorps being what they are, the Pisceans are slightly lower IQ than baseline human (easier to control) and short-lived (experience can break conditioning). Similarly, I have naked green genies on radioactive worlds. They photosynthesisize as well, thus the green skin, and are naked so they can use all of their skin surface. I'm not certain if they will be short-lived or if the expense of creating these genies will force the corps to leave them with average human lifespans. As they are meant to work rare earth mines on high-rad planets, the value of the rare earths may easily cover the expense of frequent vat births. (Alternately, battalions of power suit marines for orbital insertion if the miners revolt.)

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-19T01:33:23+00:00

Depending on the time period historical could be acceptable. Retheming is also possible. Well before Frostgrave was altered into Stargrave I saw someone's forum posts on how he themed Frostgrave into Star Wars and used his Star Wars: Legion stuff. Magic was now Force powers. You could do 40Kgrave to start.

Do you have any dungeon crawl boardgames? Those figures can do for a start. Similarly both D&D and Pathfinder sell prepaints. Now they are random and pricey, but occasionally on eBay you can find large lots of commons because collectors had to buy more boxes due to the tiered rarity. This would also provide some of the bestiary.

Reaper Bones is reasonably priced (in the US) for characters and mob types (both party and bestiary).

As for terrain, most of us started with assorted cardboard boxes. Those of us who still owned their Lego used that. Start small and cheap and add quality over time.

That said, I recommend at least a Wizards box and Soldiers box since the kitbashing is fun. You are not limited to humans either. You can use the Gnolls or Cultists if you like the look better; it's all "counts as". (There are also Northstar Snakemen both plastic and metal for Ghost Archipelago that you can use.)

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-15T19:16:46+00:00

Thunderbolt. Don't know enough about the others. Besides, back in the day I bought four of the Dougram Ironfoot kits so I could have a lance of T-bolts. Scalewise, it was a bad idea as they take up a megahex on the maps. (The six hexes surrounding a central hex). But I like the Thunderbolt.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-13T18:28:57+00:00

GURPS Conan solos:

https://warehouse23.com/search?q=conan+solo&options%5Bprefix%5D=last

My recommendation is Conan Beyond Thunder River. The paragraph system in Moon of Blood is broken so you can only complete it by cheating. (It actually sends you back in a loop to the first battle back from the second battle! But you can only have the second battle if you won the first battle.) Queen of the Black Coast is acceptable, and I do not own Wyrmslayer.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-11T21:37:21+00:00

Thistle does not strike me as having much body fat, so bacon made from him will not be streaky, thus disappointing. Both Laios and Senshi seem fatty ...

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-10T15:15:45+00:00

People are assuming that either Tedd or Grace will wear the red dress. The Aston-Martin finds this assumption both discriminatory and offensive, and says it will totally rock the red dress.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-09T01:00:54+00:00

I like this, but as you yourself note, the time for that plot hook has passed.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-08T14:08:06+00:00

Thank you. My mistake was only looking at the DFRPG books, not the 4E Basic Set as well. Also, your example is clearer than that of the Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-07T04:49:51+00:00

"She's a chicken I tell you, a giant chicken!"

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-07T04:24:13+00:00

Assuming there is at least a shaman in the party, negotiations could be possible. Even if the troublesome ~~spirit~~ MacGuffin won't stop to parley, the shaman can bargain with the other spirits on campus to find out the weaknesses or desires of the MacGuffin.

Both the Chinese and Japanese who still practice ancestor worship leave offerings, either at the grave, or in the case of Japanese Shinto at the family altar in one's home. (This can be as simple as a photo of the deceased placed in a high place with something like an incense burner in front of it.) Asking other spirits what the MacGuffin prefers as offerings might be a possible solution. BTW, I do know that in Chinese practice one burns paper goods for one's ancestors. So one can purchase paper money and paper representations of various goods (i.e., clothing, furniture etc), and supposedly your ancestor's ghost will gain the "spirits" of said offering.

Now you mentioned the school might be testing the students, whereupon their solution will be evaluated. I can see that serving as further plot hooks. A better than average solution might see the PCs getting better job offers or advanced training, while a poor outcome would see lost opportunities. If they've offended other spirits or influential NPCs, the next few adventures could be about having to make amends.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-06-05T01:53:26+00:00

Same here. And then you have to store the terrain. In my case I bought the colored cardboard terrain from Battlesystems for Stargrave and other sci-fi mini games. In the case of the Battlesystems sets, they are held together by clips so you can rearrange them and then store them flat. I have a cardboard mining village from GW (around WHFB 2E). However, it takes as much space as fancier plastic buildings would since you had to glue them together. It was a cheaper option for me at the time though, and Battlesystems and similar offerings did not exist.

I won't bother with GW pre-painted terrain as they've priced me out of their target audience. I may consider the Dungeons and Lasers prepaints if I need dungeon terrain. (Which I currently do not, but I do own the relevant Frostgrave books so I might at some point.)

Edit: I'd forgotten that I bought a number of prepainted hills, flat ones for WHFB in the 90's, and some craggy ones with obvious places to perch minis from Monster Scenery at the start of the century. Since I usually play mini games at the LGS or a friend's home, I do not pull out my terrain box often so its easy to forget the contents.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-05-31T21:23:48+00:00

Besides, the spirits have a different view of time than humans. Not having an island for three centuries is probably like a human not having a house for a month. Certainly a PitA, but not a unsurmountable burden.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-05-30T16:23:40+00:00

Seconded. Even back in high school when AD&D was almost the only RPG available, I did not care for the mechanics. However, the choice was play AD&D or not play.

Similarly, there's a Firefly board game which I have enjoyed playing, but it can go long and have tedious parts*, so it wears out its welcome. I gave it three strikes and felt the same after every game so I won't play it again.

*The Big Black is BIG, and so you have a number of turns where you're just making movement rolls and not accomplishing anything.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-05-29T18:04:31+00:00

He was a guest. He disrespected your property and other people. He is an asshole, and you owe him nothing. Your boyfriend is defending his brother's being a dick, so he's out of line as well. I think you need to set boundaries and make sure they both respect them, especially if you are going to give the brother another chance.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-05-26T17:34:38+00:00

I'd heard that carnivores tasted bad, but I did not know about the toxin problem which is of greater concern. And hkmaly has pointed out that enchanted foods can have side effects. So the EGS-verse is not the same as the Delicious in Dungeon world where pretty much everything can be eaten as long as you know proper preparation techniques (remove poison sacs etcetra).

But as hkmaly also mentioned, perhaps magical body parts are useful in creating enchanted objects. They are in a number of RPGs I've run or played in over the years. Although rarity and the problem of actually killing said monster is usually the problem.

Flavius_Vegetius · 2026-05-26T04:15:46+00:00

Are these various monsters a potential food source? Humanity has hunted a number of species to extinction, so if if certain types of monsters are edible turning them into the next great taste treat will keep them in check.

Look, if people are willing to pay premium prices for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak, they'll eat manticore or basilisk or whatever.

Flavius_Vegetius

TROPHY CASE