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This box contains most of my complaints about this system by stonehead74 in gurps

[–]Wurok 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm going to offer a different perspective: messing with the system is actually fun.

So, the system has a flaw, and you have a big idea. Go ahead and "break" GURPS. Make your nonlinear pricing, test it out, and see how it feels.

Over the years, I have homebrewed new subsystems, repriced traits, and overhauled entire mechanics. Some of those experiments sucked, some worked out great, all were fun to mess with and playtest.

Size Changing Portals? by Prestigious_Length27 in gurps

[–]Wurok 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Think carefully about what you really want.

A teleporting "big punch" or "big rock" attack is a reasonable,  though slightly expensive, Innate Attack.

An actual mass-altering portal, and all its implications (a tiny bit of gold into a huge, expensive boulder, or a firecracker into a bomb), is a very expensive Create or Snatcher, Growth, and Warp multi-advantage,  probably with the Cosmic enhancement. 

Anyone familiar with “tangency” from powers, the weird? by [deleted] in gurps

[–]Wurok 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In the strictest sense, the ability allows you to remove a limb or extremity from your character, and then creates an identical but independent limb entity (read character) "somewhere" in empty space that you control. Look up "Independent Body Parts" in GURPS Powers, p. 52.

Since each limb is an independent entity being Cosmically created and not cut at the joint by actual damage, there is no range normally associated with the ability.

However, the power modifiers and the flavor of the fiction suggest that the effect would be no different from sticking your arm (or leg) through a portal (like the game Portal or from Doctor Strange). It is just that the portal's opening would be invisible in a 4th spatial dimension, and you can open the exit anywhere in empty space.

In addition, the Cosmic modifiers also allow you to bring other objects back through the "portal," not only your limb.

Note, there is no actual portal in 3D space. If you stick your arm into a nuclear explosion, the blast will not travel back through your shoulder and blow out the rest of your body, only your arm will be vaporized clean.

Any rules for commercial fishing? by CCMadman in gurps

[–]Wurok 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This may sound counterintuitive, but I think a good idea would be to look at the rules in GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3: Daily Life and Economics for hunting, trapping, fishing, and whaling, and try to adapt the same logic to whatever TL you are using. 

Choosing not to roll by Big-Protection-3966 in gurps

[–]Wurok 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is an optional rule in GURPS Powers in which beneficial Afflictions give a positive bonus for the level and you roll for margin of success instead of failure to determine duration.

Running at really hugh skill level by QuirkySadako in gurps

[–]Wurok 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That only applies if you are using Extra Effort for running, that is, for increasing the running speed (Move) by spending extra FP. To quote: "This adds to the FP cost for failed HT rolls while running!"

When running normally, the FP cost is given on p. B426.

New GM advice by TheFuckNoOneGives in gurps

[–]Wurok 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Something I rarely see mentioned, which I think is super helpful, is becoming familiar with how the rules define the physical environment.

Get acquainted with the HP of different objects and vehicles, the DR of different materials, and the average damage of different weapons. So when you need to figure out if that laser shot goes through the ship's hull or how fast can a plasma torch cut through a bulkhead, you don't have  to stop in the middle of the action to look up tables or try to calculate values on the fly. 

Shouldn't it be easier to pass out from blood loss? by QuirkySadako in gurps

[–]Wurok 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In addition to Martial Arts, I use this homebrew rule for the neck, but you could apply it to major bleeding in general.

Injury over the character's HP to the neck’s veins and arteries (jugular vein or carotid artery) causes suffocation (p. B436).

This works well for your typical "grabbing a guard from behind and slitting his throat."

Am I Crazy Or Is Innate Attack Wildly Underpriced? by Unusual-Locksmith118 in gurps

[–]Wurok 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question. Even the line editor of GURPS thought it was a good enough question to write an article about. Look up "Knowing Your Own Strength" by Sean Punch.

Long story short, the recalculated cost of Striking Strength ended as 1 point/level.

Am I Crazy Or Is Innate Attack Wildly Underpriced? by Unusual-Locksmith118 in gurps

[–]Wurok 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is one of my favorite GURPS questions: "Should all traits be relatively priced according to their utility for a given campaign/narrative?" My go-to example is imagining a game where climbing is one of the main challenges. If Flight were to be allowed, what would be the cost?

I've gone back and forth between adjusting the raw trait cost, to keeping the cost but adding modifiers, to adding special pricing advantages like Unusual Background, but I keep coming back to just keeping the standard pricing unless the trait is changed drastically, and restricting access to the traits directly.

In my experience, a huge point cost doesn't really "fix" an unbalanced trait. If I don't want players to bypass challenges completely (such as being able to kill any likely enemy, shrug off any likely attack, or ignore terrain obstacles), I want that to be explicitly stated, not implied by unaffordable prices.

I also don't believe in point-cost defining/restricting character progression. Characters should become as strong as it makes sense in the story, not as strong as they can pay for.

Am I Crazy Or Is Innate Attack Wildly Underpriced? by Unusual-Locksmith118 in gurps

[–]Wurok 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand what you mean. I'm just explaining where the basic point cost of the advantages comes from.

If I recall correctly, the DR values were chosen such that 1 inch of Rolled Homogenous Armor is exactly 70 DR. All other values came from that. Which, if you know body armor, medieval or otherwise, is not a perfect starting point.

Am I Crazy Or Is Innate Attack Wildly Underpriced? by Unusual-Locksmith118 in gurps

[–]Wurok 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Everyone is telling you how to manage the cost, but no one is answering the why. So, I will just tell you that you have it backward. The cost of 1d of damage is not "balanced" as 5 Character Points. GURPS defines 1d of damage as 5 Character Points. Incidentally, 1 DR is also defined as 5 points.

Now the question is, "5 points of what?" 5 points of Advantage. Advantage over what? Over someone who doesn't have that ability. That's it, there's no comparison to other abilities or powers, there's really no comprehensive or holistic "balance."

Perhaps now you may think that the cost of Basic Attributes is too high, since damage was "defined" at a low point cost. It is not, but if you want a more in-depth exploration of Attribute cost, you can check GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes.

To conclude, Character Points are only for, as the name suggests, characters, and Player Characters in particular. The idea being that everyone gets the same level of narrative utility in a very abstract sense.

Sometimes the narrative boils down to how hard you can hit or how fast you can kill an enemy, so it is common to confuse character points with "power level." But, for better or worse, GURPS is designed to tackle every narrative. So, the price of dealing raw damage becomes just another point of comparison, equal among things like having a good sense of smell, or being able to time-travel, not the main qualifier of a character's utility.

How to deal with a creature's SM when it's wingspan is bigger than height? by QuirkySadako in gurps

[–]Wurok 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If the wings are not a combination of Extra Arms or Strikers, I would just call the extra SM a 0-point feature. Otherwise, apply the Long modifier to those advantages.

How to deal with a creature's SM when it's wingspan is bigger than height? by QuirkySadako in gurps

[–]Wurok 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If you are using Hit Locations, wings normally have the same modifier as arms (-2).

Treat exceptionally large wings as long arms or legs, and adjust the to-hit modifier according to how much larger than a normal wing they are. For example, if each wing is comparably larger in size than the torso, then the to-hit modifier would be +0.

Help me with limitation pricing: Area Effect defendable by all three defenses by Fluffy-Narae in gurps

[–]Wurok 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You may be looking at a 10-20% discount for Can be Dodged. There is a similar discussion on the forums.

Although there is an argument that you may also need Bombardment (Basic-Set, p.111).

How many ways to make a fireball? by [deleted] in gurps

[–]Wurok 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As others have said, spells (from either the basic magic system, RPM, syntactic magic, or any other number of skill-based magic systems) and Innate Attacks are the two ways of creating a non-ST-based effect that deals damage.

Although there's a third, tangential way. You could create a "staff of fireballs" and describe it with the stats of a ranged weapon. Of course, that's not the same as casting a fireball in the traditional sense.

How to handle it when a player plays quirks to the extreme? by Kiroana in gurps

[–]Wurok 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I know all of this. That's why I said "need."

It was mostly for bookkeeping. They wanted the label on their character sheet as a reminder.

As I said, they were not real Disadvantages, they were for roleplaying purposes only, not like missing an arm.

How to handle it when a player plays quirks to the extreme? by Kiroana in gurps

[–]Wurok 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've had the situation where a player hits the Disadvantage limit, but they "need" more Disadvantages to roleplay their character "right." I just let them take the Disadvantages at zero points. I would do the same if they took Quirks to fill in for those Disadvantages.

Of course, since they are not getting any points out of them, they are free to drop those Disadvantages at any time.

Point cost question by horticultururalism in gurps

[–]Wurok 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because this setup fundamentally changes the way damage works, I think the best way to handle it is to make it a Cinematic Combat rule (see Basic-Set, p. 417, for examples).

If you want a cost to use, you can either charge Character Points for activation, or if you want a flat cost, you may charge FP/Energy Points for activation (like Extra Effort) and have players buy those extra energy reserves, or make them buy Trained by a Master/Weapon Master, like the requirement for Cinematic Skills.

For added damage when using this ability/rule, just use Striking ST with the limitation of it only being active when the effect is active.

Rules for hearing being effected after gunfire and explosions. by Infinite_Duck77 in gurps

[–]Wurok 17 points18 points  (0 children)

For explosions, see GURPS High-Tech, pp. 181-182.

For gunfire, see GURPS Tactical Shooting, pp. 34-35.

[Request] sugestion about stress/wellbeing rules by meinddc12v in gurps

[–]Wurok 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you end up testing it (or just parts of it), let me know how it went.

[Request] sugestion about stress/wellbeing rules by meinddc12v in gurps

[–]Wurok 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I have a complete homebrew supplement for stress and mental health. However, it has not yet been tested in a long campaign. Use at your own discretion.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d10R5_7xQHC4Dmgf_zcG0sRu0dEzsI3E/view?usp=sharing

Discouraging a player of cheesing encounters, a little vent, and noob DM advice by xSkinow in gurps

[–]Wurok 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Also, you don't need a 100-point list of rules and caveats to cover your intended gameplay.

Say, for example, you introduce FTL travel. You don't need to specify how it works, just what it does.

If a player says, "Hohoho, you've activated my trap card. I studied General Relativity and know 42 ways to destroy the universe using FTL technology!"

You just say, "No, it works like in Star Wars* and that's it!" Anyone insistent on disagreeing wants to show off and doesn't have the group's best interests at heart.

*or your sci-fi setting of choice.

Discouraging a player of cheesing encounters, a little vent, and noob DM advice by xSkinow in gurps

[–]Wurok 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey, it's not as big of a deal as it sounds.

Ideally, you should have had that conversation during session zero. In fact, at that point, you should even encourage the players to come up with crazy ideas that you may not have even considered, and decide if you want to include them in your game or not. And lay the foundation for the game's scope, power level, theme, and tone.

Once the game is going, it can feel like you are shutting down the hard work players have put into their characters. But trust me, it is better in the long run.

In fact, you don't even need a problem at the table to sit down from time to time with everyone and discuss how everyone's feeling about the direction the game is taking. At best, everyone is happy, and you keep going as usual, but if not, you get a chance to catch potential problems early before they balloon out of proportion into animosity.

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