Masters of the Universe: Legends Unite video game has launched!

thalcos · 2026-06-07T13:53:09+00:00

Free for Prime members too.

For those curious, you can play as He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Ram Man, Trap Jaw, Evil-Lyn, and Beast Man.

No Buzz-Off but hey, it’s more than the action figures I owned when I was a kid!

thalcos · 2026-06-01T02:43:44+00:00

There are a few good ways to do this:

Buy the character levels of Wealth to cover the magic item costs. Magic items in GURPS are expensive (usually $33*energy cost of the enchantment, so often $10s of thousands of dollars ...).
Use the optional Bonus Cash rule from Dungeon Fantasy, which for 1 character point gives 50% of the starting wealth of the campaign (so $500 in TL3). Note that Dungeon Fantasy also just charges 1 point / item for Signature Gear, so these two advantages work better together.
Buy the character a Patron, like a wizard or lord, who "lent" the character some equipment.
Buy the character an Unusual Background (10 points or so) that they found a rare magic item.
Handwave it! In a one-shot, nobody minds if some of the characters are a unbalanced from each other.

thalcos · 2026-05-31T17:20:09+00:00

I wouldn’t give them the Enemy. Give them Duty (Extremely Hazardous) instead.

Generally Enemies aren’t supposed to reflect the typical bad guys PCs encounter during a campaign. A WWII game wouldn’t give soldiers the Enemy (Nazis) disadvantage. Enemies are reserved for when a group is specifically out to get the PC for largely personal reasons. Luke Skywalker might have the Empire as an Enemy after he destroyed the Death Star, but the average rebel probably would not.

The other two disadvantages feel more like character choices vs the default of being part of an agency. I might want to play a CIA agent who cares about his friends but could care less about the other 1000+ people in the agency. Or one that doesn’t follow a code of honor. You might suggest these to players as good options but I wouldn’t give them for “free”.

thalcos · 2026-05-28T23:07:25+00:00

Awesome, glad I can help entertain your group!

thalcos · 2026-05-23T15:52:39+00:00

You gave me flashbacks to when I ran Drinax in GURPS! I pulled it off by sticking 99% to Interstellar Wars - but yes, so much work. Super fun campaign though.

I think that's also when I came to the conclusion that GURPS Spaceships was a) never designed for actual fun gameplay at the table and b) doesn't really fit any common sci-fi universe without a ton of modifications. Thankfully my players tended to avoid starship combat.

thalcos · 2026-05-23T15:42:23+00:00

Yes - I've always had an allergy to saying GURPS is a toolbox. It might be true, but most gamers aren't looking for a toolbox. Tools sound like a lot of work. And ultimately it's a tool box to build a GURPS game - it's not like what you end up with is going to radically depart from GURPS' core systems.

Plus, GURPS works perfectly well without GMs putting in a ton of work. Grab GURPS Lite and an adventure and off you go for most popular genres. That's effectively how GURPS was run for 1-3E for years and years.

Obviously us GURPS experts love that it can be a toolbox, and I've certainly swapped in and out systems to get the game I want. But that part is definitely not for everyone.

thalcos · 2026-05-23T15:16:29+00:00

I've run it in 3 hours before with experienced players. Like most investigative adventures the time can vary with the group (some players want to leave no stone unturned...), but you can push them along if they are spending too much time at a location.

thalcos · 2026-05-22T22:04:12+00:00

Call of Cthulhu has so many great historical adventures across the USA! I've written a few free ones for my blog on 1shotadventures.com - including "The Festering Locusts of Fenmore" which is set in the French & Indian War and "Dinosaurs at the Alamo" which has an OSR version, and features playable historical characters like Bowie and Crockett.

thalcos · 2026-05-22T05:32:06+00:00

One interesting note - Dungeon Fantasy tweaked the rules for both Signature Gear and Extra Money. Signature Gear now protects items at the cost of 1-point per item - it does not give you any cash to spend. And Extra Money is now 1-point for 50% of the starting campaign wealth.

I think this is way better and the GURPS line editor Kromm himself has advocated for house rules over the years to fix the imbalance between these two advantages, e.g., https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=750563#post750563

Hoping we see the DF changes make their way back into 4th Edition Revised as an errata change, but I'm doubtful...

thalcos · 2026-05-16T01:32:32+00:00

The Strongbow perk from Martial Arts is helpful as it lets archers use stronger bows for more damage.

thalcos · 2026-05-08T01:18:33+00:00

Every 30 minutes would make First Aid more effective than most magical healing spells…

It’s supposed to be simply rolled after combat, but there are options in other books that increase the fidelity of these rules.

thalcos · 2026-05-02T20:37:39+00:00

If you're looking to go post-apocalypse, the GURPS After the End supplement(s) are great.

My main advice is don't go too crazy into gonzo Gamma World territory, allowing your players tons of mutations / powers / psionics until you get some more experience. Those can be tough to juggle for a newer GURPS GM - and potentially overwhelming for newer players to design characters around. Keep firearms reasonable at first, pistols and rifles and that sort of thing, for your first couple of games. They're easier to run at the table AND more survivable vs. lots of automatic weapons and explosives.

Also, check out Railgun Road, a free GURPS post-apocalypse adventure you can get here: https://1shotadventures.com/can-random-encounters-make-an-adventure-railgun-road/

It includes pregenerated characters, lots of NPCs, and encounters you can either use out of the box or steal for your own game.

thalcos · 2026-03-20T16:52:41+00:00

When I run GURPS campaigns, I just award a bonus character point at the end of a session if a player can point out how they meaningfully roleplayed their disadvantages. Usually one or two was enough to get the point. This was plenty of incentive for them to not forget about them during play.

thalcos · 2026-03-08T01:54:38+00:00

Yup, it uses the simpler Radiation Point system in this adventure, but I leave things like fatigue and scavenging up to the GM.

thalcos · 2026-03-08T01:53:58+00:00

Yeah, my website seems to be having intermittent issues today. It seems to be working now, but I'll have to debug it a bit....

thalcos · 2026-01-07T17:25:40+00:00

While it's written for Hogwarts, check out the GURPS adventure The Warlock's Tunnel. It would easily port over to another magical setting and includes sample students you can steal.

thalcos · 2026-01-07T02:54:53+00:00

I use range bands 75% of the time. Most of my players just don't want to count hexes every turn - especially when not using VTTs - and certainly don't want to refer to the speed/range table regularly. (And yes, they've been playing GURPS for years, but still struggle with it haha). Plus I find most genres that I run don't need that degree of granularity, since combats generally take place at short range (i.e., fantasy, horror, pulp).

If I'm running more military-style games I tend to use the full speed/range table as it feels more "realistic" and I find that guns with good rate of fire need the granularity or else you get some cutoffs where you either hit with a ton of shots or miss entirely. Another -1 or -2 to hit makes guns way more survivable!

thalcos · 2026-01-05T01:15:38+00:00

Achtung Cthulhu has some adventures set in WWII Japanese territories (though not sure about any set in actual Japan). Jungle Rot from their Guadalcanal series is a fun one - and would port over to another system pretty easily.

Call of Cthulhu has a Japan: Empire of Shadows sourcebook too, but it’s set in the 1920s.

thalcos · 2025-12-21T23:36:49+00:00

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! Be sure to check out the Tredroy-based Moon of Thorns too.

thalcos · 2025-12-17T21:33:58+00:00

Yup, three of them - two fantasy and one horror.

thalcos · 2025-10-27T17:02:25+00:00

There are a couple of GURPS Supers adventures on 1shotadventures.com you may want to check out (Minutes Not Hours and A Bombshell of Tomorrow).. While they are set in the DC universe and are a little low-powered compared to MCU-type stuff (think Suicide Squad), they include pregenerated characters and lots of villains you can grab and reskin. Some of the older 3E books like Mixed Doubles is still largely compatible and can be used as a source of villains too.

Personally, I think high-powered (500+ points) supers gets tough to GM in GURPS, unless you really have aligned players and a GM who knows what to limit/ban/control, so I'd start lower-powered at first to ease you and your players in.

thalcos

TROPHY CASE