>>97111514
>How often does Bulk come up in your games?
Not very because my players don't want to play modern or scifi, and Move and Attack bafflingly doesn't use a form of Bulk stat. Is there a Pyramid article for an alternate treatment of it?

>>97111533
*melee move and attack

>>97111514
Bulk comes up a lot as we play a lot of modern games. It doesn't really need much to make it interesting, works as intended. We use the CQB skill from Tactical Shooting and the gun mod rules, so a lot of weapons can be made move and attack safe with the right mods and training.

>>97111533
>>97111538
Since close combat penalties for ranged weapons are based on Bulk, it might be acceptable to reverse-engineer the close combat penalties for melee weapons into Bulk. That gives a Bulk penalty of -4 per yard of reach. That seems like a lot, though; it's almost always going to be a worse penalty than usual unless you're using a close combat weapon or fighting unarmed. But if it ignores the skill cap on Move and Attack, then that might be fair?

>>97112390
Probably better to figure melee bulk from length and weight.

>>97111533
>and Move and Attack bafflingly doesn't use a form of Bulk stat
It doesn't because there's no reason to. Melee weapons aren't nearly affected by movement as a firearm/bow would be. The only stupid thing is the 9 skill level cap.

>>97112578
Move and Attack is basically full sprint speed, you don't think that affects your accuracy with melee weapons?

>>97113274
Not to the point of a 20 skill master, or even 14 skill veteran only having a 50/50 shot of actually hitting someone.

>>97113357
Actually, adding onto this. I think the bigger problem is that while ranged weapons have to handle Bulk, which can be harsher than the flat -4 you get from move and attack. They also have access to techniques and advantages that minimize or completely negate the bulk penalties. While, as far as I know, there's no advantages or innate techniques for cinematic melee masters to remove the 9 skill cap. They have to spend FP to do it.

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>>97113621
>As far as I know, there's no advantages or innate techniques for cinematic melee masters to remove the 9 skill cap.
It's been mentioned before that Martial Arts p. 91 allows you to create a "Better Move and Attack" technique that adds a −1 skill penalty in exchange for removing the cap on effective skill.

>>97113621
>>97113650
Personally, I just swapped the skill cap of 9 for a -1 penalty to skill as a campaign feature for everyone. Same thing with Wild Swings and shooting a target outside your Arc of Vision. The only time I enforce a skill cap is when Hitting the Wrong Target; but even then, I still allow Rapid Fire bonuses to raise the skill cap for that.

Ahem.

Kill Realm Management. Behead Realm Management. Roundhouse kick Realm Management into the concrete. Slam dunk Realm Management into the trashcan. Crucify filthy Realm Management. Defecate in Realm Management's food. Launch Realm Management into the sun. Stir fry Realm Management in a wok. Toss Realm Management into active volcanoes. Urinate into Realm Management's gas tank. Judo throw Realm Management into a wood chipper. Twist Realm Management's head off. Report Realm Management to the IRS. Karate chop Realm Management in half. Curb stomp pregnant Realm Management. Trap Realm Management in quicksand. Crush Realm Management in the trash compactor. Liquefy Realm Management in a vat of acid. Eat Realm Management. Dissect Realm Management. Exterminate Realm Management in the gas chamber. Stomp Realm Management's skull with steel toed boots. Cremate Realm Management in the oven. Lobotomize Realm Management. Mandatory abortions for Realm Management. Grind Realm Management fetuses in the garbage disposal. Drown Realm Management in fried chicken grease. Vaporize Realm Management with a ray gun. Kick Realm Management down the stairs. Feed Realm Management to alligators. Slice Realm Management with a katana.

>>97114032
That makes sense if you're doing some sort of anime swordsman game

>>97114407
Running a campaign set in 40k. So yeah.

Was the new gun book worth the wait?

>>97116099
Yes if and only if you cared about the official numbers behind GURPS guns

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>>97116117
I'm not really sure if I did or not.

In THS the low skill levels of personal AIs have always baffled me - what the shit do I do with an AI with Tactics-9? Or the rather hilarious Savoir-Faire-7 of the Bhisti from THS:CT. I dislike the Visualization duct tape solution (introduces an extra roll) so is my only choice to just pump an insane amount of points into social skills like Savoir-Faire or roll at +4 for basic info to make them at least marginally useful?

>>97116117
How viable is it to make custom guns? I want to make a TKB-059 with caseless ammo for an alt-hist game I'm running.

>>97118617
I haven't really played with that part much, I guess you could mostly stat the TKB-059 through pure extrapolation from HT guns so it's definitely doable with Gun Stats

>>97118690
I've got to do a number of soviet prototypes so I'll see how it plays out. I downloaded it yesterday. Given how you already need all the relevant information I don't quite know how this is better than just taking the closest HT variant and adjusting accordingly.

>>97119246
Personally I don't think it's much better, but if you need precise ½D calculations or have to have the official word on what your gun's Bulk is, there you have it. It has an official formula for calculating multiple projectiles n shit too, that may be useful, but HEAT round damage and such I have done by the penetration in mm/1 inch in mm*DR 70/10 and so on method for ages and ages already

>>97118690
Does it fire the barrels one by one on semi or all three in one go?

>>97118397
Like modern 'AI' they essentially function as a combination of:
>low-competence but quick and cheap worker who can perform simple tasks
>prosthetic mind for stupid people
>prosthetic friend for isolated people
Tactics 9 is bad for someone who is commanding a small military force, but it's much better than normal human default, and a bit better than a dim-witted (IQ 9-10) and barely-trained (1-2 points) NCO, which many units may have as their leader, especially in third wave countries. Savoir-Faire 7 is fine for something which is basically a smart animal, not intended to do much socialising.

>>97120851
I'd say the AI's job when it comes to Savoir-Faire is just to remember basic protocol for you, in which case I could see dropping the -3 for Low Empathy as logical as long as you aren't doing more than that. Earlier today I guffaw'd spontaneously thinking how a failed skill roll might mean it starts making shit up à la ChatGPT, but I'd like to think AI in 2100 are a bit better than that.

>>97120882
Tl9 started in 2025 anon. So yes, we’re currently seeing the result of having an AI rolling at default for a large variety of skills.

>>97120978
I mean sure but THS is TL10.

>>97120840
All three at once only since it was only meant to be a testbed for the concept

>>97120882
Savoir-Faire 7 is probably just enough that:
The AI can 'socialise' with the user as a 'fellow soldier' rather than a piece of equipment.
It can help genuinely incompetent users (i.e. those with no points in savoir-faire, low IQ, and/or serious disadvantages) avoid embarrassing themselves.
It can churn out basic paperwork in 'military language'.

While an LAI-6 isn't likely to outcompete an intelligent, well-trained, sober, well-rested human at social skills during everyday situations, as soon as you start changing any of those variables, it begins to look more appealing. Compared to a terrified raw recruit who hasn't slept for days, a reliably calm, polite, and rational entity can seem quite appealing even if it lacks some human qualities. Even if it isn't as good as a human, it's at least better than nothing, which might be the alternative if you get separated from your unit or your buddy gets his head blown off.

>>97122299
In game terms a skill level of 7 is abysmal. Actively useless. It's going to fuck up basic shit even a recruit would learn in a week or two, and that's why I don't really buy it. SF is an Easy skill so even a retard should have a skill level above 7.

>>97122439
It defaults to IQ-4, so 7 is better than average human default. Someone who hasn't trained in it will need to be well above average (IQ 12) to do better than the AI. I suspect that a lot of enlisted men haven't actually 'put a point into' Savoir-Faire (Military) especially if they are a little dim and struggled to learn the essential skills of being a soldier during training (i.e. had to put more points into non-social skills to pass testing, leaving none for savoir-faire). Humans can also have penalties for Clueless, Oblivious, or Shyness. So while it might be useless as a 'safety net' for the average soldier, it will help those who are below average.
Skill 7 is also a lot better than skill 3, which is what the AI would have if it wasn't trained. That's probably enough of a difference to build some emotional attachment even if isn't exactly the most socially adept piece of software.

>>97125352
I think for that kind of use you could entirely replace it with a software program that shows you the basics of how to act in a military organization and it would work better than the AI here. But the relationship between software and AI stuff is kind of poorly defined anyway, IMO

>>97125417
Not really. AI acts like a character, who then uses software. So a military advisor AI would also have Savior Faire, and Tactics software, likely providing +1 or better. If you're already spending money on an AI high quality software is pennies in comparison. Also the AI would be making complementary rolls to assist the dumbass conscript or professional soldier using it.

>>97125511
I for one think social skills are useless for AI in THS, or at least should have a hell of a lot of points in them
Using Visualization for them just sounds silly, like present-day AI trying to guess at human behaviour

>>97122439
>In game terms a skill level of 7 is abysmal.
Remember, outside of stressful situations you get a bonus to skill. Mundane tasks usually get +5.

>>97127620
Does this apply to influence skills?

>>97127664
Yes, see Everyman Tasks (Pyramid 3/65) which explicitly lists Savoir-Faire+4 as an example.

>>97127620
Seems a bit pointless to roll for skills at all then, unless it’s under stress.

>>97128397
You can always crit fail or crit succeed.

>>97128397
That's kind of the point. "Stress" doesn't necessarily need to be life or death. Just sufficient enough that it's an actual test of your ability. An example they give is day to day driving down the road, which is at +4. When most people have a 10 or 11 in their drive skill, the odds are good they'll drive down the street with no issue. But if a kid jumps in front of their car chasing a ball, suddenly they need to roll at unmodified drive skill or even at a penalty to avoid the kid and probably another check to prevent a crash.

>>97129571
I mean yeah, that's what it says in Basic Set somewhere. It's just less clear cut regarding Influence skills if you don't look up that Pyramid issue

>>97129945
Well, if you think of it like "Are the stakes or consequences for what I'm attempting relatively low?" then it's a bit easier to figure out.

Like for acting, lying to your boss to call out sick is at a bonus. Just passively blending into a social event gets the bonus. Using diplomacy to talk a helpful person into doing a not particularly risky task that'd require them to go out of their way would get the bonus.

>>97128397
If you assume everyone has high skill levels and you think that 98% is a 'sure thing', then yes. But since neither of those are actually reasonable, no. Even highly competent heroes sometimes have to try to do things they aren't trained for or aren't good at which would be trivial for someone who had actual relevant training to even a basic level. A skill 12 passenger jet pilot can generally land his plane without any trouble (bonus of +4 or better) while it would be a dramatic moment with serious risk if done by someone who had never flown a plane, or even one who was only familiar with a completely different type of plane. Making friends with someone is a task which an average person can do fairly reliably given enough time (some social skill at 10 or so, bonus of +4 or better) but soon become challenging when you're not as good as the average person (low IQ, relevant disadvantages) and/or operating in an situation with protocols you don't know (default savoir-faire instead of the social skill you have one or two points in).
The sub-human LAI isn't likely to reliably manage to socially manipulate humans, or understand all the dynamics of a social situation. It has got just barely enough to form the most trivial of interpersonal relationships under very favourable circumstances within fairly narrow parameters. Ask it to engage in anything demanding or outside its 'comfort zone' and it will likely fail, just like a modern chatbot will very rarely be able to perform complex social tasks. Even at very basic levels of interaction, it will often be less good than a typical human. That's fine, because its not meant to fully substitute for a competent human, but instead to be a very basic companion and assistant which operates some of your equipment for you.

>>97130549
>The sub-human LAI isn't likely to reliably manage to socially manipulate humans
Nothing prevents LAI PCs from having relatively good social skills, the question is rather what kinds of levels pure assistant AIs should have

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>>97130629
As much as you pay for, and run.

>>97131022
They can't really help much face to face, can they? Unless you use a puppet implant and take direct control. I imagine in virtual environments, over radio, etc. you can just let the AI do its thing

>>97131106
Complementary Rolls. Probably like having it feed you lines over your HUD, or earpiece. Or like people already do with translator apps on their phones.

>>97131180
The translation part is funny, because I can see how an external virtual interface could have a speaker to let the AI translate and communicate directly
Not sure how it would work with an implant interface

>>97131239
It tells the user what to say, and do, then the user says, and does those things.

>>97131312
But the user can't suddenly start e.g. speaking a different language he doesn't know but the AI does unless puppeted, can he?

>>97131361
>What is phonetic pronunciation?

>>97131523
It's going to sound like ass, dude. Try phonetically pronouncing Chinese, it's going to be unintelligible. I think a VII could still have some sort of external terminal for this sort of thing

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Finally, some proper fucking dinosaurs and not gay pygmy llamas or some shit.

>>97131578
SHI shi SHI shi shi SHi Shi
see I just spoke perfect chinese.

>>97125352
The 3e Personnel Files book actually states certain Savoir-Faire specialties should be exempt from Low Empathy, it just didn't carry over into the 4e template

How would you guys go about emulating a card game like MtG, or Yugioh as a power set?

>>97140046
Odious Personal Habit (Nerdy faggot)

>>97140046
What do you mean "as a power set"? Do you mean a Millennium Item's ability to make an ordinary card game into a magical Shadow Game?

>>97140417
I mean like abilities tied to cards. Having a deck, and randomly drawing from it. Discarding used abilities. Obviously a modular ability of some kind, but what kind of modifiers would it need?

>>97140893
If you want GM fiat. Maybe make give the power modifier of around -30% to -50% because it's a gadget, unreliable (random), and maybe even limited uses per encounter. Then DM Fiat the cards mechanics, I'd say give every card power a number and make them roll to see what card they get as a ready maneuver, starting with 2-3 "cards in hand". Every time they use one, they roll another. Start with like 6 total card powers and you can make new ones as they progress and get more points.
>but this is not how muh tcg works
It's just about the flavor of random access to powers, it doesn't matter if you're cycling the same few powers, name them a different monster with same mechanic effect as you play them.

If you want to lean more into roleplaying, You could even just make them all Unreliable RAW and roleplay it as not having enough Mana or Setup to activate the power when you want, so every reroll of the activation number is you doing setup for it. Bigger powers get lower Unreliable AN because they require more setup. With this the power modifier would be just -20% for gadget and each power But every power gets its unreliable modifier from -10% to -80% depending on how much "setup" they need.

You could also pick the powers from the magic spell list, idk how to calculate the cost of spells as powers, but I'm sure it's somewhere or someone has done it.

Mission X when

Just reading the new gun book now, what the hell is this art?

>>97142263
GURPS wouldn't be GURPS with good art

>>97142263
It's not good, but it's passable. Better than most GURPS books, actually. Maybe soulless.

>>97142263
Looks like photos with a bad AI filter

>>97141687
>Spells as Powers
Pyramid #3/44, pg14; From Skills to Advantages.

>>97143149
No, it's a bad pre-AI filter. They've been using that shit since GURPS Covert Ops. AI would unironically do a better job.
What's really weird is that there is surely a shit-ton of random art which includes guns which they already own the rights to, and it would be trivial to grab some free 3D assets and generate nice line 'drawings' of real guns in Blender or something, illustrating what is meant by various terms (e.g. a picture of a flintlock mechanism). There is also an abundance of free to use images which would work well without a shitty filter. Or you could train an AI into an actually good filter with little investment of time or money. Rather than do any of that, they apparently paid someone to create absurdly bad images.

>>97145391
>illustrating what is meant by various terms (e.g. a picture of a flintlock mechanism)
3e High-Tech has these

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>>97142263
>the first drawing is a pretty decent one of a Russian police officer in kit
>immediately cuts to shit like this

Please remember though we cannot afford a vehicles book but someone was paid for this.

Anyone have any decent 4e Xenomorph stats from the hit 1970's horror movie Alien and its only sequel, Aliens?

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>>97149284
We're almost there. Just give it a few more years and we'll get there.

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>>97149284
The Insectoid from Monster Hunters 5 is obviously an Alien 'with the serial numbers filed off'. Replace the venom with acid doing corrosion damage and you've got a workable one.
However, since I'm obsessed with that series, I'll try and write up a more detailed treatment for you in a bit.

The abilities of Headliners (basically super soldiers) from Five Star Stories is a bit all over the place. Some sources says they're ten times better than baseline humans, other gives feats that are easily way over that, like punching through concrete walls (at least DR 96 according to Basic) and dodging lasers after seeing it. I went with the ten times version for simplicity. Please r8:
>Super Strength //KYOS, by the way
>Increased Strength +10 //BL 200
>Striking ST +26 //Basic Swing Damage 10d
>Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction, x1/10; Crushing Only) //Punching each other will deal proportional damage as baseline humans punching each other, it also helps with hurting yourself and falls
>Super Speed
>Increased Dexterity +5 //With ETS and Parry Missile Weapon, you can parry bullets at -5, this is enough to negate it, so the character can parry bullets as easily as someone parrying arrows
>Enhanced Time Sense
>Increased Basic Speed +1.75 //Improved Dodge and movement speed
>Increased Basic Move +8 //Increase Step by one
>Enhanced Ground Move 1 //between the above traits, the character can run 100 meters in about 3-4 seconds, like some descriptions of the Headliners says
>Super Senses
>Increased Perception +4 //Rough the same bonus as Discriminatory senses
>Night Vision 9 //Can fight in most light condition without penalty
No bonus to IQ or Will. As far as I remember, there's no indication that they're inherently smarter, and they're notoriously susceptible to mind control.

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>>97149772
adult/drone/warrior
Attributes:
ST: The 'drone' in Alien can pick up Brett, played by Harry Dean Stanton (5'8", slender build). That implies a basic lift of at least 20 lbs. (ST 10) and more likely 80 lbs. (ST 20). In Aliens, a 'warrior' (basically similar to the drone, maybe a little bigger and stronger) can pick up and carry Dietrich, played by Cynthia Scott (5'7", fairly athletic) while she was struggling. That implies ST at least twice hers, and she is probably ST 10. So minimum (lifting) ST would seem to be 20, but could well be higher. Some sources suggest weight of around 300 lbs. (seems plausible for a skinny humanoid about seven feet tall with some extra mass in the head and tail) which would usually be ST 13 for a living creature. Possibly their biomechanical features are enough to qualify as 'unliving' at least for the purposes of ST/HP calculations, or they just have a shit-ton of Lifting ST.
DX: graceful, but limited by being a man in a suit / puppet. So probably better than 10 but no more than 12.
IQ: extremely hard to say. Seems at least dog-level (4) but could be human equivalent (or better) for all we know.
HT: impossible to say.
HP: can be killed by multiple pistol shots / one shotgun blast to the head. Since pistol rounds sometimes bounce off their skull, we can assume at least DR 6 there. If so, and pistol is doing 9-10 damage, then at most 16 points per shot. Vasquez plugs one a few times in the body and then four times in the head, so maybe 80 HP at most to kill one, but could be considerably less and we don't know how likely it is to pass death checks, or whether she was shooting it after it was already dead. Assuming the one Hicks got with his shotgun died, and the face has at least DR 1, then they can be killed by about 30 HP loss. However, it is possible it was merely stunned. Either way, HT can't be better than about 14 unless we say there were some exceptional rolls.
Per, Will, FP: no idea. Probably decent.

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>>97150141
DR: shotgun seems able to hurt them (screams after sounds of shotgun firing during the hive ambush, shotgun to the face at least stuns one trying to get into the APC), so no better than DR 6 overall (assuming shotgun is loaded with buckshot and it isn't some fancy sci-fi shotgun). Pistol shots seem to bounce off the head from some angles, but not always, so probably better DR on the skull hit location, but still no more than 9-10. Seems like DR 1-4 on most locations, 6-10 on the skull.
Acid blood: the build for this is in Powers (p.144), but damage should probably be adjusted. It can eat through metal flooring and body armour, but isn't always deadly to humans (Vasquez survives and is active for a while, but has a crippled foot/leg, Hicks survives long-term, but seems basically incapacitated). So seems able to do 4-5 damage within one second but no more than about 30 total. Maybe as much as 2d corrosion with about four cycles? However, that seems insufficient to melt through the amount of metal we see it go through. If Hick's cuirass is treated as the DR 30 light clamshell from Ultra-Tech, using the damage to armor rules from Low-Tech Companion II, it would take basically no damage and lose only a fraction of its DR from such an attack. Evidently it is far more effective against metal (and maybe ceramics - the Colonial Marines Technical Manual says the body armour is a laminate of titanium aluminide, boron carbide, graphite carbon fibre, and 'venlar' - a fictional material which seems to be similar to aramids or UHMWPE) than flesh (and, presumably, most plastics). Maybe an armor divisor or extra damage against such substances would be appropriate.
Venom: not explicit in the films, but Dietrich and Apone's 'signs are real low' after being snatched, and face-huggers evidently have some way to induce paralysis or coma in their victims which may be chemical. If so, the delivery method is unknown (although other material says it is a tail stinger).

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What kind of idiot made (non-thrusting) swords have blunt thrust damage instead of cut?

>>97150295
Physical attacks:
Seems to have sharp teeth and claws, although they never use them.
Elbow 'blades' could be a potential weapon, possibly Striking Surface perk or Striker (Limb) doing cutting damage, depending on how sharp (seem blunt in Alien, sharper in Aliens).
'Tongue' seems like a crushing striker.
Tail seems like it could be used as a striker, but only the queen seems to stab with hers. Logically could be used to batter or stab, but rules don't support multi-function strikers (but Natural Weapons article in Pyramid does).
If venom gland is present, would also need a delivery system, which could be any of the above (tail seems most obvious).
Can apparently secrete resin for nest building and cocooning captives, which may be quick enough to qualify as Binding. Unclear what body part this might come from, or even which organism produces it.
Camouflage:
'Maybe they don't show up on IR at all' has often been taken as a statement the aliens are invisible to the marines' thermal imaging. However, the conditions inside the nest were warm and humid, which can screw with thermal imaging, and the aliens were apparently moving inside the 'walls' of the nest, which would give them even more concealment. I don't think there's much support for the idea that they are totally cold or thermally masked in some way.
Mentality: they seem Bestial, but it's hard to say for sure. In general, the films give no insight into their thinking, although they clearly work in an organised fashion towards goals such as implanting more humans.
Apparently willing to advance towards gunfire, even knowing it will be fatal to them, so either Fearless (possibly Unfazeable) or mind-controlled by the queen (alternatively, much more stupid than otherwise suggested). Sometimes stated to fear fire, but no real evidence of this on screen. Not much evidence they are especially harmed by fire either.
Seem to have a degree of social organisation and be directed by the queen.

>>97150295
>Venom: not explicit in the films, but Dietrich and Apone's 'signs are real low' after being snatched, and face-huggers evidently have some way to induce paralysis or coma in their victims which may be chemical
I mean sounds like just regular trauma to me. You're having egg-sized objects shoved whole into your esophagus, that shit would hurt immensely. And as far as huggers not suffocating people, they're still shoving stuff down their chests, and you can't breathe and eat at the same time (barring some medical tools/techniques that I highly doubt huggers employ) which means the person would get less than optimal oxygenation and pass out too.

>>97150411
Resistances and immunities: can survive and stay active for at least a few seconds in the vacuum of space, so probably at least Vacuum Support.
Seem able to stay underwater for a while (the one which grabs Newt) so maybe Doesn't Breathe (either unmodified, or oxygen storage) or Breath Holding.
Not explicitly shown to be vulnerable to cold, poison, radiation, or disease, but no real reason to assume they aren't beyond general hype that they are ultra-powerful super-organisms.
Unclear what, or even if, they eat. Universal Digestion might be required for them to eat 'normal' food given their apparently bizarre biology, and the Matter Eater enhancement might be needed if they can consume metal and so on. Doesn't Eat is suggested by some material, but raises questions like how they grow physical bodies at all in that case.
Their growth is extremely fast, which may suggest some level of Regeneration too, but there's no evidence of that on screen.
Dan O'Bannon originally envisioned them as having a very short life-cycle, dying within days. This seems contradicted by Aliens, where some must have been alive for weeks, although possibly in an inactive state. This can be reconciled by either assuming the 'drone' is a short-lived caste while the 'warrior' is a longer-lived one, or that the 'warrior' is simply what the drone matures into after a few days.
Alien 'Director's Cut' includes a scene where crew members seem to be transforming into eggs. I don't think this would qualify as an advantage, but a heavily-modified version of Dominance might be justifiable.

>>97150501
Plausible. The tail is also seen constricting the neck, and squeezing to reduce blood flow to the brain would work too.
This does mean that face-huggers would kind of be restricted to victims with tetrapod-like anatomy with brains, blood, an easily choked neck, etc. but they already seem fairly tailored to human-like hosts, so this isn't a huge leap.
Any chemical method of subduing victims would require either also being restricted to certain body chemistries, or having a staggeringly complicated method of assessing what you were attached to and tailoring your venom to it.
It's also possible they use some other method such as a bio-electric shock or whatever.
Basically, unless you assume that facehuggers are designed to attach to humans (originally part of the Alien: Engineers/Genesis/Origins script, then used in a modified form in Alien: Covenant) it's either a crazy coincidence we have the right anatomy for them, or they are weirdly adaptable in ways we don't see on screen.
The least weird way of having them be able to adapt to human prey would seem to be them using physical force to reduce oxygen flow to the brain, as you say.
However, this still leaves the question of how Apone and Dietrich were subdued in Aliens open. I guess it's possible that by the time Hudson checked their vital signs they already had facehuggers attached (since they were snatched inside the nest, close to the eggs). Alternatively, the warriors could have learned how to apply choke-holds to humans and render them unconscious without killing them or something.

>>97150601
>weirdly adaptable
One option is that there are different kinds of huggers or implantation methods, and humans just stumbled into one. Then again, there are no aliens in the aliens setting aside from the xenos (ironic), and if you accept the later movies, the progenitor race is just human but bigger, which makes the fact they're conveniently perfect to impregnate humans not that weird.

>>97150511
Senses:
Beyond the fact that they clearly have some way of perceiving their environment, it is very difficult to say what kind of senses the aliens have.
Visible-light vision seems unlikely, at least with human-like acuity, given the lack of eyes. The 'eye sockets' visible behind the dome in Alien (and fairly suggested by small indents in Aliens) could be infra-red sensory pits, allowing basic thermal imaging. The choice of nest site in a warm, humid environment suggests they aren't reliant on thermal imaging as their primary sense.
The overall shape of the head could imply some kind of sonar or radar, requiring widely separated sense organs to get accurate range data. See the 'melon' of cetaceans and the convoluted snouts of bats, both of which are reminiscent of some parts of the aliens' anatomy. Alternatively (or additionally) it could have passive sensory functions, likely qualifying them for Vibration Sense.
Either thermal imaging or sonar could allow them to see 'inside' a human to some extent, making it easier to judge what is required to subdue their prey without killing it.
There's no indication of chemical senses, but basically all known life-forms have them so I think we can assume at least some level of smell and taste.
They seem to feel pain (scream when injured) and touch also seems like a fairly basic function you would expect from an animal-like entity.
Don't think we ever see them react to sound, but again it seems intuitive that they would have at least some form of hearing. Ditto for sense of balance and all the other typical animal senses.

>>97150663
Alien: Origins had the aliens be tailored for humans by the engineers. There were other types intended for other races.
Also plausible that the eggs in the original derelict had dozens of different types and they somehow figured out that Kane (and the initial victim among the colonists) would suit the facehugger, so that was the one which opened for him. Once the queen emerged, she produced lots of human-compatible eggs because humans were the only suitable hosts she encountered.
>there are no aliens in the aliens setting aside from the xenos
The 'space jockey' in Alien exists and may have been a host (and is notably a lot bigger than a human, and doesn't have a mouth or much of a neck, so would be difficult for a face-hugger to implant in the same way it does humans).
The casual attitude of the marines towards 'bugs' before they meet the titular aliens implies that they have encountered some kind of alien animals before. Likewise, the term 'xenomorph' seems to imply that some other alien species are known.
Of course the 'expanded universe' has many other species. The awful TV show even has two other ones which can act as parasites in humans.

>>97150667
>sonar or radar
Actually, now I think about it, these seem unlikely to be undetected by the marines' equipment. Motion trackers apparently work on ultrasonic sonar, so they should have been able to pick up any from the aliens. So best explanation for the head is probably passive senses.
Mobility:
They don't appear to move significantly faster than humans. The marines are able to more-or-less outpace them in the air vents, despite being quite cramped and moving fairly slowly. They jump over stuff about as well as athletic humans do.
Their main mobility advantage is that they are really good at clinging. The one which grabs Dietrich seems to just walk up the wall with her held in its hands. Later, we see them clinging to the ceiling above the operations centre while moving about as quick as crawling humans do. I think that qualifies as having the Clinging advantage.
With minimal speculative elements, I think we can say something like:
ST +3, DX +1, IQ-4 , Per +6, Will +6, SM +1.
Advantages: Clinging; DR 2; DR 2 (Skull Only); Fearlessness 2; Infravision (no normal vision; thermal*); Lifting ST 13; Precise Hearing*; Sharp Claws; Sharp Teeth; Striker (crushing; long 2); Striker (impaling; long 2); Striker (crushing; limited arc, front; cannot parry); Vibration Sense.
Disadvantages: Cannot Speak; Monstrous Appearance; Social Stigma (Monster).

>>97151084
Forgot my footnote:
* see Powers: Enhanced Senses.

>>97150411
>Camouflage:
It isn't explicit, and I've never seen anyone else even speculate on the possibility, but the silver-grey to dull brown colours of the adults seem well matched to their environments. It's possible that they adapt to their surroundings as they grow, or even have a very slow form of adaptive camouflage (probably taking minutes or hours to change). On the other hand, its also a fairly generic bland colour which wouldn't be surprising to see on any animal. Also possible that they eat metal and/or plastic and take on some colours from their environment that way.
(The warriors in Aliens aren't black, except for some which were only used for silhouette shots; they just look quite dark thanks to the dramatic lighting which was used to hide costume flaws).

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>>97151084
Also forgot the acid blood.
Corrosion Attack 2d (Always On; Armor Divisor, 10; Aura; Blood Agent, Reversed; Cyclic, 10 seconds, 4 cycles; Melee Attack)

>>97151084
Should also have Injury Tolerance (No Eyes), Vacuum Support, and probably Breath Holding.

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>>97150351
The same kind of idiot who thinks that calling your existing fans 'cockroaches' and relying on the good-will of 'diverse modern audiences' to make up for any lost business is a good strategy in 2025.

>>97151634
I think he meant to call out Assmongoloid
There are no cockroaches where I live

>>97151634
Who called who a cockroach

>>97151727
Nevermind I just saw the forum post. Him immediately backtracking is funny as hell though. "Well now I don't mean you just people who are rude." Faggot can't even stand behind his convictions for a full day

>includes things like the Slave Mentality fix, above, and generally not being casual about slavery, torture, and other exploitation being acceptable activities for PCs.
>acceptable activities for PCs
Oh are we doing the funny bit where we pretend player characters have to be full blown endorsements of my actual beliefs huh.

>>97151893
I generally speaking play goody two shoes characters and campaigns but 1. other people can play whatever the hell they want and 2. Bio-Tech is still like a game of Stellaris gone bad so the Slave Mentality hogwash does nothing

>>97151893
>forum post
link?

>>97152089
https://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2568314&postcount=229
Seems to be where he calls people cockroaches and says people who think "DEI and Woke are bad words" are trolls and them leaving is a "benefit"

https://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2568327&postcount=231
and here's him immediately narrowing what he meant by that rather considerably

>>97152308
>he
(Kromm)

>>97152308
>>97152355
thanks.
What an asshat lol

>>97152384
This whole thing is contrived nonsense. I suspect some faggot mentioned it off handedly at some con or another to Kromm or Mr Steve J. Games himself that it was hard to get people into the game because basic set was problematic, and that merged with the issues people had for years (poorly formatted with a half assed PDF) with it so they got a bug up their ass to finally re-release them. I wouldn't care at all if not for the fact GURPS is on life support and they just shelved editing a completely finished vehicles for cost concerns meaning that when paired with a shitty mass combat rulebook and an even shittier realm management rulebook the "do everything toolkit" rule system is chasing a pipe dream of finally blowing up and will instead end up dying with it's most glaring holes never patched.

>>97152467
>I wouldn't care at all if not for the fact GURPS is on life support and they just shelved editing a completely finished vehicles for cost concerns
My sentiments exactly, all we get is irrelevant shit and woke edition nobody wanted

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>>97152507
I honestly wouldn't give a fuck about stuff like changing the name of slave mentality (it's not the most confusing name among GURPS traits, but it isn't the clearest either) or replacing 'Eskimo' with 'Inuit' (it's slightly more accurate) if it was purely autism-driven. It's the absolutely insufferable attitude of superiority combined with dishonesty and contempt which rubs me up the wrong way. I've probably personally contributed more to GURPS than the entire Inuit population combined, and yet he's happy to label me a subhuman and not even consider my perspective. It genuinely feels bad knowing my time and money goes towards supporting someone who actually hates me that much. Obviously everyone supports a lot of people who hate them in a general sense, but there's something rather personally hurtful when it's a specific person who is responsible for something you really enjoy, who you have had actual correspondence with, speaking about you with such undisguised venom.

>>97152964
Libs don't know conservatives as actual people, they only have caricatures in their mind. If you can be talked to then surely you're a Reasonable Person, and thus are normal, and clearly can't support all the racist, homophobic, literally genocidal shit mr. babyhands does, right?

>>97152964
If it helps he couldn't even stand by his stance for a full business day.

I'm 50/50 on the changes btw. I have no qualms respecting the wishes of the inuit by calling them their preferred name but I do object on moral grounds to ever being polite to a single gypsy and will never utter the word 'Roma' non-derisively.

>>97153082
What's hilarious is I've actually had Gypsy friends (yes, they weren't nice people by White standards, but they do actually have some good qualities once you get past all the crime) and they all preferred to be called 'Gypsy' rather than 'Romani'. The ones who would even consider being friends with a non-Gypsy were the most liberal ones (in one case literally kicked out of their tribe for being too friendly to outsiders) and they even they were so socially conservative (except for the crime) it would probably push Sean into a nervous breakdown to even have a conversation with them. I assume that the entire 'don't call us Gypsies' thing comes from middle-class White Yankees who are LARPing as minorities safely away from actual Gypsies who would string them up the moment they caught wind of it.

>>97153185
gyps have been pushing roma since the 70's

>>97153082
>respecting the wishes of the inuit by calling them their preferred name
Do they(the actual normal people not the 5 or 6 of them that are college professors with chips on their shoulders) actually give a shit?

>>97154061
They'd most definitely care if you called them that to their face. Considering every living soul on earth lives so far away from them as to not matter, they wouldn't care that people all over the globe call them the wrong name. That'd be my opinion if I were an Inuit tbf

>>97152308
>We replaced Slave Mentality (and only that) with a new disadvantage that's clearly for golems, robots, vampires' ghouls, etc., to avoid accusations that we support the idea that some people or even entire ethnic groups are "natural-born slaves," which is offensive rubbish.
I just looked up slave mentality and it is clearly and unequivocally impossible to confuse as something intended to, or even able to, apply to any batch of humans anywhere, even abbos or lobotomites. It's clearly a sci-fi or fantasy or horror monster thing. This change is so nonsensical it seems almost performative.

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>can't afford to reprint the rules
>can't afford supplements people want
>can't afford good art
>can't even afford to do their pointless rewrite properly
>deliberately insult large sections of their already tiny audience

What the hell do they hope to achieve?

>>97154217
Gurps stopped being a monetary necessity for them long ago. At this point it might only barely even be a monetary gain.

>>97154061
Yupik do not seem to care but most Inuits seem to prefer being called Inuit.

>>97154186
Isn't that the point? The name doesn't really fit, slavery is a social disadvantage, not a mentality. And being a subservient golem is not slavery either. The name is just wrong, no need to be woke or anti-woke about it.

>>97150714
>they have encountered some kind of alien animals before
Sorry, I should've specified. No other intelligent/sentient alien life forms.

>>97154259
>Isn't that the point?
No, the point is, quoting from Krom: >to avoid accusations that we support the idea that some people or even entire ethnic groups are "natural-born slaves," which is offensive rubbish.

>>97152467
>editing a completely finished vehicles
Now hold on, I've been way out of the loop. They did a vehicles 4e and ditched it at the editing stage?

>>97154305
4e vehicles was completed and SJG declined to edit and publish it because it would be a lot of work and that costs money. Much easier to put out dogshit and farm Kickstarter from the dungeon fantasy faggots.

https://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2318582&postcount=79

>>97154259
>slavery is a social disadvantage, not a mentality.
Slavery as it exists irl, but if this is being used in the context of a person or group of people or even an entire sub race being intentionally modified in some way to be slaves, which is what I always pictured as I skimmed down the page past that trait, then the name makes total sense. Same for a vampire and his group of thralls, though I would say it's a little too much in that case.

>>97154351
>then the name makes total sense.
then it is a mentality*. Typed that while on a shit break, whoops.

>>97154343
Killing myself. That's it, I'm going to violently dismember myself and make as much of a mess as possible to make the EMTs want to kill themselves too.

>>97154367
It makes me unreasonably mad each time I'm reminded of it if I'm honest. I did pretty much vow to never buy a single thing from them again and I was in the rare minority that paid for everything I used.

>>97154393
I've never given them a dime and wish to actively make them poorer if I can so you and I are perhaps coming from different baselines here, but Kromm's rationale seems kind of reasonable. The 4e vehicles book was looking like it would have been as big as one of the basic set books and would have had a ton of math to check and correctly display. It sounds like a much greater production effort than is reasonable given how few people would buy it.

>>97154430
Couldn't they have just done a 4e update like they did for TS? Basically a smaller booklet that revises some of the math and converts to 4e stats from 3e

>>97154430
You're right. I'm glad they saved the money they would have spent publishing the decade in a waiting promised vehicle book so they could re-edit basic set and remove the word Eskimo.

>>97154782
Basically I feel about Vehicles how Zionists feel about Israel.
>it was promised to me 10(00) years ago
>I am going to be unreasonable about this

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>>97154934
The Zionists didn't sit around with their thumbs up their asses and wait for other people to give them the Holy Land. When are we going to set up a World Vehicle Design System Organization to collaboratively make an update? I'll make the logo.

>>97154367
>he must have been upset about Gaza or someth- wait what the hell is a GURPS?

>>97153082
There are so many slurs for gypsies where I live it's actually halfway polite to just call them gypsy, lmao

After a couple months of work, my Elder Scrolls files are in the GCS homebrew library and will be available the next time they roll out an update of the Master Library.
If you want them now, however, you can manually update the Master Library to the latest version. In GCS, right click on the Master Library, select configure, and check the box to update to the latest version. Then press the update button.
Hope you find them useful.

>>97154351
Yeah but if you are a being with no will like a golem or a thrall then you're not enslaved. I wouldn't call your printer chat gpt slaves.

>>97153011
It's genuinely baffling. Despite being an intolerant chud, I regularly deal with people who literally assault me, spit on me, call me every insult you can think of, throw piss and shit at me, etc. and always remain polite in my dealings with them. I don't even get nasty when talking about them in private with colleagues. If I was actually on record calling them cockroaches, there's a decent chance I could get struck off and lose my job.
Meanwhile, Mr. Empathic open-minded liberal can't stand the idea that some of his customers don't like his language policing and thinks its a good idea to insult them on the official company forum where they can read it. I know SJ basically just keep him and GURPS going for sentimental reasons, but a company's reputation isn't neatly partitioned by product line. If his behaviour becomes widely known, they could start losing something they actually care about, like Munchkin licensing deals.

>>97154552
3e had totally different mechanics for good or ill
Some of them just have no equivalent in 4e, which is also why some of the 4e THS conversions are ASS

>>97155205
>one EMT looks into GURPS
>realizes it's BURPS
>falls into the rabbit hole
>after the best campaign in his life, he learns of vehicles 3e
>he learns that the 4e edition was canceled as they finished writing it
>kills himself, continuing the memetic kill agent cycle

>Kromm says he's promoting an illiberal ideology that fucks up society to benefit the establishment out of 'basic decency'

Oh, well as long as its for basic decency.

>>97157113
On the one hand, GURPS as a game is pretty good. On the other, the creators are weird.

>>97155061
Someone floated the idea of just paying Kromm to leak the unfinished document.
Idk if SJ would go for just selling the rights to that one book or something.
I'm sure we could get it at least to a readable state.

>>97155061
>HTMLfaggot sets up a Git repository with an HTML version of GURPS Vehicles
>nobody contributes to it because everybody hates HTML

What would Vehicles even have in it that we can't nigger rig ourselves?

>>97157319
Good math that wouldn't make vehicles nigger rigged. At that point, just use the default "vehicles as characters" 4e approach

>>97154217
Surely the murican left will buy our books now. Right?

>>97157632
>that's nice that you finally corrected the language to not be trans-exclusionary outdated chudcoded but too little too late, I'm not buying gurps.
If they wanted to be progressive with pronouns, why not use the ebonics "dey" instead of default "he", outdated half-measure "he or she" or the grammatical nightmare they (singular)
>>97156047
Are you well versed in 3e? I have Japanese GURPS ring dream which is female pro-wrestling mechanics for 3e but everything else I have and played is 4E in English.
>>97151893
>slavery, torture, and other exploitation being acceptable activities for PCs.
Does he realize that DMs also play characters who stand in the way of PCs accomplishing their goals?

>>97157984
>they (singular)
I guess it's me being ESL, but considering how simple English is with verbs and adjectives and so on, why is the issue? The third person verbs? Just use they (plural), completely indistinguishable aside from that, just like you (singular) and you (plural).
God English fucking sucks, the only complexity is in the word meanings and definitions.

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>>97158222
Because it's retarded leftoid progressive brainrot that runs contrary to established grammar rules for the sake of enabling troon delusions to begin with while for gurps in particular it's a problem because there are rules that affect multiple entities at the same time and THOSE entities call for reference to THEM to be different from references to singular they.
English is a retarded language where there's no grammatical gender like in european languages while repeating "player" "user" bloats texts and is aesthetically unpleasant to read, and because men used to do most things the default pronoun was "he", with an early progressive inclusion change being adding "he or she" to every rule, to be more accessible to women (fool's errand because mearls' pearls are already too retarded for basic math (picrel) are filtered by D&D5E not to mention GURPS, and real XX women who have the IQ required to roleplay in a tabletop can grasp the shortcomings of english grammar without getting offended or feeling marginalized)

I wonder if there's ever been a single female poster in this threads entire history

>>97158394
Absolutely not.

>>97158394
what skills would you need in GURPS to figure this out?

I see your correspondence and raise meeting the guy at a few cons. The sad thing is that you know after a few minutes that he almost has 88 tattooed on his back. Dude talks about his ultra-establishment father, work in national defense, and how he used to be a punk rocker. Meaning he was some skinhead from an uptight family. This shit he posts looks like a flashbang tossed to the left from his position on the right so Steve-o doesn't fire him for being a Canadian fascist.

>>97158444
Psychology (Human).

>>97157257
SJG doesn't control the rights to the text, they reverted them to Pulver. He can't publish it in its current form because it includes GURPS material which SJG does own the rights to. He's stated that he would be willing to do the work to make it publishable if he could afford to dedicate the time to it (i.e. someone paid him to do so). He spoke of setting up a crowd-funding campaign for this early this year, but obviously that never happened.
I don't have the faintest idea how much it would cost to make this happen. I'll write to Mr. Pulver and see if he can give me an estimate.

>>97158285
>English is a retarded language where there's no grammatical gender like in european languages
Like that would stop this madness, see also modern written German

>>97158897
Modern germany is a result of losing an important war and being under occupation until nothing German remains, sterilized porn addicted freaks demanding grammar to accomodate their delusions, turks and whatever else are means to that end

>>97158897
How does that go? SOmething like "Spieler*innen" instead of just "Spieler", right?

>>97158285
You went on a rant for the reasons behind it, not why it'd be a grammar nuclear holocaust. Not like I want it to use "they", my native language is gendered and I see no qualms with using the male, or even female, pronouns.

>>97158897
Germans sucks complete ass though. There's zero rime or reason as to what gender anything is, you cannot tell unless you look it up in a dictionary or see it used with other genres words.

>>97158222
It creates uncertainty when there needs to be precision. Rules need to be precise. As you pointed out, English already struggles with imprecise definitions, so we shouldn't add imprecise grammar to the mix, especially when the motivations for using imprecise language is political.

>>97158394
I think the list of biological women who are really into GURPS has to be in the low dozens out of a fanbase of maybe a few thousand overall.

>>97159100
I have seen exactly one piece of evidence that a single woman has ever played GURPS, and it was a lady who works at a library teaching GURPS basics. Can't find the video now.

Considering all the freaky shit gurps has, and how freaky women into RPGs are (I've found impossibly few exceptions to this), it's almost a surprise until you realize burps has an unfair reputation as being super math heavy

>>97159511
Shockingly cumbersome math likes to show up very occasionally.

>>97159189
Isn't Vicky Molock an actual cis-female?
I'm pretty sure that Lisa J. Steele (wrote GURPS Mysteries) and Elizabeth McCoy are too.
>>97159511
Between Mysteries and Bio-Tech, GURPS has some of the best support out there for the two forms of fiction women seem most interested in: murder mysteries and freakish fetish porn.

>>97159753
>isn't Vicky Molock an actual cis-female?
Iirc his name is Viktor or something so no

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>>97160064
>>97159753
>he promises he will do his best

>>97158973
Afaik yes but I learned my schoolboy German long before that shit was a thing

>>97159189
I have met one IRL, she and her husband are both doctors

>>97158394
How many biological women even post on this board in the first place.

>>97158987
Because there are rules that affect groups that require the usage of the plural they, also good luck scanning the core book and replacing every instance of "he" with singular they so delusional eunuchs who already bought or pirated the books once as men, don't buy it again anyways because they're too busy shooting estrogen mixed with heroin.
also capitalizing the B in NIGGER and whatever else modern negrolatry with buttsex characteristics mandates as correct.
As someone joked in a previous thread, I would genuinely pay for another copy of Basic Set if every instance of the pronoun "she" was replaced with THE WHORE
>If player mishandles a grenade they risk limb mutilation
who's they? the player alone or some group, fellow party members, NPCs, everyone within blast radius?

>>97159753
You forget cute animals (also fuckable). The gold standard woman character is an elf ranger (also rogue) with a tamed wild animal.

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This reminds me, one agricultural planet in GURPS Space buries unfaithful women alive in the fields and that planet has an adventure hook where a woman wants the PC's to smuggle her off world to avoid this punishment, the description implies she did it. How would Kromm react if players refused to risk getting shot for a whore.

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>>97160979
Animal anon needs to do an appendix detailing what each creature's dick is like.

>>97160284
Wow cool, this confirms it: GURPS is the smartest RPG. And the players are smart people too. We're all basically high IQ intellectuals.

>>97161733
I'm a idiot savant.

>>97155678
>I regularly deal with people who literally assault me, spit on me, call me every insult you can think of, throw piss and shit at me, etc. and always remain polite in my dealings with them. I don't even get nasty when talking about them in private with colleagues.
Sure, and I'm the Queen of Sheba

>>97162114
I don't think it's unreasonable at all to imagine that among us is a right-wing hospital nurse or prison guard who doesn't want to get fired by his left-wing employer for bad-mouthing the future doctors in his care.

>>97162114
Not him but that's most city police officers.

>>97161733
I've been saying this for years.

>>97162114
Yeah you're a queen alright, homo.

Time to become hasgames again and run GURPS
Wish me luck

>>97165578
what's your setting?

>>97165622
DF with whatever I have hallucinated at work as my setting
I would love to run modern or THS or something but I mostly have fantasy fans for players

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>>97158838
>I don't have the faintest idea how much it would cost to make this happen. I'll write to Mr. Pulver and see if he can give me an estimate.
OK, he replied. Looks like it would be at least $6,000, which is more than I can comfortably afford by myself, but seems achievable. If anyone can think of a way to get about four or five thousand dollars together (a better plan than 'just crowdfund it, I'm sure lots of other people will contribute'), I'm willing to put one or two grand in myself.

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>>97165750
$6,000? I was expecting a number in the tens of thousands. I would consider chipping in $200, maybe even $500.

>>97165750
Issue is, for such a "small" sum, crowdfunding would really be the best bet. I mean you said how much money you're willing to put in, that's as much as 33% by yourself. If a hundred people chip in 50 bucks, that's 5k.

>>97165787
OK, but that's basically the current plan, and it requires:
Building enough hype to attract hundreds of people to the project.
Setting up a crowdfunding page.
Actually convincing a large number of the interested people to part with their money (David estimates that few will pay more than $30 for what is effectively just pre-ordering a PDF).
Paying a cut to the crowdfunding platform.
Producing a product which satisfies hundreds of customers.

On the other end of the scale, if I was a bit wealthier or crazier than I actually am, I would just pay for the whole thing, not have to worry about any kind of marketing, not have to satisfy anyone other than myself, and have no delays. This seems much more 'efficient'.

I was hoping that there might be a middle ground where I only had to part with an amount of money I was comfortable with and there was less friction than a full crowdfunding campaign. I guess one option would be to pay the total cost myself, then set up a crowdfunding campaign to compensate me for the expense, sell the PDF (possibly on a 'pay what you think is fair' model), release it as a print-on-demand book, etc. I would be gambling on the generosity and taste of others, but would probably recover some fraction of what I paid.

>>97166081
Well, there are lots of options.
>240 people pay $25 each
>120 people pay $50 each
>60 people pay $100 each
>30 people pay $200 each
>15 people pay $500 each
Even if the 240-person and 120-person options via a full crowdfunding campaign are not viable, the 15-person and 30-person options via more direct patronage with no advertising may still be viable. How many people in this thread would pay $200 or $500 to support GURPS Vehicles? It might be 15 or 30 people.

>>97166151
>15 people
*12 people

if a proper crowdfunding page gets set up I will donate

>>97166195
(5 dollars)

>>97166220
I would give more than that....

I've sent David a proposal to fund the initial few months of writing work.
Disregarding money, do any of you have skills in graphic design, document layout, digital marketing, web design, etc. and time to spare on helping the vehicle design system project over the next six months to a year? If we can source volunteers to handle some of the work-load, expenses will be lower.

>>97166348
>Disregarding money
Get real. No self-respecting businessman wants to herd a bunch of retarded cats. Money is what matters.
I guess I'll send him an email offering 500 dollars.

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>>97166357

>>97166430
Godspeed

>>97166081
"Hundreds of people" considering the average GURPS book is 40 bucks, that's 150 people. More if the cost is less, but if you want the finished book, I'd say the minimum entry is the final book cost

>>97166430
Please note that the $6k is a vague estimate based on a bunch of different costs. It seems likely to be within an order of magnitude of that, but not the exact sum. Anyway, he said that 25+ patrons at $10 a month for 5 months would be enough to get things rolling, so I offered him $1.5k. Between you and I, I think he should be able to at least get to the point where further crowd-funding is practical to finish the project.
Also note that this is NOT a new edition of GURPS Vehicles. It's the text which would have become the new version of GURPS Vehicles, with all the GURPS-specific content taken out. It isn't going to have the GURPS brand attached to it, and it will still require you to convert 'real world' figures like tons of mass and miles per hour into GURPS terms like ST/HP and Move (this isn't difficult, and is fully explained in the Pyramid article 'Describing Vehicles', but it is an extra step which can't be included in the final product).

>>97166524
>Also note that this is NOT a new edition of GURPS Vehicles.
Close enough. (As long as it has something better for Handling and Stability Rating than the rather vague guidance in Describing Vehicles.)

>>97111514
>A nearly complete archive of GURPS books can be found by using the image
Guys I am retarded, I would like to read about this system. Can you help me?

>>97166449
GURPS PDFs are rarely more than $25-30. David seems to think this one would sell best at a similar price, although it is apparently longer than all but the combined basic set.
Bear in mind that only a fraction of the 'interested' people will eventually end up paying for it. You would be very lucky to get 150 customers out of a 300 person mailing list even if you presented it as a list for people specifically willing to pay for the product.

>>97166578
Look at the OP image.
In that image is a web address, using a popular link-shortening service. Note that the near-vertical orange line by the lady's left foot is a slash.
Copy that address into your browser.
That will open a MEGA folder.
Inside that MEGA folder are some PDFs and an image. All of these contain another link-shortening service address (just open whichever you like, the image and the PDFs have slightly different versions so if you find one hard to read, try the other). Type that into your browser.
That will open the full MEGA from which you can access all the resources you need.

>>97166654
thank you, my eyes refused to read that font, I was looking at the image but I could not find the address, kek

>>97167328
need to get your PER up

I've never used guns' rules (only played GURPS in fantasy settings).
My friends say it sucks, you aim forever then miss.
Any thoughts on modern/near future combat in GURPS? Suggested books or house rules to ensure it's fun?

>>97167555
Gun rules are pretty decent people just forget to apply a lot of the bonuses but apply all of the penalties. Also aiming for four turns isn't an issue with a good DM for whom turns are extremely quick and you can get through a round in less than a minute but some DMs make that single second one action turn painful.

>>97167555
Your friends have no idea what they're talking about. It sounds like they played a super realistic game with low point characters and were fighting at really long ranges but you can just use the GURPS Action rules if you want gunfights where you can run around shooting and hit without spending any time aiming.

>>97165750
I have a wealth level of Poor so I can't do much

>>97167555
If you've used bows in fantasy games, you've used the gun rules. They work almost identically.

>>97167555
>My friends say it sucks, you aim forever then miss.
Skill issue. Tell your friends to stop rolling at default.

>>97167555
I generally prefer modern combat stuff because its lethality makes it tense, plus it ends sooner which isn't bad.

GURPS is the best

>>97171662
My players hate that

>>97171705
More like BURPS is the gest

>>97171831
fuck,,, how did you do that

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>>97166348
>I've sent David a proposal to fund the initial few months of writing work.
He replied. He's busy on a project for SJG at the moment, but depending on how their editing queue is going he may be able to start as early as mid to late January 2026 and if things work out perfectly (do not expect this) the finished product might be available as early as next summer. Otherwise it's a case of waiting until he is free, but I doubt that will be many months. I would usually pad any writing time estimate quite a bit, but David is very experienced so I assume he is fairly good at guessing how long things will take him. So, assuming no more than the average amount of problems, I think it's very possible we may have the vehicle design system available before the end of next year.

>>97171852
>reading ACTION 2: Exploits
>“When in doubt, roll and shout” is excellent advice
Is it really excellent advice /gurpsgen/?

What books should I use for this campaign idea:
>bad guy in modern world (well, the 80s) wants to end the world by summoning a demon god using 4 ancient mystical medallions
>the pcs find themselves entangled in the bad guy's plot and have to stop him
>tone is 80s ninja movies like american ninja and shit like that

>>97172577
Action series, basically. Seems like there isn't any need to have the supernatural elements be useable by the PCs except in the form of rote rituals, magic items, etc. so you don't really need a magic system, but if you do there are various options which can slot in easily enough.

>>97172615
Yeah, that makes sense. I don't like the existing 250pts templates, but I guess I can make my own. There is a tamplate guidebook somewhere in the trove I'm pretty sure.

>>97172749
Action 4: Specialists is a far more flexible method of creating characters.
Template Toolkit 1 will spell out how to make your own templates, but it isn't difficult.
Freeform with guidelines also works fine using all the rest of the Action rules. It isn't inherently tied to templates in the same that that Dungeon Fantasy is.

>>97172799
>Action 4: Specialists
Oh that is a better way. Thanks for pointing it out, I had seen it before but forgot.

>>97172053
woo!

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>>97172556
There's two ways to interpret the advice.
First of all, you can follow the page reference and read the exact box with that title. That basically tells you to trust your gut and improvise when necessary.
Secondly, you can take the phrase itself as advice:
>if in doubt
Whenever you aren't sure what should happen or what the rules are...
>roll
Make a roll, against some quickly-chosen target (e.g. 'roll Survival'), to choose between options when you can't decide, or simply to appear to be doing something while you come up with a plan.
>and shout!
Act confident, loud, and enthusiastic to keep the fun and excitement going, rather than stopping to worry about it.
I think both approaches are excellent advice, actually. As a GM, you will have to improvise, and you feel like freezing. Having a quick catch-phrase to get your mind out of the decision paralysis loop is helpful, even to an experienced GM who is well aware that improvisation is inevitable.

>>97172882
However, if I was writing the box of improvising, I would probably have included less in the way of examples and more useful tools for helping make improvisation easier and more fun, such as...
Having an actual system for picking between options even if it's just a table with 'yes' / 'no' / 'sort-of' plus '...and also...' & '...but there is another problem'.
Having pre-prepared complications, elaborations, distractions, etc. which could apply to a wide variety of possible situations. Examples would be generic NPC personalities, insignificant encounters (pigeon, rat), small items which could end up anywhere, or minor disasters (something falls over, the lights go out, a container spills open).
The NPC reaction table is one such tool.
Of course, having too many tools to help you speed things up can actually slow you down as you consult the tools! Anything more than a couple of tables or a few decks of cards is probably too much.

>>97150086
Looks fine.

>>97150086
>dodging lasers after seeing it
This seems potentially possible. You won't be able to see a laser before it hits you, but a typical laser takes a while to ramp up to full intensity, and even longer to burn through anything. An ultra-fast blink might save you from blinding, moving really fast might stop it being able to dwell on one spot and burn through your skin. Seems more than '10 times human' speed though, unless its a realistic modern or near-future laser.
>Night Vision 9 //Can fight in most light condition without penalty
NV 9 is a lot better than 'can handle most light conditions'. It's light sensitivity at least a million times better than a normal human (see High-Tech: Electricity & Electronics, or Powers: Enhanced Senses), equivalent to the best modern night vision gear (typical NODs give about 50k times amplification, equivalent to Night Vision 7, still beyond the capabilities of all but the most extreme animals (giant squid might reach Night Vision 9, although exact numbers are hard to find and they also have faint illumination from bioluminescence). More than 2 levels is probably excessive.
If their pupil contraction time is ten times faster than a human's they probably have Protected Vision.
Skin which is ten times tougher than human skin is probably worth a couple of levels of DR. Even the eyeballs might be tough enough to qualify for Nictating Membrane 1. If their eardrums, etc. are somehow ten times tougher without losing sensitivity, then maybe Protected Hearing.
If they can handle ten times the dose of toxins, then maybe Resistant to Poison +3.
If their immune systems work ten times better, Resistant to Disease.
If their bodies heal ten times faster, Slow Regeneration (although them having effectively ten times as many HP could be said to include this, since they will recover ten times faster from a given source of damage).
A superhuman heart might give you Resistance to Acceleration, allowing you to survive extreme g-forces.

>>97175605
>Skin which is ten times tougher than human skin is probably worth a couple of levels of DR.
Soft, living skin is probably about DR 3 per inch. Tougher organic material such as scales, osteoderms, and so on, is maybe three times that. Overall thickness of skin across the human body averages about 0.1". Skin ten times 'stronger' than a human's would therefore be about DR 3.

>>97172053
He didn't reply to my 500-dollar email. :-(

>>97175670
Elephant skin is conveniently about ten times thicker than humans' and they canonically (Basic Set p. 460) have DR 4.

>>97175704
Maybe he doesn't check the gmail address anymore. His website and blog haven't been updated in years. Or you got spam filtered (I imagine 'person who you had no prior contact with is offering you money' might trigger some spam detection and an e-mail address which is on a searchable webpage will get a lot of spam). Try him at (his initials)(no punctuation)(his surname)@telus.net

>>97175732
I hate the idea of people's not checking their email. I keep my email inbox as clean as a whistle (there is literally ONE email in my inbox as I type this comment), and sort all my emails into dozens of different labels.
I guess I'll wait until the end of Monday, just to avoid annoying him by not even giving him 24 business-day hours to respond.

>>97172981
>The NPC reaction table is one such tool.
I like this as a concept, but never found any use for it. The game just plain stalls if you start rolling for reactions

>enemy attacks my character, male human knight
>9, needed 10 to hit
>try to dodge and retreat
>15, needed 14 to dodge
>enemy rolls 2d6
>rolls 12 - 5 DR *1.5 cut = 10 damage
>down to 5 hp out of 15, major wound
>roll HT to avoid falling down
>15, needed 14 to succeed
>fall prone and stunned, drop sword
>enemy telegraphs swing at neck
>can't even try to dodge since penalties reduce my dodge from 11 to negatives
>enemy needs 9 to hit
>hits
>10 cut damage, no dr no neck = 20
>goes to -15
>HT to not die, roll 14, needed 13 to survive
>die
I may be misremembering how some of the rolls went down but this is basically what happened yesterday in our game of gurps fantasy.
No revive either so now I have to make a new character.

>>97178744
I forgot the main point of the post so it's not just a pointless blog post
How did your last game go, /gurpgen/?

>>97178755
I ran on Friday and it went fine, one PC almost died due to getting whacked over the head (skull) for 9 damage, but she was the party barbarian so didn't even go below 0

>>97178763
Barbarians do be like that
How did the math end up at 9 after a x4 multiplier? follow-up damage?

>>97178782
No, I meant 9 before DR, of which there wasn't a lot

>>97175706
This also lines up with the rules for Armor Divisors less than 1, and Combat Writ Large, which implies that normal humans have DR 0.5

>>97178799
Oh, duh, that makes sense.

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>>97178744
Failure of a death check by 1 is a Mortal Wound, not instant death, if you are using that optional rule. Assuming you can readily get medical aid, that character could have lived.

>>97178834
Welp, our group didn't remember this rule.

Anyone remember where I can find (and the name) of that rule about how cutting damage becomes blunt damage vs DR or something similar like that?

>>97179189
Low-Tech 102

>>97179207
thanks

>>97178744
>can't even try to dodge since penalties reduce my dodge from 11 to negatives
Wouldn't your total penalty only be -8 ish? -4 from stunned, -4 from prone. Telegraphic would give you two back and then you should still be able to retreat for a +3 to offset it back to only -3 total. Excluding being able to block or parry.

>>97179277
Oh wait, you can't retreat while stunned. But you should still have a positive dodge score, since you had about 11 before getting injured and only a -6 total penalty to your defense.

>>97179277
>>97179293
reeling means my dodge was cut by half.
Also you can't retreat while prone, can you?

>>97179298
You can retreat while prone, but stunning disallows a retreat inherently. You're disallowed a retreat while kneeling and sitting, but Basic explicitly says you can retreat while prone by rolling away from an attack. I forgot about reeling. Feels you got a bit shafted by the GM honestly, the guy should've moved on after you got stunned instead of stopping to make a telegraphic attack.

>>97179318
In the defense of the GM, we always do the same thing to the enemies when they get stunned and knocked down.
>You can retreat while prone
Huh, I didn't realize that. Makes sense when you think about rolling.

>>97179338
>In the defense of the GM, we always do the same thing to the enemies when they get stunned and knocked down.
Yeah but the NPCs have infinite lives. You only get one. One of those gamey things that both doesn't make sense in real combat and just feels like bad taste when the GM pulls it.

>>97179361
I suppose so. I was more annoyed about failing the HT check to not die than having to roll in the first place lol

>>97179375
Yeah the dice were brutal, and LT armor just doesn't hold up against people with 2d damage.

>>97179390
>LT armor just doesn't hold up against people with 2d damage.
true, the chance to roll like more than double of the DR means any attack can just cut right through it.

>>97179361
>One of those gamey things that both doesn't make sense in real combat and just feels like bad taste when the GM pulls it.
Sure it does, you have to make sure your adversary is dead

>>97179446
Most people are convinced they're dead or out of the action the moment the guy falls over. You don't exactly get the luxury of stopping to line up a good shot, of which you're still not really confident in making (50/50 shot since it's a ESL 9) in an active melee.

In Dungeon Fantasy RPG, Size modifier is only applied to attacks right?
I can't find any rule in the DFRPG that says that you add or subtract SM from your defenses.

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How to make maces good for high ST characters with Weapon Master?

>>97179361
>One of those gamey things that both doesn't make sense in real combat and just feels like bad taste when the GM pulls it.
I feel like moving on ASAP once an opponent is down makes a lot of sense actually, assuming there are other opponents still on their feet. You might get a few wild blows in just because you haven't processed that your target is probably not fighting back, but they seem more likely to be wild swings and kicks than calculated killing blows.

>>97180925
In what way do you feel they are lacking? Good basic damage, cheap, reasonable chance of knockback, uses a good skill (one-handed at least). Cutting is arguably more 'efficient' against very high HP targets, but most will just go down to the mace anyway. If you want to really get the most out of massive ST, you may need to scale it up using the rules in Low-Tech Companion 2. ST 18 character with a SM+1 mace does 3d+5 and up to another +6 with Weapon Master. 20+ crushing damage is more than enough for most opponents even in a high-powered fantasy game. If you're still struggling, train to hit the skull or neck for favourable wounding modifiers.
The obvious downside is that your parry will be severely compromised, so you need a shield and skill to use it (or master two-weapon fighting with a hatchet, sickle, or knobbed club in the other hand). Even then, your defences are compromised compared to a swordsman, so you will need to spend the money you saved on armour. Having some options other than attacking every turn will allow you to parry with the mace a bit, so skills like Intimidation, Leadership, and so on could be handy. Since you're a weapon master, you can also learn cinematic skills which take a charge-up time, or Kiai. Likewise, advantages which open up new options in combat, like Rapier Wit, can be used.
High ST can also be leveraged in grapples, and by loading up with cheap armour.
Learn to exploit knockback. If you can reliably smash opponents into each other, you can manage the battlefield more easily.
Maces are easily thrown, and cheap enough to be disposable, but don't qualify for Fast Draw. Instead, carry one in your shield hand and quick-swap it when needed.
Don't forget weapon breakage rules. A 1.5 lbs. weapon risks breaking every time it parries a 5 lbs. mace. Against an 11.25 lbs. super-sized mace, that increases to 3.75 lbs. which included broadswords in the at risk category.

>>97181105
>ST 18 character with a SM+1 mace does 3d+5 and up to another +6 with Weapon Master. 20+ crushing damage is more than enough for most opponents even in a high-powered fantasy game.
Now redo the calculation with an axe and applying injury multiplier for cutting damage.

>>97181147
The axe causes more HP loss to most opponents, although there is a 'sweet spot' of DR which is just enough to stop the axe and not quite enough to handle the mace.
But this is mostly irrelevant in practice! When you can casually cripple limbs and cause major wounds even to HP 30+ opponents, you don't typically have to worry about whittling their HP down. One or two hits ends a fight, regardless of exactly how much injury you cause. Getting hits at all is far more important than DPS.

>>97181147
If all you care about is being the most effective fighter build at a given points value, then choose katana, edged rapier, quarterstaff, or duelling halberd. Those are the top tier of melee weapons. Quibbling about whether one sub-optimal choice is 10% better than another is a waste of time.
If you want to be a big strong guy who smashes people with a mace, then you're not making an optimal fighter build. Tough shit, it just isn't. But you can still have a great time! You will still be effective if you play smart, and have a few tricks which work well with the build, either taking advantage of its strengths or compensating for its weaknesses. At the end of the day, good tactics and luck will determine the outcome of more fights than the specific details of your build and exactly how close to optimal performance you are.

>>97181105
>Don't forget weapon breakage rules. A 1.5 lbs. weapon risks breaking every time it parries a 5 lbs. mace. Against an 11.25 lbs. super-sized mace, that increases to 3.75 lbs. which included broadswords in the at risk category.
Did anyone come up with a better system for blowing through parries. I don't mean like exploding swords that try to parry you, I mean just a parry being insufficient to fully stop (or even stop any damage) that's incoming. Feels weird it's so binary that you either have an enormously heavy weapon that can explode whatever tries to stop you, or your opponent can parry it no problem.

>>97181147
When you have such enormous strength the cutting modifier is basically irrelevant.

>>97181370
The Broken Blade (Pyramid vol. 3 iss. 87 p. 4) replaces the 1d weapon-breakage roll with a more complicated system based on rolling vs. the parrying weapon's HT.
A beat (Martial Arts p. 100) is a ST-based feint that an attacker can use to knock his enemy's parrying weapon out of position.

>>97181282
>there is a 'sweet spot' of DR which is just enough to stop the axe and not quite enough to handle the mace
about 1 DR, given that's the usual damage bonus maces have over axes, unless the axe is fine quality.
>But this is mostly irrelevant in practice!
except when it does, like fighting a dragon, which is when your high ST should shine, but the lack of wounding multiplier fucks you if you're using a mace.
>If all you care about is being the most effective fighter build at a given points value
I don't mind some weapons being more optimal than others, but 50% difference is far from min-maxing, it's straight up handicap.
>>97181384
Is 50% more injury most of the time irrelevant?

>>97181756
>except when it does, like fighting a dragon, which is when your high ST should shine, but the lack of wounding multiplier fucks you if you're using a mace.
Lets say you're attacking a dungeon fantasy medium dragon (SM +4, 35 HP, DR 6). You're an ST 17 character with an ordinary flanged mace wielded in one hand and weapon master (mace) plus skill level of at least DX+2. Competing with an equivalent character with an ordinary good-quality axe.
You attack the dragon's neck with a normal attack. You do 3d+8 crushing, average of 12.5 past DR, increased to 18.5 with wounding modifier. Axe guy does 3d+7 cutting, average of 11.5 after DR, or 23 after wounding modifier. The axe causes 24% more hit point loss and has a better chance of inflicting a major wound, so it's clearly better, but it isn't 50% better and this is pretty much the worst case scenario. Against goblins, you pretty much just destroy them with one hit each.
If it was a case of merely strong (ST 13) characters without weapon master, then the mace would be relatively better. 2d+2 cr vs DR 6 does an average of 4.4 HP to the neck, while 2d+1 cut does 4.6. That's only about a 2.5% improvement! To the torso, it would be 3.1 HP vs. 3.2, which is again a pretty small difference.
There are a few cases, such as opponents with vulnerability to crushing or mail armour where the mace is actually a bit better.
But yeah, the less you care about flat bonuses to damage and the more you care about multipliers, the worse crushing weapons look. This means that for super-strong characters, they are often sub-optimal.

GURPS Bestiary (for 3rd edition) has a pretty weird version of the snolligoster; a hairy, legless crocodile with a spike on its back. All the depictions of a snolligoster I can find online are a kind of bird-reptile thing, sometimes with one eye and mouth-tentacles. Anyone know where the bestiary version is from?

>>97182334
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (1910) by W. T. Cox. In that book, it is said to reside in Florida, and presumably is part of the folklore / tall-tale-tradition of that state (but, equally, could have been made up entirely for the purposes of folklore collections).
The bird-reptile thing is apparently a Maryland thing, called a 'snallygaster' or 'schneller-gheist' (fast-ghost).
The similarities in naming seem unlikely to be a coincidence. The Maryland one is older, as far as I can tell, and has some actual etymology. I guess the Florida version came from stories from Maryland being reported, 'snolligoster' coming to be a general term for a silly monster, and eventually getting attached to a specific take in the early 20th century.

>>97182207
>You attack the dragon's neck with a normal attack
You can't. SM+0 human fighting an SM+4 medium dragon uses the "Up to six feet of vertical difference" rules under Combat at Different Levels, ie the human can only attack the dragon's legs (and the dragon gets +3 to defend against it). So it's actually 12.5 injury with a mace vs 23 with an axe, so the axe is x1.84 times more effective. In fact, given medium dragons have HP 35, the axes are likely able to cripple each leg with one hit as a major wound, while it would take two hits for a mace.
The favorable hit locations that favors maces are limited and often the cutting damage gets the same benefits.

>>97182423
Correction: I was still applying the x2 wounding modifier from cutting attack to necks for the axe. The actual expected injury is 17.25, or x1.38 the mace damage. Not nearly as good as I previously wrote about but still decent, and a slightly better than average damage can still cripple the legs with one hit.

Any good Pyramids for Syntatic Magic? Anyone have stories of using syntatic magic? Thinking about making it the primary form of magic in my fantasy world.

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>>97166557
>>97166524
Maybe if the project gets far enough maybe SJG may just adopt it.

Doug made a post about Mission X. Looks like he wants to publish some of Dave's fantasy work in order to raise funds for it, then include some kind of lightweight vehicle design system, also written by Dave, in Mission X itself. Although more of David's stuff getting published is generally good, it may mean he is quite busy soon and that may impact the amount of time he has to work on the full vehicle design system. We'll just have to see. On the positive side, seems like Mission X is going to have a lot of content and is still in progress, albeit slower than many of us would like.

>>97182207
>>97182433
The unfortunate thing is that yes, blunt weapons irl are less lethal than cutting ones (or immediately so, even though you can get grievous organ damage it won't be immediately lethal and incapacitating), unless you're going for the head. The other unfortunate thing is that swing damage is grossly overturned compared to thrusting, and since it's so high, damage multiplier get crazy good.
Ideally, there's should be a rule about crippling limbs with blunt weapons being easier through armor. Plate can dissipate blunt impacts extremely well, but limb and shoulder armor is noticeably thinner and the plate articulation is also vulnerable.

>>97183304
>the plate articulation is also vulnerable
Isn't there a rule for this in one of the Low-Tech Companions? I want to say 2

>>97183304
>Ideally, there's should be a rule about crippling limbs with blunt weapons being easier through armor. Plate can dissipate blunt impacts extremely well, but limb and shoulder armor is noticeably thinner and the plate articulation is also vulnerable.
In terms of damaging the flesh beneath, I think that's a natural consequence of doing more damage. The problem being that ST-based damage is kind of crazy high compared to DR, so there isn't much incentive to take weapons which only give you +1 damage when you're already getting 2d or more with cutting weapons and nobody has DR better than about 5. You can 'solve' that by being very stat-normalising with ST, but then most characters can't wield 'full size' maces (this is somewhat realistic; a 5 lbs. mace would be much larger than most historical ones).
Low-Tech Companion 2 has a neat rule for trashing the joints of plate armour with crushing weapons. This would be good if it weren't for the fact it requires the armour to be just strong enough to make it a good option, but weak enough that you can reliably get a couple of points of damage past its DR. ST 10 guy with a small mace against light segmented plate, it works fine (2/3 chance of 'crippling' limb, vs not possible normally with mace, or only 1/6 chance with a small axe). At dungeon fantasy power levels, it's irrelevant as you just lop off limbs with massive cutting damage.

>>97183446
>very stat-normalising
I just use that blog about reducing swing damage which coincidentally makes thrusting actually useful instead of completely pointless past 14 ST (and perhaps even earlier)

>two SM-4 leprechauns having a fistfight
>can't hit each other

>>97183591
why? sm modifiers to hit is relative. they'd hit each other as easily as humans fistfighting one another.

>two SM-4 leprechauns having a fistfight
>film it and make $$$ on youtube

>>97183649
Correct, but that's not in the Basic Set. Just as a reminder since we've been talking about melee. It never really came up in my games before because the biggest PC before now has been SM+1 and the smallest -1 and ignoring the rule with that sort of SM margin doesn't really matter

>>97183660
You're supposed to "apply the difference in SM as a penalty to the attack rolls of the
larger combatant. Add it as a bonus to the attack rolls of the smaller fighter, to a maximum of +4." - Pyramid 3/77 "Combat Writ Large".

>>97183672
I mean yeah, but that's a Pyramid article and it's in the FAQ too, but not in BS. It's probably one of those things that will be in the new Basic Set

>>97183660
I checked the book and actually Basic doesn't seem to apply SM modifiers on melee combat, only ranged, where absolute SM as modifier makes sense.
So SM-4 Leprechauns would still hit each another normally, but on the flipside a SM+4 Gundam will also hit a SM-7 Pixie as easily with a beam saber.

>>97183304
There's a weird situation where a giant troll (think LotR movie) with a whole tree trunk as a battering ram is likely going to do less damage to an homogenous iron gate than a smaller axe-like object.

>>97183782
That's actually true, but the FAQ also states it should apply in melee so they just left it out by accident, lol

>>97183782
But SM is defined as "a modifier to rolls to hit you in combat". Doesn't say only ranged combat.
I remember a story my GM told me about some guys who said finding the sun during daytime was difficult in GURPS because the sun is very far away and relatively small. So you know, sometimes GURPS can suck if you use it wrong.

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>>97183820
Maybe I'm looking at an older version of Basic or another FAQ, but the one on the official site is explicit on this matter.
>>97183824
It also doesn't say how you apply it. It's an awkward writing that leaves a lot to be desired but GM fiat, as in Rule Zero, would reach the same conclusion as the FAQ and Combat Writ Large that SM-4 leprechauns punching each other would take -4 to hit is stupid and the modifier should be relative.
Just to be clear, I agree it deserves a proper 'errata' in the new book.

>>97183824
It's not listed under melee combat or melee combat modifiers, while it is under ranged
Idk about newer printings though

>>97172053
I'll give david my money. My gurps folder on my PC already has two separate rules outside GURPS for realm management and mass combat

>>97183810
That's the issue of inflated swing damage. 30x1.5 is way more of a difference than 10x1.5. One is 15 more damage than a crushing weapon, the other 5 (even if both are 50% more). I think "super" ST should apply as a flat damage bonus that's not modified by impaling or cutting modifiers at all. After all, the damage depends on the size of the weapon, not the type. There's only so much damage you can take from being impaled that's actually due to being impaled and not the fact one's a knife and the other a fencepost. Like, at one point, the fact it's cutting or impaling is completely irrelevant to the weapon

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What is actually wrong with Ultra Tech? I like the almost retro futuristic feel of the technology.

>>97186865
Being a bit too all over the place, especially the weapons (and the cybernetics suck)
But generally there's a lot of good stuff too

>>97186893
So what's a melanin American gotta do to get good ultra tech weapons and cyberware?

>>97187096
Make them up yourself, you can use the ones in UT as a rough guide though

The real value of maces is their low cost combined with higher damage output. You can get a Balanced, Very Fine Mace for just $950 (only $350 more than a thrusting broadsword) to do swing+5 damage. If you can get Weapon Master, too, you can get some really good damage output. Bonus points for Targeted Attack (Groin)

>>97187120
But they look normal to me, magazine sizes aside. So I can't tell what's wrong.

>>97183810
Although that's intuitively weird, I'm not totally convinced it's strictly wrong. A sharp, hard object is going to cause more damage than a big blunt one with the same energy behind it.
The trick is that battering rams aren't actually meant to punch through gates and doors. They spread the impact out so that the force is applied to the hinges and locks, which are usually the 'weak point'. This is especially obvious when you look at police battering rams in use, as they actually aim at the lock for maximum effect. However, the general principle applies to medieval battering rams too.

>>97186865
Just an absolute ton of little problems. No one of them would be enough to make it a bad supplement, and even all of them together are manageable if you know what you're doing, but it can be a tricky book for novice GMs.
Some of the gear seems worse than modern-day equivalents (e.g. conventional handguns). Some is absurdly good (e.g. ETC guns). Some items seem like they should be super-science but aren't labelled as such (especially problematic with power cells, as there is no realistic alternative presented). Some is maybe plausible, but poorly explained, and causes game balance issues (e.g. small-calibre shaped charges, kinetic missiles).

>>97189090
Crushing weapons do not get extra damage from being (very) fine. Since maces will rarely risk breakage (heavy, not often used to parry) there isn't much point making them better than good quality.
However, fine (balanced) for only $200 extra is an absolute steal. But axe-men get the same deal, so cut-chads are still winning, I'm afraid.

>>97189640
I don't mind the power cells because that's how a lot of scifi operates. You don't see Briareos from Appleseed puttering around with a gasoline engine

>>97189660
>heavy
Maces are pretty light. Heavy for the size, sure, but something like 1.2kg is on the extreme upper end of what was actually used, and were generally lighter. A typical longsword is 1.1-1.3 kg. So they aren't heavy, if they weigh as much as a sword, even if significantly shorter.

>>97184773
Which are? I've been looking for a good set for a while now. Closest I've gotten is a custom OPR hack, and some of the logistics stuff from battletech.

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>>97189660
In fantasy games you might get some benefit from Fine quality if you make it Dwarven.
Then again, an Axe has the same cost, has nearly the same weight and get damage bonus that puts it on par with a Mace...

>>97183304
>swing damage is grossly overturned compared to thrusting
How do we know this to be the case?

>>97189934
ACKS for realm management and fantasy mass combat. I've finally settled on just using the most relevant to the setting tabletop wargame rules for mass combat and using that. Which rn is just team yankee. For strategic scale I use a dogshit hackjob system of my own creation in GURPS but that is thankfully never used since my players don't do that sort of thing, I just have it in a "break glass in case of emergency" type deal.

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So what do the levels look like

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>>97190851
>Extreme SEuxal Dimorphism 3

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>>97190851
Retvrn to GURPS Sex and Pregnancy.

>>97189660
>Crushing weapons do not get extra damage from being (very) fine
I feel like such a fraud

>>97191035
I mean, what are you going to do to improve its damage?

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>>97190900

>>97189993
It increases at double the rate thrusting damage does.

>>97191049
Make it blunter

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>>97191092
>Make it blunter
You could say people who chooses maces are not the sharpest tool in the shed.

>>97191049
Better designed striking surface or some such

>>97190900
No, see, while I'm fine giving my players some influence skill boosts, I don't make them write down cup sizes

>>97191397
Filthy casual. Maybe you should go back to D&D 5e, it might be more your speed.

>>97191424
I unironically like GURPS because you can make detailed waifu characters
Alas, as foreverGM I don't get to play them

Any rules for gutter sights (or trench sights) or is the difference negligible enough to not matter?

>>97191181
Wait until I sharpen my musical instrument

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>>97191872

I want differently talented magic users to regain energy at different rates, but all the rates for Regeneration and Energy Reserve Recovery are really extreme. Is there no fair point value for a difference of, say, double speed? Or perhaps some entirely different solution to magic energy is better?

>>97191862
They're in Tactical Shooting under the ASP pistol if anywhere

>>97191881
Which musical instruments would benefit from being sharpened? Drumsticks would become stakes, that's for sure

>>97189640
So are you supposed to cross check everything in UT with other splats?

>>97192066
It seems to mention it but provide no other rules. It also seperately seems to mention the -3 for fast drawing from a pocket if the weapon isn't hammerless.

>>97192392
Probably negligible then

>>97192496
I think it really is unless you have some angular ass sights like on competition revolvers. I wonder how I should do shrouded and semi-shrouded hammers though. That's more important

A regular axe can break: Jutte, Large Knife, Short Knife, Baton.
A regular mace can break all of the above and: Sai, Long Knife (best knife), Kukri, Smallsword, Tonfa.

A mace can do knockback. In human ST ranges, the mace is the better weapon against chainmail.
An axe will do better damage most the time, even to homogenous targets like doors. If you use Low-Tech rules, metal armor will ignore cutting sometimes. In Martial Arts, axes can sweep opponents, and grapple weapons with the Hook technique.
Axes can cause bleeding, which depending on your profession it may or may not be ideal... but this never matters on the disposable NPCs.

Axes and Maces cost the same. But Axes can be made Fine. Both weapons use the same skill, so although Axes are usually better there's nothing wrong with packing both.

Just use the low tech companion rules and glue a mace to your ax
the skill used is the same anyway.

>>97192704
>A mace can do knockback
I always forget knockback exists but it isn't terribly realistic for anything but explosions, anyway. Per RAW we should have had a couple of instances of knockback last session

>>97191092
>It increases at double the rate thrusting damage does
Is that unrealistic though?

>>97192602
>I should do shrouded and semi-shrouded hammers though.
The players meet them in a seedy tavern

>>97195061
In a fight, you don’t really get to lift your weapon so far out of the way as to make a big lever with it all the time. Conversely, a thrust can have a whole lot of body weight and muscles moving from your heel to your wrist in it in a way that many swings can’t. It’s reasonable to say they shouldn’t be that different.

>>97195061
Mostly yeah. A swing attack is also noticeably slower than a thrust and more telegraphed if it's full power. Just like lift vs carry. You can lift a whole lot of weight, but not really carry it or move it. So the fact you deal 3d swing when you only output 1d+3 thrust is silly.

>>97195761
>Mostly yeah.
NTA but how so? You're working with leverage.
>A swing attack is also noticeably slower than a thrust
You mean slower to set up in combat, or physically slower?

>>97196034
He's right that it'd be slower due to how far the end of the weapon would have to travel. But that would be at least somewhat equalled out by the fact that the end of the weapon would be travelling much faster, which could explain the higher damage.
>>97195712
>>97195761
At what point does it become unrealistic? Because they're very close at modest strength levels

ST should scale as is until swing 3d damage then scale at the same rate.

>>97195061
Apart from the other issues, surely the ratio of swing to thrust should be constant? Like, if swing was ~30% more damage than thrust at every ST level, that would make sense. But sometimes it is double and sometimes barely more, depending on your ST.

>>97196182
>modest strength levels
I said that as higher ST levels it becomes silly. Already at 16, imo. Yeah, a strong creature will swing like a truck, but also thrust like a truck, which doesn't happen. Even if a thrust is mechanically less powerful, it's not that comically weaker

>>97196034
>physically slower?
Physically, and therefore in combat too. A thrust is incredibly fast, it's one of the harder attacks to defend from, and also has better reach. Consider that dueling evolved into thrust meta at a certain point.
That doesn't make swinging cumbersome or slow, but the mature of the movement as well as needing to cover an arc makes it slow, and if you want to be faster, you need to make a smaller arc and thus deliver less force, while a thrust allows you to put all your strength behind it without sacrificing power, as you don't really lose or gain power with a shorter or longer thrust, not as much as a swing at least. See: Bruce Lee's famous finger punch.

>>97197761
I was about to wade in with a bit I remembered about drilled Romans supposedly being able to hit a target the size of a denarius accurately at such speeds that their sword was meant to just be a blur but I remembered that was from the SPQR books and not a real historical source.

>>97197761
Forgot to add: you can test it yourself and you can see that to deliver the most force, you really need to rear your arm back with a swing, but not with a thrust. Naturally, there's the fact you can use your body to deliver more force (like pugilists) but that goes for both attack types.

>>97197533
>Like, if swing was ~30% more damage than thrust at every ST level, that would make sense. But sometimes it is double and sometimes barely more, depending on your ST.
That's odd. Surely that's not intentional, right?