Post here to gauge interest on your ideas for new games, such as Pokemon: Coruscant and Star Trek: Bunnies and Burrows.

So looking at making a game of survival Sci-Fi. Based on the Game ARk. It will be more realistic than some games. mixed with some cinematic options to reflect the game.

Players will be expected to Figure out how to survive, protect themselves from dinos and environment. They will also need to figure out why they are on the island and maybe find a way off.

Any interest in this?

In reply to Dchsknight (msg # 2):

I am not familiar with Arch but it sounds fun.

Is this the "you find yourself naked on the beach and remember nothing" game?

Shades of "Blue Lagoon"

In reply to Aethulred (msg # 4):

lol, definitely an Adults Only game!

LOL it would not be an adult game. I mean not like a dirty game. It might be adult cause Raptors tear you apart... and everyone is running screaming obscenities...

Here are some guidelines I am thinking about using. Note thinking things can change.

"All stats start at 10. No stat maybe raised past 11 to start. This is to represent the point increase of leveling up.

Cp:100 to start.

Only 3 advantages/disadvantages each. No lowering of starter stats for more points.

You must start with Total Amnesia. You do not get the points for it. And you cannot buy it off. This is to represent you waking up on the island with no knowledge of your past. You cannot learn anything about your past. There will be a way to find out who you were. This will be the only disadvantage that will not be played raw. The –IQ to roll does not apply. This is a hand wave of your past.

If you are willing to gain more points, you may allow me to pick up to 3 more disadvantages. But know I will be mean and they will be crippling. In addition you will receive 50 more CP to be used in skills. You will not know about the disadvantages until they come into play.

You must have a new advantage called “Implant”. This will represent the specimen tag on your arm. It will be able to hold all sorts of info about anything on the island. Once you figure out how to use the implant you will be able to track things on the island, get information on the animals and plants, what you can and cannot eat, and help keep track of your inventory.

Strength

Will also determine how much you can harvest from resources. The higher the strength, the better the amount you can gather.

Weight

will be cinematic. If you have the weight to carry it, you can carry it. There will be no need for worrying about space. This will be a hand wave thing. So yes, you can carry 100 guns if you want. No one cares where it is put.

Tech level

will start at 0. You may buy up your tech level AFTER the game starts at 50 CP per tech level. You cannot buy items outside your tech level.

Engrams
this will be represented by buying items with CP. Once you buy an item with CP you will be able to “MAKE” said item. You will be required to have the skill to make the item. Skills can be bought, AFTER the game starts, at 25CP to learn a new skill at attribute; this is blanket for all skills. And then you can follow the RAW to increase the skills. Skills are learned instantly thanks to your implant and will never degrade.

Special engrams:
Mortar and Pestle 15 CP
Smithing station 25 CP –will require you to find 5 metal ore
Upgrading Bench 35 CP
Refining Forge 25 CP
Fabricator 100 CP

Most everything can be built from these stations. Everything else like the Camp fire, Cooking pot ect we will handle when someone wants to buy them and use them.


Hunger and thirst.

You will need to regulate your food and water supply. Health will affect how hungry you get and how quickly and how fast you dehydrate. Health will also help you fend off toxins from animals and plants.


Fatigue points

FP will function in two ways, it will function in RAW for preforming tasks, like running, climbing, swimming ect. It will also be used to determine if you can survive in the weather. The higher FP total you have the better you stand Weather. This includes temp, storms, cold water, heat ect.

Affects of heat and cold.

Heat will dehydrate you and drain your FP. You will take health damage once your FP is gone.

Cold will Starve you and drain your health.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:00, Wed 15 Mar 2017.

So you arrive with an implant...clothes? Shoes?
I ask because someone without shoes and who hasn't gone barefoot much...isn't going far.
The term tenderfoot has/had real meaning. Likewise walking through shrubs naked is going to have real issues too.

GURPS doesn't have rules for callouses, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I just had an Idea for a GURPS Modern Fantasy game. the PCs would be a group of characters who in order to pay their bills have decided to explore the Earth and uncover lost artifacts/cities/civilizations. it might be as simple as "Rich old Professor puts up an add for assistants to prove his 'crackpot' ideas".

I started thinking about it when I was trying to come up with the background to an Orc Soldier of Fortune.

150cp
50 disadvantage limit.
TL8

I'm thinking that it would be best as a mature game.

So basically the guys that Indiana Jones tries to stop from stealing and selling artifacts that belong in museums?

Hey Rockwolf66

How/what style of cinematics are you intending to have in the game?

More like Indiana Jones or the Tomb Raider.

See the "Adventurer Archaeologist" on TV tropes.

Since this would be fantasy yes magic would exist. Then you have "Lost Cities", artifacts from an unknown age, Evil rivals.

Would anyone be interested in a space zombie game. Kind of like Walking dead but on a space station?

In reply to Dchsknight (msg # 13):

lol, probably not an extended campaign game, but might be fun for a short one!

Unless you had the chance to escape to a planet below (that may also be infected!).

In reply to BlueDwarf (msg # 14):

That would be up to the group to decide. I would see the story line going, Ship docks with station automaticlay because crew is in cryo sleep, They are the station's replacment senior staff for a shift cycle, This would allow for a broad make up of skills and play styles.

They crew off loads and finds the station empty or seemingly empty. Then Crap hits the fan the crew has to figure out how to escape because the automated ship that just brought them here has already left. And then we would see where the group go and what to do.

Add in some pirates, some criminal element on the station, plus zombies. crap could go down hill fast.

In reply to Dchsknight (msg # 15):

Sounds interesting...

Would anyone be interested in a martial arts Wuxia game? players would be a group of people teleported to another world that is video game like, with classes and leveling.

In reply to Zoncxs (msg # 17):

I would that would sound fun!

I'm looking at creating a 4e game set in the 1930s, based around exploring strange and wonderful places in the world - mysterious pyramids, the Paris Catacombs, Long Forgotten Inca Temples^TM, etc. Before I do so I'd like to see if there's any interest in the Community, however. A few more (admittedly tentative) details:

Characters would be created using 90 points.
Maximum 45 Disadvantages.
No magic, psi, etc.
Tech Level 6 (world-wide anyway; individual locations would be lower, sometimes significantly so)
Realistic(ish) setting (I make no guarantees that it will always remain so... I enjoy bad found footage movies ;)

Requirements would probably include Duty (to a small-P patron)

Suggested (Dis)Advantages would include additional Languages, Patron (the small-P patron), and Language Talent would probably prove handy

Finally, and most potentially troublesome, my schedule isn't always the easiest (and I spend a lot of time in countries where the internet isn't always up). So posting wouldn't always be perfectly regular.

Is there any interest in this game?

I dig it.

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 19):

Sure, that sounds fun but I would prefer a few more CP.

How many?

90 is good. 100 or 150 would also be good.

Maybe 150. I guess I like more cinematic.  I am playing a Coc game now and like to spread out points in different abilities. Guess it depends on if we are doing a lot of fighting versus problem solving and such. I prefer RP.

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 19):

I would be interested...

The premise sounds intriguing.  Would you expect seasoned PCs or neophytes?  What kind of feel are you going for?  It sounds like the focus would be more on exploration and discovery.  What do you see as some of the influences?  (Indiana Jones?  League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?  Lovecraft?  Agatha Christie?)  How much combat would there be?

Witchy, I could be talked up to 100, but I'm specifically trying to avoid Cinematic. :/ (Certainly to begin with, anyway.)



Seasoned is probably more accurate, in the sense that they're people who've Lived - whether that be through the War or just through the early years of the Depression. However, just because they're seasoned doesn't mean they're seasoned appropriately; "I survived the War in Europe" doesn't equate to "I know how to survive in the Himalayas," for example. That'll take experience.



I'm definitely looking at an exploration focus. I'm most influenced by those movies I mentioned earlier - As Above, So Below, The Pyramid, Troll Hunter (a Norwegian film), even Quarantine - but also pretty heavily by Indiana Jones (I mean seriously, how can I not rely on Indy? :)

There wouldn't be much League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (although some, possibly; it would be entirely accidental, because my familiarity is limited to the movie). Agatha Christie... some, potentially, but not likely very much, and it would be limited predominantly to the travel periods (Murder on the Orient Express-style).



That... is a good question. On the one hand, combat's awesome. On the other hand, RPOL doesn't exactly lend itself to combat sequences, and my potentially weird posting schedule wouldn't help a lot. So would there be combat? Yes. But it probably wouldn't be a lot of combat for entirely OOC reasons. Barring, of course, PC intervention.

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 27):

I am fine with that.

Is this game going to come to fruition, Big Brother?

I think it will, yes, though it definitely won't be before the end of the week since I'm currently on vacation. ;)

No Problems there... I'm ready when you are.

   Just saw this, and I have to admit, the exploration portion of things works for me. The 1930's setting could be interesting - those of you who might remember "Tales of the Gold Monkey" certainly would understand where I'm coming from. And Big Brother's right on one thing - how can you *not* be influenced by Dr. Jones?  :)

   I'd be tempted to put my hat in the ring for something like this - I've got a character concept in mind, just would have to take some time and flesh him out, first. Looking forward to hearing more about this.

Cheers!

Good deal. In that case I'll try to get something together ASAP. It will definitely be next week at the earliest. Ah, viva la Mexico.

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 33):

Sounds good!

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 33):

   Enjoy Mexico, then.  We'll see you when you get back...

Pfft. I wont be back for a month. I just need a place where the internet is closer than "downstairs, turn at the corner, then another corner... see that stop sign two miles down? Yeah, the nearest place to catch a bus to town is a mile past that, then you'll have to get on a plane and..." ;) Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but when you're as lazy as I am it can feel like it. ;)

Anyway, I've put the game together and here's a link to it: link to another game

I'm not opening it to the general public as yet, half because I'd like comments from you, the peanut gallery, and half because I don't plan on doing that until tomorrow or Sunday. Nonetheless, please feel free to RTJ if you're interested. Not sure how many PCs I'm accepting at the moment.

Hey all,

I've been running a game for over a year now and it seems that while the group is stuck on an island for now I have a whole world to explore. Right now I have four reliable players and eventually I want to end up with a dozen PCs and a Co-gm.

Once the current threat is eliminated I plan on letting the players explore the world. Gather resources and try to figure out why the world they are on is currently plagued by Banestorms and is having beings from across space and time dropped onto the world.

I'm working on figuring out where and how far to take this.



link to another game

I've proposed a horror western game over in Game Proposals link to a message in another game - GURPS is one of the systems I'd consider running it in.

If you're interested, head on over and advocate for the system. If I get enough players interested in GURPS, it'll be GURPS.

If I can get 2 more statements of interest in GURPS Horror Western I'll go with GURPS.

GURPS Deadlands?

Not quite Deadlands. Different setting, different supernatural rationale, no huxters or inventors.

Just historical horror and monster hunting for profit.

In reply to Faceplant (msg # 41):

Magic?

I dead have a hilarious intelligent zombie mage before...would that fit?

Players will have the opportunity to learn magic as the game goes by, but at character creation the most understanding of the supernatural you'll have are myths and legends - maybe a few points in the Occult or Theology skills.

For that matter, it's a horror game, not fantasy. Magic will be more mythos/lovecraftian/ritualistic.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:55, Mon 05 Mar 2018.

In reply to Faceplant (msg # 43):

Ah, OK. What about clerical powers such as exorcism and turning?

True Faith will be available as an advantage, Exorcism as a skill. They'll be effective against some things, ineffective against others.

In reply to Faceplant (msg # 45):

Naturally. No point trying to exorcise a vamyre! But still makes it interesting...will look in.

Have you considered Native characters, monsters, magics?

Yes. Native spirituality will be as effective as the white man's, though in a different way.

I am fine with however we do it :)

So, I wanted to check some interest in a game idea I was toying with.

Basically it would be a game set in a medium fantasy world. Magic and all the trimmings albeit less common than some typical fantasy settings, but not by much. While there will be cinematics, a lot of the interactions of the characters would be quite gritty. The level of cinematics would be on a sliding scale also - that's to say, common people will be common and larger than life characters will be considerably less so.

The goal of the game is to pull in some concepts from the age of sail and to give the whole game something vaguely pirate-esque.

A lot of the common tropes of shows such as Black Sail and games like Monkey Island (perhaps with less comedy, i guess unless the characters are built to reflect it) will be present in the game and there will be ships, powder weapons and kind of colonies. The premise is much the same as the real world era, which is that a number of kingdoms are competing for territory and resources on a new continent but with more disparity between technologies, cultures and goals.

As for characters, I'm pretty open about what kind of people are involved but I'll probably enforce certain things that will allow the characters to be somewhat interactive with each other and be connected to the rest of the world rather than just being a 'lone individual that basically has no real world effect'. While that is said, there just needs to be a critical mass of characters that will drive story and be able to enable the actions that can affect the gameworld.

In addition, I would prefer to have players build characters based initially on concept before writing out a full 'character sheet'. This encourages descriptive and diverse characters rather than just trying to min-max the badassery you're going for. As such, i do expect there to be point differences between characters, but hopefully it'll drive the game further. An example would be a player wanting a ship, or some status in a colony being integrated into the concept without people having to worry about having enough points to put in leadership or other appropriate skills.


Feel free to PM me with interest if you dont want to post here.

So would this be very pirates and privateers, swashbuckling and fencing, etc?

There definitely will be that, yea.  I really like to have people in meaninful places in the world too, so would like to encourage people to have some social traits also. The whole "we are rogue adventurers that find a job, go into a dungeon and kill stuff and then the world is no better or worse off" isn't my favourit ething.

Having said that, I guess we'll see how things turn out.

Sounds cool.

Though having said that - people can go with more traditional fantasy concepts - just that the primary setting will involve water and frontier and all that good stuff that makes the age of sail so fantastic.

Is this something plot/story-driven or more sandboxy and character-driven?

I guess there will be bits of both. I won't railroad a story just because I have it in mind and so it does depend on what kind of adventure players want to play and what they have made in terms of character.

Usually, I try to set my games in a world where things are happening. There are big and small events going on at multiple scales and then the players fit somewhere in there, people can get involved to more or less of a degree as they choose.

I would be interested in any of those things. :)

In reply to cltchrn (msg # 57):

Just a thought, if people are significant on the world stage, then combat is more likely to involve significant numbers of men. Hence, GURPs Mass Combat would be utilized a lot. Am I reading that right too?

Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that, a lot of it is of course dependent on the characters. But when I say that, it doesn't automatically mean armies. It could be an influential member of anoble house that has a stake in a colony on the new continent and the character has to deal with some of the town issues, etc.

Though, one of the common ideas might be a captain engaging in ship to ship combat. Something akin to tactical (at the ship level - or as close as i can make it to something meaningful) and then mass combat would be useful for situations where there are more than just singular people engaging in fights. Similarly, there would be possibilities to use mass combat rules for situations where individuals were unmanageable.

I kind of do like the idea of people being able to make their calls and having such situations be slightly less abstract than "just roll strategy or tactics and see how it goes". I reckon there will be more granularity and input in anything involving a lot of people and the success of those things modified by strategy/tactics rolls. It gives opportunities for creativity but still keeps skill rolls and character traits meaningful.

In reply to archypetro (msg # 59):

Yeah, as you probably noticed, I have tried toying with that recently. It seems that good ideas and good rolls influence the strategy rolls with bonii or penalties, as do the actions of players. At the end of the day, enough heroics will make the final outcome pretty sure, but the dice rolls just decide the levels...

It is hard to imagine, though, how people could be influential in those times without armies clashing, or ship crews, as you point out. Effects of broadsides could be put into that category too, vastly reducing the maths of 28 10 pounder guns, 6 25 pounders and 50 muskets versus the Navy sloop of 16 15 pounder guns and 20 riflemen, for example. Not something I would want to decide individually!

Assassination, espionage, surgical strikes at targets of opportunity - all the kind of thing that small units of highly capable individuals (PC parties) excel at. A half dozen "special operatives" can succeed where armies fail.

Or politics, invention, subtle propaganda campaigns. Smuggling silk worms out of China. Traveling and preaching with a handful of buddies. Conspiring to eliminate Caesar.

In reply to Tortuga (msg # 61):

So basically, tons of Intrigue!

In reply to BlueDwarf (msg # 62):

Considering a nobles games, similar to some proposed here, but combat generally based on GURPs Mass Combat. Player would have to have at least 50 points in wealth and status 4, so 250 points would be used pretty quickly.

Similarly, I have found in LT Companions a way of pricing buildings, so a Keep would be considered as necessary part of gear, or signature gear. I have always played that signature gear costs 1 cp per 50% of the players starting wealth, not the campaigns starting wealth, to avoid players with low wealth having a very expensive piece of gear, and also to make it interesting for wealthy players. So I if you spend lots of points in wealth, it is reasonable your signature gear is also expensive, and this can then extend to your castle or keep.

As an aside, PvP would be permissible, with players consent.

I'd be very interested in that.

I wonder how much it'd cost to even get all that.. either way. I'd be very interested in playing that kind of game.

There was once something similar on the SJgames forums called something like 'A tale of two baronies' or something. Pity it fizzled pretty quickly after the GM went AWOL.

In reply to BlueDwarf (msg # 63):

I would be interested.

In reply to Witchycat (msg # 65):

Ok, I may need an assistant GM though, as I anticipate starting Basic training in late July, which will mean 4 weeks without any Internet at all. If I can pass the fitness test! Also, I am not good with handling the intrigue side of things...or the mapping! Starting to put up some data for now. Since you will be commanding armies, we don't need a high player count!
This message was last edited by the player at 07:05, Tue 01 May 2018.

In reply to BlueDwarf (msg # 66):

Ok, starting to put it together, but have a ways to go still. Comments welcome.

link to another game

I'm considering running a GURPS 4th Lite-ish¹ game but I'd like some thoughts on whether there's any interest.

The game setting is originally inspired by the game Labyrinth from back in the days of Prodigy (if anyone remembers the dark ages of the internet when that was a thing), and heavily influenced by games like The Deep Paths: Labyrinth of Andokost and, of course, the movie Labyrinth (David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly). It's also more lightly influenced by early FPS and explorer games (like Doom, Dark Forces, etc).

The game "world" itself is basically a labyrinthine area the characters will explore. Areas will include (at the very least) exterior, interior, and subterranean areas. Magic will be part of the TL3 setting (see also: "Lite-ish"). It will be a game of exploration with a very light story element beyond "I wonder what's in the next room?"

Characters can come from all walks of (fictional medieval) life, with a few requirements. They'll be required to be human and built on 70 points (35 points of Disadvantages). They won't be required to know one another, though I'm still trying to decide how they get to know one another (I'm heavily leaning toward a "you all wake up in a clearing" start to the game, though).

Any interest in this sort of story-lite game?

1. Lite-ish in the sense that I will use GURPS Lite for most character creation, but I'm not averse to accepting rules from other books under certain circumstances, and I will use them as GM to enhance the game.

I think it's a cool idea.

Had a similar thought last night - a modern scenario where the players' home/apartment building/block/town is somehow swallowed up or transported into a cavern system. Don't think I'll get around to developing it, though.

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 68):

Could be interesting. Posting requirements? Is there a problem using the Basic books for those not familiar with the Lite rules?

I would make a GM post once every five days, and encourage PCs to post as often as they like in between those formal posts.

As far as using the basic books, I'm not averse to it, though the Lite rules are free and, frankly, not much different from GURPS Lite - just a lot more detailed. There are a number of (Dis)Advantages that I'm just not interested in, as well as Skills. That sorta thing. But yeah, I don't have a problem with using it.

Be interested.  Haven't used GURPS much in the last few years.

In reply to Big Brother (msg # 68):

Sure, I would give it a try.

Critical Shift:

I'm a big Feng Shui fan (the RPG) and one of the cool concepts from the game is that of the Critical Shift. Namely, that the universe rewrites itself, and history, to conform to the wishes and desires of whoever controls the most chi. This way, in addition to being a time travel game, you also get some alternate history/parallel world action.

Most people are rewritten along with the world unless they're Secret Warriors who've been to the netherworld; in this case you remember the way things used to be, even as the world changes around you.

So I'm not going to run GURPS Feng Shui (though that would be awesome). What I want to do is play with the idea of PCs who remain (mostly) the same as the world shifts around them. Not really going to parallel worlds, but the world becoming something new.

The players are a team of action badasses who find that reality is changing around them, have to cope with the changes, find out what's going on, and fix it. I'm seeing this as a one-shot - see the problem, find a solution, implement it - though it could spin off into more. PCs would be 250 points with one !skill representing their team specialty.

This sounds a bit like GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier.



You got my interest, despite my dislike for Bang Skills.

Been watching the Haunting of Hill House on Netflix and it's pretty great. Also been going through my Call of Cthulhu books... love the setting, dislike Chaosium's system.

Idea that I've got is the players are a group of siblings who had some kind of Mythos experience when they were kids - something they barely understood, but which shaped who they've become as adults.

Maybe you become obsessed with death, or the occult, or books, or science, or you have an aversion to them. Maybe you have latent psi, or just try to live an exceedingly "normal" life.

On the surface the game is about investigating occult mysteries, but under the skin it's about coming to terms with your childhood trauma, trying to understand your place in the world and what happened when you were kids.

Very character driven. Very player-player roleplaying heavy. 3-5 100 point characters. Probably Adult.

That sounds really interesting. I'd be down to play.

Here's what I've got: link to another game

Creation of the family, the Event, etc will be a group affair.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:46, Thu 18 Oct 2018.

A few times in the past I've run a game that's basically "real world gamers start sliding through fictional realities." I've run it in real life, and I've run it here on RPoL, once for a little over a year. I've got a slightly new take on it I'd like to try out.

This time there's more metaplot. There's a stronger reason "why" the players are jumping from reality to reality, and their skill as gamers matters a little more, though the focus remains on ordinary people growing into adventurers.

I'd like to start with a higher point value this time - 75 points (Exceptional) instead of my usual 25-50 (average to above average). Players are still ill-suited to "adventuring" but that gives them a few more points for advantages and higher attributes (meaning higher defaults).

I'll also allow players to take "Secret Advantages" for traits that don't exist (or wouldn't have been encountered) on mundane Earth (magery, magic resistance, weapon master, gadgeteer, gunslinger, Talents). Of course, you won't learn what they are until you discover them, and you don't get to pick, but it'll be something useful.

I'd like to run this in GURPS, but if I can't get enough interest here, I can retool it for Fate. You guys are my go-to favorite players, though, so I thought I'd give you first dibs.

Looking for 3-5 interested players.

In reply to Tortuga (msg # 79):

I might be

What's it contingent on?

In reply to Tortuga (msg # 81):

Mostly I'd want a bit more information is all. Maybe in a PM?

Feel free to ask here - other people might want to know the answer. And discussing it promotes interest!

(Or just PM me.)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:02, Mon 05 Nov 2018.

Mostly I've ceased to be interested in pbp games that are less than 200 points.  Sorry.

In reply to Tortuga (msg # 79):

I might, but will want to see more details.  One question, what do you mean by gamers?  If it's video gamers, then a definite no on my part.

No, tabletop gamers. This is an excuse for me to convert a bunch of my old non-GURPS stuff into GURPS. Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, Tunnels & Trolls, Aftermath, Runequest, etc. Not a straight up conversion - a lot of the stuff, as written, doesn't make a lot of sense. But there's a lot of gold to mine in them-thar hills.

The focus of the game is the player characters' development from ordinary (well, exceptional) folks ill-suited to adventuring, to Big Damn Heroes. Or maybe nervous wrecks, depending on the emotional and psychological impact of actually having to go live a life of constant danger and frequent violence.

But that's the point - to explore what "being an adventurer" does to someone relatively normal (whatever that means) when they don't have a choice. Do they resist? Lean into it? Become addicted to the adrenaline rush? Is it dehumanizing?

For me, that's the big appeal. Seeing different players' take on it. I want to see what happens.

I might be interested Tortuga.  Experienced GURPs player, but I'm not doing a regular game at the moment.  Just the combat club to learn Martial Arts.

Okay, that's one. We get to three, I'll pull the trigger.

Actually, I'd probably play.  I tend to be more of a character heavy writer.  :)

(Not that it's first come first serve; I just want at least 3 submitted characters, and will take up to 5.)

I've got 2 statements of interest, here and in PMs. Can I get a third?

One of the games I play in just went under, so I'd be up to join another. This one sounds fun.

So, I wrote up a massive fictional history of the world for a game, incorporating movie, video game, literature, and comic book timelines, most of it intended as backstory for a modern-day game in which most of our fiction was true.

I decided to use the material (basically a big offline wiki) to run a historical game. My first impulse was a game with immortals running from the fall of Atlantis to the modern day, ~20,000 years of time. I figured I could run an adventure every couple hundred years or so, skip over the time in between with a vague vignette about what the players were up to in between.

The problem is that while a lot of cool stuff happens in the fictional (and realistic) pre-industrial past, for a very long time - I'm talking 15,000 years of our 20 - maybe one or two things happen a century IF you have the power to travel all over the world.

That's a long time either skipped completely or full of "random paelolithic adventures." An entire campaign's worth of paleolithic adventures. Either that or skipping over hundreds to thousands of years and expecting players to adapt - and in a very realistic way, given the nature of RPoL, we'd probably never even hit the bronze age even if the game lasted years of real time.

I'm sure there are ways around this, but I'm thinking I might want to do a time travel game instead, just to get more work out of all the backstory research I did. I've tried doing a GURPS Time Travel game a few times, but none of them have lasted very long.

Proposed Structure:
* Players are largely solo. I've been running solo games lately, to avoid player attrition from throwing an entire game off. Each player will have their own thread, in their own historical era.

I'd like some means for the players to interact and communicate. Maybe some kind of chronophones they can use to contact each other across the temporal void. Maybe they can watch each other's adventures somehow, and offer "helpful" advice.

* Players are hopping from era to era without much control. Maybe they can control when they jump (after the chrono capacitors have charged), but they can't choose when to hop to next.

Options/Questions:

Is this sandboxy or is there a mission structure? Do the players just want to lay low and blend in, or are they trying to accomplish or prevent something in each era? Do I present them with a situation, or a goal?

Is this a physical means of time travel, or a mental one? Do they "jump" into the body of someone with an established place in the era, able to speak the language, etc, or do they appear (possibly with a time machine) looking the way they look, talking the way they talk, needing to learn to integrate. Is that a challenge players want to bother engaging with, or do we quantum leap it away?

Possible Setups:

1. The players are obviously chrononauts of some kind, but they don't remember why they're travelling through time. They've got some advanced tech to help them assimilate - translation program, for example - and can observe each other/communicate from their time machines. The metaplot is all about trying to figure out why they're traveling and learning to control the machines.

2. The players were helping crazy old Doc Brown/HG Wells/Local Basement Mad Scientist build a time machine when something WENT HORRIBLY WRONG sending them spinning through time and space. The goal is, explicitly, to get home again by getting a handle on the mechanics of time travel.

3. Literally Quantum Leap, minus the restrictions about only traveling within your own lifetime.

Feel free to suggest other options.

Unfortunately, I probably shouldn’t commit to another game, but your proposal sounds somewhat like a game I’ve long wanted to play in, a GURPS Highlander game. A game like that wouldn’t be as fun played chronologically (for me, anyway), but it would be great to alternate between the present day and past historical settings. I especially liked the Highlander TV series with Duncan Macleod that was set in the modern day but with segments in historical periods.

The problem is that in order to be based mainly in the present, the PC(s) should be able to survive any historical adventures (unless the game was run chronologically). GURPS combat can be deadly, and the whole point of Immortal combat is to take the loser’s head, after all, but perhaps failure instead could have consequences such as gaining disadvantages like Enemies or Secrets that would have consequences for the modern-day adventures.

So you could possibly adopt a structure like that, modern day adventures interspersed with flashbacks.

Still, time travel sounds like fun, and the threat of dying would actually be real.

I'd be interested

This is a cool idea but yeah, running the past as flashbacks is a little too deterministic. The players larger scale choices are irrelevant; they know where they're going to end up.

In reply to Tortuga (msg # 96):

What they wouldn't  know is which enemies survived; if they went by a title, it could be picked up by someone they ignored, and who has a different agenda. Likewise encounters with futer enemies who are maimed would lead to flashbacks like in Hot Tub Time Machine, where everyone was trying to guess how this one dude lost his arm. If they knew some dude they previoy fought was still around, and geared up to fight him again, only to discover he was now a CEO of a robotics company building artificial limbs to veterans (and also a customer) who was described as a threat to someone's livelihood (and therefore an enemy) because he buys out little companies like miccrosoft does.

Great, a potential game was proposed as (Cyberpunk/SciFi) and it's turned out more SciFi.

I'm in the mood for a 150cp, TL:9, cyberpunk game. Something that while the characters are better than your agerage thug they are not world beating yet.

I've started a game similar to Tortuga's "gamer thrown into their games", but focused on video games instead of tabletop RPGs. Player starts as 25 pts characters, but will get powered up to 'starting level' adventurer before the fighting really starts.

Right now, the players are dragged to Helgen to be executed. If you want to try roleplaying the mayhem coming soon, jump in the party! The World is Open for you!

link to another game

In reply to gorchek (msg # 99):

Sounded rather interesting, except I don't play any video games ... they few I have tried soon bore me.

Posted about this in the main Proposals/Advice thread, but I'm thinking about running a high-powered supers game. Unlimited, power, actually - players have no point budget. You could make a 10k point demigod, or a 250 point kung fu master.

There are, however, soft limits, in terms of which characters I pick for the game out of the applications received. I'm more interested in specialists than generalists, for example - characters with a clearly defined niche. It's a team game, so you don't have to be able to do everything.

In practice, I'll probably not pick characters who are so powerful and versatile that they can do everything without the need for the rest of the team. I'll probably avoid characters that are immune to most things because that would require me to keep throwing enemies armed with whatever you're *not* immune to at you which would be obnoxious.

Basically if your character makes things harder or less fun for the rest of the group I'll probably pick a different player instead. So players would be best served building characters designed to function as part of a team, rather than comprehensive solo masters who can handle absolutely everything. Your blind spots and incompetences are what make you fit in with the rest of the party.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:55, Sun 05 May 2019.

I like Supers games.  Whether or not I would have the time for it...  Not sure in the moment.

Well the game is up, and I'll be recruiting over the weekend.

link to another game

Ahh cool, I have been haunting RPOL looking for similar thinkers. Here is a ROUGH overview where I am headed or want to head.

This comes from a message I just sent someone in another game, who seemed to be thinking on same lines as me.

I welcome input good bad and ugly. Because talking about this helps me to clarify where I thing project should go.

I think we should discuss the rules of the world, how it would work how it functions,

After we get a clear foundation, both adventure in it tag team GMing. Each would have a chance to play, shine, invent and plan.

Once we world-build and test invite others. Everyone is player, npc and gm.

I have the bare bones of and idea.

A school located somewhere in the cycle of reincarnation, where both new souls and and the souls of people waiting to be born attend.

At this school, in the beginning we will get the players to flesh out there character,
filling out a description, backstory, etc.

The most satisfying character that I have ever played, was this guy me and the gm went back and forth designing.

Also in the beginning the player should have full free-forming rights. And as there character gets fleshed out and through instruction learning the gurps system.

We hold have them free-form less and less until they are following the GURPS ruleset.

I also want a dungeon in the center of the school. A place where the players can adventure and use the skills they learned in class.

Eventually I want to expand past the campus and design a world beyond the school.

Character death should happen and not matter, seeing as how the character will be returned to the school to train more and be re-educated.

During this process, player can earn cp or ccp (basically character creation points) , cp will be used as the currency of this world.

Used to evolve the players character and to buy things.

Player may also earn cp by playing NPC's, working jobs at the school, exploring the dungeons, expanding school, expanding the world outside the school, by designing and running missions.

I plan on using gurps as the foundation system. But I can see already that we will have create our own system.

I know I said alot, and sorry for the confusion, if I jumped around with ideals, but this is something I was interested in and you seemed to have similar interest as me.



Dude I knew you was perfect.
I have been reading a lot of Manga and watching a lot of anime.

Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon is one of my favorite anime.

I have been gravitating toward,
Isekai
Harem

Read (ing)<ALL great reads)
Against the Gods
Martial God Asura
Warlock of the Magus World
MMORPG: Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian


Watch (ed -- ing)<all great anime>
Overlord
Is it wrong to pick up a girl in a dungeon
How not to summon a Demon Lord
Demon Lord Retry
Gantz
Demon King Daimao
Death March




LIMITS HAHA no limits...Let them become GODS...Hate limits.





Love the limits, and with GURPS you can buy Extra lives. We'd have to increase the costs a bit, since we will be handing out cp like candy.

So if it cost like 10 or 100 times gurps cost, extra life would become valuable.

I think true death that you mentioned should be a permanent amnesia. Though I agree true death should have meaning. Ok true death it is, new character. But as a twist they will be born as a baby, in the background they created with no memory of the school or the cycle of reincarnation. (that's beautiful)


Lets us MMO death penalty striking out but not losing permanently, abilities and stats.
It will be a debt they would have to payoff before they could grow their character any more.

Say they loose points equal to half.
So if Jill had like
ST: 100 and a Wallet with 1000 cp and 1 extra life.
She would return to life with ST: 50 Wallet 500 cp 0 extra lives.

2nd Death since no extra life
TRUE DEATH...she is reborn into the world of the living (to her background--with no memory of the school)

Ahh or we can make them take on roles of player and gm NPCs too.

I like the idea of making them a spirit mentor to some pc also.
And we shall reward them 1/10 cp as a chance to return back to the school.

So TRUE DEATH OUTCOMES (Player Choice)
Rebirth to the world of their Background.
Service to game as NPC's.
Service to players as Spirit Guides.
Service to the Dungeon (Loving that one)




I have been haunting RPOL looking for similar thinkers. Here is a ROUGH overview where I am headed or want to head.

This comes from a message I just sent someone in another game, who seemed to be thinking on same lines as me.

I welcome input good bad and ugly. Because talking about this helps me to clarify where I thing project should go.

I think we should discuss the rules of the world, how it would work how it functions,

After we get a clear foundation, both adventure in it tag team GMing. Each would have a chance to play, shine, invent and plan.

Once we world-build and test invite others. Everyone is player, npc and gm.

I have the bare bones of and idea.

A school located somewhere in the cycle of reincarnation, where both new souls and and the souls of people waiting to be born attend.

At this school, in the beginning we will get the players to flesh out there character,
filling out a description, backstory, etc.

The most satisfying character that I have ever played, was this guy me and the gm went back and forth designing.

Also in the beginning the player should have full free-forming rights. And as there character gets fleshed out and through instruction learning the gurps system.

We hold have them free-form less and less until they are following the GURPS ruleset.

I also want a dungeon in the center of the school. A place where the players can adventure and use the skills they learned in class.

Eventually I want to expand past the campus and design a world beyond the school.

Character death should happen and not matter, seeing as how the character will be returned to the school to train more and be re-educated.

During this process, player can earn cp or ccp (basically character creation points) , cp will be used as the currency of this world.

Used to evolve the players character and to buy things.

Player may also earn cp by playing NPC's, working jobs at the school, exploring the dungeons, expanding school, expanding the world outside the school, by designing and running missions.

I plan on using gurps as the foundation system. But I can see already that we will have create our own system.

I know I said alot, and sorry for the confusion, if I jumped around with ideals, but this is something I was interested in and you seemed to have similar interest as me.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:30, Mon 19 Aug 2019.

Im thinking about a WWII game.  Probably on the gritty side; and involving a lot of trust/freeform in that I like the idea of pilots.  Im considering two key notions - the 588th night bomber squadron - an all female russian unit circa 1942, or some misguided misfits from the RAF 223rd (?)  UK in Egypt circa 1940.  Those are key units because I feel like the _real_ role play is in the downtime, and that’s actually where I’d like to concentrate.

I don’t need more than 3 pc’s to start, but could have - given that people could create their own sideline stories - no more 15 pcs.

Just remember that a 45% casualty rate is a real thing.

Thoughts?

PS - bomber pilots.  More teamwork.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Thu 22 Aug 2019.

I think a WWII Bomber Crew would be a really interesting concept for campaign.

There could be a lot of potential.

I would lean towards an RAF or USAF theme myself, but lots of options there.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:30, Thu 22 Aug 2019.

I was think USAF for a bit, but they got involved so late in the war.  If I wanted a very ‘adult’ game, the maybe usaf 1944 london, but having a squadon of medium bombers based in cairo gives so many sidebars, and opens it to so many different characters, I like that better.

Being based out of Cairo would subvert a lot of the tropes. I like it.

And the Bomber crews are a good bit smaller as well.

The Russian 588th flew night attack in two seaters, wings of three.  The Blenheim is a multirole 3 seater, and as far as I can tell, also sortied in flights of three. Im hoping for at least 2 pcs per player; A flying pc and a base pc - bartender, mechanic, local spiv, etc. for the Cairo Gang; and/or on the 588th side, a flying pc (All pilots - a Navigator is just a pilot who isn't piloting) and a base pc of mechanic, mess, medical, supplies or even NKVD.

Yup... and you have a choice of Blenheim !s or Blenheim IVs.
The Martin Maryland is also there, although it suffers from the NOT INVENTED HERE syndrome.
I don't believe the Wellingtons have made it yet.

So why not Fighters? Mostly Gladiators with Hurricanes dribbling in. P-40Cs will follow soon enough. Early Spitfires  (Mk IIs) a bit later.

I like the team aspect of the bomber, for one - you have three in the plane, so if someone is injured, they could possibly make it back...

I like the range of missions that they have - could be CAS, recon, day or night bombing, acting as a LR or Night fighter, anti-shipping, clandestine cargo, SAS insertion or removal, supply delivery.

I like that they *aren't* the golden flyboys, and are more of the workaday, bob's your Uncle types.

Do you think the interest levels are low because it's bombers?

Not at all sure about the interest level, certainly some of it is due to it being a very unusual setting.

As for having injured crew replaced ... Look at some of the stuff on the BLENHEIM... it's very cramped and only the Navigator has a prayer of replacing the pilot , and it will not be easy at all.  Great chance of crashing before such a swap could be made. The Martin Maryland is worse as you can't move between positions except outside the aircraft, which you will not be doing in the air.
These things are CRAMPED! I have been in the B-17 and the B-24, both big bombers ... and how they moved around in there I can't imagine. Especially wearing all the gear they had on. Most of these smaller bombers were entered from outside with little or no chance to move between stations. Even in the Mk I Blenheim, the Navigator/Bombadier sits next to the pilot for much o the flight, but couldn't easily take over the controls.

Most flights were long and boring, combat, if seen, was a few minutes of terror you hopefully survived. I think Fighters might be easier to game, but they certainly wouldn't be easy to GM or Play given the amount of information you'd need to supply for every 5-8 second turn in combat.  The closest example might be Blue Dwarfs Space game, and even there, it's hard to keep aware of where all the space craft are.

Valid points both.

I am planning on streamlining the air combat, potentially a lot, and honestly hope it’s more a game about the time in-between missions, the base & et al.  A real role-playing game.

So that's sort of a Pulp Fiction Adventure with occasional missions to interrupt things?

I think it would be fun to have some sidebars - Nazi spies, Arabian Sheiks, Black Marketeers, Jewish Revolutionaries, Lost Treasures, etc.  No Weird War stuff tho.

That's pretty much my view of Pulp Fiction ... more Fascist Spies than Nazi tho'  El Duce thinks the med is his after all.

True.

I think I’ve come up with a combat system for fighters v. bombers that won’t take 100 years. I posted it in the Gurps Combat Club but I’ll repost here for feedback and questions.

I’m going to adapt the Space Opera Combat System for this, I think.

It’s a three-phase system with a Target Phase and a Maneuver Phase and a Fire Phase.

In the TF, there are 2 choices:

Aquire Target: A higher success can provide a bonus to aiming at the target
Maintain Target: The longer you have the same target, increases your chance to aim

In the MF, there are 5 choices:

Maintain Course: this can provide a bonus to opponents aim, and yours
Maneuver Offensively: this can improve your aim
Maneuver Defensively: this can reduce your opponent aim and yours
Total Defense: this can reduce your opponents aim more but removes any target you have
Special: all the crazy maneuvers, from ramming to bailing out and everything in-between

In the FF, there are 3 choices:

Pass: no effects
Declare Dodge: can dodge, reduces aim to you and attacker
Fire: roll’em & reduced attacker’s aim


Thoughts?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:45, Fri 06 Sept 2019.

Any thoughts on this?  I'm looking for feedback, and for playtesters.

Not sure I understand it well enough to comment.
I'll give it a go, with no promises of sticking around ... RL and my own games are suffering at times due to things going on.

I appreciate your willingness! Im just looking for *playtesters*.  This is not a game or a campaign; it’s strictly one battle, just to see if the GURPS ‘cinematic space combat rules’ can be made to fit WWII combat.

Why are you breaking it into three phases, when most of these phases overlap ("realistically" speaking)?

Can the same person act in each of the three phases?

Some time back I stumbled on a D&D variation that created Witches. Two booklets by Timothy Brannan. The oldest was free and the newest was a couple of bucks on RPG NOW or one of the other affiliated sites.
I have always had a thing for the not so powerful Hedga Mages and the like, and this fit rather neatly.
I sort of kicked and hammered it a bit to fit GURPS, my favored gaming system and came up with this concept:
Mages do not consider those with Magery 0 to be Mages, just bumbling wanna be's who are a danger to them selves and those around them. Those blessed (or Cursed) with Magery 0 just keep quiet and try to use their abilities, or don't try ... but a long surviving group tries to rescue these Magery 0 folks and teach them useful spells and abilities, many of which are not at all like Magery magics.
The two Magics don't generally work the same at all, although there has been some limited cross pollination over the centuries.
No mage would EVER admit to learning or using witch spells; nor would they ever teach them to such cretins as witches.
Regardless, witches do have unique abilities and under duress Mages, Cleric and Nobles have all snuck out and asked for their help.

The Game would revolve around a moderately powerful (NPC) with setting up a coven to recruit and teach the locally gifted (with Magery 0) how to be witches and survive in what can be a very hostile world. Each beginner would get their own village to help and would be come the Village wise person / hedge Mage/ Witch [which Brennan says is a non gender specific term].
They then get to deal with the exciting business of improving crops, finding lost kids, dealing with wandering Fey and ignorant humans of varied sorts. The Coven meets regularly and supports each witch as needed within it's abilities.

Am I the only person who would find this interesting?

So you are considering a low tech (TL2/3?) setting with a campaign centered around a generation of young apprentices to an elder Witch?

That sounds like it could have a lot of promise depending on how things were fleshed out.

We're you thinking a quasi-historical setting? Low fantasy?

Low Fantasy TL 3 or very early TL 4 at most.
But it could be earlier as well, just have a lot of background for the TL4 or so era.

OK, I have a loose start posted ... I am sort of humming this and converting from a D&D  concept to a GURPS rules and different concept.
I welcome people's ideas although I cannot promise I will see things as you do. This is Low Fantasy, where you are fixing small problems , not saving the world.

OH, and a link:  link to another game
This message was last edited by the player at 02:33, Tue 03 Mar 2020.

I think if you combine the classic progression of age/power/resources with engaging NPC's (especially the Coven leader), community involvement (where do they draw the line? who do they prioritize? How much do they charge?) and maybe some politics, you could draw some talented writers and have a great project on your hands.

Best of luck!

We'll give it a try... see where it goes. Thanks

I still can't commit to anything until early-to-mid April, but in the interest of getting a headstart on preparation: any interest around here for an Old West Action game (with or without Mass Combat)?

Yee haw.

I might be interested, provided that it is both Rootin and Tootin

In reply to Anachronist (msg # 131):

I would be interested, especially in the Mass Combat side of things. Though April to June I may have reduced access to the internet.

My interest depends on how many points the PCs have to build with...

Whenever I hear "rootin' tootin'" I always think of that scene from Blazing Saddles where Taggart's men are farting up the campfire... which is something I can certainly guarantee around the OOC table at least, but you'll have to supply your own Mountain Dew.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do with the Mass Combat (if anything, especially with the lack of official Elements), but I've always wanted to use those rules so if I come up with pretty much <i>anything</> I'll try to squeeze it in. For now, the best I can say is I'd be thinking closer to a range war or short campaign against hostile Natives than to a battle between states.

As for points, traits, etc., I'd be sticking to GURPS Action rules for the most part, but I haven't put together anything resembling house rules yet. Count on: 250 CP, -50 Disadvantages, -5 Quirks, TL 5, Cinematic.

Aw pardner, ya had me at more'n a hunnerd cps!

In reply to Magic Mushroomcloud (msg # 129):

I would certainly be interested! :-)

In reply to Magic Mushroomcloud (msg # 134):

Good enough! Gunslingers ready!

Now the question is would you all be interested in a sci-fi colony that's vibing like a western? Serenity-inspired in some flavor perhaps? BlueDwarf and I are working on expanding GURPS Traveller activities on RPOL to a Living World expansion with in-depth static locations on a new planet(s).

Well that does sound interesting.

We're you thinking about something established with existing factions, etc? Or a colonization mission with a fresh start??

BlueDwarf's "Voyages of the Dastavka" game:
link to another game

"This game is set in the year 2173 in the GURPs Interstellar war period. Players can play a number of characters that are associated with an eccentric businessman Andrew Kalishnakov, head of Kalishnikov P/L, as he set out from Terran space to pass through Vilani territory to areas on the other edge of the Vilani border in the Capella Subsector. Whilst known as a weapons dealer, the company primarily manufactured vehicles in it's massive mobile base. Now, however, having come all this way, he is setting out to colonize a planet Aegir in the name of the Russian Federation...and also in his own name. Players get to play either the characters that man his small freighter or military captains of small vessels working in the same area as they deal with the Fourth Interstellar War and the aftermath."


There was a particular planet that he has had players coming and going from for years and he's repeatedly been coaxing them to it as a point of interest. That planet is essentially a prehistoric Earth with dinosaurs and the like. I came back to GURPS recently looking for game opportunities, found his game, and put him through an endless wringer of questions and sensed his desire to do more with this planet compared to other story options, so rather than being another roving ship captain, we've been working on a full-scale colony development concept. I've been going hard at all of the details to make sure we get it right in game and out, including sitting there for days doing actual astrophysics calculations and determining that the planet in question wasn't ideally suitable, so we're scanning the galactic map for better locations where we can plug and play the concept on a planet at an appropriate distance from an appropriate star so we don't have to significantly fudge science so we can properly imagine the location.

To the original question, colonies can be very much isolated, not only from the rest of the galactic players, but even from their own origins. That origin planet was settled with a corporate-owned logistics depot about 5 years ago and the company, AK, has now moved further on the galactic spiral arm and the planet is now more valuable to them if other companies and governments move in and develop not only there, but in the region. That particular company and their outpost isn't inherently necessary for the prehistoric earth colony concept to be replicated, but it shows that there're both corporate and government interests at play with colonization.

The concept currently has the first outpost government funded by the Terran Confederation, and administrated by a famous consultation and management firm of German hardasses called Behmer AG. The joint government/corporate venture, TeBag, has put together a team of leading professionals across a multitude of fields and disciplines to be able to tackle the lush but hostile planet's challenges with the initial purpose of establishing a fortified outpost to assess and exploit resource opportunities on the planet. Due to the extreme flora/fauna presence on the planet the initial R&D is heavily tilted into biomedical R&D with undertones of environmentalism present in the mindsets of the first wave of outpost staff. Later timeline developments will bring in resource exploitation ethics drama points among many other proposed story branches. Outposts will turn into colonies, more colonies will be founded, etc etc. There's absolutely nothing that stops a wide variety of colony themes from establishing in such a system or even on the planet in question; though, the planet in question has a storyline timeline so secondary outposts should probably be delayed for quite some time until the first is established. It's entirely possible to play as crewmen in the roving ship game model currently up and running and prepare for colony-side adventures as that framework gets developed adequately for primetime.

Colonies and/or Missions can be run by multiple separate GMs working together to expand the narrative. We'll probably need a fresh board for the new style of static locations and groups which would otherwise require a significant overhaul to the post form of the original game.

Interesting.

I would be interested to see it in practice. Seems like there is a lot going on, kind of a "bigger picture" theme with multiple colonies, ships, etc rather than a focus on one colony, where everybody is more or less starting in the same place and trying to get established.

Even with the one colony model, we'd still need to spread to outposts and starports etc, so there's no reason we couldn't house a few other colonies to share some community resources such as post framework, narrators, players, etc. BlueDwarf's Voyage game already has some of the players playing multiple characters. Certain colonies could cater towards certain gameplay for various moods.

Just to get the first new storyline up we've got a lot of work to do to get the first system/planet selected, then some maps of sorts made, and a team designed, statted, inputted, and staffed. Though, I figured if there's a resurgence of GURPS player interest/energy it might be a good time to throw the project out there so folks know it's in the works and might align with some interests. If lots of people are jonesing for a touch of westerns, and we've got a lot of activity around a sci-fi colony project, it's real easy to combine the two in a compelling way, as the ever popular Serenity showed us :)  We're already using a bit of inspiration from Avatar and Terra Nova for the one planet and storylines.

In reply to Drake Steele (msg # 142):

Actually, I should update that, because the date is now 2177, but it make negligible difference to this aspect.

I am actually not opposed to fudging the science a little...we have hyperspace drives, plasma guns and antigrav vehicles, but computers comparable to today with no AI after all!

But there are several new planets, and one ship exploring new worlds, and another having done so in another direction, so there are lots of opportunities.

Including one planet that has human population that is about TL5 now. That would make it perfectly suited to the Cowboy style game though.

But yes, there is the entire universe going on, and though it does not have to have any impact on the local politics, it probably will to some degree. But the more remote colonies are not likely to see much impact, other than having trade or outside influence cut off. Orbital bombardment would be rare, but always possible.

That was kinda how this whole project got started. My return to GURPS came with the knowledge of knowing I never really did GURPS combat and it only gets more complex as you go up in TL, so I despite the campaign being set in "Interstellar Wars", I gravitated towards a tucked away colonization sim where most combat can be well written cinematic freeform for the most part. More likely to get an angry/hungry swarm of reptile birds than a swarm of Vilani pirates etc.

Ah, so it's a continuation of the current game, not a new game it itself?

Both :P in some respects. Same game world setting, and content from the first gameboard is fully transferable. The board structure's very different when locations are static with colonies vs when the location can just endlessly move with you as your ship goes. Won't be too hard to keep synchronized, just copy paste updates when going in between with any changes.  Simultaneous gameplay can easily be done. Hell, I've got plans for the first colony group to actually exist in 3 timelines at the start.

1) Your personal origin story, what brings you to the project. Why you?
2) Preparing for the colonization. The meetup, the training, the trip.
3) Establishing the colony with survey, construction, supporting operations.

4) Possibly, a limited 'future' timeline that allows general colonist players to engage in compatible activities before the initial phases of setup complete, as those can be very closed access to specific types of characters. We wanna be inclusive :)  So rather than wait a couple years of realtime gameplay of missions and so on, a version a decade on could be running. Throw Destiny on your character and know you'll be around in the future or something, and you could be RPing in multiple stages of life :)

Gotcha, thanks for the explanation.

Yeah, I'd be interested to see it come together.

Also posted in general RPoL Interest Check thread with slight changes.

---

Napoleonic Naval Chronical

Hoping to gauge interest in a GURPS 4th Edition game set at the dawn of the 19th century.

The game would aim for historical accuracy, but not to an excessive degree. The characters may be involved in major historical events, and could even have the potential to alter the course of history going forward.

The game would require players to have a superior grasp of the English language, and would require a basic knowledge, or a willingness to learn, about the societal conventions and culture of the period.

This game would roughly adhere to the notions of the period, including prevalent racism, sexism, colonial expansion, and class distinctions. The characters would of course be free to hold their own views on these and any other matter, but the players should expect these concepts to be widespread.

The game would revolve around a group of young Midshipman in the service of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The characters would start their careers together, and likely stay together for many years, forming relationships between themselves, their shipmates, pursuing their education and developing prospects.

The game would likely start with a limited but "deep" cast of characters represented by the ships crew. Chapters would be broken up by individual threads between voyages as character return home to family, attend to situations at home, convalesce, or take up pursuits in-between commissions.

If the game is successful and long running, possibilities may open up down the line for characters to pursue things like promotion into their own ships, and expansion of the game to take on additional players in various roles.

Ideally this chronical would cover several years of the characters lives, and include travel to far off and "exotic" locations. "Time jumps" of months or more are planned to help "get to the action" and other important events, and to move the timeline along.

Interested parties should expect a degree of "Risk vs Reward" and the possibility of their characters being maimed, killed or traumatized during the course of the chronicle. Mechanics will be in place to avoid characters being killed "out of hand" in action. In other words, do not expect to put in years of play only to have characters killed unexpectedly by a stray bit of grapeshot. It would be a collective story, not a "mil-sim"

This would be an Adult rated game in order to include graphic violence and other Adult situations. This game would not include graphic sex scenes. Given that the characters would likely be minors at the start of the game, it is of vital importance to reference the RPoL Adult Games Policy.

Thanks for your time.

In reply to Anachronist (msg # 148):

I would find it interesting, though my posting style is usually short posts often, as opposed to long detailed posts. As someone interested in medieval ship design, and involved in both ship design and in the Navy itself as an offer during my younger years, there would be some familiarity.

Having said that, I would be concerned that my experiences and yours may vary. Are we taking about 'Master and Commander: the far side of the world' type Era?

Correct. That movie is set in 1805 amid the earlier years of the Napoleonic Wars. Roughly the same period this game would cover.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:35, Sun 11 Oct 2020.

Like Blue Dwarf, I am interested, but do not write paragraphs as much as short posts.
I am conversant with the period and have some knowledge of the Naval matters, have about 18" of books on the age of sail including  Nelson's Navy and other books on the period between the 7YW and about 1820. Can't remember when I got into them last, as other interests have come up, but they are there.

I've been posting over in GP,I,A but I thought I'd bring it up here, too, as this is the central GURPS community.

I've got a tabletop game I've been running that involves the use of a massive fictional timeline that incorporates a ton of different media - movies, games, tv shows, comics, from Doctor Who to Star Trek to Godzilla to Resident Evil, and since I have the resources at hand I figured I might as well run a game here too.

This is a bit shorter in scope than my usual open-ended game plans because I want to actually finish something. Depends on posting rate and the choices the players' make, but I'm envisioning a solid 3-4 months of play at the short end.

I've narrowed it down to two premise built around the same theme of a massive crossover mashup game:



In the "psychic" game, players will be 100 point ordinary (mundane) modern humans with a 50 point package of psychic powers from GURPS Psionic Powers; ideally every player has a different package. One TK, one Telepath, one Esper, etc.

In the near future game, it's TL 9, everybody is a 100 point pro-gamer BUT they have an additional "virtual package" in each tournament game, dreampark style. If you're not familiar with Dreampark, when you start a new "game" you'll basically get to choose from different enhancements; in a superhero themed "game" these might be powers, in a fantasy "game" it might be spells and magic weapons.

Anyway, that's it, that's the pitch, let me know if you have any interest or feedback or questions.

In either case the games I run are pretty Rules As Written, somewhat grounded, somewhat gritty.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Mon 26 Oct 2020.

Looking for a Few Good Gnomes!

Who’s interested in playing the role of a Gnome paratrooper who is part of an elite Special Forces team whose mission is to parachute behind enemy lines; ambush the Queen’s guard; kidnap their Princess escort; and spirit her through the wilderness back to the Gnomeland to be held as a political hostage?

This will be a one-shot, high-action, high-combat, all-Gnome adventure set in a somewhat modified version of the Greyhawk world.

I have a year’s experience with the Gurps system and online text RPG.  My goal is to have the Players generate their characters and then, going forward, I as DM will handle all game mechanics and dice rolls behind the scenes.

My current adventure I’m running is almost concluded,so I’m just checking to see if this game idea (not my own original idea -- it was suggested to me and inspired by another player acquaintance) is something people would enjoy playing enough to warrant me starting up a new game. I’d also like some suggestions on how to keep the second-by-second combat sequence move more fluidly and speedily, without losing the granular, detailed tactics Gurps offers that we all know and love.

There’s more secret stuff brewing with this game, but you Gnomes will not be privy to it...

Hidden dice rolls and mechanics?  Hard pass.


Post once per day, minimum.  Make a firm and hard "I will post everyday at [TIME}, have your proposed turns posted by then or you forfeit your combat turn and either Do Nothing, Aim, Evaluate, or All-Out Defend, whichever I feel is most necessary".  Provide maps and detailed explanations of the situation.

You'll find that a 5-10 second combat will flyby in five to fifteen* days instead of bogging down and taking a month.


* Sometimes even with the best descriptions and maps, a Player will ask a question that requires an answer before combat can proceed.


[Cross-posted here as well in case anyone wants to have a GURPS conversation rather than a "Interest Check" conversation.]

Hey Evileeyore, enlighten me on why the 'rules behind the scenes' is a hard stop and do you think that's typical of Gurps players on RPOL?

I'd be interested.  Will magic be allowed?  Or will be strictly a martial game?  Since it's special forces, will guns be available?

Magic is available in the campaign world, though very, very rare as the vast majority of the area of operation is in a LOW MANA zone.  That said, this particular kingdom of Gnomes forbids any use of magic. They embrace technology and science. And yes, the gnomes, alone, have primitive gunpowder weapons.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:41, Mon 03 May 2021.

In reply to Girl Interrupted (msg # 157):

I would have to agree with evileeyore in that hidden mechanics is a tough one. I have had many times where dellving into the mechanics has revealed significant details the GM knew and would have been obvious to the character but I had not picked up on as the player. Perhaps it is my terrible communication skills, but the mechanics has also made it easier for me to explain what I want my character to attempt.

Well in that case, I guess I'll shelve the 'behind the scenes' stuff.  I'm just trying to avoid those situations where the story/adventure/narrative takes a back seat and the game becomes a forum for discussion/hashing/squabbling about rules.

In reply to Girl Interrupted (msg # 159):

I think a large portion of that squabbling actually stems from players and GMs having different ideas of what is going on. I have been guilty of that from both sides, and usually clarifying the situation deals with the issue. There are of course players who want to abuse the rules for advantage, but excluding those players, all that is needed then is clarity on the situation by the GM and clarity on the players side of what is being attempted.

Well, that is  just my 2c worth. Perhaps others see it very differently.

Well, I'm fairly new in the hobby, so I appreciate your pro tips.

Blue Dwarf nailed a few points, but for me Number One is trust.

I don't know you, I don't trust you enough to roll dice unseen* for or 'against' me.

Beyond that, I like to see when the GM is making things more or less complicated† within and outside of the rules, and that is 'impossible' when everything is obscured behind the GM's Screen.  I mean at that point, as far as I'm concerned, we may as well be playing free form.

Now, that's just me.  There are plenty here who are of the opposite opinion and would happily pile in on a game where all the mechanics and rolls are out of sight and they just focus on the rp.  So have a blast. (Seriously, no sarcasm.)


Also, it's fine if you're not running a game for GURPS newbies, but newbies cannot learn a system if the only time they interact with it is during chargen, and you'll find while there are a lot of GURPS vets here, there are far more GURPS neophytes and newbies.


* Yes, I know rolls can be Fudged and Skewed.  Don't remind me, if I'd have known that when I started gaming here 7 years ago I never would have started gaming here.  Luckily (?) I only found that out a few years into being here, by which time the GM for the game I've been in this whole time had earned my trust to know they let the die fall and play from the results.  I don't join many games here as the premise has to surmount that initial dislike of not being able to trust die results.  But as I mention above, that's a me thing.

† You can tell what a GM really gets into by what they focus on, and in GURPS that often gets expressed in how complicated they make the 'subsystem'.  Frex, if a GM is using no optional rules for combat, no maps, and barely using penalties or bonuses in fights, but they've dug deep into Social Engineering for every social subsystem, bonus, penalty, reaction roll result... well, you can tell they're more interested in social conflict play than combat.  So as a Player I'd know where to focus my energies and exps.

Also, if (for instance) my Character constantly misses rolls that should be 'pretty easy', I can see if the dice were just against me, or was the GM piling on every possible penalty.

Neither can be easily seen when that's all hidden away behind a GM screen.



On RPoL?  I... don't know.

From my experience... there are plenty who barely interact with the system as it is, constantly forget rules, constantly forget penalties to their rolls, constantly even forget what skills are for what, so for them, yeah, never having to deal with that might be a blessing, or a curse.  Depends on if the 'forgetfulness' is deliberate or not.

But on the flip side, I've seen what I take to be the average number of Gear Heads among the GM and Player base here, that is, the Players/GMs who like the crunch of the rules between their teeth.  They might not want to let that go in play.

I'm of that camp.  Sometimes I'm fine with letting the crunch go, I've done it before, but then it's for a game (and group) that brings enough to the table that I can let my preferences slide for the novelty of the campaign or the camaraderie of my fellows.




Well, even hiding the rules won't get rid of that.  For that you need hard, fast, strict, and up front rules on cross-table talk.  Let your potential Players know you won't put up with open discussion or questioning of the rules, and let the Players know that PM discussions with you are fine, like you'll listen to an appeal, but once you've ruled, that's it.*

I mean, even in a freeform system, you'll still get people arguing about how things went down, that's just the nature of "Bang! Bang! I shot you" and "Nuh-uh, you missed!"


* And with that you might get a Player who thinks the rules don't apply to them, this time, because of reasons.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:05, Tue 04 May 2021.

Thanks for your feedback, folks. I think I'll shelve this one for now. This is a great community! :)

Don't let us scare you off, I don't run games like others do too. I've had peope bail, unfortunately, because they couln't see the gears turning.
I am more interested in the story, but some really are more interested in their characters growth to the detriment of the game.

The worst thing that can happen is everyone bails or dissapears without comment. I started a game that now has 4588 posts, but it has only one player left. That player doesn't seem at all tired of the game. He has another game where people come, play a bit and disappear. Even the best run games seem to suffer this due to Real Life, the inability of the GM to keep it exciting for everyone all the time (Guilty) or some other reason. You just can't be to thin skinned, as often it isn't all your fault.

Build a world you like and flesh it out... then you can use it over and over with different twists.

I wouldn't give up on it yet, it's only been one day.  PbP is slow so a lot of people only check in every few days.  I say give it a full week, maybe two, before you cut bait and bail.

Thanks for the advice.

I still have enough gaming to keep me occupied, that scrapping this game idea won't be a problem. I have 2 slow moving games I'm running, (one of which is almost concluded); and I'm a player in another slow moving game. I'm taking a full load of summer classes, too, so maybe its a blessing a mob of eager players didn't swarm this idea!

:)

Well, I scrapped the above idea and have decided to JOIN as a player instead. I posted this in GM wanted, and got some hits, but for GM's who prefer to run games under different systems. Therefore I'm posting this here in hopes of finding a great GURPS GM who might be interested in running me through a one-shot modern day Espionage game...

Here's my ad:

Hi Fellow Rpolers,

1. Can you post once every 1 or 2 days consistently?

2. Are you a "good" to "great" writer and not someone who would take offense if I asked to read through some of your other game posts to see if your style, etc., is compatible with my interests?

3. Do you enjoy running players through a Solo adventure?

4. Can you GM an Espionage/Themed game set in the modern times? Think The Bourne Supremacy ; James Bond; John LeCarre novels, etc...

5. Do you prefer running/writing 'realistic' gritty adventures?

6. Do you prefer running your games in Mature or Adult level (not for 'sexual' stuff, but for realistic dialogue and graphic violence, etc.?)

7. Are you reasonably proficient in the GURPS system?

8. Can you commit to sticking it out and running a Solo game through at least a one-shot adventure without bailing midway?

9. Is your RL stable enough to feel reasonably sure there won't be frequent, extended absences?

10. If I checked out your profile, would I not see many, many past/deleted games with very few posts in them?

If you can answer Yes, to all of the above, I would very much like to discuss a game with you as I am looking for a good GM to run with.

Last year I played a Computer Analyst in a quasi-CIA game that was pretty cool. The adventure finished, and the heroine, Alice Kelley, was transferred to the CIA as a field operative.  I am interested in continuing her adventures as a more seasoned agent.

I am currently running a couple games and playing in one but all my games have slowed down so I'm looking for more stimulation.

If interested, please email me!

Thanks for reading!

Sara

-------------

Oh, and here's my character:

Alice Cynthia Kelley was born in 1993 as the third and youngest child of father John, an Analytic Methodologist who worked at the CIA and mother Celine a School Superintendent.  She grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood of North Potomac, Maryland and had a happy childhood. She was bright and excelled at school -- particularly math and science -- and was an exceptional athlete, gaining letters in soccer, basketball and softball.  She attended the University of Maryland graduating with a dual major in Foreign Studies and Mathematics and spent a year studying abroad in Dubai where she took intensive Arabic language courses and Middle Eastern studies.

On graduation, she applied for the CIA to follow her father’s footsteps but was instead recruited by the NDL which offered better starting pay and promised more rapid advancement.  She graduated from the NDL’s rigorous training academy, earning high marks in Computer Analytics and Intelligence Analysis.

Because of her proficiency in computers and reasonable grasp of Arabic, Alice’s first post was in Cairo where she has been working the past 6 months.  Though Alice is pleased with the job, as a woman she finds the Middle Eastern cultural restrictions somewhat stifling, and the actual day-to-day job duties starting to feel a bit dry.  She ultimately found herself embroiled in a case involving a corrupt Case Manager from the NDL and a top-secret scientific project that introduced her to her first, harrowing field work that nearly cost her her life. She performed well, exposing the traitor, and was ultimately offered a transfer to the CIA where she is just starting out as a new field agent. She is eager for a change and has been bitten by the adrenaline rush of being a field operative.

Alice is an attractive Caucasian woman of 27.  She has pale gray eyes and wears her ash blonde hair in a square cut bob.  She stands five foot seven inches tall and weighs one hundred thirty pounds. She is an exceptionally fit woman who does grueling Crossfit workouts in her spare time.  She scored sharpshooter at the NDL’s pistol range and holds a brown belt in Hapkido.

Being a driven career woman has had its downside.  Aside from a one year relationship in college, she has never had any other serious romantic relationships.  She also has not developed any close friendships beyond the friendly-acquaintance level here at her Cairo post.  When she is not working or exercising, Alice is a somewhat solitary and lonely woman.  She reads a lot - mostly non-fiction histories and biographies and she likes hiking and photography.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:42, Fri 04 June 2021.

Per above, found a GM to run for me (even though its not Gurps).  So please disregard above.

An interesting and demanding proposal.
In one sense, I am sorry to see you go, but I would not be willing to run such a game either.

I did run something vaugely similar, but it wasn't very much current world.  I think the FBI-Nearth (New earth) games is unreachable at this point , as I had to delete it a year or so back. Central player character just disappeared and I prefer more than a single player. The basis was a gate between current earth and another very similar, but different Victorian Era earth was found and explored under FBI guidance.

Tossing around the idea of players being fact checkers and investigators for a comic book company in the Marvel Universe. The ones who do the field research for the creative staff making nonfiction biographical comics based on the real superhumans. This would be a largely investigative game set "in the shadow of the cape" as it were, drawing inspiration from Marvels, Astro City, etc.

Exact permutations are malleable but as I'm most familiar with the silver age it'd likely cover that era, though possibly set as if it were occurring in the modern day (as they did with Ultimates and the MCU, though this would be closer to the 616 continuity).

Characters would be 125 points; action journalists and war correspondents. Nobody with powers, but ex cops, Hydra wash-outs, aging Howling Commandos and the like are fine; you don't have powers or super-rare training, but tying yourself to other Marvel elements is probably workable.

its been a long time since I have been on and wanting to play/run something. So here is my itch I want to scratch:

Martial Arts campaign. Wuxia/Xianxia depending.

Combat Dense, lots of optional rules and a few house rules turned on to make combat very detailed. Chi powers also added.

So I have 3 ways to handle this:

Street Fighter Style: Low powered Chi abilities with soft/hard caps.

Dragon Ball Style: High powered Chi abilities, Think when Goku was a kid, though even then it was ridiculous.

Immortal Taoist Style: 5 elements, chi powers everywhere, way of the Dao, cultivate to immortality. This one would be at the starting stages though, you would all be teens, no more than 14 years old, but it will have the fastest growth.

I'd be interested in the low power option, maybe something in the street fighter/mortal kombat or 80s kung fu movie range.

Some potential interest in some lower power gameplay as well.

Interest Check

Summary: Roughly TL 4 (Age of Sail, some muskets and cannon) Adventure set in Pathfinders Golarion, Sargava, The Mwangi Expanse.

Style: Adult rated (For some sexuality and detailed violence) Low fantasy, "West Marches" game with opportunities for solo or group play.

Pitch: Set in Paizo's fantastical setting of Golarion, this story would be set chiefly in and around the Sargavan capital of Eleder in 4606 AR, as the small colonial nation is cut off from the Chelaxian Empire upon the outbreak of brutal civil war.

It is a chaotic time for the bustling coastal trading city, and one rife for opportunity and adventure.

Within the sun baked walls of the Capitol the colonial ruling Chelaxians plot and maneuver against one another as the conflict between the Loyalist powers and those that have aligned with House Thrune spill over into the Empires overseas holdings.

Powerful maritime trading companies, minor powers under themselves, seek to profit from the chaos, all while struggling to protect their commerce and plantations from piratical raids launched from outlaw ports in The Shackles archipelago.

The regions native Mwangi tribes face an uncertain future. Will the numerically superior Zenj seize the opportunity to rise up against their Chelaxian colonizers after hundreds of years of exploitation?

Much will depend upon their ability to unite with the regions other tribes, such the towering and warlike Bekyar, who have become prosperous through their slave raids and extortion of weaker tribes.

The cosmopolitan Bonuwat, renowned sailors and coastal traders, pearl divers and polyglots.

And the isolated Mauxi tribes of the steaming jungle interior, keepers to the older ways and holders of older secrets, who contend with threats within and without.

And amid it all travellers of every stripe wander the crowded markets and seek to make their own fortunes, from temple raiders to purveyors of exotic animals, holy men and missionaries, to cut throats and local dilletants seeking diversion.

Blood and sweat, gold and glory.

Sargava.

-

---

Gauging initial interest here, and hoping for a minimum of four to start.

Please feel free to RMail with specific questions.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:21, Sat 01 Oct 2022.

It sounds cool! I don’t know much about Golarion, and my time is rather limited right now, but I’m tempted. =)

I'll put you down as a "maybe" MM.

Golarion is the setting for Pathfinder, which came out at around roughly the same time as 4th edition D&D if I recall, both as direct successors to 3.5.

The setting has all your familar D&D Races, Magic, etc, and can be thought of along the lines of Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.

Might be a chance to learn the setting, while retaining the more familiar GURPS system, if you were interested.

I'm interested in the Golarion game!

Excellent, that's two.

Do we have a third?

In reply to Anachronist (msg # 178):

Curious about it. What's the CP budget?

Open to suggestions from the players, but the game is intended for established professionals, adventurers, soldiers, merchants, etc.

Talented, stand out individuals that would be of interest to the various NPC's and factions that inhabit the setting.

While this may sound "dismissive", it's not meant to be; Golarian is very "kitchen sink D&D fantasy".  If it's a country you can imagine existing in a D&D world, Golarian has it somewhere.  Mummy lords?  Pirate Islands?  Barbarian Mountians?  Demon rift?  Crashed spaceship?  Renaissance City-States?  Jungle Dinosaurs?  Medieval Feudal Kings?  Fallen Empire Once Ruled By Devils/Demons?  Guild States?  Ancient Dead Slumbering Gods?  Not to mention elves, orcs, dwarves, etc homelands galore.

I think that's pretty accurate.

The broad strokes are all there for a very wide variety of settings, depending on what your group is into.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Mon 03 Oct 2022.

In reply to Anachronist (msg # 182):

Also tempted, but time poor...I am already committed to a lot of GURPs games, so my posts tend to be shorter so I am unsure if I should take on another.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Think this one is going back on the shelf, unless I decide to run it in Pathfinder 1e.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:12, Tue 04 Oct 2022.

It could be done in GURPS... but absent classes, the setting might lose something... something "D&Desque".

Dungeon Fantasy (Powered by GURPS)?

Hey there!

I'm running a GURPS StarWars PBP game
It's on the sjgames forums:
http://forums.sjgames.com/show...8051&postcount=1

I have 2 players, and a few requests to join (WIP).

Here's the vid I made for the game (it explains the setting)
https://drive.google.com/file/...OQ-/view?usp=sharing

I’ve been surfing through the GURPS games in-site and there’s a lot of people I’d like to have in the campaign (LOL), many great players here!

If you're interested send me a PM.

Yes, but...  DFRPG isn't D&D, it's D&Desque.  Specifically it's a GURPS homage to Mike Mearls'¹ "back to the dungeon" and Monte Cooke's¹ response² to it of "Orc and Pie".  It's all about handwaving town and any complex soci-political encounters, minimizing non-delving activities, and refocusing on "being dungeon delvers/hex-crawlers".  You can run complex social and political campaigns using DF/RPG buuuut, you have to add social skills and advantages back into the mix a bit more.  I do so by just offering them as alternatives in each Template and then telling the Players, "social and political stuff will come up, as frequently as combat.  Your PCs are primarily designed for combat, you need to take some of these alternate Advantages and Skills to not suck at half the game".  Then I adjust the game mix based on the PCs they make.

Also I outlaw the Bard profession, it's not a balanced 'class' if you plan to actually have social encounters anyone but the Bard can succeed at, it's socially OP, so either the encounter is barely a speed bump, or only the Bard can make any headway and everyone else ends up thumb twiddling while they make with the scenery-chewing all encounter.


1 - Both 3e D&D designers.  Mike was also instrumental in 4e and 5e D&D, Cooke went on to do other things.
2 - A sarcastic response to Mike's Back To The Dungeon design philosophy, Cooke espoused more "non-dungeony" games, more social and political stuff, and not just as "side dishes to the meat and potatoes of dungeoneering/wilderness exploration".