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.