I'm walking proof that Power Blow isn't very useful.  I misread it when I built this character -- that -10 skill without a long concentration makes it a non-combat ability.  I didn't take Breaking Blow -- first, because I put points into a wizard lens, and second because I thought Immovable Stance would be more useful.

In my defense, though I've been a GURPS fan since Man to Man came out in '86, it's really hard to find a GURPS group to play with -- most of the time I was in Seattle, without an hour commute, I was working second shift, so I could only play on a couple evenings -- and they weren't the ones folks played.  I've built more "in play" characters for this game than I did in the previous twenty years.

Which brings up that last question -- there are a bunch more characters than players.  I'm on the low side, and I've got Ardenas Barehand (martial arts plus Movement College magery), Mario Crowfoot the Archer (a "Junior" at 125 points), Chou-Zhen Mou the Elder Spawn wizard, Aldous Hack (more rogue than anything else, at only 75 points), and Evelina Grattan, Queen of the Frog God cult (with her Holy Sister Elaina as a 12-point Ally -- druid/priests).  These are all my own builds, but most of the folks with more than a couple characters have picked up abandoned sheets as the player roster has changed over time.

I've been playing for almost five and a half years, or about five weeks, depending on your point of view...

Not on a starting Character, unless that's what you build for.  But I've played chambara style martial artists in the past where the -10 was easily absorbed in a 23+ skill.

What you have to look at with the Chi skills that have large usage penalties  (PB, Breaking Blow, Flying Leap, even Blind Fighting, Invis Art, and Kiai), is that you have to build around those penalties if you want it to be useful in combat.  Otherwise, you need to spend a turn or three prepping.  And even 1 turn (per 'instant' Chi skill you're using) can be enough as it drops those -10s to -5s.

But also consider this, Power Blow for 1 FP and 40 exp in the skill (to absorb the -10) can momentarily double your ST, that can easily be worth 100 or more exp.  And it gets "cheaper" per skill if you have lots of Chi skills and boost Chi Talent instead.  Though, Chi Talent is bloody expensive in it's own right depending on how you're built...



Frex, for Jednesa, Chi Talent is a pure waste of points.  She has one Chi skill (Power Blow*), and even if she buys any more, her style only has 4 of them and 3 are based on HT... which is cheaper to raise than Chi Talent.

But for Dilandua, who has 10 Chi skills, Chi Talent is a bargain.


* Someday gwythaint will put a door in our path that a ST 30 cannot defeat.  On that day, after several minutes of huffing and puffing, Jednesa will unleash ST 90 and even the God of Doors will feel it.  Literally, took Power Blow to get around the "stuck jar lid" problem, permanently.

As a martial artist character I am interested, how did you buy a style? was it after creation? I'm finding templates to be very stifling.

By largely treating Templates as "a guideline more than a rule"*.  But this was back before gwythaint decided to have everyone hew more strictly to Templates rather than going all willy-nilly as many were.  Even so I could have swung it under under Barbarian as all her primary Style skills are Barbarian skills†...  and she only has three off Template Skills, Power Blow, Meditation, and Singing so I could have picked those up with the 5 Quirk points.

And that's the key if you really want a Style.  Find one that fights inside the skill choices for the Template (or design one).  Most Styles have 3-6 point 'buy in', so cover those few skills and drop one of the five points from Quirks into "Perk: Style" and you have the Style.  Further 'Quirk points' can be spent in picking up a few techniques...  though be wary DFRPG doesn't do 'Techniques' and some have been converted into 5 point Advantages, so check to make sure you're not doubling up...

For instance, "Seven Secret Kicks" from the DFRPG Martial Artist Template, is literally;  Perk Special Exercises (Can Learn Kicking Technique) [1], Kicking Technique [3], Striking ST 2 (One Application Only - Kicks, -80%) [2], Perk Something Something‡ (Apply Chi Talent bonus to DX rolls to resist falls from Kicks) [1].  (Though to be fair, this is the only one I can think of in DFRPG, the others are in DF and are spelled out as Techniques adapted into Advantages.)




* Which is more telling about how she gets to ST 30 and DR 10/12 Tough Skin than how she picked up a couple of 'off-template' skills.  Jednesa is a "terrible Barbarian" in the 'Outdoorsman' sense, but just fine in the 'high ST, mountain of meat' sense.  She is fundamentally Ginko's exact opposite.  All durability and damage dealing, very little finesse.

† If I were going to rebuild her it would be using the 'DF' Wrestler Template out of Pyramid magazine.  She'd lose some ST, HP, and DR, but gain in actual skills... also her strikes and grabs would count as weapon attacks which would make Wight fighting a bit easier for her to do in the manner of her preference.

‡ Skill Adaptation or Attribute Substitution or whatever.  I honestly have no idea what Perk Kromm (Sean Punch) used here or even if my build is how he did it.  It just 'looks right' based on the builds in DF.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:40, Tue 27 Oct 2020.

Yah I tried to make my arms strikers but GM shut that idea down. Probably one of my largest hurdles is getting around my unarmed attacks. I picked up two levels of huge weapons perk and with a modified grip I can use SM-3 weapons without penalty (which don't appear to exist as the charts go from -4 to -2) Even at SM-2 I cant get a karate weapon that will help me. I'm going to have to risk unarmed strikes and prioritize targets who get no defense. With a 3 yard step I should be able to deny active defenses fairly routinely.

Let me know which weapons you're looking at and I can do conversions, I've got Low-Tech Companion 2 Weapons and Warriors.

In reply to Jareth Mooncalled (msg # 793):

Been struggling today the way workwas, involuntary OT and whatnot.  I have some on purpose OT tomorrow to work on.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 794):

Reading through some private threads; I  am runni g a fusion of DF and DFRPG, and I use bits of Magic that aren't covered. The game started as DF as the supplements were published; forex all bards are from DFRPG,
But there are necromancers and whatnot from DF9.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 795):

And here I thought I was going to be a pet!

Does 'pet' mean food not kill yet?

♪ ^♫ "When the eels grab a guy and bites in deep till he dies... that's a moray!" _♫ ♪

Thatsa Bad!

That has to be worth at least a quirk if not an outright disadvantage.

blood, she's a red. lightning, she's a blue! if you'se in grimaldi's way... Vaffanculo!
*fingers under chin*

In reply to Grimaldi (msg # 801):

Happy Halloween all!

In reply to Narrator (msg # 802):

Question, best place to add Ginko: seekers of the flame, against the Mageguild, or(with a heavy delay) the Black Tower?

My thoughts on the matter (If it counts for anything).

I don't think Ginko would be a willing party to political in-fighting and possible murder for profit, so not a great fit for Against the Mage guild. Though I haven't read any thread in its entirety as of yet so I admit my understanding of what is going on is not complete or in depth. Which is fitting considering he knows nothing about anyone's affairs anyways.

I'm a pretty active poster and I think a long wait would kill my interest before I even began.  So as a player I'm not keen on a long wait to join the Black Tower. No offense guys!

I see some fun possibilities for Seekers of the Flame. Having both a very large and a very small party member will be an amusing interaction. I see fairy mischief possibly involved in the frog god parts, at least as Ginko sees it. A fey perspective on all that would be fun. A dragon? yes please! might be good to have a flier?

Seeker of the Flame  He'll be way overshadowed in the "fighters who dish out damage" angle* (Jednesa and Chris have that well covered), and between Chris, Masugatan, and the Frog Sisters we have "mop up whatever Jednesa isn't crushing" kinda, almost in hand.  But note, none of them are what I'd call "fighters without serious limitations"† (and most of those listed aren't 'fighters'), so a capable fighter who is less "loose cannony" that they can rely on might be of benefit.  Jednesa would have no negative opinions on the subject, the morer, the betterer.


* Which I don't think Ginko really cares about anyway.

† This includes Jednesa.  She has a 'reliability' issue (berserk, rare, but it possible), also while she can 'tie up' a lot of weaker foes, that's only because they made the poor choice of trying to pound on her, not that she can effectively engage them.  Chris is an automaton.  Masugatan is a 125 pointer still (I think), so he's not front line material yet (and I have no idea if he was based on Killer or Cutpurse, so he might not even be a 'fighter' type).  And I don't think anyone else is even a warrior template based, Christine is a Wizard, the Frog Sisters a Druid and Cleric‡, Emma's a Cleric‡, McNealy an Alchemist, and Valerie's a barmaid.

‡ Are they full 250 points or just Acolytes?


Against the Magesguild  We have two competent fighters, one of whom is a precision skirmisher, so we'd be constantly stomping on each other's shtick.  Not to mention Dilandua would have grave reservations about anyone who joined at this time, trust would be hard won and the pinch of the loot split would be more keenly felt.



I would almost, almost say Trading with Trolls would be an interesting choice for various reasons... but... they are down deep and that makes it hard to fit him in.

He vastly outperforms the Juniors.  I don't even need to see his build...

Temple Hill has a strong warrior foundation.

And the Kalima Crew is already large, has Ardenas a Martial Artist, Sederic a Swashbuckler(?), and Norman an Ally Guardsman(?).


I don't have much info anymore on other groups, I stopped following the threads I wasn't in to keep my awareness low of what they were up to.  I really need to find time to go through and build a who's Who, What, and Where list again.

New in town, Junior House, and Tavern are all grossly underpowered (75-150 pts) compared to Ginko, pequenaud's in the swamp and The Beast of Veroigne  are really not a good fit at all, and overloaded as is.

Masugatan is a well muscled fellow, so not a cutpurse.

My posting rate has devolved into something like 3-4 complete turns of eleven each week; I  have been spending more days out with the missus and just landed a fat stack of commissions  that eat my weekdays off.

If I could get James and Percival'splayer back, there would be an opportunity there for the wuxia reinforcements, but I don't want to add a thread unless there are players willing to merge with another thread or drop off.

Jareth, the elder sister started at 250 points, younger at 175 (best I could get as an always-present Ally).  Neither one is really much of a fighter -- five yard whips (including Lasso skill) and a standing tactic of setting up three yards apart so as to cover each other's dead zones (long whips can't attack in close).  One has a vow against edged weapons, neither has any skills with them.  Slings for ranged.

They were built primarily as healers and traveling miracle workers.  If there weren't two of them, you could make a case for Delusion masquerading as True Faith -- perhaps could anyway, until Evelina channels the Frog God...

That explains why she's a lot more competent than a regular acolyte.  And yeah, I mentally put both Frog Sisters in the "not fighters, but" category.  Clerics can be second line warriors, like Goran.  I don't know if he's built for it or not, but he constantly jumps right into the thick of it and seems to favor headbashing to spellcasting.  Based on your description, the Frog Sisters are third line skirmishers/support.

And we need to get you girls some magic whips that can coil and uncoil (Ready to different lengths) on command so you can switch from Reach 1-5 as needed.  And you can use the haft (what little teensy amount there is) as a 'fist load' to augment a punch in close if necessary (yeah, no I get it, it's not as good as having the other sister just whip whomever dared step into CC, but still).

Goran was handed to me as an enigmatic character.  Intolerant overall, with no home or village to return to, and not a single other follower of Hors that we have seen since I took over.  He has few allies, no money, and had gotten (more) rigid in his approaching old age.  He most likely suffers from a rather large layer of survivor's guilt (ptsd), although he focuses on the work of Hors and ignores such things.

He's built far more as a fighter than anything else.  While he has holy spells, they are mostly of the utility and healing variety, with a couple protection spells woven in.  What he does best is to meat shield for the squishies, and he has done it well (outside of general awful rolls).  Given where I see the psyche of the character, and his overconfidence, this is how I have interpreted his role in the group.

When we get to more religious topics, he has rituals to perform, and probably a church to reform.  But we really haven't hit any of that subject matter since I took him off the GM's hands.

-----

I can't recall seeing anything like this since the Lord of the Rings, when Sauron realized the ring was on Mount Doom and the world seemed to stop.  No matter who you interpret as Sauron, things could get pretty difficult in the next couple days.  I wish everyone safety regardless of affiliation.  And I hope the ERs stay slow because people are respectful of the process.

Oh, yes -- and these two, working together, could likely take down an actual fighter, if the guy hasn't got too many tricky optimizations.  Whips won't penetrate armor, but tangle 'em up, make 'em drop weapons with pop attacks to the hands -- except the old standby "ran out of points" means neither one has huge skill or techniques to offset small target called shots.

Intended tactic depends mainly on tangling, though when you can't see your target...

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 807):

It will be a rough couple of months no matter where you stand. I hope we escspe unscathed.

The amount of disinformation and out right lies are a concern; Critical thinking is as rare as common sense.