Category: GURPS

Gymnaste (16/18) [GURPS 4e]

Gymnaste – Google Docs

Gymnaste (16/18)

 

This martial art clearly derives from the antics of clowns, acrobats, tumblers, and other physical entertainers.  It’s a rather showy martial art, but one that should not be discounted; in combat, a Gymnaste practitioner can thoroughly confuse an opponent simply by moving in ways that trained swordsmen find unfamiliar. And certainly anyone who is skilled in Gymnaste will have excellent hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, and a thorough familiarity with knives.

 

A cinematic Gymnaste adept will have Weapon Master, extremely high DX, and the ability to more or less turn anything into a thrown weapon.  Also: while not strictly cinematic, many mages who specialize in entertainment also learn this style.

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Survival (Mundane) [GURPS 4e]

Survival (Mundane) – Google Docs

 

Survival (Mundane) [Per/Average]

Defaults: Perception-5, Occultism-3, or Urban Survival-4

 

This skill counts as a ‘land’ skill in terms of determining defaults (at -6) from other Survival specialities.  It is generally learned by supernatural creatures, monsters, extra-dimensional visitors, or anyone else who needs to survive in mortal or mundane environments. It is typically used to ‘blend in’ temporarily, avoid and survive areas that are dangerous to supernatural creatures, and of course figure out how to move around freely (vampires in particular often use this skill to work around the ‘cannot enter unless invited’ problem).  Mortals can learn the skill, but mostly just to teach it.

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GURPS is, appropriately, 23% off for Gen Con.

23% because fnord.  However, I don’t think that that includes the print on demand stuff, but I can wholeheartedly recommend GURPS Vorkosigan Saga, even if you don’t play RPGs.  It’s got a lot of information about Lois McMaster Bujold’s universe in it, all nicely organized and laid out.  …You do read Bujold, I hope? I’d hate to think that any of my readers might be missing out on one of the best science fiction / fantasy writers I can think off offhand.

Ark (Quantum 7) [GURPS 4e]

Ark (Quantum 7) – Google Docs

Ark (Quantum 7)

 

This timeline is not a myth parallel where there was a literal Noah’s Ark. Infinity Unlimited is almost certain of this. Instead, Ark is merely a world where virtually every species of animal is domesticable.  Discovering the exact change point has not yet been achieved, but the results are real; animals from Ark both remain domesticable outside of that timeline, and their traits breed true.

 

Which is why the timeline is now the site of a particularly vicious war between Infinity and Centrum. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they can hide their fights inside one or other wars that crop up on Ark with distressing regularity. It turns out that being able to domesticate anything usually results in countries breeding their very own exotic animal cavalry.

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Source Speak/TL [IQ/VH] [GURPS 4e]

Source Speak_TL – Google Docs

Source Speak/TL   [IQ/Very Hard] Defaults: None

 

Superficially, Source Speak resembles a language, but in reality it’s a complicated method for achieving physical effects via semantic manipulation of the environment. A successful roll will allow the user to automatically shift the results of a skill roll by one level, in either direction.  For example, Source Speak can turn a critical failure into a failure, or a critical success to merely a success.  An unsuccessful roll (which cannot be mitigated by another Source Speak skill check) causes 1d6 hit points (6d6 on a critical failure), which represents a piece of space-time reacting badly to being manipulated in such a fashion.

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Geek Fu [GURPS 4E]

Geek Fu – Google Docs

 

Geek Fu [13/18]

 

In a world where everybody knows kung fu — like, say, the worlds of ever so many martial arts movies — the martial arts style learned and used by roleplaying geeks would have to be an interesting one indeed.  Geek Fu is a ‘soft’ style: it teaches observation and evasion, not hand strikes. In keeping with it’s not-quite-serious tone, Geek Fu teaches the best way to use a trench coat (Cloak), Doctor Who scarf (Whip), and linked dice bags (Bolas) effectively; practitioners also learn how to throw their dice more, ah, pointedly.

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Pacheco-Chiba Syndrome [GURPS 4E]

Pacheco-Chiba Syndrome – Google Docs

Pacheco-Chiba Syndrome [0]

 

Official knowledge of this particular medical condition is more or less suppressed –although that makes what’s happening sound far more official than it actually is.  In reality, nobody in the field of medicine wants to admit that Pacheco-Chiba Syndrome exists, because if they did they’d probably get laughed into an early retirement.  And by people who themselves know full well that the Syndrome is very real.

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Smog (Quantum 6) [GURPS 4e]

Blame Secret World Legends, honestly.  Game dropped this week.

Smog (Quantum 6) – Google Docs

Smog (Quantum 6)

 

This hell world is the perfect place to put prisoners who you don’t want escaping, don’t want plotting, and don’t want aging, either.  There’s something about the timeline’s atmosphere that puts most hominid species into suspended animation: whatever it is, the stuff doesn’t seem to cause any lasting harm.  Both Homeline and Centrum thus both use Smog as a convenient dumping ground for particularly troublemaking individuals who need to be put on ice for a little while.  Yes, ‘both.’  Infinity has a facility on the Northern Hemisphere, Interworld runs one on the Southern, and nobody says anything official.

 

Well, nobody said anything up until last month.  That’s when they found what might be a third holding facility.  And nobody knows who put it there.

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Talents for Cosmic Horror Campaigns [GURPS 4E]

Talents for Cosmic Horror Campaigns – Google Docs

 

Talents for Cosmic Horror Campaigns

 

Below are Talents (GURPS Basic Set: Characters, pages 89-90) that would be suitable for a classic 1930s style Cthulhu Mythos campaign. Customization is, of course, encouraged; for example, the Cultist Talent assumes that the cultist is some sort of Tcho-Tcho or Cthulhu Cult minion. A Dagonite, on the other hand, might have Swimming and Brawling, instead of Climbing and Blowpipe.  Also: the higher the level of the Talent, the higher the likelihood of various forms of insanity. At least, that’s how it always seems to work out in the stories.

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