Tag: gurps

GURPS Skill: Astral Nap.

Blame this.

astral-nap-will-hard-google-docs

 

Astral Nap [Will/Hard]

Default: none

 

This skill is useless unless the user has some way to visit the astral plane (such as either the Astral Travel power or the Planar Visit spell).  A successful roll will allow the user to carefully balance his astral form so that it and his physical body are effectively ‘orbiting‘ each other; this allows the caster to stay in astral form for a total of eight hours without spending more FP/HP, or re-rolling.  However, the user may do nothing else except ‘sleep;’ he may not even lucidly dream.  Also, the user is hideously vulnerable while in this condition: no active defenses may be used at all, and any damage done will mentally Stun him for (20-IQ) seconds, noncumulative.

Continue reading GURPS Skill: Astral Nap.

Item/Creature seed: Squid-Helmets. [GURPS]

Blame this.

squid-helmets-google-docs

Squid-Helmets (TL1+2) [10/12 pt]

Squid-Helmets are what you get when somebody figures out during the Bronze Age how to successfully train a tree octopus so that it can be usefully worn on somebody’s head, then the species gets selectively bred accordingly over the next few thousand years. By the time you hit a medieval-equivalent Tech Level you’ll have something that’s simultaneously useful, and not a little bizarre. But not creepy — or at least no creepier than a domestic goat or pig. Squid-Helmets live about thirty years, if properly fed; the species is almost extinct in the wild*.

Continue reading Item/Creature seed: Squid-Helmets. [GURPS]

GURPS Infinite Worlds: Titanic-1.

titanic-1-google-docs

Titanic-1

 

On this world, the Titanic did not hit an iceberg and sink in the Atlantic, although possibly some of its owners might wish that it had. But that’s a backdrop to the real situation, which is this: there’s a lot of research to be done on Titanic-1 into the nature of timelines and divergence points, but unfortunately there are two broadly incompatible lines of research to be done.  And each line of research has its own bureaucratic partisans. …Really, it’s almost enough to make one wish for Centrum to show up. At least they can be more directly thwarted.

Continue reading GURPS Infinite Worlds: Titanic-1.

Caf? [TL 12] [0 points] [GURPS]

caf-google-docs

Caf? [TL 12] [0 points]

 

It’s not a typo and it’s not a transcription error. Caf? is the morning drink of choice in the Age of Miracles: the ‘?’ is there to establish that the stuff does not precisely fully exist in our dimensions. It tastes marvelous, and not in a mysterious way, either. Imagine a rich, but not overpowering chocolate-vanilla contrast with an aftertaste of banana that somehow is enjoyable whether or not you like those flavors and you’re not too far off. Caf? has clearly been designed with human taste buds in mind.

Continue reading Caf? [TL 12] [0 points] [GURPS]

Laser Mines (TL[7+3]) [GURPS]

For this one, blame my wife.  I think.

laser-mines-google-docs

Laser Mines (TL[7+3])

Yes, as in ‘big holes in the ground where you dig solid, raw laser light out of the walls.’  Sure, you could make laser beams by collimating light into a focused ray.  If you’re living in the 21st century AD, that is.  But if you’re a clear-eyed citizen of any number of the modern, technologically mature polities of the 23rd Century’s Solar System, you’d rather get your laser beams from a mine on one of Jupiter or Saturn’s moons. And yes, it’s real laser light, somehow.  Still usable, though! …Well, after a certain amount of refining into a crystal form, that is.

Continue reading Laser Mines (TL[7+3]) [GURPS]

Draught of the Wolverine [TL5+1] [GURPS]

draught-of-the-wolverine-tl51-google-docs

 

Draught of the Wolverine [TL5+1] [0]

 

This ‘potion’ is actually not supernatural at all: it is instead derived from a carefully cultivated species of arctic fungus that grows in the vicinity of whatever super-material or substance that allows steampunk realities to function.  Once drunk, the Draught of the Wolverine essentially permanently infects the drinker’s body with a stable colony of the fungus.  Regular TL5 science cannot cure the condition, but TL5+1 super-science or a TL8 broad-spectrum antibiotic would be able to successfully clear up the infection.

Continue reading Draught of the Wolverine [TL5+1] [GURPS]

Item seed: Mother Gilman’s Practical Family Grimoire. [GURPS]

mother-gilmans-practical-family-grimoire-google-docs

Mother Gilman’s Practical Family Grimoire

This cheerful-looking hardcover book [the title is usually abbreviated to “Mother Gilman’s”] is printed on remarkably stain-and-damage resistant paper; the dust jacket is still crisp and there is no indication of yellowing.  While the publishing information lists a well-known publisher and a publication date of 1964, there is no record of this book or the author in the publisher’s own archives.  Interestingly, the alleged illustrator can be tracked down; she will readily admit that the interior art is done in her early style, but she never drew anything like this and she certainly never got paid for it, either. Needless to say, there is no record of this book existing on the Internet.   Continue reading Item seed: Mother Gilman’s Practical Family Grimoire. [GURPS]