Tag: gurpsday

DEX [GURPS 4E]

DEX – Google Docs

 

DEX [1]

 

Used to be, people assumed that ‘reality shard’ was just Infinity, Unlimited’s way of saying “something weird and tangible that we can’t really explain.”  Then it turned out that when you broke a reality shard — which was at first assumed to be almost impossible, until field teams started doing so on a regular basis* — you were usually left with about a couple dozen bits of crystallized… reality? Luck? Potential?  Whatever it was, the bits could themselves be implanted in mundane items, to be used up later.  

 

This revelation significantly changed Infinity’s cost-benefit analyses on when destroying reality shards were justified.

Continue reading DEX [GURPS 4E]

Beetle-Americans. [GURPS 4e]

…I dunno why either, man. I just don’t.

Beetle-Americans [25] – Google Docs

Beetle-Americans [25]

Attribute Modifiers: HT +1 [10]

Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 [5], Extra Arms 2 [No Physical Attack, -50%] [10], Flight [Winged, -10%] [30]

Perks: Cultural Familiarity [Human] [1], Honest Face [1]

Disadvantages: Vulnerable (Impaling, x2) [-30]

Quirks Attentive [-1], Broad-minded [-1], Congenial [-1] Distinctive Features [sentient ladybug] [-1]

Racial Skills: Flight [HT/A] [2]

Continue reading Beetle-Americans. [GURPS 4e]

Forbidden Book: “So You Want To Take Over a Timeline.” [GURPS 4E]

So You Want To Take Over a Timeline – Google Docs

So this went kind of dark.

So You Want To Take Over a Timeline

On Homeline, So You Want To Take Over a Timeline was first published in 2011 by the sort of American hard-shelled libertarian publishing company that has both a cheerful indifference to being told what to do, and rabid lawyers on speed-dial. The book is flat-out banned in large parts of the planet, but not in Homeline’s United States. And, to add insult to injury, the text was promptly put into the public domain by the author and publisher, which means that the entire spectrum of anti-Infinity groups and organizations out there have potential access to as many copies as they need.  

Continue reading Forbidden Book: “So You Want To Take Over a Timeline.” [GURPS 4E]

The Six Terrible Books of Earth. [GURPS Banestorm]

The Six Terrible Books of Earth – Google Docs

The Six Terrible Books of Earth

 

These books are banned by every human nation on Yrth, both Christian and Muslim.  But somebody keeps printing them; and no matter how often the Ministry of Serendipity burns the Books, there’s always another popping up.  Usually just before something explodes, or burns down, or sees an uptick in Mob violence.  The average mage of Yrth reacts to the Six Terrible Books of Earth the same way that an Arkham professor reacts to a Mythos tome, and for the exact same reason: they inexorably corrupt the status quo.  Thankfully, they’re all written in English, which is difficult for Anglish and Arabic speakers to understand.

Continue reading The Six Terrible Books of Earth. [GURPS Banestorm]

The Templar Shropshire Trap [GURPS 4e]

Yes, yes, I saw the Templar cave story.

The Templar Shropshire Trap – Google Docs

 

The Templar Shropshire Trap

The short version about that supposed Templar cavern found in Shropshire?  The true, hidden version?  It was never dug out, or even adapted, by the Templars.  It has nothing to do with the Templars at all.  The Templar cavern was instead carefully constructed in 1965 AD or so by an esoteric conspiracy with no love for humanity, and an obsessive desire to transform the world into something more to that conspiracy’s liking.

The background comes right out of GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier: this reality that we live in right now (‘History A’) was created in 535 AD as the culmination of a rebellion of humans against their alien Anunnakku masters.  The previous reality (‘History B’) was buried in a semantic and metaphysical ‘reality quake’ that wiped out an entire world, and put a new one in its place. But there were refugees from History B (‘irruptors’); and they struggle even today to put back the old world and bury our own.  And, again: they have no love for humanity.

Continue reading The Templar Shropshire Trap [GURPS 4e]

Tetrachromancy [GURPS 4e]

Tetrachromancy [17] – Google Docs

Tetrachromancy [17]

 

This particular magical advantage seems to be linked to places with higher than average levels of interdimensional travel.  Basically, it’s an occult mutation of the rods and cones of the human eye that allows someone with this advantage ‘see’ Gates – more specifically, it allows them to see the lingering radiation that’s produced as a by-product from the imposition of a Gate (magical or otherwise) onto the landscape. The ability only works in areas of low mana and above, and anybody with Tetrachromancy is already a mage, albeit a very basic one.

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Infinite Worlds: Clinic [Quantum 7] [GURPS]

Clinic (Quantum 7) – Google Docs

 

Clinic (Quantum 7)

 

On this timeline, magic exists — but only the whitest of white magic. Faith Healing is a recognized field of study; its practitioners can cure disease, heal the injured, and even reattach limbs. Interestingly, mundane healing is more advanced on this timeline than at the equivalent point on Homeline’s, as well: those Great Powers that were not blessed with a large number of healing mages quickly adopted the innovations proposed by mundane physicians.

 

Clinic has only slightly diverted from Homeline’s history thus far, possibly because it is in neither Homeline’s nor Centrum’s interest that it do so.  Both societies operate clandestine magical clinics in this timeline, and have no interest in rocking the boat.  What either — or both — plan to do when Clinic’s Great War presumably kicks off in thirty years is unknown.

Continue reading Infinite Worlds: Clinic [Quantum 7] [GURPS]

Choir (TRAPPIST-1 star system) [GURPS]

Choir – Google Docs

Exoplanets! Whee!

 

Choir

It was natural for explorers from Earth to go to the TRAPPIST-1 dwarf system as part of the first wave of interstellar exploration, once humans finally cracked the code on faster-than-light travel.  The planetary system had seven confirmed exoplanets, and a remarkably tolerant habitable zone for a dwarf star; it was also extremely young by stellar standards.  So it seemed unlikely that life would have developed so quickly there… thus making it probably safe enough for a species just starting to practice exploring the Galactic Arm.

This proved to be… incorrect.  Not only were there three water worlds with functional biospheres: the other four planets all proved to have their own forms of life.  And sentient races living on all of them, although admittedly none of those species were born there.  It turns out that TRAPPIST-1 is well-named; it’s a favorite spot for monastic communities from all over this part of known space.  Fortunately, humans were welcome enough… or at least their religious communities were.

Continue reading Choir (TRAPPIST-1 star system) [GURPS]

GURPS Infinite Worlds: Breckinridge [GURPS]

Had to revise this a bit: it was too much show-your-work.

Breckinridge, 1863 – Google Docs

Breckinridge

There are surprisingly few timelines where the United States does not have a Civil War at some point.  On Quantum 7’s Breckinridge, they’ve avoided it so far — but as the 1864 election looms, it would appear that something is going to happen, and soon.  The compromises that kept the Democrats unified enough in 1860 to win the election all died with Vice President Stephen Douglas: today, President John Breckinridge is loathed by half his party, but his refusal to stand aside in the upcoming election worries a lot of people. Including those on Homeline: they know how the story can end.

Continue reading GURPS Infinite Worlds: Breckinridge [GURPS]