Perk: Environmentally Adapted Sense

Sometimes I open old game notes and find things. This time I was looking at some particularly old notes and stumbled across a perk that looked kind of cool, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Environmentally Adapted (Sense/Terrain) [Phy] [Mental]

You must specialize by sense and terrain. You can ignore up to -1worth of penalties to your chosen sense when using it to perceive objects in your chosen terrain. This perk can never give a net bonus.

You may buy this perk multiple times, either to increase the level of the original perk or to add a new specialization. When increasing an Environmentally Adapted Sense perk's level, it eliminates an additional -1 to that sense per level. GM's should feel free to limit the maximum allowable level to 3 for most games.

Technique: Meat Shield

Meat Shield

Hard

Defaults: Dodge-2.

Prerequisites: Dodge, cannot exceed Dodge.

You can use an opponent as cover against ranged and melee attacks against you. To do this, you must be free to move, your opponent must be positioned between you and whoever is trying to hit you, and you must win a Quick Contest of your Meat Shield technique and the potential meat shield’s DX. If you win, the foe you trying to hit you takes a -2 cover penalty to hit you. Regardless of success, you suffer a -1 penalty to all further Dodge rolls and attack rolls this round.

If the foe attacking you through your meat shield misses by a margin of -2 or less, his attack hits the meat shield. The meat shield may attempt any active defense normally available to him, and any successful defense means he is not hit. If he successfully dodges, the attack still hits you, but you can still make an active defense yourself! If the meat shield’s defense fails, he takes damage as if your opponent’s attack targeted him normally.

Build

This defensive technique is built using the Technique Design System (TDS) from GURPS Martial Arts, p. 89-95. The -4 penalty for attacking through an occupied hex is reversed to be a -4 penalty to utilize an occupied hex for defense. Additionally, using this technique imposes a -1 penalty on further active defense rolls for a +1 to default, and a -1 penalty to any attack rolls for an additional -1 to default.

Dungeon Action

By Timothy Ponce

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is all about killing monsters and taking their stuff. It thrives on tactical decisions, die rolls, and letting the chips fall where they may. But what if a gaming group thirsts for more thrilling, movie-like action? Such games can benefit from more abstraction, fast-and-loose gaming, and typically, more social situations. Thankfully, GURPS already provides a line that covers this style of play!

GURPS Action explains how to run games straight out of the movies, but its core assumptions include a modern setting decidedly not suitable for most Dungeon Fantasy, and much of its advice applies only to handling technology absent in traditional fantasy – dungeon or otherwise. By combining parts of both sources that best suit fantasy action adventures, this article provides the best of both worlds: a framework for handling social and urban mini-adventures as preparation for the primary dungeon delve, and it does so with style.

This article heavily references GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons, GURPS Action 1: Heroes, and GURPS Action 2: Exploits, and access to the entirety of both entire lines is highly recommended.

It Lives!

As is usual, it seems, I have dropped off the face of the Earth thanks to a combination of Life, Classes, and Lack of Gaming (this is primarily a gaming blog, after all!). That said, I've decided to post what content I have that has yet to be published by Steve Jackson Games here for free. This material is not extensive, but it does pertain to at least one popular product - namely Dungeon Fantasy. To that end, my next post will be the full text of Dungeon Action, which contains rules for combining Dungeon Fantasy with the Action! series to produce an experience extremely close to that of Dungeons and Dragons. After that will appear rules on creating intellectual property, which are easily adapted to memetics and such (if and when I have time, I'll make that adaptation and post it, as well).

I hope you can all enjoy these. I will get them online as quickly as I can format them.

Shadow-Infused Lens for Dungeon Fantasy

I was going through some of my old materials the other day and came across a lens I made a little over a year ago for a Dungeon Fantasy game. So I figured I'd share it here, since it's GURPSDay after all!

Shadow-Infused

75 points

Choice Professions: Assassin, Martial Artist, Swashbuckler, Thief.
Marginal Professions: None.

Shadow-infused are mortal beings comprised partly of shadow. They are either the offspring of a mortal parent and a shadow elemental or were once moral and somehow become imbued with the stuff of darkness. Maybe they spent too long on the plane of shadows or were in a magical accident. Regardless, they make excellent spies and killers thanks to their ability to hide in the darkness. They're constantly surrounded by shadows, which flit about them or animate their own shadow in strange (and disturbing) ways.

Attributes: DX+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Clinging (Mana-Sensitive, -10%; Only in shadows, -20%) [14]; Dark Vision (Mana-Sensitive, -10%) [23]; Fit (Only in Darkness, -20%) [4]; Reputation +3 (Shadow Creatures) [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Silence 1 [5]; Slippery 1 [2]; Temperature Tolerance (cold) 1 [1].
Racial Perks: Limited Camouflage (Shadows) [1]; Shadowplay* [1].
Disadvantages: Supernatural Feature (Animated Shadow) [-10]; Unfit (Only in Bright Lighting,-20%) [-4]; Unnatural Features 2 [-2].
Features: Dark black, gray, or black-speckled eyes. Surrounded by perpetual shadows that seem to cling to them.

* Shadowplay: Your character can manipulate nearby shadows into simple shapes or forms. This takes a DX roll, the better the roll the more complicated the shadow. He can even animate them – but this requires a Concentrate maneuver, 1 FP per minute, and persists for 1d seconds after you stop concentrating. You can animate at most one hex worth of shadows at a time. Those with Artist (Illusion) may substitute a DX-based roll if that is better than their DX.

Shocker Lizard

CER 14 (OR 8 and PR 6)

Everyone’s hair stood on and as they approached the green reptile. Arcs of bluish-white light dances across its skin. Thankfully there was only one, or things would get hairy fast.

A three-foot long lizard with bright green scales and a yellow underbelly, the shocker lizard is a unique and frightening predator. It gets its name from its ability to discharge an electrical shock that can stun or kill prey. Alone, they are a nuisance, but a nest of shocker lizards rapidly grows to pose a lethal threat to any party!

Ents

With a creaking, cracking gate, the animate oak strode forward at an easy pace. It seemed little worried about the dozen gnolls arrayed before it, and hardly noticed their arrows. But once one buried its axe in the ent’s thick bark, the treebeast croaked with rage and sent the loathsome fae sailing through the air with a single swipe of a branch.

Ents are ambulatory, sapient trees who tend the most ancient forests.  They serve as gardeners and wardens, although they rarely pay any heed to any member of the animal kingdom unless a reasonable threat is posed.  Ancient by mortal standards, ents are extremely slow to action, do things slowly, and are very slow to embark on any endeavor.  Only a threat to the forest can readily mobilize the local ent population with any degree of rapidity, and "rapid" for an ent can take weeks.

Wraith

CER 106 (OR 27 and PR 79)

Tendrils of cold, cloying darkness crawled from the shadows and snuffed the life from every candle in the room. The four travelers huddled together, back to back, and prepared for the wraith’s assault.

Wraiths are partially incorporeal undead that boarder on the demonic.  Little more than shadowy, animated hatred, they haunt the darkness of night seeking to drain the life from those they encounter, and when they succeed, their victim, tainted by the wraith's intense loathing of life, becomes twisted into a mirror of his executioner's – a weaker wraith serving its creator.

ST: 14                                                     HP: 15                                                   Speed: 6.00

DX: 12                                                    Will: 15                                                  Air Move: 12

IQ: 10                                                     Per: 12

HT: 12                                                    FP: N/A                                                  SM: 0

Dodge: 10                                              Parry: N/A                                              DR: 0

Punch (15): 1d(0.5) crushing + linked Life Drain (see below).  Reach C.

Life Drain (15): 3d+2 months of life drained per second.  Reach C.  This can only follow a successful grapple – often a choke hold (see Strangle Hold below).

Strangle Hold (12): On a successful attack, the wraith grapples his victim's neck.  On the victim's next turn, he may attempt to break free; the wraith is at +5 in this Quick Contest for using two hands.  On the wraith's next turn – and each turn thereafter, until its prey breaks free – it may strangle.  Roll a Quick Contest of the wraith's ST+3 vs. the victim's HT.  If the wraith wins, its victim takes crushing damage equal to its margin of victory.  DR protects normally, but multiply injury to the neck by 1.5.  If any damage – even blunt trauma – penetrates the victim's DR, you also start to suffocate him.  On his next turn and every subsequent turn until he escapes, he loses 1 FP; see Suffocation (B436).

Terror (Will-3): When a wraith moans or screams menacingly, anyone who hears it must make a Fright Check at -3.

Aura of Hopelessness: Anyone who fails a Fright Check in the wraith’s presence suffers -3 to all rolls. Every turn, the victim rolls against Will at a penalty equal to his margin of failure on the triggering Fright Check; on a success, he snaps out of his self-doubt.

Firebane: Wraiths suck the energy out of the area around them. Within two yards, candles are extinguished, torches burn as candles, and campfires burn as torches, and bonfires burn as campfires.

Light Weakness: Wraiths take quadruple damage from light attacks, 1d injury/minute from direct, natural sunlight, and lose their ability to interact with the physical world in any lighting conditions that impose a Vision penalty between +0 to -4.

Shadow Body: Wraiths are composed of partially insubstantial shadowstuff.  They can flow through any opening like a vapor; flight through the night air; take only 1 point of damage from impaling and piercing attacks and 2 points from all other non-area attacks.

Traits: Bloodlust (9); Callous; Can Be Turned by True Faith; Combat Reflexes; Darkvision; Desecrator; Detect (All Life; Precise); Doesn’t Breathe; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Doesn’t Sleep; Dominance; Dread (Sunlight; 1 yard); Flight; Fragile (Unnatural); Frightens Animals; High Pain Threshold; Immune to Metabolic Hazards; Indomitable; Injury Tolerance (Diffuse; Infiltration); Insubstantial (Accessibility, Not in Darkness less than -4; Affect Substantial; Always On); Intolerance (The Living); Lifebane; No Legs (Aerial); Obscure 5 (Vision; Area Effect, 2 yards; Defensive; Emanation); See Invisible (Ghosts); Temperature Control 5 (Cold; Emanation); Uncontrollable Appetite (Life Force) (9); Unfazeable; Unkillable 3 (Achilles’ Heel, Sunlight).

Features: Affected as Evil; Affected as Dead; Functions and Detects as Evil.

Skills: Brawling-15; Hidden Lore (Undead)-10; Intimidate-15; Stealth-22; Wrestling-14.

Notes: Wraiths can speak and may be willing to negotiate, but rarely bother to. They often know much about other wraiths, if not undeath in general. A wraith's spawn usually have the same stats as its parent, with -2 ST.

Perk: Library Card

Library Card

1 point

Whether by virtue of reputation, actual license, or simply a plot device, you can waltz into any institution that houses knowledge and access any document or artifact housed therein - provided it isn't classified! No one will think twice about it or delay you, assuming the materials are available readily accessible, and if any time must be taken to retrieve them, you will gain access in the minimum possible time. This perk does not grant access to materials that are classified or those that are not on site, checked out, or otherwise not available. The GM should still feel free to deny the character access to information when circumstances would demand it - e.g., if the character just trashed the library's public collection and then asks to visit more delicate archives, or if the clerk knows the PC is wanted by the police.

A prime example of a character with this perk is Professor Robert Langdon from Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. He walks into museum after museum asking to see priceless and delicate artifacts and documents without any issues - excepting, of course, the police chasing after him.

Peryton

CER 57 (OR 42 and PR 15)

A loud snorting sniff rang through the treetops. Jack heard the scuffle of rabbits and squirrels running for their dens. Another sniff, closer this time, sent the boar he was stalking into a startled retreat. Then with a swift stoop, the peryton struck Jack, grabbed him by the belly and thigh, and lifted the boy into the air.

Perytons are omnivorous beasts with the front half of a stag and the back half of a bird. They are fleet of foot and swift of wing, often taking to flight when startled. Perytons supplement their largely herbivorous diet with protein from small deer, lambs, and other mid-sized mammals. They have been known to take children when

ST: 18                                                     HP: 18                                                    Speed: 6.00

DX: 13                                                    Will: 10                                                  Ground Move: 7/14

IQ: 4                                                       Per: 12                                                   Air Speed: 14/28

HT: 11                                                    FP: 11                                                     SM: 1 (4.5 feet)

Dodge: 10                                             Parry: N/A                                             DR: 2 (Tough Skin)

Bite (14): 1d crushing. Reach C

Hooves (14): 1d+2 crushing. Reach C, 1.

Talons (14): 1d+2 cutting or impaling. Reach C.

Antlers (14): 1d+4 impaling. Reach C, 1.

Traits: Bad Sight 4 (Motion Sensitive); Bad Temper (12); Discriminatory Smell; Flight (Cannot Hover, Winged); Night Vision 6; Panic (12); Parabolic Hearing 2; Perfect Balance; Peripheral Vision; Quadruped; Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold); Terrain Adaptation (Undergrowth); Ultrahearing; Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-14; Intimidation-10; Jumping-12; Stealth-12; Swimming-11; Wrestling-14.

Encumbrance: None 64.8 lbs.; Light 129.6 lbs.; Medium 194.4 lbs.; Heavy 388.8 lbs.; Very Heavy 648 lbs.

Accuracy (Sorcery)

This common weapon enchantment is intended for use with GURPSThaumatology: Sorcery.

Accurate Weapon

Key Words: Weapon Buff

Full Cost: 24 points for level 1, 37 points for level 2, and 51 points for level 3.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Range: 100 yards

Duration: 3 minutes.

The weapon enhanced is more likely to hit for the duration by adding its level to the user’s effective skill (maximum 3). This stacks with mundane bonuses, such as weapon quality, but not magical ones.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on weapons, -20%; Advantage, Accuracy, +135%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [23.5]. Additional levels add further levels of Accuracy to the Advantage enhancement (+135%) [+13.5]. Notes: "Accuracy " is Weapon Talent (Magical, -10%) [13.5]. Weapon Talent adds its level to Beam Weapons, Blowpipe, Bolas, Bow, Cloak, Crossbow, Garrote, Gunner, Guns, Lance, Lasso, Liquid Projector, Melee Weapon, Net, Shield, Sling, Throwing Art, and Thrown Weapon.

Energy Point Cost Table

	Energy Point Cost
Weapon Type	+1	+2	+3
Projectile	3	5	7
Staff	9	13	18
Wand	10	15	21
Weapon	11	17	23

Review: The Tome of the Black Island

I like worldbuilding. I like it more than rules tinkering (sorry Doug). I like it more than GMing. I like it more than playing. I say this to explain why I generally shy away from “fluff” articles and books that present premade world material. That’s the stuff I love to create, and those publications are taking that away from me! Interesting rules tweaks? Yes, please! Advice on how to run my creation in a game? Certainly! Options for playing a character in my world? Hell yeah! Hand me a world already made? No thank you. Keep this in mind as you read my review of The Tome of the Black Island by J. Edward Tremlett.

This month, I got a bit blindsided by one article in GURPS Pyramid#3/91 – Thaumatology IV. As usual, I gave the issue a cursory perusal to see where I wanted to begin. I helped review C.R.’s Codex Duello, so I marked that for last. W. A. Frick’s Technomysticism doesn’t cover a topic I, personally, care for, so that got bumped down the list, too. Ted Brock’s The Thaumaturgy of Metallurgy looked specific to standard spell magic, and being an RPM guy, I set that aside for later idea-mining. This month’s Random Thought Table had some interesting thoughts, as usual, but is a small offering. That brought me to The Tome of the Black Island, a systemless article about the mad writings of a depraved and corrupted wizard. I was intrigued.

I started reading it, expecting to find it far too fluff-heavy. I thought I’d get turned off pretty early on, but after about one sentence, I couldn’t put it down. It drew me into the story the way H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allen Poe did when I first starting reading them. Heck, it read like something out of the Cthulhu mythos. And as the plot twisted and turned, I couldn’t help but keep reading about Maldrick Udelholfen’s lust for power and how it ultimately destroyed him. The mad sorcerer’s tale perfectly married the sublime with the grotesque in an orgiastic display of gothic horror. I loved it.

But Tremlett’s real accomplishment lay in what he held back. Why didn’t those servants try to escape the fire? Why did Udelholfen return so disfigured? He waits until you think the story is over and you’ve dropped your guard. It’s time to read how to use the Tome in your game, what it contains, where it might pop up, – the crunchy bits. And as you examine those spell descriptions and possibilities, he hits you with another wave of horror. Now everything makes a little too much sense. Did I really want to know that? Oh god.

So when I say this article is excellent, take it as coming from someone who generally doesn’t want this sort of thing in his monthly issues. I feel like I might have missed out by dismissing some of Tremlett's past articles, too. I will say, I plan on going back and rereading them all. I’m going to check out his blog, Spygod, too.

Nymphs Part 4: Water Nymphs

The crystal clear water of the icy pool shimmered and rippled in the still air of the morning. Gradually, the ripples grew in an upward undulation that formed shapely calves, then thighs, and eventually a fully formed woman of surpassing beauty.

Nymphs are loci geniuses that inhabit various natural places. While similar to what are sometimes called “fae”, they more closely resemble elementals of a specific locale. They are inherently tied to the location they inhabit; indeed, their very existence depends on the wellbeing of the environment. And they defend it vehemently.

All nymphs exercise a measure of control over their homes and use this, in combination with their preternatural beauty to ward off attacks. Their beauty is terrible and captivating, and they use this mercilessly to their advantage.

As dangerous as nymphs can be, they are excellent sources of information on the area in which they dwell, and if befriended, they make powerful allies. However, their legendary shyness makes this difficult, and their sadistic impulses make it doubly dangerous!

Water Nymph

CER 68 (OR 26 and PR 42)

Water nymphs are spirits of place associated with bodies of fresh water. They are closely attached to springs, lakes, rivers, etc. and may not stray more than a short distance from their home without becoming seriously ill. They defend their homes fiercely by luring those who threaten it to a watery death. Some water nymphs are experienced mages, but most are simply guardians. All command great knowledge about their environment.

ST: 8                                                       HP: 8                                                      Speed: 6.00

DX: 12                                                    Will: 10                                                  Ground Move: 6

IQ: 10                                                     Per: 11                                                   Water Move: 6

HT: 12                                                    FP: 12                                                     SM: 0

Dodge: 9                                                Parry: 10 (Unarmed)                           DR: 0

Punch (14): 1d-2 crushing. Reach C.

Animated Environment: Water nymphs can animate the environment around them to grapple (Binding or Telekinesis) intruders with ST 10 or strike at them (1d crushing or impaling) with branches and bushes near the shore.

Intoxicating Beauty (Resisted at Will): Anyone within 16 yards of a nymph who can see her must make a Will roll or gain the Lecherousness (12) disadvantage for a number of minutes equal to their margin of failure.

Kiss of Death (Resisted at HT): A corporeal nymph can kiss a foe (roll against 14) and send him into unearthly ecstasy (see p. B428) if he fails his HT roll – assuming he even wants to resist – that lasts minutes equal to his margin of failure.  Even if he does not resist, the roll must be made, because any failure by 5 or more results in him suffering a heart attack (see p. B4249).

Stunning Beauty: By striking even the slightest pose, anyone who sees her must make a Fright Check at -5 and roll on the Awe table.

Threshold Entity: This being doesn’t breathe, drink, eat, or sleep, is immune to metabolic hazards, and is either insubstantial and invisible or substantial and visible.

Traits: Acute Hearing 1; Appearance (Transcendent; Universal); Berserk (9) (Special Trigger, harming the wilderness); Callous; Can Be Turned with True Faith; Curious (15); Dependency (Home Lake or Spring; Daily); Dislikes Loud Noises; Divine Curse (Keep to the letter of any promise); Fearlessness 2; Higher Purpose (Protect Home Spring); Impulsive (12); Odious Personal Habit -1 (Capricious); Sadism (15); Sense of Duty (Home Spring); Shyness (Mild); Terrain Adaptation (Water and Wetlands); Unaging; Vulnerability (Iron x2).

Features: Affected as Spirit.

Skills: Area Knowledge (Local)-12; Brawling-14; Camouflage-12; Intimidation-17; Naturalist-12; Sex Appeal-17; Stealth-14; Swimming-14; Wrestling-14.

Notes: Most nymphs won't negotiate because they are too shy.  Those who do are amiable enough, but dealing with such an astounding beauty is often disconcerting – especially while under the effect of her intoxicating beauty (see above).  Always scars from wounds inflicted by iron.

Wizards & Wastelands - Thoughts on Power Level

The next step in sorting out this setting is making templates. Since this is a post-apocalyptic setting at its core, it makes sense to begin with After the End and work from there. Since there is a good dose of Monster Hunters, I’ll be borrowing from there as well.

Looking at the first chapter of GURPS After the End – Wastelanders, I see the first decision I need to make is the power level. Obviously, I can do what the book does and start with a low-level template and add lenses to build it up to a suitable power level. But rather than just copy the book, I’m going to aim for a certain power level out of the gate. This should give a more tailored feel that does what it’s supposed to straight out.

Wizards & Wastelands: The End

Since it's GURPSday, I figured I'd post a few days earlier than normal. Below is information on how it all ended as described in GURPS After the End - The New World. I welcome any feedback based on how well you think this represents the campaign setting to date. Also, any comments on what sort of magical hazards (if any) feel appropriate are greatly appreciated!

Primary Cause: Dinosaur Killer

Secondary Causes: Cosmic Rays, Mother Nature, Things Fall Apart

Appropriate Hazards: Aerosol Particulates (p. 10-11), Disease (p. 13-14), Gangs (p. 15-17), Heat (p. 12), Hyperstorms (p. 13), and Paramilitaries (p. 23-24).

Occasional Hazards: Alkaline Mud (p. 11), Cold (p. 12), Mutants (for animals, and some Nazi human experiments; p. 16-21), Sandstorms (p. 13), and Toxic Waste (p. 10).

TL: 8^

How Long Ago: 5 generations.