Steve

1 hour ago, Ragitsu said:

Yeah: it's not explicitly mentioned, but, if you go through the rules, it makes sense.

 

Both of the following excerpts are from the GURPS Basic Set (Characters and Campaigns).

I discovered that the Knockdown and Stunning section has a similar note about making a HT roll to avoid knockdown and stunning. I don't play GURPS, so I'm not that familiar with the rules.

Modifiers: -5 for a major wound to the face or vitals (or to the groin, on a humanoid male)

3 hours ago, Cygnia said:

 

...please tell me that's from an early edition of GURPS and not the most recent one...

I didn't see this mentioned in the 4th Edition GURPS Basic Set, but there is a note under Bulletproof Nudity that topless females get an extra +1 to active defenses when this cinematic combat rule is in effect.

12 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

That sounds a lot like Andre Norton's Estcarp from her "Witch World" novels, except those witches weren't a noble class as such. A girl from any class who displayed the "Power" would be drafted into their ranks, resembling a cloistered religious order as well as a ruling oligarchy.

A religious order would work too, but it gives a somewhat different feel than noble families. Inbreeding to try to keep the blood “pure” is a possible outcome of making them nobility. A religious order could function like the witches of the Dune novels, whose name I can never seem to spell right.

What might be an interesting approach is to have a region of the known world where magic use is gender-linked, so women are the only ones with magic ability. Witch-Queens rule there, and the nobility is thus composed of women with witchcraft ability. Commoners would be those without any magic ability, but a girl displaying talent could be adopted by a noble house.

1 hour ago, Vondy said:

The elves in my campaign follow the pattern of Masuo people. They are matriarchal and matrilocal, and practice "walking marriage," though its really walking romance, because not all Masuo romantic relationships are specifically closed (though many are). Masuo women who come of age are often given room with exterior doors on the outer part of the clan-house. The Masuo traditionally honor their fathers on their birthdays, and it is considered unseemly for a woman not to be able to identify her children's fathers, but uncles were are primary male caregivers and figures in a child's life. Masuo men, historically, were hunters, warriors, and merchants, but women had a much more prominent role in trades, farming, land-administration, financial management, etc. For my game I made a few tweaks. My elves are somewhat egalitarianism in terms of 1) female elves more freely pursuing traditionally "male" roles and 2) stolen from an African matriarchal tribe, the local "elf-lord," which presumes a more charismatic style of "kingship," is always a son, or sometimes nephew, of most powerful local clan's matriarch. So, technically, they have a king, but his role is fairly strictly limited to being the magistrate and war-leader. The succession, however, happens when his mother (or aunt) dies! Most of the internal political tension of the elves in my campaign happens between women jockeying for clan leadership, and then clans jockeying the becomes the "first clan" of whatever settlement.

I tried looking them up. Did you mean Mosuo? That was the spelling that came to a Wikipedia entry.

I suppose the elvish version could have tribal variants that are more like Greek Amazons and others that are more peaceful, agrarian sorts.

45 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

What if someone sets off an air raid siren? The heroes need to comfort the panicked populace. Could someone be stealing food rations? It could be a desperate family. How do you help? Someone is littering secretly the city with propaganda papers or perhaps hijacking the local air waves. How do you stop that?

During the war years, selling counterfeit ration books could be a profitable business.

A Nazi spy ring might do this to fund their operations. It could be an opportunity for Golden Age moralizing along with fighting.

An example of something with more to do than smash villains would be a plot by The Tremor, activating his new earthquake machine near Campaign City. The heroes will need to rescue people from damaged buildings and stop the damage from getting worse.

Imagine if this plot happens while a Senator or the President was visiting Campaign City.

The villain need not be very tough, and might only employ some goons.

I’ve noticed that forum activity seems to have dropped a lot recently.

It used to be that there were new postings appearing pretty regularly across multiple forums, but not so much recently.

Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just imagining it?

I could see resurrection magic perhaps coming into play where an assassination has occurred, and that would require assassins to take measures against it. Kind of like a magical life insurance policy.

However, it is far more likely that the next person in line would decide to just let the old royal stay dead or the church who could perform such magic doesn't like the recently deceased royal, as the webcomic in my original post demonstrates.

It could be quite dramatic in a campaign if this sort of thing ever got explored.

The latest Full Frontal Nerdity webcomic posed an interesting question and then some possible explanations.

http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=2470

Given the wealth and power of royals, why do they never seem to get brought back from the dead when such magic exists?

Just off the top of my head.

Dragons posing as humanoids and how they might interact with societies around them. Some dragon types might be quite social. They aren’t all like Smaug in his mountain lair.

Maybe a dragon uses a tribe of orcs as its minions. A quiet little village may feed visitors to their local dragon. Maybe a dragon only wants to eat maidens.

What do different dragon types eat and how often? Are they like bears, gorging for a time and then sleeping for months or years, or eating more regularly? As apex predators, their feeding cycle and what they eat will have an effect on the ecology. Maybe dragon dung is good for fertilizing? Maybe some types are vegetarians?

1 hour ago, C-Note said:

Thanks, Steve.  This was a build choice for several reasons.  I deliberately wanted to make FTL travel rare and expensive.  At the tech level of the campaign, hyperdrives are new, bulky, and finicky.

 

Also, 62 trillion kilometers is the closest approximation to 2 parsecs that you can get using Megascale.  Any other combination of Teleportation range with Megascale will significantly undershoot or overshoot the 2-parsec limit.  Since we're using 2D Traveller starmaps (1 parsec per hex), this means I won't have to calculate fractional parsecs.

 

Edit: If I wanted to sacrifice a little accuracy and save Active Points, I could use the +4 1/4 10-trillion kilometer Megascale Advantage.  I might use this as Tech Level increases in the campaign.

This is what I meant by how I built them. This is from Hero Designer.

Jump-2 Hyperdrive:  Teleportation 7m, MegaScale (1m = 1 lightyear; can be scaled down to 100 km/m; +4 1/4) (37 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Week, for full journey; -4 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), 4 Charges (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Requires A Roll (Dimensional Navigation roll; -1/2), Cannot Be Safely Used Inside A Gravity Well (-1/2). Real Cost: 4 points.

A human pilot could run it with a -4 to their roll. Taking extra time to calculate the jump pretty much eliminates the penalty.

45 minutes ago, C-Note said:

In my game, the hyperdrive is the main method of FTL travel.  It is a clone of the Traveller jump drive, with a maximum of Jump-2 (2 parsecs, taking 1 week).  Ships carry enough proton fuel for anywhere from 1 to 4 jumps before needing to refuel.  Paired with fuel scoops, ships can refuel from gas giants or oceans.

Hyperdrive: Teleportation 62m, MegaRange (1m = 1 trillion km; +4) (310 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Week, -4 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), 4 Fuel Charges (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Conditional Power (Power does not work in Common Circumstances) (Non-Functional In A Gravity Well; -1/2), Requires A Roll (Skill roll; Dimensional Navigation; -1/2) [Notes: Jump-2]

Total Points: 33

 

Fuel Scoops/Purification Plant:  Minor Transform 4d6 (Liquid Hydrogen/Water into Proton Fuel) (20 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, -3 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), Requires 6 Hours Per Fuel Charge (-1/4)

Total Points: 3

You could build the drive cheaper on Active Points by lowering it to 6 or 7 meters and upping the Megascale multiplier. Unless that was a build choice?

Traveller Hero built their Jump Drives more like that.

2 minutes ago, Vondy said:

 

Not a joke. Bourne would likely merit a dedicated task force, or mini-division within the CIA, based on his activities.

Well, if the X-Files can have FBI resources and manpower devoted to them, why not this?

Imagine what weird, real world task forces might be working away, hidden within the bowels of the CIA/FBI/NSA. There’s probably a lot of stranger than fiction stuff going on.

Just now, Pattern Ghost said:

Do they allow you to use the generated images for anything other than personal use?

My understanding is that the art created is considered your property and can be treated as such, sold or whatever. Note that there are two levels of paid accounts available, and it might require a paid account for this though. I can’t remember. I bought a paid account because it removed the limits on how much you can produce. A free account will be used up pretty quickly.

5 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

Um, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but your Warlock seems to have serious cataracts in one eye and a blown out pupil in the other. Should probably get her to an eye cleric. 😁

 

On a more serious note, that's some pretty cool stuff, I'm going to go check this thing out.

One of the criticisms I’ve seen is that the program seems to have problems generating eyes right. I’ve been getting some great character portraits out of it though. It’s also fantastic at doing things like city scenes and structures, such as castles and cyberpunk skylines.

Been thinking more about this.

“…they’re OUR FRIENDS”: Your husband needs to get a grip. Seriously. Who is more important to him? You, the person he’s been married to for many years? Or is it a bunch of people led by a dysfunctional-sounding DM? It all just comes across as a toxic-sounding situation, and he should be supporting you in your decsion, not trying to force you into enduring more of this.

You don’t want to play? That’s fine and totally understandable based on your descriptions of things. I wouldn’t want to be in such a campaign either. I think most normal people wouldn’t.

What isn’t sounding healthy is the rest of it. If you’re playing in another group without any problems, that shows you aren’t anti-social. You just don’t want to play with annoying people (substitute whatever word you like for annoying) and deal with the whims of a DM of questionable maturity and possible other issues.

Your husband sounds weirdly determined to subject you to this mental and emotional BDSM going on, even after seeing how much it distresses you. That’s not good. He needs to put on his big boy pants and let you make your own decisions on who you play with or don’t play with, not cater to a gaming group like the one you describe.

Wow. Just… wow.

How long have you been married? The drama you’re describing sounds more like dating someone in high school than a married couple.

During her reign, some of the most famous works of fiction were first written in Great Britain and later were made into movies as they rose to become worldwide phenomena.

The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit)

James Bond

Harry Potter

She lived quite a full life, and she barely outlived her husband who passed only last year. Her reign started when Winston Churchill was in power. A long era. RIP

Well, I’ve seen the word womyn used in places on the internet, so maybe yeomyn?

I recently came across an article for an AI-created art program called Midjourney and wondered if anyone on here had ever used it.

The online art that it generated was pretty impressive.

Potions can also be carried as Equipment, so it can change the cost of characters a bit. Perhaps some potions only work for the faithful, so they still require a divine Contact roll to work.

Perhaps you could have some clerics that make the potions (the lab types) and then have adventuring sorts that carry the potions with them and use them. The adventuring sorts would not require having the potion creation spells, so they can spend their points on other things but are still part of the order. I guess that might make them more like paladins though.

For a city, you don’t need to be very detailed. Here are the docks, there is the city center region, the local university, and so on. Add more pieces to it and detail as needed for players.

Call it Generic City or Everytropolis and start playing.

In a WWII game, you could set it up like how the first MCU Captain America movie did. Cap wasn’t directly fighting Nazi Germany’s main forces but the HYDRA organization they funded. His fight against the Red Skull was a subset of the greater war raging around them.

You could do a campaign the same way. There are supervillains, monsters and mad scientists working for the Nazis, and the heroes are focused on fighting them. While they aren’t easily trouncing Nazi soldiers in the various battlefields, their efforts are keeping the mad scientists and supervillains occupied, or _they_ will trounce Allied soldiers.