Review: GURPS Underground Adventures

Review: GURPS Underground Adventures

In the previous review, I mentioned that GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3 has two pages on excavation and mining, but it was pointed out to me that I forgot about GURPS Underground Adventures. And that’s right, I did forget about that book. I often do, despite using certain rules from it relatively often. Still, this book often just escapes my mind, just like such books as GURPS Future Histories. So, let’s have a short review of GURPS Underground Adventures to give it some spotlight!

Karilan: New Aventus

Karilan: New Aventus

Several months ago, I contemplated developing my setting not in breadth, but in depth, i.e. focus on one nation and try describing it in more detail. The main goal was more of a challenge to myself - can I do this? Do I have it in me? After all, to write good, you have to learn how to write bad first, there's no way to do it without practice. So, I decide to focus on the nation of New Aventus - one of the major human nations of Karilan. What's difficult about it is that it's purposefully generic - this is just your good old mostly benevolent human kingdom with nobles, peasants, knights, and all your traditional faux-medieval stuff. And it's big, which means that there are many provinces, cities, etc. that require at least brief descriptions. If I chose something more interesting and small, I'd probably achieve better results, because writing lots of generic stuff is pretty difficult. However, as I was in the process of writing it, I sprinkled in some fun stuff here and there, and the final result is much less generic than it initially was. Also, Aventians ended up being jerks to many other human nations, but I don't mind that. Of course, as always, this is not the final version, and it will be updated. You can always find the most recent publically available setting material in the Karilan Setting Documents post.

New Aventus document link.

Review: The Quintessential Dwarf

Review: The Quintessential Dwarf

Many times before, I said that I love GURPS because any RPG book is a GURPS book. Back in the D&D 3.0 days, when the OGL was reigning supreme, and many third-party publishers were churning out tons of books of dubious quality, I haven’t really found any use for these books in my D&D games. Sure, some of the stuff there looked nice, but it was awful from the game balance perspective. Today, I’d like to talk about The Quintessential Dwarf, part of the Quintessential series by Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose Publishing is no small player in the RPG scene, and they produced tons of D&D content. The Quintessential series is quite large, with each book detailing a particular class or race, with some classes or races even getting two books.

GURPS Monstrous Compendium

GURPS Monstrous Compendium

I rarely do that, because I feel very dirty after I shill my own stuff. On my Boosty, I decided to make some exlusive stuff for my supporters - a GURPS Monstrous Compendium based on the format you can see in the post below this one. The idea is to rework the standard GURPS statblock to make it more useful for the GM. With this format, the GM will have to flip through the books much less, and even when he has to do it, he will have page references to know exactly where to look. For now, the monsters are D&D conversions, but as always, they are not 100% identical to their original versions, as I always rework certain abilities and remove others. Systems are different, game assumptions are different, and some abilities make no sense in GURPS. However, we have to keep in mind that monster lore between different books and editions is different, and sometimes significantly so. Very often, you may encounter contraditions or retcons. For these monsters, I'm trying to do due diligence and combine all lore into a single monster entry. Of course, since contradictions are impossible to avoid, I have to choose what version I like more and sometimes even expand the information with stuff of my own making. So, don't use this manual as "100% D&D canon material," this is just my version.

At this point, there are only 5 monsters in this document:

- Ankheg

- Beholder

- Bralani

- Ghaele

- Stone Drake

Of course, this is a work-in-progress! You will notice some placeholder information that is subject to change in the future, and I definitely will expand it with new monsters in the future. I'm also contemplating creating a Discord server for discussion, suggestions, and perhaps even contributions to this effort. Thank you all for your support, and I hope you like this stuff!

New Monster Statblock - First Attempt (Ankheg)

New Monster Statblock - First Attempt (Ankheg)

Not that long ago, I posted a rant about monster statblocks, and how much I find the GURPS statblock underwhelming. In short, I found it lacking information that would be useful for me as a GM both in combat and out of combat. It made me realize that I want something closer to a proper Monster Manual entry that a "bare" statblock with all the information that the GM can use to incorporate the monster into the world and quickly use it in the game. I decided to try it on the good ol' ankheg. I can say that I'm satisfied with the result, but I may be missing something. I would love to receive some feedback on this to help me refine it.

Here's the result in a PDF format - link.

EDIT: Added a section with useful rules and the trample attack.

EDIT #2: Added information about the activity cycle, organization, and edibility.

EDIT #3: Added numbers to the hex layout and tied Reach to them.

Life's Price Tag in GURPS

Life's Price Tag in GURPS

In my pursuit of a perfect monster statblock, I found something that isn’t covered that much detail in GURPS – the price of a creature. The animal section of GURPS Basic Set has prices for some of the more common domestic animals and guidelines for adjusting them for training and exceptional stats. The same book later has rough guidelines for pricing slaves. However, this is not enough for me, as I’d like to delve into the minute details. I just want to find a way to calculate a price for a captured monster.

Wizardry: Adventurer Spells II

Wizardry: Adventurer Spells II

More spells from Complete Adventurer. Cacophonic Shield creates a sound barrier that prevents hearing and damages those who cross it. Cloak of the Sea lets the subject traverse underwater environments with more ease. Distort Speech makes the victim's speech incomprehensible. Swift Expeditious Retreat and Swift Fly are variants of existing spells. Unlike the proper buffs, these spells can be cast as a free action on your turn and have an indefinite duration that quickly drains your FP.