Review: UMBROS

Review: UMBROS

I'm not dead, I was busy. Busy writing some stuff to make GURPS playable on all scales, but also busy thinking about running a strategic-level Braunstein to resolve a military conflict between two nations in my setting. It's been set up a couple of years ago, but due to games happening in other regions of the world, nothing was happening on that front. There was just an eternal "upcoming war that is about to happen." No, I'm not just rambling and telling you about my games, this is just a segue into the topic of this blogpost, which is a review of UMBROS: A Braunstein of Dinosaurs & Treachery at the Earth's Core. You see, my ramblings highlight a problem with conventional play - the world is static no matter how hard the referee tries to maintain the illusion of it being alive.

Heroic Combat, Timescale, Abstraction: Outline

Heroic Combat, Timescale, Abstraction: Outline

I cannot stop thinking about the question of scale and abstraction in combat. If you are reading this, you probably already know that GURPS has very granular combat with one-second round, where the exact way you attack, move, or defend matters. This is one of the strengths of the system, something that allows for plenty of tactical decisions and detail, but also one of the weaknesses of the system. While I do love GURPS combat, I cannot disagree with the fact that it takes too long when there are many combatants (many claim that it takes an unbearably long time even in 1-on-1 combat, but this is a skill issue), and it forces you to artificially scale down the engagements to prevent fights from taking hours.

Dunder Moose, Dungeon Design, and Inspiration

Dunder Moose, Dungeon Design, and Inspiration

I follow very few TTRPG content creators both in terms of blogs and Youtube channels, but one of said few that I do follow (and you should too) is This is Dunder Moose, whose recent podcast episode on dungeon design with a variety of guests was a blast to listen to.

Aside from getting some insights in what makes a dungeon good, I understood the following - I am so goddamn incompetent and inexperienced. Yes, I've been playing GURPS for 10+ years and D&D for about the same time, and I feel confident with the ruleset. However, when you see Mr. Moose show a dungeon layout and the panel discussing it and pointing out the flaws, or when the host or viewer asks a question, and all the guests answering it in turn, I try to put myself in their place. What would I say if I were a guest on the panel there? I'd just go "uuuhh, huh-huh, what?" like Butt-Head. That's be a complete embarassment.

There really is a world of difference between somebody who's been playing for a relatively long time, but with a more-or-less fixed player group, and somebody who's been playing with different people and has been playing a lot. While I may point out some obscure-ass rule interactions and inconsistencies, I absolutely lack some of the fundamentals. This is something, I believe, you cannot improve in any way aside from just getting off your ass and running a game.

Thus, I think it's time for me to do exactly that - get off my ass and run a proper game. Surprisingly, I found two (!) TTRPG clubs in my city. I might check those places out and see if there is any interest in GURPS there. If not, I will run an online game via a VTT, but no earlier than December, but finding players may also be a problem - not only is this GURPS, but also with lots of houserules (like most GURPS games), and an inconvenient timezone. Well, doesn't hurt to try.

So yeah, my two points here are that you should check out Dunder Moose's channel regardless of what system you play/run, and that you should just play the game.

Integrated Creation Income

Integrated Creation Income

Permanent creation in GURPS is something that is often difficult and/or unsatisfying. Normally, matter created via Create advantage stays around for 10 seconds, and then you have to spend character points to stabilize it. In the majority of cases, these 10 seconds really aren't worth the points you spent on Create, which isn't that cheap of an advantage. I've already written up two "abilities" that would help with that - Permanency Points (based on Impulse Points) and Creation Income (based on Independent Income). However, I woke up in the middle of the night with a thought - "What if Creation Income was integrated into the Create advantage?" After all, you've already spent the points on Create, why is it required of you to spend more points?

How Does Detect Even Work?

How Does Detect Even Work?

So, I got into another rules argument (first with a friend, then with myself) that left me buttblasted and made me once again realize one of the flaws of GURPS - it's been made by multiple authors, like Freddy Krueger, the bastard son of 100 maniacs. My friend pointed to one of my Detect-based spell builds and said "What the hell is going on here? First it says that it detects every appropriate object nearby, but then  it says that a successful roll detects the nearest one." I already started typing up a response, saying "Eat sh-" but then I thought "Wait a second, he might be right. I better research the topic before telling him to kick rocks." Oh boy, I was expecting a mess, and my expectations were exceeded.

Wizardry: Complete Scoundrel Spells II

Wizardry: Complete Scoundrel Spells II

Evacuation Rune is a very complicated spell. At first, I wanted to skip this spell, but then decided that if you massage RAW a little bit, you can get something workable.

Fatal Flame makes a creature explode upon death.

Mimicry is basically the Mimicry advantage.

Scry Location is a variant of Scrying that is tied to a location instead of a creature. In addition, the sensor cannot move, and a failed casting makes it impossible to scry on anything within a mile for a day.

Siphon lets you drain charges of a magical item to replenish your own magical energies.

Spell Theft lets you steal an ongoing spell effect. Yeah, One Power, Spells, -50% is a bit off, but I don't care.

Wizardry: Complete Scoundrel Spells I

Wizardry: Complete Scoundrel Spells I

It really seems that the dice want me to complete the "Complete" series of books. Complete Scoundrel is next in the queue (with only Complete Champion left), and this one has a relatively short spell chapter, but an interesting one.

Animate Instrument makes an instrument play by itself.

Aquatic Escape is a spell that quickly transforms you into a small fish for a short time.

Assassin's Darkness is a spell that creates an area of darkness that you can see in normally.

Blockade creates a short-lived block of wood. Originally, this was a 5-by-5-by-5 feet cube, but I had to include an alternative hexagonal version to make it work better on combat maps in GURPS.

Catapult is a spell that I find interesting - it lets you throw an object/weapon using Innate Attack (Projectile) instead of the usual skill, and possibly with higher ST than you have.

Create Fetch is an interesting spell that is somewhat similar to Create Servant from GURPS Magic. And yes, the HP casting cost is intentional.

Enlarge Weapon increases a weapon's SM by one. Prepare to unzip those scaling rules.