BrOSR Game Preparations

BrOSR Game Preparations

I've been rambling about BrOSR for quite a while already, mostly about how such games could work in GURPS, and what is required to run one. At this point, between existing GURPS books, my own blogposts, and posts by the Addled Antillectual, there isn't that much left to do. Right now, I'm running a faction in a D&D 5e Braunstein game - the Shattered Skies (the sequel to Drakonheim) - and it's been a great experience. While I am enjoying the game, I'm also taking notes and studying the way Serious DM is running the game, because this is extremely important to me, as I'm planning to run something similar in the future, but on a lower scale (probably within 2 or 3 months from now). In the meantime, I found an in-person GURPS group in my backwater for whom I ran a short conventional game to familiarize the players with the system. And now we are preparing to play an in-person BrOSR-style GURPS game. This forced me to come down from the hypothetical scenarios that the system would need to cover and think about what I really need to at least start. Starting is the most important thing - I should be able to patch any holes as we go along. This is doubly important because aside from the aforementioned short conventional game I ran, I have no experience running GURPS in person. Thus, I decided to document my preparation process, because it might be helpful to others (yes, you) and to myself as well. It's very likely that I will get some things wrong, but I'll learn from my own mistakes.

Sorcerous Enchantment Gripes

Sorcerous Enchantment Gripes

Not that long ago, I wrote a huge post about enchanting. Now, it has become more relevant to me, as I've begun writing Enchanted Item Compendium. However, as soon as I started it, I immediately encountered problems, and I'd like to write another rambly post that, hopefully, will help me fix the situation.

Domain Trial Run (ACKS II -> GURPS)

Domain Trial Run (ACKS II -> GURPS)

As I get closer and closer to being able to run a game that might feature domains, I realize that there is no way to understand everything better than simply doing a trial run. Thus, I'm going to go through the ACKS II domain management rules step-by-step and see if anything needs adjustment for GURPS games. In addition, its going to help me decide what rules I actually want to use, because sometimes what looks good on paper doesn't play that well. There are people who claim that ACKS II domain rules are not suitable for Braunstein scenarios, but I still would like to see it myself and compare to what AD&D (and UMBROS) rules have to offer.

Heroic Combat: Iteration 4

                                 Heroic Combat: Iteration 4

All right, let's try again. This time I'll combine the rules and the test fights into a single post.

GURPS Expanded Grappling

GURPS Expanded Grappling

Last year, the largest project on this blog was Expanded ANTOG, where I (with lots of help from Nate) turned ANTOG into a grappling system that can do everything the others can. Before doing all that, I conducted an analysis of what it can and cannot do. However, ANTOG is a somewhat radically different grappling system, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. While I do like it, I also admit that there are some shortcomings to it, especially when it comes to the speed of resolution. So, here's a document that should turn your vanilla grappling system into something much more complete.

LINK

Chaos Shaping in Limbo

Chaos Shaping in Limbo

Right now, I'm writing up the slaadi for my GURPS Monstrous Compendium, but to do it properly, one has to explore how the plane of Limbo works in D&D and how to adapt the mechanics to GURPS. This is not going to be simple. What you see is a combination of the mechanics from the Planes of Chaos 2e boxed set and Manual of the Planes 3e book.

I'll note that some effects are intentionally left vague because I don't feel like going into too much detail right now - I just have to get the basics covered to be able to progress.

Heroic Combat: Iteration 3 Variant Test

Heroic Combat: Iteration 3 Variant Test

One of the major changes in Iteration 3 was the replacement of QC of skill with QC or skill vs. active defense. This can result in situations when a weak opponent can sneak some attacks in despite the attacker being way superior. Let's see how the test fights could go if we revert back to QC of skill.