Generic Universal Eggplant: 2018

Monday, 31 December 2018

Monster: Avoral

Guardinals are animalistic champions of pure good. Monster Manual describes only two types of guardinals - avorals and leonals. Here is my attempt at converting the avian avoral. Includes two new Sorcery spells.

Monster: Grimlock

Grimlocks are blind underground-dwelling humanoids. Despite their lack of eyes, they can form a picture of their surroundings by combining aural and olfactory sensory input.

Monster: Grick

Gricks are quite simple monster that should be thrown at inexperienced adventurers. They are pictured with no eyes, but their description and statblock do not have anything about them being blind. Strange.

Monster: Gray Render

The gray render is a very simple monster. It has a kangaroo pouch and it sometimes becomes very attached to other creatures.

Sorcery: Flight Spells

In my fantasy setting, sorcerers with a dragon bloodline are granted access to flight spells. This category already contains such spells as Flight, Hawk Flight, Personal Flight, but I feel that this category needs something extra.

Monster: Gorgon

No, not the snake one. I don't remember ever using gorgons, but I've always liked them.

Alchemy: Alchemical Capsules

Most adventurers prefer to be constantly ready for any dangerous situation. Alchemical elixirs take some time to use or even find in the pockets or bags, so alchemists have devised a way to concentrate their elixirs to be able to fit into small capsules that can be used swiftly. Such capsules were introduced in Complete Adventurer for D&D 3.5.

Monsters: Stone Golems

Here we have the last golems from D&D 3.5 Monster Manual. Stone golems come in two variations - standard SM+1 ones and hulking SM+3 ones. Slow piles of hit points.

Monster: Iron Golem

The iron golem is tough, strong, and has a poisonous cloud attack.

Hazards: Horror Environments

Here we have environmental hazards from Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness converted to GURPS.

D&D Taint in GURPS

Heroes of Horror introduces a new mechanic to D&D 3.5 – taint. It is practically identical to the corruption mechanic found in GURPS Horror, pp. 22, 146-128, but somebody still might want to tweak it to have D&D flavor. Let us delve into that, but I expect the delve not to be very deep and thorough.

Powers: Psicrystals

A common concept in fantasy is a spellcaster having a familiar, typically an animal imbued with increased intelligence, special abilities, and/or speech. In D&D, familiars provided minor (usually) benefits, but were often discarded in favor of an alternative ability because having a vulnerable critter that will cause you to lose XP upon death is not something many players wanted. In GURPS, familiars are described in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 5 – Allies and expanded upon in Pyramid #3-75. Sure, mages get all the fun things, but what about the psis? Expanded Psionic Handbook for D&D 3.5 has psicrystals – psionic analogues of the familiars. Let us try to convert them, using existing frameworks.

Monsters/NPCs: Gnomes

And here we have three gnome warriors made using gnome racial templates.

Monsters/NPCs: Gnolls

Here we have gnolls from Monster Manual and Monster Manual IV for D&D 3.5. Their racial template is very cheap - fits for a player character.

Lens/NPC: Half-Fiend/Half-Fiend Human Cleric

While fiendish creatures are distant relatives of the fiends, half-fiends are direct progenies of a fiend and another creature. In this example, we apply the half-fiend lens to a human cleric of Erythnul.

SM+2 Low-Tech

And here we have GCS Libraries for SM+2 Low-Tech gear for giants and all other SM+2 humanoids

Weapon Table - link
LT GCS Library - link
LT Instant Armor GCS Library - link

Saturday, 15 December 2018

SM+1 Low-Tech

And here we have GCS Libraries for SM+1 Low-Tech gear for ogres and all other SM+1 humanoids

Weapon Table - link
LT GCS Library - link
LT Instant Armor GCS Library - link

Friday, 14 December 2018

SM-2 Low-Tech

And here we have GCS Libraries for SM-2 Low-Tech gear for halflings, goblins, gnomes, kobolds, and other SM-2 humanoids.

Weapon Table - link
LT GCS Library - link
LT Instant Armor GCS Library - link

Thursday, 13 December 2018

SM-1 Low-Tech

I have encountered a problem in games with non-human characters with SM lower or higher than 0. The problem is the amount of time and effort required to redo the weight, damage, reach, and prices for items of different SM values using the rules from GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2 - Weapons and Warriors. So, I've decided to make a table for SM-1 weapons and GCS libraries for all other items from GURPS Low-Tech and GURPS Low-Tech - Instant Armor. Obviously, some items are not to scale, such as firearms, so I've omitted them from the libraries, but might have left other inappropriate items in - user discretion is advised.

Weapon Table - link
LT GCS Library - link
LT Instant Armor GCS Library - link

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Pantheon: Archomentals

Archomentals, again, do not have definitive dogma, but ask their worshipers to forward their goals. Good archomentals, just like celestial paragons, do not encourage the formation of their cults, so only evil archomentals are listed.

Pantheon: Archdevils

Again, just as demon lords, the archdevils do not have a definitive dogma. Most of them require their priests to find ways of them to gain power on the Material Plane.

Pantheon: Demon Lords

While I am done with the truly divine part of the pantheon, I still have to cover three categories of quasi-divine beings that still can grant spells to their worshipers. Demon lords usually do not have a clear dogma, and their clerics take a generic demonic disadvantage for the Pact limitation or something appropriate to the goals of the demon lord.

Monster/NPC: Githzerai

The githzerai are chaotic relatives of the githyanki that live on the chaotic plane of Limbo.

Monsters/NPCs: Githyanki

Githyanki are evil humanoids that were enslaved by the mind flayers a long time ago, but since then have broken free and relocated to the Astral Plane. Some of their warriors, called gish, possess magical abilities. High-ranking githyanki wield special silver swords that disrupt psionic abilities.

Alchemy: Alchemical Styles

GURPS Thaumatology – Magical Styles provides an engine to build various styles of magic, and GURPS Powers – The Weird has a framework for weird science styles. I feel that my Metatronic Alchemy system is robust enough to handle its own styles. I just have to create a similar framework.

Planar Traits

In D&D, each plane of existence has its own properties that can be split into four categories – physical traits, elemental and energy traits, alignment traits, and magic traits. Let us try to represent these traits in GURPS. Many of the planes have more specific traits that deserve expanding upon in separate posts, but now right now.

Powers: Outsider Channeling

Here is a worked example of a divine magic tradition that is based on loa from GURPS Horror – Madness Dossier and corruption from GURPS Horror. While it has some similarities to Pact Magic, it has both flavor and mechanical differences.

Monster: Girallon

Girallons are four-armed gorillas. And that's pretty much it.

Pantheon: Other Deities

And here we have the rest of D&D deities that are more or less relevant to my setting. Again, most of the info is taken from Wikipedia, D&D splatbooks, and AuldDragon's blog.

Pantheon: Other Racial Gods II

Again, some more racial deities with information based on Wikipedia articles, AuldDragon's blog, and excerpts from the D&D books.

Pantheon: Other Racial Gods I

Here we have some more deities for less common races in my setting. Again, a big thank you to AuldDragon for providing extended lore for deities that feel quite lacking otherwise.

Pantheon: Vile Deities

Book of Vile Darkness for D&D 3.0 describes several vile deities that could be inserted in any setting.

Pantheon: Exalted Deities

Book of Exalted Deeds for D&D 3.5 details six exalted deities that are not setting-specific. Here's how I represent them mechanically in terms of GURPS and Sorcery.

Monster: Gibbering Mouther

The gibbering mouther is an amorphous mass of mouths and eyes. It can use only six mouths at the same time, and can create protoplasmic manipulators to push objects (hence No Fine Manipulators, not No Manipulators). It can spit acid, soften earth, confuse creatures with its gibbering, and attack six times per second. It has so many eyes that it effectively has Injury Tolerance (No Eyes).

Monster: Storm Giant

Here we have the last giant from Monster Manual.

Monster: Stone Giant

Stone giants are more or less peaceful, if you do not bother them. They specialize in throwing rocks and blending in with the stony background. Stone giant elders possess inborn magical abilities.

Monster: Frost Giant

Frost giants are taller than fire giants, but weigh much less. Here we have a statblock for a common frost giant warrior and for a frost giant jarl - a cleric of Thrym.

Pantheon: Giant Deities

Giants have a large (heh) pantheon (also known as the Ordning) in D&D. Most of the info was taken from Wikipedia and some dogmas were taken from another impressive blog.

Monster: Fire Giant

Fire giants are giants that dwell near volcanoes, wear armor, and are quite militaristic. Very heavy for their size.

Metatronic Scrolls

I have always felt that scrolls are often overlooked in tabletop RPGs. In D&D, they usually were used to free up a spell slot for a wizard or for very situational spells. I have not had any experience with scrolls in GURPS, however, but in my opinion, the lack of Vancian casting makes scrolls even more situational.

Monster: Cloud Giant

Cloud giants are the second tallest giants from D&D 3.5 Monster Manual. They have some spell-like abilities, can throw boulders, and are quite nice people in general.

Monsters: Ghouls

Ghouls are common undead monsters - sentient, but with an insatiable craving for living flesh. Lacedons are aquatic ghouls, and ghasts are stronger ghouls.

Lens/Monster: Ghost/Human Fighter Ghost

I was dreading this entry, because insubstantiality is very complicated and confusing in GURPS. It's not a 100% accurate conversion, but I did my best. I'll have to standardize insubstantiality types and traits for my setting someday in the future to avoid confusion.

Monster: Griffon

The griffon is a classic fantasy monster with a plethora of different spelling variations. A typical mount for flying knights.

Sorcery: Assorted Spells V

Here are some assorted spells of bullet protection and summon unsummoning.

Monster: Janni

Jann are genies that live on the Material Plane and are not aligned with any particular element.

Monster: Efreeti

Efreet are fire genies with a penchant for slavery.

Monsters: Djinn

Genies are elemental humanoid outsiders. Djinn are air genies. Some of them possess noble blood that lets them grant wishes to non-genies who captured them.

Monsters: Gargoyles

Gargoyles are common monsters that can camouflage as statues. Kapoacinths - their aquatic cousins - always seemed weird to me.

Alchemy: Desert Poisons and Diseases

This post converts poisons and diseases from Sandstorm for D&D 3.5.

Sea Diseases

And here's the last post with Stormwrack conversions for now.

Alchemy: Alchemical Paints

Alchemy Manual for Pathfinder RPG has a small section about orcish alchemical traditions. Orcs use alchemical war paints to paint their faces to achieve certain effects. I've decided to create a new meta-enhancement for such elixirs and convert the only three paints from the book.

Session Recap: Titanean Escapades, Sessions 1-3

More than a month ago, I started a new game set in my sci-fi setting. Due to bad luck and other complications, only three sessions have been played so far, but I hope that scheduling will be less prone to problems in the future. I'm not experienced in writing session recaps, but it's time to write some and get some practice.

Alchemy: Sea Poisons

Stormwrack for D&D 3.5 provides a short list of poisons that are used by sea creatures, but, unfortunately, gives no detailed descriptions.

Supernatural Sea Hazards

Stormwrack has only a few supernatural hazards compared to long lists of Frostburn and Sandstorm.

Monster: Dunewinder

Dunewinders are sand worms with poisonous spines and fire breath. They are described in Sandstorm. Smaller than their cousins from Dune.

Powers: Godminds

Complete Psionic for D&D 3.5 is infamous for its divine mind class that is underwhelming both in flavor and mechanics. A 3rd-party supplement The Mind Divine by Dreamscarred Press presents another take on "divine" psionic characters. It describes godminds - quasidivine beings that can grant psionic abilities. I quite like the concept, so I included it in my setting as separate psionic powers with the Pact limitation.

Supernatural Desert Hazards

Sandstorm presents a quite long list of supernatural hazards for D&D 3.5. Here's their re-imagining in GURPS ruleset.

Alchemy: Magic-Infused Poisons

One category of D&D poisons that I missed is the magic-infused poisons from Drow of the Underdark. Hopefully, I'm not missing anything else.

Pantheon: Neogi Deities

This post describes neogi deities from the Ecology of the Neogi article. The neogi race is quite important in my setting, and the neogi are more religious than usual, so this is a necessary post, even though it is a bit lacking in substance.

Pantheon: Draconic Deities

Here are the various draconic deities described in Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, and an online WotC article.

Pantheon: Illumian Deities

This post details the deities of illumians described in Races of Destiny.

Pantheon: Deities of Orcs and Kobolds

In my setting Gruumsh - the main (and only?) deity of orcs was slain by Corellon Larethian, elevating a minor orcish god Nepuun to the head position of the pantheon.

Pantheon: Human Deities

This post details three human deities. While Aventernus is a racial deity of the aventi, an amphibious race from Stormwrack, in my setting he is the main deity of the human pantheon.

Pantheon: Raptoran Deities

This post describes raptoran deities from Races of the Wild.

Pantheon: Goliath Deities

This post describes goliath deities from Races of Stone.

Pantheon: Halfling Deities

This post details two halfling deities from D&D. Have to mention that there are many more described in D&D splatbooks.

Pantheon: Gnome Deities

Here we have gnome deities presented in Races of Stone.

Pantheon: Elven Deities

Here we have elven deities that are relevant for my setting. I don't provide deity-specific spells this time.

Pantheon: Dwarven Deities

Here we have the dwarven pantheon for my setting. Not changed from the one presented in Races of Stone.

Pantheon: Core Deities

Time to get back to writing up deities for my setting. Most of the core pantheon consists of core D&D deities. Some of them were already written up on this blog. When making new spells I had to come up with a new imbuement skill.

Character: Celebros Thallien, Jungle Elf Shaman

After writing a setting document for my kitchen sink fantasy setting, I came to a conclusion that it would be a good idea to create some sample characters to explore the possibilities of all my Sorcery-based magic subsystems. This should help me see flaws, inconsistencies, and make tweaks. Today we have Celebros Thallien, a jungle elf shaman.

Emulating Fighting Games in GURPS

A quite long time ago, a friend of mine asked me to find a way to emulate fighting games, such as Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue, or Guilty Gear, in GURPS. I made some notes, but never posted or tested them. Here they are.

Also, this is my second blogging anniversary post. I've been posting daily for two years straight, so from now on I might slow down a bit.

Monsters: Fungi

Last monsters that start with the letter F in Monster Manual for D&D 3.5. Fungi are either immobile or barely mobile and are not very intelligent.

Monster: Frost Worm

I like worm monsters, and the frost worm is one of my favorites. Too bad I did not get a chance to actually use it.

Monster: Formian Queen

The last formian from Monster Manual for D&D 3.5. The queen is immobile, big, but has some spell-like abilities.

Monster: Formian Myrmarch

Here's formian myrmarch - a formian with no slave mentality and lack of creativity.

Monster: Formian Taskmaster

Here's the formian taskmaster - a mute antman with a mental domination power.

Monster: Formian Warrior

Formian warriors are one step above formian workers in terms of rank. They are much more dangerous in combat than the workers, but should pose no real danger for adventurer, unless they are facing a whole formian swarm.

Monster: Formian Worker

Formians are ant-like expansionist outsiders. Workers are barely sapient, but can cure other formians and mend objects.

Lens/Monster: Fiendish Creature/Fiendish Dire Rat

Fiendish creatures are Lower Planes counterparts of normal creatures. Here's the lens and a sample creature.

Monster: Ettercap

Ettercaps are human-spider hybrid monsters. Should be fun and simple in encounters. We're done with letter E now.

Hazards: Slime, Molds, and Lichen

Here I convert hazards, such as supernatural molds, slime, and lichen from Dungeon Master's Guide for D&D 3.5. In addition, I convert similar hazards from Frostburn.

Monster: Ethereal Marauder

This is another monster that I've never seen used.

Monster: Ethereal Filcher

This is a weird monster that isn't very good in combat, but is very adept at stealing things. At first I wanted to give him No Legs (Bounces), but then decided to give him Cannot Kick and One Leg as a feature, because that will still let others target the leg and cripple it.

Monsters/NPCs: Elves II

And three more sample monsters/NPCs based on elf racial templates.

Monsters/NPCs: Elves I

Monster Manual for D&D 3.5 provides several elf subraces and the half-elf race, converted in these two posts. Here are some generic fighters based on these templates.

Alchemy: Frostfell Poisons

Frostburn for D&D 3.5 provides several poisons specific to frostfell areas with evocative names, but does not provide any descriptions at all, as usual. Here's my attempt at converting them.

Frostfell Diseases

Frostburn for D&D 3.5 details four new diseases specific to cold areas of the world. Here's my take on the conversion.

Monster: Water Elemental

Here we have the last classical D&D elemental GURPSified.

Monster: Fire Elemental

Here's the fire elemental. A reader pointed out that I should also add the primal elementals from Epic Level Handbook, so I did.

Monster: Earth Elemental

Here we have earth elementals changed to match their D&D counterparts.

Monster: Air Elemental

GURPS already has statblocks for elementals in GURPS Magic and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9 - Summoners. But I got a request to make templates for D&D-style elementals, so here we are. Racial template is only given for the small variant, but all other sizes are given point values for summoners.

Monday, 31 December 2018

Monster: Avoral

Sunday, 30 December 2018

Monster: Grimlock

Saturday, 29 December 2018

Monster: Grick

Friday, 28 December 2018

Monster: Gray Render

Thursday, 27 December 2018

Sorcery: Flight Spells

Wednesday, 26 December 2018

Monster: Gorgon

Tuesday, 25 December 2018

Alchemy: Alchemical Capsules

Monday, 24 December 2018

Monsters: Stone Golems

Sunday, 23 December 2018

Monster: Iron Golem

Saturday, 22 December 2018

Hazards: Horror Environments

Friday, 21 December 2018

D&D Taint in GURPS

Thursday, 20 December 2018

Powers: Psicrystals

Wednesday, 19 December 2018

Monsters/NPCs: Gnomes

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

Monsters/NPCs: Gnolls

Monday, 17 December 2018

Lens/NPC: Half-Fiend/Half-Fiend Human Cleric

Sunday, 16 December 2018

SM+2 Low-Tech

Saturday, 15 December 2018

SM+1 Low-Tech

Friday, 14 December 2018

SM-2 Low-Tech

Thursday, 13 December 2018

SM-1 Low-Tech

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Pantheon: Archomentals

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Pantheon: Archdevils

Monday, 10 December 2018

Pantheon: Demon Lords

Sunday, 9 December 2018

Monster/NPC: Githzerai

Saturday, 8 December 2018

Monsters/NPCs: Githyanki

Friday, 7 December 2018

Alchemy: Alchemical Styles

Thursday, 6 December 2018

Planar Traits

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Powers: Outsider Channeling

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Monster: Girallon

Monday, 3 December 2018

Pantheon: Other Deities

Sunday, 2 December 2018

Pantheon: Other Racial Gods II

Saturday, 1 December 2018

Pantheon: Other Racial Gods I

Friday, 30 November 2018

Pantheon: Vile Deities

Thursday, 29 November 2018

Pantheon: Exalted Deities

Wednesday, 28 November 2018

Monster: Gibbering Mouther

Tuesday, 27 November 2018

Monster: Storm Giant

Monday, 26 November 2018

Monster: Stone Giant

Sunday, 25 November 2018

Monster: Frost Giant

Saturday, 24 November 2018

Pantheon: Giant Deities

Friday, 23 November 2018

Monster: Fire Giant

Thursday, 22 November 2018

Metatronic Scrolls