Generic Universal Eggplant: 2021

Friday, 31 December 2021

Monster: Ether Scarab

Ether scarabs are the prey species of the Ethereal Plane that developed an ability to tear planar boundaries with their mandibles to escape predators. When slain on the Material Plane, they explode, forming a portal to the Ethereal Plane. How cool is that?

Monster: Sea-Dasher Octopus

Magic: the Gathering has hundreds of interesting creatures that, unfortunately, do not have much in terms of lore or description. However, the art, flavor text, and abilities sometimes are enough of an inspiration to come up with a proper statblock. Also, the lack of lore lets you get your creative juices flowing, helping you focus on the creation of something new instead of an adaptation.

So, I went on scryfall.com, hit the random card button, and got the Sea-Dasher Octopus. I remember being excited for Ikoria as a set, but then being utterly disappointed. Regardless of that, I like a lot of the creatures from that set. Let's see - this octopus doesn't look much bigger than a normal octopus on the art. It's a sea-dasher octopus and it is shown grabbing a fish, which probably isn't that easy of a feat. Also, its coloration is similar to the surroundings, seeming to imply improved camouflage abilities. Thus, I decided to use the normal octopus as the base, increase DX and Water Move, remove Ink, add Enhanced Move 1, improve Chameleon. This way we get an octopus that relies on its camouflage and bursts of speed to catch prey and evade predators. But what about Mutate? I decided to give Chameleon the Affects Others enhancement. I can imagine the sea-dasher octopus having a symbiotic relationship with another predator that benefits from the octopus attaching itself and granting the camouflage ability.

Sorcery GCS Library, Status Update, etc.

First things first - Merry Christmas! I haven't posted anything in more than two weeks, but I am still alive, and I wasn't slacking off either. I decided to embark upon the exhausting journey of creating a GCS library for all sorcery spells from this blog, and not just advantages with the final cost, but the entire statistical structure of every spell, which allows you to alter power modifiers or make whatever other changes you need to make spells fit your setting conventions without the need to recalculate the costs. Convenient, right? However, this is one of the thing that is exclusive to my Patreon subscribers. My policy is to keep all my content free, but provide additional utilities for the patrons. Yes, this is shameless advertising.

Now that this task is done, I can finally go back to my normal posts. Monsters, spells, perhaps another solo game, or whatever else inspires me at the moment. Also, I am entertaining the thought of creating a GCS library of monsters to be used in FoundryVTT. You know, just like in Nordlond Bestiary.

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Monsters: Demodands/Gehreleths

At last, my supply of old monster conversion notes in need of updating is exhausted! I'll probably take a break from monsters for some time and focus on something else.

Monster: Neh-Thalggu (Brain Collector)

An extradimensional horror that teleports around and extracts brains from humanoids at range. Very cool.

Monster: Shadow Drake

A small drake with some spellcasting and shadow-related abilities. A nice alternative to a faerie dragon or a pseudodragon.

Monster: Spirit of the Air

A winged monkey spirit creature with some air abilities. Very weird, but I think it has roots in the Eastern folklore.

Monsters: Magens

Magens are alchemical constructs made of gelatin. They are weaker than golems, but are more intelligent. I've always been fond of these, and I even remember using them in my games.

Monsters: Felldrakes

The felldrake category of lesser dragonkinds consists of four species. I've always been fond of them.

Monster: Cesspit Ooze

An ooze that formed and gained sentience due to arcane emanations in a city's sewers. The enraging acid ability is kind of cool.

Monster: Amiq Rasol

An undead corsair haunting the coasts until its remains are given a proper burial.

Monster: Shimmering Wrath

Now this is interesting. An air elemental who gets mad at someone can summon a shimmering wrath to kill the offender. This creature homes it regardless of the distance, then kills the target with electricity and cold.

Monster: Pale Flenser

Another obscure monster from my old conversion notes. A gasbag plant with long flensing tendrils. Pretty interesting.

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XVI

Just some assorted spells for Sorcery, yet again.

Monster: Gravbeast

The gravbeast is a relative of the displacer beast. Instead of displacing its image, it can manipulate gravity. Unfortunately, such abilities are quite expensive.

Monster: The Thing from the Lake

This is an octopoid creature with six tentacles and two insectile arms from an adventure from Dungeon Magazine. I have no idea why it was in my old conversion notes, but here's an update.

Monster: Olive Slime

An obscure monster from one of the Dungeon Magazine issues. Honestly, I do not remember where I was intending to use it, but I found it in my old conversion notes and updated it along with the slime creature lens.

Monster: Gruesome Lurker

A psionic construct that arises from people's fear of the dark. Another monster from my old notes that never got used.

Monster: Kruel (Danartha)

Kruels/danarthas are pyromaniac fey creatures. Another one from my old conversion notes that was never used.

Monsters: Peltasts

Peltasts are tiny symbionts that pretend to be leather items (normal peltasts) or gemstones (greater peltasts). While draining blood to feed themselves, they provide the host with poison immunity and magic resistance. Cool.

Monster: Xixecal

Another monster from my old conversion notes. I was not looking forward to statting it out, because it is closer to a plot device than an adversary traditional adventurers can overcome.

Monster: Wheep

An extraordinarily strong zombie constantly weeping poisonous tears. Another one from my old conversion notes.

Monster: Entropic Reaper

A monster from my old conversion notes. An undead creature that spontaneously arises in the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. Makes no sense, yes.

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XV

Just some random spells.

Monster: Incubus

The male counterpart of the succubus with some alterations, notably the lack of wings and the ability to teleport. Not to be confused with the mancubus.

Monster: Infernal

Infernals are monsters born from the unions of gods and fiends. Thus, they come in two slightly different variations - chaotic and lawful with demonic and diabolic ancestry, respectively.

Monster: Death Ox

Another monster from my old conversion notes. Basically, this is a variant of the gorgon.

Monsters: Elemental Demons

Dragon Magazine Compendium I has an entire new category of demons - elemental demons. That's... five demon categories now? But anyway, these ones are actually pretty cheap point-wise and seem to be useful as low-ish level foes and potentially useful summons.

Monster: Drider Vampire

Another old conversion of mine updates and posted here. Basically, a variant vampire.

Monster: Spirit Centipede

Another monster from my old conversion notes (there's not that many of those left, actually). The spirit centipede is a very weird monster from the Oriental Adventures. A shapeshifting centipede with nine eyes on a humanoid head with mustaches. I have always found the illustration to be very unsettling. I wonder what's the mythological basis of this monster is.

Mass Combat: Manticore

Heroes on the Mass Scale from Pyramid #3-84 allows us to convert characters and monsters into mass combat units. I've never tried that before, so let's try creating a unit based on the manticore.

Sorcery: Bone Spells

There are some traits in GURPS that can be related to bones, so let's make some sorcery spells with them. Some of them could fit into the Body Control college, some could fit into the Necromantic or Healing college, some some could fit into both of them.

Sorcery: Energy Spells III

Some more spells. Most of them just grant an energy vulnerability, but Energy Transformation Field is a very experimental spell build.

How to: Spellthief Abilities

Remember the spellthief class from Complete Adventurer? It's a very interesting class that did not see much play. Let's adapt its abilities to GURPS.

Occupational Template: Ninja

Another conversion of a class from the Complete Adventurer. This template was based on the ninja templates from DF12 and GURPS Japan, with a lot of options added.

Occupational Template: Scout

Complete Adventurer for D&D 3.5 introduced a new class - the scout. DF1 already has a scout template, so let's just shrink it down to 150 points and add some more options to make it less DF-y.

Occupational Template: Swashbuckler

This is my take on converting the swashbuckler class from Complete Warrior to a GURPS occupational template. Based on the swashbuckler template from DF1, downgraded, and expanded with extra options not related to dungeoneering.

Occupational Template: Samurai

This is my take on converting the samurai class from Complete Warrior into a 150-point occupational template. Didn't even have to convert any abilities, as they all are covered either by esoteric skills or perks.

Sorcery: Metal Variants

GURPS Thaumatology and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners has variant spell lists for the element of Metal. I did cover these (and the expanded Metal spell list from Pyramid #3-91), but apparently I've missed a few "metal-only" variants of vanilla spells. Let's list them here.

Sorcery: Psi Spells

Uh... what? GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 14: Psi introduces psionics to Dungeon Fantasy. On page 29 there's a sidebar about the interaction of magic and psionics. The sidebar warns you not to do it, but still provides a "college of Psionics" with variant spells from the Meta-spell college. So, there's a conversion for those of you who disregard the sidebar and want to include antipsi spells in your game.

(It's not related to these spells, but there's a spell from GURPS Magic: Artillery Spells that generates a psionic effect - Psychic Scream. Interesting.)

Sorcery: Feathers, Fur, and Scales

Exactly what the title says. Spells that make subjects grow feathers, fur, or scales.

Sorcery: Mana Spells

GURPS Thaumatology has two new advantages - Wild Mana Generator and Twisted Mana Generator. Let's build some sorcery spells based on these.

Sorcery: Perk-Based Spells

Pyramid #3-82 lists perks on page 11 that can be taken as spells. Let's actually makes spells based on these perks, but use the "basic = personal, improved = buff" approach I've used for similar spells before.

Monster: Wall-Walker

Wall-walkers are strange spider-reptile hybrids with innate psionics. Apparently, they are from the Dark Sun setting, but I found this template in my old notes.

Monster: Effigy

The effigy is a powerful ghost that burns possessed victims from within.

Sorcery: Air Spells VII

Let's make some air spells. Static Charge is actually a conversion of a spell from GURPS Technomancer. Antistatic is a variant of Deflect Energy. Reflect Lightning is a variant of Return Missiles. And Ride the Lightning is a spell that I wanted to create for a long time, but never got around to actually writing it up.

Sorcery: Divination Variants

The Divination spell from GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery is a single spell that simply gives you a vision pertaining to the question asked. GURPS Magic has Divination not as a single spell, but as a group of various divination techniques that differ from each other. So, let's split Divination into many much more flavorful options. And Rhabdomancy from GURPS Underground Adventures probably should be a separate spell. This post has all Divination variants from the 4th edition books, Pyramid #3, GURPS Magic 3e, GURPS Grimoire, and GURPS Technomancer. It seems that Haruspication from 3e was renamed to Extrispicy in 4e, Molybdomancy was merged into Lecanomancy, Arm Measuring and Chiromancy were merged into Physiognomy, Belomancy, I Ching, and Maize Kernel Reading were merged into Sortilege, Ornithomancy was merged with Augury, and Rune-Casting was renamed to Symbol-Casting.

Sorcery: Curse-Missiles II

And these are the last spells from GURPS Grimoire that did not make it to the 4th edition - even more curse-missiles!

Sorcery: Even More Unmerged Animal Spells

GURPS Grimoire gives us some more options for (Animal) Control and Repel (Animal) spells. Yes, they are pretty much the same, but let's turn them into proper spells for specialized druids.

Sorcery: Old Spells II

And some more spells from GURPS Grimoire that did not make it to the 4th edition.

Sorcery: Old Spells

Some more spells from GURPS Magic 3e and GURPS Grimoire converted to sorcery.

Sorcery: Curse-Missiles

I decided to crack GURPS Magic 3e open and see if there are any spells that did not make it to the 4th edition. And apparently, there are some of them. First up is Curse-Missile, a group of spells that mostly fall into the Body Control college.

Sorcery: Unmerged Spells

It's been a while since I made any sorcery spells. Looking at some spells that I've skipped, I've decided to "unmerge" some of the spells. For example, Icy Missiles was merged with Icy Weapon, but why not have a more specialized version? (Animal) Control and Repel (Animal) could also be split into different, more specialized versions.

Monster/Racial Template: Xakhun

Finally, Dragon Magazine #244 gives us a new elven subrace (there's never enough, isn't it?). The xakhun are drow-wood elf hybrids that live on the surface and raid others on their windships. Their lore is actually pretty interesting, I suggest reading their article.

Monster/Racial Template: Masgai

The fourth aerial race from that article is the masgai. These insectile humanoids are distantly related to air elementals, surprisingly. In terms of mechanics, this template is nothing interesting, but the lore is intriguing.

Monster/Racial Template: Ashiera

The third flying race from Dragon Magazine #244 is the ashiera. They are aquatic fishmen who have gained wings and some spell-like abilities due to wild magic effects. Honeslty, this is an interesting race.

Monster/Racial Template: Telvar

Another winged race from the Dragon Magazine #244, the aforementioned winged allies of the grey elves. The telvar are reclusive barbarians. They are very tall, but not strong at all. Probably the least interesting race out of that issue.

Monster/Racial Template: Fainil (Night Flyer)

Dragon Magazine #244 is a very interesting issue devoted to all things aerial. One of the new races described in that book is the fainil. The fainil are the result of drow-tanar'ri crossbreeding by a drow clan that was in need for warriors to fight the surface elves' winged allies. Thus, we get semi-demonic winged drow. Interestingly enough, the point cost ended up being suitable for player characters.

Monster: Night Dragon

Night dragons belong to a breed of creatures known as landragons. Of some relation to true dragons, landragons also separate into distinct breeds and gain great power and size as they age. They use the same age categories as true dragons. Landragons are bulkier than true dragons, with shorter, thicker tails. They lack the ability to fly and are generally less intelligent than most true dragons (the stats seem to disagree though). Landragons do not cast spells. This is the last dragon from my old conversion notes. Good riddance.

Monster: Mystaran Ruby Dragon

I've already converted the gem dragons, but there was no ruby dragon. That's because just like there's no platinum dragon because the Platinum Dragon, a.k.a Bahamut is a deity, there's no ruby dragon because the Ruby Dragon, a.k.a Sardior is a deity as well. In Mystara, however, there's a different set of non-psionic gem dragons, and ruby dragon is one of them. This is another dragon from my old conversion notes, and, if I am to be honest, I have no idea why it is there. I have never played Mystara, and know little about the setting. Why it has the earth subtype instead of fire is also a mystery to me.

Monster: Hex Dragon

Another update from my old conversion notes. Hex dragons are known to curse everyone who harms them.

Monster: Rock Reptile

Another monster from my old conversion notes. Just a big lizard with a rocky hide. Not every monster has to have some weird abilities, such simple ones are useful too.

Monsters: Sheet Phantom and Sheet Ghoul

These two are peculiar undead creatures from an old Dragon Magazine. I've found my old conversion notes and updated them. A sheet phantom rises when a very evil person dies in his bed. This animated bedsheet then strangles an unsuspecting victim, then merges with the corpse, emerging as a sheet ghoul. These sheet ghouls are shunned by normal ghouls, because they cannot "propagate."

How to: Hexblade Abilities

The hexblade is one of those D&D classes that look very cool and flavorful, but that nobody plays because there's much more mechanically effective alternatives (duskblade, in this case). Let's take a look at the hexblade's class features and try converting them.

Occupational Template: Wu Jen

And here we have a variant wizard - the wu jen class from Complete Arcane. I'm done with that book for now.

Occupational Template: Warmage

And here we have another 150-point occupational template based on the warmage class from Complete Arcane.

Psionics: Mind Blade

Have you ever wanted to play a D&D soulknife in GURPS? You're lucky, because GURPS has not one, but two written ways to manifest psionic blades - the Psi-Sword from Pyramid #3-69 and the Psychic Sword from Pyramid #3-76. I have some problems with both of these approaches, so I will make my own, based on the Natural Weapon advantage from Pyramid #3-65.

Comparison of Early Firearms and Bows/Crossbows

Firearms in fantasy games is a contentious topic. I like them, but when they do not overshadow bows and crossbows too much. So, I decided to compare the statistics of early firearms (gonnes and matchlocks) and bows/crossbows with different effective ST values, and see how they perform against different DR values. Costs of TL 4 firearms were doubles to bring them down to TL 3. Basically, it seems that matchlocks are very similar to crossbows with winches, but with worse 1/2D range and slightly quicker reload (if paper cartridges are used). If we use additional rules, such as Malf., smoke clouds (Pyramid #3-36), then I can see them not upsetting the balance too much. If we include the wheellocks and more advanced weapons, however, their rate of fire and damage would probably make crossbows obsolete.

Here's the spreadsheet link - LINK.

Saturday, 2 October 2021

How to: Warmage Spellcasting

One of the arcane spellcasting classes in D&D 3.5 that is very often forgotten is the warmage from Complete Arcane. Specialized in battlefield magic (i.e. blasting and protecting), it seems like a good choice for those who want to play a blasting wizard that is worse that an actual blasting wizard or sorcerer. The class does not have many class features, and most of them revolve around sudden metamagic - changing the few spells that they have access to. Let's see how this can be accomplished in the magic-as-powers framework.

Review: GURPS Fantasy Folk: Elves

I have never written a book review in my blogging "career," but it's as good time as any to try. A new GURPS book came out today - GURPS Fantasy Folk: Elves, and it was an instant buy for me, as I was looking forward for this.

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XIV

I'm hosting a new game soon, and some of the characters are spellcasters. One of them came up with some new spells, so let's provide the proper write-ups for them. Also, GURPS Fantasy Folk: Elves has came out with two new spells, so let's convert them as well.

Alchemy: Faerun Poisons

Races of Faerun, Underdark, and Serpent Kingdoms (I omitted the ossra oils - they would require a little bit different framework) for D&D 3.5 have some poisons that I have not converted to GURPS yet. The last non-Dragon Magazine poisons.

Alchemy: Faerun Elixirs

This post will cover all the various alchemical items from the Forgotten Realms splatbooks.

Alchemy: Eberron Elixirs

Let's convert all the new alchemical items from the Eberron books.

Alchemy/Equipment: Planar Handbook

All right, this is the last non-setting, non-Dragon Magazine D&D 3.5 book that has any alchemy in it. Hooray!

Alchemy/Equipment: Frostburn

On the opposite end of the temperature spectrum we have Frostburn. Let's convert alchemical items and other adventuring gear from it.

Alchemy/Equipment: Sandstorm

Sandstorm for D&D 3.5 has quite a large selection of alchemical and other items. Let's convert them.

Equipment: Even More Exotic D&D Weapons

Let's keep looking at what exotic (and not so much) weapons D&D supplements give us, and see how to represent them in GURPS. This post covers new weapons from the following books: Book of Exalted Deeds, Complete Adventurer, Complete Warrior, Frostburn, Masters of the Wild, Monster Manual II, Monster Manual IV, Monster Manual V, Planar Handbook, Races of Stone, Races of the Wild, Sandstorm.

Alchemy: Assorted Elixirs II

Why am I writing about alchemy again? Because I found out that there's not that many alchemical items in D&D 3.5 that I have not converted. This post covers alchemical items from Savage Species, Races of Stone and Races of the Dragon.

Alchemy/Equipment: Ghostwalk Gear

Ghostwalk is probably the most obscure setting for D&D 3.0. It has some interesting pieces of gear, alchemical items, and even a drug for ghosts, so let's convert those.

Alchemy: Assorted Elixirs

Let's convert some more D&D alchemical items. This post covers items from Tome and Blood, Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, and Stormwrack.

Alchemy: Draconic Elixirs

Let's convert the elixirs from Draconomicon and Dragon Magic for D&D 3.5.

Lens/Monster: Dracolich

Dracoliches, as the name suggests, are dragon liches. Their special abilities are somewhat different from the normal liches.

Equipment: More Exotic D&D Weapons

Let's take a look at some other D&D supplements, such as Arms and Equipment Guide and see if their new weapons are represented in GURPS or not. If not, let's try to create stats for them.

Lens/Monster: Vivacious Creature

Vivacious creatures are creatures native to the Positive Energy Plane. They have some powerful innate healing abilities, and are insubstantial.

Lens/Monsters: Axiomatic Creatures

And now the only thing that's left is the template for creatures of law.

Lens/Monsters: Anarchic Creature

Celestial and fiendish creatures are described in the Monster Manual, but that book does not say anything about the other two alignment-based templates. So, let's first convert the anarchic creature template.

Equipment/Alchemy: Drugs Revisited

I was not content with how drugs work in my Metatronic Alchemy system, so I decided to rewrite them. The cost is now not based on mechanics, but is arbitrary. Also added a drug from my setting, and a drug from Dragon Magazine.

Monsters/Lens: Dark Creature

The dark creature template is a streamlined version of the shadow creature template that was printed in the Tome of Magic and Cormyr - Tearing of the Weave.

Monster/Lens: Acid Zombie

Acid zombies are specialized undead that designed to grasp foes in a bearlike hug while holding while their acidic coating eats them alive.

Monsters/Lens: Shadow Creature

Shadow creatures dwell on the Plane of Shadow. The lens is very expensive, especially compared to celestial and fiendish creatures. On the other hand, it does have some very powerful abilities. This template appeared first in the Manual of the Planes and was then updated in Lords of Madness.

Arena: Technical Grappling Test

I love grappling in GURPS. I'm mostly content with the default grappling system, but while I have tried out FDG before, I have never actually seen Technical Grappling in action. The book and system itself seem confusing and complex, but let's see how it works in play.

Arena: Dwarven Urgrosh vs. Barbed Chain

Let's have another arena fight! This time, we decided to test out some exotic weapons - the barbed chain from LTC2 and dwarven urgrosh.

Monsters/Lenses: Strange Bedfellows

Dragon Magazine #313 has an article that details several half-[monster] templates. Some of them were later updated and reprinted in the main product line (half-ogre in the Savage Species and then Races of Destiny, half-janni in Sandstorm), but the rest were left in the magazine. Let's convert them for those who want to play a real special snowflake.

Sorcery/Magic: D&D Magic Schools

If you've played D&D, you probably know that spells in that system are divided into several schools - abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutations. There's also several universal and double-school spells, but that's negligible. How would you represent this division in GURPS and, more importantly, how big of a discount should a D&D school specialization apply to your Sorcerous Empowerment/Magery?

How to: Ageing Abilities

Have you ever complained about Extended Lifespan and Unaging being too expensive while providing little to no actual benefit in-game? Have you ever tried making an ageing attack that makes these abilities more relevant? Well, let's see all the ways to make one such attack.

Note: according to Google, both "ageing" and "aging" are correct spellings.

Monsters: Dinosaurs

I have not converted any dinosaurs from the Monster Manual, because there's already statblocks for all of them in GURPS Lands out of Time. However, Monster Manual II has a new batch of dinosaurs that is not covered completely by the aforementioned supplement. Thus, here we have the cryptoclidus (based on the elasmosaurus and downsized), seismosaurus (based on the brontosaurus and upsized), and spinosaurus (based on the tyrannosaurus and upsized). And yes, I know that elasmosaurus is not a dinosaur.

Monster: Desmodu

Desmodus are giant batfolk from the Monster Manual II. Unlike many races, they get a detailed writeup of their society and culture, plus some unique domesticated bats (already converted) and pieces of gear (I'll leave it for another post).

Monster: Dune Stalker

The dune stalker is an earth subtype outsider that has nothing to do with the earth or dunes, but instead has two sonic attacks.

Monster/Lens: Death Knight

The death knight is something like a martial equivalent of the lich, but without the phylactery.

What optional rules and tweaks I use for Sorcery and other powers

Sorcery and other powers-based systems are very flexible and customizable, and that's one of the reasons I like them so much. I've played with them a lot, adding more and more little tweaks and options here and there. Perhaps, sharing them will be helpful to some other people. This is the list of general options - specific spellcasting traditions may change, add, or remove some of them.

Monster: Deathbringer

Deathbringers are general-type undead creatures that lead armies of necromancers.

Monster: Darktentacles

This monster has an excessive number of tentacles. Effective skill of 77 when grappling with all of them at once seems a bit off.

Monster: Leviathan

The leviathan is basically a 4K blue whale upscale with Infravision, and additional point of IQ, and Magic Resistance.

Sorcery: Witch Spellcasting

Pathfinder introduces a new arcane spellcasting class - the witch. She gains her powers from an unknown patron through her familiar. Let's see how we can sorcerify it.

Monster: Chimeric Ankheg

Replace the lion head of a chimera with an ankheg head - done! Also, we're done with the letter C of Monster Manual II.

How to organize play-by-post GURPS games on Discord

Due to my geographical location and a chaotic work schedule, most of my GURPS games are in the play-by-post format. Many consider PbP unacceptable, but for me it's a comfortable way of playing. If you want to read my thoughts on PbP in general, you can read this post. Perhaps some of you wanted to try that out, but do not know how to organize the channels?

Monster: Crimson Death

A quite uninteresting undead mist monster that drains blood.

Simple Spell Component Butchering

Simple Spell Components from Pyramid #3/113 by Peter Dell'Orto is one of my favorite Pyramid articles. It is only two pages long, but it provides an elegant solution to the material component problem. Many people love material components, but they usually create a bookkeeping nightmare, and this article simplifies that greatly. However, since this is a DF article, it does not describe a way to obtain these components, except for buying them.

Monster/Racial Template: Xvart

Xvarts are small humanoids, akin to goblins. They can speak with rats and bats. Despite their insignificance, they have a racial deity - Raxivort.

Low ST struggles, or how do I halfling?

Several months ago, I hosted a fantasy game where the PCs were goblins. While in D&D a -2 racial penalty to Strength might not be that significant, SM-2 people in GURPS are expected to start at around ST 5, and that's very significantly changes how you should approach combat. That game's purpose was exactly that - explore the combat capabilities of low-ST low-SM characters.

Monster/Racial Template: Asherati

The asherati from Sandstorm are an interesting race, something like sand merfolk. They should be cheap enough to be a valid PC racial template. Also, I provide a statblock for the deity that they worship.

Pantheon: Warrior Gods

Complete Warrior for D&D 3.5 describes a pantheon of warrior gods for martially focused games. The book provides only barebones descriptions. Let's adapt them to GURPS, so there's more variery among the warpriests.

Lens/Monster: Half-Fey/Half-Fey Centaur

Since I just did the feytouched, let's also do the half-fey.

Monster: Feytouched

Feytouched are quarter-fey or less. Probably should be a lens instead of a template. I've decided to replace their charm person ability simply with Charisma 2, that should be charming enough.

Equipment: PHB Adventuring Gear in GURPS

Player's Handbook for D&D 3.5 has a relatively long list of various adventuring gear pieces (most of which become irrelevant past the first few levels). I'll just go through the list and try to find analogs in GURPS.

Equipment: Exotic D&D Weapons

You probably are aware of some exotic D&D weapons that you've always wanted to use. Some of them were quite lame mechanically, some of them were quite good. So, let's see how to makem them in GURPS and if some of them already exist.

How to: Spirit Shaman Spellcasting

Complete Divine also has another class - the spirit shaman. It is very different from the Oriental Adventures shaman (even though their spell lists seem similar). I decided to make the spirit shaman more specialized on actual spirits, while the normal shaman is more of a druid-type spellcaster.

How to: Shugenja Spellcasting

Shugenja is a divine spellcaster class introduced in Oriental Adventures for D&D 3.0 and slightly updated in Complete Divine for D&D 3.5. How to represent them in the Sorcery framework? Probably not very difficult.

Pantheon: Vedic Pantheon

Just like in the previous post - here's a Vedic pantheon for India-inspired nations and peoples. Mostly just taken from Planescape and GURPSified.

Pantheon: The Celestial Bureaucracy

While working on the "oriental" parts of my setting, I realized that the standard D&D deities do not really work thematically. So, I had to read how Planescape, Forgotten Realms, and Dominions did it, and wrote up a quite generic pantheon. Nothing inspired, but at least now there are statblocks for deities, and that's important for the clerics and other characters with divine powers.

Racial Templates: Hengeyokai

Oh boy, do I hate statting up shapeshifters! Oriental Adventures for D&D 3.0 has a race of hengeyokai - sentient animals that can turn into humans or a humanoid hybrid form. And 13 subraces of them, and as far as I know, there are many more in the previous editions. Good lord, I wanted to tear my hair out. Big props to Anon's Animal Album and GURPS Animalia.

It's hip to hate D&D

Quite often, when I decide to check out some online discussions, I see people hating on D&D. And it seems to be very common amonst GURPS players, in my experience. But is it really justified? In the majority of cases it is not, as people bring up problems that are not unique to D&D or have nothing to do with D&D at all, and are a result of bad DMing or bad players instead. Many of described situations can happen in GURPS, so all that criticism should apply to their favorite generic system as well. For example, I've seen people complain about DMPCs (well, in GURPS they would be called GMPCs), and this is not setting-specific at all. Caster superiority is another such example - it can happen in GURPS too.

The second type of complaints I've seen is even less reasonable. For example, "Why would you separate sorcerers and wizards (or demons and devils, etc.)? That's just stupid!" or "There's so many high-level NPCs, I just lose my suspense of disbelief or sense of agency." These people cannot separate system from one of its settings and blame the system for what is not the system's fault at all.

Don't get me wrong, I got into GURPS because I was dissatisfied with D&D 3.5/PF as systems (but I'd still love to play those with a good group), but many of the complaints I've seen about those systems just do not seem valid to me, but seem like something like virtue signaling. "Look how cool I am, I hate D&D, I love GURPS so much!"

Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Monster: Corollax

A small tropical bird with some magical qualities. Neat.

Monster: Corpse Gatherer

Corpse gatherers are animated graveyards. Basically, a titanic zombie that eats corpses.

Monster: Protectar

I like the Miniatures Handbook because it has very simple monsters not overloaded with abilities (and intentionally so, according to the book). Protectars are very basic celestial beings, within the summoning point range for normal PCs.

Mini-Adventure: Sleepless Easthaven

Some people asked me to try my hand at writing either full adventures or small, encounter-like mini-adventures that can be plugged into any game. Since I GM predominantly fantasy games, I will settle for D&D-style adventures. This is my first attempt - a short, straightforward scenario about dwarves and drugs.

Download link

Friday, 30 July 2021

Monster/Racial Template: Tibbit

Shapeshifting is second only to Insubstantiality in complexity in GURPS. Let's convert a shapeshifting
race from D&D - tibbits, also known as catweres.

How to: Wu Jen Spellcasting

Wu jen is an arcane spellcaster class in D&D 3.5 that was introduced in Complete Arcane. Basically, it is a wizard with an oriental flavour. They typically are hermits, have certain taboos, have spellbooks, and specialize on spells of earth, fire, metal, water, and wood.

Occupational Template: Warlock

Warlock was a very popular class in D&D, but I was never a fan of how it failed to represent its flavor in its mechanics. I've already described how I would make a warlock in GURPS in another post, but let's also make an occupational template for him.

Sorcery: Infravision Spells

Infravision is common among the Underdark-dwellers and supernatural creatures in general (at least according to D&D). So, let's make spells that interact with it.

Monster: Cloud Ray

This is a gigantic manta ray that levitates and camouflages as a cloud, preying on rocs and other aerial wildlife. Cool, but I do not know how I'd use this monster in a game.

Monster: Dread Guard

Dread guards are animated suits of armor. Basically, downgraded helmed horrors.

How to learn GURPS?

I've seen a lot of people asking "how does one learn GURPS?". I've also seen claims that GURPS is practically impossible to learn by yourself, you need to be taught by somebody who already knows the system. That's completely false.

A lot of people recommend disregarding the GURPS Basic Set and starting out with GURPS Lite when learning or teaching the system, and using templates for characters. In my opinion, this is simply wrong. By using GURPS Lite and/or templates, you're missing the thing that makes GURPS special - the infinite potential for customization, for all genres, for all kinds of characters. If I started out with GURPS Lite and templates, I don't think I'd get interested in the system at all. How did I learn the system? I just read the book. And if you're new and want to know how to learn the system - I'm sorry, but I can only tell you to read the darn GURPS Basic Set. If you feel that something is not relevant to the game you want to play - just skip it. Easy as that. There is nothing difficult in learning the system.

Monsters: Raggamoffyns

Raggamoffyns are weird constructs - swarms of clothes, garbage, and oter debris animated by ambient
magic. They are sentient and can wrap themselves around their victims to possess them.

Monster: Durzagon

Durzagons are specialized duergar half-fiends.

Paper Men and Investment

Mailanka's post "On Paper Men and Disposable Characters" really made me think about my games, where they stand on the paperman-snowflake scale, and all other things regarding investment into the characters and game world. Since I'm not good at writing such posts, I will analyze some of my past games in a "stream of consciousness" way. I'm not going to describe all my game, but only those that I remember clearly at this moment.

Powers: External Parasitic Possession

The Possession advantage is very complex, but I think it does not cover some forms of possession properly. What I was trying to do is to make the possessing creature engulf the victim and gain control of it. Parasitic possession does not really accomplish that. I've considered some options, and ended up inventing a new limitation.

External Parasitic: You physically wrap yourself around the host. You must grapple the host and achieve a pin – and your victim must not have a higher Size Modifier than you. After pinnng the host's body, you may attempt to possess him. He resists with the higher of HT or Will. You do not release the pin if you lose, but he is “immune” to you, so you need to find another host soon. While you are on someone else’s body, he (if he is still uncontrolled) or his friends might be able to possibly remove you physically. Your HP acts as extra DR for the purpose of attacks on the host. The host nourishes you, and may have to eat extra food as a result. You can choose to release the host at any time. -70%.

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Monster/Racial Template: Loxo

An elephantman with not one, but two prehensile trunks!

Friday, 31 December 2021

Monster: Ether Scarab

Wednesday, 29 December 2021

Monster: Sea-Dasher Octopus

Saturday, 25 December 2021

Sorcery GCS Library, Status Update, etc.

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Monsters: Demodands/Gehreleths

Monday, 6 December 2021

Monster: Neh-Thalggu (Brain Collector)

Sunday, 5 December 2021

Monster: Shadow Drake

Saturday, 4 December 2021

Monster: Spirit of the Air

Friday, 3 December 2021

Monsters: Magens

Thursday, 2 December 2021

Monsters: Felldrakes

Wednesday, 1 December 2021

Monster: Cesspit Ooze

Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Monster: Amiq Rasol

Monday, 29 November 2021

Monster: Shimmering Wrath

Sunday, 28 November 2021

Monster: Pale Flenser

Saturday, 27 November 2021

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XVI

Monster: Gravbeast

Friday, 26 November 2021

Monster: The Thing from the Lake

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Monster: Olive Slime

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Monster: Gruesome Lurker

Tuesday, 23 November 2021

Monster: Kruel (Danartha)

Monday, 22 November 2021

Monsters: Peltasts

Sunday, 21 November 2021

Monster: Xixecal

Saturday, 20 November 2021

Monster: Wheep

Friday, 19 November 2021

Monster: Entropic Reaper

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XV

Wednesday, 17 November 2021

Monster: Incubus

Tuesday, 16 November 2021

Monster: Infernal

Monday, 15 November 2021

Monster: Death Ox

Sunday, 14 November 2021

Monsters: Elemental Demons

Saturday, 13 November 2021

Monster: Drider Vampire

Friday, 12 November 2021

Monster: Spirit Centipede

Thursday, 11 November 2021

Mass Combat: Manticore

Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Sorcery: Bone Spells

Tuesday, 9 November 2021

Sorcery: Energy Spells III

Monday, 8 November 2021

How to: Spellthief Abilities

Sunday, 7 November 2021

Occupational Template: Ninja

Saturday, 6 November 2021

Occupational Template: Scout

Friday, 5 November 2021

Occupational Template: Swashbuckler

Thursday, 4 November 2021

Occupational Template: Samurai

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

Sorcery: Metal Variants

Tuesday, 2 November 2021

Sorcery: Psi Spells

Monday, 1 November 2021