Monster: Sand Dragon

Monster: Sand Dragon

Yeah, this (and the brown dragon before) is totally unrelated to the desert game I'm running right now. My players, move along, there's nothing to see here.

Monsters: Dragon Magazine Demons

Monsters: Dragon Magazine Demons

Dragon Magazine (its third edition issues, to be more precise) have five new demons that do not appear anywhere else. Let's convert them to GURPS. Almost done with the demons.

Martial Arts: Kara-Tur Styles

Martial Arts: Kara-Tur Styles

Dragon Magazine #315 details four martial arts styles for Kara-Tur monks. They do not really seem very setting-specific, so I'm sure you could easily use them in any setting. Let's convert them to GURPS.

Poisons: Dragon Magazine Poisons I

Poisons: Dragon Magazine Poisons I

Apparently, I missed some poisons that I needed to convert. These are contact poisons introduced in Dragon Magazine Compendium Volume 1.

Monster: Brown Dragon

Monster: Brown Dragon

Brown dragons are desert-dwelling wingless dragons from the Forgotten Realms setting. However, they could work very well in any other setting. They do not seem very special, but I still have a soft spot for them.

Powers: Language of the Mind

Powers: Language of the Mind

Phew, I've been busy lately between work and organizing a new game. So, here's a low effort post to show you that I'm still alive.

Powers: Draconic Psi

Powers: Draconic Psi

Dragon Magic for D&D 3.5 has the diamond dragon prestige class. Diamond dragons are psionicists that have learned to tap into what they refer to as the “draconic psionic collective.” They have a variety of gem dragon-themed psionic abilities that I will translate as a new psionic power - Draconic Psi.

Sorcery Spells Overview: Earth

Sorcery Spells Overview: Earth

Let's go over the Earth college. Keep in mind that I usually decouple all the metal effects from the college and form Metal college as a separate one, so some spells may seem absent to you.

Powers: Sigil Carver

Powers: Sigil Carver

I decided to look through some D&D 4e books to see if there's any interesting magic traditions to convert there. And I did find something interesting! The sigil carver draws glowing runes in the air with a sword, creating lasting effects on the battlefield.

Monsters: Monster Manual V Demons

Monsters: Monster Manual V Demons

And here we have the demons from the Monster Manual V, aside from the draudnu that was converted before. That's actually all the demons from D&D 3.5 aside from the ones published in Dragon and Dungeon magazines (and that's only 10 of them in total).

Low-Tech Beam Weapons

Low-Tech Beam Weapons

Wait a damn second. If the power cell capacity follows increases with TL and has a defined progression, can't we reverse it and get TL3 or TL4 power cells? Now that we also have this post that tells us to multiply the weapon weight for weapons of lower TL than the TL of its introduction (I will not scale the weight further, keeping it at the maximum of 32x increase), can't we make low-tech beam weapons? Let's try and see the results.

Alchemy: Anointed Knight Oils

Alchemy: Anointed Knight Oils

Book of Exalted Deeds for D&D 3.5 has the anointed knight prestige class. This class is based around concocting magical (not holy) oils to anoint herself or her weapon. Technically, this is just a justification for gaining permanent class features, but I see no reason not to turn them into proper alchemical elixirs.

Monster: Stony Devil (Mineral Warrior Hamatula)

Monster: Stony Devil (Mineral Warrior Hamatula)

Underdark (the book, not the place) has the mineral warrior template that can be applied to creatures to turn them into living stone. As a sample monster it presents the barbed devil (hamatula).

Sorcery: Shadow Conjuration/Shadow Evocation

Sorcery: Shadow Conjuration/Shadow Evocation

In D&D, shadow conjuration and shadow evocation were two illusion spells that imitated conjuration or evocation spells in a quasi-real matter. They would be 25% as effective, but if the victim believed them to be real, they would be 100% as effective. How do we do that in sorcery?

Everything about mounted combat

Everything about mounted combat

This is a transcript of a podcast episode from some months ago.

Honestly, I do not think mounted combat has ever come up in my games. Usually, I GM D&D-style fantasy games, where most of the action transpires in the dungeons or other confined places that traditionally are not very accommodating to mounts. Also, mounts come with some extra bookkeeping, as you have to feed them and sometimes buy gear for them. However, the idea of mounts and mounted knights has always interested me, especially if the mounts are exotic. So, let’s explore all things mounted in GURPS.

How I prepare for my sessions

How I prepare for my sessions

I've been having some problems with session preparation, particularly because I do not really have actual play sessions often. I play via play-by-post predominantly, which is not discretized into sessions. As much as I'd like to have proper online sessions, it would be difficult for me to find players because of scheduling and the type of game I'm hosting. But when I did have sessions, here's what I did:

    1. Create a text file with a list of major characters and their problems/motivations/potential quests. I have to note that while I do think about the possible solutions for some of the problems that might come up in the session, I leave some of them open-ended. It often happens that my players come up with a solution by themselves, and often a better one that I had in mind. They are smart, and there are more of them, after all.

    2. If combat is expected with some of the actors (or if I have an encounter prepared), write up short statblocks. Just the attacks, defenses, attributes, gear, maybe important traits, nothing more. Since I have a lot of prewritten monsters, if I am using those as is, I just put their names on the list.

    3. If a dungeon is planned, then draw a dungeon map and generate the treasure.

    4. Create a map for random encounters. For example, if the session is expected to take place mostly in a forest, then just create a map with some trees and bushes.

    5. Prepare the tokens!

And that's it. You cannot really expect the players to read your mind and follow whatever plan you came up with, so I find that this kind of prep is enough - everything else is improvisation.

Sorcery: Symbol Magic Revisited

Sorcery: Symbol Magic Revisited

A long time ago I've written a symbol magic framework for sorcery. I've had one short test game, where the framework showed itself to be functional, but a bit too complicated. I understand that it might not be a problem for many, but some other aspects of it were just a little bit off to me. It seemed that it relied on hardcore improvisation too much, making the actual Sorcery Empowerment something of a point fee instead of a useful advantage. So, I decided  to rework it a bit. I don't know what the result will look like yet, because I haven't really thought much about it aside of writing this intro.

Everything about vision in GURPS

Everything about vision in GURPS

This is going to be yet another large post to compile everything about vision in GURPS, as some of the things are not very clear to a naked eye. I hope that this will be as helpful to you as it will be to me.

Monsters: Half-Trolls

Monsters: Half-Trolls

Fiend Folio has two half-troll templates - the half-troll and the half-scrag. It wouldn't make much sense to make them as lenses in GURPS, since it would be mostly copying the troll/scrag template and calling it a lens. So, instead I'll just provide examples of creatures with applied lenses.

Equipment: Arcane Botanica

Equipment: Arcane Botanica

Dragon Magazine #357 has a very interesting article called Arcane Botanica that describes various exotic plants. Let's convert them to GURPS to give characters with Herb Lore some fun things to play with.