Script: What's the point of martial arts styles?

Script: What's the point of martial arts styles?

Another transcript of a video that answers a question that can frequently been seen asked online.

Galactic Havoc: Psychotronics and TL

Galactic Havoc: Psychotronics and TL

As I mentioned in the setting design goals and overview (no, I haven't abandoned it, I'm just doing some other stuff as well), supernatural powers, including psionics, will exist in the setting. Psychotronic devices that emulate or otherwise affect psionic powers are described in GURPS Ultra-Tech and GURPS Psi-Tech, but they are not assigned to any TL - they are just listed as TL^. Splitting them between different tech levels will allow us to create civilizations that have more advanced psychotronics than others or less advanced, which is a good thing, in my opinion.

Script: Different Gravity in GURPS

Script: Different Gravity in GURPS

Another video transcript, this time about gravity rules.

Script: Age in GURPS

Script: Age in GURPS

Lifespan and age is not just background information in GURPS – your lifespan is something you can extend or shorten with certain traits, and your age is also something that you can alter with some advantages. So, let’s talk about the ageing mechanics in GURPS.

My Pyramid Recommendations

My Pyramid Recommendations

If you’re new to GURPS, you might not even know that aside from the main GURPS book line there was, and sort of still is, the line of Pyramid magazines, just like how D&D had Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine. There are four volumes, but volumes 1 and 2 were written for the older editions of GURPS. I haven’t actually read them, I’ve only seen some sample articles that are available on the SJGames website, but it seems that many of them can be easily adapted to the fourth edition of GURPS. Volume 3 is made for the fourth edition and contains 122 issues, plus two compilation releases. Volume 4 also is made for the fourth edition. It was released as part of two kickstarter campaigns in 2021 and 2022 and at this point contains only 6 issues. There is still a lot of material there, and finding something among more than a hundred of issues can be a daunting task even for me. In this post, I will go over the issues and point out articles that have been useful or interesting to me. But you should always keep in mind that GURPS is a generic system and that everyone plays differently, so something that I deemed useless might still be of great use for you.

Sorcery: Create Implausible Material

Sorcery: Create Implausible Material

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Treasures 1: Glittering Prizes have introduced the concept of implausible materials, such as solidified lightning, fire, sky, night, and anything else. While you can find such items, your players might ask you a question such as "How were they made? I want to make something like that too." So, let's make a sorcery spell that creates such materials.

Training Animal in GURPS

Training Animal in GURPS

There are many fantasy character archetypes that deal with animals – druids, rangers, hunters, beastmasters from D&D and Pathfinder have animal companions that follow them around. Spellcasters might have familiars, and paladins and cavaliers have their special mounts. I usually treated such animal companions as exceptional Allies bought at character creation. However, there are rules in GURPS Basic Set about buying animals for money, and such skills as Animal Handling may give an opportunity to train such animals or to tame wild animals. Even though the rules are present, they are not very detailed and were not expanded anywhere, and I haven’t even found much in terms of fan works online. So, I will have to do it myself.

GURPS Treasure Generator v0.1

GURPS Treasure Generator v0.1

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables is an excellent book, isn't it? The only thing that is wrong with it is that it cannot be expanded or changed in any way. So, I had to create a tool for my own use. This is not DF8 as a software, this is something totally different, don't sue me.

Sorcery: Serpentine Spells

Sorcery: Serpentine Spells

Serpents of Legends has arrived to the backers of the Nightmare Fuel campaign, and it's yet another amazing book that has interesting monsters and new rules for serpentine creatures. For example, now you have proper rules for snakes coiling into the "turret mode." Aside from that, there are some new spells. Let's convert them to sorcery! They were... not easy to build with advantages.

Galactic Havoc: Solar Federation Weaponry

Galactic Havoc: Solar Federation Weaponry

What is important in military sci-fi? Weapons are. Creating an arsenal of weapons is a daunting task, especially when you are just starting out. Instead of creating it from scratch, I will cannibalize a weapon set that I made for my previous sci-fi setting and change some names and numbers around. I might need to make some extra description adjustments later. This way, I will have a baseline that I can use to make weapon sets for other factions that, if my intentions come to fruition, will give them a distinct feel.

When looking at this arsenal, you might have some questions, such as "Why are there TL9 weapons?" or "Why are there LC3 and LC4 weapons there?" Space is unfathomably huge, and development is not uniform. On backwater worlds, you might have people using TL9 arms. In the same way, military sci-fi is not always about pitched battles between two armies - you may have rebels using civilian weaponry to overthrow a tyrannical government, or planetary defense forces armed with whatever they could've gotten their hands on. I think leaving these "underpowered" weapons in the set is a good idea.

P.S. Formatting tables on this "new and improved" blogspot is a huge pain in the ass. Just like formatting anything else. Yes, I'm still mad years after the "update".

Script: Aerial Combat in GURPS

Script: Aerial Combat in GURPS

Another video transcript.

Sorcery: New Spell Variants

Sorcery: New Spell Variants

Three new spells for the sake of completionism - aquatic versions of Create Servant and Create Warrior (suggested in Pyramid #4-4) and Create Animated Plant (from Garden of Evil).

Review: Garden of Evil (or how to write a good monster)

Review: Garden of Evil (or how to write a good monster)

Not that long ago, Gaming Ballistic held the Nightmare Fuel kickstarter campaign for three bestiaries for DFRPG. So, I would like to review one of them – Garden of Evil. I do not know if or when the books will be available for purchase outside of the backing campaign, but I hope that they will be. Anyway, this is going to be not just a review, but also a rant on how to make a good monster.

Galactic Havoc: Damage/Armor Benchmarks

Galactic Havoc: Damage/Armor Benchmarks

First of all, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I will hope this works. Since I have described two factions for the Galactic Havoc setting, it's time to work out some damage and armor benchmarks. I will not use premade weapons from GURPS Ultra-Tech but will make my own with my gun generator program that incorporates many houserules.

Script: Stealth in GURPS

Script: Stealth in GURPS

Another video transcript.

Galactic Havoc: Mindkind Unity

Galactic Havoc: Mindkind Unity

I have written up the "protagonist" faction, so now let's have an "antagonist." This is going to be one of the primary opponents of the Solar Federation, but still only one of many. Since now I have two factions, I can think of an example conflict and ponder on what technologies could have developed on both sides to help them against the enemies, and maybe even set some numerical benchmarks for balance purposes.

Script: Underwater Combat in GURPS

Script: Underwater Combat in GURPS

Here's another transcript of one of my videos.

Designing Sorcery Spells vs. Designing Psionic Powers

Designing Sorcery Spells vs. Designing Psionic Powers

Both Sorcery and Psionic Powers are worked frameworks of magic-as-powers. This means that the basic building blocks are the same - you have advantages and modifiers. You might think that designing spells and psionic abilities is almost identical then, but my experience tells me that it really is not. In this short, rambly post, I'm going to explain the differences that I have encountered.

Galactic Havoc: The Solar Federation

Galactic Havoc: The Solar Federation

The introduction to the setting revolved around the Solar Federation, the "main" human faction of the galaxy. I'd like to try describing it in more detail. While it is the largest human polity, it definitely is not the only one - it can serve both as a protagonist faction and as an antagonist faction.

Galactic Havoc: Introduction/Basic Overview

Galactic Havoc: Introduction/Basic Overview

Every setting needs an introduction, something that gives you a basic idea of what it is about. It can include a short historical overview and must describe the current situation to give the readers/players a chance to see if the idea interests them or not. Even when you're looking for some article, you're probably just reading the abstracts to see if the article is something you're looking for or not, right? Writing a good introduction/abstract is an important skill, something I do not have, but everyone has to start somewhere. So, here's an introduction to Galactic Havoc - something that I wrote to have a base, something to graft the details on. All the classical cliches are included.

Galactic Havoc: Design Goals and Considerations

Galactic Havoc: Design Goals and Considerations

So, let's start thinking! To create a wh40k knockoff, I will have to come up with a clear outline of what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. This outline will help me decide on my priorities - what things are important, what things are not even worth thinking about, and so on. I'm not very good with words, but I will try to explain my thought process.

What settings/content I would like to work on?

What settings/content I would like to work on?

It's time for some inane rambling again. My biggest undertaking was the creation of Karilan - my kitchen sink D&D-like setting for GURPS. It's not a conversion of D&D to GURPS, but a conversion of my vision of D&D in GURPS. This is exactly what Mailanka warns you about in his Don't Convert, Create! post; this post should be a mandatory read for anyone who wants to convert something to GURPS. Basically, I've fallen into every possible trap when making it but I was aware of that. Setting is something deeply personal, and such fantasy heartbreakers are a dime a dozen anyway. Now, I do not really see much to add to it, I think I have converted almost every possible D&D concept that I wanted to include, and most of the changes I make in the documents are very minor. The only things that I do nowadays is converting more and more content - monsters, items, spells, abilities - not concepts. This isn't something neccessary for the setting, it's just convenient to have premade things to use. Still, I try to make things generic enough for other people to use as well. So, with Karilan more or less finished, what do I even do now?

Script: Natural Weapons in GURPS

Script: Natural Weapons in GURPS

This is a transcript of my video about natural weapons in GURPS.

Lenses: Libris Mortis Lenses III

Lenses: Libris Mortis Lenses III

Libris Mortis, for some reason, hides a lot of variant monsters outside the monsters chapter. So, let's convert all the leftover lenses and be done with this book.

Script Compilation: Follow-Up, Link, Side Effect, Symptoms

Script Compilation: Follow-Up, Link, Side Effect, Symptoms

This post will contain transcripts of my videos devoted to explaining some of the quirky GURPS modifiers.

Script: Multiple Attacks in GURPS

Script: Multiple Attacks in GURPS

This is a transcript of my video about multiple attacks in GURPS.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead VI

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead VI

Even more undead creatures from Libris Mortis. After this post, there's only some lenses left.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead V

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead V

Even more undead creatures from Libris Mortis. I'm close to the end now! I only have one questions - where do quells come from? It's not described anywhere.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead IV

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead IV

More undead monstrosities from Libris Mortis. This is probably the most boring batch of monsters from this book.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Lenses II

Monsters: Libris Mortis Lenses II

Some more lenses/templates from Libris Mortis.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Lenses I

Monsters: Libris Mortis Lenses I

Most of the uninteresting monsters from Libris Mortis come from templates/lenses. But nonetheless, they can be useful when you have to create a variant of another monster, so let's convert them. At least a part of them, because there's many of them. The gravetouched ghoul doesn't deserve to be a lens, in my opinion, so I treat him as a slightly altered ghoul. Same for the mummified creature - just apply the mummy racial template to any other creature.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead III

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead III

Let's have another batch of undead creatures from Libris Mortis.

Script Compilation: Exploration and Survival

Script Compilation: Exploration and Survival

And now the transcripts for all the videos about exploration and survival in GURPS.

Script Compilation: Social Interactions in GURPS

Script Compilation: Social Interactions in GURPS

This post will have transcripts of all my videos about social interactions in GURPS.

Script Compilation: Cloaks and Shields

Script Compilation: Cloaks and Shields

And another compilation of video transcripts. Keep in mind that the shield script isn't actually comprehensive, as it was written before Shields Up! got released. You can read the review here.

Script Compilation: Low-Tech Weapons

Script Compilation: Low-Tech Weapons

Another batch of transcripts - this time of low-tech weapon discussion.

Script Compilation: Switching from D&D to GURPS

Script Compilation: Switching from D&D to GURPS

I've been asked to post transcripts of my videos here for ease of reading, so let's do this. I've decided to post scripts in thematic batches, consolidating particular subjects into a single post. This post will have all transcripts related to switching from D&D to GURPS.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Non-Undead

Monsters: Libris Mortis Non-Undead

Libris Mortis has six new monsters that are not undead - two templates/lenses (one of them I already converted - the half-vampire), two animals, and two constructs. So, let's convert them.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead II

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead II

You know, I take it back. I called Libris Mortis monsters lame, but after a more thorough read, I can see that many of them actually are much more interesting than I thought at first. So, let's have another batch of undead.

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead I

Monsters: Libris Mortis Undead I

Well, since I started doing some Libris Mortis monsters, let's have some more.

Monsters: Elemental Undead

Monsters: Elemental Undead

It's still October, right? So, I have some time to convert at least some monsters from Libris Mortis. I'll be frank with you here - most of them are lame and uninspired, but some of them are pretty interesting. The most fascinating of them to be are the elemental undead, so this post will cover them.

Powers: Cryokinesis

Powers: Cryokinesis

As promised, here's cryokinesis as a separate psionic power. 

Powers: Pyrokinesis

Powers: Pyrokinesis

Psychokinesis is one of the broadest psionic powers in GURPS Psionic Powers. While such abilities as Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis are appropriate in a realistic or pseudo-realistic campaign, even GURPS Powers mentions that Pyrokinesis often is a separate power! So, let's excise this ability from Phychokinesis and create an entire new power. I might do the same with Cryokinesis in the future.

Monsters: Unapproachable East Trolls

Monsters: Unapproachable East Trolls

Unapproachable East introduces three new troll varieties - and they are the only three unconverted monsters from that book that I have left, so let's finish it.

Monster: Nilshai

Monster: Nilshai

The nilshai is yet another aberration from the Ethereal Plane. Pretty cool.

Monsters/Racial Templates: Unapproachable East Races

Monsters/Racial Templates: Unapproachable East Races

And here's the races from Unapproachable East, plus some extra ones from Oriental Adventures to finish the spirit folk cycle. Neat.

Monsters/Lenses: Unapproachable East Lenses II

Monsters/Lenses: Unapproachable East Lenses II

These lenses from Unapproachable East I actually like. In D&D, they provide a nice way to make spirits of places and similar creatures. In GURPS, you can do anything you want, so you shouldn't feel limited to these options.

Monsters/Lenses: Unapproachable East Lenses I

Monsters/Lenses: Unapproachable East Lenses I

Unapproachable East has a monster section that is mostly comprised of templates (lenses in GURPS terms). Some of them are interesting, some are not. Here's the first batch.

Monsters: Unapproachable East Hags

Monsters: Unapproachable East Hags

I've never been a fan of hags in D&D, they just didn't feel that interesting to me. But nevertheless, let's convert some Faerunian hags from Unapproachable East. The hagspawn also works well as a racial template for the PCs.

Skills for D&D-style games

Skills for D&D-style games

Many new players are intimidated by GURPS’s huge skill list. For me it did the opposite – I was attracted and fascinated by it. Not every game should use all the skills though, and I’ve seen many times people asking for skill lists for certain genres. In my opinion, this is a bit silly. Do you really need to be told not to take Computer Operation in a medieval historical game or Farming in a game about special ops in the jungle? Nevertheless, genre books provide curated skill lists – GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers, GURPS Monster Hunters 1: Champions, and so on. Most of the time, I play fantasy games in D&D-style settings, but that does not mean that I am using the Dungeon Fantasy skill list. Depending on the game itself, almost any skill can be taken. Also, I have adjusted some of the skills, added new specialties where I felt that they were necessary, and even introduced some new skills. Let’s take a look at GURPS skills and see which ones are useful for D&D-style games, and which ones either aren’t useful at all, or are extremely situational.

Review: Shields Up!

Review: Shields Up!

A new GURPS book just dropped out of nowhere – Shields Up! from Gaming Ballistic. While it is written with DFRPG in mind, it has many options that work in normal GURPS games. Not long ago, I recorded a comprehensive video guide on shields in GURPS, and this book made it less comprehensive. So, let’s take a look at this book and see what’s in there. I’ll say in advance, that this is an excellent book that is very much worth its price, and I do not say that very often.

Monsters/Lenses: Faerunian Lenses

Monsters/Lenses: Faerunian Lenses

The only thing that is left unconverted in Monsters of Faerun are some of the templates (lenses in GURPS terms). I will treat the yuan-ti tainted one and broodguard as creatures, not lenses. By the way, these two templates are probably the most reprinted templates/monsters in D&D 3.0/3.5, they are like in 3-4 different books.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters IX

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters IX

The last monsters from Monsters of Faerun. After this, only the D&D templates/GURPS lenses are left,

and I will be done with this book.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters VIII

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters VIII

Three more monsters from Monsters of Faerun (the sharn got an update in Anauroch). Sharns, in my opinion, should be on par with beholders, aboleths, and mind flayers in terms of being iconic aberrations, they have very cool and distinct abilities and lore.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters VII

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters VII

Even more monsters from Monsters of Faerun. The nishruu was updated in the Lost Empires of Faerun.

Occupational Template: Artificer

Occupational Template: Artificer

D&D artifiers are very different from the artificer found in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 4: Sages. In D&D, they are spellcasters that are adept at crafting and using magic items. Here's how I adapted artificer spellcasting for my games. In addition, I wrote up a 150-point occupation template.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters VI

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters VI

More D&D monsters from Monsters of Faerun. There's not that many left, actually.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters V

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters V

Another batch of monsters from Monsters of Faerun.

Martial Arts: Racial Martial Arts Styles

Martial Arts: Racial Martial Arts Styles

Dragon Magazine #303 has a very interesting article that describes many racial martial arts styles (something akin to GURPS Martial Arts: Yrth Fighting Styles). Let's convert them to GURPS.

Martial Art: Sidewinder

Martial Art: Sidewinder

I found another monk variant in Dragon Magazine #331. Works well as a GURPS martial style.

Monsters/Racial Templates: Faerunian Planetouched

Monsters/Racial Templates: Faerunian Planetouched

I have converted these before, but this is an update, plus now you have sample statblocks.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters IV

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters IV

More random monsters from the Monsters of Faerun.

Martial Arts: Sacred Styles

Martial Arts: Sacred Styles

Dragon Magazine #346 has six martial styles for monks who follow specific lawful deities. So, let's convert them to GURPS.

Powers: Kuji-in

Powers: Kuji-in

I was looking through some Dragon Magazine issues and found a short article called The Art of Kuji-in in issue #342. The article describes a ninja art of channeling their ki into spectacular effects via special gestures. It is said that there's 81 different jutsu, but the article describes only seven. Also, apparently this is based on a real-world practice. This is the first time I hear about this. These jutsu seem perfect as premade chi abilities in GURPS.

Monsters: Beholderkin

Monsters: Beholderkin

In this post, I convert three beholderkin from Monsters of Faerun.

Spelljamming in GURPS

Spelljamming in GURPS

Spelljammer is topical. I've never had any deep knowledge of the AD&D Spelljammer setting, but I was always curious about it, because it's cool. Not that long ago, a Spelljammer supplement for 5e got released, and it was dross of unimaginable proportions. So, instead I got the AD&D Spelljammer book and gave it a read. This post covers spelljamming movement rules and helms, but not the actual vehicles.

Equipment: Fantasy Gyrocs

Equipment: Fantasy Gyrocs

GURPS Low-Tech has stats for TL3 rockets - highly inaccurate explosive weapons. The description says that the stats are for a typical rocket, implying variations in size and power. What if we were to miniaturize the rockets and launch them not from sticks (like on the picture in the book), but from a handheld matchlock launcher? Yeah, I'm going to make TL4 gyrocs.

Martial Arts: Dragon Magazine Weapon Styles

Martial Arts: Dragon Magazine Weapon Styles

"Styles" in D&D are weird. Some of them are tactical feats, some of them are martial style feats, some of them are weapon style feats, and some of them are class features. I've already covered almost all the styles derived from feats, and the only ones that are left are the four weapon styles from Dragon Magazine #332 (I only convert three because Storm of Flying Strikes doesn't really give me much to work with). Aside from that, it's probably possible to come up with styles based on certain base or prestige classes, and Pathfinder also has some feat chains that represent fighting styles.

Monsters: Monstrous Crabs

Monsters: Monstrous Crabs

And this is the last Stormwrack monster post that covers monstrous crabs. Honestly, I wish the undersea bestiary of D&D was bigger. Fortunately for me, there are also older editions that have many more aquatic monsters.

Monsters: Sea Snakes

Monsters: Sea Snakes

Stormwrack also has sea snakes. Basically identical to normal vipers, but with different mobility options and slightly more powerful poison.

Monsters: Monstrous Diving Spiders

Monsters: Monstrous Diving Spiders

This is a variant of the normal monstrous spider that can dive and capture air bubbles with its body to create dome-shaped air-filled habitats underwater.

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters IV

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters IV

Even more creatures from Stormwrack. For the seawolf, let's also add its greater variant from the older editions.

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters III

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters III

There aren't that many monsters in Stormwrack, so I should be done in a few posts.

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters II

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters II

More aquatic monsters from Stormwrack.

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters

Monsters: Stormwrack Monsters

As you could see, I'm in an aquatic mood, so let's convert some more Stormwrack monsters.

Monsters: Dire Aquatic Animals

Monsters: Dire Aquatic Animals

This post will have the only two dire animals from Stormwrack, and the two "dinosaurs" from there.

Monsters: Aquatic Animals

Monsters: Aquatic Animals

Let's convert mundane animals from Stormwrack. All conversions are based on the statblocks from in Anon's Animal Album and GURPS Animalia.

Monsters: Ethergaunts

Monsters: Ethergaunts

Ethergaunts are one of my favorite monsters from Fiend Folio. Enigmatic aberrations from the Deep Ethereal that used to have a multiplanetary empire on the Material Plane. Now they want it back. Mind control, a maddening appearance, innate spellcasting, immunity to magic, and bits of ultra-tech? What not to like here?

Sorcery: Animal Spells VI

Sorcery: Animal Spells VI

Some animal spells from Patyrsun's Codex Arcanum converted to sorcery.

Sorcery: EM and Weather Spells

Sorcery: EM and Weather Spells

In the previous post, I forgot to include some electromagnetic spells, so let's fix that and add some weather spells too.

Sorcery: Lightning Spells IV

Sorcery: Lightning Spells IV

Let's convert two lightning/electricity spells from Patyrsun's Codex Arcanum.

Sorcery: Air Spells VIII

Sorcery: Air Spells VIII

Let's convert some air spells from Patyrsun's Codex Arcanum. There's not many of them, because I already converted most of the ones I wanted before.

Occupational Template: Hexblade

Occupational Template: Hexblade

Another D&D class-turned-template. It was difficult to stuff everything in - I guess, a proper hexblade would be at least a 200-point character.

Monster: Aerial Servant

Monster: Aerial Servant

The aerial servant is a naturally invisible air elemental that is not very smart, but can lift heavy weights and locate any target. This creature, mostly intended for summoning, appeared in the first edition of D&D and did not make it into D&D 3.5 despite being, dare I say it, a somewhat iconic monster.

Sorcery: Fire Spells III

Sorcery: Fire Spells III

Have you ever played with GURPS Magic and felt that there's not enough spells? The biggest fan resource that I know is Patyrsun's Codex Arcanum. Despite being written for the third edition, it is a great compilation of spells for all colleges. It can be easily adapted for use in the fourth edition (you can also fix the spelling there because it makes even me weep blood sometimes). I've had people request a sorcery conversion of Codex Arcanum, but even before that I converted some specific spells from that compendium. I think it's time to come back to it, as it has some interesting and weird spells. I will not convert everything, just the things that I like. I'm going to start with the college of Fire, as it is the most undeveloped elemental college.

Monster: Deepspawn

Monster: Deepspawn

The deepspawn is one of my favorite Forgotten Realms monsters. This is the type of a creature that you can build an entire campaign around as it really defines the ecology around it. Its ability to spawn other beings is not something you should be building in GURPS, but I did it just to show you that it is indeed possible.

Monsters: Exotic Steeds

Monsters: Exotic Steeds

I got a request to convert the dragonnel - a draconic horse, but I decided to also do some other exotic mounts. The drakkensteed is yet another draconic horse. The lesser nightmare is a normal nightmare without astral projection, flight, and etherealness. The ur'Epona is an extraplanar horse that can travel between the planes.

Sorcery: Wizardly Study

Sorcery: Wizardly Study

Am I ever going to stop? The previous post about the wizardry rework got some feedback as well, and one of the suggestions was to come up with my own Modular Ability to use instead of Sorcerous Empowerment. And I thought - why not? I did that with Clerical/Divine Empowerment, after all (and I might need to rework those too).

Sorcery: Wizardry Revised

Sorcery: Wizardry Revised

Lately, I have been receiving some feedback regarding my wizardry framework. People said that it's too convoluted and unappealing. I partially agree, so let's try another writeup that takes into account the suggestions I've received. If it works well, then I'll have to rework other subsystems that are based on wizardry and/or spells with skills.

Sorcery: Vancian Casting

Sorcery: Vancian Casting

You might be familiar with my wizardry framework that tries to replicate the flavor of a D&D wizard. (It's going to be reworked soon, I think - I've been getting some feedback on it). This post is just a thought experiment (at least yet), proposed by one of my friends. Let's try making Vancian casting in the powers framework.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters III

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters III

Even more random monsters from Monsters of Faerun.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters II

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters II

Some more monsters from Monsters of Faerun.

Monsters: Faerunian Golems

Monsters: Faerunian Golems

I don't know why I'm coming back to the Forgotten Realms monsters. I guess I just like them. This post has conversions of four golems from Monsters of Faerun.

Monsters: Deep Bats

Monsters: Deep Bats

Deep bats are Faerunian bats, but they are generic enough to be used in any setting.

Monster: Rattelyr Dragon

Monster: Rattelyr Dragon

A Faerun-exclusive dragon that lives in the deserts. Has no spell-like abilities, is relatively short-lived, but can reflect spells with its cobra hood and terrify others with its rattle.

Monsters: Shining South Monsters

Monsters: Shining South Monsters

Let's convert some monsters from the Shining South - a Forgotten Realms supplement. Why them? Because there's not many of them, and because there's some that are updated versions of 3.0 monsters from other books. The rattelyr dragon is omitted - dragons deserve their own posts.

Occupational Template: Shadowcaster

Occupational Template: Shadowcaster

An occupational template of a shadow magic user. Basically, a dexterity-based wizard.

Everything about dual-wielding in GURPS

Everything about dual-wielding in GURPS

Dual-wielding is cool, even though often impractical. However, both in D&D and GURPS it can be quite difficult to wrap your head around it rules-wise. I've decided to compile everything about dual-wielding here to understand it better and have it as a reference material.

My thoughts about Drizzt novels

My thoughts about Drizzt novels

This is not GURPS-related at all, but something I'd like to talk about. I like reading, but I read much less fantasy than sci-fi literature. In my teen years, I used to read Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels, and I remember enjoying them a lot. Several months ago, I decided to read some fantasy novels again, starting with a book that was recommended to me by my friend - Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. Typically, I often ignore reading recommendations, thinking that I probably will end up spending a lot of time reading something I will not like. But after reading Kings of the Wyld in a single breath, I concluded that that was the best fantasy novel I've ever read. Simply perfect. After that, I decided to revisit Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels - the main line about Drizzt. I wanted to see how they hold up now, when I'm much older than when I read them the first time, and also to find inspiration for my games, as my last few games... didn't go well. This isn't really a review, but just my ramblings.

How to convert a D&D monster?

How to convert a D&D monster?

I have received messages telling me to explain how I convert D&D monsters to GURPS multiple times, but I never could explain it properly. So, I decided to write this post as something of a stream of consciousness. Let's see if the result is any good.

Monsters: Faerunian Giants

Monsters: Faerunian Giants

D&D 3.5 Forgotten Realms books, surprisingly, only have four giants, and I have already converted one of them (the cyclops). Let's do the rest.

Monsters/Lenses: Faerunian Undead

Monsters/Lenses: Faerunian Undead

Forgotten Realms splatbooks have many setting-specific undead creatures, be they actual monsters or templates/lenses. I'll tackle some of them.

Monsters: More Faerunian Monsters

Monsters: More Faerunian Monsters

More converted monsters from the Forgotten Realms books. Many mundane animals that I based on GURPS Animalia and Anon's Animal Album.

Karilan Setting Documents

Karilan Setting Documents

Some of you might know that I have created my own kitchen sink fantasy setting to incorporate all things D&D/PF in GURPS. I decided to post it here to have a static place where I can share it.

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters

Monsters: Assorted Faerun Monsters

Let's convert some creatures from the Monsters of Faerun. Alaghi, firenewts, and bullywugs could also work as a player character races.

Sorcery: Acid Spells

Sorcery: Acid Spells

Acid always felt weird to me in fantasy games. Sure, the concept itself has its place, but different systems are trying to "attach" acid to other elements. D&D lumps acid together with earth, citing the corrosive qualities of various salts. GURPS incorporated acid into the college of Water because it's liquid. However, if you look at GURPS Grimoire for the third edition, you will see a suggestion to separate it from water and form its own college of Acid. I've been meaning to do that in my games for a long time, but I always felt that there's too few acid spells. Let's make some more to make the college of Acid more "valid".

Psionics: Cryokinesis, Pyrokinesis, TK Crush Reworked

 Psionics: Cryokinesis, Pyrokinesis, TK Crush Reworked

Something strange was pointed out to me a couple of days ago - certain abilities in GURPS Psionic Powers use Malediction 3 and have some other questionable modifiers when usually everything uses Malediction 2. Malediction 3 in general is something that should be used very carefully (in Low-Tech games, at least). Let's rework some of the statblocks!

Edit: I also found Spectral Surge in Pyramid #3-99 and TK Burst in Pyramid #3-29, so they also needs a similar repricing.

Monsters: More Demonic Foes

Monsters: More Demonic Foes

Apparently, I missed another D&D demon from Dragon Magazine! Mechanically, it is nothing special, but the flavor is quite interesting, in my opinion. In addition to the cataboligne demon, I'll also convert two demon-adjacent monsters - the wrackspawn and the vorr.

Occupational Template: Psychic Warrior

Occupational Template: Psychic Warrior

Another 150-point occupational template based on the eponymous D&D class. Something between the fighter, psion, and a little bit of the monk.

D&D Third-Party Material and GURPS

D&D Third-Party Material and GURPS

You probably know that D&D 3.0 came out with the OGL license that allowed third-party publishers to publish books for it, and the same thing happened with D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder (and D&D 5e too, I think, but I'm not really sure, I'm not intimately familiar with that iteration). Some see it as a boon, some see it as a bane. I have a large collection of various 3pp books for D&D and Pathfinder, and it's probably no surprise to anyone, but I've almost never used them. Why? Because most of it is absolute garbage in the mechanical sense - it was either underpowered, overpowered, broken, or simply unneccessary due to the system's specifics. However, some of the concepts I've found in those books are fascinating. Some introduce something new to the game, some expand certain niches or bring interesting details into the world that make it feel much more special and alive. At least when it comes to D&D, because I noticed a sharp decline in quality of 3pp material once Pathfinder came out. There's much more 3pp Pathfinder stuff, but it's so, so much worse (with some rare gems, of course). Oftentimes I open a pdf and become puzzled with the fact that people have had the audacity to sell that.

What's so great about GURPS is that you can take any of those fascinating concepts and adapt it to GURPS, preserving the flavor and expanding your game world, and it will make sense mechanically too. For example, if I were playing D&D and opened The Quintessential Druid by Mongoose Publishing, I'd groan and say that I would never integrate that into the game. Now, I open it and see so much potential! The entire Quintessential Series of books is a treasure trove of things to enrich your GURPS experience. The same publisher has other books series, such as the Encyclopaedia Arcane/Divine/Psionica. Then there's other big publishers, such as Green Ronin, Sword & Sorcery, Dreamscarred Press, and many smaller ones. You have so much material on your hands! This is something I love about GURPS - you're not limited to just GURPS books, you can use anything.

Occupational Template: Psion

Occupational Template: Psion

It's been a while. Here's a 150-point template based on the mentalist from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 14: Psi but reworked to incorporate non-dungeoneering traits and other new stuff, including new disadvantages from GURPS Psis.

Code of Honor in D&D-style games

Code of Honor in D&D-style games

Code of Honor is an interesting disadvantage group as it more or less allows you to have a disadvantage that basically is a combination of quirks and/or limited aspects of other disadvantages. The other thing that is great about the Code of Honor is that it is a self-imposed mental disadvantage, and hence can be used for the Pact limitation. The complete list of all the published variants can be found in this forum post. In this post, I'd like to list and discuss some of them that are appropriate for D&D-style fantasy games and, maybe, add some new ones.

Monsters: Might and Magic Beholders

Monsters: Might and Magic Beholders

What I like about GURPS is that now I can not only grab D&D monsters, but also adapt monsters from other sources (of course, you can do that in D&D too, but it's much more difficult). So, let's convert beholders from Might and Magic VII. Those come in three varieties - floating eyes, gazers, and evil eyes. They differ from the D&D beholders in that they have electrical tentacles and different eye ray effects. They also look like brains, do not have anti-magic cones, and have fewer eyes. I also decided to make their movement different - their flight is powered by magic but has limited ceiling. In no-mana areas, they can slowly pull their bodies along the ground with their tentacles. And you know, I can see them as an offshoot of the D&D beholder race, coexisting with them in the same setting.

Monsters: Dungeon Magazine Demons

Monsters: Dungeon Magazine Demons

Browsing through the various Dungeon Magazine issues, I managed to find five demons that have not been printed in any other books. So, let's convert them for completionism's sake. Now I have converted all the 3.5 demo- ah, dammit, I forgot Dragonlance Campaign Setting and the demon lord aspects.

My experience with sci-fi games in GURPS

My experience with sci-fi games in GURPS

Another rambly rant post! In this one, I will analyze why so few of my sci-fi games have been successful, and why so many of them fell apart very quickly. This is going to be yet another "stream of consciousness" post, as there's no plan - I will just write what I think. I just hope that this self-reflection will help me get better, and it might be helpful to you too.

"How to be a GURPS Player?" or a guide on getting started

"How to be a GURPS Player?" or a guide on getting started

I realized not long ago that GURPS is not unapproachable or unfriendly towards new players contrary to what many people think (personally, I believe that it never was like that). There's enough guides, official or fanmade, for what books you need for certain games and what rules you need or do not need for others. There is a possibility that everything seems obvious to me because I have a lot of experience with GURPS, so I will try to consolidate all my thoughts and try to explain to a hypothetical newbie how to approach GURPS. I'll try to get into the newbie mindset (that's going to be an exercise in roleplaying) and provide guidelines or links for any problems I will encounter along the way. After all, we have the How to be a GURPS GM book, but no How to be a GURPS Player.

Why I limit magical healing

Why I limit magical healing

In my opinion, supernatural (magical, psi, etc.) healing is a very important factor that affects your entire game both from the point of view of mechanics and roleplay. In this post, I will describe how and why I severely limit supernatural healing in my games.

Sorcery: New Prismatic Spells

Sorcery: New Prismatic Spells

Not long ago I wrote a post on making attacks with a random damage type. So, let's create three basic spells that employ that mechanic.

Sorcery: The rest of the personal spells

Sorcery: The rest of the personal spells

Ah, what the hell, I'll just post the rest of them in a single post.

Sorcery: Personal Gate and Gravity Spells

Sorcery: Personal Gate and Gravity Spells

Another batch of personal spells.

Sorcery: Personal Food, Force, Fungus Spells

 Sorcery: Personal Food, Force, Fungus Spells

None of the aforementioned colleges have many buff spells, so let's combine them into a single post.

Sorcery: Personal Fire Spells

Sorcery: Personal Fire Spells

Fire buffs converted into personal indefinite spells.

Sorcery: Personal Earth Spells

Sorcery: Personal Earth Spells

The Earth college has quite a few buffs, so here are the personal variants of them.

Sorcery: Personal Communication & Empathy Spells

Sorcery: Personal Communication & Empathy Spells

The college of Communication and Empathy doesn't have that many buffs, so there's going to be few personal spells.

Sorcery: Personal Body Control Spells

Sorcery: Personal Body Control Spells

The Body Control college is very big and has many buffs. So, let's make it even bigger with the personal buff spells.

Sorcery: Personal Animal Spells

Sorcery: Personal Animal Spells

The Animal college does not have that many buff spells, so there's not many personal spells to make.

Sorcery: Personal Air Spells

Sorcery: Personal Air Spells

By default, Sorcery buffs can be applied to any friendly creature. Most of the times it is enough, but in some situations you would only want to be able to affect yourself - either because you want to save points, or because the additional capability to buff others isn't really necessary. For example, D&D is full of "Personal" spells that can only affect the caster. For it to work as an actual buff, you have to remove Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15% and add Accessibility, Self Only, -50%. Alternatively, just take the advantage that is granted by the buff, replace Magical, -10% with Sorcery, -15%, and in most of the cases you will get an indefinite version of the spell that must be maintained. Such spells could be taken as "lesser" versions of spells and then improved to the proper buff versions. I think I will have to rework all the converted monsters with spell-like abilities to have personal versions instead of what they have right now, because it rarely makes sense to have an actual buff spell as a racial ability. Let's go through the air buff spells and create the personal indefinite versions.

Monster: Song Dragon

Monster: Song Dragon

And this is the last true dragon from the Monsters of Faerun. I think I remember a song dragon character from some Forgotten Realms novel. Anyway, this is a pretty cool creature, in my opinion.

Martial Arts: Dragon Magazine Styles

Martial Arts: Dragon Magazine Styles

Aside from the Kara-Tur styles I converted in the other post, there's also an article about some other martial styles in the issue 309. Let's convert those too. Many of them are quite simple and can be used as a base to develop more complex styles.

Monsters: Marid and Dao

Monsters: Marid and Dao

I find it surprising that the dao and marid (earth and water genies, respectively) appear only once in the Manual of the Planes for D&D 3.0. They were never updated to 3.5, which seems weird. But anyway, here's the two genie templates (and there's two more in D&D 3.5). Also, I've never thought that marids are this large.

Monsters: Miniatures Handbook Monsters

Monsters: Miniatures Handbook Monsters

Miniatures Handbook is an interesting splatbook for D&D 3.5. It introduces rules for mass combat and

skirmish warband combat with lots of interesting scenarios. It also has a chapter on random dungeon generator for playing without a DM. However, I have never heard anyone talk about these rules. People usually focus on the two new classes (that aren't very good), and the prestige classes (iirc, some of them enable incredibly cheesy builds). But I also like the monster chapter of that book. The introduction to the chapter describes the design principle - they wanted to design monsters that are easy to use, so most of them have only one special ability. And honestly, for D&D it's a good thing - you don't have to browse through the huge list of spell-like abilities and lots of special rules. And such monsters are also easy to convert - I already did convert some, so let's have another batch.

(P.S. I only now got that "ramadeen" is a ram paladin - it even has smite evil. I'm dense.)