GACKS AAR: Week 12/Session 10

GACKS AAR: Week 12/Session 10

Now that was an intense week with lots of activity on the faction level. Let's see the SEEN posts first.

GACKS AAR: Session 9

GACKS AAR: Session 9

This week's session started exactly where the previous one left off despite 1:1 time, as last time the PCs went just far enough into the future. The situation was quite dire - four adventurers, one of whose was under 1/3 HP, stuck on the 3rd level of a barrow mound dungeon after a difficult fight against 5 wheeps. Initially, I was planning to manually create the rest of the dungeon, but didn't have enough free time for that, so we continued with Appendix A. Will the PCs find a way out, when there is only 1-in-20 chance to get a staircase on the periodic check table, and then you have to get lucky to get a staircase that goes up? They only had ~4 torches left, so they had to do it within 4 hours or be eaten by a grue in pitch blackness.

GACKS: Week 11 and GURPS BrOSR Flaws

GACKS: Week 11 and GURPS BrOSR Flaws

First, let’s list the SEEN posts for the last week, then quickly discuss what happened, and then I will have a lot to say about what needs to be done for the game to run more smoothly.

GACKS AAR: Week 10/Session 8

GACKS AAR: Week 10/Session 8

Let's see what happened last week on the faction level and what happened during today's session. As usual, I'll list last week's SEEN posts firsts, then provide some commentary, and then go over the session recap.

GACKS AAR: Session 7

GACKS AAR: Session 7

Let's see how the week went. Below is a compilation of SEEN posts, for the most part caused by faction players, and a session report.

GACKS AAR: Session 6

GACKS AAR: Session 6

We've reached the point where statistically most of the conventional games fall apart - session #6. We had a short hiatus in terms of in-person sessions due to lack of free time, but after two weeks we gathered again for a session. These two weeks between the sessions were dense with faction-level events, so let's dive into what happened there first. Note that only public events are posted below - there was a lot of secrecy behind the scenes.

GACKS AAR: Session 5

GACKS AAR: Session 5

We had not one, but two sessions this week. The previous one ended on something of a cliffhanger, where the party was preparing defenses near the entrance to a dungeon overrun by undead.

GACKS AAR: Session 4

GACKS AAR: Session 4

Due to health reasons, there were no sessions the next two weeks. However, the game world wasn’t standing still. Isn’t that wonderful? Here’s what happened during these two weeks, at least what is known to the public, because there was plenty of hidden actions. What follows is, basically, a compilation of SEEN posts. And then you can read what happened in today's session.

GACKS AAR: Session 3

GACKS AAR: Session 3

Between session 2 and session 3, I recruited eight players to control the various factions in the game. I wrote up some order resolution and rumor-posting rules, such as GOSS and SEEN, and while diving headfirst into running this sort of game without proper preparation felt daunting, I think I'll be able to handle this. Let's see what happened in the world both faction- and PC-wise. I will avoid giving out any information that isn't public.

GACKS AAR: Session 2

GACKS AAR: Session 2

Between the sessions, I recruited a faction player to run the goblins. Certain events transpired that I will not elaborate much here to avoid revealing non-public information to the players. However, we had another session with the players, and it was a hilarious trainwreck.

GACKS AAR: Session 1

GACKS AAR: Session 1

All right, now that the groundwork is all done, I began my in-person GURPS game that borrows a lot of ACKS procedures to see if GURPS can support a BrOSR-style game. It has been a long journey (that still isn't complete), and I've been very excited to give it all a try. I have five players whose only TTRPG experience is D&D 5e and one GURPS game that I ran for them to showcase the system. Despite this, they seem to have had zero problems understanding how 1:1 time works, and all the other BrOSR concepts as well. So, it's time to bring receipts!

Domain Trial Run (ACKS II -> GURPS)

Domain Trial Run (ACKS II -> GURPS)

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

Summoning in D&D and GURPS

Summoning in D&D and GURPS

Summoning is an iconic area of magic that is present in many TTRPG systems and fantasy stories. Evil cultists summon fiends, priests call upon extraplanar divine allies, wizards summon spirits of the dead to learn forbidden knowledge, and adventuring spellcasters summon things like… celestial badgers to fight off goblins. While I do not have experience with many different TTRPG systems, the experience I have with D&D 3.0/3.5/PF tells me that people often considered summoning wonky and/or broken, usually referring to “breaking” action economy and allowing the summoner to gain access to certain spells and abilities he wasn’t supposed to have. Right now, I’m running a test GURPS game where the only player character is a summoner with the various wizardry summoning spells (and teleportation too, but that’s another topic). Even though there has been barely any action, the game raised lots of questions in terms of game mechanics, in-universe metaphysics, and game design. This calls for an in-depth analysis of summoning in D&D, GURPS, and possibly even other systems to untangle this mess.

Training Rules

 Training Rules

Most of the core concepts that are required for an AD&D-style game in GURPS are done, and one of the few things left to think about is training. AD&D is a class-and-level-based system, and advancement is done in levels, obviously. GURPS is a wildly different beast, with advancement rules being different as well. As a rule, the GM gives players some character points at the end of the session, and the players improve their characters using them. Sounds simple, right? On one hand – yes, it is simple. On the other hand, is it really that simple and do I want it this simple?

Treasure Type in GURPS

Treasure Type in GURPS

There is one major thing left to do to enable BrOSR-style games in GURPS, and that is treasure assignment/generation. This post on the Axioms of the Addled Antillectual blog worked out the $-to-CP progression based on the ACKS II assumptions. While it does indeed allow us to simply use treasure tables from ACKS, I'm not completely satisfied with this approach, and I decided to write this post to organize my thought process and, hopefully, devise a solution.

GURPS BrOSR Progress Update

GURPS BrOSR Progress Update

You may know that my current project is to make GURPS compatible with the BrOSR playstyle. It may seem like a fool’s errand to some, but it isn’t to me. I haven’t posted anything in a relatively long while, mostly due to life getting busy, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve been idling on this front. I’d like to tell you about what’s been done and what still needs to be done. So, here’s my progress report.

Abstract Fast Combat System for GURPS

Abstract Fast Combat System for GURPS

As was outlined several posts ago, GURPS lacks an abstract fast combat system that can be used to resolve engagements, especially ones that have a scale between individual combat and mass combat. I thought about it, and I believe that the best option would be to combine parts of GURPS Mass Combat with the mass combat from ACKS II RR / Domains at War: Campaigns. For that, we will have to calculate the BR (Battle Rating) values for each combatant, which isn't actually that difficult.

The design goal of this system is to have a way to resolve combat quickly between almost any numbers of combatants. While I absolutely adore the nitty-gritty detailed combat system of GURPS, I realize the need for abstraction because resolving, for example, a random encounter between 5 PCs and 20 mercenaries on one side and 60 orcs on the other side is practically impossible on the standard GURPS scale. Let's see if I manage to write something that makes sense.

Sea Voyage Procedure

Sea Voyage Procedure

ACKS II Judges Journal has three exploration procedures to make gameplay smoother and/or serve as checklists to the referees (you know, I find myself use "referee" instead of "GM" more and more often nowadays). Since I've already adapted wilderness and dungeon exploration procedures, let's adapt the one for sea voyages - something that, I believe, never came up in my games before. I'm a landlubber.

Food and Supplies in GURPS and ACKS

Food and Supplies in GURPS and ACKS

Before a party of adventurers sets out to clear out a wilderness area or dungeon, they have to buy enough supplies for the trip. The same thing is required when an army marches to war, but on a larger scale. How much do supplies cost in GURPS? This is actually a surprisingly difficult question despite resource management being such an important part of the game. I’m doing this topic for two reasons. First, I ran into this when calculating ACKS Battle Ratings for GURPS creatures, so it needs to be settled. Second, in my current game, one of the player characters is a food mage, and the question of supplies has arisen multiple times.

Abstract Combat Statistics: Heroes on the Mass Scale and ACKS

Abstract Combat Statistics: Heroes on the Mass Scale and ACKS

Not long ago, I was thinking about the necessity of abstracted combat resolution and remembered that GURPS Mass Combat exists, and that it probably can be applied to small-scale combat with some minor adjustments. However, one of the questions remains - how do you derive abstract combat statistics from the non-abstract combat characteristics of a creature? In my GURPS Monstrous Compendium, I calculated the Combat Effectiveness Ratings for all creatures but for a slightly different reason. And now I remembered about the existence of Heroes on the Mass Scale from Pyramid #3-84 that is... basically 90% the same thing, but I believe that these 10% of difference make it much better. I've already dabbled with this article in the past, but I had much less experience back then, so now let's revisit it.