Powers: Incarnum Revisited

Powers: Incarnum Revisited

I wanted to write this post for years. My incarnum conversion from D&D 3.5 was one of my earliest big projects and... it wasn't very good. Despite not staying too close to the original, it retained a lot of clunkiness of the original. So, now I decided to rewrite it by focusing more on the moral concepts behind incarnum, no restriction to predefined soulmelds (maybe I'm just lazy), and more emphasis on life-force - you can now spend HP instead of essentia, making ER (Incarnum) much less "mandatory." I think it's better now.

Sorcery: Malefice

Sorcery: Malefice

Man, this was tough. One of the spells I previously deemed unconvertable converted to Sorcery.

The Many Facets of Freezing in GURPS

The Many Facets of Freezing in GURPS

Elemental damage in GURPS often can be unituitive if you come from another system. I've talked about this more extensively in another post, but in this post, I would like to give some attention to cold damage - how you can do it in GURPS. After all, most RPG systems have cold damage, and there are many fictional abilities that freeze victims, so it's a good topic to explore.

"Get over here!" - How does Retractable Binding even work?

"Get over here!" - How does Retractable Binding even work?

I've seen people ask "How do I make Spiderman's webs or Scorpion's harpoon in GURPS?" These people usually were referred to the Retractable enhancement for the Binding advantage. While it appeared initially on PK's website, it got printed later in Pyramid #3-115. I've looked at it many times and I didn't understand how it works. So, let's try rubbing a couple of brain cells together.

The problem is quite simple - "make a Ready maneuver to pull" doesn't say much. How many yards do you pull your victim? It obviously depends on ST, because the enhancement's description has an option to base it on your ST or the ST of your Binding, but there is no numerical value given. "Pull for the entire Binding length in a single second" doesn't really work, as even the default 100-yard Binding would result in such whiplash and slam damage against you, that it would be... unreasonable. If you start thinking about Basic Lift and grappling, then it still doesn't work, because you'd either be able to pull your victim only one yard towards you, or for a distance equal to your Move, which doesn't make sense.

But then I found a more simple and flexible way - Retractable Binding allows you to make ranged shoves! Check p. B372 for the rules - you have an option to pull your victim with one hand or with both hands, inflicting knockback, which is based on ST after all. There are only two nuances: you do not need to roll to hit with the shove itself and the knockback is directed towards you. I believe that this way is simple, and it makes perfect sense. The victim may even fall down if you yank him hard enough!

Martial Arts: Drop Stomp Technique

Martial Arts: Drop Stomp Technique

Have you ever wanted to combine Attack from Above and Drop Kick? I have.

Abjuration in GURPS - Making Protection Fun

Abjuration in GURPS - Making Protection Fun

In games with magic, you are bound to encounter magical protections. Perhaps, you’d like to use magic to protect yourself against damage or other hazards, or you try to strike down an enemy wizard only to find your sword bounce off with no effect. Magic of protection is undoubtedly useful, but it might be boring, so let’s talk about it in more detail and see if it’s possible to make it more fun and interactive.

Sorcery: Urban Druid Spellcasting

Sorcery: Urban Druid Spellcasting

The urban druid was a very obscure class in D&D 3.5, but also one that intrigued me a lot - I feel that it has a lot of potential. I wrote this thing up a very long time ago but for some reason did not post it on the blog, so there you have it.