Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Leveling up in Gamma Terra

Pretty much how you "level up" in GURPS is by character point awards you spend on your character.

Or advantages gained in play.

But our Gamma Terra game has another twist - a random "level up" table.

I don't have the whole sheet, but it was percentile based and had a wide variety of boosts on it - Charisma +1, IQ +1, ST +1, Hard to Kill, etc.

There was even a 1-in-100 chance of "pick one" and the same chance of "roll twice, pick one."

Me, I rolled DX +1.

Since we started I've picked up 25 points, plus 1-2 levels of Night Vision (a mutation), Distinctive Feature (cool white eyes), and now DX +1 on top of that. I spent 10 of those points getting +5 HP (it was on our list of pre-approved advantages), leaving me 15. I expect 5 more points next session.

Personally I'm debating +2 to ST as soon as I have some downtime to justify bulking up a bit. Or I could improve some skills, or up DX again or up my IQ. Or split it to +1 ST and +1 HT.

I'm not sure, although I'm leaning to +2 ST or +1 to ST and +1 to HT. I like saving up and getting a big whack of power all at once, instead of spending ASAP and getting the most immediate boost I can. 5 points a session means a 15-point advantage every third session, if you don't spread it all over the place. Although Wrestling at DX+2 would be nice, and it's only 4 points, so that might happen sooner rather than too much later.

All in all, I'm about 41-42 points up from the campaign start. Still not enough to survive Gamma World without some smart play and luck, but it's really nice.

14 comments:

  1. You guys start at 150, right? And the GM is enforcing training downtime, I guess?

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    1. 250, and not that I can tell. I just can't explain to myself why I'd jump 2 ST in one day in-game without justifying the GM wanting to give me mutations. :)

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    2. The "Experience Matrix" is adapted from the one at the back of the 1st Edition Gamma World. That table lists all of GW's basic abilities, so in GURPS I broke it up to allow a greater variety. In Gamma World, the matrix might give you +1 to Strength. In GURPS I broke that down to ST +1, HP +1, Lifting Strength 1, Striking ST 1 and other ST-related advantages. Likewise, in Gamma World you might roll Constitution +1. For GURPS I broke that into HT +1, Fit, FT, Hard to Kill and other HT-related advantages.

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    3. Ordinarily I like the idea of doing realistic training times.. But this is a 250-point game the tone of which is what I call "Tactical Action-Adventure".. Stripped-down combat, super-simplified guns rules, range bands from GURPS Action, and I let the PCs do stuff with a simple die roll if they describe it colorfully. Given that, telling Peter that his PC has to spend some number of weeks doing weight training to get ST +1 seems really fiddly. Great for some games, and usually to my liking, but not for here.

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    4. I'm still not buying up ST while we're in an intensity 12 barnacle-causing radiation zone. Seems like I'd literally be asking for trouble.

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  2. Peter, can I *please* get a copy of this table? Tell the GM I'm trustworthy - I won't share it.

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    1. Ask andi. I don't have a copy of anything!

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    2. Christopher, if you give me your e-mail address I'll happily share it. Are you a Hellion, yes?

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    3. That sounds like a most excellent Pyramid article Mr. Jones... hint, hint...

      (that way more of us can get at it and you can get a few nickels maybe)

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    4. Thank you, evil, but I'm not sure an adaptation of anything Gamma World (especially 1st Edition) would be of much use/interest to GURPS players. Unless a generic "you go up a level and get one of many GURPS abilities, here's a table" might have an appeal. Has anyone done something like this, adding an old-school level-up element to a GURPS game?

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    5. Thanks, Andi. And no, no one has really done a "random level table" - but I'm kind of Pyramid's Random Roll Table king (or at least Prince - Matt Riggsby has published more random tables than I) - I'm a fan of adding random to GURPS because it adds an element of luck both I and my players are fond of.

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    6. I'm certainly a fan of Random Roll Tables... but not a fan of writing them myself...

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