What newly featured rules in GURPS Basic Set will make it to Felltower?
Note this isn't automatic. We, by default, play with the DFRPG rules, adding in assorted extras from other sourcebooks. We don't automatically use all rules from Basic Set.
In no particular order, here are the ones I think we'll have to think about.
All-Out Defense (Mental Defense) - long requested, and I like it. This one is in. I don't see it getting used much, except everyone will start to ask if they can use it for a bonus on Will rolls outside of combat, to Will-based rolls outside of combat, to Will-based rolls in combat, etc. So no, it won't do that. It's a flat bonus to resist supernatural attacks if focus and concentration would matter in the GM's opinion.
All-Out Concentrate. Hmm. This is one I need to think about. Long requested, but it is basically a +1 to all spells outside of combat. Sure, sure, those don't matter too much, and failure is unusual . . . except this is a +1 to all Information spells. All of them. Always. No one casts Seek anything in combat. I may consider allowing this but say it does not affect Information spells. And you might need a Will roll to keep AOC going for the whole length of a long spell like Summon Demon or Zombie.
Simplified Range - we already do this most of the time.
Expanded hit locations - nope. Not that kind of a game.
Flat Cost Signature Gear - we already do this.
Retreat facing change - I'm okay with this, kind of. It's a bigger change than it looks - instead of facing the hex you left, you can face another hexside within limits. If it annoys us (me) in combat, it'll go.
Statistically Speaking - yes, if it seems like a good solution to large-group fights. My call when to use it or not.
Not much of anything else really changes anything for DFRPG.
Sunday, August 23, 2026
Thursday, August 20, 2026
What's new in the Revised GURPS Basic Set?
Wondering what's up with the revised GURPS Basic Set?
A guest post over on Ravens and Pennies looks at the changes.
GURPS 4th Edition Revised – Changes Review
Generally, the changes are fine. I'm mainly interested in the rules additions and the at-last fixes to say "damage" when "damage" is meant and "injury" when "injury" is meant. You can look at them all over at the link above.
I also like that some of the rules we use all of the time - Committed Attack, for example - shows up in Basic Set now. It will make future references to it easier since it's no longer text we'd need to repeat.
I did eventually get a comp copy of this revised Basic Set. I haven't written anything new for SJG in a number of years. But I did write a lot, and co-wrote GURPS Martial Arts - and that one early in the cycle. Sean and I got to writing it before Basic Set was out. So I'm down in the credits and that earned me a comp PDF.
A guest post over on Ravens and Pennies looks at the changes.
GURPS 4th Edition Revised – Changes Review
Generally, the changes are fine. I'm mainly interested in the rules additions and the at-last fixes to say "damage" when "damage" is meant and "injury" when "injury" is meant. You can look at them all over at the link above.
I also like that some of the rules we use all of the time - Committed Attack, for example - shows up in Basic Set now. It will make future references to it easier since it's no longer text we'd need to repeat.
I did eventually get a comp copy of this revised Basic Set. I haven't written anything new for SJG in a number of years. But I did write a lot, and co-wrote GURPS Martial Arts - and that one early in the cycle. Sean and I got to writing it before Basic Set was out. So I'm down in the credits and that earned me a comp PDF.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Felltower Updates
I did a little blog maintenance today.
I updated the DF Campaign page with links to to last 5 sessions, and also a link to the heavier crossbow rules we use.
I further put the equipment/magic item links together offset from the house rules a little bit, for ease of finding them.
I updated the DF Campaign page with links to to last 5 sessions, and also a link to the heavier crossbow rules we use.
I further put the equipment/magic item links together offset from the house rules a little bit, for ease of finding them.
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Felltower - Monsters Fleeing between Sessions vs. PCs replenishing
Is monsters picking up what's left of their goods and lives and fleeing to parts unknown - deeper in the dungeon, or, with access, out of the dungeon - okay in a megadungeon game?
It happens in Felltower and in the surrounding adventure areas - the Caves of Chaos, the Cold Fens, the Lost City, and the Brotherhood Complex, to list them all.
Is it fair? That's unclear. It does make sense.
Before we look at what options monsters have, what happens to delvers between sessions?
In town, the delvers have access to:
- effectively unlimited 250-point replacement characters or new characters (if a new player joins)
- replacement and upgraded equipment
- consumables of all sorts - ammunition, alchemical mixes, mundane mixes, poisons, spell stones, scrolls, and so on
- new spells, chosen to suit their current needs
- complete healing
- skill and advantage upgrades
In other words, the PCs leave the dungeon, and come back with at least what they brought last time, barring loss of a unique magic item or the permanent death of a lost PC. Both of those are rare. The last PC to die in a non-TPK situation and not come back was so long ago I can't even find one on the list. The last lost unique magic items were as a result of a TPK.
So, in general, the PCs come back better than when they left. At worst, they come back less well off, but better prepared. And always better informed, thanks to hearsay, Summon Spirit, and other things that explain the meta-gaming of the same players with different PCs or different players with 200+ session summaries in their heads and an easy-to-search blog at their fingertips.
The monsters do not have access to these open-ended resources. They don't have much, if anything, beyond what's in the dungeon already. That really means they have three options:
Stand and die. In other words, deal with the status quo. Accept whatever losses, and try again to defend themselves from delvers in place.
Reinforce, stand and die. They may possibly be able to heal (not all can), they may possibly multiply, or they may be able to set up better traps, etc. In practice, the only thing that can defeat a delver is a stronger opponent, and all the traps, alarms, and barricades in the world extend the lifespan of those using them by a few seconds or cost the delvers a potion or two.
Run. Take off for parts unknown, or deeper in the dungeon. Take with them what they can.
The players tend to look at all three in descending order of approval. Stand and die is the most popular. Don't use up any treasure, don't spend a coin, don't reinforce. Stay there with their treasure (which rightfully belongs to the PCs, just ask them, no matter what their disadvantages say they generally act this way.)
Reinforcements and rebuilding . . . the players dislike this. They'll gripe about it, mildly, usually, about how it's unfair that the monsters get weeks off between delves to reinforce and make the PCs do the whole defeating them over again. So much so that a considerable amount of time has been spent thinking of how to rest, hidden and safe, in the dungeon while they fully replenish FP, HP, ER, and so on before coming out to start the fight against the monsters before they can really do anything substantial. But they'll live with it, because I make them live with it.
Running . . . clearing out and leaving, especially taking their treasure, isn't popular with the players. But sometimes it's the only sensible reaction. Intelligent monsters won't stick around to just die if there is a better option. I don't apply this as often as I could, mostly because running during encounters is 100% suicidal for enemies who can't outrun Move 20+ (seriously) or become unseen without Invisibility (very, very rare). The PCs will run down and kill anything they possibly can. So running between sessions is often the only way to escape certain demise. Not everything can or will run - and that leaves the other two options.
Again, is this fair? Maybe not. Maybe the PCs have weeks off hurts them, because the monsters leave with their loot. But the PCs get a lot with those weeks off. I think it may not balance out but it's what it is.
It happens in Felltower and in the surrounding adventure areas - the Caves of Chaos, the Cold Fens, the Lost City, and the Brotherhood Complex, to list them all.
Is it fair? That's unclear. It does make sense.
Before we look at what options monsters have, what happens to delvers between sessions?
In town, the delvers have access to:
- effectively unlimited 250-point replacement characters or new characters (if a new player joins)
- replacement and upgraded equipment
- consumables of all sorts - ammunition, alchemical mixes, mundane mixes, poisons, spell stones, scrolls, and so on
- new spells, chosen to suit their current needs
- complete healing
- skill and advantage upgrades
In other words, the PCs leave the dungeon, and come back with at least what they brought last time, barring loss of a unique magic item or the permanent death of a lost PC. Both of those are rare. The last PC to die in a non-TPK situation and not come back was so long ago I can't even find one on the list. The last lost unique magic items were as a result of a TPK.
So, in general, the PCs come back better than when they left. At worst, they come back less well off, but better prepared. And always better informed, thanks to hearsay, Summon Spirit, and other things that explain the meta-gaming of the same players with different PCs or different players with 200+ session summaries in their heads and an easy-to-search blog at their fingertips.
The monsters do not have access to these open-ended resources. They don't have much, if anything, beyond what's in the dungeon already. That really means they have three options:
Stand and die. In other words, deal with the status quo. Accept whatever losses, and try again to defend themselves from delvers in place.
Reinforce, stand and die. They may possibly be able to heal (not all can), they may possibly multiply, or they may be able to set up better traps, etc. In practice, the only thing that can defeat a delver is a stronger opponent, and all the traps, alarms, and barricades in the world extend the lifespan of those using them by a few seconds or cost the delvers a potion or two.
Run. Take off for parts unknown, or deeper in the dungeon. Take with them what they can.
The players tend to look at all three in descending order of approval. Stand and die is the most popular. Don't use up any treasure, don't spend a coin, don't reinforce. Stay there with their treasure (which rightfully belongs to the PCs, just ask them, no matter what their disadvantages say they generally act this way.)
Reinforcements and rebuilding . . . the players dislike this. They'll gripe about it, mildly, usually, about how it's unfair that the monsters get weeks off between delves to reinforce and make the PCs do the whole defeating them over again. So much so that a considerable amount of time has been spent thinking of how to rest, hidden and safe, in the dungeon while they fully replenish FP, HP, ER, and so on before coming out to start the fight against the monsters before they can really do anything substantial. But they'll live with it, because I make them live with it.
Running . . . clearing out and leaving, especially taking their treasure, isn't popular with the players. But sometimes it's the only sensible reaction. Intelligent monsters won't stick around to just die if there is a better option. I don't apply this as often as I could, mostly because running during encounters is 100% suicidal for enemies who can't outrun Move 20+ (seriously) or become unseen without Invisibility (very, very rare). The PCs will run down and kill anything they possibly can. So running between sessions is often the only way to escape certain demise. Not everything can or will run - and that leaves the other two options.
Again, is this fair? Maybe not. Maybe the PCs have weeks off hurts them, because the monsters leave with their loot. But the PCs get a lot with those weeks off. I think it may not balance out but it's what it is.
Thursday, June 25, 2026
VTT Wish List - Vision Options & Fully Ported Advantages
Here are a few things I wish Foundry VTT with the GURPS Games Aid did:
Limited Vision Option
Vision is 360 by default. It would be lovely - although probably wouldn't make the players happy - if you could only see in the arc you can actually observe based on your disadvantages/advantages. Have Peripheral Vision? Great, you can see a wider area. Have a helmet with No Peripheral Vision? Then you see what your character sees, and probably understand why most people would doff that helmet outside of a direct fight.
Light is also 360 by default. Wearing a light stone on your chest on a strap? It lights up 360 degrees with no blank spots, as it was shining from directly above your head, and went through any and all obstacles. Nothing short of a wall or door obstructs vision. That's too bad, because it means you can't hide small monsters behind big ones, or get a sense of what is hard to see. You get the illusion of total vision yet the GM isn't going to play it that way.
Complete Monster Actors
Monsters are in the VTT, but they aren't wholly there. Advantages don't all port over. Damage Reduction doesn't come into play unless you manually check the box off on each and every hit. Given PCs that hit 2-3 times per PC per turn, this is a slowdown. It also means no monster in the system is to be played with a thorough review of everything they should be able to do, and careful checking to make sure it's implemented correctly on each attack, defense, or damage result. You have to check yourself for weaknesses, follow-up attacks, and so on. It gives the illusion of being good to go but you don't really know if you're doing it right.
Limited Vision Option
Vision is 360 by default. It would be lovely - although probably wouldn't make the players happy - if you could only see in the arc you can actually observe based on your disadvantages/advantages. Have Peripheral Vision? Great, you can see a wider area. Have a helmet with No Peripheral Vision? Then you see what your character sees, and probably understand why most people would doff that helmet outside of a direct fight.
Light is also 360 by default. Wearing a light stone on your chest on a strap? It lights up 360 degrees with no blank spots, as it was shining from directly above your head, and went through any and all obstacles. Nothing short of a wall or door obstructs vision. That's too bad, because it means you can't hide small monsters behind big ones, or get a sense of what is hard to see. You get the illusion of total vision yet the GM isn't going to play it that way.
Complete Monster Actors
Monsters are in the VTT, but they aren't wholly there. Advantages don't all port over. Damage Reduction doesn't come into play unless you manually check the box off on each and every hit. Given PCs that hit 2-3 times per PC per turn, this is a slowdown. It also means no monster in the system is to be played with a thorough review of everything they should be able to do, and careful checking to make sure it's implemented correctly on each attack, defense, or damage result. You have to check yourself for weaknesses, follow-up attacks, and so on. It gives the illusion of being good to go but you don't really know if you're doing it right.
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
GMing Shortcuts in Felltower
Here are some ways we speed up play in DF Felltower.
Marching Order
Have a marching order. This makes things very easy to visualize as people walk around. When a tripwire crossbow trap goes off or a rust monster wanders up or a fight starts, we know where everyone has agreed they are.
Handwaving Leaving the Dungeon
If the PCs agree to go straight back to town, no deviations on their path, no "just check this one thing!" on their way home, and they have a clear and safe path to do so . . . we just handwave the trip back.
If any of those are not true, we play it out. If the PCs are dragging a pile of loot and bodies to strip, a few unconcious buddies over shoulders, swords and shields in no way ready for quick use, etc. - we play it out. Pursued by faster foes? We play it out. Want to stop and check on a door, or toss an enemy prisoner down a pit, etc.? We play it out.
The goal is to speed up the end of the session. We don't do this at the beginning of the session, because so often what's between the PCs and their current stated goal is something that can change the goal. We play out the boring hike into the dungeon; we only skip the return trip if it's definitely going to be event-less. If something might happen . . . we play the game. Oh, and "we've lost the only copy of the map" has happened, and yes, we did play that trip back.
Devolve Tasks to the Players
I don't roll for availability of consumables. I don't price out scrolls. I don't do character encumbrance. I don't update the GCS sheets we upload to Foundry. I don't even upload them to Foundry. The players do all of that. That leaves me time to do any work I need to do for the NPCs and the dungeon, or answer questions.
It's pretty simple stuff, but this cuts some time that isn't dungeon fun out of the actual session.
Marching Order
Have a marching order. This makes things very easy to visualize as people walk around. When a tripwire crossbow trap goes off or a rust monster wanders up or a fight starts, we know where everyone has agreed they are.
Handwaving Leaving the Dungeon
If the PCs agree to go straight back to town, no deviations on their path, no "just check this one thing!" on their way home, and they have a clear and safe path to do so . . . we just handwave the trip back.
If any of those are not true, we play it out. If the PCs are dragging a pile of loot and bodies to strip, a few unconcious buddies over shoulders, swords and shields in no way ready for quick use, etc. - we play it out. Pursued by faster foes? We play it out. Want to stop and check on a door, or toss an enemy prisoner down a pit, etc.? We play it out.
The goal is to speed up the end of the session. We don't do this at the beginning of the session, because so often what's between the PCs and their current stated goal is something that can change the goal. We play out the boring hike into the dungeon; we only skip the return trip if it's definitely going to be event-less. If something might happen . . . we play the game. Oh, and "we've lost the only copy of the map" has happened, and yes, we did play that trip back.
Devolve Tasks to the Players
I don't roll for availability of consumables. I don't price out scrolls. I don't do character encumbrance. I don't update the GCS sheets we upload to Foundry. I don't even upload them to Foundry. The players do all of that. That leaves me time to do any work I need to do for the NPCs and the dungeon, or answer questions.
It's pretty simple stuff, but this cuts some time that isn't dungeon fun out of the actual session.
Monday, June 15, 2026
Rules & Rulings from Session 224
A few things came up in Session 224.
- He probably wasn't seriously fishing for this* but a player asked if the Gorilla Gloves from DFT3 give him any affinity towards apes . . . sense their former presence in the "Apetrium" (a player-named room in the dungeon where they fought killer apes a decade or so back.) No, they may have an affinity towards you from the gloves but it's one way.
- Step for Move 11-20 is 2, for 21-30 is 3. How does that mesh with Committed Attack done for an extra step? I consider all of this additive, not multiplicative. So you get +1 step for CA if you choose the extra step. It's already a lot; it gets out of hand fast if each "step" gets doubled. This lines up with extra attacks from AOA, for example, which gives +1, not a doubling.
- The magical shield bracelet the PCs found gives DB 3. It doesn't create a magical translucent forcefield. Or an opaque one. Or whatever crappy sci-fi/Marvel movie image you're considering. It's a bracelet which gives DB 3 and acts like a shield. It doesn't gain any extra "width" any more than a DB 1 shield with Deflect 2 gains any. It's just magic, take your 3 DB without needing a shield in hand and be happy about it. The hand still needs to be able to block, so no, you can't be holding a bow or a two-handed weapon or whatever and block with it. That hand is effectively occupied, barring the Third Hand perk's benefits.
- It's $100 per item for a mage in town to check if it's magical. You can wait for your mage buddy to ID it when he's around, but he damn well should be charging you $100 per item per guild regulations. Not charging for it in the dungeon is fine, of course, because that's extralegal territory per established Felltower law.
* Although I assume most joking suggestions are more like hopeful suggestions with plausible deniability.
- He probably wasn't seriously fishing for this* but a player asked if the Gorilla Gloves from DFT3 give him any affinity towards apes . . . sense their former presence in the "Apetrium" (a player-named room in the dungeon where they fought killer apes a decade or so back.) No, they may have an affinity towards you from the gloves but it's one way.
- Step for Move 11-20 is 2, for 21-30 is 3. How does that mesh with Committed Attack done for an extra step? I consider all of this additive, not multiplicative. So you get +1 step for CA if you choose the extra step. It's already a lot; it gets out of hand fast if each "step" gets doubled. This lines up with extra attacks from AOA, for example, which gives +1, not a doubling.
- The magical shield bracelet the PCs found gives DB 3. It doesn't create a magical translucent forcefield. Or an opaque one. Or whatever crappy sci-fi/Marvel movie image you're considering. It's a bracelet which gives DB 3 and acts like a shield. It doesn't gain any extra "width" any more than a DB 1 shield with Deflect 2 gains any. It's just magic, take your 3 DB without needing a shield in hand and be happy about it. The hand still needs to be able to block, so no, you can't be holding a bow or a two-handed weapon or whatever and block with it. That hand is effectively occupied, barring the Third Hand perk's benefits.
- It's $100 per item for a mage in town to check if it's magical. You can wait for your mage buddy to ID it when he's around, but he damn well should be charging you $100 per item per guild regulations. Not charging for it in the dungeon is fine, of course, because that's extralegal territory per established Felltower law.
* Although I assume most joking suggestions are more like hopeful suggestions with plausible deniability.
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