Some random little bits:
- I'm reading How to be a GURPS GM by Warren "Mook" Wilson. Pretty solid stuff so far, although since I've been GMing GURPS since its Man-to-Man days, I'm not exactly the target audience. Still, there was a sale, and I had these gift card balances to burn, and I wanted to check it out and see what advice he had I could use or pass on.
I flipped right to the combat chapter. You know what's head-spinningly weird? Having someone recommend combat rules to me that I wrote. It's just . . . weird. Yeah. I don't know how else to describe it. It's just an oddity springing from the fact that a book addresses you, the reader, as the audience. I feel like I have some tiny idea of how it would feel to be Paul McCartney and to read a suggestion that said to learn to play Hey Jude.
I'll try to get a review out for it when I can, though.
- Speaking of it, I also picked up Man-to-Man on PDF, finally. Yes, I have two copies physically already. But now I can print out the cardboard heroes that came with it, and replace the tattered maps with new printouts. Nice.
- I also got some other Pyramid magazines I've gotten to the point of not being able to live without. One of them includes the David Pulver article "Appendix Z: Survivable Guns." I like the concept a lot. Having relatively low-velocity do full damage and high-velocity ones do less but with an armor divisor seems like it would be a lot of fun. It makes the M4 a great way to ensure injury but not ensure a one-shot kill, and makes getting shot a lot less of an exercise in making consciousness rolls.
- I have to try out the Tactical Mass Combat rules, also by David Pulver, in that same issue.
- I finally have a real copy of "Delayed Gratification" by Douglas Cole, to replace my "please read this before I submit this" draft versions.
- I haven't checked out the other stuff yet - if I start reading too much at once, I lose track of what I'm reading and where I read it.
I like HTBAGURPSGM, even if I think its a little more suited to the first time GURPS GM.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that there might be some outakes for a sequel or designers notes article.
One thing that its made me want is a standard form for each location in my adventures that lists all the possible modifiers and I just tick or select the box.
Eg
Spooky cavern
Lighting -x
Terrain slippery etc
That way I might consistantly use some different and more interesting modifiers.
If I ever get around to it i'd do it as a template so I just get asked the questions then I insert the NPCs at the location and get an A5 sheet with the summary.
I haven't read that section yet, but The World Largest Dungeon had cards like that, and on my list of things to do was make some. That way I could use the standardized conditions, and possibly pass them out to players once they became obvious so no one forgets to take their penalties or bonuses. Hah. Like they ever forget the second one.
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