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Thursday, April 28, 2016

Cheap Lousy Sacks for DF

I mentioned that a frequented topic in my group are the vastly overpriced sacks of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. $30 and 3 pounds of weight? Crazy! That it can hold 40 pounds without the GM saying, sorry, your bag ripped because you put too much in it, well, that's a non-starter. They should be cheaper.

So what about cheap junk, can you get some? Seems reasonable. I'm always happy to let players cheap out on the gear they use to stow their weapons and carry their treasure.

Now you can.


Flimsy: Any container or combat accessory. Halves HP (round up). In addition, in stressful conditions (loaded more than 50%, running at move than half move, moving through snagging brush, grappled, etc.), roll for breakage against the item's HT 10. On a failure, the item has suffered damage and HT is reduced by 1; repeated failures are cumulative. On a failure by 3+, the container or accessory rips or breaks and is useless! -0.6 CF.

Awkward: Any container or combat accessory. Ergonomically poor and badly designed, these items give a -1 to routine use of the item and -1 DX overall in when in active use. -0.6 CF.


Those can be combined, for a total -0.8 CF.

Flimsy comes from my experience with cheap bags - they work, and work well, for a short period of time, as long as you don't push them. Awkward comes from every bag I have that has handles that just don't adjust right, has a shoulder pad that doesn't grip when it's properly loaded, or has handles that cut and tear into your hands instead of resting in them well. You can get a cheap, awkward chain lanyard for $3, for example, but it's -1 DX on your wrist (damn thing keeps snagging and sliding around), -1 to Fast-Draw and fighting (it's not well designed), and it's easy to break (HP 3). Or you can get cheap, awkward sacks for your henchmen at $6 per, and they'll be fine as long as you walk slowly out of the dungeon and don't need to climb, swim, jump, or run.

Both of those should apply automatically to the standard "improvised stretcher," too - you know, the one made out of two "nearby saplings" or orc spears and someone's shirt or a cloak and "I must have some string or spare bootlaces in Personal Basics." Also sacks made out of shirts, vine baskets woven by the PC of the guy who says "I did it once in camp, it's easy," and so on. Especially if the PCs are in a hurry and dedicate all of 5 minutes, tops, to assembling them. If you prefer to leave this up to skill, apply a penalty to the skill roll use to assemble the item. On a failure, you get one awkward or flimsy. On a failure by 3+, you get both. Better to use good materials and the Time Spent rules from p. B346.

And to the guy who knows this post is about him, sorry. It had to be done. I'll seriously use these, though.

10 comments:

  1. "Some players have it coming."
    "We all have it coming, kid."

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    1. I was thinking more of "There are two kinds of sacks in this world, friend . . . "

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  2. Good content; I was working on my own sack/backpack thing recently. I'll keep these in mind!

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    1. Thanks! Glad you liked it, feel free to riff off of it.

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  3. I'd also allow Cheap (from High Tech)...

    And I can't believe your Players aren't asking for Crude sacks! Who cares if you can't resell it?

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    1. It's a weapons and armor mod only for a reason!

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    2. So was Cheap when it first showed up... ;)

      Personally I'd allow it (not for expendable gear, only "permanent" gear). Want to equip like a Barbarian? Get treated like one. And it's only -.2CF, which is less than Cheap and has easier to adjudicate penalties (for gear and gadgets anyway). I'd also limit it from being able to apply to anything under Special Orders, Concoctions, and (obviously) Magic Items.

      But it does mean that Cheap, Crude, Flimsy, Awkward Sacks are almost free (I'd eyeball that combo at -.99 CF) ...

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    3. That's the problem - crude implies something entirely different than "poorly made." And for things like sacks and bags, it's going to be almost pure upside. Stow it most of the time, take out the bag only when you're dragging extra treasure home, don't have the guy who sells the stuff bring the bags to the sale. So yeah, as the guy who wrote Crude, I disapprove of that extension. It's not a good use of the mod.

      Adding Cheap to Flimsy and Awkward is also a bad idea. You'll notice that Flimsy is basically Cheap with extra rules about when to roll HT. So stacking them is like stacking "Cheap" or "Fine" twice. Not what's intended.

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    4. Hmmm. True. Alright, you've swayed me.

      Not that it matters much, I've never actually heard the complaint "Sacks are too expensive" anywhere but in your blog. ;)

      My Players prefer to buy extra backpacks because, and I quote, "Backpacks are easier to carry." They also tend to get either wagons or pack beasts and hirelings to guard them (the wagon or pack beasts) back at the base camp.

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    5. It just comes up whenever the price comes up. I figured, well, if you want cheaper I'll give you some rules for why they're $30 normally . . .

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