I only had a very short time tonight to work on game stuff, so the blog drew the short straw. I spent it:
- Making some tokens for future GURPS DF Felltower sessions. TokenStamp is very useful.
- Had to make some map modifications as I'd found I didn't properly line something up between my description and my actual map. I liked the description better so I needed to move something! It was a new area, and affects nothing, not for a while . . . but it was bugging me so I got out the eraser and stencils and ruler and fixed the mismatch. My players will read this and probably debate endlessly what I must have changed.
- I filled out the dungeon key with some more details.
- I stocked ahead. It is tough to figure out what monsters go where - I'm jealous of those old level-based random tables for AD&D . . . it would be handy to just roll some up. But it'll take more work to generate the tables than to just pick stuff!
I'm ready for Sunday, but we'll see what else I can cram in before game.
Would it be that hard? Aren't GURPS power levels linear such that you could go by point value? Except I guess you said you don't calculate the point values of your monsters. It seems it would be easier than AD&D if you had that information since monster levels in AD&D are kind of educated guess (based on HD, special abilities, unusually high or low damage, etc) followed by check and adjust. Deciding a monster belongs on the level VII or VIII or IX table is more about comparing to monsters already put on those tables by Gary Gygax than actually calculating toughness, but GURPS has reliable ways to calculate the toughness of a foe. Also, I've wanted to know how well do point values stack in GURPS? Would 3 * 100 pt foes be comparable to a single 300 pt foe or 6 * 50 pt foes?
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard - the issue is, a point is a point is a point for spending, but not for results of that spending. So +50 points on a PC can mean very different things for combat power, utility, survivability, social ability, etc. It all depends on how they spend them.
DeleteAnd points don't really stack well - I'd rather have one 500 point guy than two 250 point guys . . . in general. But two 250s can beat a 500 if the tactical situation favors them, or a 500 can beat down a large group of 250s if the situation favors that guy. And it all depends, again, on how the points are spent.
So while I think the combat power gauge that Christopher Rice came up with is neat and helpful, it's not an answer to the problem. Sadly.