Close Combat Defenses - Basic Set vs. Martial Arts

The Long Weapons in Close Combat rules in GURPS Martial Arts are a gamechanger.

In the Basic Set rules (and as far as I can tell, in DFRPG), your close combat defenses pretty much run as follows:

- Parry with a "C" reach weapon or bare-handed
- Dodge

You can Retreat to aid those, if possible.

That's it, per B391-392.

Nothing in Basic Set says you get your normal defenses on the second someone steps into Close Combat with you. Nor does it say that if you Retreat you get your full, normal defenses.

If you add in the rules in GURPS Martial Arts, things change for the defender a lot.


With those rules in play, the defender, per GURPS Martial Arts. p. 117:

- defends normally against attacks when the attacker initially steps into close combat;

- can start a turn in close combat with a foe, Retreat against that same foe's attack, and claim full Parry as if neither was ever in close combat;

- can Parry with a Reach 1+ weapon with a penalty depending on the maximum reach of the weapon used;

- can Parry with a "C" reach weapon or bare-handed with no additional penalty;

- can Dodge.

This is a dramatic increase in ability. Now, your two-handed sword wielding Knight is only at a -4 to Parry in close combat, not unable to, and is at a net +1 to Parry if they can retreat (ignore the -4 and take the +1). That's not nothing to a starting Knight, but it's still not bad - Two-Handed Sword-20 and Combat Reflexes is Parry 14, so a 10 . . . where in Basic Set (and DFRPG) you'd have no parry and be forced to Dodge. Against unarmed foes, too, instead of just getting out of their way if you can, you also get a very solid chance to stop their attack and wound them in the process.

Jumped by a Demon From Between the Stars? Parry on a 14 or less turn 1, 10 or less turn 2+, assuming you can't Retreat. Maybe hack its arm off on each one of those.

Without the rules from GURPS Martial Arts? Dodge and Retreat if you can . . . and just Dodge if not. If you pull that off, your foe just misses and isn't carved up on an armed parry.

Big difference.

Don't think I'm saying the rules in GURPS Martial Arts aren't good, logical, sensible, and defensible. I think they are all of those. But they do really tilt the playing field heavily to the defender. The attacker gives up a lot to get to close combat, and to attack in close combat. Unless the defender chooses to stay there or is completely unable to move away with a Retreat, the attacker gains little in return except the ability to attack with a "C" reach weapon.

In a game like DF, where PCs skills are very high - a low fighter weapon skill is an 18, and 20 is entry-level for a lot of templates - the penalties involved just aren't a big deal.

I've, anecdotally, seen PCs stay in close combat and melee with Reach 1 and Reach 1,2 weapons because they wanted to be in that hex no matter what . . . shrugging off a -2 or -4 to Parry as the cost of doing business. This is especially common when the damage penalty for using a weapon in close combat is forgotten . . . which happens often. It rarely is self-enforced. So generally, a Reach 1,2 weapon is -8 to hit, -4 to parry, no penalty to damage in practice.

Keep in mind, therefore, that implementing these rules makes for a very big change. Know it when you choose to do so!

GURPS 101: Item/Spell Effects or Creature Weaknesses?

In some game systems, spells and items will have special effects against certain creatures - more damage against evil beings, or undead, or living things, or golems and robots, or . . . whatever.

In GURPS, the standard is that creatures are all equally affected by the effect, unless they have a special Weakness or Vulnerability. In other words, fire doesn't do extra damage to "dry" beings, but requires that the "dry" creatures have a disadvantage that makes them more vulnerable. Holy water is just water to everyone - even unholy creatures - unless they're specifically written up to be weak to holy water or holy objects.

For example, the Sunlight spell does exactly what the name implies - it creates sunlight. That sunlight is perfectly ordinary - it doesn't do special damage to undead, or evil creatures, or creatures of shadow, or anything like that. But creatues such as vampires, or demons, or shadow creatures may have a Weakness that causes them to take damage from sunlight. Against them, the spell has an effect - but really, it's an effect of the Weakness, not the spell.

This is a small point, but it's a critical one to note. Don't expect your spell, item, or power to do anything special, unless your target is especially vulnerable or weak against it!

GURPS 101 - When to use magic?

Yesterday I blogged about when to use magic in AD&D.

What about GURPS Dungeon Fantasy?

Here is a basic overview which might prove helpful to newer players or provoke some thought in vets.

When to use spells in GURPS

Spells in GURPS have a major advantage - you can use them quite freely. You're not limited by a number of spells you can cast, but only by your skill - which limits the spells you can keep active - and your energy.

Since your energy can be recovered during rest - or by drinking paut, or by time alone (for an Energy Reserve), there really isn't a useful maximum on spells. Spells tend to be more limited in effect than in limited-spell-use systems, but can be very effective for all of that. They tend to last effectively longer, too - 60 combat turns is a common. It's vastly easier to buff combatants than to weaken or kill foes, and much easier to reshape the battlefield with area-effect magic than to directly affect enemies on it.

Potions have longer effects - an hour is typical.

In other words, spellcasters tend to use magic often and steadily throughout all situations. If you have a spell that can solve a problem, you can generally use it to always solve that problem, over and over. There is rarely a need to restrain yourself - given Levitation, climbing is only for those skilled at climbing. Given Shape Earth, digging is only for cases where the hole isn't in earth. Given Silence, you never need to risk noise unless you don't care to conceal your noisy door-bashing and gate-spiking. Spells like Explosive Fireball or Great Haste or Invisibility can be used repeatedly, during the same fight, and every fight - you can essentially depend on magical fire support or magical buffing as long as your mage is conscious. Energy limitations might cut how much of an effect, but for DF-level wizards, it's rare to be unable to cast a spell at all.

Only high individual costs or time constraints practically limit the utility use of magic. The only real barrier is cost to maintain - which may add up for big spells - and spells "on" penalties, which may increase the chance of a critical failure. Even then, often wizards have a greater net chance of a critical success than a failure. Cast away!

When to use magical healing

In GURPS DF, healing is generally best done as early as possible. Unlike offensive spells, healing spells are uniformly powerful. It's much harder to kill with magic alone in GURPS than to heal with magic alone. And the magic needed to slay a foe is costly and unreliable, while that to heal one is relatively inexpensive and reliable. For true nicks and scratches - wounds that are below a single maximum healing from Minor Healing - it's generally worth leaving them alone unless further combat is not expected. In that case, heal up quickly.

For heavier wounds, it's best done as early as possible.

Since healing results change with HP, it's tempting to knock off a few points with a lower-energy casting, but more valuable to hold it until later. A knight with 20 HP - easy for a starting character - can be healed 16 HP for 4 energy base cost with Major Healing. You're better off waiting until the knight takes a nasty, heavy blow and then heal it on the spot. Healing is fast, it's easily done in combat, and you can do it repeatedly.
(Editing later: in combat, of course, wounds that cause crippling, threaten unconsciousness, or reduce Move and Dodge should be healed immediately - doing so can be disproportionally valuable even if they don't really maximize the healing-to-cost of doing so.)
Healing suffers from a cumulative -3 for repeated castings, but DF delvers are highly skilled - your basic cleric will have 15+ in most spells, and getting to 19-20+ in all of them is easily done. So casting at a 15, 12, 9 isn't a problem - or 20, 17, 14, 11. Each spell has its own cascade, so get 2-3 different spells going (Minor Healing, Major Healing, Great Heal), plus healing potions (no penalty cascade) and Faith Healing, on top of difficulty in dying, and that 20 HP knight takes far more than 120 HP of injury to kill for sure. A bad roll can kill you, but it's hard to go down and stay down.

Between fights, getting everyone to full just requires time - a few seconds to cast, minutes to recover energy through rest. That can be sped up with cash by purchasing paut and using it. Given a relatively short time, you can heal up almost anything. Given more than 24 hours and you should generally be able to take anyone from nearly automatically dead to fine. Recovery doesn't really require rest with a PC-class cleric. It's a rare case where you need to "ration" spells between characters.

Essentially, healing should allow you to recover quickly from any fight you can win. Only broken limbs and dismemberments really slow you down - and not even then, given sufficient energy, not even then.

GURPS 101: Fighting Ghosts in DF

Occasionally in DF, you'll run into foes that are completely insubstantial, and which cannot be affected by normal weaponry.

Here are some ways to attempt to deal with them.

Make weapons affect it

This is the adventurer standby in my games. My players are so enamored of Affect Spirits that they'll use it on weapons against anything that they either fail to hit or fail to hurt with magical weapons. It's a cheap and easy spell once you have it.

The Ghost Weapon enchantment will allow for a permanent way to carry this on a given weapon.

This has few downsides. The ones that PCs encounter most often are creatures that are unaffected by weapons over and above their Insubstantial advantage, and ones that cannot be killed in a normal sense. For those, even Affect Spirits isn't going to do the job. Some ghost types may be temporarily banished or dispersed by appropriate weapons but may not

Foes that are both Insubstantial and Diffuse will be affected by this spell but even so, it just will take longer.

Make it tangible.

A much less used option is a spell like Materialize. It's slow and expensive. 1 minute isn't terrible, but 50/10 cost is.

Attack it immaterially

Not all undead are immune to Mind Control spells or Communication and Empathy spells. Directly affecting it with spells which do not require a physical form can work. Will-resisted spells aren't a good bet against willful spirits, however, and some ghosts are of slain wizard-types and retain a lot of IQ. But it might be your best way to approach the problem offensively.

Actually deal with them

As in, a deal deal. Find out what's causing the spirit to do its haunting best, and appease its anger by solving the problem. Stop robbing the tomb, put back the things you stole, bury the bones in holy ground, lay it to rest, kill the murderer who killed the victim, etc. This can get awkward - what if the ghost's murderer is dead and the ghost wants the murderer's kid killed? Probably not high up on the list of ways to stay on the side of good. But it's worth attempting this where you think it's possible. Psychology (Undead) is useful here. Hidden Lore (Undead), not as much - it might tell you this type of undead is one you can negotiate with, but not how to go about doing it in a practical way.

This takes a solid amount of roleplaying and clue-assembling in many cases, but also might need appropriate social skills. This isn't the time for your half-orc barbarian with Callous to talk to the ghost, it's probably time for your bard or whatever you have that's close to one.



Some methods flat-out don't work.

Pray for Criticals

The old swing-until-I-get-a-3. That just won't work if your weapons won't affect it. I've seen this done.

Explosive Spells and Air Spells

Players sometimes mistake Insubstantial for "easily dispersed by wind." Not even all smoke-like monsters with Diffuse take extra damage from air currents, so Shape Air isn't an effective way to deal with them. Ghost-types are that plus generally won't be harmed by physical spells anyway. Same goes for holy water - unless it's affected specifically by it, it's unlikely to do much more than pass through the space the ghost is transiting through.

Banish it

The Banish spell may work if it's a summoned spirit from another realm. If it's a native haunt of a slain but vengeful person . . . this spell is literally useless to affect it.

Similarly, other spells which affect other things - Turn Zombie, say - are not automatically able to affect ghosts.

GURPS 101: Monday morning quarterbacking the Session 115 fights

We had a few fights in Session 115 of Felltower.

Generally, I just adjudicate fights. You're doing well, you're struggling, whatever, I just say what happens and have the NPCs fight as hard as they can. Or as hard as is appropriate, more accurately. I do my level best to kill the PCs, maim the PCs, dissuade the PCs, or escape the PCs - depending on the nature of the foe. And if sensible (or morale-limited) foes falter, I have them do that, too.

I don't give advice to the players. I expect you to learn the rules, because doing so makes you a better player and also a better co-player to those who'll pick up the slack if you don't.

That said, I saw a lot of "opportunities" in the past session.

Several times, Dryst used Lightning to injure - but mostly to stun - some of the flame lords.

Those stunned flame lords had flanked Mild Bruce and Crogar. Both Mild Bruce and Crogar were in easy position to step back out of their surrounded positions, attain a better defensive position, and strike their Stunned foes.

Stunned is a condition in GURPS that gives -4 to Active Defenses and doesn't allow you to Retreat. In addition, recovery from Stunning is done at the end of a turn - so any foes attacked in this fashion couldn't strike back.

Instead, both Mild Bruce and Crogar attempted to attack fully aware, active combatants.

I understand the feeling - keep the active fighters engaged. Don't throw away a good position for a chance to finish a wounded foe. All too often we've seen someone break formation to "finish" a foe but cost a the party's integrity and position.

But in this case, it would have just been applying a combination of two factors:

- local superiority

- superior position.

By local superiority, I mean the concentration of force against a weakened foe. Dryst stuns it, another PCs steps in and finishes off the wounded foe. If not finishes off, instead of needing to use a Feint, or a steep Deceptive Attack, or both, the attacking PC would benefit from a -4 to defenses from the defender. Gang up on a weakened foe - don't stun a foe so you can swing away at a strong foe without risk, stun a foe so you can end that foe as a threat and then move on to the next one.

By superior position, I mean giving up a flank attack against yourself to foe the enemy to fight down a narrow channel towards you. This can be a deathtrap if your foe is capable of filling said channel with area attacks. If the foe is weakened to only using low-damage, high-risk attacks, then you want to force them to minimize their numbers while you maximize yours.

Instead, the PCs chose to just "divide and conquer" - you know, divide up, and hope to conquer. But "divide and conquer" as a strategy is to divide the foe and focus local superiority of numbers and position onto each one of them in turn, allowing a defeat in detail.

So I took the time after the session to speak to Mild Bruce's player (an adult, if a young one) and Crogar's dad's player (an adult, since Crogar's player is quite young). Mild Bruce will keep in mind what he missed through myopic focus on a particularly annoying foe. Crogar's player's dad is thinking of just gaming out some fights.

Learning game skill is helpful. Learing to see a tactical situation and discern how to take it apart to your advantage - that's gold in and out of game.

GURPS 101: Stunning

What's GURPS 101? Just basic explanations of the GURPS rules as written, in an attempt to make a specific topic clear to someone just getting used to the game. Or, as a refresher for more experienced players and GMs who may have changed or forgotten some of those rules. Any house rules and optional rules on the subject will be in a followup post.

Last week I wrote a GURPS 101 post about Knockdown and Stunning and consciousness rolling when wounded. It was rightly pointed out, though, that stunning and knockdown and stunning are not always the same. Nothing in the previous post said they were, but it's an easy enough mistake to make to think that "stunning" always means "use the Knockdown and Stunning rules." Therefore, here is a look at Stunning.

Stunning

Stunning is defined in GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (p. B420), right after Knockdown and Stunning. They can be easily confused with each other or conflates, but they aren't the same.

Stunning is a condition of restricted actions and reduced defenses. How does it occur? "A failed knockdown roll can cause “stun,” as can certain critical hit results and some afflictions." That isn't an exhaustive list - some spells can cause stunning, for example, without being an affliction per se. The sources are physical, or supernatural effects which cause a physical stunning effect.

Note that first phrase especially - a failed knockdown roll causes stunning (putting aside any immunities to stunning.) Get knocked down, get stunned or (if you roll badly enough) fall unconscious. Get stunned, and you do not automatically fall down.

Stunning recovery is a HT roll. There are generally no bonuses or penalties from advantages or disadvantages except for those that specifically add to all HT rolls, such as Fit or Very Fit. Some spells, and some powers (such as a stunning surge from a lightning-based attack) can inflict penalties.

Mental Stun works just like stunning. It represents confusion or mental shock or surprise, and can come about from Surprise Attacks and Initiative (p. B393), some spells or afflictions, Fright Check rolls, and other non-physical sources. Unlike normal stunning, your roll is IQ based, and it's not uncommon to have penalties or bonuses (such as the cumulative bonus to recover from surprise - see p. B393) to the roll. The effects of mental stunning are exactly the same as normal stunning.


Hopefully that clears up any confusion about stunning and knockdown and how they interact. Again, in short, you get stunned (or knocked out!) from a Knockdown and Stunning roll, but you can get Stunned without getting knocked down!

GURPS 101: Stunning and Knockdown and consciousness rolls

GURPS has two broad circumstances where you roll against HT in combat to stay active and effect - avoiding unconsciousness (see General Injury: Lost Hit Points, p. B419) and Stunning and Knockdown, p. B420.

This GURPS 101 looks at these and gives some examples to make it clear how they affect you. They might change your mind about how much HT you need, as well!

Going Unconscious

When your HP reach 0 or below, you must make a HT roll at the start of your next turn or fall unconscious. At -1xHP, you roll at -1, at -2xHP it's -2, down to -4 at -4xHP. At -5xHP, you're dead, so you don't get to roll.

Note that this roll occurs on the turn of the injured person, not when they are injured. In other words, if A attacks C and puts him to 0 HP or below, and then B attacks C and puts him to -1xHP, on C's next turn C rolls once against HT-1 to stay conscious.

Going unconscious in a fight is mostly a clear-cut bad thing; you're out of the fight and at the mercy of the rest of the combatants. On the other hand, if you're very injured it can be better to pass out and give your foes a chance to move on and not keep beating on you. Foes with Bloodlust and animals seeking to devour you, though, taking away that small grace.

"You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up!"
- The Parrot Sketch, Monty Python's Flying Circus

Stunning and Knockdown

Unlike rolls to stay conscious, rolls against Stunning and Knockdown are rolled immediately, along with the injury inflicted.

This can get a little tricky; remember that stunning and knockdown is one roll. If you're stunned, you also drop prone (and drop whatever you're holding.)

When to Roll:

Roll for:

- any major wound (injury in a single blow equal to more than HP/2); or
- any crippling injury (see (Effects of Crippling Injury, p. 421); or
- any injury to the head (skull, face, or eye) that causes a shock penalty; or
- any injury to the vitals that causes a shock penalty.

"Causes a shock penalty" effectively means (HP/10, round down) injury. It doesn't matter if you actually suffer shock penalties or not (thanks to High Pain Threshold), you must still roll if the damage is sufficient to have inflicted a penalty. High Pain Threshold does provide a +3 to the roll, and you don't take any shock penalty, but you can still be stunned or knocked out. And since it's possible that you could be knocked unconscious from this roll, Hard to Subdue provides a +1 per level to resist Stunning and Knockdown.*

Major wounds to the face or vitals are a -5, skull and eye major wounds are at -10. Also, it's important to remember at a failure by 5+ causes unconsciousness, not just stunning!

Those under the effects of the Berserk disadvantage are immune to stun; they still roll, however, with a +4, and only a failure by 5+ affects them at all, by knocking them out!* Those with Injury Tolerance that effectively removes some hit locations remove the special penalties for those locations - No Brain means never rolling at a -10 for a major wound to the skull, for example.

When you're stunned, you must Do Nothing and then roll at the end of your turn to recover (per Effects of Stun, p. B420). If you succeed, you are no longer stunned. If you fail, your turn ends and you must do the same on the turn following. (Special 3e alert - the roll used to be at the beginning of the turn, so if you recovered you could also act. This is not true in 4e!)

Example: Hjalmarr has HT 13, HP 20, and High Pain Threshold. His foe stabs him in the face and the vitals with a pair of attacks on a single turn. The stab to the face does 2 HP, just enough to inflict shock. Hjalmarr must immediately roll against HT 13 + 3 (High Pain Threshold) = 16 to stay conscious. He rolls a 12 and makes it. The stab to the vitals inflicts 12 injury, enough for a major wound. Hjalmarr must roll against HT 13 + 3 (High Pain Threshold) -5 (major wound to the vitals) = 11 to avoid stunning. He rolls a 15 - failure by 4. He's stunned and knocked down. Had he rolled a 16+, he'd have been knocked out! Instead he just drops prone, and his axe and shield** tumble from his hands. On his next turn, he must Do Nothing and will roll against his HT (with no special bonuses or penalties) at the end of the turn to recover from stun. He'll be unable to retaliate for at least one second!

So a major wound to the skull or eye is at -10. Even your HT 15 monster with High Pain Threshold rolls is rolling against an 8 to avoid stunning, and on a 13 or higher (failure by 5) you are knocked out. An average person (HT 10) would be rolling against a 0 - you're stunned on any roll and pass out on a 5+. With an injury multiplier of x4, this means even a low amount of penetrating damage to the skull or eye can incapacitate a foe!

Note that

The penalty for staying conscious at -1xHP (below) does not apply to Knockdown and Stunning; while that might make an interesting house rule it's not the RAW.*




* These were confirmed with Reverend Pee Kitty, Assistant GURPS Line Editor

** Clearly a buckler, since you only drop what you are holding.

GURPS 101: Basic Damage, Penetrating Damage, and Injury

I've been meaning to post this for a while. A lot of people mix up three terms in GURPS as if they were one - basic damage, penetrating damage, and injury. I do this sometimes, too, using "damage" to mean all three. Worse yet, I also toss in "damage past DR" as if it was a term of art and then adding in "HPs of damage" or "hit points lost" or "hit points inflicted." The trouble is that if you go reading the rules, you end up with questions that the correct terms answer in and of themselves. Like, does "triple damage" mean before or after DR? If a blow does "half damage" what are you halving, the roll or the damage? Is it before or after wound modifiers that you determine crippling? The rule says "take 1d-3 injury" or "lose 1 HP" - does my DR count? And so on.

This is all out of GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns, p. 377-381.



Basic damage is the result of your damage roll.

Penetrating damage is your basic damage minus any DR that applies to that attack.

Injury is penetrating damage after you apply any wounding modifiers.

Got that?

Here are a couple examples:

Otto (ST 15) swings his Broadsword and hits a normal human foe wearing mail armor (DR 4, 2 versus crushing) in the torso. His damage roll is 2d+2 cutting; he rolls two ones, getting a total of 2 + 2 = 4 basic damage. His foe's DR 4 reduces that to 0, so he has 0 penetrating damage and thus inflicts 0 injury.

He swings again and hits again, and this time rolls a six and a three, getting a total of 9+2 = 11 basic damage. His foe's DR 4 reduces this to 7 penetrating damage. The multiplier for a cutting weapon against the torso is 1.5x; 7 x 1.5 = 10.5, which rounds down (per p. B379) to 10 injury. That's how many HP his foe loses.

If his foe got back up as a zombie (with Injury Tolerance: Unliving) and Otto foolishly chose to stab him, it wouldn't work out as well. Let's see how that goes:

Otto hits his re-risen foe with a stab to the torso. His damage roll for a thrust is 1d+3 impaling. He rolls a four, getting a total of 4 + 3 = 7 basic damage. Sadly, the mail of the zombie is still worth DR 4, and Otto's 7 basic damage becomes 7 - 4 = 3 penetrating damage. The zombie's Injury Tolerance makes the wounding modifier for impaling only x1, so Otto only inflicts 3 injury.


Going back to those questions, it's pretty clear what they intend. Triple damage critical? It triples basic damage; make that damage roll and multiply it times three. Half damage? Roll the damage roll and halve it. Crippling is after wounding modifiers, since only injury is actual HP loss. And if something says "take injury" or "lose 1 HP," it just comes off your HP, since DR protects against damage, not injury.

GURPS 101: Patching Holes (Poison, Disease, Influence Rolls)

The GURPS 101: Patching Holes series is meant to help players avoid specific weaknesses on their characters. It also is intended to help players identify a series of increasingly broad and effective solutions to a specific vulnerability or issue.

Today, three scourges of player characters: poison, disease, and influence rolls.

Poison

Getting poisoned can be dangerous - the cyclical damage might be low, but it just keeps coming. Many of them come with penalties to resist, often very steep penalties.

Narrow Solution Resistance to Poison (+3) [5] or (+8) [7]. For the fraction of a +1 to HT, you can get a much better HT roll versus poisons. Be warned: some poisons have no resistance check. Without Immunity to Poison, you're just suffering from the negative effects from those, no roll.

Wider Solution: Higher HT. At 10/level, it's a +1 to resistance checks against poisons that come with resistance (many of them). This more broadly impacts your character in any case. Combine with the narrow solution if immunity is out of the question but you need to beef up your resistance.

Complete Solution: Immunity to Poison [15] or Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30] are the way to go. These are generally available for robots, androids, silicon lifeforms, and so on, but it's not always available for "normal" folks.

Disease

Like poison, disease can be a grinding death.

Narrow Solution: Resistant to Disease (+3) [3] or +8 [5]. Like poisons, some diseases won't come with a resistance roll, and some might come with race-specific penalties as well.

Wider Solution: Higher HT.

Complete Solution: Immunity to Disease [10] or Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], if they are available.

Influence Rolls

One upside of being a PC is that social skills inflict penalties, they don't inflict reactions. Still, it can be annoying to have to suck up a -5 because someone Fast-Talked you and you want to ignore it and search him anyway, or Intimidated you but you don't want to give in to the fear.

Narrow Solution: Increase Will, at 5/level. This will help against and Skill vs. Will contest centered on social skills.

Technically, Fearlessness [2/level] is the narrowest solution, but it only helps against Intimidation. It's mighty effective against that, however, as it subtracts from the roll against you and adds to your Will to resist, make it twice as effective.

Wider Solution: Indomitable [15] is the next tier up. Unless someone has the appropriate Empathy ability (Empathy, Animal Empathy, Plant Empathy, or Spirit Empathy), influence rolls automatically fail.

Complete Solution: There isn't really one. Combine high Will with Indomitable, but know it's still possible for you to be influenced!

GURPS 101: Patching Holes - Don't Over-Patch

The GURPS 101: Patching Holes series is meant to help players avoid specific weaknesses on their characters. It also is intended to help players identify a series of increasingly broad and effective solutions to a specific vulnerability or issue.

This post is meant to tell you when not to "patch holes" in this fashion. And it's meant to address some of the issues that come from over-doing "patching" by getting too focused on the specific problem.

A "hole" is a specific weakness a character has. Especially if that weakness isn't intentionally built into the character but represents a poor choice by the player. Or it represents a misunderstanding of how to lower your vulnerability to that particular issue.

Don't Patch Everything!

First off, a character with no holes, no vulnerabilities, no disadvantages to lead him astray, and no weaknesses to anything specific is either one of two things: boring, or equally mediocre at everything for a given point level.

Secondly, if you have many holes to patch, you need to start looking at broad solutions to the problem. If you're weak against death, resisted magical spells, disease, poison, and consciousness rolls, plus you're often stunned and knocked down, you need HT. You don't need Hard to Kill, Magic Resistance, Resistant to Poison, Resistant to Disease, Hard to Subdue, plus High Pain Threshold. You need a higher HT. You may also want one or more of those, but you've lost sight of the forest because of your focus on the trees.

Generally, if you have two or more "patches" that have the same root attribute, secondary characteristic, or advantage at their base, consider just improving the base. If you have three or more, you almost certainly are better off improving the base!

I see this pretty often - HT 13 [30] with Hard to Kill 2 [4], Hard to Subdue 2 [4], and Fit [5] - for a net HT 16 for either rolls to avoid death or a base 16 to resist unconsciousness. That's more useful in a narrow sense than, say, one more point of HT for a HT 14 [40] and Fit [5] and slightly cheaper, too. But it's also less broadly effective - you gain one point on each of the two specific rolls you bought advantages for, but give up a +1 to everything that involves HT and 0.25 added to your Speed, as well.

In a phrase, don't over-patch. Don't be overly focused on improving one area.

Don't Patch Too Deeply

This is a related issue - trying to ensure you cover too many cases, or one case too deeply. Sometimes it's a case of not realizing when you've past "cost effective" into "wasting points" - a real issue in a point-buy game system!

Too much.

If Fearlessness 1 is useful, then 3 is better and 5 is great. Why stop there - 10, 15, 20!

No, stop there.

You want enough of a trait to either make the weakness go away entirely, or make it less of a weakness. Only patch enough to make the character do the thing you want to do better, better.

If you want a complete solution, go for that. Don't spend more points on the narrow solution or the wide solution than you could get if you just bought the complete solution. This isn't to say Fearlessness 10 [20] is useless, for example. But it's definitely less useful than Unfazeable [15]. It's not as useful as Unfazeable [15] with Fearlessness 2 [4] just for those Cosmic Terror-having elder things the GM keeps having pop up out of R'lyeh in front of you.

That said, as a GM I deploy plenty of monsters with Magic Resistance 10. That's a very high, very specific countermeasure. I don't use anything higher - it's more point efficient, and therefore a better choice to retain fidelity to the game rules - to buy immunity-type powers instead!

Too many layers. Defense in depth is a great battle strategy - don't pile everything on the front line and hope no one breaks through. Instead layer your defense so what penetrates the first layer must penetrate a second line before it can move on.

Don't try to make sure you have kick after kick at the can for everything. If you really want a do-over if things go poorly, buy Luck [15] and just get a do-over. That kind of defense in depth is generally superior to layering many different bonuses or many different chances to accomplish the same defensive goal.

This is also the Perfect Defense Fallacy in action. With a limited point budget, anything you spend ensuring that even edge cases don't affect you, or to ensure that you've got a fallback for your fallback, comes out of your broader capabilities. Generally this results in a hole elsewhere. For example, a character with near-perfect combat defenses who is no less vulnerable to magic than a man off the street. Or a character with total resistance to magical domination but a gigantic hole in the form of a (6) self-control roll on an easily exploited disadvantage.

Plus GURPS rarely allows for total and automatic success in an adventuring situation. If it's worth seeing if you can succeed or fail, generally a 17-18 will always fail. Or a 3-4 will always succeed, and might get past your "perfect" defenses. Will 20 is nice, but a 3 on a Will-resisted spell against you automatically overcomes your resistance (p. B241). Don't make the perfect be the enemy of being a capable character elsewhere.

Don't get caught in this trap:

Step 1: Ensure total and perfect immunity to everything.

Step 2: Game ended before I could achieve Step 1.




A word on house rules.

GURPS 101, for me, isn't about house rules or clever solutions. It's the basics you really need to know as a new player, but don't always realize until later.

That said, I expect a lot of comments about a specific house rule on this post, so I want to address them right away.

Some groups house rule that you can "trade in" combinations of secondary characteristics for a higher level of a base stat. The most common example is Striking ST 1 [5], Lifting ST 1 [3], and 1 HP [2] for one point of ST [10], as they're almost identical in function. But this isn't a rule in Basic Set. Not only that, but some traits don't combine so well. Hard to Kill 1 [2], Hard to Subdue 1 [2], and FP 1 [3], plus an extra 3 points seems like it adds up to one point of HT [10], but it doesn't - the problem is that Hard to Kill comes with an additional capability - appearing dead while alive and unconscious - that is not rolled into HT at all. A character "trading in" in this manner is actually giving up an ability. So be careful making partial purchases to patch a hole on the expectation you can "trade up" to a better base ability. Only do so if the GM and other players have agreed on this approach before you start buying.

GURPS 101: Patching Holes (Death, Fear, and more)

Sometimes players leave gaping holes on their GURPS characters.

Sometimes it's assumption - I have high ST, DX, and combat skills, so I'm probably hard to scare. My guy has great Will, so his disadvantages won't bother him so much. And so on.

Sometimes it's just not realizing that GURPS requires specific coverage of certain areas if you want to be good at them. If you come from a game that merges concepts that GURPS splits out, or splits out ones that GURPS merges, you can get stuck.

Other times it's just not recognizing the solution that's out there. It's making a man without fear and not knowing how to do that. It's deciding near-immunity to magic is the goal but not realizing the hidden costs.

So how do you cover all of your bases?

Here are some solutions to common concerns: Death checks, Fear and Fright Checks, Disadvantages, and Magic.

Death

Don't want to die? Not hard enough for you? Beyond adding Damage Resistance, higher defenses, and more HP (so you can roll less often in the first place), here are some ways to make that roll more reliable.

Narrow solution: Hard to Kill. At 2/level, this is a flat +1 to death checks and lets you (well, makes you) play dead very effectively.

Wider solution: Higher HT. At 10/level, it's a +1 to death checks (which are HT rolls anyway). This more broadly impacts your character in any case. Combine with the narrow solution for precise levels. Don't forget that rolls to avoid death aren't penalized and are effectively capped thanks to the automatic failure rules.

Complete Solution: Unkillable. This is 50+ points, and it's generally not available. However, if you really want to not actually die, some level of Unkillable is what you need.

Fear

So you don't like failing Fright Checks? It bothers you when your half-ogre death machine turns into a terrorized coward and runs in the face of a fearsome foe? Here is how you design your character so your stats match that concept.

Narrow solution: Fearlessness. Get the Brave perk, as well, to raise the cap versus Fright Checks (normally, 14+ fails no matter what.) 2/level for a +1 to Fright Checks. Even with the maximum, you can ignore higher levels of penalties by exceeding the maximum as your base score.

Wider solution: Will. Increase your Will, which affects Fright Checks, resistance to Fear magic, and many other rolls. Technically IQ is an even wider solution, but it's more costly than the complete solution.

Complete solution: Unfazeable. If your character concept is really "I'm not afraid of anything, not even fear itself," this is the way to go. 15 points and you just aren't scared. It's possible beings with the Cosmic enhancement on their Terror ability will still scare you, but for "normal" situations you just get to not roll.

Disadvantages

Hate how your disadvantages really limit your options when you want to ignore them the most?

Narrow Solution: Higher self-control rolls. Don't forget that the default is (12), but you can make it easier (15) or harder ((9) or (6)) to resist your disadvantages. Be Greedy (15) [-7] instead of Greedy (12) [-15].

Wider Solution: Quirks. Don't be Greedy (6) [-30], being Greedy [-1] and you can just decide on a case-by-case basis what that means. Just talks about getting rich but it doesn't really let it affect his choices most of the time? Quirk.

Complete Solution: No disadvantage. Just don't take disadvantages that force you into actions you don't want to take! Find an alternative, or talk to the GM. Maybe you don't see your guy as Greedy, per se, but rather power hungry - he'll ignore a giant pile of money if it's too risky but he can't resist snagging the Evil Item of Power and giving it a try. If your disadvantages force you to act a way you don't see your character acting, they really aren't the disads for that character!

Magic

Want to shrug off magic like Conan does at the climax of every Conan vs. wizard fight? Hate how failing your roll versus Flesh to Stone feels? Think save or suck magic takes away your agency?

Narrow Solution: Magic Resistance. At 2/level, you get a -1 to have spells cast on you and a +1 to resist them. Or just +2 if it's an area spell. Add Improved (for 5/level total) if only hostile magic reacts badly to you and you can still quaff potions.

Wider Solution: Will and HT. Will is 5/level and HT is 10/level, but they'll each improve your resistance to a subset of resistance spells. They also have broad positive benefits for your character.

Complete Solution: Mana Damper. Make yourself a one-hex No Mana Zone. Add Cosmic or Switchable if you want to let good magic through. Like Unkillable, this is generally not available, but it will work if you use it!


Hopefully those will help you understand some of your options. There may be other ways to make these things happen, but the three-tiered approach above will at least get you started.

GURPS 101: Basic Scout Tactics for DF

One of my players runs a Dungeon Fantasy Scout. But he's also not really conversant in GURPS. This generally isn't a problem, but for a scout this can be an issue. Your options are much greater than just "shoot two arrows per round."

If you come from games which don't require you to make some specific tactical choices, it's a big step to go to a game that does. Think of going from a video game (opening a door means hitting the "Open/Pickup/Manipulate" button on your controller) to D&D (opening a door means describing what you'll do to open it.) Same with GURPS - you need a bit more description and knowledge of what choices matter.

I wrote this with players new to GURPS, or new to bow-armed characters, in mind. It's most page references, because you should not only know the numbers and options but where they come from. Go look it up now, so you don't have to look it up at the table.

Know Your Arrows

This could be "know your bows" but generally Scouts will want a longbow or a composite bow to start with, and then stick with that forever. Just keep an eye out for better ones - especially Elven (better draw strength) and Balanced (better accuracy) ones. Arrows, though, are a constant choice.

The basic options are normal arrows ("broadheads") or armor-piercers ("bodkins"), per B277. Normal arrows do impaling, per the damage line on the weapon charts. Armor-piercers do piercing damage and add a (2) armor divisor. So if you normally do 1d+3 impaling, you'd do 1d+3(2) piercing (sometimes written as "pi") instead.

Impaling is useful against the Torso, Face, and especially vital locations (the Vitals, Neck, and Skull). It's less effective against limbs and extremities and unliving and homogenous targets (p. B380).

Piercing is less effective against non-vital targets and much less effective against unliving and homogenous targets (p. B380). Against vital target areas (Vitals and Skull, especially), it's just as effective as impaling or any other damage type. This makes armor-piercing arrows a great choice against an armored Skull (-7) or Vitals (-3) - assuming you can punch through the armor even with a (2) divisor. Skull is very easy to armor heavily, and Vitals is behind the torso armor. (Special Note: Beware legacy rules knowledge! This is not how armor-piercing arrows worked in GURPS 3e, and especially not how they worked in 1e and 2e. It's not "halves DR and halves damage" or "-2 to DR and -1 to damage.")

If your game is using alternate arrow types besides just normal and bodkin, Low-Tech p. 73 and Martial Arts p. 232 have lists of alternate arrow heads. The names vary slightly (Martial Arts has Willow Leaf, Low-Tech genericises this to Cutting) but the rules are compatible. (Low-Tech p. 78 also introduces arrow guides for darts and multiple arrow fasteners, but generally, they're reducing your accuracy and damage and serve to undercut your most needed traits for an archer - accuracy and damage! They are potentially useful against lightly-armored folks or high-Dodge targets if you can hit with many arrows, but otherwise, they're marginal.)

Cutting arrows are useful for limbs and extremities (assuming you can do enough damage to cripple them), the Neck (-5 to hit, x2 injury multiplier), or the Skull (-7 to hit, x4 injury multiplier). They're the best choice for general torso hits against unliving or homogenous targets!

Blunt arrows are useful for shooting crush-vulnerable targets such as skeletons, but otherwise tend to be fairly weak. Against a target with normal vulnerabilities, your best targets are Skull (-7 to hit, x4 injury multiplier), Neck (-5 to hit, x1.5 injury multiplier), and if you're using the rules from Martial Arts p. 137 Vitals (-3 to hit) can cause knockdown and stunning with any shock inflicted.

Most of the other specialized types are too specialized for much broad use - flaming arrows (p. B410) and fire-cage arrows might set fires in a pinch but don't do so much damage they're a must-have. Flight arrows have more range but generally ultra-long-range shooting isn't coming up in DF. Barbed arrows are only useful against foes you expect to have run off with arrows in them and need to pull them out.

Fine arrows are a potentially useful purchase, too, since fine cutting or impaling arrows will gain +1 damage. Cost makes it hard to get them in a Cornucopia Quiver, however!

Know Your Options

Is your GM using Tricky Shooting (Martial Arts, p. 121)? If so, know them well. Prediction Shooting is the best way to deal with Dodge-happy foes. Block is best reduced with Ranged Feints.

Quick-Shooting Bows (Martial Arts, p. 119) is built in to Heroic Archer, and it is detailed in Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers (p. 14).

Power-Ups allow quicker shooting, double shooting, and other tricks. Out of the gate, though, stick to firing every turn!

Most maneuvers aren't going to help, but a few have special merit:

All-Out Attack (Determined) is worth a +1 to skill, and it is great for unopposed sniping or shooting into melee from a protected spot. Move and Attack takes away your Acc bonus (see below), but you can fire on the full run - great for running away after some actual scouting or charging into closer range. And Aim is handy for distant shots or making especially tricky shots into combat.

Know Your Targets

Out of the gate, a Scout has Bow-18 and Heroic Archer. If you shoot without moving, you get to add your Acc to every shot, aimed or not. If you took a longbow or composite bow (and if not, why not?), Acc is 3. You have a base 21 skill before penalties.

Although ranged attacks come with their own special issues thanks to the Size and Speed/Range Table, 21 is still very high.

Vitals (-3) is a great basic choice for shooting. The improved injury multiplier for both impaling and piercing means your normal arrows do a lot of damage here. A miss by 1 hits the torso, so even a near-miss is still a hit of some kind. Impaling, piercing, and crushing (with reduced effects) only. (Note: Skill 18 before range, counting Acc!)

Eye (-9, -10 if through armor) can blind a foe and has a x4 injury multiplier for all damage as it leads straight into the skull. Supernatural targets are rarely vulnerable to this, though - many have No Brain, No Eyes, or Homogenous. It might still be useful for blinding a target, but don't pin your life on it. Impaling and piercing only. (Note: Skill 12 or 11 before range, counting Acc!)

Face (-5) is often poorly armored compared to the torso or skull - not as many forms of armor cover the face very effectively. If a foe has light facial armor, this is a good target to consider shooting. Damage is normal, but major wounds here are more likely to cause Knockdown and Stunning (p. 420). (Note: Skill 16 before range, counting Acc!)

Chinks in Armor (-8/-10) are useful if you can suck up a -10 to halve DR (round up!) on the target location. It's only -8 on the torso. This can stack with other armor divisors, making it a way to get through very heavy armor coupled with an armor-piercing arrow. Not all armor (and not all creatures) have Chinks in Armor. Physiology or Hidden Lore might help here - ask the GM. (Note: Skill 13 or 11 before range, counting Acc!)

That's another point - game-mechanically you might know Vitals is x3 injury, but that doesn't mean your character knows where a triger's heart is from your shooting angle, or where a siege beast's heart is at all, or where the Chinks in Armor on a dragon's belly are. Knowing it might game-mechanically exist isn't the same as meaning you can target it. A mean GM (like me) will let you take a guess as a player ("I shoot it in the center of the chest!") and take the penalty ("Okay, it's -3 to hit.") and then resolve it. You might be right . . . or might just be shooting for the siege beast's triple-thick chestbone a dozen inches away from its organs.

Against armored foes, a hit against a heavily armored target is often about as useful as a miss. Better to aim for sometimes vulnerable but hard to hit (Eyes, Chinks in Armor, Face) or which maximizes damage and minimizes armor (Skull or Vitals, with a bodkin). Against a high-Dodge target, hitting or missing might not matter unless you've stacked enough enough Prediction Shot on it that you're at or close to minimum skill (10 for Deceptive Attack) because any normal hit will just be Dodged. And so on.

Finally, there are a lot of other ways to expand your effectiveness. Magical buffing, poison on arrows (against poison-vulnerable targets, that is), better bows, magical arrows, Power-Ups, Weapon Master, better vision in bad visibility, etc. But right out of the gate, a Scout is a very effective ranged combatant. The basics above can help you be so even if GURPS in general or bows in specific are new to you.

GURPS 101: What does Tactics do?

Doug asked about expansions to Tactics yesterday, and Chris responded.

But what does Tactics do already?

Here is what it does by the rules-as-written. Which you can take advantage of depends on which books you are choosing to pull rules from for your particular GURPS game. I've hit some obvious choices.

What does Tactics skill do now?

Using the Basic Set only:

- Allows a roll at the beginning of a fight to achieve a better starting position and/or cover. (p. B224)

- Make a Tactics roll to determine good places to position your forces. (p. B224)

- Win a Quick Contest vs. an opponent to determine their immediate plans, or to outmaneuver them (off the battlemap). (p. B224)

- Use the better of Tactics or Per when ambushed or surprised to see if you spotted the danger in time. (p. B224)

- Gives a +1 to initiative rolls, +2 with Tactics-20 or higher. (p. B393)

Adding Martial Arts:

- Replaces the rolls from Basic Set with either an Abstract system which allows a character with Tactics to grant re-rolls to his or her allies based on Tactical reasons ("He re-rolls Dodge because I told him where to take cover!")

or

A Quick Contest of Tactics determines who places figures on a mapped encounter first, giving the winner the chance to seize better terrain or position based on the foe's choices, and re-position some forces at the end of placement.(p. 60)

- Can use Tactics to resist Ruses. (p. 101)

- Can use Tactics to spot Feints against other people. (p. 101)

- Can press more effectively in the "Detailed Method" of tournament resolution. (p. 134)

Adding Action 2:

- You can roll against Tactics to retroactively revise your plans to reflect what your characters would have known to do. (p. 8)

- Gives bonuses to rolls for bodyguards (or assassins) during a hit. (p. 28)

- Acts as a complement to rolls related to sneaking or spotting sneaking opponents. (p. 28)

Adding Dungeon Fantasy 2:

- Allows you to give one ally advice, giving a bonus to certain combat rolls on a success and a penalty on a failure.

Adding Mass Combat:

- Substitutes for Strategy for fights with 1-4 elements on your side.

Shouldn't it do more?

I don't think Tactics really needs a lot of expansion, Doug and Chris's posts to the contrary. Tactics already does a lot.

People don't use it very often, and I think that's for three reasons:

- they don't know about these options. (This applies to you if you said, "I didn't know I could do that!")

- they prefer more direct actions. ("Why roll Tactics to help my buddies when I can help them by attacking things myself?")

- they don't invest a lot of points in Tactics, so these options don't succeed every time they try them. That pushes the moves down the chain to "if I have nothing else to try." ("I only have a 10, so I lose Tactics contests, so it's a worthless skill.")

That last point is critical. Sometimes people will throw 1 point or 2 points at Tactics, end up with a 9, 10, or 11, and then never use it. It's not going to succeed very often, so why try? I don't try that approach, so why raise Tactics? It's a vicious circle.

On the other hand, the more the skill does, the more attractive it becomes. As written, using all of the above rules, it's a pretty broad skill. It has applications in every single fight where surprise is an issue, tactical position matters (and isn't pre-determined), and it can be used to defend yourself or aid your allies. That's even before just broad GM-determined uses like when it's an appropriate Complementary Skill roll (see Action 2, or Gladiators, for that rule.)

All of this does depend on the rules you are using, and having enough skill to ensure you probably won't fail.




(And to my players, who will otherwise ask - my current game is using the rules from Basic Set and DF2 and parts of Action 2 - the bonuses to sneak/spot in certain situations. We're not using the re-rolls or map setup from Martial Arts - they don't fit the circumstances of how 90%+ of our fights occur.)

GURPS 101: Using Meta-Traits

Here are some thoughts on meta-traits, for those relatively new to GURPS and wondering how to use them effectively. Some of the advice might help more experienced GMs as well, if only by reminding them of the reasons meta-traits make life easier overall.

Meta-Traits (p. B262) are package traits. They collect a set of advantages and disadvantages into a short name you can apply to creatures and characters. This post assumes you've read the description and examples on p. B262-3.

Why use them?

There are a few reasons I like to use meta-traits.

- They ensure everything of a like kind gets all of the same effects. If every demon in your world is Immune to Metabolic Hazards and has Doesn't Breathe and has Dread (Holy Objects), it's just easier to put them in a meta-trait called Demon and stick that on every demon than to remember to put each of those on each demon you generate.

- It vastly speeds up monster generation if you don't have to comb through all of the advantages and disadvantages to find what you need each time. You never get caught out thinking, "why doesn't this wild animal have Bestial?" because you just bolted on the Wild Animal Trait which includes it.

- It makes modifying creatures a much simpler task. The idea is to speed up and simplify the process of making and playing a creature.

For these reasons, I use meta-traits aggressively in my creature descriptions for my games.

What are the downsides?

Nothing is free of downsides.

- You have to know the package. If you're wondering if skeletons have Immunity to Mind Control because you didn't check if it's in the Mindless Undead meta-trait, you'll know what I mean. Any meta-traits you use, you need to keep track of. Know them before you use them. Know that Body of Fire means "know the stuff on B262 is on there."

- They come with everything on the meta-trait. Obvious, I know, but the point is that by choosing the meta-trait you're accepting all the items on the list pending subtractions. The bigger the trait is, the less broadly it is able to be used.


Some pro tips:

- Make it the minimum overlapping set. It's easier to add more traits (and more meta-traits) than to keep track of subtractions. If the creatures with the exceptions are truly rare, or the subtractions are single traits with no spillover into other traits (for example, SM modifying cost), it'll be okay. But it's generally easier to add more traits or a new meta-trait than to say "This without that." The moment you end up with, say, Dwarf (Remove Greedy, Add Miserliness and Callous, Remove Lifting ST) you end up with so many changes to track it would be easier to just list the parts that are there.

- Don't be afraid to use multiple meta-traits. A demon-dog might have Wild Animal and Demon. An air elemental-like mindless slave might have Automaton and Body of Air. And so on.

- Stay on topic. If you mix too much into a meta-trait, it becomes less broadly useful. "Rubber-Bodied Alien" is not as good as "Alien" and "Body of Rubber" because you can't use the former easily for non-aliens or non-rubber bodied types, but the latter are useful on their own.

- Make the meta-traits as simple as possible - don't include a lot of if:then or "raise X by Y" in them. The DF prefixes do this, it's true, but they also require a little more work to use. Once you start including variable modifications, expect the work load for using the meta-trait to go up.

- Use meta-traits to drive campaign themes. If all of your demons are unable to harm the truly innocent (directly), or all of your golems can only be disabled by removing their scroll, or all of your bug-eyed aliens have Lecherousness (after all, Mars needs women), put that kind of stuff in a meta-trait and use it widely. This will ensure players begin to see the patterns in creatures, and understand what drives them or harms them. It helps to establish a shared experience because of the commonalities between creatures.

Compare that to making up each demon, golem, or BEA separately. If each is basically different, with no common trait beyond a name with no shared game effect, then it's just a name. There isn't a predictive knowledge to be gained, just a pool of possible effects ("Demons can't harm the truly innocent. Well, some of them.")

Review: How to Be A GURPS GM

How to be a GURPS GM



by Warren Wilson (better known as Mook)
73 pages
$9.99 in PDF

One thing about GURPS is that it is a toolkit game. You are given the pieces to make almost anything (although not everything equally well, admittedly) and are expected to pick and choose from those pieces to make your specific campaign work. Out of the box, you need to make a lot of decisions as a GM before you can run the game smoothly. While GURPS has always had some generic GMing advice, it really hasn't had a very specific look at how to run the game as a GM. This book fills that niche. It's written by a long-time noted GURPS player and website maintainer, with lots of comments by the Line Editor.

The book seems aimed at someone who is both a) new to GMing (if not roleplaying) and new to GURPS. If you are an experienced GM but not familiar with GURPS, or an experienced GURPS player but as yet hadn't GMed, much of the book will feel a bit old hat.

The book takes the form of a mix of explanations by the author of the various rules and their impacts on play, and lots and lots of excerpts from comments written in forums and elsewhere by the GURPS Line Editor, Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. You gets this back-and-forth style of a paragraph written by Mook, offset comments by Kromm, and more discussion by Mook.

The books goes through basic rules, character generation, combat, and actual play. It backs up general discussions of mechanics with specific examples and explanations, and doesn't stint on the details where they are needed. Rules that get discussed get page number references so you don't have to check the index or TOC to find the original rule to check. It covers a lot of ground that might not be obvious to a new GM opening up GURPS Basic Set for the first time. It also deals with some of the basic assumptions of GURPS and point-buy systems. A good example of that is the explanation of why combat skills and non-combat skills are costed the same - it's about screen time/utility in gaming, not ranking the combat effectiveness of a character.

My personal favorite is chapter six - combat. Lots of the combat advice is excellent, all of it is accurate, and includes specific looks at commonly built and run characters with examples. Want to know for Telekinesis affects combat? It's there. Dual-Wielding characters? How to build them and run them is covered. What to do to overcome defenses? There is a whole section. It pulls together the disparate parts of the combat system into topical areas, which makes it easier to see the whole for someone unfamiliar with the system. The combat chapter is excellent, and take that from someone who thinks about combat in GURPS pretty often. It makes some things that, despite careful wording in Basic Set, are not terribly clear in practice much more clear. It gives considered advice on map vs. mapless combat, detailed vs. less detailed combat, and what rules only seem to add complexity but rather speed up play considerably.

Where the book falls a little flat is in the generic "how to GM" advice. Because it necessarily shows a single way to GM, it missed a lot of "What if?" advice valid for different approaches. Much of the generic advice is just that - it's not GURPS specific, and changes the focus from things you need to know to run GURPS to things you need to know to GM. I think the intent is to make it a one-stop shop for learning to GM. But in my opinion it is the weakest part of the book. You end up getting a specific vision of one way to run games in general with GURPS as the rule set, instead of how to do things with GURPS. Once it gets into areas any "How to GM" discussion covers it loses something compared to the "How to GM GURPS" portions.

How is it for experienced GURPS GMs?

The price point is a bit high for a book that's aimed at less experienced GMs, but the odds are very high you'll get some utility out of the book. Just having handy lists of things to think about, options to consider for various levels of detail, and rules impacts to be cognizant of is pretty valuable. You wouldn't regret reading this book before setting up a new campaign, even if you've done it all before. But for the price, you're getting a lot less than a new GM would be.

Overall, I like this book. I'm glad I got it, and I'm glad I read it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a person new to GURPS and/or new to GMing GURPS. For an experienced GM, it's handy but not essential. It's well written and easy to refer back to once read (critical in a GM reference!), and sort of fills a "DM's Guide" niche in GURPS.

For more reviews, please see my Reviews page.

GURPS 101: Avoiding Combat Analysis-Paralysis in GURPS

As Douglas Cole pointed out with our fighters in Swords & Wizardry, there aren't a lot of options to choose from. As a result, we don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do. Hit, not hit . . . what to hit what, who to hit. Not all that much turn to turn to decide about.

In GURPS, though, combat options are what it's all about. There are many things you can do, if only because combat is less abstracted and there are rules covering such a broad variety of options. You can try anything, and it sometimes feels like you should therefore try everything. Worrying about what option is right for right now can lead to that dreaded condition, analysis-paralysis. You can get so overwhelmed by choosing between things you can do that you don't just do stuff and get on with the fun.

Too Much to Choose From?

If you have a character with a sword, a shield, and pretty good brawling and grappling skills, you can find yourself thinking - you can cut, stab, bash, shield rush, slam, kick, pummel with the hilt. If you do any of those, you may need to choose a hit location. Any of those could be All-Out, Committed, a normal Attack, a Defensive Attack. Should you attack normally, or Telegraphic Attack, or Deceptive Attack; and what about Rapid Strike or Dual-Weapon Attack? Or you could feint, beat, try a ruse, or even just All-Out Defend. And next turn, it starts again.

So what to do?

Limit Your Own Options

Seems like a bad idea, but it's not. Look at that list above - are all of those solid moves in nearly all cases?

No.

Narrow it down.

Look at your skill, possibly at this analysis too, and decide if you should generally attack, Telegraphic Attack, or Deceptive Attack. If your skill is too low to reliably hit without Telegraphic Attack, do that. If you can take a Deceptive Attack and still hit most of the time, do that.

Make a basic decision and stick to that, most of the time.

Look at your weapon.

In fact, if you're just getting used to GURPS, don't go for the most versatile weapon. A simple cut-and-thrust sword is good - save the tricked out-dueling halberds for another time. Don't worry too much about slams and kicking and grapples just yet, because generally if you've got a weapon it is more productive to use it. Be aware they are out there as options, and bust them out of you need them. But don't go out of your way to give yourself too many options at first.

Limit Your Targets

Pick a couple of targets that suit your weapon, either for a baseline move or as a potential kill shot. You don't need to have a mastery of all possible outcomes with your weapon - it's sufficient if you have a pretty good shot you know will work, and fall back on that.

Find A Default Option

Most of the time, just using your highest-base-damage attack, without modifiers, aiming at the Torso, is all you need to get through most fights.

The Trademark Move in GURPS is a heck of a speed-friendly perk. Spend 1 point, outline a specific combination (all options chosen ahead of time), and get a +1 when you do that specific move. It's a nice little reward for speeding yourself up. It cuts the decision time down, because you know if you stick with your pre-decided move, you're more likely to hit.

Consider a backup, even if you can't or don't buy a Trademark Move for it. Just outline what you want to do and mark it down.

In either case, write it down on your sheet for quick reference.

Don't Adjust On The Fly

Stick with what you're doing until you've got some downtime to think about your choices. Sure, when the chips are down and you need to bust out a special move - do it. But save the analysis and worry for it really matters. Do it when you've got downtime, or when it's a nailbiter of a fight to the finish. Don't drag out fights by getting too wrapped up in all the stuff you can do, and just stick with a few moves that will win you most of your fights.

Those are just a few things you can do to make sure you're not overwhelmed by your options. GURPS gives you a lot of substantial, significant options to choose from. Pick a few, run with those, and adjust as you get more familiar with what's on the table. Odds are, though, you'll find you'll return to the basics over and over. I've been playing GURPS since Man-to-Man and most of the time my characters just whack the body with a high-damage attack.

GURPS 101: HT and FP

This is part of a multi-blog series on the basic and secondary attributes in GURPS. If you're new to the system, what are some things you'll want to think about? GURPS is point buy, so it's not up to the dice, but rather up to you and your point budget to decide. Today we'll cover HT and FP.

Also see posts on Gaming Ballistic, Ravens 'n' Pennies, and the GURPS 101 page.

How much HT do you need?

My usual answer has been "as much as you can afford."
But unlike ST, DX, and IQ, there is a level of diminishing returns on HT. While ST, DX, and IQ all give your some straight-up abilities and lots of rolls to do good things and avoid bad, HT is largely giving you some straight-up abilities and rolls to avoid bad stuff.

Not only that, but the penalties to those rolls are fairly restrained.

Rolling to avoid death is a really important roll, even in a game with fairly trivial consequences for death. But it's got its own inherent margin of error (Mortal Wounds), too. I covered a lot of this ground already, writing about Death Checks in GURPS 101: Dying is Hard to Do.

The steepest penalty to Unconsciousness rolls is -4 (at -4xHP or below - see p. B419).

The nastiest poisons in the game rarely get as bad as HT-5 or HT-6, although they can be worse on occasion. Generally, though, beyond that level you tend to see more "No resistance" type stuff, so your HT doesn't matter.

Lots of advantages add directly to some HT rolls (Resistant to Disease, Resistant to Poison, Resistant, Hard to Kill, Hard to Subdue, Magic Resistance) or all HT rolls (Fit, Very Fit), too, and are so inexpensive for what they do they're a better choice than pure HT for those narrower purposes.

On top of this, HT isn't expensive and it is a pretty solid deal. It's 10/level, for a +1 to a lot of important (even life-or-death) rolls, one FP (see below), and +0.25 Basic Speed.

Basically, when in doubt, take HT 12 for 20 points and move on. Get a 13 if you're really hard to kill. A 14 if you are basically unstoppable in a Rasputin-like way, and above that doesn't matter so much. In a game with supernatural threats, you might want a bit more - err on the side of 13 instead of 12, 14 for really hard to hill, 15 for the unstoppable sorts. You do end up playing chicken with death, though, since you tend to stay up right until you go to negative five times HP.

What about magic? A number of spells do get resisted by HT, but the Rule of 16 (discussed before under IQ) helps you here. Combined with advantages like Fit and/or Magic Resistance, HT-resist spells are not a crushing threat, so it's not that useful to try to "max out" HT just to deal with them. Still, a solid HT score is very helpful against supernaturally-based physical threats.

FP

You get FP on a one-for-one basis with HT, plus extras are 3 a level. The usual cap is 30% more than your HT, although there are other ways to get more FP if you really need them, such as Energy Reserve (GURPS Powers, p. 119.)

Are you using Extra Effort in Combat (p. B357), or not? If you are, FP is important for everyone. You can't have enough, and everyone should think about possibly getting more either directly or by improving HT. If you can't, it's much less important.

Are you using supernatural or exotic martial arts abilities? If you are, you need FP even if other people don't need to worry about it.

FP are only 3 points each, which is a steal when you're in a long combat and using magic or supernatural powers. But in general, it's hard to run out of FP in a normal game, unless you're in a long series of long combats. It's rare in my own games for PCs without non-supernatural powers to invest in extra FP.

GURPS 101: DX, Speed, and Basic Move

This is the start of a multi-blog series on the basic and secondary attributes in GURPS. If you're new to the system, what are some things you'll want to think about? GURPS is point buy, so it's not the dice but you that decides what level your stats are. Today we tackle DX and two stats derived from it (at least partly) - Speed, which is figured equally from DX and HT, and Basic Move, which is figured straight from Speed.

For other looks at DX, Basic Speed, and Move, check out:
Gaming Ballistic
RPG Snob
Ravens 'n' Pennies

For more in this series, please Gaming Ballistic's GURPS 101 page.

How much DX do I need?

The more, the better. Generally, for combatants, DX will be one of your highest stats, if not your highest. Skill trumps just about everything else in importance in GURPS combat, and DX is what you base most of your combat-related skills on.

From a pure min-maxing perspective, you're going to want at most 4 physical skills that you improve past 4 points invested; beyond that you're better off increasing DX. DX is the "physical skills generalist" ability. The more DX you have, the better you are at dozens of physical skills and all combat skills (ranged, melee, and unarmed). A specialist - someone who dumped the points you put in DX into one or two skills related to a specialty - will kick your ass in that specialty but you'll be better off over a broader area of ability.

When you're designing your guy, keep that in mind - DX is a good way to get broadly good at physical skills, but you're still going to need to focus on the specific skills you need to succeed.

DX also does a few other things:

0.25 Points of Basic Speed - Every point in DX gives you +0.25 Basic Speed. See Speed for why this matters.

DX Rolls - There are a lot of non-obvious DX rolls built into GURPS, very often to not fall down. DX roll not to fall after a kick. DX roll to not fall when slipping. DX roll to not fall after knockback. But that's not all - over on RPG Snob Jason Packer has a possibly exhaustive list of DX rolls in GURPS.

DX & Defaults - A high DX helps a lot when you do something new, because you get a favorable default. A trained person will usually be better unless your DX is obscenely high or the task is extremely easy. But a good DX will let you get pretty far. A character with a DX of 15 (pretty damn high) can try any physical skill that can be defaulted at between a base 9 (for DX/Hard skills) to 11 (for DX/Easy skills); compare that to a trained DX 10 person with 2 points in any of those skills (9-11).

As I mentioned above, specialized skill matters, but DX lets you try a lot of stuff with a reasonable chance of success. Think Michael Jordan playing baseball - he just couldn't excel. DX + lots of points in skill beats DX + few points in skill, but high DX meant MJ could still make a go of it . . . I couldn't hit .200 in AA ball. In GURPS, that could be because he'd get a superior DX.

How Much Speed Do I Need?

As much as possible, as usual, but most people just stick with what DX and HT provide for them. It's not cheap (20/level, the same as DX and double that of HT) and you tend to get a pretty good score if you get a reasonable DX and HT (12 in each will give you Speed 6, a solid score). Plus, since it's not a double dip like DX and HT (which do a lot besides increase your Speed) you can usually find something else to spend your points on. Still, it's a good thing to have.

Speed - Encumbrance Level = Dodge - Dodge is the best damn defense in GURPS. Let me just repeat that. Dodge is the best damn defense in GURPS. It works against just about everything - some attacks cannot be Parried, others neither Parried nor Blocked, but few can be Parried or Blocked but not Dodged. It also, barring optional rules, doesn't get reduced for multiple uses in one turn.

And Speed is your basic Dodge score. Dodge is so good that Enhanced Dodge costs 15/level and all it does is raise Dodge; Speed is 20/level and also helps you move faster.

Initiative - Initiative in GURPS is fixed-order; once set, it stays that way. If you use Speed-based initiative (not like my lazy round-the-table initiative) your Speed (including fractions) helps determine when you go. Since GURPS resolves effects immediately and vigorously supports death spirals (the worse off you are, the more likely you are to keep getting worse off), going first is a nice little edge.

Fractional Speed - Just remember you can buy up fractional Speed. So if you have DX 14, HT 12, and Speed 6.5, you can spend 10 points and get Speed 7. This is especially tempting if you're 0.25 off from a full level, since Speed's effects on Dodge and Move drop all fractions.

Basic Move

I could spend a whole day talking about Move, which I think is gravely underrated, especially in internet featureless plain fights to demonstrate the superiority of one style over another. In actual play, Move has determined what people do this turn (or the next one, or many in a row) more than almost any other single stat or score.

Basic Move is equal to your Speed. It is sometimes modified by traits like Gigantism, which gives +1 Basic Move, or by direct purchase of Basic Move at 5/level.

In a "normal" game, you usually want a Move score between 5 and 7; 8+ is great but it's not critical to have. Below Move 5 and you're starting to be kind of a slug on the battlefield. Below Move 4 and you're a slug. Move 2 or 1 and you're limping along hoping the fight comes to you.

Move and Encumbrance - Move is also influenced by Encumbrance, based on a multiplier (so No Encumbrance is x1, Light is x0.8, and so on). This is where ST matters a lot, because a moderately-fast but strong guy can load up and stay moderately-fast, but a weak but speedy guy needs to keep unencumbered to stay fast. Your ST plays a role here, too, because your BL determines how much you can carry without dropping down in move. I've seen players spend time number-crunching to determine if +1 Move or +1 ST (potentially just +1 Lifting ST) was the better way to ensure they could add more gear and stay at Move 4+ (5+ if at all possible).

Move and Slam - Slam damage is figured off HP multiplied by Move, so every point of Move you have is 1 more full multiple of HP you get to leverage in the slam. Even a very high HP character cannot do much without a solid move score.

Half Move - Half Move is how much ground you can cover on an All-Out Attack and you move at half Move when badly injured. When doing All-Out Defense (Increased Dodge) you get to move at half of your Move score. It's worth keeping in mind these when designing a character who'll want to cover ground on all-out assaults or shimmy to cover more easily when All-Out Defending.

All Move really does is help you cover ground, but one a tactical map being able to cover a lot of ground lets you be the one to decide where to fight, where to go, and who to deal with and who to avoid. It's simply that, but that's a very big thing indeed.

GURPS 101: Strength and Hit Points

This is the start of a multi-blog series on the basic and secondary attributes in GURPS. If you're new to the system, what are some things you'll want to think about? GURPS is point buy, so it's not the dice but you that decides what level your stats are. Here are some things you'll want to know about Strength and Hit Points.

Also see posts on Gaming Ballistic, Ravens 'n' Pennies, and RPG Snob on this same subject, and the GURPS 101 page.

How Much Strength Do I Need?

As much as you can afford. No one ever complained they were too strong. But you rarely have unlimited points, so you need to make some decisions.

If your character depends on muscle for damage (melee weapons, thrown weapons), there are breakpoints you need to know.

Thrust Damage: ST adds one point of thrust damage for every two points of ST, on the odd numbers. (So ST 11 and 12 do 1d-1 thrust, but 13 and 14 do 1d). Since adding more dice to your rolls helps in a lot of ways (see below), three breakpoints to keep in mind are:

ST 13 (1d thrust) - not the first time you do 1 die, but the first time you do 1d without penalties.
ST 19 (2d-1 thrust) - the first time you do 2 dice.
ST 27 (3d-1 thrust) - the first time you do 3 dice.

Thrust damage doesn't go up very quickly, so people who depend on thrust (people with stabby weapons, unarmed strikers, and biters) tend to want to look at maximizing their bonuses, not their raw ST score.

Swing Damage: ST adds one point of swing damage for every point of ST, so any ST score makes you do more damage with swinging attacks. Still, the "more dice" points are worth knowing.

ST 13 (2d-1 swing) - the first time doing 2 dice. This makes ST 13 a really sweet spot for ST for a cut-and-thrust low tech warrior.
ST 17 (3d-1 swing) - the first time you do 3 dice.
ST 21 (4d-1 swing) - the first time you do 4 dice.

These breakpoints for more dice are important because there are advantages (like Weapon Master), skills (like Karate or Brawling), maneuvers (All-Out Attack Strong), and techniques (Jump Kick) that add damage per die. So +1 per die adds +1 to a ST 13 thrusting attack, but adds +2 to a ST 19 thrusting attack.

An example of this big shift came up in my DF game recently - a character with net ST 16 (2d+2 swing), a swing+4 weapon, and Weapon Master (+2 per die) went up to ST 17 (3d-1). That is a 1 point shift in average damage, but the dice shift meant that he went from 2d+10 to 3d+9 (+4 for the weapon, +6 for Weapon Master). That's 12-22 (av. 17) to 12-27 (av. 20.5). Now, there are optional rules for converting bonuses to additional dice (p. B269) that would take this character's damage from 2d+10 to 4d+3, and 3d+9 to 5d+2, but either way, the jump in +1 ST made for +3 in additional Weapon Master bonuses which is really where it matters. Plus, All Out Attack (Strong) would do +3 damage (+1 per die) not +2 (the flat bonus for AOA Strong).

Weapons ST - Weapons have a ST stat, usually (but unofficially) called Min ST. Basically, you need that much ST to use the weapon without penalties. Weapons are also limited in damage to 3x their ST stat, which is why stronger folks need sturdier weapons.

For high-tech weapons, ST is rarely a determining factor . . . but the more ST you have the more powerful firearms you can use, and the further you can chuck a grenade. At a high enough ST you can start using heavy weaponry like light weapons (MGs fired off the tripod or bipod, one-handing assault rifles like Arnie in The Terminator), etc. And there is always a need to carry more ammo . . .

Basic Lift - This is a figured characteristic of ST. The next thing you want to be aware of for ST is the often-overlooked BL. This is another spot where every point of ST really matters. Each bit of ST you add makes you able to lift more, which means more weight carried at less encumbrance.

In my DF game, even a heavy fighter like Vryce is at Light encumbrance (max 2xBL) because of his high BL. He's got a bit more than 100 pounds of weapons and armor and can still move freely around the battlefield and not get too fatigued after a fight.

BL also makes a difference in some strong guy moves like Piledrivers, and makes a difference in how far you can throw things, too. A high BL character is a great asset to have around. Check the chart on p. 17 and you can see how a little more ST can make a loadout that much easier to deal with. And for rapid-fire modern weaponry, you need to expend a lot of weight on ammo.

What about Striking ST and Lifting ST? You can buy up Striking ST if you really just want to improve damage (it's 5/level), and Lifting ST (3/level) if you only care about picking stuff up (or grappling, with Technical Grappling). If one part of ST is of critical important to you, those are worth considering. These tend to be limited as well, but they give you yet another option for narrowing in on the characteristics you want for your character.

How Many HP Do You Need?

First, just note that HP = ST initially.

Crippling Injuries: Crippling in GURPS for limbs is more than HP/2, and more than HP/3 for extremities. That means HP 12 takes 7 damage to cripple a limb and 5 damage for a hand, HP 15 takes 8 and 6, and so on. Eyes are more than HP/10, which means 2 points up to HP 19 and 3 at HP 20.

Maxima: - The limit on extra HP for non-supers/non-nonhumans is +30% over your ST, although some perks in later books let you bring it up to +50% over ST (such as Special Exercises), or even +100% (Mountain of Meat, which is totally unrealistic but fun). One thing about GURPS is that you can suffer a large amount of damage in a single blow. High hit points can mitigate the effects a bit but even a nearly-supernatural level of HP won't matter in the face of a rifle bullet to the vitals. So HP aren't a panacea.

But they make it hard to die, and give you a wider margin of failure when you do blow a defense. You die at -5 x HP no matter what, so even a single extra HP gives you 6 more damage you can suffer before automatic death.

Healing: - If you have a lot of HP, you heal faster (to scale to healing effect to you.) At 20-29, you heal twice as much. From 30-30, triple, and so on. See High HP and Healing, p. B424 for more.

Slams: - HP are a proxy for mass in GURPS for rules where mass matters. Slams are collisions, so your HP (multiplied by your current speed) are the factor that determines how much damage you do on a slam or a charge. You can also easily get damaged slamming folks, so you really need to increase your HP if your mode of attack is putting people down. The more HP you have the better for you, offensively and defensively. This is why sumo wrestlers qualify for extra HP in GURPS Martial Arts!

The more HP you can get, the merrier. And in a combat-heavy low-tech game, they are critically important. You can probably get away with just staying with what you get from ST, but if you're going to fight a lot give getting some extra a look.

So, does this mean I should only buy odd-numbered ST scores, hunt for breakpoints, and otherwise min-max my ST and HP score? If that makes you happy, do it. But it's not necessary (or, in my experience, especially common). It's a good set of things to know when you're making a decision where to drop some points, or when you're thinking about the edge cases. ST and its related characteristics are too useful to shave down just to save points and stay at the breakpoints. I look at those breakpoints as things to strive towards ("Get at least ST 13 if you can!") not the only scores worth buying ("ST 14 is useless, stay at ST 13.")

GURPS 101: Dying is Hard to Do

The lethality of GURPS can be a positive and a negative. As a positive, it makes for tense combats, adds real risk to decisions, and gives a lot of believability to injury. As a negative, it totally sucks to have your character, who you worked hard on to make, just roll badly and die. That tension - characters take effort, but can die easily - makes for the feel of the game. Still, no one likes to die, so let's look at how easy or hard it really is, and ways to avoid it at the last moment - the roll not to die.

This is at least partly inspired by the death toll in my fantasy game, and by Douglas Cole's excellent look at skill levels in GURPS. Also check out Doug's look at the pricing of HT in GURPS.

In GURPS, getting grievously wounded is pretty easy. Most fights in GURPS, in my experience, turn suddenly when a telling blow gets through and changes one combatant from "just fine" to "potential death spiral" in a single moment. Miss a defense roll, watch the other guy roll a critical hit (which gives you no chance to defend), or get hit by surprise or an area attack and you could go right down.

Looking only at GURPS Basic Set. Shock (p. B419), Major Wounds (p. B420), Crippling injuries (which are also Major Wounds) (p. 420-422), Stunning (p. 420), Bleeding (box p. B420), Hit Location effects (p. B398-400), Consciousness rolls (p. B419) - all of these things make it hard to stay above -1 x HP (or below) and not have to roll to see if you don't die.

Not only that, but you don't get a lot of HP. Everyone starts with 10 HP, but getting even twice that is somewhat uncommon except in high-powered play (where it's very common), and you don't get more unless you keep buying more.

But, especially in 4th edition, it isn't easy to actually die.

First, you don't automatically die until you've gone down to -5xHP . . . meaning you can take as much as 1 point shy of 6 x HP and still live.

Second, there are way to deal with even missing a HT check against death. In 3e, if you missed a Death Check (a common but not-official term of art for the HT roll to see if you die or not), you died. Have a 15 HT and roll a 16? Oooh, time for Resurrection or superscientific revivification or a new PC. But 4e has Mortal Wounds, which means you can miss the roll and still be alive enough to get better, given enough medical or magical support.

This significantly changes the odds of death.

Let's look at death, the odds of death, and how much HT you need to reasonably avoid it.

Dying

The first thing you want to do is, avoid getting to -1 x HP or below. But once you are there, you need to start rolling to avoid dying. GURPS Basic Set p. 419 makes most of these pretty plain, and I won't re-hash those rules here. They are also on p. 29 of GURPS Lite, which is FREE, so go get it!

How many times do I roll?

One thing that GURPS Basic Set p. 419 doesn't make crystal clear, IMO, is how often you roll against HT to not die. For example, if you have HP 10 and take 30 damage, you are at -20 HP. Do you roll once for -10 HP and another time for -20 HP?

Yes, you do.

What makes it clear is the example of Bruno under Hard to Kill (p. B58), who takes 45 damage and passes two death check thresholds, and must roll twice.

How do I recover from a Mortal Wound?

Surgery skill + time, or the Stop Bleeding spell (no, seriously, I didn't know that second bit until recently either.)*

How much HT do you need?

Read "HT" as "HT including any bonuses." Advantages like Fit (+1 to HT rolls) or Very Fit (+2 to HT rolls) and Hard to Kill (+1 per level to HT rolls against death, a miss has some special effects) make it harder to die. Just add your HT plus your bonuses when you look below. Ex: A HT 12 guy with Very Fit and Hard to Kill 1 rolls against a 15 not to die.

Death checks are very rarely penalized; while unconsciousness checks get cumulative penalties for injury Death checks don't. So to not die you really don't need a huge amount of HT, or worry about counteracting penalties.

Below is the HT, the chance to live (without problems), chance to live or be mortally wounded (with potential issue during or post recovery, per B.423), and chance to die outright.

Percentages of success are taken from p. B171 for consistency.

Remember that in GURPS, a 17 is always a failure and an 18 is always a critical failure (not a big deal on a death check) (per p. B343 / GURPS Lite p. 2) However, it could make a good ruling that if you have a total HT of 16+, a roll of a 17 is a Mortal Wound and a 18 is death. You could further rule that if you also have Hard to Kill you appear dead (although you're still Mortally Wounded). However, an 18 would still failure regardless of your HT, HT bonuses, advantages, and/or Mortal Wounds.**

HT 9 or less: No one takes these; suffice it to say it's easy to die and you don't want HT 9 or less.

HT 10: Roll against 10 to live; a death check at 11 or 12 means you are mortally wounded. 50% chance of being okay, 74.1% chance of being either okay or mortally wounded. 25.9% chance of death.

HT 11: Roll against 11 to live; a death check at 12 or 13 means you are mortally wounded. 62.5% chance of being okay, 83.8% chance of being either okay or mortally wounded. 16.2% chance of death.

HT 12: Roll against 12 to live; a death check at 13 or 14 means you are mortally wounded. 74.1% chance of being okay, 90.7% chance of being either okay or mortally wounded. 9.3% chance of death.

HT 13: Roll against 13 to live; a death check at 14 or 15 means you are mortally wounded. 83.8% chance of being okay, 95.4% chance of being either okay or mortally wounded. 4.6% chance of death.

HT 14: Roll against 14 to live; a death check at 15 or 16 means you are mortally wounded. 90.7% chance of being okay, 98.1% chance of being either okay or mortally wounded. 1.9% chance of death. Note: Maximum HT needed to live on a 16 or less including Mortally Wounded.

HT 15: Roll against 15 to live; a death check at 16 means you are mortally wounded. 95.4% chance of being okay, 98.1% chance of being either okay or mortally wounded. 1.9% chance of death.

HT 16: Roll against 16 to live; technically you can't be mortally wounded anymore because a 17 or 18 still fails. 98.1% chance of being okay, 1.9% chance of death. Maximum HT needed to live on a 16 or less without needing to resort to Mortally Wounded.

However, Sean Punch appears to state that on a net HT 16+, you should treat 17 as a Mortal Wound, 18 as death. So in this case it would be a 98.1% chance of being fine, 99.5% of being fine or mortally wounded, and 0.5% chance of death.

HT 17+: Doesn't matter, see HT 16.

So what does this mean for my character?

Basically, the most HT + bonuses you need to avoid death is 16. The most you reasonably need, assuming you're willing to suffer Mortally Wounded as a condition, is HT 14. Total. That gives you the maximum chance of not dying while still giving you the least cost to do so.

How you get there depends on your other goals for your character. Hard to Kill at 2/level is the cheapest way to avoid death, but that's all it does. Fit and Very Fit are good if you want a bonus to the roll and want to recover lost FP faster (or lose them more slowly, too). HT is best overall because it gives you the roll, plus marginally improved Speed and more FP, too, but it also costs the most (10/level).

But if you ever wondered why 4e monsters have HT 11-13, and most templates for really hardy types rarely exceed HT 13, it's because that really does give you an excellent chance to avoid death.

What if that's not enough for me? 1.9% Sounds high . . .

Get enough HT + Fit/Very Fit + Hard to Kill to not die, buy Luck, and save one use for a re-roll. Or buy Luck with a limitation that restricts it only to HT checks not to die. And try to avoid getting hit in the first place.

Are these odds realistic?

Wrong question, since GURPS put a slightly heroic blush onto PCs. It makes them believably fragile but also throws the odds of dying a bit in favor of the character. It's a game, after all, and matching easy death with detailed character generation is a mix that makes death especially harsh and not-fun.

Doesn't this mean GURPS characters are too sturdy?

No, not really. It's depressingly easy to go from HP to -5 x HP and just die. It's depressingly easy to bleed out out or be too injured to escape. You can drown or suffocate or suffer a heart attack from a truly horrid supernatural attack or fright. And, per p. B423, you can just die automatically from a slit throat, etc. if you're helpless and time is taken. Even HT 16+ and Hard to Kill won't help you there.


Good luck not dying!


* As a house rule, I also allow the Healing advantage to do this.
** I like this and I'd run it that way.