GURPS Sale

There is a brief GURPS sale going on, 10/5 - 10/9:

Or click here.

Some of my books are in the list, too - GURPS Martial Arts, for one!

Felltower DB cap

Going down my list of things to do before we play Felltower again, DB.

Looking at my options from here:

Possible Solutions to the Extreme DB Problem

I'm going with:

- DB cap of 8 from all sources.

- Margin-of-DB defenses means some kind of contact for follow-on effects - knockback, detonation of missiles, etc. This specifically includes the spell Shield.

I think those satisfy my main concerns at this point without doing any real violence to the system or existing canon.

Felltower issues to resolve - language costs

I think I've settled on how I want to do language costs for Felltower:

I'm planning on Option 2:

1 point Broken
2 points Accented
3 points Fluent

Written rolled into spoken.

One exception: the Elder Tongue is still broken into spoken and written. It's a gateway to a lot of valuable setting information and access to potential power.

Conventiently this means GCA and GCS point costs are correct - you just need to put down only spoken and we'll know it is also written literacy.

Game Inspiration: The Misenchanted Sword

Thinking more on cursed and semi-cursed magic items, here is one book I found inspirational:

The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evens


The plot is pretty much soldier stumbled across a hermit, who enchants him a magical sword that makes him unbeatable in combat. It has some downsides - he can't get rid of the sword, for one, and it is only undefeatable from when drawn until it kills someone. Then you have to sheath it and pull it back out before you use it again. Oh, and it has limited uses - not a small number, but a finite number of kills.

As books go, it's not the best book ever. But it's a good one, and the ideas in it are top-notch. There are demon-imbued enemy warriors, practical uses for a swordsman who can't lose (he gets pulled aside for special missions, no front line service for this guy), and lots of little details that make it feel like the consequences make sense.

The sword itself is really a lot like the kind of thing I'll hand out. You want it, but then again you kind of don't, but you'll use it, and your character will be different for it. It's not just a better weapon, it's a different experience. That's the kind of thing I am looking for.

Why all the semi-cursed items in Felltower?

Felltower has had a fair number of cursed items, and a number of items that aren't fully free of downsides.

The cursed items are mostly downside, maybe all downside. Any positive effect is just there to convince you to keep the item or use it long enough to suffer the bad effects.

The semi-cursed items are the ones that are largely upsides, but with a noticeable downside. The major magic weapons of Felltower are like this:

Gram helps you kill dragons, but makes you want to go kill them.

Frenzy is a great axe, but it drives you berserk.

And so on.

Why so many?

Out of Game: Because I like them. I grew up with them in my tabletop games - AD&D - and my computer games - Wizardry, noteably. I feel like they add a nice spice of challenge and concern - magic isn't always just a free benefit. And I was heavily influenced by White Plume Mountain and its trio of weapons with nasty downsides. You want them . . . but they'll change your PC or just change your whole PC's life. Nobody with Blackrazor gets to sleep soundly through the night, trusting and trusted by his or her friends. And I take it as a challenge to make an item so good you'll accept the downsides to get the upsides.

In Game: Because wizards are jerks, and magic is hard to control. The first means they set out to make cursed items out of ill humor, general malice, for vengeance, or for some subterfuge. The second means that even when they don't, sometimes that's what you get.

So in my games, you'll get cursed stuff popping up. Rather frequently.

Friday Roundup 9/29/23

Links and comments for Friday 9/29/23

- Greyhawk map definitions

What's the meaning of those names on the Greyhawk map?

- A look at Oasis of the White Palm

- "They drain magic items, permanently. It's totally unfair, it's great." - Spoken like GM.

- Next Felltower Adjacent is in a week and a day. Still can't spend Handsome's points, but I'm leaning toward more skill and one of the advantages I listed. Still not sure which, they're all good choices.

Things still to resolve for Felltower

Here are some issues we discussed but never followed all the way through on. I should get to these before we resume play, perhaps.

- shield damage

- weapon talents

- recosting languages

- DB limits

I'm not saying these all will get done, but I should get on some of them, at least. They've all been discussed here to some extent but never fully resolved into a codified set of rules we'll play under.