The Tower of Roulen

This is an adventure intended for GURPS. It is written for characters built with Dungeon Fantasy, at 250 points and very combat capable, but it's not a "pure" Dungeon Fantasy adventure: it mostly takes place outdoors and has more social elements than proper Dungeon Fantasy. It is designed with a fairy tale motif: a wizard in a tower, a unicorn that will only come to the pure in heart, and a fair maiden who is trapped rather than killed. The story is meant to be set  near the town of Salay, a sea-side desert fortress built on the edge of an evil empire and reasonably hostile to it, but really could be set anywhere, including Yrth (Probably in Cardiel or Al-Wazif). 

Ice Wyrm to Sand Wyrm

Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 features the Ice Wyrm on page 20. It's a giant cold-breathing worm that's especially dangerous if you encounter it on ice. This is very nice if you have the players in a cold location. If you're in a desert, it's less useful... unless you turn it into the notorious and ever-popular sand wyrm!

This is not a terribly hard conversion. 

Remove slippery, cold resistance, and Temperature Tolerance, Detect (Heat), and DR vs Cold

Change the name of the breath to "Sand Blast", and change the effect from paralyzed to blinded.

Change the fatigue damage type on the sting to "Thirst" 

Add vibration sense (air). This works from beneath the sand.

Change the specialty of the terrain adaptation to (Sand)

Add Tunneling 4 (only in sand)

Ice generating organs cannot be harvested, but mana organs for earth and air can be harvested for $4,000 each

And there we have it. Simple as that. 

Now, you may not need a Sand Wyrm specifically, but the general principle applies. Take a monster close to what you want and change it to fit your scenario. If you need tons and tons of elder things, edit existing mundane entries, adding tentacles or removing their eyes (or adding far too many eyes) and alter their fluff a little. That's why it's called "fluff", after all. 

Maybe this is an obvious thing. But I find a lot of GMing is just about fundamentals. So here is a Sand Wyrm, and here is a tool. I hope you find the monster useful! And if not, I hope you find the technique useful!

 

Table of Feline Instincts

Here I present a table of "Feline Instincts". Or in other words, random cat behaviors. I built this is for Psi-Wars and the Asrathi, but it applies to any cat or catfolk race where a player might want inspiration on what to do for a bit of flavor. Catfolk seem to be a favorite racial option in GURPS. I've probably had as many catfolk PC's as any other race except humans. Only elves might come close. So hopefully a fair number of you will find this useful.

 This was requested by Kalzazz, and it seems simple enough. 

1. Grooming fur with the tongue 
2. Looking up distractedly a something no one else can see or care about
3. Giving a small startled jump
4. Rubbing up against a nearby object
5. Spotting a small moving object to chase
6. Attacking a small dangling object. 
7. Curling up somewhere to rest
8. Sniffing something half-interested
9. Walking impossibly slowly
10. Climbing up something 
11. Slowly blinking at someone
12. Staring intensely at someone
13. Stretching out and extending claws while yawning
14. Hacking up a hairball
15. Flopping onto something 
16. Sleeping with eyes 3/4's of the way shut. 
17. Eating something random nearby
18. Swishing the tail back and forth
19. Suddenly running a very short distance to look at something
20. Kneading something with claws 

This is designed so that if you need your cat or cat person to do something randomly feline, you have a reference to pick from or roll on. A simple 20 sided die will do, or just click the button below.  

I hope you find this useful. At least one of you should. Happy Gaming! 

Dakka Golem

Dakka Golems are normal sized repeating crossbows with added legs and the ability to operate themselves. They're small but surprisingly strong and usually found in numbers in hard to reach locations. They're rather intricate and as such are Unliving rather than Homogeneous

ST	8	HP	12	Speed	5
DX	12	Will	8	Move	5
IQ	8	Per	10
HT	12	FP	N/A	SM	-3
Dodge	9	Parry	N/A	DR	3

Bolt (15): 1d6+1 Impaling. Range 84/180. Acc 3 if aiming. 10 Shots (3i). Can fire once a round.
Kick (10): 1d6-1 crushing. Close Reach 
Traits: Quadruped, Lifting ST +4, Cannot Speak, Automaton, Cannot Learn, Doesn't Breathe, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Sleep, High Pain Threshold, Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, No Blood, Reprogrammable, Unfazeable, Unhealing (Total),  Unliving, Unnatural
Skills: Crossbow- 16, Climbing - 12
Class: Construct

Dakka Golems are made from a repeating crossbow, but the process of destroying one also destroys the intricate mechanisms of the weapon. Their bolts are occasionally poisoned. Daka Golems are incapable of loading themselves once all their bolts have been fired. Once empty, they are generally helpless and usually instructed to flee back to a loading location until they can be reloaded, or wait for an ally to come reload them. It takes 3 seconds to load a single bolt, and 30 seconds to load all 10. A smart master will usually place them somewhere protected, as they rely on range and have poor melee defenses

 I hope you find a use for these little monsters. I know I have! 

The Blog Index

At the request of a reader, I have made an index for most of the pages on this blog. Hopefully it will help people find things better. It also can be a useful way to see what is actually on this blog, and all the resources that have been created over the 12 years the blog has been made. I hope you find this useful! 

The Index

360 Vision should cost [10] in Gurps

360 degree vision is the first item in the advantages chapter of the GURPS Basic Set. Despite this, I have never ever seen a player take it. Some of this is because it's a fairly rare ability in fiction, but more than that, it's completely overpriced, and players tend to stay away from overpriced abilities. 

360 degree vision has two main effects: it makes a specific stealth tactic harder, and it allows defense when attacked from behind. Both of these are fairly niche. GURPS' stealth rules are hand-wavy enough that sneaking up behind rather than using cover is pretty rare, and while attacking from behind can be important, in practice it rarely happens. And even then, it's usually got a caveat that allows a defense of some sort anyways.

But don't just trust me. Twelve years ago on the Steve Jackson Games forums we discussed the advantage, and no one was willing to defend its cost. Everyone suggested its value was somewhere in the [10]-[15] range.

It's all his fault. Him and his brothers and uncles
and the rest of his species 

So why am I bringing this up again? First off, I think that having a specific blog page proposing a house rule is more useful to a lot of people than a forum thread suggesting a quarter-dozen different pricing options. 

Second? Because I'm getting ready for a campaign where there are only three non-human races and one of them requires 360 degree vision. So I've got to deal with the pricing somehow. 

So why am I going for [10] rather than [15], as some suggested back in the forum thread?  Because defending against attacks from behind and gaining an advantage on some stealth checks is just not worth [15]. That's still a huge number of points, and in my gut it feels like too much to me. Additionally, I'd hate to go ahead and make this change and then find out that I tweaked it too little: a slight overcorrection is better than a slight undercorrection. If you're going to make a change to a rule so people will use it, it's best if they actually use it. I also have a hard time imagining it being too cheap. The worst that can happen is that the dedicated "Eye Guy" is impossible to sneak up on. Which is probably just fine.

I hope you find this useful. Let me know if that's enough to get any of your players to take it: it's a pretty niche ability even at [10]. Happy Gaming!

Table Of Odius Personal Habits for Low-Tech Low-Lifes

 In Gurps, we have a few traits that can cover an awful lot of ground. One of these is Odious Personal Habit (OPH). This is great when you know what you want, but when you're looking for inspiration, its a little lacking. So, to help with inspiration (and with creating NPC thugs, one of the most common foes in all of gurps), I present a list of OPH for Low-Tech Low-Lifes. 

This list has intentionally left out Habits that are high tech, modern, or not befitting thugs. You won't find "Interupts to Correct minor Grammar mistakes", Not because it isn't an Odious Personal Habit, but because this list is meant for a certain class of NPC.

The habits are listed with numbers, mostly for use with random generation. 

1. Constant Demanding Orders
2. Bad Breath
3. Body Odor
4. Slovenly Dressed
5. Constant Cursing
6. Gives Demeaning Nick-Names 
7. Spits on the Floor
8. Constant Insults
9. No Personal Space
10. Constantly Touching Weapon
11. Constantly Whistling
12. Always Dirty
13. Constant Burps and Farts
14. Pokes and Punches
15. Constant Interrupting
16. Obnoxious and Inappropriate Laughter 
17. Constantly Picks Teeth
18. Puts Dirty Boots on Clean Objects
19. Constant Staring 
20. Has Fleas

 I hope you find this useful in filling out the personalities of the thugs in your games. I look forward to using it in mine. Let me know if you have any ones that you like, or if you have ones that you like better. 

 Happy Gaming!