Standard Magic: Recover Energy as an Advantage

I've recently been looking at the standard magic system for Gurps, for a number of different projects. One thing that sticks out to me is that the Recover Energy Spell is weird. And the more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that it should be a [5] point advantage. Here's why:

Its not a Spell

Recover energy is written as a spell, but it doesn't work like a spell. Its never cast, and in fact never rolled against at all. It just alters FP and ER recovery, unless it hasn't been bought high enough, in which case it doesn't do anything at all. That doesn't sound like a spell, or even a skill: that sounds like an advantage.

Skill-15 is Overused

Recover energy exacerbates the skill-15 break point in magic. The magic system already strongly encourages characters to be able to buy every spell at skill-15, because that's where all the energy cost breakpoints are. This results in wizards who differ only by their spell lists. Recover Energy taking its effect at -15 reinforces this paradigm, where IQ 14 + Magery 3 wizards rule over their lessers. Changing recovery energy to an Advantage won't completely break this, but it will weaken the incentives.

It Doesn't Have a Good Home in a College

Recover energy is placed in the healing college... which is an awkward place for it. I suppose meta-magic might be a better choice, or possibly body control, but sticking it in a college at all creates issues, because it means that one-college magery now hurts your ability to recover energy. It also necessitates statements like the Dungeon Fantasy rule that wizards don't get spells in the healing college, except for Recover Energy and its prerequisite. It'd be nice if the spell didn't care about colleges.

Every Wizard Wants It

Recover Energy's quirks are both tolerated and exacerbated because its one of the most important "spells" in the system. Having it roughly doubles the amount of energy you can use for spells. This means everyone wants it, everyone learns it, and the need to get it is a significant character-building concern. Making it an advantage actually simplifies this a little. The added complexity of a rule change is compensated by removing a bunch of thorny subtleties. 

It Reinforces the Supremacy of Skill

Recover Energy is very expensive for very skilled mage, and very cheap for a talented one. This makes sense in some paradigms, but less so in others, and helps make all Gurps Mages in the same direction.  A mage who often fails to cast their spells but has much more plentiful energy sounds like an interesting trade-off. Making Recover Energy an advantage increases the diversity of mages that can be built, and it increases the power of a low-end mage, while slightly decreasing the power of a high-end mage. In this particular system, that's a good thing.

A Flat Cost Is Fairer

The advantage should cost [5] points, because Fit costs [5], and because having advantages divisible by 5 is nice. Having it cost [3] or less feels very cheap, and is about what the skill-maximizing wizards are effectively paying for it right now, while paying [10] points for it feels a little steep... though I suspect some wizards would still find it effective.

This all applies to the effects gained at skill-15, of course. I'm not sure what a fair cost for regaining Energy every 2 minutes. Regeneration (FP) is probably a bad comparison, especially given that the numbers were scaled for HP, not FP. When using the spell, [20] points is enough to go from 5 energy a minute to 2 energy a minute, if a mage just put those points directly into skill. I suspect that's not how mages with Recover Energy -20 are built. Maybe an additional [10] points, for [15] total, kind of like very fit? I kind of like that symmetry. 

In Summary

I hope I've made my case. The proposed change is really simple, and should improve the variety of mages that get built using the standard magic system. I hope you find this useful, and I hope you enjoy it!

Long Range Tactical Combat In Gurps

Art Assets for Mooks!

In my current game, we're seeing a lot of combat at anywhere from 100 yards to 2000 yards, with TL7 and TL8 gear. This is fun play, but its also not a combat paradigm I've played in before. Its been fun, but its required a few adjustments to get right. 

A Simpler Basic Action Template

I'm really fond of using the Basic Action Template from the Action 4 book of Gurps. But I recently realized that I don't use it as written in the book, because I mostly use it for quick NPCs. So this is the method I use:

• Pick a Set of Attributes
• Add the Basic BAT skill list
• A number of Packages (here's a handy index)
  
• A few rough adjustments of skills and advantages

And that's it! You now have a quick character with a fairly robust array of skills! 

Index Of BAT Packages

I love Action 4: Specialists. And one thing I've done to make me love it more is sort the packages into categories so I can look at all my options at once and make good decisions. I've been using this list pretty much since Action 4 came out. Now I'm sharing it with you.

Most of these packages come from Action 4: Specialists, but some of them come from Pyramid 3/112, or from my posts about Melee Weapons for the BAT, using Action 4 with Infinite worlds, and Adapting Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew. I have marked these with Py for Pyramid, m for melee, iw for infinite worlds, and sc for starship crew. 

Snowmobiles in Gurps

Once again, I need snowmobiles in my campaign. And strangely enough, I can not find anyone who has GURPS stats for snowmobiles. Even things like the fan made vehicle collection don't have any stats for them. Astounding for a vehicle I've actually driven. So what is a GM do to?

The same thing I did last time I needed snow mobiles. Use the stats of motorcycles from the basic set. Its simple-- but how close are they really?

This is the second time I'm doing this, and I expect it to matter more this game, so I started looking up stats. Snowmobiles are actually really fast. Maybe even faster than the bikes, though that may be only under ideal conditions. The enthusiasts also claim they accelerate faster than motorcycles. So we can leave those numbers. Snowmobile's range is a lot lower than bikes: they get terrible gas mileage, so we'll halve the range. They're also a bit harder to handle than motorcycles, but they're more stable. So -1/+1 to Hnd/SR. The weights seem to be in the correct ballpark, and the costs aren't bad either. I'm not sure about ST, so we leave it there. 

So to use a motorcycle's stat-block for a snowmobile

• drop handling by 1, raise stability rating by 1
• halve the range 

And that's it! You have a range of snowmobiles! I hope you find this useful. Its a fairly quick and dirty conversion, but it seems functional enough. If I'm weird and the only GM who ever ends up using snowmobiles in their games, I hope I have now inflicted the need to use snowmobiles in the game upon all of you. Happy adventures in the snow!

Monster Hunter Pregens

Back in 2016, I created a series of characters for monster hunters. The goal was to see how well characters with powers, wildcards, or inhuman templates did in various adventures. I never finished the full set of games, but my conclusion was that the easiest group to build, and funnest to play, were the inhumans. They had strong character identities, were better rounded, and always seemed to have both something to do and some amusing limitation getting in the way. They were not particularly efficiently built or optimized, but I think that was part of their charm. At any point in the game, everyone had something to do.

I've written up these characters as pregens, and generated some faces for them with artflow.ai. Each character has a sidekick template from Gurps: Monster Hunters 4, plus a monstrous template to add an inhuman race. Their inhuman templates are drawn from pyramid, blogs, and one is even from the original book. Most have their two templates contrasting each other rather than complimenting: that's part of the fun. I hope you find the pregens useful in some way: I've found the characters to be a lot of fun. 

• Ernest Clay, Whitecoat Golem
• Dan White,Vampire Muscle
• Wesa, Ghostly Brother
• Michael Issac Babbage, Android Geek
• Aaron Emersol, Immortal Fixer
  

I've really enjoyed these characters. I hope you enjoy them as well!

Review: Action 9 - The City

I finally gotten around to reading Action 9: The City. The book is split into two halves, which feel very different, but really help each other to function. I really enjoyed reading the second half, but the second half wouldn't exist without the first.

The first chapter is very dense, explaining how to turn numbers from city stats (and/or real world data) into numbers for action. While reading it, I thought: "How will I ever do all this?" Its good stuff, but it didn't have much context to hang the numbers on.

Fortunately, in most cases, you won't have to actually translate these factors, because chapter two is full of six very slick examples. These cities aren't real... and yet you've seen them each half a dozen times in movies. They form a wonderful grab bag of locations that can be used again and again. They can inspire you when designing locations for games, and even if you want something slightly different, these cities form a solid starting point for tweaks and as a way to remember what features to touch.

So my recommendation for this book is to read the second chapter first. Its a catalog of evocative modern locations with stats for action heroes. They provide advice on what chases through them look, how police responses work, and hooks for villains and plots. My only comment is I wish that we had six more of them for a round dozen. If you want colorful locations for action heroes, go ahead and get this book, and read chapter 2. And then look up what you need to use out of chapter 1.

I hope this helps you decide if you want this book or not. Happy Gaming!