Traveller Lite Meet up

The pregame meet up is on my monday (GMT+8) 7am-8am 

PDFs and Hard Copies

In the Philippines Books suffer 7% Customs duties AND 12% Vat that is applied inclusive of the Shipping Cost and Insurance! (from the US it can be from $10-20). If your big nice book is around $30 which can cost around $45-50 then applied the taxes $54-$60.

My PDF cost me about $24 usd and about 0.04USD to print per page and 2.3USD to bind. Printing and Photocopying costs about $12.3 for a 250p book a total of $37-38usd about 1/3 cheaper than ordering the book and the pain of going through customs.
So it works out to just the same... BUT to have another physical copy costs just $12.3. So it works out that for the same cost of time and effort, I can have 2 physical copies.

I kept the original printout for my Qin, in case a friend wants to print it out after getting their own PDF copy.

Having two books is advantageous for any book hoarder but it is also so bulky. Still, some books I really believe in and I would want people to get into the hobby so I lend them my "Players" copy. For those who are not satisfied, well they had a copy and they can always buy the online edition and photocopy my copy despite how "shady" it might seem.

These days though, I'm making a GURPS lite that includes material from martial arts and other books. It helps introduce new players, and it brings down the "barrier for entry". The biggest barrier for entry that i struggle with is the Data barrier for GURPS. You really need to play and learn, and our gaming mindset soaks the rules up like a sponge... but you still have to break that initial doubt and concern over the reputation of GURPS.

I also summarize the rules in a shorter format that hopefully is dense enough, through my personal GURPS lites. I'm not saying I am better in explaining than the book, the freedom of LITE is that I can describe in a less "technically correct" way than in the Book.

If I were to have a lot of copies, about >2 copies, it would be GURPS Lite or a modified GURPS LITE+ with all the rules I use from different books built into it. Such a tool would be indispensible when teaching newbies to gurps. It may reduce the Data Barrier to entry, at least make it look less intimidating in perspective.

A Quick GURPS SLAM Table

I got pretty annoyed at the Slam Rules Calculations, so I made a color coded table in Calc, I had no time to type out a formula to convert this to Dice. I ran a combat for a friend to teach him GURPS, and I was frustrated by how I don't know Shove, Slam, and so many other rules.

Haven Headlines

Headlines are topic of conversations and potential plot hooks.

"Conservative Party" wins Majority in the Senatorial Elections
"Liberal Party" contests winnings

2,012 elections related violence incidents, down 500% from last elections. Analysts are optimistic.

Legba Group Ground Breaking of the New Commercial Business District.

Internet Campaigns Criticism

East Haven District, Former Mayor Charlie Wu contesting Richard Nuggo's win.

James Steele, Sex Scandal

Twelve Mining Contracts have all failed bidding.

Has Dambala vs Idamaz Political Rivalry turned a corner?

"Ghost Ship" Sighted on the South West Coast of Haven.

Police Uncovered Cargo Container with 3 tons of dog skeletons Wednesday Evening.

Police say Heights Apartments Killings, may be linked to "the Cannibal"!

Human Rights Watch, over 50,308 Teenagers and children still missing. HRW says there may be tripple the number of undocumented missing.

Political Prisoners call for Appeals, after Conservative Victory.

The new Ferrari Lannister Edition sighted in Haven Streets!

GURPS Modern Fantasy - Pregens and Characters

Here are the characters so far. No one has made claims to the Pregens yet, and the game will be up soon. Finished most of my prep, what is left is dry runs to make sure everything is working. Worse case scenarios Technical Planning is in order. 

I will continue the game even if two players will be available by game day.  

Edit: Character

I'll try to add "Non-Combat" Tactics, but i

 +Vaclav Tofl  Jack Smith, Bouncer/Bartender

 +Jarad Jones "the Cowboy"

Speedy programmer http://goo.gl/eBohF

Notable Skills: Programming-17 (plus single minded +3), Acrobatics (Free Running)-17.

The Action Star http://goo.gl/VAfDu

Notalble Skills- Perfomrance-16, Combat Art: Karate-18

Savy Biz Man http://goo.gl/cQy6n

Notable Skills Streetwise-15, Merchant-18

 Modern-day Prince http://goo.gl/exciD

Notable Skills Psychology-20,

Taught GURPS Combat Lesson Teaching it

Some lessons teaching GURPS combat. I really should run a sample combat for newbies. 

• 1 Combat of 4 elements, 3 vs 1 took 1 hour. One newbie. 
• I had to explain so it took longer than normal. 
• Organize and Visualized the Options by Maneuvers > Attack Options (see White Board)
• This way they can intuitively grasp the options. First Choose a Maneuver THEN (if an attack) Choose Attack Options. 
• Its much better when there is terrain
• Trees provide Cover B407, But surrounding hexes have Bad Footing. 
• Dotted Terrain has bad Footing. -2 to attack, -1 to defend. Must roll DX when sprinting or Move&Attack through for every hex stepped. Because of this, I wish i wrote down the Jump stats. 
• Foliage Provides Soft Cover. 
• Have a Tape measure out its faster than counting Hexes. 

Despite how hard it may be to teach, GURPS combat IS THE simulationist system. My Brother could use a dead Orc as cover against Ranged attacks, after sticking a Glaive through the other Orc.

Advanced Concepts we were able to Tackle

• Quick Shooting (there was an Orcish Archer while Two orcs converged. 
• Called Shots
• Cover
• Committed Attacks

I wish I can run modern combat, since my Vampire Level Bones: Reaper Minis have Marines figs. It would teach people some Airsoft Tactics. For modern, i'll have some "Ruins" for Hard cover. I should have bought some Clear Xelophane for "Saved" terrains for Combat only Games. 

More on Haven

More on Haven if you want to imagine living there:

• Developed world standard for Middle Class describes $7200-21,600USD Cost of Living Annually and describes the top 5%. They meet developed world standards for Education, Job Security, and can find work anywhere in the world but in Haven they are the "Wealthy" population. Housing makes up half and healthcare varies, because its a emerging market (aka 3rd World), they have a middle class life expectancy of about 70s, which is unlike developed worlds which have about x2-x3 the CoL and have a life expectancy of 100s. 
• Pretty much as busy and varied as the Middle Class of Dev.World. 
• Wealth: Comfortable are Upper-Bands of the Middle Class.
• Struggling Class $3600-$7200USD Cost of Living in Dev. World; but considered Comfortable by the Haven Standards. If your single and doesn't have any expensive vices, you can pretty much live like Middle Class. 
• Poor - $1440-$3600USD anualy this is the "Working Class" 
• Dead Broke. Surprising GURPS deadbroke can accommodate the UN and Economist definition of less than $1 a day. There are a lot of people in the world that still operate without Money but live on squatting or "rented" housing, and scrounging or "subsidized" food and necessities by the Political or Criminal "Houses" to maintain Vote Dominance and 
• Some very powerful individuals have started using these as labor and votes producing assets, housing them in Vessels creating Floating Towns. The population shift back to the Politico's lands during Elections.   
• Wealth and Filthy Rich (Status 1-2) - these are people pretty much the middle management of the ruling elite as well as their Idle Family. 
• Millionaires (Status 3-6) - "the Taipans". Modern day Kings would envy the way these families and patriarchs (and a few matriarchs) live.    

Any public service is terrible, public infrastructure never serves the public it serves one of the many factions in haven (as a monoploy or an excuse to charge taxes). In game terms, when it comes to a public service, expect crap. it costs x3-x10 more in time or money. 

Local Expertise is a valuable skill. 

Your Local Area Knowledge can be used as streetwise at -2 penalty. Area knowledge allows you to survive "Police Traps". So if you have it high, understand that you have points well spent. You can substitute Area Knowledge-3 for Navigation as in RAW. 

The skill allows you to cancel out "Noise" from living in there, there are many scams and spammers living in Haven, it takes some skill to sort out the "Noise" from the "real thing". 

Most Public Services that are decent come from the "Factions" and are 2-3x the price, especially necessities. Non-Necessities, Luxury Goods, are 1/2 the price as compared to the rest of the world. If you are part of the Weapon Specialized Factions, certain lethal goods can be cheaper. 

Special Note on Weapons 

Some Very Old Weapons have flooded the weapons market because their license to produce is un-enforcable. You will notice Modernized WW2 weapons being available and half their GURPS listed cost. Despite modernization the sweat shops that produce these guns are poor in skill. 

G44s, 40s, 42, MG42s. 

There are some "Diesel Punk" equipment to be found.  

Players are free to make up other Factions/"Houses"/Corporations. Note that this is a Cosmopolitan Country, factions is bizarrely any ethnic or cultural background.

Despite "Ethnic" profiles listed, expect 1/3 of all ethnic groups as mixed ethnicity. Despite the ethnic diversity, intolerance is healthy and strong in Haven.