My GURPS Roll20 Status Effects Legend

Enemies and PCs will have visible health bars (the green one)
So that it will be known if they suffer the following conditions MA136

Roles = Players input their own damage, conditions and spent FP (because that would be problematic if the GM added that to his load).

dmg >1/3HP -1 DX
dmg >1/2HP -2 DX/ Move 80%
dmg >2/3HP -3 DX, Move and Dodge 50%

Crippled Injury and Specialy Effects - in the notes.
X = dead or dying
Prone - Ochre/Brown TINT
Sitting - Ochre/Brown marker
Grappled - Blue Marker
Grappler - Green Marker
Stunned - Purpler Marker
Unconscious (failed consciousness roll - Red Marker

Tint
- Allies - Green, Blues
- Hostiles - Redish, Orange, Yellow
- Neutrals - Gray

GURPS modern fantasy 2 - Disad driven plot and game.

Here is a link to the GURPS Modern Fantasy set at Friday May 17 Newyork 7pm which is my Saturday May 18, 7am. I should be awake by 6. Second session is May 25.

GURPS modern fantasy game

1. Disadvantages driven plot with a combat and action focus. If you can give me your concept and disads first Ill shape the story asap, please have it in by May 14. 
2. 2-sessions (with a 1 session extension if people like the game that much). This is so that people can be free to try out other games.   
3. 150cp game, 50 Disadvantages, 5 Quirks. Everyone starts out as Best Buddies, trust is very high. Consider each other as a Free Ally 
4. All those taking on Supernatural Advantages must take a 10cp Unusual Background. Low Magic in Urban areas unless otherwise stated. Ritual Magic Rules. 
5. No cinematic advantages. 
6. TL8 present day, and fictional cosmopolitan coastal but emerging market country, undergoing rapid urbanization going on. CR4, heavy gun control, like in many emerging market countries enforcement is not really that good, expect Status 1 and up to have bodyguards that have firearms.  
7. You may save points to burn to negate critical failures or critical success attacks against you. 
8. If you are new to GURPS you can contact me to talk or chat about the character and preparing your actions before the game to speed up play. We will prep a note pad of tactics and actions you can cut and paste. 
9. You may find 100cp templates in GURPS martial arts and basic set. 

Pre-Gens for my GURPS Game

Her is my 6 pregens head-ache for Against the Cult of the reptile God adventure

Dwarven Horse Archer - Dwarves and Ponies FTW. ST15 Bow with bodkin arrows used against giants who have a DR5 tough hide. This character is designed to take on Giants by himself, using harassing methods. Bow-16 and Axe-14.

Elven Kataphrakt - Fully armored Horse Archer and a Heavy Warhorse. Bow-14, 2h-Sword-17

Human Sellsword Dirty Fighter - a very fun character to play because you can be pretty creative with brawling-18 and Judo-16 and Spear-16. This is a kind of character where you really need to use your surroundings and the opponent's own strength against them.

Orc Pole-arms-man - My brothers favorite combat mode - ST16 and Skill-14 glaive and brawl-18. High damage per turn, good reach, and great versatility, but not as versatile as the Sellsword.

Half-Elf Paladin - Shield-18, Brawling-16, and Shortsword-16. She can cast healing spells.

Half-Elf Courtesan - just a social combat character with 15s for psychology and analysis, and 16s for influence modes. Plus some other things.

Min-Maxed for a very combat intensive game.

Downton Abbey as an Inspiration to a Traveller Game

my wife and I are new fans of Downton Abbey, as a gamer I can't help be inspired by it story for a game or a story to write. Note that this is fiction and mostly used as a playground for examining worse-case scenarios.

One of the reasons I favor ISW is that it is Terra centric, and I can weave a story about how things changed on earth. I love speculating on the possible future by the trends in politics and science. I am aware there IS a deadline that certain changes have to happen or its impotence will never let it take effect.

It inspires a Traveller game that looks at 2170 as The Turn of a New Age.

Class Struggle.
It appears at this time that the only reason to go to space is when you don't have anything better here on earth. To be one of the elites, the dynasts, is to be immune to the same needs and insecurities of everyone else.

One of the futures we are trending towards is the separation of society through their political ideals and never needing to venture outside this because of technology and entrenched power. Technology can connect, but it can make a small niche class connect and coordinate in a way that they can overpower the masses. It can concentrate wealth, power and influence, because the tools they create cost resources and what was a mere gift of chance is slowly eroded by the power science has given to human kind.

The Welfare Class is a class of people who are affected by the abundance technology brings, but have not completely shaken free from poverty and ignorance. They are the "new serfdom or slavery", and are in a world where their opinion and thoughts are shaped by the New Aristocracy.

They are the new Intellectual Equilibrium, created by the anti-science and anti-critical thinking provisions designed by the lawmakers who serve the new Corporate Aristocracy.

A shrinking Middle Class, they have a choice between seeing their freedomes slowly taken away by the aristocracy and see many of their kind fall into the stuppor of the welfare class or leave earth and all its beauty for the claustrophobia of ships and colonies to make a new world and self governance for them.

Common Good Levels
Economies are Infectious in their activities, most of the time an economy that profits from abuses reshape costs and what is considered "Fair" compensation. No one can compete with an entity whose costs are next to nothing from an advantage unrestrained Power and Influence created. Sadly this is a common good problem, and common good problems are infectious because it is built on the best qualities of a very rare kind of people and it is in-itself a Prisoners Dillemma. When one sees a betrayal, all will betray.

For an economy to "Correct" for the negative effects of Prisoners Dillemma requires a memory of the betrayal - the welfare class has no memory, it has what ever it is fed by its overlords.  So the viscous cycle continues.

The Masses are unthinking and dangerous. 
Information barriers are much more oppressive in an age that information can travel at the speed of light but human emotion and thought needs to process everything. Everyone is human, except the few who have altered themselves to adapt to escalating information asymmetry.  It is easier to promote misinformation and to "cultivate" misinformation in an age where power is concentrated to a few in unprecedented levels.

Escape is the only choice for those who are unshackled by the intellectual oppression or lure of going with the flow. Those fueled to leave have become more alien than those who have been cultivated to stay and dream.

Loss Aversion and the Dynasts
being a dynast means having more to lose than most. One can fight this by accepting an Ascetic view of world, but those who do leave the world to those who are Not Ascetic. Those who are consumed by the need to accumulate and protect their own interests.

Imperialist Terra
To be an "Empire" builder again, its been 260 years since the last empires, but many would contest that the medium merely changed and it has come back to its its favored medium: conquest.

The war with the Vilani can be very interesting in this perspective - Greed is its primary cause because the middle class are pioneers too busy mastering the frontier, the welfare doesnt care, and only the dynasts are affected by the "potential" new markets.

Human Drama
Class Struggle, the Sacrifices, the human desires for a home and a stable future. The changes that will come and hardships. Smarter Good guys, good guys with a greater level of prudence discretion and strategy, in a more complex situation and era.

Epic Administration

What is Epic Administration? I was going through some common tropes and discovered a new perspective when I was analysing how Politicians and how one can kill or milk a project despite there being "checks and balances". The ability to "Game" a system lies in the Administration skill.

Power is a difficult weapon to wield, especially when the system is designed to be difficult to game.

Imagine a Senator or a Congressman. In a democracy, their powers are to vote on legislation. Now how does one exploit such a limited power -

• Selling their votes
• Vested interests - being invested where government is going to invest in. 
• Using their Public Figure to affect Public Opinion. Propaganda and Framing Effect or Mis-information. 

Selling a Vote requires one to provide their word and promise they will follow through with an action for promise with another. A politician on sale will only be as good as his word to be "sold" but in this game of politics, you don't have to follow through. 

Powerfully funded Lobbyists are those interested in buying these votes. 

Vested Interests are the most classic means of gaming the system, as well as the most profitable. Why sell your vote when you can cash in in a project worth millions or billions. Knowing where the win turns for Gov't bids and projects is very similar to Insider Trading. 

Propaganda, another classic use of a Public Office to promote one's self interest. 

These are all classic means of using one's public office for self gain, but what is not usually discussed or analyse in Undue Influence. 

There are checks and balances, and human instruments in following through these checks and balances. A committee can be misled and mis-informed. 

A bidder can have a heads up on what makes for a "winning" bid. 

Many Public Officers are in charge of Special projects, projects where they have at most power to Veto or Approve. They can "buy and sell" their influence for favors or cash. High public office have staffs and a whole lot of human effort and lives tangled in them. these can be instruments or tools for furthering the goals and influence of a High Political Officer. 

In game systems with Administration or something like it (Bureaucracy, Politics, etc.) to exert Influence over the Bureaucratic Machine does not require any special mastery... of course to pretend it is done in all Fairness and Transparency is a special but not too uncommon use of any system. 

How to Grow?

I guess what I want to talk about is how growing the hobby is not changing peoples minds about the systems they love but focusing in attracting more people to the hobby to be open to many styles of play.

I'm in no mood to be comparing systems and styles. I just want to find more people to play with, and I am willing to change how I enjoy something to accommodate other people.  I think energies are better focused lowering the barrier of entry, not just in complexity, information, and identifiable genres but socially - by being easy and fun to play with.

Right now my current challenge is trying to have a new gaming group despite work and real life barriers. I've already provided a location  in eastwood corporate plaza and props (my reaper, battle mat).  Still the formula depends mostly on chance because schedules are especially since my mandarin classes have moved the game night to Friday night. I've checked what I am bringing to the game and its about +10lbs of gear.

GURPS is not that big in the philippines, but since I'm part of the GURPS community, an MIB, it seems, anecdotally, to be the most growing hobby (at least online). Especially since I've been playing combat heavy games, political and strategic games I've been energized to run any game where I can get behind the "GM wheel".

Any reason I'm not successful in growing the hobby in my area despite my offers and accessibility is mostly speculation and not-helpful. The most important thing is getting out there and meeting people who might be interested in the hobby by gaming the statistics.  As to that I think I better start going to the gaming meet ups of board games and other games and provide a "Card" of introductions.

Re-Learning GURPS Combat with Vaclav's Gladiator Game

Thanks to +Vaclav Tofl and +Martin Davis for the GURPS Gladiator Game!

Nothing like a bunch of Martial Artist Enthusiasts Trying out GURPS Martial Arts, I'd thing SCA fighters would love the system more. 

I lost and almost died, thankfully I killed a skin changer dire-wolf. Parmenion (Martin) took me down this game. He did very well and I have to hand him such a gracious victory. 

I learned a lot this combat. Vaclav and I had a second melee after the fight with Parmenion and got to explore more risky tactics. 

Lessons

• Evaluation Rules are Harsh. It is a maneuver with fleeting benefits. You will lose the evlauate maneuver if you break off your target, (realistically). In terrain where we retreat to defend, you will end up cornered because to begin with a cautious strategy means spending Acrobatic Dodge, Feverish Defense, and Retreat while you are evaluating. 
• Keep in mind Extra Effort. FP is the stat that tells me I have to have a strategy going in. 
• Acrobatic Dodge - if fail Feverish Defense
• Acrobatic Dodge + Feverish Defense vs Deceptive Attack or Penalized Defenses. 

How to Organize my Strategies

I always assume a roll of 10-11 when I am visualizing a strategy. 

- Dominant Strategies - a line of 2-3 second strategy (typically engaging or moving up to the enemy requires its own strategy). Example > Round 1: AoD: Improved Dodge + move 3 spaces > round 2: Feint and step back > round 3: leg attack. 

- Safe Strategies - a list of strategies where the Failure is not a penalty or leaves the character risky. Example > Wait- If steps within reach-1 trigger AoD: Evade through an opponent (B368) on a success you appear behind the opponent on your next turn. 

- Risky to Very Risky but High Pay off Strategies - a list o strategies that require the success of two other skills but results into a very high pay off. Example > Round 1: Wait for an enemy to step and close in for an attack - triggers  CA:D Long Evade to move behind opponent + Telegraphic Attack + Elbow Strike (MA71) or Back Kick/Back Strike (MA67) + attack option Sweep Attack (an attack that cannot be dodged) the purpose of the attack is to down the opponent. 

Players who don't know the rules and Options - Cheat Sheet. the GM spends an hour easily to have a combat encounter with the Player to determine their dominant strategy. This aids both the player and the GM. 

Once a cheat sheet is made, it is merely drag and drop. so the combat can be tracked.