GURPS - Compendium 1..

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A problem with this rule is that high-IQ characters have a thicker accent and must invest more points in their Language skill to get rid of it! Example: Arthur has IQ 10, while Bob has IQ 18; they both have 1 point in Vogelpuk (M/E). Arthur's skill is 10/2 = 5, giving him a "5" accent. Bob's skill is 18/2 = 9, making him a better conversationalist, but he has a "9" accent! So nobody understands him . . . Make Language Talent more costly or less effective: Most levels with language skills cost 2 points - the same as a level of Language Talent. Why pay for + 1 to one skill when you can have +1 to all of them? Make Language Talent a onetime advantage, giving +3 to all language abilities for 10 points. Specifically define the Unusual Background required for extra "native" languages: Some individuals are raised to speak more than one language, and have each of these languages as a "native" language. This is a special case of Unusual Background. To be bilingual is an advantage worth 5 points. Each additional native language costs 3 points. Those who might possess this advantage include second-generation immigrants, itinerants (such as gypsies) and people who grew up in a multicultural area. GADGETS AND GADGETEERING Characters in fiction often use equipment that is years ahead of its time technologically. In keeping with this, players in cinematic campaigns may create "gadgeteer" characters who are able to design and build high-tech weapons, tools, armor, etc. according to the rules that follow. To become a gadgeteer, one must buy the 25-point Gadgeteer advantage (p. 25). This advantage reflects the character's aptitude for modifying existing devices and creating new ones. It does not mean the hero is unusually smart or knowledgeable; it simply represents a broad, intuitive capacity for inventing. Creating new gear requires the character to have a good understanding of the field he is working in. For example, someone trying to invent a new type of weapon must have a high score in Engineer (Weapon Type) in order to succeed. The gadgeteer may wish to specialize in one or two areas to start, then expand his horizons as he progresses in experience. The level of expertise required to create a gadget depends on its complexity (as decided by the GM): Simple gadget: requires skill 12-14. Average gadget: requires skill 15-17. Complex gadget: requires skill 18- 20. Amazing gadget: requires skill 21+. Inventing Gadgets A character must meet all the requirements, including monetary cost, before he is allowed to use the gadget in play. Description Players who want to create a new gadget must have an explanation for its operation, and must describe it to the GM in a logical manner. The GM is free to accept or reject the design, depending on its feasibility. If he accepts the item, he decides how "complex" it is, and what tech level it is. A pulp-adventure world is TL6, today's world is TL7, and futuristic settings will be TL8+. The stronger, smaller, more effective, etc., the item is, the higher its TL should be. Firearms Specialization and familiarity (Continued) Guns Specializations Rifle - Firing a rifled, sighted, shoulderstocked weapon with one shot for each pull of the trigger. Shotgun - Firing a smoothbore, shoulder-stocked weapon with multiple-projectile loads with one shot for each pull of the trigger. Light Automatic - Firing a shoulderstocked weapon (submachine gun, assault rifle, machine carbine or light machine gun) in bursts of automatic fire. Pistol - Firing a stockless gun with one shot for each pull of the trigger. Machine Pistol - Firing a stockless gun in bursts. Grenade Launcher - Firing grenades from guns, either specialized grenade launchers or attachments to other guns. Light Antitank Weapon — Firing unguided projectiles from shoulder-mount ed weapons such as rocket launchers and recoilless rifles. Flamethrower - Firing portable flamethrowers. Special Weapon - Firing any peculiar firearm: glove guns, walking stick guns, belt buckle guns, shoe guns, briefcase guns, etc. A separate skill is required for each special weapon. Defaults: Rifle and Shotgun default to each other at -2; to Pistol at -4. Defaults between auto and non-auto (Rifle/Shotgun to Light Automatic; Pistol to Machine Pistol) are -4; Long Gun (shotgun, rifle, submachine gun, etc.) to Machine Pistol is -5. Long guns default to LAWs and Grenade Launchers at -3; Light Automatics and pis - tols default at -5. Firing rolls usually default to similar Black Powder Weapons skills - Guns (Rifle) to Black Powder Weapons (Caplock Rifle), for instance - at - 2 plus the lock-type difference from caplock. Guns (Rifle) defaults to Black Powder Weapons (CL Rifle) at -2; to flint - lock rifles at -4; to matchlock rifles at -7. Gunner Specializations Machine Gun - Firing bursts from mounted automatic weapons. Mechanical Machine Gun - Firing bursts from man-powered machine guns. Cannon/TL - Firing artillery pieces. Mortar/TL - Firing mortars. ATGM/TL - Firing antitank guided missiles. Continued on next page ... 121
Firearms Specialization and Familiarity (Continued) Maintenance Specializations Guns are a lot more alike in shooting than they are in loading or maintenance. A soldier trained to aim and fire an Ml6 can shoot a flintlock Kentucky rifle effectively with a little practice. The slow lock-time, pan fizzle, curved trajectory and drooping stock just take a little getting used to. Loading the muzzle-loader and immediate action are not as easy. GMs are the final authority on penalties to skill for such activities. The penalty should be at least -10 to go from loading a metallic-cartridge gun to loading a matchlock; perhaps only -8 for someone who has actually seen a muzzleloader charged at a Buckskinner show or on television. Other lock-types should not be quite as hard; burning match and powder are an especially tricky combination. Immediate action should have the same sort of penalties. Familiarity with loading and maintenance of muzzle loaders is not as easy to acquire as familiarity with shooting; usually it requires 48 hours to acquire full familiarity. (That's 48 hours of practice - say, a week of rigid, eight hours per day drill under a good drill master.) Cartridge guns are simpler; the usual eight hours should be enough. The item should not actually violate any physical laws (e.g., speed of light, gravity, etc.) unless the GM has ruled that such a thing is possible in the campaign; even then, such gadgets should be very expensive. (GMs who want such "impossible" devices, but do not wish to allow them to be bought with mere money, will find detailed character point cost rules in <strong>GURPS</strong> Supers.) Skill Rolls and Time Required A Simple gadget will only take ld- 2 (minimum 1) days to develop. Average complexity calls for 2d days, a Complex gadget takes 1d months, and an Amazing gadget takes 3d months. These times assume that the inventor works eight hours a day. If he works 16 hours a day, time is cut by 50%, but he must make a HT roll each morning or lose Fatigue as if he only got a half-night of sleep (see sidebar, p. B134). Fatigue lost in this manner can't be regained without taking a break from the project, which will add 1d days to it! If the character has the Doesn't Sleep advantage (p. 53), only 1 Fatigue roll per week is necessary. At the middle of the project, the inventor rolls against the skills the GM required for the particular gadget. A failed roll adds 50% to the time to complete the gadget. On a critical failure, the gadget is destroyed - all work is lost and the development cost (below) must be paid over again. A critical success means that the item is finished immediately! This skill roll is modified by the complexity of the gadget - no modification for Simple; -2 for Average; -4 for Complex; -8 for Amazing. Expenses Creating new gadgets is very costly. Tools, raw materials, unusual parts, laboratory space, etc., all require money. The GM will assign two costs to an item - Development cost, which must be paid before any item can be fabricated, and Production cost, which must be paid for each item created. Development cost is a function of tech level and complexity of an item. The following table shows the Base Cost for an item at the campaign tech level, and the TL Increment, the cost for each additional tech level above the campaign. Complexity Base Cost TL Increment Simple $50,000 $100,000 Average $100,000 $250,000 Complex $250,000 $500,000 Amazing $500,000 $1,000,000 Production cost varies from item to item. If the gadget exists in a <strong>GURPS</strong> book, use the retail price of the item as a base production cost and double it for each difference in tech level, accumulating the cost! Example: Dr. Kromm wishes to make a Holodistort Belt (p. S47). This is a TL 10 item that uses a holographic projector to distort the appearance of the wearer, giving the wearer some small bonuses in combat and making him almost impossible to see. The GM rules that this is a Complex item, so the base development cost is $250,000. Since TL10 is three tech levels above the campaign TL of 7, there is an additional $1,500,000 (3 x TL Increment) development cost, bringing the total to $1,750,000. The items sells for $4,000 at TL 10. The difference of three tech levels causes the price to double three times; $4,000 + $8,000 + $16,000 + $32,000 = $60,000 per item! 122
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CHARACTER CREATION COVER BY JEFF KO
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5. SKILLS .........................
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ATTRIBUTE LEVELS AND THEIR MEANINGS
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The Much-Maligned Will: Optional Wi
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The Much-Maligned Will: Optional Wi
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Extra Effort Lifting with High ST T
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Optional Rule: Treating Figured Qua
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Fine-Tune Once you have taken exist
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NEW ADVANTAGES The following are al
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This advantage is useful to shamans
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Frequency of Assistance Frequency r
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Favor Variable You saved someone's
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A character with the Iron Hand will
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Pious 5 points Some people have an
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Tenure 5 points This social advanta
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OCCULT AND PARANORMAL ADVANTAGES Th
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Clerical Magic Variable In some wor
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Familiar Variable Familiars are sma
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Karmic Ties Variable Some people ar
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Medium 10 points You possess the na
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failure, you will believe your ance
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Snatcher Variable This is the power
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Drift: The Jumper does not arrive i
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RACIAL AND SUPER ADVANTAGES These a
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Body of Stone 8 points/level Your b
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the presence of the odor and for 30
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one-handed task (e.g., swinging a s
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You must buy the ST to support your
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No Vitals 5 points You have no part
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Type of Drone Mindless: -10 points.
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Passive Defense 25 points/level up
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Special limitation: One class of da
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Claws 15/25/40/55 points The charac
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d) The transformation is not instan
Page 72 and 73: Note: Modifiers for multiple limita
Page 74: "wrong" with the image (not necessa
Page 77 and 78: Doing Away With Disadvantages By Bi
Page 79 and 80: The base value of an Evil Twin is m
Page 81 and 82: Obnoxious Drunk -1 point As you dri
Page 83 and 84: than that (in fact, he is more like
Page 85 and 86: Scalped -5 points You have survived
Page 87 and 88: MENTAL DISADVANTAGES Mental disadva
Page 89 and 90: Compulsive Gambling -5/-10/-15 poin
Page 91 and 92: Edgy -5 points This is a mild form
Page 93 and 94: Low Self-Image -10 points You lack
Page 95 and 96: Self-Centered -10 points Like Self
Page 97 and 98: OCCULT AND PARANORMAL DISADVANTAGES
Page 99 and 100: Jinxed -20/-40/-60 points This disa
Page 101 and 102: Unliving -50 points You are not tru
Page 103 and 104: Lost Speed and DX are regained at a
Page 105 and 106: Reprogrammable Duty -25 points You
Page 107 and 108: Unhealing -20/-30 points You do not
Page 109 and 110: Turning Enhancements On and Off Eac
Page 111 and 112: LIMITATIONS Limitations reduce the
Page 113 and 114: Reduced Range -5% Each time this li
Page 115 and 116: Mastery High Skill vs. Diversity Ha
Page 117 and 118: Extraordinary Diligence to Maintain
Page 119 and 120: USING SKILLS Two sets of skills nor
Page 121: Firearms Specialization and Familia
Page 125 and 126: Vehicle Skill Specializations (Cont
Page 127 and 128: + 1 to +5 if the item is a variant
Page 129 and 130: NEW SKILLS The following list inclu
Page 131 and 132: The composer must have a skill in e
Page 133 and 134: Lifting (Physical/Hard) No default
Page 135 and 136: Fire-Siphon (Physical/Average) Defa
Page 137 and 138: Modifiers: All Vision modifiers app
Page 139 and 140: Blind Fighting (Mental/Very Hard) N
Page 141 and 142: Time and fatigue requirements: It t
Page 143 and 144: Light Walk (Mental/Hard) No default
Page 145 and 146: Pressure Points (Mental/Hard) Defau
Page 147 and 148: Darts (Physical/Easy) Defaults to D
Page 149 and 150: MAGICAL SKILLS Alchemy/TL (Mental/V
Page 151 and 152: MEDICAL SKILLS Chi Treatment (Menta
Page 153 and 154: OUTDOOR SKILLS Animal Guise (Mental
Page 155 and 156: A critical success automatically ba
Page 157 and 158: Revolution. It does not automatical
Page 159 and 160: Planetology can be used in place of
Page 161 and 162: The GM may give a further +1 bonus
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Page 165 and 166: Note that some maneuvers are listed
Page 167 and 168: Just Watch This One! Expanding the
Page 169 and 170: Just Watch This One! (Continued) Te
Page 171 and 172: Just Watch This One! (Continued) Mu
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The Spin Kick allows a simultaneous
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The Rule of 12 If evolution or the
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Countervailing Attribute Modifiers:
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Player-Created Races Although the c
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PERSONALITY TRAITS Stefan Jones ori
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APPENDIX 2 — ADVANTAGE LISTINGS T
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Name Cost Page Reference Peripheral
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Name Cost Page Reference Hidebound
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Name Type Default Page Reference Na
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Name Type Default age Reference Nam
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- K - Kicking maneuver, 170. Knacks
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GURPS - Compendium 1..

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