jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (default)
Dragon Hatchling
6 points

Attribute Modifiers: IQ -1 [-20], HT +1 [10], Per +1 [5], SM 0 [0]
Advantages: Burning Attack 1d (Costs Fatigue 2, -20%; Jet, +0%) [4]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Nictitating Membrane 2 [2]; Optional Quadruped [3]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Striker (Tail; Crushing: Clumbsy, -2 to hit, -40%) [3], Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
Perks: Draconic Maturation.
Quirks: Naive, Strongly prefers walking on all fours
Features: Born Biter. Armor isn't interchangeable with humanoid armor (and not with Dragon-Blooded or Lizard Man armor either). Colorful Scales. Vestigial wings.
Notes: A classical quadrupedal dragon hatchling, out and about well before its parents would normally release it. Its wings are under-developed and the entire world is a new and interesting place! This interpretation makes dragon forepaws just as good as any humanoids hands, at least when they're small, and allows them to walk upright and use equipment like any other character, should they choose to. There's enough fantasy art that shows dragons acting like humans that I don't feel this is super-straining.

New Traits:
Perk: Draconic Maturation
You may purchase up to 30 points of Draconic advantages at character creation, and/or buy them in play, at their usual point costs.
Trait: Optional Quadruped, 3 points
You may freely choose to walk on four legs or two; walking on four legs is walking, not crawling, and subjects you to all the effects of the Extra Legs advantage, and the Horizontal disadvantage, and you may not use your hands as, well, hands. Getting upright from walking on four legs counts as getting up from Prone - you must first sit up before you stand up, unless you successfully execute an Acrobatic Stand.
Extra Legs (4 legs; Temporary Disadvantages: Horizontal, No Fine Manipulators, -45%), [3].

Lens: Unhandy Dragonet, [-7]
You don't have hands so much as clever fore-paws, and you are not adept at walking upright (although you can, in a pinch). You have a -2 on tasks that require a power grip, and -3 on tasks that require a delicate touch. You can walk at full Move on all fours rather than having to Crawl, or you can Sit or Kneel and use your hands (at the above penalties). If you need to walk with your hands full you can toddle along upright at 3/5ths your normal Move. If you have DX 14 or more, you can carry a small object or two while walking on all fours (this includes the penalty for Bad Grip).
Add ST +1, Bad Grip 1, Ham-Fisted 1, Semi-Upright. [total -5]
Remove Optional Quadruped and the Strongly prefers walking on all fours quirk. [total -2]
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
As a GM, I love me my monsters. Lots of monsters. They're one of the core tools in the GMs box, and you can't have too many. The DFRPG Monsters book is great, but you can never have too many monsters. The first obvious (and easiest) place to look outside of Monsters is the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy product line, it's spiritual elder sibling. There are five books of monsters for that line, and more in the Pyramid issues and in adventures for GURPS DF (which are all handy anyways). They're pretty easy to pick up and drop into a DFRPG game, once you get used to the slightly different notation for some of the monster Traits.
That's the low-hanging fruit. Where do you go after you've exhausted those? The rest of the GURPS product line of course!
The easiest places to start are the other "genre mini series", sister product lines to Dungeon Fantasy. After The End and Monster Hunters in particular (Action is a great series, but doesn't really have monsters). Both these series have monsters, but both these series are aimed at a post-firearms world, so there's some adjusting to do - if only to remove the guns from the monster equipment lists!

After The End is probably the easiest place to start, as while the setting has guns, it also has a lot of low-tech elements and therefore tool-using enemies also have some sort of (crappy) melee weapons. The biggest selection of monsters for ATE is in GURPS After the End 2: The New World - here you can find gang members (bandits!), mutant people, mutant animals, and an alien. Mutant people make for fascinating nonhuman humanoids, mutant animals are just regular old monsters, and aliens, if you ask me, are one of just more mundane humanoids, fae, demons, or Elder Things. Whichever you feel your campaign needs more of.

However, the humanoid mutants are a bit tricky because the mutation packages they provide refer to the mutation traits in book 1, rather than base trait names that are easy for DFRPG players to figure out.

Over the next while (schedule unknown at this point) I'm going to be making DFRPG enemies out of these After The End gang members and mutants, using DFRPG traits and equipment. No puzzling out required, I'll do it for you :D For GURPS DF players using the optional CER rules, I will be providing CER numbers as well.

Along the way I will sprinkle in some variations as the mood strikes me. Why not?
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Create Fire
Area
Fills an area with intensely hot fire that requires no fuel. (Cast in mid-air, it produces a sphere of flame, which falls to the ground.) This is real fire that will (potentially rapidly) ignite flammable objects it touches. Cannot be cast within rock, foes, water, etc.
Duration: 1 minute.
Base cost: See table. Half that to maintain. Ordinary fires set by this spell donโ€™t require maintenance, but return to "Ordinary fire" intensity, as per Exploits page 68.
Time to cast: Prerequisites: Wizardly: Create Fire, Magery 2.
Cost Damage per Partial Turn Damage per Full Turn Magery Prerequisite
4 1d 2d-1 2
8 3d 6d-1 3
12 5d-1 8d+2 4
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis – This post presents a weaker form of No Depth Perception, for when you can place things really close up (but not at range).

Poor Depth Perception [-10 points]

You might have two eyes and they may be roughly pointed in the same direction, but you still have poor binocular vision and are challenged by visually judging distances. This might be due to a vision disorder, physiology, or a quirk of your neurology. Unlike No Depth Perception you suffer no penalty in normal melee combat and with tasks involving hand-eye coordination within arms reach.
You still take a -3 penalty on ranged attacks (unless you Aim first) and on rolls to operate any vehicle faster than a horse and buggy. You also suffer a -1 to Dodge against ranged attacks, and -1 to -3 on hand-eye coordination tasks that involve elements beyond your reach moving rapidly towards or away from you you, such as striking or catching small objects that are moving faster than Move 15. You're simply terrible at all stick-ball games (-3 penalty).
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis – Why low/funky mana areas aren't (always) unfair. Nonstandard mana levels are sometimes regarded as the GM "screwing over the players", but only like any other hazard.
Ed Note: This post is based on previously posted material (by yours truely) which I have edited and expanded upon. If you get deja vu, that's why.

A cruel, bored or irritated GM can abuse their editorial powers to heap misery upon suffering on their players, up to and including terminating the game via horrible in-game events: Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies. This kind of adversarial play style is pretty unpopular these days, but sometimes I wonder if we've over-corrected for sins past. Making things more difficult for your players is not the same as using the magnifying glass of your GMly powers on their ant-like paper men.

This concern comes up quickest in GURPS when Low Mana zones, or other weird magic areas, are discussed - "-5 to all your spells" is a pretty purified "Here, lets make all the wizards lives difficult today" mechanic, and it only gets worse if you have something like Twisted Mana, where even succeeding can be worrying.

Read more... )
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis – A random enchanted fountain table for Dungeon Fantasy!

Enchanted Fountains

Magic fountains and pools are classic dungeon features, dating back to some of the first published adventures for D&D. DF Exploits talks about them quickly, and suggests a table of random effects might be fun. So here's a table!

Enchanted Fountain Table

Roll (2d) Effect
2 Healing magic! Roll 1d; 1-5: Heals 4d6 injury; 6: Roll HT for each affliction affliction or crippling injury to have the affliction removed or the crippled limb restored. Roll HT-5 for severed limbs.
3 Teleports the character to a nearby (within 50 yards) room (choosen at the GMs whim, or randomly).
4 Random attribute increase! Enjoy a (1d) bonus to a random attribute for (2d) hours. Roll on the random attribute table (below) to pick which one.
5 Monster disguise! For (1d) hours you are magically disguised as a monster from the wandering monster table for this dungeon, as if a Simple Illusion spell and an Illusion Disguise spell were cast on you (DF Spells p. 40). Unlike the spells, this illusion is not dispelled by touch! If there is no wandering monster table, pick a monster type found in the dungeon.
6 Gain Magic Resistance 5 for 1d hours (or increase existing Magic Resistance by 5). This is not Improved Magic Resistance and will prevent spellcasting!
7 Nothing happens... this time! (The magic is on the fritz!)
8 Invisibility! Grants invisibility for 1d×10 minutes, or until user takes offensive action (e.g., attacks) or casts a spell.
9 Random attribute decrease! HT-4 or suffer a (1d) penalty to a random attribute for (16-HT) hours. Roll on the random attribute table (below) to pick which one.
10 Sleepytime. Roll HT-4 or sleep for (16-HT) hours (as per the Sleep Potion).
11 Corrosion! (1d-1 corrosion damage for a dip, 3d HP of injury if swallowed)
12 Dangerous poison! HT or take 2d+6 tox HP of injury (HT-4 if swallowed!)

Random Attribute Table

Roll (1d) Effect
1 ST
2 DX
3 IQ
4 HT
5 Perception
6 Will

While written for the DFRPG, this material is fully compatible with GURPS DF (and GURPS in general)

jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis – This is a quick grab-n-go list of some Dungeon Fantasy ready gems with a little bit of description, sorted by some handy value tiers.
Dungeon Fantasy Exploits gives some rough ideas on relative value for gems, but is sparse on concrete details.

Here's a quick grab-n-go list of some gems with a little bit of description, sorted by some handy value tiers. As a reminder: gems are so trivially small that unless you're dealing with handfuls of them, you can ignore the weight. I've included weights anyways in case you want like, a pound of obsidian trade gems or something.

Read the great big list... )By the by: that pound of obsidian rupees is 333 rupees, or $8 325. And now you know!

Touching the Ghost

2017-Jun-21, Wednesday 10:10
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (default)
This is a breakdown on getting Insubstantial characters to interact with physical things. It's ordered in roughly order of cost of the enhancement(s).

Partial Change, +20% only

You may interact physically with substantial targets, but do so by materializing parts of your body to do so. This renders you vulnerable to Parry/Block, and various kinds of counter-attack (Wait-and-Attack will probably become very popular for your targets). Does not require Affects Substantial, as you are exposing yourself. Your entire hand (or foot, or whatever) becomes substantial as part of any attack.
If you want to attack while insubstantial and be immune to counter-attack by remaining insubstantial, you should take Affects Substantial and add the +40% Affects Substantial enhancement to your ST.
You may only interact by pushing, shoving, hitting, poking, etc. You cannot lift or pull things, nor can you grapple or pin. You may not use extraordinary abilities without taking Affects Substantial - you may only interact crudely; even extraordinary abilities tied to body-parts (the Deathtouch spell, an Innate Attack with the Melee limitation defined as claws, etc) cannot be used without Affects Substantial applied to Insubstantial (and to the extraordinary ability, if appropriate).

Partial Change, +20% + Can Cary Objects, any level

As above, but you may now also lift and carry, pull, grapple, and pin (subject to your Can Cary Objects weight limit). Objects remain substantial, and the body part(s) manipulating the object are also substantial (and targetable in combat by substantial foes).

Can Cary Objects, any level

You may turn objects insubstantial by holding/wearing them when you become insubstantial. When you drop them, they become substantial. You can't throw them or swing them as weapons or use them to manipulate physical objects (unless it's a magic ghost weapon Gadget type thing, which is cheating ๐Ÿ˜ ). You may not pick up substantial objects while insubstantial, nor may you turn substantial objects insubstantial without carrying them with you as you yourself turn insubstantial. To acquire more insubstantial objects, become substantial and then pick them up like normal people.
Despite lacking "direct" combat actions, this enhancement still has significant combat applications - pulling the pin on a hand-grenade and dropping it (so it becomes substantial and harmless to you) is only the most flashy. It also allows you to do things like drop caltrops, blow poison powders or smoke/gas issuing devices, and generally deploy environmental hazards.

Partial Change, +100% + Can Cary Objects, any level

You may now also take your equipment that became Insubstantial with you, and turn it Substantial, without dropping it. This allows, eg, a Super-Ninja to walk through the wall with his trademarked poisoned shuriken and throw them or use them to claw at guards, rather than just dropping them - which isn't very ninja-awesome. It's not specified in the quote, but it seems very much that it goes the other way as well - you can steal things and turn them insubstantial.

Affects Substantial, +100%

If you have any ability that notes it can be used while Insubstantial on substantial targets, you must take this enhancement. This includes abilities that work with a penalty when crossing states. This also includes any ability that has the Affects Substantial, +40% modifier applied to it to upgrade it - yes, you have to pay in two places. It's that expensive because it's that awesome.
Failing to take this enhancement locks out all abilities that would normally otherwise cross the substantial/insubstantial border to work only on targets in the same condition as yourself .

Affects Substantial, +40% applied to ST

As per GURPS Power Ups 4: Enhancements pp. 9-10, following the provided procedure to "Enhance" ST with Affects Substantial benefits all unarmed melee attacks, for striking only. Remember Claws, ST-Based Innate Attacks, Strikers, and Teeth will also require the enhancement if you wish to enjoy this enhancement with them.

Untouchable Deadly Assassin (Contains House Rules)

An Insubstantial character who wishes to be able to interact with the physical world as if solid, but be interacted with as if Insubstantial without any of the pesky problems of partial materialization should take the following meta-enhancement on Insubstantial:
Untouchable Deadly Assassin (+350%): Affects Substantial, +100%; Can Cary Objects: Heavy, +100%; Cosmic: Interact Physically While Completely Insubstantial, +50%; Partial Materialization, +100%.

Cosmic: Interact Physically While Completely Insubstantial

This is an application of Cosmic: Removes Restrictions. This house-rule modifier requires every other enhancement in the meta-enhancement; it is not separable. Can Cary Objects allows supporting weight; Partial Materialization gives the ability to manipulate physical objects while otherwise Insubstantial; Cosmic is required to remove the requirement to partially expose yourself to attack, and Affects Substantial is required because you now have an ability that allows you to interact physically with the environment while remaining safely insubstantial.
You will still need to apply the Affects Substantial enhancement to any extraordinary abilities that you wish to also apply to the physical world.
Note that defenders aware of your attacks will still be able to defend. You will need to add separate enhancements to your abilities to bypass this. Being an Untouchable Unstoppable Deadly Assassin is terribly expensive. Go shopping in the Malediction and Cosmic section for the usual heavy-hitters in this respect, but Respiratory, Blood-Based etc may be useful.
Note to GMs: You may wish to also require the player to buy Affects Substantial on ST as the character is now effectively enjoying the complete benefit of this enhancement.
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis – Two new magic items: the spiked shield Warding Horns of the Prince, and the flail Crushing Hooves of Thunder.

These are still a little rough compared to the last two. My GM uses an enchantment system that is based on advantages to go with the Sorcery magic in his game. Hloomawl, Minotaur prince, and General of the Resistance has acquired these.

Warding Horns of the Prince

This spiked shield is extremely large, made as a full-body (DB +3) shield for a SM +1 warrior; SM 0 characters are at -1 to Shield skill and to any weapon skill when using it, along with the usual -2 for being a Large class shield. It is made from black-oak planks laminated together and faced in leather, with a spiked iron shield boss. It is Fine (Balanced), like the weapon quality modifier, giving +1 to Shield skill (for attacks like slams and bashes, and for calculating blocks).
It weighs 34 pounds, has object DR 4 and has 36 HP. These are much higher than expected!
Warding Horns of the Prince lives to defend, and gives the wielder a +1 to Block.
If the wielder of Warding Horns of the Prince has Shield Wall Training, their blocks for others accumulate multiple-block penalties on a separate "track" from their own. E.G. If Hloomawl blocks for himself, and then blocks for Attivi, the block for Attivi is not at -5 for repeated Blocks. If Hloomawl then needs to block for himself a second time before his turn, he blocks at only -5. If he then needs to block for Skyler, that block will be at -5 as Hloomawl has already blocked for Attivi. Hloomawls blocks for himself don't count when calculating the penalty for shielding Skyler.

Under the Hood:

Enhanced Block +1 [5]
Warding Blocks:
Effectively this provides a second, "virtual" shield; I've put No Signature on because there's no visible second shield, but in this case it's obvious that the wielder is making "real" blocks. The Payload is to "carry" a copy of the shield without suffering encumbrance.
* Extra Arm 1 (No Signature, +20%; Only to defend others, -20%; Shield Mount, -80%) [4]
* Payload 4 (No Signature, +20%) [5]
Note that this Payload is for a ST 22 character! A less mighty character will need to buy more Payload.
Glamour:
New perk. Shield appears to be a "light" shield, but has the stats of a heavy shield.

Crushing Hooves of Thunder

This great Flail is easily a two-handed weapon for a normal warrior, but Hloomawl the minotaur prince wields it one-handed. It counts as Balanced and Fine quality, belying its utilitarian exterior.
Whenever the wielder of Crushing Hooves of Thunder menaces someone, he is dramatically punctuated by a grumble of distant thunder (+1 to Intimidation vs non-deaf foes; exceptions made for creatures with ties to storms/thunder e.g. storm spirits).
Whenever Crushing Hooves of Thunder knocks down or kills a foe, it emits a terrifying clash of thunder. The wielder gets to use either the Flourish perk or the Follow-Through perk.
Crushing Hooves of Thunder loves to smash in the skulls of its foes. +4 to attack the Skull hit location.
Those hit by Crushing Hooves of Thunder are forced to the ground by a bolt from above (2d cr nw dkb, delivered from above when determining direction of knockback).
Those hit by Crushing Hooves of Thunder are deafened by the bolt, and often knocked out entirely. (If damage gets past DR, make a HT roll at -1 per 2 points of penetrating damage. If the victim fails, they're deafened. If they fail by 5 or more or critfail, they're knocked Unconscious for 20-HT minutes).

Under the Hood:


+1 to a skill (Intimidation) [2]
2 Perks: Flourish, Follow-through[2] - both are specialized in whichever Flail skill you are using to wield Crushing Hooves of Thunder
Targeted Attack Technique (Swing/Skull) +4 [7] again, specialized in whichever Flail skill you are using.
Crushing Attack 2d (No Wounding, -50%; Double Knockback, +20%; Overhead, +30%; Followup Crushing Hooves of Thunder Swing, -20%) [8]
Modified ST-Based Damage 2d+4 (base points 16; Side Effect, Thunderbolt, +110%) [18]

Sidebar: Thunderbolt Side Effect, +110%


Side Effect, +50%
  • Disadvantage, Deafness, +20%
  • Unconsciousness, Secondary, +40%
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis โ€“ a paired set of Artifact style magic items: the javelins Shock and Awe. Includes description, a bit of history, and stats.


This was my submission to the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Magic Items contest; these definitely qualify as artifacts under the 40 Artifacts guidelines :)

Shock and Awe



This pair of Balanced, Fine, Orichalcum javelins have a mysterious provenance, rumored to be the handiwork of a great dwarven craftsman empowered by an airy spirit whoes heart he captured (by romance or by trickery, the stories do not say).

Both are fancifully decorated, counting as Ornate +3. Shock is edged in electrum and the javelin head is in the shape of a stylized lightning bolt. Awe is gilded, and the javelin head portrays the sun, with the blade formed from the suns rays being twisted together.

In combat, Shock and Awe have dazzling features. Neither can be parried or blocked, only dodged. Once either hits or misses, it disintegrates and reforms in its wielders hand on his next turn, instantly ready.

Shock transforms into a lightning bolt when hurled, coursing across the battlefield with a flash and a bang. Whatever it strikes suffers Linked 2d burning damage with the Surge, Arcing enhancement (Psionic Powers page 20), and it produces a Thunderclap (as per the spell, Magic page 171) with itself as the subject.

Awe transforms into a blast of sunlight when hurled, with the fury of a thousand desert noons. The entire line of hexes between the thrower and whatever it finally strikes are lit as per the Sunlight spell (Magic page 114) for one minute. Whatever it strikes suffers Linked 2d tight-beam burning damage, and it produces a Flash (as per the spell, Magic page 112) with itself as the "caster".

Shock and Awe together are a 13 FP Power Item. They cannot be separated for long; at the stroke of noon if they are not in the possession of the same person, both Shock and Awe vanish with a Flash and a Thunderclap.

Arctic Kangaroos

2017-Jun-16, Friday 07:22
jerril: A cartoon head with caucasian skin, brown hair, and glasses. (Default)
Precis – A statblock for a fictional arctic kangaroo. Also includes new traits: Bounder, Macropod Tail, Snow-Walker, Cellulose Eater, Seasonal Camouflage.
There's no such thing as an Arctic kangaroo. Irregardless, I dreamed that a talking arctic kangaroo was knocking at my window at 6 AM in the predawn darkness, nagging me to go running with him. In the snow. To hell with that.

My amateur dream analysis is that I'm painfully Australian/Canadian, and I need to get out and exercise more.

Care of my slightly demented dreams, have a GURPS template for a talking Arctic kangaroo. This writeup owes a debt to the GURPS Animalia website by lwcamp/Pizard, but has been significantly modified.

Talking Arctic Kangaroo, 166 points
Traits marked with an * are listed below the template.

ST +3 [30]; DX +1 [20]; IQ -1 [-20]; Will +1 [5]; Perception +3 [15]
Advantages: Blunt Claws [3]; Bounder* [57]; DR 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Macropod Tail * [23]; Night Vision 4 [4]; Parabolic Hearing 2 [8]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Reduced Consumption 2 (Water Only, -50%) [2]; Sharp Teeth [1]; Snow-Walker * [6]; Temperature Tolerance 2 (Cold) [2]; Ultrahearing [5].
Perks: Cellulose Eater*; Fur; Seasonal Camouflage*.
Disadvantages: Bad Grip 1 (Doesn't Affect Climbing Rolls, -20%) [-4]; Bad Sight 4 (Motion Sensitive)* [-4]; Ham-Fisted 1 [-5]; Short Arms [-10]; Social Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10].
Quirks: Panic (Flight Instinct)*.

Bounder, 57 points
You move effortlessly overland on good terrain at high speeds, and can effortlessly make huge broad jumps. Note that a character using Bounding-granted Enhanced Move still has cornering and handling issues, even if they can accelerate to top speed instantly).
Enhanced Move 1 (Ground; Cosmic, Instantaneous Acceleration, +50%) [30]; Basic Move +3 [15]; Super Jump 1.5 (Horizontal Only, -25%) [12]. I allow half levels of Super Jump based on the precedent of Enhanced Move, which is another exponential-growth based movement trait.

Macropod Tail, 23 points
Crushing Striker (Clumsy, -1 to skill, -20%; Limited Arc, -40%; Long +1, +100%) [7]; Perfect Balance [15]; Perk: Tail acts as a fifth leg when crawling.

Snow-Walker, 6 points
Alternate Ability of Terrain Adaptation (Ice) and Terrain Adaptation (Snow). You don't use them at the same time, ergo they should be an AA. This has been suggested by Kromm/PK.

Bad Sight (Motion Sensitive), -1/level up to 10 levels
As per the GURPS Animalia house rule

Cellulose Eater perk
You're an omnivore that can eat anything a human can eat, and also you can eat grasses, twigs, lichen, and tree bark. They're not terribly nutritious, but you can get nutrition out of them. Yes, I know lichen isn't cellulose.

Seasonal Camouflage perk
You get a +1 to Camouflage skill to hide yourself, and to Stealth skill in your native environment; both bonuses only apply in the appropriate seasons. As a downside, you shed dramatically in the spring and fall.

Panic (Flight Instinct) quirk
As per the GURPS Animalia house rule. This is the quirk level of Panic, obviously.

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