GURPS ROCKS!

Well, I hadn't planned on posting today, but I just read a diatribe against GURPS on a blog.  Instead of commenting there I decided to just stop following it, and respond here.  I probably wouldn't have stopped following the blog, ( I won't name it, nor link to it ), but it seems every second or third sentence had some version of the f-bomb was used.  I guess the blogger was trying to be creative.

I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, they're entitled to speak, write, or whatever, about their opinion, but the same goes for me.  The title basically is telling people to stop talking about GURPS, and of course that it sucks.  Well guess what?  That's not going to happen.  I like the system.  I'm sorry if the poor blogger can't handle the math, but sheeesh, such hate is unwarranted.

As a GM, I've ran more GURPS games than any other system.  I like it.  My friends liked it.  We had fun.  Tons and tons of FUN.  I will write about GURPS, I will talk about it, I will promote it, I will run it at conventions,  I will eventually run another campaign, heck I may start a blog that talks about NOTHING BUT GURPS.  So Mr. Hate-filled Blogger, stick that in your pipe, and shove it up... oh wait, my apologies.  I'll be nice.  Thanks for giving me a post topic.  I'm not a big fan of rule-system/edition hate/haters.

The blogger in question likes Paranoia.  I don't like it, but I'm not going to tell people to stop talking about it, or playing it.  If you enjoy it, then have fun.  Just don't slam one of the games I enjoy.  It's a fairly simple concept.

GURPS ROCKS!!!

On another note, this year I plan on changing the blogo ( blog logo ) every month.  I really didn't like the one for January, and the style was getting old so I changed it early.  It blends a little of the old, with some new stuff.  Oh and one more time....

GURPS ROCKS!!!

the Occult Research Bureau

Creating an Organization for RPG Campaigns Part 1

I've been giving some thought to my next campaign, and I really want to run GURPS again.  Now I haven't discussed it with any potential players, but I'm really interested in running a horror based campaign.  A campaign in which the player's characters are members of an organisation that deals with supernatural threats.

One of my inspirations are the novels, Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta., written by Larry Correia.  Both are very entertaining, and would make a great campaign. Larry also writes a very entertaining blog, Monster Hunter Nation, and is a self-admitted nerd.  He's also a gamer!

When brainstorming about this new campaign, I wanted a cool name for the group, and I came up with, Occult Research Bureau.  The next thing I did was do a google search, and like I suspected,there was already an O.R.B. website with that name.  Now, I'm not sure if it's some kind of entertainment website to promote a haunted house/mansion, or if it really is about researching the occult. The website hasn't had any recent activity.  They also have a facebook page, but it hasn't had any recent activity either. Not that it matters, I like the name, and I feel that it falls under the concept of fair use. ( I didn't see any trademarks anywhere. ) So unless I come up with something better, O.R.B. is the name of the group.

The next decision would have to be whether or not the groups is a private organisation, a corporation, or a government agency.  In the campaign I plan on having more than one group, and they might be rivals, or have some level of cooperation.  A group could focus mainly on research, and gathering data.  It could also deal with supernatural threats, with appropriately armed response teams.  I'm sure this is the main direction the campaign would take, but you never know.

I would want it to be somewhat of a sandbox campaign,  but in the case of a highly organised group, the missions would have to be more of a railroad, i.e take out the cabal of wizards, or they summon the most horrible of horribles.   ( Especially if the group is a government agency, or with strong ties to the government. ) There would be definite nasty repercussions as the result of mission failure, i.e civilian deaths or a zombie apocalypse, which I guess would result in civilian deaths as well.  Mission failure is not an option!

On a different, but related note, I want to have a Cthulhu theme park in the campaign.

Some Of My Thoughts On Skills In RPGs...

Over at Grognardia, James discusses skills in RPGs.  I thought I would discuss what I think about skill systems,  and how skills are handled in the Rolemaster Standard System.

First of all, in most old school RPGs, skill use resolution seems fairly simple.  In Traveller ( at least what I can remember ), success or failure is determined by one die roll.  If you fail, I always ruled that you can try again, unless I determined it was beyond your skill level, i.e. if you only have one skill bonus in electronics, and you're trying to repair a major malfunction of the starships computer.

Of course the same idea could be used in rule sets without skills.  If a character is trying to "bend bars or lift a gate" and they fail, shouldn't they be able to try again?  Of course if you've determined that to bend the bars requires a certain strength then of course no amount of rolls will succeed.  Then again I suppose you could say that the one roll could represent multiple attempts, but in some situations this wouldn't work, especially if there was a time constraint involved, for example fleeing a horde of zombies.

One thing I always enjoyed about GURPS is the fact that that when making a skill roll, you don't just have success or failure, but you can also have a critical success ( something good happens ), or a critical failure ( something bad happens ).

In the Rolemaster Standard System, skills are grouped in categories.  For example there is the Subterfuge - Stealth Category, and covers hiding, picking pockets, stalking, and trickery.  Every skill category comes with a static maneuver table which is specific to the skills in that category.

Let's say that you are a thief, and you're fairly sneaky.  It's night, you've just robbed a shop, and couple of the city's watchmen are coming down the road.  You decide to duck into the shadows.  It's time to make a skill roll...

In the RMSS, skills are rolled on a d100, and are open ended, if you roll a 96 or higher you roll again, and add the result.  You also add or subtract any modifiers that would apply to the skill in this situation.  So the thief moves up against a building, it's night and very dark, but the watchmen have lanterns, but the thief is far enough away that these don't come into play.  So lets see  what the result of the roll might be!

So depending on the roll, a player can have a Spectacular Failure, Absolute Failure, Failure, Unusual Event, an Unusual Success, Near Success, Success, or Absolute Success.  If you get a Near Success you can roll again, hopefully with a better result.  All in all, I find the RMSS method of dealing with skills  a lot more fun than just the succeed or fail mechanic, and really creates some interesting game play situations.

I know some people will say that Rolemaster requires way too much book keeping and chart flipping, but I find that if I stay organised this was never much of a problem.

Editorial Note:  Either blogger or my computer is having fits, and I need to stop for now.