Adjustable Clothing is one of those odd spells, it has a purpose and its needed…but the wording just isn’t as clear as it could be (to me at least). I’m sure some will disagree with me, but I had a extremely difficult time parsing exactly how this thing was supposed to work. I figured there […]
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Gamemaster’s Guidepost: A Matter of Price
Dungeon Fantasy has a rather simplified haggling system for selling based on a combination of your wealth, a Merchant skill roll, and your reaction modifier. It rather cautiously omits rules for buying at a reduced price (even though that’s part of the RAW) that’s lower than 10%. After all, if adventurers can get cheap goods at home […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: How Many Skills is Too Much?
That’s a pretty good question. How many skills are too many for a given character? The answer is tricky in my experience and actually depends heavily on two things: the campaign TL and its genre. That’s typically because some genres are going to be skill-heavy because they either expect broad competence or not being skilled at […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: GM and Player Intercommunication
Bad communication between players and their GM is in my experience the number one cause of a campaign exploding too early. I’ve said it in so many posts I’m not even going to bother linking to them all – yes, damn it. It’s that important. So here are a few things which I’ve found over […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Dungeon Fantasy Musings
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is by far the most successful of the various lines for for the GURPS game engine. Up until a few weeks ago I didn’t run it as one of my constant campaigns – in fact I only use it for playtest games that require it or the occasional one shot. All of that changed […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Wildcard Path Skills
I wonder, could you combine all the Path skills into a single Wildcard skill like Magic! I think I asked PK this very question a while back and the answer was: You probably shouldn’t. I went ahead and did it anyways and I can tell you for fact…I really shouldn’t’ve. It wasn’t that it was […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: NPC Frequency of Appearance in Game Time
I don’t have a ton of “house rules” – I pretty much like the GURPS 4th edition system as is, but there are a few things that irk me and one of those is the Frequency of Appearance for Allies, Contacts, Dependents, Enemies, and Patrons. In GURPS you basically purchase a Frequency for which your […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Dirty Laundry
Something odd came up while I was helping a player create their character, he asked “What trait do I use to represent knowing someone’s dirty laundry? You know, blackmailable secrets nadf stuff.” I admit the first thing I went to was Favor + Ally, Contact, Patron and Completely Unreliable or Unwilling. But that seemed a bit […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Plot Points, Expanded
One of the often overlooked things in GURPS Powers (and there are many) is a small box on p. 192 at the top right of the page titled “GM Bribery.” In it, it describes a new way to reward players called a “plot point,” which are basically like character points but can be used to […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Benchmarking Modifiers
Figuring out exactly what a given modifier should cost that’s not in the rules can be extremely trying for any GM – much less a new GM. Here’s a couple of tricks I’ve learned over the years as both a GM, a game designer, and a writer. ……. Picking Over the Bones When it comes […]
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