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 […]

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 […]

I like to think of myself as a student of human behavior. What makes people tick. Why they do what they do. That sort of thing. I learned early on to detect minute changes in the moods of others and its stuck with me my entire life. Besides being useful in a fight or when […]

So how do you design a “realistic” character? Well, let’s start off by defining what realistic means. Realistic characters are more than just a pile of stats or skills. They’re a living, breathing personas that a player can easily don for the gaming session. Getting there can be tricky because each player is going to […]

“It’s all in the reflexes!” Maybe, most likely on your character sheet it’s “all in Ridiculous Luck.” GURPS has quite a few “metagaming” character traits that allow you (the player) the ability to influence a character’s outcomes. Call it Player Agency, “being the star,” or whatever – having these traits allow you to change the narrative […]

I read about this over on +Douglas Cole‘s blog and it got me thinking: Over on Google+ and the RPG Stack Exchange, +Jeff Demers was asking for help on how to set up a encounter where the players were being hunted. I’ve done this scenario so much in my twenty odd years of GMing I can do it […]