Inspired by +Peter V. Dell’Orto and +Douglas Cole posts (here, here, and here) on “Longsword Sport” I wonder if the style is portable to less modern settings…and what’s more, what if it were more than just a sport? But a way of two mages to settle a point of contention without spells? The Style I’m totally riffing off of […]
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 […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Player Psychology
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 […]
Continue readingGURPS101: More Cyber Claws for Ultra-Tech
Since GURPS Ultra-Tech got a update today and GURPS Ultra-Tech Tables was updated I thought I’d do something in honor of that. So here you go, more Cyber Claw implants (inspired by this thread). Enhanced Cyber Claws (varies)Like Cyber Claws (see GURPS Ultra-Tech, p. 211), but enhanced with one of the following: Superfine Claws: The […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Designing Realistic Characters
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 […]
Continue readingMelee Academy: Variant Judo Throw II
Oddly enough, my Tuesday post about Judo Throw got a lot of hits and quite a few comments (both here and on the forums). One of the comments sparked my imagination was by Peter Dell’Orto: “By the way, tossing someone into a table is a clear case of “Kiss the Wall” and it’s that […]
Continue readingMelee Academy: Variant Judo Throw I
I’ve made a living pushing people around – no, I’m not a bully, but I used to be a bouncer. Nowadays I use my powers for (mostly) good, but once upon a time I could grab a grown man off his feet and hurl him backwards and onto his backside. I’m not much of […]
Continue readingThe Hurt Locker: How to Build a Hand of Glory
Note: In this post I’ll be reiterating a post I made on the Steve Jackson Games Forums (I’m putting it out there for my subscribers and a wider audience in general). It makes use of the rules for Metatronic Generators. The Hand of Glory is a powerful occult artifact. Made from a dismembered human hand […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Metatronic Generators
This is one of my favorite articles (so far) that I’ve written. I felt a little iffy about it first just because I was more or less taking a idea another author had wrote and expanding it out of proportion of the original scope. But I did it anyways because like everything I write – […]
Continue readingTriple Threat – Gullinbursti
Note: Gullinbursti is a creature of Norse myth, this is my take on it. “Sindri laid a pigskin in the hearth and bade Brokkr blow, and did not cease work until he took out of the hearth that which he had laid therein. But when he went out of the smithy, while the other dwarf was […]
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