Wendigo Windwalker Like the wendigo, windwalkers are terrifying shapeshifters who were once human, but were possessed by the Windwalker – a terrible manitou (spirit) of the far north who hungers for human flesh. Typically, the Windwalker gorges on flesh until it’s destroyed and sent back to its spirit form – but sometimes it makes deals […]
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Gamemaster’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 readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits For Casters – Jack-of-All-Mages
Ritual Path magic is already pretty flexible. You can do just about any sort of spell you can visualize and it really doesn’t take that long to perform the spell itself. So what is a “jack-of-all-mages” in such a system? First, the Jack is less about being able to cast a specific group of spells […]
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 readingTriple Threat – Wendigo
Wendigo Wendigo are terrifying shapeshifters who were once human, but through accident or choice ate human flesh. Over time the more they ate the more they craved until eventually, they became inhuman creatures who only look like human beings – but only on the outside. Wendigo tend to travel alone or in pairs – more […]
Continue readingTriple Threat – Water Leaper
Water Leaper The welsh llamhigyn y dwr is a strange beasty that looks like a frog the size of a wolf, but has no bat wings instead of forelegs and no hind legs. It also has a long lizard-like tail with a stinger on the end. Despite its lack of legs, it can jump incredibly […]
Continue readingGURPS101: Barter and Trade
GURPS Basic Set assumes that characters can go to shops, stores, or whatever and exchange currency for whatever item they are seeking. This is built in deep to the system and several advantages (Wealth, Status, Independent Income, etc.) rely on it. Now, this does work for most campaigns, but what about post-apocalyptic campaigns where the […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Diablorising Sorcery – The Witch Doctor – Part II
Damn it, man! *itches skin* I need a hit, okay? So…uhh.. hey, I got this necromancy spells, right? I can quit when I want…I just need one more hit. One more hit ought to do it, right? Yeah. That’s it. For old times sake. Like the previous installment, this one is all about Diablo III […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Sorcerous Hexes
Behind Ritual Path magic, Sorcery (from Pyramid #3/63: Infinite Worlds II) is probably my second favorite magical system out there. It seamlessly blends two things that I like about GURPS: flexibility and power builds. There have been many powers-based approaches to magic using modular abilities before – but I think PK nailed it perfectly with his […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: The Department of Occult Defense
Even longer than “It’s a Trap!” (I wrote the first draft in April 2013), “The Department of Occult Defense” was rejected twice (for both Pyramid #3/59: Conspiracies and Pyramid #3/58: Urban Fantasy II), but finally ended up in this month’s Pyramid (Pyramid #3/73: Monster Hunters II) after a good long while in the stew point. I wrote it fairly […]
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