We Are Old

So, the plan was to have a nice long marathon game session, 8 hours or so, to finish out the GURPS Midnight campaign that we've been playing for well over a year now.

We made it for two and a half hours before everyone was in my living room, draped over the couch on on the recliner.  We mumbled about maybe making some coffee or going for a walk,and then gave up and called it a day. Luckily we will play tomorrow as well, and hopefully actually finish.  As the person running the game, I'll be really disappointed if we don't.

One of my friends made the point, and it's true - we're old now.  (All of us are in our 30s).  We can't even game for a whole day anymore (honestly, I could have, but my love for gaming is well over into obsessive territory sometimes).

It's true, though.  Ten years ago we were doing things like gaming for an entire weekend in the attic of our dorm, breaking only for maybe one sleep and a few meals consisting of pizza and Mountain Dew.  We were tired by Sunday afternoon, but dammit, we did it.  Orcs were slain. Elders were diablerized.  Quests were quested and hope was restored to the world.

Not anymore.

This makes me sad.  I know I'm supposed to be a grownup.  I have a baby now and everything.  But screw that - I want to game.  Except that I, and all of my friends, are aging.

GURPS: Midnight Grand Finale

Given unforeseen changes in my situation and a new job opportunity for one of my players, I'm planning on having a grand finale this coming weekend for my GURPS: Midnight campaign.  It's been a fun campaign, I think, where I've tried a number of new things.  It has survived not one but two holiday seasons, which might be unprecedented for long-term games I've run.

I had planned to have about 5 more 4-hour sessions to finish the game up, and I'll be collapsing that down into one 8-hour session with a break in the middle.  Essentially, I'll be trimming any fat that I can find, and bringing things to a climax sooner than I'd thought.

As far as the story goes, the PCs have been kicking ass all over Baden's Bluff.  They've managed to kill the head of a powerful smithing family, the Prince of the city, the High Legate, and a PC infiltrator nearly took over the Temple of Shadow, only barely being ousted by the NPC who is the new High Legate.  Another trio of PCs working together killed a colossal undead wyvern that had been plaguing the city since the very first session - written up as a 400pt monster using GURPS rules.  The PCs are now about 250pt characters, but still, they had a cool plan, took absurd chances, and my wife's character got to ride on the re-dying undead wyvern's back as it crashed into the city's governmental center.

In some ways, it's going to be hard to follow that kind of stuff up.  Fortunately, I have one more evil NPC to throw at them, and he's the worst threat they've faced yet.

In the Midnight setting, Eredane, there is only one god, Izrador, the Shadow, who rules everything through his minions and Orc hordes and enslaved Dragons and so on.  His four most powerful lieutenants are the Night Kings (like Nazgul if Sauron had gotten a hold of the ring).  One of them, Sunulael, the Priest of Shadow, has gotten word of how well the resistance is doing in Baden's Bluff, and he will be making a personal appearance there to straighten things out.

On the GURPS scale, he is a 500pt character, using the 4th Edition rules - firmly in demigod range.  The PCs are slated to be about 300pt characters by the end of the game, rising from 100pt to 200pt characters, and then having another 100pts of abilities from their Heroic Paths.  At first I wrote up Sunulael as a character just out of curiosity - what could I do, within reason, with 500pts?  Since I am adapting a D20 setting, I was looking at an ECL 32 monster in the setting sourcebook and trying to translate him into more limited GURPS terms.  Now, it turns out, I have reason to use him, since all the things the PCs have accomplished would absolutely draw his attention, and ire.

In a world run by evil, heroes are punished for success.

The PCs had a meeting with other resistance leadership (all but one of which they have overshadowed pretty thoroughly), and they ended up making the case for overthrowing the Shadow in their city and then working to inspire resistance in other places around the world.  That was one option, the other being to drastically strengthen their position in the city but continue working in secret, training and equipping resistance movements in other cities.  My players, though, they like drama.  And, honestly, this is the more fun option.

I haven't planned for an 8 hour session since college, and even then not very often.  It'll be interesting, and I want to cram the time with as much awesome as I can fit in there.  That being said, characters in GURPS are fragile things, and this Big Bad is very, very big.  Should be interesting.

GURPS Midnight - Heroic Paths

A while ago I said that I would get into my system for handling Heroic Paths in GURPS Midnight.  In the original D20 Midnight, Heroic Paths were a way to augment your character in a setting where magical items and magic itself are both rare and illegal to possess.  Each level, your Heroic Path would give you a bonus, or a spell-like ability or free Feat that fit with the theme of the Heroic Path.

At the beginning of the campaign, I had the players go through a few pages of images I'd picked to represent each Heroic Path.  These were just culled from Deviant Art or wherever - my apologies to dozens of artists, but I didn't charge money or anything.  For the list of Heroic Paths, I went with the Midnight Campaign Setting, Second Edition.  The players chose: 

Chanceborn, Faithful, Fey-blooded, Shadow Walker, Spellsouled and Sunderborn

What I decided that I wanted to do is to have various powers from the Heroic Paths manifest at dramatic moments during the game.  At the end of each session, each player gets 5 character points, and I also put 5 character points into their Heroic Path.  (This leads to faster-than-average development for GURPS, but we only play once a month on average, and I actually haven't found it to be unbalancing or anything so far)  When there are enough points in a Heroic Path to justify something manifesting, it happens.  Usually this is around 15 character points or so, so once every three or four sessions for each character.

Here's what I've done so far.  Most of the characters are in their third manifestation, and the Heroic Path totals are at about 50 character points.  Again, this is pretty powerful, but because it is incremental, I haven't found it to be unbalancing.  I can still threaten the PCs pretty easily because it is GURPS after all.  When choosing powers to manifest, I'm looking at what is offered in the Midnight core rulebook and expanding on those ideas. I'm also thinking "What would this player enjoy?"

Chanceborn

Jin is a Sarcosian smuggler and horse-trader who has a strong penchant for fighting and a great deal of pride.  The player playing Jin is also a big fan of fighting characters with a lot of braggadocio and taunting who rely on luck.  Perfect.

First manifestation: Serendipity Level 1 [15pts]

Second manifestation: Hard to Kill +2, Hard to Subdue +2, Damage Resistance 1, Fearless +1 [15pts]

Third manifestation: Incredible Luck (every 1/2 hour of game time), Damage Resistance 2 [20pts]

Faithful

Callan is a Halfling ex-slave who went to Baden's Bluff to free his wife and daughter.  Callan's player loves cooking, and tends to play characters who are excellent cooks.  When he chose "Faithful", which in the core rulebook means kind of religious, he meant it as faithful to his family ties, that sort of thing.  This player hasn't been with us in a while, so I haven't had a lot of input on his powers.

First manifestation: True Faith [15pts] - representing not religious faith, but sort of like true love

Second manifestation: Regeneration (1 HT/hour) for those who eat special food he prepares, and he can also now roll Cooking and have it count as being under the care of a medical professional, restoring 1d-3 HT per day [30pts?]

Fey-blooded

Maeve is a half-Elf, which in the setting is not something that is supposed to be possible, but her mother was an Elf and her father an Erenlander.  She was taken as a slave and was liberated by the other PCs.  I imagined this Heroic Path as her becoming more and more Elf-ish.

First Manifestation: 15 Perfect Balance; 5 Illusion Disguise @12 [20pts]

Second Manifestation: 5 Dodge +1; 5 Move +1; 5 Night Vision +5; 5 Shape Plants @12 [30pts]

Shadow Walker

Kenneth is a rogue, sneaky and thief-like, living off of what he can steal and dealing with horrible memories of what happened to his family.  He really found his niche, though, as someone who stabs servants of the Shadow in the throat.  I liked the idea that this Path would have him kind of walking the line between hero and villain.

First manifestation: Chameleon +3 (modified: functions through clothing, only functions near ambient shadow) [15pts]

Second manifestation: Blind Fighting 12, Dodge +1, Fearless +1 [21pts]

Third manifestation: Shadow Step @ 12, High Pain Threshold [15pts]

This Heroic Path introduces an idea that I imported from GURPS 3rd Edition - the idea of magical Knacks.  You can do the same in 4th Edition with a lot more work, but basically my rule is that as a 5pt Advantage, you can take a spell as a Knack, at either a skill level of 12 or IQ+Magery, whichever is higher.  That's where he gets the Shadow Step from.  He also gets Blind Fighting without being Trained by a Master - part of the Heroic Paths is that you get Advantages and Skills and so on that you wouldn't normally be able to get, those included.

Spellsouled

Emre is a business-Gnome and an accomplished smuggler at this point.  He has a natural talent for channeling, and can manipulate minds and emotions with ease, but what he really wants is "elemental kill-you magic", so that's just what I give him through his Heroic Path.  What his Spellsouled path provides is access to spells that no one in the current setting could teach him.  He already has Magery 3.

First manifestation: Ignite Fire, Create Fire and Shape Fire at IQ+Magery [12pts]

Second manifestation: Purify Air, Create Air and Shape Air at IQ+Magery; also the ability to spell-sing (lower cost, 10x longer casting time) and Singing at HT+1 [14pts]

Third manifestation: Seek Earth, Shape Earth, Earth Vision, Seek Water, Create Water, Icy Weapon all at IQ+Magery [24pts]

Sunderborn

Verrick is a bureaucrat, and has been incredibly effective as such, shuffling around paperwork and records and committing dozens of forgeries for the Resistance.  He has also successfully infiltrated the Order of Legates, and is posing as a Legate, doing damage from the inside.  For his Sunderborn Path, it took me a while, but I eventually decided he would be manifesting powers of a Star Archon.

First manifestation: Power Investiture +1, Bravery and Sense Spirit at IQ+PI [18pts]

Second manifestation: Tongues [15pts]

Third manifestation: Haste, Minor Healing and Levitation at IQ+PI [12pts]

***

Another option, if you want to give the players more choice (I'm always open to suggestions or what they want to see) is to give the players extra character points, and let them buy Advantages they normally could not buy during the course of the game with them.  This is a good option for a group that is accustomed to playing GURPS and knows the rules well - this group is pretty new to the system, so I thought I'd just take care of the specifics, and we could always negotiate if they weren't happy.  So far, they all seem to be enjoying it.

Thankless, Obsessive...Obsidian

As anyone who has ever run a roleplaying game knows, it tends to involve a great deal of thankless, semi-obsessive work on the part of the DM or GM or whoever is in the "big chair".  This is no different in the case of the GURPS Midnight game I continue to run whenever all of us can get together on Saturdays.

I've found that I've enjoyed using Obsidian Portal for all of this typing and noodling.  The name of our campaign is "Baden Burning" - I am using Under the Shadow as a resource for the game, but taking it in character-driven directions otherwise.  There are also significant changes that have to be made for me to use GURPS for the setting.  It is well worth the work, however; GURPS is profoundly better-suited to a gritty, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting like Midnight than D20 is.

Anyway, for you reading pleasure, I have the link above to the Obsidian Portal wiki pages for Baden Burning.  Anyone else using Obsidian Portal want to share what you're doing?

GURPS Midnight: Running A Big Fight in GURPS (Aftermath)

Image from Heroes of Battle, WotC

The Post-mortem

This is the follow-up to my post about setting up for a big tactical battle using modified GURPS rules...

In short, the player-characters kicked ass during the mass tactical combat.  They seemed to have fun and to be engaged in placing their various troops, which is cool because I know two of them aren't usually all that engaged in tactical combats.  They got a kick out of really giving the Orcs a beating.  When the Orcs realized things were going bad, one of the PCs nailed a roll to taunt them into fully attacking, and they were basically pinned down, surrounded, and then rushed by angry villagers who cut them to pieces.

The battle was still significant.  One PC took a javelin in the chest and went down in one hit, as did one of the named NPCs who had been with the PCs since the first session - she almost didn't recover, in fact.

One of the things I really like about GURPS is that having a javelin thrown at you is like "Oh shit!  A javelin!  I might die!"  Instead of D&D, where you might think "Oh, a javelin, 1d6 plus strength modifier damage.  I can eat ten of these, easy."

Anyway, overall, it was a complete success.  As always, in high-lethality tactical combat, planning is everything.

It was also pretty efficient.  A full-scale tactical fight, with combat modifiers for footing and cover and everything, was resolved in under 2 hours, with over 100 combatants and 11 different unit types.  That's quicker than a D&D 4th edition fight can be with a tenth that many participants.

I give the whole experience a B+.  Everyone was engaged, everyone had a thing to do, and the fight was quick and big and bloody.  Good times.

GURPS Midnight: Running A Big Fight in GURPS (Prep)

In my periodic GURPS Midnight game, we are coming to the end of the introductory sessions I've planned to help the players get used to the new system, tweak their characters, and so on.

Last session the PCs ended up rounding up a peasant resistance south of Baden's Bluff, with the able-bodied people of three villages fortifying and preparing to fight against a group of a couple dozen Orcs and some Goblin slavers.  The PCs came up with a plan, and this session, we find out how the plan works.

First I'll talk about what is involved, the situation, and then I'll go through how I represented it using GURPS.  Lastly, I'll post a report on how the game works out.

The setup

Here's what the prepped table looks like:

On the far side of the table, where I'll be sitting, are the Orcs.  I'm using colored cubes that I found at a craft store to represent the units, as well as the D&D minis that I have that fit.  The red cubes are extra Orcs.

On the near side are the five PCs looking lonely and heroic facing the Orcs - I set it up that way just to set the scene.  The PCs are the heavy-hitters in this fight - the peasants they're leading aren't soldiers, they're villagers the PCs have convinced to join them.

The colored cubes at the near side of the table are for the PCs to place - those are their "troops".  They're stacked in descending order of 'power' where this fight is concerned.

Blue cubes are the toughest villagers: the smith and his two burly sons, two people who have hatchets, and two people who have bows.  Remember, all weapons are illegal, on pain of death, in the Midnight setting.

Orange cubes are the rest of the villagers who have spears - the village they are defending, Dorn Hill, is a village that happened to have a comparatively large amount of contraband weapons.

Green cubes are the villagers who have slings - not a lot of damage, but they have the advantage of being able to hit the Orcs without being hit themselves.

Purple cubes are the villagers who have large knives and are willing to fight with them (given that most families have a knife between them, even though they're technically illegal, because it's a ubiquitous tool)

Yellow cubes are the villagers who are willing to fight, but don't have anything more dangerous than farm tools - grain flails, wooden pitchforks and quarterstaves.


The system hack


I'd like every villager death to be dramatic, and every Orc injury to be hard-won, so I want to treat each interaction with it's own die-roll, possibly hand-waiving if things begin to drag.  But I want every death to hurt.  This battle may very well not go in the PCs' favor, and the characters have never led troops before.

For the purposes of simplifying the battle, I am assuming everyone is using an All-Out Attack maneuver, as per the GURPS rules - the weaker ones, using knives and farm tools, taking a +2 to damage, and the others taking the +4 to attack rolls.  This lets me ignore defenses - it's hard to parry with a knife or a hammer anyway.

I'm assuming the Orcs are really excited at the chance for a real, pitched battle where mostly their job is terrorizing unarmed villagers.

I also simplified damage: each hit from an Orc will take out the villager they hit.  Villagers don't have more armor than layering the clothing they have, and the Orcs are wielding military weaponry with deadly skill.  Each hit from a villager wounds the Orc in question, and a second hit will take that Orc out.  Taken out means downed, unable to move well, and possibly going into shock, not dead unless the person is left without help.

On the fly, I'll try to take penalties and bonuses into account - mostly penalties for things like slingers on rooftops (bad footing -2) or Orcs and villagers trying to fight across the debris barriers the villagers put up to block the road at two points.

I am also taking morale into account.  I need to double check the GURPS morale rules, if I can find them, but I'm assuming the Orcs will make a morale check after losing 20% of their force and the villagers will have to after losing 10% of their force - they're not used to seeing their friends and family die around them.

Morale will be a collective Will roll and a Leadership roll from the leader of each force (an Orc veteran on one side and a PC on the other side).  If both succeed, they force is fine.  If only one succeeds, the force is stalled.  If both fail, the force withdraws.  A second failure means they panic and break.


The PC plan and the wild-card

One of the PCs is a spellcaster, using a lot of Mind Control magic.  The PCs' plan hinges on him using a Panic spell to make groups of the Orcs run away, making them unable to defend themselves and letting villagers injure them as they flee.  He probably won't have the energy to do this more than a couple times.  At the very least, it allows the PCs to use his magic-induced panic as cover.

It remains to be seen whether the PCs will set things up to be really able to take advantage of this tactic.

***

We'll see how things work out - I'll be trying this during our game tomorrow.

GURPS Midnight - Sample Foes

Having worked up racial templates, I applied them to sample foes in order to get an idea of how they played out, and to provide me with go-to baddies to throw at the PCs.  Again, I've tweaked all of these a great deal, and am open to changing them further, but the game is tomorrow, so I'm posting what I'm going with in case it is of interest (I've had a couple tell me it is) and I'm happy to get comments, questions and that sort of thing.

You'll notice a few notes to myself here and there, and the fact that the Asterax is blank - just haven't gotten that far yet.

I'm not too worried about players reading this - I'm pretty sure only a couple of my players might even read this blog, and I also think they're the kinds of players who wouldn't abuse the knowledge.  Also, I guess the advantage with GURPS is that everything is pretty logical - there aren't really surprise weaknesses or strengths here.  If you're facing a Goblin or an Uruk, you're pretty much facing what you'd expect - at least, that's the idea.

Samples

Recent Villager Ungral [5pts]

ST 13, DX 9, IQ 6, HT 11

-40 Ungral

Hard to Kill +5

Hard to Subdue +5

Injury Tolerance: Unliving (no extra from cutting and piercing)

Unfazeable

Brawling 9; 1dcr

All-out attack: Brawling 13 1dcr; Brawling 9 + 9 1dcr; Brawling 9 1d+2cr

Move 5; Parry (unarmed) 7

They have a Perception of 6 on average, meaning there can be lots of tense scenes where the PCs are sneaking amongst the Ungrals, hoping they aren't spotted

Recent Soldier Ungral [30pts]

ST 14, DX 10, IQ 5, HT 12

-40 Ungral

Hard to Kill +5

Hard to Subdue +5

Injury Tolerance: Unliving (no extra from cutting and piercing)

Unfazeable

Brawling 10; 1dcr

All-out attack: Brawling 14 1dcr; Brawling 10 + 10 1dcr; Brawling 10 1d+2cr

Move 5; Parry (unarmed) 8

Orc Grunt [24pts]

10 ST 12, DX 10, IQ 9, HT 11

17 Orc

-5 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

Move 4.25, Parry 8, Dodge 7; DR 2

21 Axe/Mace 11, Running 11, Scrounging 11, Spear 11, Survival 10, Throwing 10

Axe 11 2d cut (unbalanced) OR Spear 11 1d+2 imp, Javelin 1d+1 imp, Leather armor

Light encumbrance

Orc Veteran [50pts]

10 ST 13, DX 10, IQ 9, HT 11

17 Orc

15 Combat Reflexes

5 Status +1

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

Move 3.25, Block 12, Dodge 7, Parry 10; DR 3/5

28 Axe/Mace 11, Running 11, Scrounging 11, Shield 12, Spear 11, Survival 10, Sword 11

Vardatch 11 2d+1 cut, Medium Shield, Chainmail armor

Medium encumbrance

Orc Champion [77pts]

20 ST 13, DX 10, IQ 9, HT 12

17 Orc

15 Combat Reflexes

10 Status +2

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

Move 3.5, Block 12, Dodge 7, Parry 10; DR 3/5

30 Axe/Mace 11, Intimidation 9, Leadership 9, Running 11, Scrounging 11, Shield 12, Spear 11, Survival 10, Sword 11

Vardatch 11 2d+1 cut, Medium Shield, Chainmail armor

Medium encumbrance

Orc Warband Leader [102pts]

40 ST 13, DX 10, IQ 10, HT 12

17 Orc

15 Combat Reflexes

5 DR +1

15 Status +3

10 Comfortable

-15 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

Move 3.5, Block 12, Dodge 7, Parry 10; DR 7

30 Axe/Mace 11, Intimidation 10, Leadership 10, Running 11, Scrounging 12, Shield 12, Spear 11, Survival 11, Sword 11

Vardatch 11 2d+2 cut, Medium Shield, Plate armor

Medium encumbrance

Orc Mother/Lesser Priestess [74pts]

20 ST 11, DX 10, IQ 10, HT 11

17 Orc

10 Comfortable

5 DR +1

10 Power Investiture +1

10 Status +2

-5 Disciplines of Faith

-15 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

18 Leadership 10, Religious Ritual 11, Staff 10, Theology 10

24 Detect Magic 11, Fear 11, Lend Energy 11, Lend Vitality 11, Minor Healing 11, Sense Emotion 11

Move 4.5, Dodge 7, Parry 10; DR 1

Staff 10 1d+3cr

Light encumbrance

Orc Mother/Priestess [107pts]

20 ST 11, DX 9, IQ 10, HT 11

17 Orc

20 Wealthy

5 DR +1

20 Power Investiture +2

15 Status +3

-5 Disciplines of Faith

-15 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

18 Leadership 10, Religious Ritual 11, Staff 9, Theology 10

48 Death Vision 12, Fear 12, Final Rest 12, Lend Energy 12, Lend Vitality 12, Minor Healing 12, Major Healing 11, Sense Emotion 12, Sense Spirit 12, Steal Energy 12, Steal Vitality 12, Turn Zombie 12, Zombie 12

Move 4, Dodge 7, Parry 9; DR 3

Staff 10 1d+3cr; Leather armor

Light encumbrance

Uruk/Ogre/Troll Shock Trooper [74pts]

40 ST 18, DX 9, IQ 8, HT 14

27 Uruk (Size +1)

5 DR +1

10 High Pain Threshold

5 Status +1

12 Intimidation 9, Survival 9, Two-handed Axe/Mace 10

Move 4.75, Dodge 5, Parry 8; DR 4/6

War club 10 3d+2cr; Chainmail armor

Medium encumberance

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological disadvantage

Goblin Worker [21pts]

10 ST 9, DX 11, IQ 10, HT 11

20 Goblin

16 Animal Handling 11, Knife 12, Laborer 11, Scrounging 12

Move 4.25, Dodge 9, Parry 7

Knife 1d-1 cut

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological Disadvantage

Goblin Scout/Archer [43pts]

30 ST 9, DX 12, IQ 10, HT 10

20 Goblin

18 Bow 12, Knife 13, Scrounging 12, Survival 11, Tracking 10

Move 3.5, Dodge 8, Parry 7, DR 2

Regular Bow 12 1d imp, Knife 13 1d-1 cut; Leather armor

Light Encumbrance

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological Disadvantage

Goblin Slaver [50pts]

20 ST 10, DX 11, IQ 10, HT 10

20 Goblin

5 Status +1

20 Axe/mace 12, Crossbow 12, Knife 12, Haggling 11, Intimidation 11, Merchant 11

Move 3.25, Dodge 8, Parry 9, DR 2

Bludgeon 12 1d+2cr, Crossbow 12 1d+2imp, Leather armor

Light Encumberance

-15 Psychological Disadvantage

Lesser Legate [49pts]

10 ST 9, DX 10, IQ 11, HT 10

5 Clerical Investment +1

10 Comfortable

10 Power Investiture +1

5 Status +1

-5 Disciplines of faith

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological Disadvantage

21 Axe/Mace 10, Intimidation 11, Leadership 11, Religious Ritual 11, Shield 11, Theology 11

Detect Magic 11, Fear 11, Identify Spell 11, Light 11, Seek Magic 11, Sense Emotion 11, Sense Foes 11, Sense Mana 11, Sense Spirit 11, 

Move 3.75, Block 12, Dodge 7, Parry 9; DR 3/5

Mace 10 1d+1cr, Light Shield 11, Chainmail

Medium Encumbrance

Soldier Legate [79pts]

20 ST 11, DX 10, IQ 10, HT 11

5 Clerical Investment +2

10 Comfortable

20 Power Investiture +2

10 Status +2

-5 Disciplines of faith

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological Disadvantage

23 Axe/Mace 11, Intimidation 10, Leadership 10, Religious Ritual 10, Shield 11, Theology 10

16 Detect Magic 11, Fear 11, Identify Spell 11, Lend Energy 11, Lend Vitality 11, Lesser Healing 11, Light 11, Seek Magic 11, 

Move 3.75, Block 12, Dodge 7, Parry 9; DR 3/5

Mace 10 1d+3cr, Light Shield 12, Chainmail

Medium Encumbrance

Greater Legate [117pts]

20 ST 10, DX 10, IQ 11, HT 10

15 Clerical Investment +3

20 Wealthy

30 Power Investiture +3

15 Status +3

-5 Disciplines of faith

-10 Duty

-15 Psychological Disadvantage

21 Axe/Mace 10, Intimidation 11, Leadership 11, Religious Ritual 11, Shield 11, Theology 11

26 Detect Magic 13, Fear 13, Identify Spell 13, Lesser Healing 13, Lend Energy 13, Lend Vitality 13, Light 13, Panic 13, Seek Magic 13, Sense Emotion 13, Sense Foes 13, Sense Mana 13, Sense Spirit 13, 

Move 3.75, Block 12, Dodge 7, Parry 9; DR 3/5

Mace 10 1d+1cr, Light Shield 11, Chainmail

Medium Encumbrance

Astirax [ ]

GURPS Midnight - Racial Templates

These are the racial and creature templates that I'm using going into running the GURPS Midnight game.  I'm not against changing any of it, but this is where I am in the work thus far.  This post will be something of an information dump, and if you aren't interested in GURPS or the Midnight setting from Fantasy Flight Games, this may  not be the post for you.  To keep this from being overwhelming, I'm going to break it up into a couple posts.

First, we have the player-character races.  A note of explanation: the Dwarves and Elves have three costs associated with them.  The first, lowest cost is assuming that the character is not in Dwarven or Elven lands, and has to deal with being kill-on-sight anywhere near civilization.  The second, middle cost assumes that the game will be a mix of inside and outside the Dwarf or Elf's homeland, meaning they won't always have to deal with being kill-on-sight.  The third cost is the full cost, with no Enemy Disadvantage for being kill-on-sight - this highest costs assumes a game set in the Dwarven or Elven homelands, where everyone is kill-on-sight, and it doesn't really count as a Disadvantage anymore because of that (in my view).

Racial Templates

Dwarves [26pts or 46pts or 66pts]

30  ST +1, HT +2

Size -1

25 Dark Vision

6 Improved Magic Resistance +2

10 Talent: Artificer (Armory, Carpentry, Engineer, Masonry, Smith) (TL3) +2

Can Buy DR +1

0 Native Clan Dialect, (Broken Old Dwarven, Broken Orcish)

-40 or -20 Enemy: Hunted by Izrador, all the time, 9 or less OR rarely, 6 or less

-5 Reduced Move -1

Erunsil (Snow Elves) [20pts or 40pts or 60pts]

30 DX +1, HT +1

15 Magery +1

5 Night Vision +5

10 Perception +2

0 Native High Elven, (Broken Orcish, Native Patrol Sign)

-40 or -20 Enemy: Hunted by Izrador, all the time, 9 or less OR rarely, 6 or less

Caransil (Wood Elves) or Miransil (Sea Elves) [26pts or 46pts or 66pts]

30 ST -1, DX +1, IQ +1

6 Extra Fatigue +2

15 Magery +1

5 Night Vision +5

10 Perception +2

0 Native High Elven, (Broken Orcish, Native Patrol Sign)

-40 or -20 Enemy: Hunted by Izrador, all the time, 9 or less OR rarely, 6 or less

Danisil (Jungle Elves) [25pts or 45pts or 65pts]

10 ST -1, DX +1

10 Ambidexterous

10 Druidic Magery: Animal, Healing and Plant +1

5 Night Vision +5

15 Perception +3

15 Perfect Balance

0 Native Jungle Mouth

-40 or -20 Enemy: Izrador 9 or less OR rarely, 6 or less

Mirasil (Sea Elves) [15pts or 35pts or 55pts]

10 ST -1, DX +1

15 Magery +1

5 Night Vision +5

10 Perception +2

15 Talent: Seacraft +1

0 Native Elven

-40 or -20 Enemy: Izrador 9 or less OR 6 or less

Elf-Raised Luiniel (Elflings) [30pts]

20 ST -2, DX +2

Size -1

10 Druidic Magery: Animal, Healing and Plant +1

5 Night Vision +5

5 Perception +1

0 Native Jungle Mouth, Erenlander, Trader's Tongue or High Elven

-10 Secret: Raised by Elves

Halfling-Raised Elflings [15pts]

10 ST -1, DX +1

Size -1

5 Night Vision +5

5 Perception  +1

0 Native Junglemouth

Can take a Worgen mount

-5 Move -1

Halflings [24pts]

ST -2, DX +1

Size -2

4 Fearless +2

15 Luck

5 Night Vision +5

5 Perception +1

0 Native Jungle Mouth, Erenlander or Trader's Tongue

Can take a Worgen mount

-5 Move -1

Gnomes [15pts]

ST -2, HT +1, Charisma +2

Size -1

10 Night Vision +5

10 Talent: Business Acumen (Accounting, Gambling, Merchant, Smuggling, etc.) (TL 3) +2

0 Native Trader’s Tongue

-5 Move -1

Gnome-Raised Dwarrow [20pts]

Charisma +2, ST -1

Size -1

25 Dark Vision

Can buy DR +1

0 Native Trader’s Tongue (Clan Dialect, Old Dwarven, Erenlander)

-5 Move -1

Dwarf-Raised Dwarrow [30pts]

20 Charisma +2, HT +1

Size -1

25 Dark Vision

Can buy DR +1

0 Native Clan Dialect, (Broken Trader's Tongue, Broken Orcish, one more Broken language)

-5 Move -1

-10 Secret: Raised by Dwarves

Dwarf-Raised Dworgs [21pts]

20 ST +2, IQ -1, HT +2

25 Dark Vision

5 DR +1

0 Native Dwarven

-10 Secret: Raised by Dwarves

-5 Social Stigma -1

-5 Status -1

-4 Ugly -1

-5 Vulnerable: Bright Light, -1 to rolls

(-3 total social penalty at all times)

Orc-Raised Dworgs [16pts]

10 +2 St, -1 IQ, +1 HT

25 Dark Vision

Can buy DR +1

0 Native Orcish

-5 Social Stigma -1

-5 Status -1

-4 Ugly -1

-5 Vulnerable to bright light; -1 to rolls

Orcs [17pts]

+2 ST, -1 IQ

25 Dark Vision

10 Fearless +5

0 Native Orcish

Can buy DR +1

-5 Light Sensitive (-1 to everything in bright light)

-5 Odious Personal Habits -1

-8 Ugly -2

Goblins [15pts]

ST -2, DX +1

Size -1

25 Dark Vision

-5 Move -1

-5 Odious Personal Habits

Hobgoblins [55pts]

30 DX +1, HT +1

25 Dark Vision

Oruks [47pts]

20 ST +6, DX -1, IQ -1, HT +2

10 Fearless +5

25 Dark Vision

0 Native Orcish, 1 Broken Black Tongue

Can buy DR +1

Size +1 (3 meters)

-5 Light Sensitive (-1 to everything in bright light)

-5 Odious Personal Habits -1
-8 Ugly

Recent Ungral/Fell (Applied after death) [-20pts]

-800 ST +2, DX -1 per week dead; IQ -4

20 Doesn't Breathe

10 Doesn't Eat or Drink

20 Doesn't Sleep

10 Hard to Kill +5

10 Hard to Subdue +5

20 Injury Tolerance: Unliving

15 Unfazeable

-20 Appearance: Monstrous -5

-15 Uncontrollable Appetite

-20 Unhealing: Partial

Elder Ungral/Fell [50pts]

ST +2, DX -2, IQ -6

10 Damage Resistance +2

20 Doesn't Breathe

10 Doesn't Eat or Drink

20 Doesn't Sleep

20 Hard to Kill +10

20 Hard to Subdue +10

20 Injury Tolerance: Unliving

40 Strong Will +8

15 Unfazeable

-20 Appearance: Monstrous -5

-15 Uncontrollable Appetite

-20 Unhealing: Partial