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: 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

GURPS Midnight - Character Creation

So, I can't just post the handout I'm using because it has a bit of formatting, but here is what's on it.  The plan is for the players to go through the handout and that it will helpfully lay things out clearly.  My experience of teaching new players to create characters in GURPS has involved a lot of jumping back and forth and re-explaining things and passing the core rulebook around.  Because of this, I have at least some of the rules on the handout.

Setting Introduction
This is just a paragraph introducing the Midnight setting.

Concept
This is a big text box for the player to write in their concept, including name, gender, age, family background, racial package if any (with cost noted), how they resist the Shadow, relationships and so on.

Disadvantages
I broke down Disadvantages into four categories, tying them into the game that I'm planning and the setting.  I find that I need to be somewhat specific with Disadvantages or else new players become overwhelmed reading through the books or GURPS Lite.  For each category, I have a line to list what the player chooses as well as

Heart: Here I list Disadvantages that are kind of "moral", things like Code of Honor or Sense of Duty.   I wanted to make sure that at least one of the Disadvantages the players chose would mark their characters out as 'good' people.  Or at least somewhat good.

Relationships: This is the place for Disadvantages that connect the PCs to other people and their community. I have a problem with characters who are orphans with no siblings or friends, so this is the place to pick things like Dependents, Reputation and Vow.

Weakness: Lastly, the spot for the kind of weaknesses that GURPS players love to pile onto their characters, things like Absent-Minded, Greed and the Phobias.

Quirks: For the 'usual' 5pts of Quirks, I tend to go pretty broad - more like Traits in Burning Wheel.  Just pick five descriptors of your character that may or may not come up in game.

Advantages
Where Advantages are concerned, I encourage players to spend around 40pts.


Talents: Simple - just things that the character is good at, like literal Talents, Ambidexterity, Flexibility and Voice.

Fighting: No secret - this game will involve combat, and I want each character to have at least one Advantage that will help them in a fight; Combat Reflexes, Fearlessness, Rapid Healing, etc.

Socializing: To encourage players who like to just create killing machines, there's a spot for at least one social Advantage.

Magic: Lastly, in Midnight use of any kind of magic is a capital offense, and of course I want the PCs to make lots of trouble for themselves.  This includes not just Magical Aptitude but also things like Higher Purpose and Medium.

Attributes
This part is kind of obvious.  For Attributes, I encourage players to spend around 70pts.

Skills and Spells Worksheet
This is the biggest section of the handout - it gives a lot of room to list skills and spells, note how difficult they are to learn, how many points the player has spent on advancing them, and so on. This is often the most challenging part of character creation, and it's hard to get around that.

Equipment
Here I have a paragraph about equipment and money in the Midnight setting - in brief, you don't get any, and no one has any.  I decided that Midnight characters start with only $500, and I might reduce that even more, but I wanted to give a fighter-type the option of having a cheap sword.

Some Math
At this point I give brief descriptions of how to calculate Block, where to find thrust and swing damage, Dodge, what Damage Resistance, and how to calculate Move.

Racial Packages
The Game is set in the region of Baden's Bluff, and reading through the setting material, I decided that aside from Humans (general Erenlanders), players can play Gnomes, Gnome-raised Dwarrow, Halflings, and Halfling-raised Elflings. For each, I have a brief description and the breakdown of the racial package.

Heroic Paths
On the last page of the Heroic Paths, I list each path and then have a few possible Advantages to be gained from each.  As one example, I list the Beast Heroic Path, I also list Animal Empathy, Ally (Animal Companion), self-only buffing magical Knacks, and improved sesnses.

GURPS Midnight - Design

Off and on for a couple years now, I've been working (sometimes with help, sometimes not) on an adaptation of the Midnight setting to the GURPS rules.  The problem with D&D and Midnight is that they don't really fit each other at all, and I'm certain that Midnight only uses D20 because of the Open Gaming License.


If you're not familiar with Generic Universal Role-Playing System, this post isn't likely to be of much interest.


If you're not familiar with the Midnight setting - it was released by Fantasy Flight a few years ago under the D20 license.  The setting's byline could be "Middle-Earth if Sauron got the Ring".  It is a post-apocalyptic fantasy (in an original world, not Middle-Earth) set 100 years after the victory of the Dark Lord in the north over the last alliance, etc etc.


I like the setting because there aren't that many post-apocalyptic fantasy settings - Earthdawn and Summerland come to mind, not many others.  I like it because it is gritty and hopeless, with heroes fighting a desperate battle against overwhelming evil and not just hanging out in taverns waiting for the next NPC to hand them the map to the next treasure-gorged dungeon.


(Addendum: obviously, Dark Sun is a big post-apocalyptic fantasy setting I forgot to mention)


Though I like the setting (Fantasy Flight does everything they do well), I've never thought that D20 was a good fit.  Ideally, the setting would have its own system that reinforces the setting's theme and assumptions, but there is nothing about D20 that is desperate or gritty.  In Midnight, if you kick in a door and take a Goblin's stuff, that Goblins friends will hunt down your family, sell your children into slavery, torture your wife to death in front of you, and kill you or sell you into slavery.  It is much more likely for a roving band of adolescent Orcs to kick in your door and take your stuff.


I thought that GURPS would be a good fit, because GURPS is by its nature gritty.  It is really, really to die in GURPS.  Every fight using lethal force is a real threat, and should be scary as hell when the average person has no armor, 10 hit points, and the average sword is going to do about 10 hit points of damage when it hits.  In real life, if someone pulls a knife on me, I am going to poop myself.  Part of me likes games that are like that, so that threats never take on the boring monotony that plagues D&D at certain points.


I've run a couple of one-shots using my GURPS adaptation of Midnight, and fun was had by all.  I also played in a campaign that ended before it's time, unfortunately (as 99% seem to), but I also saw how the system works well for the setting.  GURPS's granularity is actually a strength in a world where it is illegal to own a knife and where you have to beg, barter or steal everything you have in a way that it is not a strength in high-adventure/low-mortality settings.


In the cases of magic and things like physical equipment, D20 and GURPS map to each other pretty well - GURPS is a lot better for both, in fact, so it's easy to adapt from D20 to GURPS.  What were left over as major setting elements to adapt were the many races of Midnight and the Heroic Paths.


Anyone who's played GURPS knows that character creation is by far the most complicated part of the game (I say that never having run or been in a vehicle-based combat).  Similarly, designing racial templates in GURPS takes a lot of time, and ultimately, everyone will do it differently.  For a long time I had both simple and detailed versions of each race, depending on how deep I wanted players to have to dig in the system.  Since, I've decided to go with the simpler versions in all cases, bearing in mind that some races will be able to take Advantages that others imply cannot, both at character creation and through play.


Right now I am putting work into what I hope becomes a regular local GURPS Midnight game, and here are the four non-human races that are available where the PCs are starting off (south of Baden's Bluff if you know the setting).


Gnomes [20pts]

-10 ST -2, Charisma +2

Size -1

-5 Move -1

10 Night Vision +5

15 Talent: Watercraft +1

0 Native Trader’s Tongue

6 Improved Magic Resistance +2 (does not hinder spellcasting)

Gnome-Raised Dwarrow [20pts]

Charisma +2, ST -1

Size -1

-5 Move -1

25 Dark Vision

0 Native Trader’s Tongue

Can buy DR +1

Halflings [25pts]

20 ST -2, DX +2

Size -2

-5 Move -1

5 Night Vision +5

5 Perception +1

0 Native Erenlander

Halfling-Raised Elflings [20pts]

10 ST -2, DX +1

Size -1

-5 Move -1

5 Night Vision +5

5 Perception +1

15 Magery +1

0 Native Erenlander

Ultimately, when all the work is said and done, pretty simple.  All of the races are like that.  Being  kill-on-sight is a big Disadvantage, obviously, represented by a powerful Enemy, but it only applies to Dwarves and Elves, and brings their racial package costs right down.  Obviously those would only count in a game where they'd be outside their own lands.  I could also always see ways to tweak these starting-points depending on the specific situation of the game you're running.  There are more Advantages I could easily add to the template - things like Claim to Hospitality or Longevity or whatever, but I decided to err on the side of simplicity.

The next challenge was the Heroic Paths.  In the Midnight D20 system, you choose a Heroic Path, and each level  you get a new power or an extra skill or stat bonus.  The Heroic Paths basically describe how and possibly why you fight against the Shadow, and include things like Beast, Giantborn, Steelblooded and Shadow Walker.

For a long time I toyed with having a set progression like there is in the Midnight D20 system, but it became bewildering and too much given the amount of possibilities in GURPS.  What I hit upon instead I think is preferable.

For each Heroic Path, I list some options of the kinds of Advantages and Knacks that might come with it (Heroic Paths are one of the few ways to have magical abilities in Midnight if you don't worship the Dark Lord).  Each session, the players will get 5 character points to spend however they want while 5 character points will go into a pool.  When there are enough points in the pool, the character in question will manifest a Heroic Path ability in some stressful situation, after which they'll be use it normally.  The Heroic Paths give characters access to things they can't normally have and let them advance Advantages, or buy them after character creation, that they normally could not.

For example, for the Beast Heroic Path (which is the first one listed in the original Midnight D20 book), a character can earn things like Animal Empathy, a special animal companion (special case of Ally), and spellcasting Knacks from the Animal school.

So far so good, I think, and I'm really looking forward to running this game.

Next up - I changed how character creation happens a bit, hopefully to reinforce not only the setting but the kind of game I want to run, and I'll talk about that a bit too.

Last, I'll make a big post, or possibly a link or a unique page, with all of the rules I have for GURPS Midnight in case anyone else wants to run it, or something like it.