Gurps? Where do I start?

[DungeonMaester]

Using gurps lite, I generated a character, and I cant say I am impressed.

A Larger then life character is not all that great. My first experince with it is that the stat prices are to steep. Even with the limited abilities, i was able to make a cool looking swashbuckler on paper, but at a 7 on his rapier using abilites is hard press to conncect against 3d6. I think my first house rule is that all stats cost 10.

Also, I the one thing I am left wondering is what skill level means. I think there is something I missed or skills which is causing it to come out wrong.

---Rusty

 

[Clueless]

You may wish to look at the bell curve vs. straight die roll information you can find here:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/systemdesign/dice-methods.html

Also, this forum conversation may help as well:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=17050&highlight=bell+curve

Now I *AM* surprised you somehow ended up with a 7 for a skill in something - if you're just adding 7 to your 3d6 roll then somehow you've got some very substandard stats (10 is average for gurps stats), you should be accounting for the stat in there too right?

As far as I understood the system unless they massive changed it in 4th ed, your skills are relative to the related stat - so +7 roll would be : your stat value + 7 + 3d6. If you have a lot of dex based skills it can be cheaper to buy the stat up instead of buying twenty-some skills all the way up hence why the stats are so expensive.

 

[DungeonMaester]

I still think there is something I am doing wrong. Here is the character character with work shown.

300 pt starting.
St 10 (100 pts) [+10/level]
Dx 5 (100 pts) [+20/level]
It 8 (160 pts) [+20/level]
ht 10 (100 pts) [+10/level]

Hp 10 Will 8 Precption 8 FP 10 Base Speed 3 Dodge 6

Defects:
Dead Broke (-25)
Code of Honor: Gentleman (-10)
Sence of Duty: Single person (-10)
Minor Vow (-5)
Bad Temper (-10)
Bloodlust (-10)
Pasifism: Wont murder unless in harms way (-10)
Obsession (-10)

Traits:
Combat Reflexes
Enhanced Defend: parry
Melee Weapon: Rapier (A+3)
Stealth (A+2)
Infulence: Soir Faire (A+2)
Obvervation (A+2)

Weapon
Raiper (8) 1d6-1 Parry 6

Armor
Cloth: Dr 2

left over points: 13
That is all I have. the thing that makes me worry the most is with the dr bonus for heavy armors will make it impossible to cause harm unless you have a 20 st.

---Rusty

 

[coyote6]

Attributes start at 10; you buy ST, DX, IQ, & HT up from 10. So you're stats are actually:

300 pt starting.
ST 20
DX 15
IQ 18
HT 20

HP 20 Will 18 Perception 18 FP 20 Base Speed 8.75 Dodge 9

Rapier (A+3, or 18)
Stealth (A+2, or 17)
Savoir Faire (A+2, or 20)
Obsvervation (A+2, or 20)

Weapon
Raiper (18) 2d imp; Parry 14

Note that you roll on 3d6, trying to roll less than you adjusted skill number; so to hit Joe Average, with no special circumstances, you need to roll an 18 or less on 3d6.

(A 17 or 18 is an automatic failure; but you're still practically guaranteed to hit.)

FWIW, the character stats you list are for a massively powerful badass. A regular starting 150 pt PC won't be that badass.

Also, if you're going to be fighting guys in armor, you either want to use some of the advanced combat rules, so you can attack parts of the body that aren't armored (or aren't as heavily armored), or you want to use a weapon other than a rapier. ST 20 plus a broadsword is 3d+3 cut damage; you're going to roll an average of 13 pts of damage; full plate has DR 7, so you'll get about 6 pts of damage through; since it's cutting, the target will take +50% damage, or 9 pts. The average person has HP 10; 9 pts is a serious wound.

(AFAIK, rapiers and full plate weren't historically common at the same time & in the same places; one didn't see full plate at the wine shop or in the market, and rapiers weren't the primary weapon of military units. Rapiers just weren't any good at penetrating heavy armor, and their GURPS stats reflect that.)

 

[The Lost Muse]

From what I remember, skill checks are roll under (low is good), reaction rolls are high is good, and damage rolls are high-is good. Your character looks fine once you correct the baseline to 10.

When I used to play GURPS 3rd Edition, Revised, I found that having a high DX and IQ was well worth the points, and that generally a skill of 14 is sufficient for anything but the very most challenging of situations.

 

[DungeonMaester]

<Snip>

FWIW, the character stats you list are for a massively powerful badass. A regular starting 150 pt PC won't be that badass.

Thanks for the info. I am thinking about getting 3rd ed GURPS for only 11 bucks. How important if at all is it to have gurps's newest ed?

---Rusty

 

[coyote6]

I played lots of 3e, and haven't actually played a whole lot of 4e; but I'd rather play 4e. It's better, IMO.

That said, you can get lots of 3e books pretty cheaply nowadays. (Many of the setting and genre books can be used w/4e, too.)

 

[DungeonMaester]

Price is why I am going 3e. That is unless there is a major difference.

---Rusty

 

[Clueless]

There we go, that looks *much* better.
And yeah, that's a pretty kick-butt character there. Design wise in GURPS many times a character design will feature a *lot* of skills. My usual characters tend to have nearly 20 or 25 skills all at decent levels, average ST, HT and high DX, IQ. But then I like to play rogues and brainy nerds.

And 3rd ed is perfectly ok to work with. Many of the resources are nicely compatible with 4th if you get the urge to upgrade, so you're not wasting any money. (I love SJGames for that.)

 

[DungeonMaester]

Yes, that cleared up alot of confusion. I did not know that stats started at 10. I thought getting stats up there would be really hard, so I choose larger then life to start with. This makes more sense though, so Now I will make a new character with all that I know now.

---Rusty