Wednesday's open GURPS RPG

0,o

lol, wha-...?

Correction: you set one inn on fire and stole from another.

Hey Justin, I was looking through the Magic PDF and found that I have one of the requirement routes in order to learn the Teleport Spell (Requirement route: IQ13+ and at least one spell from 10 diffrent colleges [IQ 15 w/12 colleges known ] ).

I have 23 exp saved up, and want to invest in the following: Teleport [15], Blink [17] (Total Exp: 8 spent)

Is that ok? I think the exp cost would have to go up because the game already started. What do you say?

Rules for Blink: Dodge an attack by teleporting out of harm's way, if successful, caster appears up to 3 meters away into an open space, facing is unchanged. Caster must succeed on Body Sense skill or be forced to do nothing his next turn. Counts as an automaticlly passed dodge if casting is successful.

We are not gaming this week. I have a cold. Sorry. Next week we are still on.

Alright, might (emphasis on might) go by and play 40K, If I can get enough of this scholarship crud out of the way quickly.

Geography

Urth is nearly unrecognizable to 20th-century visitors. Stars are faintly visible during the day, and the moon (called Lune) is covered with green forests. The Commonwealth is located in a South America enlarged by either small-scale terraforming projects or the lowering of sea levels as more water is locked into glaciers - or a combination of the two. The River Gyoll defines most of what we know about the Commonwealth, stretching from its high mountain springs in war-torn Orithyia to the edge of the sea at the town of Liti, south of Nessus. The mountains of the Commonwealth are all carved in the likenesses of past Autarchs, and strange creatures roam the wilderness. These include formerly extinct animals like sabertooth tigers, arsinoithers, and even tyrannosaurs; extraterrestrial creatures like the dreaded alzabo, which absorbs the memories of its prey and can mimic their voices; and mythological beings like the watery undines, the troglodyte man-apes, and the angelic anpiels. To the north lies the dying belt of tropical vegetation at the equator, and beyond that the home continent of Ascia. Far out in the sea to the west lie the Xanthic Isles, mountaintops of sunken lands

The Age of the Monarch

This period begins when an Asiatic race makes that tremendous leap to the stars and founds the First Empire of 1,000 Stars around 72,000 P.G. (Pre-game). These starfarers create fabulous "thinking engines" (computer AIs) and "android" (mechanical men) sailors. The thinking engines are capable of reading minds and projecting aquastors, phantom-like beings that can only be seen by those whom the engine has targeted.

The struggle between cold logic and wild emotion eventually brings down the First Empire by 2,000 P.G., and the magical technology, already in decline, continues to fall. Typhon, Monarch of several worlds in the Urth system, has dreams of a Second Empire, so he moves his capital to Urth and tries to make his dreams a reality from the House Absolute, a subterranean palace complex. Monarch Typhon achieves a limited form of immortality by having his head surgically grafted onto the body of a strong slave, and he acquires terrible psionic powers allowing him to possess people. Reaching for other forms of immortality, he is the first to carve a mountain in his own likeness, and he also launches a generation starship called the Whorl, ruled over by virtual-reality versions of himself and his court cast as gods. (This is the genesis of Wolfe's new series, The Book of the Long Sun.)

Ultimately, however, his plans go awry and his dreams of empire are shattered by rebels from within his own ranks. It is at this time (roughly 1,100 P.G.) that the avatar appears in the form of the Conciliator, a powerful thaumaturge or wonder-worker who tells all he meets that the sun has begun to falter. (It may very well be that the introduction of a black hole into the sun was the work of Typhon's blind son in an attempt to make everyone "blind.") Typhon has the Conciliator arrested and jailed at the Old Port (which will one day evolve into the Citadel of the Autarch), but the holy man vanishes after telling his followers about the next avatar, whom he calls the New Sun. Typhon is the last of the Monarchs, and with his death, the age comes to a close.

Ascia, the Land Without Shadows

Technology

Ascia appears to be at TL5 or TL6. The Ascian Army uses radio and includes strange mechanical vehicles (for instance, a six-legged walker) among its beasts of burden. They also have something of an air force, the starfish-shaped pentadactyls, but perhaps the most bizarre is their cavalry: tall blind men, capable of running at incredible speeds and armed with a wand and a shotel (the sickle-sword), ridden by dwarves armed with bows and pyrotechnic arrows. Otherwise the Ascian Army is roughly comparable to that of the Commonwealth, where exotic energy rifles (the fusils, jezails and arquebuses) are reserved for special forces.
Law

The Control Rating of Ascia is extremely high. All weapons are illegal. Even soldiers are not issued their weapons until immediately before battle. Supposedly this keeps them from suicide, but a percentage of Ascian soldiers kill themselves with their own weapons before battle begins anyway.

Society

Ascia is ruled by an oligarchy known as the Group of Seventeen. In theory, the Group of Seventeen rules in the name of the populace, but in fact the entire culture revolves around a personality cult worshipping the leaders, and the Group of Seventeen owes allegiance to the Other Lords. In true Orwellian style, original concepts been abolished; all adult Ascians must communicate by quoting from the "Authorized Texts" handed down by the Group of Seventeen, a practice known as "Correct Thought." Here's a quick sample:

"All endeavors are conducted well or ill precisely in so far as they conform to Correct Thought."
"The roots of the tree are the populace. The leaves fall, but the tree remains."
"Correct Thought is the thought of the populace. The populace cannot betray the populace or the Group of Seventeen."
Religion

Ascia is dedicated to stopping the New Sun. Their cult of Correct Thought can be seen as a kind of religion that utterly suppresses the individual in favor of the State.

The Other Lords

There are at least four of these terrible godlings lurking about on Urth: Erebus, Abaia, Scylla and Arioch.

Erebus rules from Mount Erebus in Antarctica. He is an ice demon, and his minions (known as perischii since their shadows rotate around them on a summer's day) are the ones that raid the Southern Isles in his name. As a god of darkness, his victory will come only when the sun is finally extinguished.

Abaia is a mountain-sized being living in the depths of the ocean, a "friendly" monster with a host of gigantic undines as concubines. To those whom he wishes to recruit, Abaia sends forth dreams promising wealth, power and erotic delight among the undines.

Scylla would appear to be another aquatic monster, and judging from hints in Nightside the Long Sun, she is the firstborn child of Monarch Typhon.

Arioch seems to rule an underground realm.

Just putting it up and out there,I say the pints limit should be ablout 150-200 max.

So are we set on a point total I want to start building my character ps I think we should create are characters more like we would for a raid in wow so that everyone has strengths to cover anothers weakness pss ...my first post

I would say we should agree on 150 points for characters, and with also figure out what modual we are going to do, that way we can actually start creating characters.

Ultimatly all we can do is wait for Justin to post what the options are, because my character will depend specifically on the game we choose.

This week is canceled while I work up something. Also working long hours this week. More info to come.

still dont know if its been decided for 150 but just so you know thats killing me in iq alone i dont think i can manage to get like one advantage(power) without taking several disadvantages which include the dread of teddy bears making me wonder how useful ill be...... but honestly putting that aside i dont know what type of character to create and id like to have a better idea of what everyone else is making in order to zero in on what our weaknesses would be and try to fill in that gap. summary: my character scenario 1 i wanted to make a character that has an extremely high int. in order to keep a super high will and perception this will allow me some leeway with disadvantages like dread pacifism etc or i wanted to make a character with super high dex and other things that would make it much like chris's ninja character. so all in all im leaning more towards the int guy any ideas that i could take into account for character concept ps i dont actually know too much about this new game world so dont know which one would be more useful or even what advantages to take so so far ive only worried about the main four point boxes (int, dex, st, ht) and my disadvantages which will make for some fun roleplay... once again i dont want to take on dread of teddy bears if we are jumping into the hundred acre woods so fill in is great ps sorry for the tone i know you are really busy with work so no real rush if anything i could finish up character stuff on wednesday.

pss sorry the last message was so long

No clue myself, it all depends for me weither the set-up is lich-capable or not.

Even then I'll play around with everything before I finalise anything. As for the options: Here's what I have in mind:

Spellcaster (Lich if the setting is possible)

Artillary man/Heavy Ranged Support (Arabest gunner, Medium/Heavymachine-gunner, Demolitions expert (or Alchemist if the setting is in the past), ect.)

As for the points limit: It's not set, I'm just posting thoughts and seeing if anyone bothers to reply, as far as I've seen, only you are looking into this, as well as Justin. If we plan on avoiding the immediat 'you-can't-touch-this' status we achieved last game I believe it should be 150-200. Remember this is my own two cents in the matter, really it's whatever Justin states to be the requirment.

NEW MODULE! PERFECT TIME TO JOIN OUR GROUP 6PM EACH WED

The game is still on for tomorrow. The new setting is based off of the "black company" rpg published by green ronin. Still using Gurps. 150 point per character. We can go back to new sun in a few weeks unless you guys love this.

Synopsis: Gritty, vietnam war style, middle ages era, pointless death.

The world of the Black Company is shaped by events that occurred long before the time of the game. A powerful wizard called the Dominator had created a brutal empire, assisted by his sorceress wife, known as the Lady, and ten enslaved magical rivals, the Ten Who Were Taken (or just "Taken"). The empire is weakening and there is a new player in regional politics: the black company. The company is a ruthlessly effective mercenary unit willing to work for the highest bidder. But individually, the members can recognize true evil when they see it, and often they try to manipulate the situation to mitigate the worst outcomes. Morality often conflicts with the "honor" system of the mercenaries to hold true to their employer. The most elite fighting force the empire has ever scene just landed ashore and is looking for work. Will you aid the freedom fighters, the lady, or one of the taken?

Magic: Yes. More illusions then anything else. Spells that use illusions cost -1 while spells that change the physical world cost +1. Note: A wizard can easily turn the tide of a battle through trickery.

Suggested character styles: Scout, Fighter, Mage, Diplomat (because fighting means expense), doctor, engineer. Why are YOU important enough to be part of the inner circle of decisions within the company.

Races: Human Only. Life spans for wizards can be VERY old

Character names: Each new member is given a name by the Captain after his first kill. Until then you have no name.

Requirements: Know why your character would leave his home/army to join the mercs.

Map: http://wraggj.people.cofc.edu/blackco/north.jpg

woo hoo you guys are online
mage, scout, doctor, engineer..... can you give an example of what theese characters would look like int, dex, str, and ht wise and what they are like in this kinda world so i can make a good decision and finish my chaaracter tonight ps i want a character with really high int per and wis so im guessing the scout wold best fit my skeleton character sheet so far... also what advantages would a scout need what is a scout? im sorry im sorta confuzed with that term for a character but it sound really interesting so i might jump right on it but i might want to be two at once like a mage scout or fighter scout or something so i kinda wanted to know what the others would look like too... sorry its so late in the week to be asking questions like this but i want to make a good character for tomorrow ^_^ hope you can reply soon

Those were just a few suggestions. You can run any type of proffesion you choose. As for a "scout" character, you could go in a number of directions:

1. Master horseman. Every army needs to know what is ahead and scouts are sent out ahead of the army to find potential danger. This type of character could be good at mounted combat and serve as cavelry in battle.

2. Tracker/hunter. Perhaps you are a peasant who lived off the land and now use your skills to hunt whatever the captain tells you. Trackers are also employed to find and kill enemy scouts and assassins.

3. whatever you can think of. Maybe you are good at finding things in urban enviroments maybe something I didn't think of

Armies need engineers to make everything from earthworks to catapults.
Doctors usually become the most important job after a battle.
Mages have been explained already.


As far as advantages. Its your character so go wild with it. There is no advantage you can't take as long as its paid for and you are still basicly human

http://www.glencook.org/index.php/Category:The_Black_Company_Series

For perusing

thx ill keep this in mind ps ill probably put a lot into tracking and stuff of that nature so chances are ill be an information gatherer number of enemies ahead how animal tracks they have (like horses or guard dogs) etc so i think besides that we could still use a figter healer and diplomat which you guys alread sort of played in the last gurps just throwing that out there thanks a lot for the help and the games justin ^_^

awesome, But I think I'll go for engineer now, I like heavy machinery more than magics and stuff...but the mage is still on the stove.

Now that we started this new modual, I think I'm liking more the Black Company than the New Sun modual: the larger margin of failiure and the bigger risk of losing all progress (AKA: dieing) make it more entertaining...

and Phil's old bitter chinese man impersonations are just way too halarious!

FREEEEEEE BOOKS!

I just bought every player a copy of the Black Company novel. I was able to pick them up for four bucks each used at amazon. (I have amazon prime so free two day shipping). Don't feel obligated to read them, but if you do, you will get more atmosphere out of the game.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Company-Chronicles/dp/0812521390/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_cart_1

I thought about getting a new sun novel but that shit may be a acquired taste being that its a train of thought narration