GURPS, in Mira Mesa area.

Seeking players or a GM?
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mongo
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GURPS, in Mira Mesa area.

Post by mongo »

Gfys.
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Post by Digital_Boy »

Indeed. Mongo and another gent who doesn't frequent RPG-San Diego run alternating Banestorm campaigns, and I opted for some good ol' high-tech high jinks in the fun-lovin' aftermath immediately following the fall of the Ziru Sirka, aka the Grand Empire Of The Stars.

We've got lasers, powered armor, runaway psionics, space pirates (arrrrrrrrr, mateys!), space marines (no, not the Warhammer 40K variety) and much, much more. Buahahahahahaha!

If you've got a hankering to get your Tech Level 10+ groove on, the recruiting table is over there on the left!!
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

GURPS is awesome. GURPS in the Mira Mesa area would be incredible. Rotating DMs and a high-tech pre-published setting really doesn't sit well with me, though.

Ah well, so close.
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Post by mongo »

It's not a pre published setting, since all of the action is taking place after the history presented in Traveller Interstellar Wars. Hence the "post" part of the original listing. We are using the resource provided, to save time. It has the universe mapped out, and provides a starting point for further exploration, without having to "reinvent the wheel".

What's your problem with rotating GM's, anyway? We have three people that like to play and GM, we just swap campaigns, when some one needs a break. We have two Fantasy setting campaigns, and we just started the Ultra Tech Traveller setting, that Digital Boy is running. We go back to the same characters, when we resume a previous campaign, after the break. We haven't had anyone strain themselves, by carrying an extra character sheet, or two.

Why don't you get off your butt, and try it, before you criticize it.
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Post by mordraine »

Yeah! Why do you hate Freedom, Dragonmaster?!
Hey man, I'm slinging volume and fat stacking benjies, you know what I mean? I can't be all about spelling and shit!
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

Maybe I just misunderstood. It sounded like there are three alternating campaigns, and only one of them needs players. If my friend and I were to join, then we could only be in it until it switched to one of the other two campaigns (which seem to be already full of players). Is that not the case?

Pre-published settings are still something I dislike, and some of that goes back towards excessive respect for character integrity. If one person makes a character, then I consider it disrespectful for anyone else to play that character; I don't want Drizzt showing up in my D&D game unless R.A. Salvatore himself is there to play him (to use an example). Large and complicated settings are also characters, in my mind, so it is often difficult for someone else to come in and start running things. I guess the real question is how much this setting has changed from the established setting; with enough changes, a setting can become your own.
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Post by mongo »


[quote="Dragonmaster Zoc"]Maybe I just misunderstood. It sounded like there are three alternating campaigns, and only one of them needs players. If my friend and I were to join, then we could only be in it until it switched to one of the other two campaigns (which seem to be already full of players). Is that not the case?



Pre-published settings are still something I dislike, and some of that goes back towards excessive respect for character integrity. If one person makes a character, then I consider it disrespectful for anyone else to play that character; I don't want Drizzt showing up in my D&D game unless R.A. Salvatore himself is there to play him (to use an example). Large and complicated settings are also characters, in my mind, so it is often difficult for someone else to come in and start running things. I guess the real question is how much this setting has changed from the established setting; with enough changes, a setting can become your own.[/quote]






The "group" is looking for players, and the group consists of four, with three of us able to run different campaigns.



I run a Cinematic GURPS Fantasy campaign, Scott (not a member of these Forums) runs a more realism based GURPS Fantasy exploration type of campaign, and Digital Boy just started a futuristic Space Age campaign, that is set in the GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars universe.



We all play in the other's campaigns, when we are not the ones running the campaign.



When you talk about "Pre-published settings", and your dislike for them, I have to ask, "What planet are you from?"



If you say Earth, then I can safely assume you are human. When someone says they are from Yrth, which is the planet that GURPS Banestorm is set on, then I have a much longer list of races that you could be. If you said Terra, then chances are, that you are from Digital Boy's campaign, and the list of races narrows somewhat.



My point is, that we use world settings as a base of[i][b] Reference[/b][/i]. Published GURPS books, that have the political, geographical, and ideological "grunt work" done for us, allow us to get on with gaming, without the need to write tomes if minutae about what country is where, and who lives there. There are no "wandering heroes" that are going to show up, and offend your notions of how they should be played.



Scott and I, use the GURPS Banestorm setting, and we have much different activities going on in each of our campaign worlds, that they are basically different worlds. Any player can make a character for either of the two campaigns though, because we use the same [i][b]Reference [/b][/i] material. A goblin thief, is a goblin thief, and an Elven swashbuckler, is an Elven swashbuckler, despite whichever "world" they play in.



To answer your question, the GURPS Banestorm/Fantasy campaign I run, takes place in the "Banestorm" setting, over twenty years after any published material. Scott's GURPS Banestorm/Fantasy campaign takes place, basically, on the other side of the published globe.



You are more than welcome to drop by, and run a GURPS campaign of your own, and no one will complain if you write all of your own material. We don't have that luxury, what with jobs, school, and family responsibilities. That is if you can handle the 1 mile drive, of course.

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Post by Digital_Boy »

Just your friendly neighborhood Digital Boy swinging by.

Dragonmaster, like Mongo has pointed out, I'm not running a strict, by the book Traveller Interstellar Wars campaign. The IW book is there for flavor/background/historical reference. I freely mix elements of cyberpunk, hard SF (think Niven's Known Space and Man-Kzin Wars flavor), and allow most everything of appropriate tech level from Ultratech and Biotech.

Like has been said, the backstory provides good reference points to start a campaign, but I'm not tying myself to it dogmatically.

As for running a prepackaged module (to use the D&D term), no the vast majority of gameplay is grown in the fertile soil of our demented little minds. :D Though I, being a first time GM, wouldn't mind running a canned Traveller IW adventure or two just so I'm not having to grind NPC's, loot, and so forth and concentrate more on telling and advancing the story.

The rest has already been covered by mongo. there are 5 people total (one of whom plays via video conference for now, since he had to relocate for personal reasons and is working on returning to San Diego), 4 of whom GM their own games, and switch off when they start to burn out or run out of ideas, and a new face or two would be welcome.
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

I guess I've just had a lot of bad experiences in the past with people trying to run things in the Forgotten Realms, and then forgetting which realm the gold dwarves are from or things like that. It's generally not so bad, until we end up wandering someplace unexpected and suddenly there's significant conflict with existing material, which tends to cascade into further paradox when we can't recall where the differences between our spin-off and the existing canon take place.

If I say I'm from Earth then you know I'm a human, and if I say I'm from Yrth then you know that I'm from one of those things in that book, and if I say I'm from the forest moon of Endor then that also narrows things down considerably, but if I say I'm from the planet Erqua then you don't know what to expect; you don't know what a Pygthan or a Wursot is, so you won't be deceived by any pre-conceived notions.

Elves have been represented so many different ways in so many fictions that nobody is quite sure what to expect, but if I tell you that this is an Elf from Yrth then you immediately know what it is. Sure, the books say what an Elf could be like, but there's no real reason why I should let that constrain what my image of an Elf should be. Except, it's convenient; everyone has access to the books, so just saying that these are the way things are is a lot easier than messing up everyone's pre-conceived notion of how these things should be represented. Creating everything from scratch and then presenting it in a way that everyone can accept is a lot of work, and it takes a lot of time.

I guess I just fit way over to one side on the sliding scale of idealism vs. playability; I shouldn't let the ideal get in the way of the practical, though.

So what time do you play? Where are you? What background do you have to add to the setting, and how many points should we look for? Send me a private message, when you get a chance.
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

Also, has Traveller been updated to the new edition of GURPS, or is the old version still the most current resource?
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Post by Digital_Boy »

Traveller Interstellar Wars is 4E, everything else in GURPS Traveller is still 3E. Or we can run Banestorm, since the party is docked in Megalos for a couple of weeks before setting sail for Sahud.
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

Either way is fine with me, as I own neither the new Interstellar Wars nor Banestorm. I do think that fantasy is generally an easier genre to play in than sci-fi, though.

There's plenty of information out there on the web about the Traveller setting while there is very little about Banestorm. We could make characters to fit into the Traveller setting without looking at the book, and then go back to fill in the numbers later. Alternatively, from what I remember about Banestorm, we should be able to wing it fairly well by using just the Basic Set and Fantasy books.
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Post by mongo »

What kind of characters do you want to play, in a fantasy setting? Do you have GURPS Magic, and do either of you want to be spellcasters?

It looks like I'll be running the campaign Saturday night, and the current group has a "holy man", a "rogue", a "druid", and a plain old "fighter" type. They had a "mage/healer", and a Dwarven "artificer", but one has too much school work, and the other just up and vanished.

I can make the characters for you, or you can look through the "leftovers", and then spend some time customizing them, to get them up to the group's point total.

One of the players is going shopping for a slave, so there is also that route, to get you in with the rest of them. Don't worry though, he plans on freeing the slave, and "hiring" him to help the group. It's the "holy man" that is looking for help, and I already have five suitable candidates for him to choose from.

P.S. GURPS 4th Ed. Banestorm is essentially an updated version of the GURPS 3rd Ed. Fantasy book, as far as the world geography, and history is concerned. GURPS 4th Ed. Fantasy has different templates for the "fantasy" races, and very few of them to choose from. GURPS 4th Ed. Fantasy is more of a tool kit book, for designing your own fantasy setting, plus their "Elves & Dwarves" are different from Banestorm's material.

Let me know how you want to proceed. If you just want to "check out" the group, then the premade characters might be the best way to go.
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

I found a fairly helpful review on rpg.net, which explains a lot of the setting.

Just off the top of my head, I like to avoid classes in GURPS. Depending on point totals, I like the idea of just making a generalist who can do a little bit of anything but who won't outshine anyone in their particular area of focus. I do have the Magic book. Does Banestorm just use the default magic system?

I haven't had much chance to converse with my friend on the matter. She just said she would be interested, but she was at work and didn't have time to discuss details.
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Post by Digital_Boy »

Zoc, IMO you're overthinking things a little bit.

Try this: come up with a character concept for a fantasy setting and/or one for a sci-fi setting, write down all the abilities you'd need to effectively create this character, then start trimming it down to fit the point limits that I PM'ed to you. When you've got a good idea of what you want your character to be, give it to us and we can vet the character to make sure the point totals are correct, and maybe find a combo of advantages/disads/spells that would give you what you want at a lower point cost or higher ability level.

My advice would be to stick to one or two basic core specialties and not try to be an "All In One Wonder" who can do a whole list of things half assed, but instead does a few things well. As GM's, our role is to tell a story and guide the game, and if you decide that you want to take your character in a whole new direction, we'll work with you. We might make you go on an epic quest to get the powers/abilities/artifact that you need to do this with, but we're not here to piss on your parade. Mind you this is with the caveat that we won't let you become so all powerful that you tilt the balance of the game.
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Post by Dragonmaster Zoc »

My original idea was to play a highly skilled character from our world so, when he arrived in Yrth, almost all of his knowledge was wiped out by those wizards who protect the populace from technology. This would leave him with amnesia, and culturally unfamiliar with the world (which would facilitate my own lack of knowledge of the world), while putting him into a position to quickly pick up new skills (high IQ would lend itself toward picking up a variety of magic).

The more I read of the world, though, the less fitting that seems. It seems more like the rifts haven't happened much recently, so a newcomer wouldn't fit as well. It also smacks of laziness on my part, for not doing research. Now that I have been reading more, it actually seems like a fairly well-done world.

I'll look at things for a while longer and eventually something will jump at me.

Update:

I have an idea, and it would give the character a good reason to be purchased as a slave. Now I just need to figure out the stats for an Orc and I'll write it all up.
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Post by Digital_Boy »


[quote="Dragonmaster Zoc"]My original idea was to play a highly skilled character from our world so, when he arrived in Yrth, almost all of his knowledge was wiped out by those wizards who protect the populace from technology. This would leave him with amnesia, and culturally unfamiliar with the world (which would facilitate my own lack of knowledge of the world), while putting him into a position to quickly pick up new skills (high IQ would lend itself toward picking up a variety of magic).



The more I read of the world, though, the less fitting that seems. It seems more like the rifts haven't happened much recently, so a newcomer wouldn't fit as well. It also smacks of laziness on my part, for not doing research. Now that I have been reading more, it actually seems like a fairly well-done world.



I'll look at things for a while longer and eventually something will jump at me.[/quote]


Ah, the Connecticut Yankee in Yrth. Having a character on the run from the Ministry of Serendipity isn't unheard of, but that's not my call to make. I, personally like the idea.

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Post by mongo »


[quote="Dragonmaster Zoc"]Update:



I have an idea, and it would give the character a good reason to be purchased as a slave. Now I just need to figure out the stats for an Orc and I'll write it all up.[/quote]




Are you writing up the concept, or are you making a character? Would you like to know the starting point level, or did you get a number from Digital Boy?



I just ask because I don't know what "DB" might have told you in a PM, and would hate for it to be wrong, and have you waste time making a character, that is built on more points than they're supposed to be. Fresh characters don't start at the same point total as the highest point total player, in my campaigns. They start equal to the least point total player amongst the group.



I hope you are going to be an unusually intelligent Orc, or one that has learned to "fit in" with civilized society, as there have not been many Orcs that have. Unless you want to be persecuted, and have most "people" react badly to your presence. An Orc would have NO civil rights, basically, in the location that you will start playing at. There are NO free Orcs in Megalos, except for the ones who are threats to society, and are hunted as such.



Digital Boy has no special insight, as to what's happening behind the scenes in my campaign. You might want to deal with me directly, through a PM, if you want to keep any aspects of your character "under the radar" so to speak. Plus I can reveal certain things from your perspective, that Digital Boy's character would not be aware of. Seeing as how his character is a free man, from a neighboring, friendly nation, and will not be starting off fresh, in my campaign this Saturday.

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Post by Digital_Boy »

For Banestorm, talk to Mongo. The point totals I PM'ed you were in regards to the Traveller campaign, which is the one I'm GM'ing. I'm a mere PC in the Banestorm campaigns, so any rules/regs I might give you would be secondhand. Best to get it straight from the GM himself.
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Post by mongo »

Hey Digital Boy.

It's official, those two will not be back.

I'll check the pool, to see who wins the cash, for guessing how long it would take for notification. The log on time was about 9:30 pm. I definitely don't win, since I bet they wouldn't have the spine to even communicate again.

Oh well, better luck next time.
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Post by Digital_Boy »

Le sigh. I'll ask around at the sci-fi meetup group and see if anyone is interested.
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Crap, he was right!

Post by mongo »

:smash:It pains me to say this, but it looks like that guy was right about something, that we've been doing wrong all this time.

Do you remember when we "argued" about the range penalties for Regular Spells? I've found evidence, to support his side of the issue, under "Malediction" in the Basic Book, page 106. It reads "If it takes -1 per yard of range, like a Regular spell, it costs +100%. If it uses the range penalties on the Size and Speed Range Table (p.550), it costs +150%." So the default is -1 per 1 yard, and the other table is an additional level of enhancement.

That means that the "-5 at 5 yds" example in the GURPS Magic book, is just a coincidence, that it matches the same rating of the Size and Speed/Range Table, that 5yds happens to be.

Now that rediculously high skill level, with that one spell, makes sense, and doesn't seem like an attempt to unbalance the game. A trained archer still has a much better chance to hit him with an arrow, at 20 yds, than he would have to use his spell on that same archer though. Then if you think of several archers, versus his one spell per second, there would be sleeping archers, but a dead mage as well.

So despite being irritating, in his "air of superiority", the guy was right, and I/We were wrong. That's reason enough for me, not to have him back. I don't like being wrong, or having new people argue with me, after only being in the room, for ten minutes.
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