tbone's blog

"Dinosaurs may be lighter than we thought!" That's the news item I welcomed in RPG science: Designing dinosaurs just got easier? a couple of years ago. I liked the sound of that discovery, as the crushing weight of dinos made realistic designs a challenge when considering the effects of weight vs power.

But now? T. rex was bigger than thought, mused paleontologists more recently – over 9 tons for the Chicago Field Museum's resident specimen, Sue ("I'm not fat, I'm just really big-boned"). So we may be back to super-heavy reptiles (go easy on the carbs there, Rex!), and back to various tweaks needed to keep the big dinos mobile under design rules that consider weight.

None of it's a problem. The T Rex designs in my linked article above still work great, even if you want to boost the weight and the required support for it. Don't worry if your final design comes out a wee ponderous, as the new heavy-dino hypothesis suggests a T Rex top speed that's awfully modest for such a big predator: 10-25 mph (about Move 5-12 in GURPS terms).

The big range of that estimated top speed is a reminder of just how much sheer guess work palentologists still have to deal with – so if you want to stick with lighter weights, that's fine too. Which leads right to the key point: While it's an amusing diversion to try "designing" realistic dinos using detailed rules, in the end you can just slap on whatever power, agility, Move, and so forth that the game scene calls for. If you scare the bejesus out of the PCs, you've found the right numbers.

Whatever the poundage, T Rex will always be the king of the dinosaurs. Even if the T stands for "tubby".

I've made an update to DECIDE, the suggestion that combatants make defense decisions without unnatural prior knowledge of whether attacks will succeed or not. It's a GURPS article, but can apply to any game handling defenses in a similar manner. 

On the topic of whether to use DECIDE with melee as well as ranged attacks, I've changed the article's options from 1, 2a, and 2b, to 1, 2, and 3. For Option 3, I've made a change first discussed in DECIDE implementation notes: a change from the -1 "last-second defense" penalty vs melee weapons to a 0, and a blanket +1 to all "immediate defense" rolls that don't wait to check TH.

This is arguably how the option should have been designed from the start. It lets fighters make normal GURPS defenses ("first check TH") vs melee weapons at no bonus or penalty, and awards an attractive +1 penalty vs any attack when the fighter quickly commits to defending. The net effect: DECIDE becomes nicely "invisible" in melee combat, staying out of play unless a fighter opts for its effects. That's the sort of option I like!

Thousands of visitors have checked out the DECIDE page; if you haven't (or just haven't done so in a while), please do!

Tiny improvement to the GULLIVER page: A short compilation of links to other items on this site related to building and gaming creatures of any size. If odd-sized critters are your thing, you should find plenty to work with among those links.

Head to Related links (GURPS GULLIVER page)

Ooh, here's an accomplishment most trivial: This site's Star Frontiers to GURPS 4e Conversion Notes page ranks #1 on a Google search for "star frontiers gurps". That just might be my first first ever.

There's even more Dralasite-steeped goodness out there than I realized, though. Check out Star Frontiersman Magazine, a slick-looking magazine of all-new fan material, plus remastered versions of all the original books. That's some serious fandom at work!

For the GURPSters, there's another conversion page out there, GURPS Star Frontiers Conversion, a PDF that starts with this site's conversion but makes changes where the author disagrees. (What items those would be, I don't know; I don't see who made the conversion.)

Those links are now on my conversion page. Hasbro has allowed the Star Frontiers downloads, or so I've heard repeatedly, so both original book PDFs and the remastered goodies appear kosher. Whether you play GURPS, another system, or are open to SF's own rules, it's a full space opera setting ready for the taking. Enjoy!

Here's a minor, yet-untested melee idea that came up during chatter over some GURPS combat scenarios:

When you close a distance gap to attack, you give the defender more time to react than you do by starting out close enough to strike. Game that consideration with this simple rule:

• If the attacker needs to Step or Move to get within striking Reach, the defender gains +2 on Active Defense vs the attack.
• If the attacker begins his turn within striking Reach (even if he chooses to Step or Move anyway), there is no mod to Active Defense.
• If the attacker begins his turn in close combat and strikes in close combat (even if he then moves away), the defender takes -2 on Active Defense vs the attack.

The first case represents the attacker having to first move to get within striking distance, which hands the defender extra time to prepare (as well as an extra, clearly visible indicator that the attack is coming).

The second case is the default combat norm: You're already within range to strike, and you do so. Nothing special going on.

The third case helps model the "roaring and punching" aspect of close-combat free-for-all. Attacks come from so close, and thus come so fast, that it's hard to defend against them (or even see them coming in the first place).

It's all extremely simple to play out when using a hex map. How will it change combat? I expect the following: Read more...