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Peering inside the old GULLIVER for GURPS 3e, I was struck by a tidbit that should have made it into COSH, the system for modifying and building combat skills in 3e. The old GULLIVER nicely details some throwing skills for use in sports, not combat, generally handing them a hefty distance bonus in exchange for encumbrance penalties, a Ready requirement, and a big TH penalty. (Yes, a TH penalty. Track-and-field javelin, hammer, discus, and so on never require the thrower to actually hit something. What the heck? Let's get some man-sized targets out there, and go Spartan on the next Olympiad!)

If this sort of thing piques your rarified interests, break out the COSH page along with a copy of GULLIVER LITE for 3e (see links above), and read along: Read more...

Make Every Roll Count (MERC) by Ben Finney is a set of gaming guidelines for placing story first and making the most of gamers' time at the table. More narrowly, it homes in on a key question at the heart of all RPGs: When should the dice be used at all, and toward what end? The answer involves a change from the too-common focus on resolving tasks, to a focus on resolving players' intent.

While MERC includes specific guidelines for use with GURPS, it's applicable to RPGs in general. I think it offers good advice to GMs both new and experienced, and am pleased to see it here at the Diner. What do you think?

MERC: Make Every Roll Count

ESCARGO, that quirky reworking of skill costs in GURPS, is now updated for GURPS 4e. That doesn't call for any big changes, but as always, an update provides chance to polish lots of little rough spots.

It's quite a geeky excursion into game design, but pretty interesting stuff in my humble view. As always, your comments are hugely welcome!

http://www.gamesdiner.com/escargo

QUICK UPDATE: I just added an update of the downloadable PDF file, adding attribute costs and weapon defaults. If you checked out the ESCARGO update within a couple hours of its posting, please revisit and get the new PDF!

Ahoy! Many thanks to all those in the past who have contributed to or commented on GLAIVE, a low-tech weapon design system for GURPS 3e.

I recently received a couple of inquiries about updating the project for 4e, along with 4e-flavored updates for the spreadsheet aid originally created by Ryan Williams. An updated spreadsheet alone doesn't make the project fully 4e-ready, but sure goes a long way toward it!

The spreadsheets are posted for readers' benefit. Along with them come the obvious questions:

Is there a need to update all of GLAIVE for 4e? Is there any interest? What form would it even take?

There's a new forum topic for anyone interested in discussing.

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

The value of that extra level of stat/skill very much depends on what kind of challenges the PC will be facing.

I don't have any comment on attribute cost vs skill cost (not here and now, anyway), but on flat vs rising costs, DC's wise remark above inspires the following note: Read more...