T Bone's Games Diner TAKEOUT MENU #006

THE TAKEOUT MENU: Flyaway Missives from T Bone's Games Diner
#006, Sep 16 2010

=== What newsletter is this, again? ===

Heh. When I said the newsletter would be infrequent, I clearly meant it.

With everyone (?) using RSS newsreaders these days to keep up on favorite sites, I know that site newsletters are no longer vitally important as a way of announcing new content. But I'm sure they remain a healthy reminder for some readers.

This issue's job is to point fans to one particular new creation on the site. But first, a really quick recap of what's new (or newish-y, sort of) since the last issue, back in (yikes!) 2008:

=== 2008 === 

A few highlights include a revised cost for GURPS ST, a generic discussion of "log ST" in games, reviews of GURPS Banestorm and Illuminati, and a guest-contributed system for test-based skill advancement in GURPS, along with lots of miscellaneous musings. See a list (with links) of the year's content at http://www.gamesdiner.com/posts_2008 .

=== 2009 ===

New or updated GURPS rules for shields and size, shields and cover, revised Toughness, ST-based damage, grazing blows in combat, and magical languages and skills. 4e-friendly updates of old experiments like ESCARGO and FEND. Guest-contributed "MERC" guidelines for better GMing. Geeky forays into pricing skill breadth and building sports throwing skills in GURPS. And an e23 product: the GURPS Range Ruler.

An active year – so active, it's summarized in its own article at http://www.gamesdiner.com/2009/12/games-diner-posts-in-2009 , as well as in a big list at http://www.gamesdiner.com/posts_2009 .

=== 2010 ===

Not so active this year; see a list at http://www.gamesdiner.com/posts_2010 , or just see the front page of the site. But in addition to a quick and fun idea for making distance count for more in GURPS melee, there's the recent 2010 addition I wanted to plug:

== GLAIVE Mini for GURPS ===

http://www.gamesdiner.com/glaive_mini

The idea was simply to separate the super-quick'n'cheap version of my GLAIVE weapon builder system ( http://www.gamesdiner.com/glaive ) from the more detailed version that followed. But taking a closer look at the extracted simple version, I saw real promise in that scrappy kid. Thus, GLAIVE Mini: still cheap and quick, but surprisingly effective at generating existing Basic Set weapons – and any other melee weapon you can think of. All on one PDF page, with some great extras on a bonus page (including an option for *semi*balanced weapons like heavy chopping swords or light polearms).

It's fun stuff and it's genuinely easy to use. I don't know whether or how the upcoming GURPS Low-Tech might address similar topics, but for now, GURPS Mini is a fine little blacksmith shop for equipping your characters with quicker polearms, crazy-big axes, hard-chopping machetes, and other tools of mayhem not on the equipment tables. It's a free download at http://www.gamesdiner.com/glaive_mini .

=== Onward ===

That's it for now. Drop on by the site, check out GLAIVE Mini, dig into any of the other above items you may have missed, and leave a thought or eleven.  

Thanks for reading!

T Bone
tbone@gamesdiner.com
Visit the plugging-along T Bone's Games Diner!
http://www.gamesdiner.com