From February 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023, I posted an entry a day to the @gamesdiner Twitter account, using the hashtags #TRPG, #GURPS, and #DailyHouserule. The concept: Make tweets out of a bunch of minor GURPS houserule items, GM/player advice tidbits, and other tips & tricks, to have a bit of fun engaging with other gamers and get the #GURPS tag out there more. (See the initial announcement here.) The year is up! I’m now posting those tweets to this site, a month per page. Links to all 12 months are below. Do forgive the overly abbreviated and janky writing. These were tweets, so the text is full of…
-
-
Daily Houserule tweets: April 2022
From February 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023, I posted an entry a day to the @gamesdiner Twitter account, using the hashtags #TRPG, #GURPS, and #DailyHouserule. The concept: Make tweets out of a bunch of minor GURPS houserule items, GM/player advice tidbits, and other tips & tricks, to have a bit of fun engaging with other gamers and get the #GURPS tag out there more. (See the initial announcement here.) The year is up! I’m now posting those tweets to this site, a month per page. Links to all 12 months are below. Do forgive the overly abbreviated and janky writing. These were tweets, so the text is full of…
-
Daily Houserule tweets: March 2022
From February 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023, I posted an entry a day to the @gamesdiner Twitter account, using the hashtags #TRPG, #GURPS, and #DailyHouserule. The concept: Make tweets out of a bunch of minor GURPS houserule items, GM/player advice tidbits, and other tips & tricks, to have a bit of fun engaging with other gamers and get the #GURPS tag out there more. (See the initial announcement here.) The year is up! I’m now posting those tweets to this site, a month per page. Links to all 12 months are below. Do forgive the overly abbreviated and janky writing. These were tweets, so the text is full of…
-
Daily Houserule tweets: February 2022
From February 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023, I posted an entry a day to the @gamesdiner Twitter account, using the hashtags #TRPG, #GURPS, and #DailyHouserule. The concept: Make tweets out of a bunch of minor GURPS houserule items, GM/player advice tidbits, and other tips & tricks, to have a bit of fun engaging with other gamers and get the #GURPS tag out there more. (See the initial announcement here.) The year is up! I’m now posting those tweets to this site, a month per page. Links to all 12 months are below. Do forgive the overly abbreviated and janky writing. These were tweets, so the text is full of…
-
A year of daily GURPS tweets: #DailyHouserule (GURPS/DFRPG)
I’ve been assembling a collection of bite-sized house rules, tips, and tricks for GURPS and DFRPG, with the intent of tweeting one a day for a year. I’ve got enough entries now for nearly three-quarters of the year; the rest are falling in line smoothly. When to launch these daily tidbits? January 1 would make all kinds of sense… I realized one day in late January. So I launched on February 1, the Chinese Lunar New Year. That works too. I’ve got over a week of house rules and tips posted now, and it’s going fine, so here’s the blog announcement. Interested? Just follow @gamesdiner on Twitter, or follow my…
-
Game design musing: Simplifying ST-based thrust and swing damage (GURPS)
Here’s a small simplification GURPS could make: Replace the two damage scores (thrust and swing) attached to ST with one damage score. Huh? You mean do away with GURPS’ distinctive difference between a weapon’s swing and thrust damage scores? No, nothing of the sort! That thrust-vs-swing distinction adds fun considerations to the choice and use of weapons. It’s one of my favorite features of the game’s combat system, right up there with defense rolls. Let’s keep it! But I think the game could remove the small complication of two damage scores if it wanted – not from combat, but from character stats. I’ve made mention of this somewhere in the…
-
Game design musing: Swing vs thrust damage: What’s the difference? (GURPS)
Welcome back to Dork Labs (a name you can count on to mean “spreadsheets will follow”). In writing an upcoming post involving strength and damage, I had reason to revisit an old question of mine: in an ideal GURPS, how much should ST-based swing and thrust damage differ? It’s by no means a pressing matter at anyone’s game table, but on the off chance that someone finds this of interest, and continuing this site’s hallowed tradition of yammering incessantly about all things ST for reasons only Yog-Sothoth can divine, here’s what the numbers show. Swing vs thrust, by the numbers The table below is self-explanatory. At left are ST-based thrust…
-
Game design musing: Meeting weapon ST requirements (GURPS/DFRPG)
Hand-held weapons in GURPS and DFRPG have a ST requirement. The rules let Striking ST help meet the requirement. But they should give that honor to Lifting ST instead. You: “Cool! A topic that’s both trivial and boring!” Yep. I seem to be outdoing even myself on that front here. Grognard gamers who recognize this as some long-retired, fiddly rules ephemera will be happiest heading back to the gaming table and playing things however they always have. Newcomers to GURPS/DFRPG (or RPGs), meanwhile, are encouraged to skip this because it’s terribly unimportant. (Just play the rules as they’re written, and revisit this page some day after you, too, have become…
-
GURPS resource: New techniques
Getting technique-al The skill sub-sets called techniques are a fun part of GURPS. This page will list new techniques of my own invention – initially just a placeholder page with a handful of techniques, but I’ll be adding more as I scrounge ’em up from past notes and character sheets and what not. I’m labeling this a resource for GURPS, not DFRPG, as the latter doesn’t formally use techniques. But if you’re fluent in GURPS, you can drop these into a DFRPG game with no trouble. The list Eye on the Ball (Hard) Default: Shield -2 or other prerequisite skill -4Prerequisite: Any unarmed combat skill, Melee Weapon skill (except Knife…
-
A modest proposal: Friendlier character trait blocks in GURPS
Players of GURPS know that the RPG has a simple rules set at heart, yet its reputation as complex lingers on. True, the system does have rules bits that delve deep into detail, though those are typically optional bits. The system also covers a vast breadth of topics, which many gamers unfortunately confuse with complexity. And there are perhaps a few spots where the game presents an appearance more daunting than the reality. Here’s a quick look at an example of the latter. It’s a small part of the game that doesn’t involve “complexity”, yet can induce a moment of dizziness even in me at times. I’m talking about long,…
