31
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How are GURPS rules interpreted?
I started a thread on the official SJ Games GURPS forum about this question, and present here my collation of the responses:
Rule Zero
The game assumes that there is a GM, and that their rulings ...
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16
votes
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What does the "+1" in some weapons' shots mean?
It means you can have an additional round in the gun's chamber, in addition to a full magazine. If this is explained in the Basic Set I can't find it, but it is on p. 79 of GURPS High-Tech:
Shots: ...
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15
votes
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Does GURPS have a slow effect, if no how to model it?
Based on the clarifying description, you probably want to Afflict them with Decreased Time Rate (a disadvantageous form of Altered Time Rate), which makes targets which failed their resistance rolls ...
13
votes
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How to represent a 'high intelligence' thing with no will (e.g. a very smart dishwasher)?
You want the AI and Automaton meta-traits, both from p. 263 of the Basic Set, to represent its mind. That gives it Reprogrammable, No Sense of Humour and Slave Mentality. If you reduce its IQ to zero, ...
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11
votes
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How to stat a character with truesight that is blind outside a certain radius?
There is a power from the Supers sourcebook that might do what you want.
Radar Sense 50pt +1 per hex of range
You have a complete radar image of everything around you. You can perceive shapes ...
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11
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How to shoot with skill greater than 9 when using a move and attack maneuver
You're reading the rule for melee attacks. The rule for ranged attacks is the sentence before that and is much less absolute (B365):
If you are making a ranged attack, you have a penalty of −...
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10
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How does melee combat work between fighters with different weapon ranges?
My answer will focus on 4e, since it's the current edition, and since it has a higher support in terms of FAQs and general clarifications, because it's somewhat more streamlined/cleaned up, and ...
9
votes
Accepted
Is there a guideline for deciding how many points a GM should award players?
The Basic Set: Campaigns book, on page 498, describes "Awarding Bonus Character Points." I think this covers exactly what you're looking for.
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9
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Does GURPS tactical combat work well with miniatures but without a hex grid?
It can be done...
But one caveat, young student! When you tread that road, you turn your beloved RPG in several aspects into a tabletop wargame — if you want to retain most of the rules aspects.
...
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9
votes
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Using the slide recoil of a semi-auto pistol as a weapon
Well, you can try it, but it's unlikely to be a good move. Since it's too cinematic to be in GURPS Gun-Fu, stacking on all the plausible penalties seems like the way to work out the odds. You'll want ...
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9
votes
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GURPS supplement for Poul Anderson's "High Crusade"?
I'm pretty sure that there was never an official GURPS supplement for it. Steve Jackson Games' web page listing everything they've ever published has no obvious mention of it.
There is a GURPS ...
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8
votes
How exactly does GURPS Traveller setting material differ from OTU?
As Jeff Zeitlin mentions in a comment on Ghotir's answer, GURPS does not differ from the OTU beyond the "alternate timeline" issue.
In fact, since Loren Wiseman ran that line, GURPS material is ...
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8
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How exactly does GURPS Traveller setting material differ from OTU?
The TravellerRPG website has a nice summary of the various versions of Traveller. The short version is that GURPS Traveller:
Set in 1116-1124 Imperial, in an alternate timeline which differs ...
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8
votes
Learning GURPS with Discworld RPG?
The new edition of the Discworld RPG has a built in, somewhat cut-down version of the GURPS 4e rules. It leaves out rules and concepts intended for high technology, psionics, and superheroes, and it ...
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8
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Using the slide recoil of a semi-auto pistol as a weapon
I've shot semi-auto pistols for many years, and currently own four -- a tiny .25 ACP, compact .380 and 9mm Makarov "pocket pistols", and a large frame EAA Witness capable of shooting .45 ACP, .38 ...
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8
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What metric could be used to convert a mental stat between 3.5 D&D and GURPS?
There is a detailed D&D conversion page in the GURPS wiki, and it suggests simply using the INT score as the GURPS IQ score.
This agrees with the original sense in which the INT stat was conceived ...
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7
votes
Will there ever be GURPS PDF series as compiled books?
This has happened for the Dungeon Fantasy line. It was published in revised form as a boxed set, the "Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game", in October 2017. As of December 2018, there will be a ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Is a cookbook “equipment” for the Cooking skill?
Depending on era and location, some modifiers that could come into play would include:
equipment availability and quality of that equipment (for example, a fully stocked, professional-grade kitchen ...
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7
votes
How many character points would a skill to fully manipulate an element cost?
You seem to be looking for very freeform control of an element. That is not normally achieved through the basic magic system (single-skill-per-spell magic, also sometimes known by the tautological ...
7
votes
Accepted
Are there any guidelines on player point rewards for games with a single player?
The GM can give as many or as few as they like, minimum zero.
The guidelines are in the Basic Set (Campaigns book) on pages 498-499. Above all, the GM is encouraged to figure out for him/herself how ...
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7
votes
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GURPS Trinket Magic History
Well, it has a precedent in Advanced Wizard (published 1980), the second magic system book for The Fantasy Trip (TFT), the RPG designed by Steve Jackson before GURPS.
There, as in GURPS and the 2018 ...
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6
votes
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How point cost of Unhealing disadvantage on only part of the body?
GURPS Ultra-Tech p. 207 covers how to build cybernetic body parts. The short version is that you take the appropriate disadvantage (One Arm in this case) and then apply a Mitigator (B112) based on ...
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6
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How point cost of Unhealing disadvantage on only part of the body?
The simplest way seems to be to base it on the rules for Damage Resistance with Partial coverage (pp B46-47). Damage Resistance on a single arm is bought at -40%.
However, we're limiting a ...
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6
votes
Accepted
What skill to use when wielding a two handed weapon in one hand?
If you're using an axe that usually requires two hands with one hand, you use the (one-handed) Axe skill (which defaults to Two-Handed Ax/Mace -3).
Same for Two-Handed Swords used one-handed (use one-...
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6
votes
Accepted
Are there GURPS Illuminati side books?
You seem to be looking for Conspiracy books. Would you like some help?
Madness Dossier
Sumerian gods used to be the slavers of humanity, but that happened in a parallel history a long time ago. Now, ...
6
votes
How does melee combat work between fighters with different weapon ranges?
The Advanced Combat System makes combat not just a question of distance between two fighters, but a whole situation of where everyone is, which direction they are facing, where walls, fallen bodies, ...
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6
votes
Is there any canon support for Sympathy and Contagion in Greyhawk?
The iconic example, Fireball, supports elements of Sympathy.
Since as far back as at least first edition AD&D, Fireballs have relied on a pinch of bat guano, which is about 40% nitrogen and 6% ...
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6
votes
Is there any canon support for Sympathy and Contagion in Greyhawk?
Examples of contagion and sympathetic magic exist throughout the the material components of AD&D 1e spells:
Mending: requires two lodestones that attract one another. Two objects "sticking&...
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5
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Does GURPS tactical combat work well with miniatures but without a hex grid?
In my last GURPS group we used pencils, a lot of erasers and plain paper on which we drew the action and measured the distances with a ruler, it works really well!
We represented actors (Monsters, ...
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5
votes
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What are the significant changes between GURPS Lensman 1st and 2nd editions?
Here is a thread on the SJ Games forums, discussing the exact same question. The only substantive answer is from Fred Brackin, who has been involved with GURPS playtesting for about as long as it has ...
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