Steel Rain, Steel Pain
Of Paper Men and Plastic Monsters
Wherein the author discusses tabletop role-playing games.
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Gun Stats: M252 81mm Mortar
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Fright Checks: Rule of 19
If final, modified Will exceeds 13, reduce it to 13 for the purpose of the Fright Check.
This means that there's no way to ever not fail a fright check at least 16.2% of the time (unless you have Unfazeable; or 9.25% of the time with Rule of 15/Brave; GURPS Power Ups 2: Perks p. 13, GURPS Monster Hunters 1: Champions p. 25) no matter how many positive modifiers apply.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
How to Bring Your Face to a Sword Fight
Parrying Unarmed Attacks GURPS Basic Set Campaigns p. 376 says:
Parrying Unarmed Attacks: If you successfully parry an unarmed attack (bite, punch, etc.) with a weapon, you may injure your attacker. Immediately roll against your skill with the weapon you used to parry. This roll is at -4 if your attacker used Judo or Karate. If you succeed, your parry struck the attacker’s limb squarely. He gets no defense roll against this! Roll damage normally.
This rule has some problems. It's actually pretty vague about what kind of damage you do ("normal damage", duh) and it can result in some silly outcomes and degenerate tactics.
Friday, March 28, 2025
Disadvantage "Load"
GURPS Characters p. B11 suggests limiting disadvantages by total number of points in order to keep the game from becoming a "circus". This is at best a blunt instrument.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
The Ultra Simplified GURPS Combat System You Probably Don't Know About
Friday, September 6, 2024
Wealth in Glasstown
Friday, August 9, 2024
Wealth and Money in GURPS: Bean-Counting vs Abstraction
The one part of character creation that I like the least, (and the one that I often see players forget they need to do) is buying starting equipment. I know that some people really do enjoy the fantasy shopping minigame, but I have always seen it as a necessary evil. Even after that is done, in play, characters often need to buy (or sell) things. Regardless of how you feel about it, role-playing games need rules for player character economics and GURPS is no exception.