The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.
My style of GMing
tends to be rules heavy in a "friendly" way. I like
having rules for all occasions, but I don't feel that they should
get in the way of gaming. GURPS is quite easy to tack rules onto
without slowing down the natural smoothness of the games system.
As a GM I like to have an idea of what the "game
mechanic" version of reality would be for any given
situation. To this end I enjoy charts and tables and modifiers...
but these should be used as a guideline rather than a
straightjacket, by having a knowledge of the charts and tables
you can use them discreetly. Game mechanics work best when they
are unnoticed, this does not mean invisible, just that the
"game" itself does not obscure what the game is
representing.
Even though I ran
GURPS exclusively for many years, I don't worry too much about the point value
of things, or of starting characters. To this end I usually let
the players roll their characters Stats randomly. If possible and
desired I also let them generate a character background using
Task Force games "Central Casting" books. Any advantages, disadvantages or characteristic increases are
allowed without worry about point costs. After creation however,
I am strict about things. However I do allow experience rolls
during the game, which I will explain below.
If you like rules, dig in, hopefully you will find something you can use. If you dislike rules because they interfere with the game, you should probably run away screaming now.
I have only recently (2/06) got back into GURPS, so updating all my junk to 4th edition will take a while.
4th Edition goodies!
My 4th Edition GURPS Initiative rules
using playing cards are on a separate page...here
Or download a PDF copy of them: Initiative
Below are all 3rd Edition things...
As are my hunting & foraging rules.
Oh yeah...and my disease rules and tables for the presence of disease.
Below are some short rules suggestions for Experience, Language skills and Fatigue.
In addition to grudgingly awarded experience points, characters may attempt to increase their skill levels each time they roll a critical success or failure. Each time this occurs the player may attempt to roll 3D over his skill level, with 17 and 18 being automatic successes. If the roll is successful then the characters skill level immediately is increased by one and the point total is modified to reflect this increase. If the original critical was a failure then a roll of 3 or 4 on the increase check results in the loss of one skill level and a corresponding loss of point value.
When a character rolls a critical for something other than a skill, use the following guidelines.
Perception checks; treat the perception level as a skill level and roll as above, with an increase or decrease in perception bonuses the result.
Rolls against Attributes; each time a critical is rolled against an Attribute (ST, DX, IQ ,HT, and possibly Will and Perception) and you succeed in rolling 3D over the current level, then you receive 1D experience points towards raising that Statistic.
Psionics; When a critical is rolled with a psionic power, the player can choose to increase either the skill or the power level, but he must choose before he rolls for an increase, and must then roll higher than the applicable level.
Like many GURPS players (judging from comments on the bulletin boards of The Pyramid) I have always disliked the standard language system. My main gripe is that the skill level descriptions of different language skill levels are pointless because a 1/2 point will usually make anyone but an Australopithecine fluent in whatever language they wanted. You can never have a character who only understands a few words and phrases, so I offer the following which works pretty well. I admit it involves the challenging skill of division (multiplication's tricky friend), but if that much "extra" bookkeeping is going to scare you off, you probably aren't going to like any of my house rules.
All language skills are based on IQ/2(down) to which is added bonuses for Language Talent, Linguistics skill/10(down), and Eidetic Memory (+1, first level; +2, second level).
A characters skill with his native tongue is 3/4 IQ (round up), also, a bilingual character can have one language at 3/4 IQ (round to the nearest) and the other at 2/3 IQ (round up). The skill levels for native and bilingual characters are Defaults and even 1/2 EP will raise the level to IQ-1.
All native tongues, both, for bilinguals, are Mental Easy as is any other language a character can speak at a skill level of 9 or better.
In addition to the normal Fatigue that is lost from physical exertion, I have made up a form of Fatigue called Long Term Fatigue (LTF). LTF is used for such things as starvation fatigue, fatigue from lack of sleep, or fatigue from disease. The difference between normal Fatigue and LTF is that LTF is not recovered until the situation that caused it is remedied, you get a meal, you get a full night's sleep or you recover from the disease.
In order to make the loss of Fatigue more of a problem in the early stages (before you are falling down with with only 3 Fatigue remaining), I have implemented the following table. It is pretty self explanatory, simply determine the percentage of Fatigue (or LTF) that has been lost and assess the modifier to any rolls that are made. the GM is the final arbiter on whether or not a particular roll should be modified, but Fatigue should effect just about everything that a character could do, physically or mentally. The effects of Fatigue are as follows...
Fatigue Lost |
Modifier to all rolls for all Skills & Attributes |
< 25% |
- |
25 - 50% |
-1 |
50 - 75% |
-2 |
75% - Unconsciousness |
-4 |
Example; The average character with 10 Fatigue would suffer no penalty for the first 2 Fatigue that he lost, after the 3rd point was lost he would have a -1 modifier, the 6th point would bring a -2 modifier, and 8 or more points would give a -4 modifier...with 10 bringing about nap time.