Gurps Babylon 5

On Jan 22, 4:55 am, Jefferson <Jeff_Wilso... RemoveThis @bigfoot.com> wrote:
> Max Wilson wrote:
> > Let me try one more time: GURPS Martial Arts (4E) is a truly excellent
> > book in my opinion. The new combat options, etc., are presented not as
> > new advantages or even new skills, but mostly as new techniques for an
> > existing skill. "Okay, you know how to use a broadsword. One thing you
> > can do with a broadsword is Counterattack, which means [rules here].
> > It defaults to broadsword -5, meaning that it's part of learning the
> > broadsword, but you can specialize in it to buy it up." Now you can
> > hit someone with your sword with a reduced chance of having them
> > parry. An alternate way of modeling this would be to have someone buy
> > an Innate Attack advantage with a Mitigator [requires a sword] and [ST-
> > based] and [melee attack; hard to parry] and [accessibility: only
> > against someone who just attacked you], etc. You _could_ do it that
> > way, and use Wild Talent (Wild Ability) to introduce Counterattack
> > into the campaign initially, but it just doesn't appeal to me at all
> > mechanically. It implies all the wrong things about what Counterattack
> > *is*: a specific way of using a broadsword.
>
> So what's the issue with developing techniques to use to use with
> specific advantages?  While techniques are designed to be used
> with skills there's absolutely no reason you can't use them to
> buy off roll penalties for advantages.

There is no issue, and in fact that's exactly my plan if I ever get
around to modeling psi abilities. The out-of-the-box psi system takes
a different approach, and that's why I'm not planning to use it. I do
think it would be kind of neat to have exactly five psi advantages
(based on Julian May's work, probably: farsensing, coercion,
creativity, redaction, and PK) and a well-defined set of skills and
techniques that build off of those advantages.

Look, just because I don't LIKE the 4E psi system doesn't make it BAD.
GURPS is perfectly good at letting me bolt on a different system more
to my taste, though.

-Max
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Max Wilson wrote:
> On Jan 22, 4:55 am, Jefferson <Jeff_Wilso....RemoveThis@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>So what's the issue with developing techniques to use to use with
>>specific advantages? While techniques are designed to be used
>>with skills there's absolutely no reason you can't use them to
>>buy off roll penalties for advantages.
>
> There is no issue, and in fact that's exactly my plan if I ever get
> around to modeling psi abilities. The out-of-the-box psi system takes
> a different approach, and that's why I'm not planning to use it. I do
> think it would be kind of neat to have exactly five psi advantages
> (based on Julian May's work, probably: farsensing, coercion,
> creativity, redaction, and PK) and a well-defined set of skills and
> techniques that build off of those advantages.

Ah! What you want is THAUMATOLOGY then. It will give the tools
to set up any paranatural system you want. Unfortunately it's
not on the schedule yet other than "sometime this year."

--
Jefferson
http://www.meanspc.com/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/
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On Jan 23, 5:20 am, Jefferson <Jeff_Wilso....TakeThisOut@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> Ah!  What you want is THAUMATOLOGY then.  It will give the tools
> to set up any paranatural system you want.  Unfortunately it's
> not on the schedule yet other than "sometime this year."

Terrific! I'm always glad when someone saves me some work. I had
seen Thaumatology on the schedule, but I wasn't too sure what was
going to be in it.

-Max
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