jesselowe

Update: It's now been released, and the rules are free on the PP website.

Privateer has been releasing videos of staff games on YouTube. I think there are four so far.

It's a bit short notice, but there will be a few tables and a gaggle of players for Saga this afternoon at Guardian back in the bar. Swing by if you're interested in checking the game out or want to play.

I play GURPS and like it quite a bit. At the moment I'm playing in a quick Old West/Kung Fu game, and I'm running an Occult Victorian London game as well. Here's my short take on it. At its heart, GURPS is quite simple: Your character has Attributes and Skills rated from 1 to infinity (but more likely, from 9 to around 20), with average skill at 10 or so. To do something, you roll 3d6 against a particular skill, plus or minus modifiers for equipment, environment, etc. If you roll less than your modified skill, you succeed. Past that, it's got a LOT more depth. How much depth is up to the play group. You can play just about anything with the two core books (Characters and Campaigns), but there are literally hundreds of supplements, covering stuff from Ancient Rome to how to build a magic system to, if you really, really like detail, the Fairbairn Combat System. There are also many, many decisions for the GM to make at the start of the game, from what skills (out of around 300!) to allow to how many points characters should be built on - and that's before you get into the usual setting and story building you find in most RPGs. That's just the cost of using a system that can do anything: you have to trim away the stuff that does what you don't want before you get down to play, or you'll just get bogged down. Which is why, if someone's interested in the system, I recommend picking up something that's already made a bunch of those decisions for you. There are at present three options for this: GURPS Lite is the usual entry point recommended by SJ Games. I think it's not the best, as it came out back when 4th edition came out, but it's free and it does introduce you to the system. Note that it is not particularly "light" - it's a full system, just with a lot of the options and such left out. Grab that and you can run a good modern-day or no-magic historical adventure; say, zombie survival or a bank heist, or a piratical treasure hunt. I'd recommend something along those lines so the setting is familiar and you can focus on the system and how it plays. If you like Discworld, there's the Discworld Roleplaying Game. This takes GURPS and lovingly adapts it to Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It's complete in and of itself, and while you can use other GURPS books with it, there's no need for it. Finally, the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game should be showing up on store shelves fairly soon. (My kickstarter copy should arrive this week!) It's a boxed set in the vein of classic OSR D&D, which is the genre it models. If you like D&D, this is the entry point I'd suggest for GURPS. Or you can just dive in by buying the core set and (I highly recommend) How to Be A GURPS GM. You can also find a lot of information on the SJ Games GURPS Forum. Fair warning: A lot of the posters there have been playing GURPS for a loooong time and love to get into absurd levels of detail, which I find a little off-putting. TL:DR: GURPS is good, but can be complex. Start simple. Anyway, that's my short intro for GURPS. Here's some more random details: Characters are built on a point budget from 25 (average joe) to however big you want; a good range for competent adventurers is from 150 to 250. From this point budget they buy up Attributes (which every character has), Advantages, and Skills. They can get more points by taking on Disadvantages. Skills are based on Attributes - for example, spending 2 points gets you Shortsword at the same level as your Dexterity Attribute, while spending 8 points gets you DX+2. There are also subskills (Techniques or Specialties), and Advantages and Disadvantages can be modified by various enhancements and limiters. Combat can be extremely detailed. It takes place in 1-second turns, which can take some getting used to (for example, firing a bow takes three turns: draw arrow, nock arrow, shoot bow). It's also best played out on a hex map for anything with multiple combatants, though that's not necessary. There is a hit location chart that can be used, so called shots (e.g., to the heart) are baked in, and there are various damage types (crushing, cutting, piercing, etc.). Basically, it can be as complex as you like - or it can be as simple as an opposed combat skill check so you can get on with non-combat stuff. (Also, there's an entire supplement devoted to grappling.) By default, GURPS plays best for larger-than-life but not mythical heroes in a setting that acts in most regards like the real world, with gravity and physics and all that. I probably wouldn't use it to run Nobilis or Sandman, and I'd think real hard before using it for, say, Wraith: the Oblivion. But it's been used to run superheroes and Watership Down, so there's a fair bit of flexibility there. It really shines for modern-day action like Die Hard or the Bourne movies. It's also very much a simulationist system, unlike something like Fate Core which puts story before physics. There are options to make it more story-driven, but they're not the default, and they can feel a bit tacked on. Although SJ Games now makes most of its money via Munchkin and the like, it still supports GURPS and there's still a solid player base. The aforementioned forum is probably the best place to find more information. Almost all GURPS supplements are available as PDFs on Warehouse 23. They're not available on Drivethru or other venues for... uh, reasons. I guess. SJ Games has been in business for a long time, so I assume they know what they're doing even if I'd do it differently... They also tend to be a bit more expensive than PDFs from other companies. Some supplements are available as POD, and a few are conventionally available as hard copies in your FLGS. On the other hand... GURPS books are invariably beautifully edited and indexed. There is a regular PDF magazine for GURPS called Pyramid. It's also available through Warehouse 23. I believe it's monthly.

Portland Game Store is holding a Champions tournament on Sunday September 10. Hit the link for more details. http://forums.cogcollective.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2618

I ask because my work schedule (so to speak) is changing in fall such that I won't be able to make to Guardian (or Ordo) for regular game nights... but Red Castle is only five minutes away for me, so I can still sneak late games in there. It would mean picking up Infinity, but that's not really a burden...

As the topic says, are people still meeting at Red Castle for Infinity on a regular basis?

Won't be able to make it :(

Yes, you can bring them against any other Saga faction.

Have you tried posting to the NHMGS Yahoo or Facebook groups? I think a fair number of members are in the area.

Spotted this a bit late, but I'm a bit interested in Mali faux. I played it some way back when it first came out but dropped it in favor of Warmachine. Now I'm a bit burned out on competitive Warmachine, so... couple of questions: What's the best starting point? How long does an average sized game between average players take? About how large a model collection do you need before you have a deep enough bench for creating crews that aren't one-note (Masters excluded)?

Try Savage Worlds Showdown. Or, for fantasy stuff, Open Combat or Song of Blades and Heroes. For sci fi, there are a lot of options: Gruntz, Rogue Stars, or Horizon Wars, for starters.

I'd be down for a game of Federation Commander. No time or really inclination to relearn SFB.

Starfleet Command I and II back in the late 90s IIRC. Pretty good stuff.

Federation Commander, very rarely. I haven't played SFB since college.

I wouldn't call that army-scale, but man, those are pretty models. I'll think about backing this one...

I'm pretty sure the Silmarillion and other works aren't covered by the movie license.

I think you should. They're your figures. (Probably won't fly for tournaments, but who cares?)

Deliciously wrong.

Little something for the 15mm sci fi crowd: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2027302274/sigma-event-2177-relaunch

You may! Thanks for the pointer.

I figured the Sigma Event 2177 Relaunch kickstarter might interest some folks on here. I'm planning on backing it at some level.

Dropfleet is spaceship battles, drop zone is ground combat.

The Warmachine crowd here is pretty healthy. As mentioned, the usual nights are Mondays at Guardian and Thursdays at Portland Game Store, with a few folks showing up Saturdays at Red Castle or hitting Dice Age. Down in Sherwood, Glimpses of Warfare and Wonder does Tuesday nights, and I believe Haven Gaming in Salem meets every Friday. We usually have a tournament every month or so; the latest ones were a 35-point Mangled Metal at PGS on Sunday and the I-5 Team Championships at the Portland Convention Center on Saturday. Next one, IIRC, is at Portland Game Store on 11/20 - a 50 point Foodmachine event. Events usually get announced on the Cog Collective Forums, but these days most conversation happens through the GroupMe app.

Hobbytown USA on SE 82nd and Johnson Creek (next to Bike Gallery) has a selection of neodymium magnets behind the counter. It's where I usually get mine.