Modular Powers: a new flexible powers/magic system for GURPS

April 22, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

Modular Powers is 20 points for Modular Powers 1, + 10 points/level. This advantage holds points of Alternative Abilities for a main ability bought at its full cost. For example, if you have Flight [40] as your main ability, an Alternative Ability would cost up to 8 points. So, Modular Powers 8 [90] would cover the cost of any Alternative Ability to Flight.

Modular Power Talent is 10 points/level. This is the power Talent for Modular Powers. Modular Power Talent adds to every roll made to use the main ability or any of its Alternative Abilities or to use any of those abilities well.

Modular Powers and Modular Power Talent can both be modified for Limited Scope and the Cosmic Power Modifier, but only Modular Powers can be modified for Power Modifiers other than Cosmic. For Limited Scope, you could use the version of the limitation on Sorcery or I would personally recommend using the version from Ritual Path Specialists from Pyramid #3/66: The Laws of Magic as a basis as it is much more nuanced (though, I would only allow it down to a certain level or you’re just better off buying a non-flexible set of powers). The unmodified scope is enough to cover anything the GM agrees could be used as a power in the setting. For example, an Alternative Ability to Flight in the above example would not be limited to abilities related to Flight. Instead, Flight could be thought of as a defining ability for that character out of a pool of any possible power. (In fact, now that I think about it as I’m typing this, I’d probably allow a +1 to that one ability for free or at least have that as an option for a perk—call it Signature Power.) If the abilities should only relate to Flight, then something like Limited Scope, Only for abilities directly related to flying (-50%) should be applied to Modular Powers and Modular Power Talent.

Furthermore, the main ability can change as part of advancement. As long as you have enough levels of Modular Powers to cover the cost of your old main ability as an Alternative Ability, you can put those points toward the cost of the new main ability. For example, if you have Modular Powers 8 [90] and Flight [40], you can reallocate all 40 points for Flight to your new main ability because you are able to cover its cost as an Alternative Ability. If you do not have enough levels of Modular Powers, you may only reallocate the points that can be covered by your level of Modular Powers, but you may still use the old main ability as an Alternative Ability. For example, if you only had Modular Powers 4 [50], you would only be able to reallocate 20 points of Flight as you can only cover 20 points as an Alternative Ability, but you may continue to use Flight.

Optionally, for simplicity, you could drop the idea of a main ability altogether and add Modular Power Pool at 5 points/level while requiring characters to have the same level of Modular Powers and Modular Power Pool at the same level. The only reason I didn’t bake the cost of Modular Power Pool into the cost of Modular Powers for this option is because Modular Power Pool shouldn’t take any modifiers as it’s really just a nameless main ability.

I would use this system as flexibly as one would use Wildcard Powers from GURPS Supers. For the above example using Flight, I would be willing, as the GM, to guesstimate what feels like a 40-point ability rather than calculate new abilities during the game. This kind of flexibility is the very reason I sought to create a powers/magic system like this one.

And that’s it. It seems simple, but it took me a lot of tinkering to get all the way back around to what amounts to an alternate version of the system from GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery.

Design Notes

GURPS Thaumatology introduced me to the idea of ‘magic as powers’ or ‘powers as magic’, which is a nickname for an advantage-based power system. Since I first discovered this idea, I have always preferred powers and magic as powers to the system laid out in GURPS Magic because it made it easier for me to easily create new spells, which is something I really wanted. As I discovered other flexible narrative-focused RPGs like FATE, I wanted to bring that flexibility to GURPS. As a GM, I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time creating spell after spell, I wanted to be able to say, yeah, that sounds like it’s worth about 50 points and you have the ability to cast 50-point spells, so it works. Well, that brought me to Wildcard Powers in GURPS Supers as well as Using Abilities at Default in GURPS Powers. (It was also heavily inspired by the flavor of GURPS Powers: Divine Favor, which allows a character with Divine Favor to call upon their deity for a prayer/power, but that works in quite a different way.) The idea of Using Abilities at Default and improvisation became a core part of the magic as powers system of GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery, which I really loved. Still, that flexibility still paled in comparison to what I could do in FATE and what Wildcard Powers allowed.

My first thought was to create a flexible magic system that allowed one to use an ability at default based on the power Talent itself. Of course, there was already a thread about that very idea. Feelings were mixed, and it didn’t end up feeling like the solution I wanted.

So, I started thinking about Wildcard Powers again. I realized an inherent issue (from my perspective) of Wildcard Powers (and, by extension, Using Abilities at Default), which was that Flight! [160] would be way less flexible than Control Time! 1 [160]; for example, I could get Flight out Control Time! 1 but not Control Time 1 out of Flight!. So, I started a thread about it, and it came down to the idea of Wildcard Powers not being very realistic for a reason—I mean, Superman was able to fly fast enough to turn back time; so, Flight! [160] should be way more flexible than I am giving it credit for. That’s an extremely fair point. Though, I later realized that the flexibility is probably more related to the power Talent than the ability itself. I’d find it easier to justify a more flexible scope for Flight! [160] if I had the Kryptonian Talent versus just a plain-old Flight Talent.

Well, Christopher Rice has a blog post (Call of the Wild) about assigning different multipliers to Wildcard Skills based on their breadth, so I figured I could do the same to Wildcard Powers. It’s also important to note that the base multiplier for Wildcard Powers is ×4 instead of the base ×3 for Wildcard Skills because Wildcard Powers allow/require one to use the base power while using the improvised power. (I was starting to come up with a very similar system to the one found in this thread.) So, I tried to figure out how to tie the cost/breadth of the power Talent to the multiplier for Wildcard Powers.

But I was already hatching a different idea. A Modular Ability is expensive because it can hold a certain number of flexible points. What if I extended that to include Alternative Abilities? So, if I have Example Spell [10] and Sorcery 2 [30] and paid full-price for both, could I just use my Sorcery 2 to improvise any 10-point spell as a 2-point Alternative Ability? That seemed like it would probably be very broken, but the math lines up with Wildcard Powers. Example Spell [10] plus Sorcery 2 [20] (ignore that I took out Sorcery 0 [10] for now), is 30 points, which is the cost of Example Spell ×3, which is the base multiplier for Wildcards. Of course, Wildcard Powers uses ×4, but, again, that allows/requires the use of the base power with the improvised power. Now, that pesky Sorcery 0 [10] was starting to look like power Talent 0 because the base cost of a Modular Ability reflects the breadth of abilities that it covers, and I had already devised that the breadth of the power Talent should theoretically determine the breadth of Wildcard Powers or Using Abilities at Default. This pretty much lined up with Modular Abilities (Cosmic Slotted Power), which has a base cost of 7 points. To make it equivalent to Sorcery, I modified it by Limited, Advantages Only (-10%), Physical (+100%), and Reduced Time 1 (+20%) turns it into 14.7 points, which rounds up to 15 points, which just so happens to be the cost of Cosmic Talent. Coincidence? Probably I think not! Sticking Magical (-10%) back in there turns it into 14 points, which is still close, but I wanted to leave out a Power Modifier for the base build.

So, I called it Modular Powers and Modular Power Talent.

Modular Powers is 10 + 10/level points just like Sorcery, and I would be more than fine with someone buying Modular Powers 0.

Modular Power Talent is 10 points/level. It can also be modified for Limited Scope, but it is not modified for Power Modifier unless it is the Cosmic Power Modifier (which explains why Cosmic Power Talent is 15 points/level).

I could have gone either way with Limited Scope on the Modular Powers advantage itself. Modular Abilities don’t tend to get a big reduction for Limited Scope, but Sorcery sets a weird precedent. If I didn’t want the Modular Abilities portion to get limited or enhanced (except for by relevant Power Modifiers), I would turn Modular Powers 0 into Modular Power Talent 0 because that zeroth level should be modified as the base cost of Modular Abilities is dependent on scope.

Even if it’s not perfect or RAW or whatever, all new rules start somewhere, and I think the math ended up being quite fair. Really, I just recreated Sorcery with some extra rules and flavor—you can apply the same idea to Sorcery as I did above.

End of March report

June 30, 2020 / Conlang Stuff, Greyfolk Language, GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff, Writing Stuff

Well, COVID-19 is here, and it looks like it’s going to be staying a while. My arm is actually still recovering, but it’s definitely feeling better. As I’ve done more stretching, the symptoms from my infection have also started to go away, which is nice. There’s a new loveseat in the living room, I have a new mechanical keyboard on the way, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a fantastic way to pass the time while trying to shrug off politics- and pandemic-related dread.

Conlang stuff report

I created a way to say hello, reworked the monosyllabic roots, reworked the numerals, and talked about my process for creating disyllabic roots for the greyfolk language I’m working on. Oh, and I took a deeper look at natural semantic metalanguage. That’s about it. Everything is in place, and, when I’m ready, I can start deriving a bunch more words.

RPG stuff report

I figured out some more math for the flexible magic system I was creating for GURPS, which I only briefly touched on in my last end of the month report. More on that to come too. Also, I just about figured out how to finally resolve Conditional Injury with Knowing Your Own Strength (as I have attempted previously). And, when I say that I figured it out, I mean that I asked for someone to help me figure it out. I’ll make a post about that soon too, I hope.

Oh, right, and I posted seven reviews of DFRPG products in a single day.

Writing stuff report

April is the first month of Camp NaNo, and I’ll be revisiting (I already have) the story that I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2019. I finally went to start working on it again the other day, and I actually just happened to notice that Camp NaNo was to start in a couple of days, so I guess I’m doing it.

Quick Review(s) of The Dragons of Rosgarth, Forest’s End, Norðlondr Fólk, and Hand of Asgard from Gaming Ballistic for the DFRPG

March 26, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

The Dragons of Rosgarth, Forest’s End, Norðlondr Fólk, and Hand of Asgard are all part of the Norðlond Sagas (Kickstarter) for the DFRPG, which is coming out right about now. Also, I should specify that Hand of Asgard is an extra, but, of course, I had to pick it up. I’m reviewing these books at the same time because they were all part of the same Kickstarter, so it seems fitting to me. First of all, let me just go ahead and say that Douglas Cole has done it again. These are all fantastic products, the art and the maps are as great as ever, and I am super happy to have backed them, and I anticipate that I’d back anything he created for the DFRPG, which is good because he’s working on a bestiary next.

The Dragons of Rosgarth is another great micro-setting and adventure that’s part of the larger Norðlond setting that I love so much. More worldbuilding, more festivals, more information about climate and weather—that’s the stuff I live for. Then, there are detailed factions, which are unique and well-written. But I’m still happiest about all of the dinosaurs in the bestiary. A great book, a neat adventure in a wonderful setting, and I can’t wait to run it.

Forest’s End is another-another great micro-setting and adventure. Of course, I love all of the history, the information about population, a very detailed underworld, and even some stuff about taxes. Yes, Douglas Cole makes taxes fun and interesting. You can quote me on that. There’s a wealth of information on resources, points of interest, services (like magical healing), and festivals and holidays. And it doesn’t stop there. It fleshes out more of how the setting approaches dragons and druids and faerie, all of which are ever so prevalent in Norðlond. A big chunk of the bestiary goes to dragonkin, which is also fun.

Of course, it tickles me that The Dragons of Rosgarth has a lot of dinosaurs while Forest’s End has a lot of dragonkin. No problem with that—it’s just funny.

Norðlondr Fólk is my kind of book. It’s a short supplement that details the races of the Norðlond setting, and a lot of the pages are spent on fitting in the base races in the DFRPG while also providing some welcome norse-themed versions of those races. Sick of how all fantasy dwarves have big bushy beards? Then take a look at the dvergr for hairless dwarves that resemble stone. Of course, I also have a special place for the hrafnar (raven-folk) because they remind me of the kenku in D&D, which is the race that my youngest sister chose when I forced my younger sisters to play D&D with me way back when.

Hand of Asgard is even more my kind of book because it’s a short supplement that deals with the faith, religion, and surrounding culture of the Norðlond setting while providing some really cool abilities for clerics and holy warriors. My review is short, but this book is absolutely packed with great stuff. Plus, you get stats for valkyries at the end.

Many thanks to Douglas Cole (The Dragons of Rosgarth), Kevin Smyth (Norðlondr Fólk and Hand of Asgard), Merlin Avery (Forest’s End), and Kyle Norton (The Dragons of Rosgarth) for bringing these truly incredible books to life.

Other Quick Reviews:

Quick Review of Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2 from Steve Jackson Games for the DFRPG

March 26, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

The Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2 (Kickstarter) for the DFRPG was released not too long ago this year, so I’m finally catching up. It was a ‘Quickstarter’ with no stretch goals, so the turnaround was really quick for this book. I like stretch goals, but it made sense for them to be absent from this book because this book was made up of stretch goals past that were never met. That’s neat in itself. I’d love to see this trend continue; i.e., book with stretch goals, book with stretch goals, book with no stretch goals that includes stuff from previous stretch goals that were missed. I don’t know if it’s because of that or if it’s just coincidence, but this book is my favorite DFRPG supplement that isn’t written by Douglas Cole. It has some magical items (with ways to introduce them), a handful of new monsters (with adventure seeds), and some enemy PCs. That’s great on its own, but it also includes so many new rule tidbits. In the magical items section, there’s stuff like wood as a new armor material (under the Oudou). In the monsters section, there’s stuff like a playable centaur race for PCs (under the Centaur, obviously). But the villains section? That’s where this shines. Each villain is awesome in their own right and comes with an adventure seed, but every single villain comes with a rules tidbit from new racial templates to new abilities for professions to new spells to use. If that isn’t great design, I don’t know what is. Plus, what better way to introduce new abilities and new spells than to have a villain use them first? So, yes, get this book. And, if you haven’t already gotten into the DFRPG, do yourself a favor and get on that right now.

Other Quick Reviews:

Quick Review of Dungeon Fantasy Magic Items 2 from Steve Jackson Games for the DFRPG

March 26, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

Dungeon Fantasy Magic Items 2 (Kickstarter) for the DFRPG came out at the end of 2019, so I’m not too far behind on this review. This review will likely be the shortest because I don’t usually deal my players a lot of magic items like these, but these are really cool and I love anything DFRPG, which is exactly why I backed the Kickstarter campaign. Really, though, the items in the book are really cool and quite memorable, and each item has a paragraph or so about how to introduce the item to the game—e.g., for the Darkrazor, which is a magical straight razor, the book explains that it’s likely to be wielded by an enemy in town than actually found as loot. Neat! Of course, it says much more than that, but that’s just a short example of the greatness within this book. Plus, as always, you can come for the items and stay for the extra little bits of rules. For example, for the Skull of the Cyclops, there’s a box that introduces a rule for a new armor material: bone. I love this kind of stuff, and this is an area where GURPS (and, thus, the DFRPG) really excels. If you want something really fun (and that’s saying something since I’m not a big fan of the standard magic system), check out the new (to DFRPG) spell named Evisceration that gets a box under the Wand of Tentacular Intrustion. Need I say more? It’s a great supplement to a great game!

Other Quick Reviews:

Quick Review of Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2 from Steve Jackson Games for the DFRPG

March 26, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2 (Kickstarter) for the DFRPG came out in 2019, which makes me a little late to the party, but the… party better not be late… if they want to defeat this monsters? That wasn’t really that good. But this book is! Take the original Dungeon Fantasy Monsters book, add more classics and more original monsters, include more and better art, and then give adventure seeds to every monster. What do you get? A huge success. That’s what this book is. Yes, the deep beyonder is basically an aboleth and the forgeling is basically an azer, and I absolutely love that. I love the twists and interpretations of classic monsters (be it actually like like a chimera or ‘D&D classic’ like the aboleth), and I love the manaplasm and the fly-dragon. What’s not to love? Every monster in here is usable, and, again, the book just hands you adventure seeds (and I believe there are always multiple per monster) to help you fit them in. Okay, I’m in love with the adventure seeds. As I am the forever GM of my group, the adventure seeds are where it’s at, especially because I like to do a monster-of-the-week kind of deal, so the adventure seeds are crucial in saving me prep time. Or, if we just want to keep going, it’s easy to plop down any one of these monsters.

Other Quick Reviews:

Quick Review of The Citadel at Norðvorn from Gaming Ballistic for the DFRPG

June 1, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

The Citadel at Norðvorn (Kickstarter) for the DFRPG came out last year in 2019, so I’m a little late to reviewing that as well. It is a lot like Hall of Judgement with more experience and content behind it, and I really couldn’t have asked for more. My favorite parts were (as they always are) the worldbuilding and the information about said world. Furthermore, it gives examples of villages and gives the GM the tools they need to create more villages. I love a good bestiary. Learning more about history and geography and holidays is a GURPS specialty, and I’m glad to see it represented here. And that’s not to say that Hall of Judgement was barebones—it certainly wasn’t! But The Citadel at Norðvorn does it all and then some. With more polish too! I’m talking in circles a bit, though, but it really deserves the praise. Oh, and the bestiary—that’s another favorite. As it always is. It’s great-sized book of great work (and great art!) that fleshes out what is now one of my favorite RPG settings of all time, so, yeah, it comes heavily recommended.

Other Quick Reviews:

Quick Review of Hall of Judgement from Gaming Ballistic for the DFRPG

March 26, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

The Hall of Judgement (Kickstarter) for the DFRPG came out back in 2018, but that isn’t going to stop me from reviewing it now. 120 pages of a norse-themed setting and adventure for the dungeon fantasy sibling of my favorite table-top RPG ever? Yeah, I’m interested (and I was very happy to learn that it was only the tip of the norse-themed iceberg). The Warehouse 23 page describes the book in more detail than I would be willing to do in a ‘quick review’, so read it:

Hall of Judgment is set in the barbarian lands of the north (predictably called Norðlönd). It is designed to evoke the feeling of a nordic/viking culture without specifically invoking Norse myth and legend.

  • This product is a micro-setting and scenario for the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS)
  • It features non-linear adventuring for 4-6 250-point characters
  • Explore a Viking-flavored world trekking through cold, harsh mountains, facing dangerous faerie, and searching for a lost holy place, and the priceless relics within
  • Easily portable and usable with any GURPS Fantasy campaign

What’s in the book?

The book contains:

Preface. Contains a brief discussion of the original volume and how it came to be converted to the Dungeon Fantasy RPG.

Isfjall. The town is described in enough detail to serve as a base for further adventures.

The Journey. This section is broken out and expanded from the original volume. Random encounter tables, weather hazards, and other difficulties that arise when nature itself rises against you.

Lögheimili Ruins. A dangerous place. Full of evil it is. In you must go. A micro-dungeon! You don’t have to go in. Or come out.

Domstollinn. The core scenario. It is presented as a set of encounters that can be tackled (or not) in any order. An encounter includes a set of Challenges, telling the GM what must be overcome, Concealed information the players don’t know initially, Alternative ways to short-circuit, bypass, or otherwise not just Leroy Jenkins one’s way through a challenge, and Rewards, where appropriate.

Bestiary. Each monster that may be encountered in the scenario is given a description, statistics (including brief stats used with the Fantastic Grappling Quick-Start), and combat tactics to make each one unique. Over 30 creatures, nearly all of them new.

Fantastic Grappling Quick-Start. Even if you don’t have the book, you can still use the rules. Two pages of grappling the way it should be: fast, fun, and well-integrated with the Dungeon Fantasy RPG mechanics, using the control damage type first introduced in GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling, but refined and simplified after years of play in multiple systems.

Pre-Gen Characters. Sixteen 250-point characters will be provided to allow the scenario to be played with minimal preparation; this adds to the excellent pre-gens already provided in the Dungeon Fantasy RPG boxed set.

All together, this is a complete adventure that can be run on its own or dropped into an existing campaign.

And that says nothing of the production quality of the book itself and the art within (especially the maps), which is great because I was a bit let down by some of the art in the DFRPG itself. It’s a great book, and it really whet my appetite for the books that would come next. Really, though—at this point, supporting Douglas Cole is like supporting the DFRPG and GURPS themselves. Even if his content wasn’t absolutely amazing (which it is!), I’d probably still be supporting him and his work. At least, this way, I am doubly happy about it!

Other Quick Reviews:

Quick Review of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS), the GM Screen, and the Dungeon Fantasy Companion from Steve Jackson Games

March 26, 2020 / GURPS Stuff, RPG Stuff

This has been a long time coming. The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Kickstarter) came out way back in 2017, which is already crazy for me to think about. I think I would best describe is as the younger sibling of GURPS that is really into fantasy, which meant it was perfect for me.

5 books, 2 large double-sided maps, cardboard figures, and 6-sided dice.
Suggested Retail Price $79.95 ▲ Stock number 01-1005
UPC 091037863317
Available Now – click here to order!

430 pages. PDF. ▲ Price $40.00 ▲ Stock number 31-1005
Always Available – Click here to buy!

Just look at that. 5 books, 2 large double-sided maps, cardboard figures, and 6-sided dice. That’s 430 pages of an offshoot of my favorite tabletop RPG. I really don’t need much more in my life. It helps that the books, the maps, the figures, the dice, and even the box that it all came in are of really nice quality. I enjoy displaying them on my shelf. In fact, the DFRPG has its own section. That says very little of the content, though. I want to keep this review quick, but I will go through each piece of the box set. And then some…

Adventurers is about 123 pages, and it’s all about the characters. Chapter one (Basics) covers the basics of the point-buy system (so you’re buying traits with points instead of picking from a few cool options), the attributes (Strength/ST, Dexterity/DX, Intelligence/IQ, and Health/HT), the secondary characteristics (HP, Size Modifier, etc.). Chapter two (Professions) covers the professions, which are like classes in D&D, and many of those professions have their counterparts in that other game. Unlike D&D, because this is a point-buy system, there is a lot more flexibility, and you can spend your 250 points however you’d like on the traits available for your profession. Chapter three (Races) covers the races, which are fairly standard as far as fantasy races go. Chapter four (Advantages) covers traits that cost points, which is anything from Ambidexterity for 5 points to High Pain Threshold for 10 points to Unfazeable for 15 points. Chapter five (Disadvantages) covers the traits that give back points, which is anything from Callous for -5 points to Oblivious for -10 points to Very Unfit for -15 points. Chapter six (Skills) covers the skills that characters can use, and almost all characters can use almost all skills since they have default levels. There are dozens of skills, but the DFRPG makes choosing easy by offering packages of skills in the profession templates. Chapter seven (Cash and Gear) covers, well, cash and gear. I’ve been a bit redundant. Anyway, this is my favorite part, especially because there is so much great equipment to choose from, and the weapon and armor tables have been updated quite a bit from the original tables in the GURPS Basic Set (thanks to GURPS Low-Tech).

Exploits is about 107 pages, and it’s all about playing the game. It covers skill rolls, combat, poison, fire, treasure, character advancement, you name it! Being powered by GURPS, the rules lean toward being fairly simulationist, which means there can be a lot of them. But my emphasis in on can. GURPS has received much flak for being so rules-heavy, but you are free to take what you like and leave the rest, and the DFRPG even supports that right away! Take a look at page 6:

“. . . With Spikes”

A quick-and-fun way to assess penalties is to apply a cumulative TDM of -1 per nasty qualifier that describes a task. For instance, whatever the normal modifier is for climbing or balancing on something, making the surface slimy, twisting, and smoke-obscured adds another -3. Intensifiers count! If the surface is horribly slimy, wildly twisting, and smoke-obscured, that’s -5 instead.

Furthermore, if hit locations and distance penalties are too much to remember, you can start without them. If the slam rules are too much to remember, get over it because they have been streamlined from the original rules in GURPS. If using a hex map is too much, use theater of the mind—most of my GURPS/DFRPG experience has been with theater of the mind.

Spells is about 79 pages, and it’s all about using magic. It uses the standard GURPS Magic system, which I’m not the biggest fan of, but it gets the job done, and I still much prefer it to how D&D handles magic. There are spells for almost everything—dozens and dozens and dozen of them.

Monsters is about 63 pages, and it’s all about that sweet bestiary. There are plenty of classics (or takes on classics), but there are plenty of new monsters that make it a fun read for that alone. There aren’t as many illustration as I would like, and even the illustrations leave a bit to be desired, but, on the flip side, those 63 pages are packed with monsters.

I Smell a Rat is about 24 pages, and it’s all about those first dungeon feelings. I don’t want to spoil the adventure, but it is quite fun. It’s short and sweet, and it’s easy to drop into just about any fantasy setting. With the quality map and cardboard figures, it’s really fun to set up and play.

Oh, and the Eye in Pyramid Dice are also great. I have a bunch of sets at this point.

Also, something that I love about the first couple of pages from Adventurers, Exploits, Spells, and Monsters is that they make up a little GM Screen. Of course, I went in for the physical GM screen on Kickstarter, which is not part of the boxed set, but it is unquestionably helpful.

Last but not least, there’s the Dungeon Fantasy Companion, which is Traps, Magic Items, and Against the Rat-Men. Traps is about 24 pages, and it’s all about traps and puzzles with plenty of fantastic examples. Magic Items is about 24 pages, and it’s all about magical items, potions, and unique rare and very magical artifacts. Against the Rat-Men is also about 24 pages, and it’s another fun dungeon about—just kidding, no spoilers.

I backed at the $250 tier because I wanted it all (which is much more than is just listed here), and I must say that it’s probably the best $250 I’ve ever spent. To be very honest, my boxed set has not gotten a lot of use, but that is only because I run a lot of GURPS homebrew stuff. If I weren’t, however, I would probably stick to the DFRPG (with some homebrew rules that I can’t live without), and I would certainly choose the DFRPG over D&D any day of the week (not to say that D&D isn’t a fun game, but I can’t go back at this point). Still, even then, even though I don’t get much use out of it, I don’t care. I really don’t. Let me be blunt and real. For the hours and hours and hours and hours I’ve gotten out of GURPS, I would’ve gladly paid $250 to let all of those great books collect dust, knowing that I had spent good money in a good place. Because I love GURPS and I love the DFRPG so very much. They are great products made by some really great people. And I plan to play some more DFRPG, especially because there is a great setting for it that I am dying to play to its fullest: Norðlond. And I plan to get into that a whole lot after my GURPS hiatus.

Other Quick Reviews:

It’s a life update! 3

March 30, 2020 / Other Stuff, Uncategorized

It’s been almost a year since my last life update.

Believe it or not, I did beat Bioshock Infinite. I have to say that it was a pretty good game, and I’m usually not that interested in shooters.

I also beat Gris. It was a short and sweet game just as I had expected.

Pillars of Eternity was also an interesting experience. I love RPGs, but it was actually my first real foray into real-time with pause combat. I can’t say that I enjoyed that part of it too much, but everything else was really great—well, except for all of the loading screens. The story and the world were very interesting, and it provided me with a lot of creative fuel.

SteamWorld Dig 2 and SteamWorld Heist were awesome, of course. After beating SteamWorld Dig, I expected nothing less. I really enjoyed the turn-based shooting combat in SteamWorld Heist, and the music by Steam Powered Giraffe was absolutely amazing. I still listen to it. Plus, the Western vibes sparked ideas that led to my NaNoWriMo 2019 Project.

I’ve been playing a bunch of Deep Rock Galactic. I think that game has made it into my list of all-time favorites—it’s become my most played game on Steam! Rock and stone, brother!

At the behest of my BFF, I also watched Fringe. All of it. Unfortunately. No, not unfortunately, but the show started to drag and became very predictable in the later seasons, and that’s ignoring the plot holes. We watched a lot of it at ×1.5 speed. It was a fun sci-fi show, but it wasn’t anything close to as revolutionary as watching Battlestar Galactica.

Now, I’m re-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars with my partner (as she’s never seen it before) so we can watch the latest season. We recently watched all of the Star Wars movies so she could finally experience them all for the first time, and she’s quite impressed that an animated series was actually able to make Anakin into a good character. Obviously, I agree.

I’ve been working on my coffee game. Using an Aeropress is nice, and I’ve recently ditched ‘good’ coffee for Café Bustelo. I’m trying to master café cubano and la espuma.

Looking back at my original life update, I didn’t end up giving a shit about Pokémon Sword and Shield. I was and still am salty about the lackluster games, and I ended up turning to ROM hacks and Temtem to fill that void (though, I haven’t actually bought Temtem yet). Super Mario Maker 2 and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled ended up falling by the wayside for me. The next Animal Crossing game is finally coming out soon, and I will definitely be snatching that right away! Baldur’s Gate 3 took the spot of Divinity: Fallen Heroes, but I’m quite happy about that. Oh, and I played some Halo: Reach, but it got boring faster than I thought it would.

Now, I did finally get around to finishing Part 7 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It was probably my least favorite part so far.

I’ve started going to therapy again, which is always nice.

I’m still struggling with the symptoms from my infection, but they have calmed down a bit. I recently had a follow-up appointment with my doctor, and he said to monitor my symptoms a bit more closely so I could see how much they were going away. My swelling is pretty much gone, but the pain still comes and goes. Still, the doctor felt confident that the pain would resolve too; however, if it doesn’t, I could be looking at microsurgery for a nerve. Yuck.

Now, when I first wrote out the draft for this post (which was about two weeks ago), I hadn’t gone to the clinic, which also means that the big COVID-19 panic hadn’t started yet. Ohio has been on the forefront of reacting to the situation in the United States, and I am easily overwhelmed and it is quite easy for me to feel hopeless, so it has been a tough time. Luckily, just hours before things started shutting down, I was wise enough to grab about twenty boxes of (protein-packed) pasta, so things should be good here for a while. No, I did not go out and get a dozen packs of toilet paper and a dozen bottles of hand sanitizer. Preparedness is obviously important, but the people who are panic-buying just to panic-buy should slow down. At this point, OSU has online-only classes for the rest of the semester, public libraries have closed, bars have closed, and restaurants are doing pickup and delivery only. Things are changing too quickly, though, so I won’t say much else.

I did go out and vote early a few days ago just in case. Of course, I voted for Bernie Sanders, and I opted for a paper ballot. I’m doing my part, I guess.

Oh, and on an even brighter note, my life-long best friend visited me for a few days. We both really needed it, though we unfortunately didn’t get to do a lot of what we wanted to do because of how fast the COVID-19 panic was ramping up. We did start playing Doom, though. When I drove him all the way home to drop him off, I visited my family as well. It was nice to see them, bitch about politics, eat good food, and getting good feels by petting three cats and a dog.