On September 21-23, 2018, I am appearing at this year's:
SPA-CON
Hot Springs Convention Center
134 Convention Boulevard
Hot Springs, Arkansas
I will be running a GURPS game at 3pm celebrating the 40th anniversary of Akira Toriyama's career as a manga artist. Sign up here.
I will also be a co-panelist this year on how to GM games at 1pm.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
10:00AM, August 11, 2018, I will be running the Fantasy Trip at:
ARPGCON
Maumelle Event Center
10910 Maumelle Blvd
North Little Rock, AR 72113, USA
Tickets still available.
ARPGCON
Maumelle Event Center
10910 Maumelle Blvd
North Little Rock, AR 72113, USA
Tickets still available.
Monday, August 29, 2016
GURPS: Online in 2016
This is my first post for this blog. I am not now, nor will I ever be in the future, someone that enjoys writing. However, I do see the need for as much material on GURPS to be created and distributed into the aggregate by knowledgeable people as possible. This post, and likely those that follow it, will be concerned with making use of contemporary online technology for GURPS.
First, let's get an obligatory description of what GURPS is so we can better understand why I have made the technological choices that I have. Simply put, GURPS is a role playing system that gives GM's the ability to run a game of their own devising in any setting or genre they want to and eliminates the need to learn the myriad of systems specifically built for one game. Perhaps more importantly, GURPS is a role playing system that lacks the handcuffs that genre specific and less sophisticated systems/games have. Their is an optional, reality based rule, and thus explanation, for virtually everything. The GM is free to cherry pick from all of this optional material to fine tune the exact game that he/she wants to run. The GM runs GURPS, not the books as in most other systems. This freedom translates directly to a wider range of possibilities and choices for the players. If done correctly, players should never have to hear "No" from the GM because of a rule that was put in the game to maintain some sense of balance. Likewise, they should never have to hear "No" from the GM because of a lack of a rule that was omitted for the sake of balance or otherwise. The GM is whatever balance he wants to be in his GURPS game.
I use Roll20 to game with constantly ever since I moved from So Cal to Arkansas. I live in a very rural area with no gamer community to speak of for a good 80 miles. Being forced to look for more efficient ways to game online has lead me to come up with using Google spreadsheets for as many things as I possibly can. They are editable and viewable by anyone with permission in real time. I can show a player something on the spreadsheet while they are watching in another state or country and we can discuss it. This has single handedly made a great deal of other technology and software obsolete. On the right hand side of the screen links are available to all of my spreadsheets that I have made(and continue to edit).
Given that the rules that are made for GURPS are made so that they fit logically rather than to maintain balance, they can be quite cumbersome from the massive amounts of things that one can do with them. Some are so cumbersome that it is far more efficient to make a spreadsheet and let the computer do the work for you. I have made construction sheets for machines(You can make mechas, robots, drones, whatever...), weapons, armor, gadgets, math, cyberware, bioware, etc. After I started working on them, I realized that they don't just greatly speed up the process of making things, but they helped conceptualize and test ideas out as well.
From my experience with playing GURPS in Roll20, I've found that the character sheets that the program provides one with are clumsy and a nuisance. If they were programmed to turn into a tab for the browser, they'd be fine. But as it stands, they just make a window that stays on the screen until you minimize them, which is a pain in the ass. I have 2 monitors, one I have the virtual table top open to and the other has whatever .pdf's I have open. I don't want anymore stuff than that on the screen at once. Therefore, I have come up with some standard macros I employ in my games:
MACROS
Roll20 has some great bells and whistles. It can scour soundcloud for music tracks that the GM can set up as a jukebox. I am currently running a Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions game in GURPS on Roll20 right now and I have managed to piece together the entirety of the soundtrack to the game. I have also done so with Bubblegum Crisis among others. Very handy and very cool!
That's it for this very long winded post. My next will probably not be for a long time. I will probably report my time at SPA CON, I'm running a Chanbara game in GURPS!
-Tony
First, let's get an obligatory description of what GURPS is so we can better understand why I have made the technological choices that I have. Simply put, GURPS is a role playing system that gives GM's the ability to run a game of their own devising in any setting or genre they want to and eliminates the need to learn the myriad of systems specifically built for one game. Perhaps more importantly, GURPS is a role playing system that lacks the handcuffs that genre specific and less sophisticated systems/games have. Their is an optional, reality based rule, and thus explanation, for virtually everything. The GM is free to cherry pick from all of this optional material to fine tune the exact game that he/she wants to run. The GM runs GURPS, not the books as in most other systems. This freedom translates directly to a wider range of possibilities and choices for the players. If done correctly, players should never have to hear "No" from the GM because of a rule that was put in the game to maintain some sense of balance. Likewise, they should never have to hear "No" from the GM because of a lack of a rule that was omitted for the sake of balance or otherwise. The GM is whatever balance he wants to be in his GURPS game.
I use Roll20 to game with constantly ever since I moved from So Cal to Arkansas. I live in a very rural area with no gamer community to speak of for a good 80 miles. Being forced to look for more efficient ways to game online has lead me to come up with using Google spreadsheets for as many things as I possibly can. They are editable and viewable by anyone with permission in real time. I can show a player something on the spreadsheet while they are watching in another state or country and we can discuss it. This has single handedly made a great deal of other technology and software obsolete. On the right hand side of the screen links are available to all of my spreadsheets that I have made(and continue to edit).
Given that the rules that are made for GURPS are made so that they fit logically rather than to maintain balance, they can be quite cumbersome from the massive amounts of things that one can do with them. Some are so cumbersome that it is far more efficient to make a spreadsheet and let the computer do the work for you. I have made construction sheets for machines(You can make mechas, robots, drones, whatever...), weapons, armor, gadgets, math, cyberware, bioware, etc. After I started working on them, I realized that they don't just greatly speed up the process of making things, but they helped conceptualize and test ideas out as well.
From my experience with playing GURPS in Roll20, I've found that the character sheets that the program provides one with are clumsy and a nuisance. If they were programmed to turn into a tab for the browser, they'd be fine. But as it stands, they just make a window that stays on the screen until you minimize them, which is a pain in the ass. I have 2 monitors, one I have the virtual table top open to and the other has whatever .pdf's I have open. I don't want anymore stuff than that on the screen at once. Therefore, I have come up with some standard macros I employ in my games:
MACROS
- 1d6 = [[1d6]]
- Just rolls a d6, it's usually just for high/low situations when something is not easily quantifiable.
- /w gm 1d6 = [[1d6]]
- A d6 for the GM's eyes only.
- 3d6 = [[3d6]]
- Core mechanic roll
- /w gm 3d6 = [[3d6]]
- Core mechanic roll for the GM's eyes only.
- /em attacks and has a margin of success of [[?{What is your effective skill level? (Effective Skill = Skill Level + All Modifiers)}-3d6]].
- This is an ATTACK ROLL. It's set as an emote so all the math takes place in a neat and tidy box. A prompt will come up for the player to enter they're total modified skill level. The result is that the roll is set to subtract from this number giving the result as the Margin of Success or Failure, which is what the GM actually needs to know.
- /em shoots and scores [[(?{What is your effective skill level? (Effective Skill = Skill Level + All Modifiers)}-(3d6))/(?{Recoil of your weapon?})+1]] hits. (Round Down)
- This is the same attack roll modified for fully automatic weaponry. It will tell you how many shots scored.
- /fx burn
- When a token is selected, and you that macro, fire appears on the token. I think I've used it one time ever. I always forget I have it.
- /em does [[?{How many d6's?}d6+?{Any additions or subtractions?}]] unmodified damage.
- This is a DAMAGE ROLL. Prompts will appear asking the player how many dice of damage he does and then how much additions or subtractions he has.
- /em makes a Fright Check and gets a margin of success of [[@{selected|Will}+?{Enter the Total Modifiers(if any)}-3d6]]. Add [[3d6*-1]] for a failure.
- This is a FRIGHT CHECK. It takes the character's WILL score(which the player will have to manually enter once), and checks against 3d6. It also rolls a negative 3d6 also in case the players check fails.
- /em hits the [[1t[Hit_Location]]]
- This is a RANDOM HIT LOCATION.
- /w gm Reaction Roll = [[?{What is the Total Reaction Bonus for this situation?}+3d6]]
- This is a REACTION ROLL. The GM will find out from the player what his reaction bonus is and the GM will modify it for the situation and enter that number into the prompt. The number is added to 3d6 behind the curtain. Only GM's are really supposed to see the roll anyway.
- /em performs with a margin of success of [[?{What is your effective skill level? (Effective Skill = Skill Level + All Modifiers)}-3d6]].
- This is a SUCCESS ROLL.
- /em [[@{selected|Speed}&{tracker}]]
- This will put the character's speed(Manually entered like Will) score into Roll20's tracker for combat turn order.
Roll20 has some great bells and whistles. It can scour soundcloud for music tracks that the GM can set up as a jukebox. I am currently running a Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions game in GURPS on Roll20 right now and I have managed to piece together the entirety of the soundtrack to the game. I have also done so with Bubblegum Crisis among others. Very handy and very cool!That's it for this very long winded post. My next will probably not be for a long time. I will probably report my time at SPA CON, I'm running a Chanbara game in GURPS!
-Tony
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