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• Apr 16, 2017

  Dragon's Dogma: Ferrystones and Portcrystals

  

  Back when I discussed the Artifacts of Gransys, I focused more on bringing published artifacts from the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line into a Dragon’s Dogma campaign. It’s time I did the reverse, at least for some of the more distinctive pieces. This post will deal with a pair of handy artifacts that always go together. They were used to implement the original game’s “fast-travel” system, and can do the same for a tabletop campaign if the GM wants to give players that ability.

  Ferrystones (Power Item: N/A)

  Ferrystones are palm-sized chunks of jade engraved with ancient arcane runes. They were made ages ago by the mysterious civilization that worshipped the Old Gods. The secret to their creation has been lost, and most remaining examples today are cracked and worn.

  To use a ferrystone, a character must hold it in their hand, concentrate on one of the Portcrystals (see below) they have attuned, and toss the stone directly upwards. This will cause the stone to glow and instantly transport the whole party to the location of the Portcrystal. The stress of activation will destroy the stone.

  Ferrystones are still common enough that they can be found in the inventories of certain specialty merchants, who sell them as expensive antiques. They can also be found in the ruins of the civilization that made them. While they are very useful to adventurers, most “civilian” inhabitants of Gransys see them as valuable bits of archaeology, and would balk at actually using one for its intended purpose.

  Among those specialty collectors, rumors abound of an “Eternal Ferrystone” which, untouched by time, can be used an unlimited number of times. Such an item would be priceless and would largely render overland travel obsolete to its owner. Such an artifact could be worth 20 FP or more as a power item.

  Portcrystals (Power Item: N/A or 15 FP)

  Portcrystals are heavy quartz-like crystals that glow with a purple inner light. Someone who knows the proper rituals (which have been passed around as nursery rhymes since time immemorial) can attune themselves to a portcrystal by touching it. From that point on, they can use a Ferrystone (see above) to teleport to the crystal’s location from anywhere in the world!

  These artifacts were likely used to make robust transportation networks in ages past. The most well-known are arranged in ancient ritual circles just outside of Cassardis and close to the Pawn Guild in Gran Soren. These are more landmarks than artifacts, and cannot be removed or made into Power Items.

  There are also a handful of crystals that can be safely transported and still retain their power, but those are hidden deep inside some of the duchy’s most dangerous dungeons. These portable crystals only work when properly placed on the ground, and weight at least 10 kilograms, but can be made into power items. They’re worth quite a lot as collector items… unless the Eternal Ferrystone is known to exist, then they’re as priceless as it is.

• Apr 13, 2017

  GURPS X-COM: First Research Phase

  

  At this point in the campaign our PCs had completed their first assignment and brought home a ton of alien doodads, though they didn’t know much about them yet. It was time to do something about that last part, and this post will both tell you how they did it and give you a peek behind the curtain of my research system.

  The Power of Science!

  Research was always one of my favorite parts of any X-COM game, especially in that first playthrough where the tech tree is still a mistery. I wanted to bring the same sense of mistery and discovery to this campaign, while keeping bookkeeping to a minimum. This meant I needed an intriguing tech tree, and a simple way to walk it.

  The composition of the tech tree was the easiest part: as it turns out, the Dreams of Ruin book already has a perfectly usable and quite comprehensive tree! I would need some conversion work before I could use it, but the general shape of the thing was already good.

  The main conversion work lay in deciding how my version of X-COM could perform this research. The detailed descriptions in the original material are geared towards a D&D fantasy setting: a place with medieval technology but rich in magic where the greatest challenge lies in building scientific instruments precise enough to study the Dreams, each of which is a unique major artifact in its own right.

  The research challenges faced by X-COM were the exact opposite of the scenario above: its scientists have an abundance of mass-produced high-precision instruments, but must discover magic from first principles over the course of the campaign in order to truly understand the threat they face. This means I would need to insert a few extra items on the research tree related to that. As pretty much all the alien technology involves some form of magic, discovering its principles is a very high priority strategic goal - the rest of the research will be severely limited until that happens.

  Another important consideration was to figure out the pace of research. This is determined by your basic infrastructure, which in the original material is expressed in fantasy terms (“a single wealthy kingdom”, “all the world’s kingdoms”, “the combined might of the Nine Hells”). Each level gives you a shorter interval between possible breakthroughs, which is important because the spread of the Dreams becomes irreversible 13 years after the first trees appear. I had to decide how the X-COM project measured up in that scale.

  The Noises in the Dark Research System

  At the end of each field op, I would present the players with a list of research topics, drawn from the loot their PCs brought from this and previous missions, and from previous research or other story developments. Each topic would have a cost in Research Points, of which they would have an amount corresponding to X-COM’s research budget. This budget, in turn, would depend on how happy with the organization the Council nations were, just like in the computer games.

  Paying for a technology in full meant it gets researched and yields it fruits before the next mission comes up. If they could only pay part of a topic’s cost, those points would remain “banked” until after the next mission.

  Each of these “research phases” should represent the effort spent in one research interval, though this part didn’t end up mattering a lot in play as I never really tracked how much time passed between missions. I believe I settled internally on 1-month intervals in my head, though if we were doing this according to the Dreams of Ruin rules it should be three months for a starting X-COM (“intermediary” infrastructure).

  The list after their first operation consisted of:

  • Advanced Medkits
  • Personal-Scale Combat Drones
  • Bakegumo Corpse
  • Puppet Corpse
  • Alien Guns
  • Alien Swords
  • Alien Explosives (from mines and such)
  • Black Tree Fragments

  The first two items were the technologies they would have started with had they picked Vahlen or Shen as leads, respectively. The rest was from alien loot.

  All of the items cost a single point, but they also had a single point to spend at the start. After some discussion, the players ended up voting for the Black Tree Fragments: the trees had really impressed them!

  Strategically speaking, this was a good decision, since the Trees of Woe are one of the fundamental research topics in the original material. However, the fact that their destroyed the trees in the first mission using extreme amounts of explosive meant R&D only had a limited amount of material to work with, so I decided this topic alone wouldn’t give them the full information on the trees. It did give them a bit of data in their structure (“more like a fungus than a plant, traces of metal mixed in”), as well as giving them the goal of bringing in a proper tree sample. It also led to the researchers noticing the fragments and most alien artifacts had this weird red dust in all of their nooks and crannies, so the dust became a topic available for the next phase of research.

  Soklov’s game benefit also came in handy here, as he also gave the group a more complete picture of what he termed the “Hostage Effect”, which is what the original material calls psychic numbness. No means to counter it yet, but now they know it exists and what it does.

  This sort of decision is still something that causes me some worry, to be honest. Was I giving my players a good enough benefit for their choice? This was a PbP game, remember, so each mission took literally months to resolve. Research phases would be few and far between, and I didn’t want to give the group the impression they weren’t making progress. Here, opening up a new goal seems to have satisfied them, but in retrospect I should probably have given them the Red Dust information for free in addition to the other things. Knowing about the spores early on would likely have changed their perception of things quite significantly, and it’s something they never ended up voting for on their own.

• Apr 5, 2017

  Dragon's Dogma Bestiary: Ogres

  

  Despite being smaller than cyclopes, ogres are actually more dangerous! A cyclops is a slow, stupid, and indecisive combatant that may be driven away by an insistent enough attack. None of that applies to ogres! While not really bright, they are very cunning and driven to satisfy their endless hunger. Ogres tend to live in caves and ruins, and their smaller size means they don’t require those ruins to be exceptionally spacious. They love to eat fresh meat, especially that of humans, and will attack any they perceive. While typically solitary, sometimes people do run into a pair of them.

  In combat, ogres will make use of their great strength to strike enemies, but what they really like to do is grab a foe and twist. Faced with a large group, they will often grab a single for and try to drag them away, but it doesn’t take much to make an ogre go berserk. A berserk ogre fights to the death, but even then it has enough presence of mind to fight smart, targetting its weaker-looking foes and trying to get the others in a position where they can’t dodge effectively.

  Ogres don’t typically carry weapons, but will gladly use any available objects as improvised clubs or projectiles.

  ST 27; DX 12; IQ 7; HT 12;

  SM +2; Dodge 8; DR 3;

  HP 27; Will 10; Per 10; FP 11

  Basic Speed 7.00; Move 7;

  • Punch (14): 3d+1 cr. Reach C-2.
  • Improvised Club (14): 6d+1 cr. Reach 1-3.
  • Bite (14): 2d+2 imp. Reach C.
  • Grab (14): Grapples at ST 28.
  • Twist (24): The ogre uses Wrench Limb, Wrench Spine or Neck Snap at the listed skill level on a grappled target, depending on how it’s grappled.

  Traits: Claws (Blunt Claws); DR 3 (Tough Skin); Night Vision 5; Teeth (Fangs); Gluttony (9); Bestial; Berserk (12); Bully;

  Class: Mundane.

  Variants

  Elder Ogres: Legend has it that ogres grow stronger and tougher as they age, and that they are either immortal or extremely long-lived. Such an Elder Ogre would add extra ST, DR and combat skill on top of the stat block above depending on its age.

• Apr 3, 2017

  Psi Wars: Golko the Slaver

  The name of the Psi Wars game I’m starting over on RPG.net is “Golko Wants You Dead”. That is also its premise: there’s a crime lord named Golko, he wants the PCs dead, and they need to do something about it. During character creation, each player gets to decide why Golko wants their PC dead, and to state a true thing about Golko himself. I love this, because I love using player input in this way. I did something similar with my 2015-2016 X-COM campaign.

  I can’t claim credit for the “Golko Wants You Dead” premise, however - I first saw it used a number of years ago in a Wushu game, also on the RPG.net forum. I’m just recycling it here, and in fact I already got a nice nostalgic compliment from a player in that original game!

  I already posted a brief summary of who our PCs are, and I promised to post about Golko too. Now it’s time to deliver. Each Golko Wants You Dead game ends up with a different Golko, and this one is ours. The description below synthesizes all the True Things my players said about him, plus a few things of my own invention.

  Golko the Slaver

  

  Golko cuts a large and imposing figure: his body plan is basically centauroid, though the first word that comes to mind when looking at him is “lobster” rather than “horse”. He has six articulated legs and four arms: a pair of hugely strong and sharp crab-like pincers, and a smaller, weaker pair of hand-like manipulators. He’s a callous and cruel individual who views anyone but himself as assets or liabilities to be dealt with accordingly.

  His species is native to the planet Geryon, which lies outside Empire space. Psionic ability is extremely common among them, and while this gave rise to a rich psionic tradition it also caused some conflict in their otherwise peaceful society. A minority of Geryonites are born without psionic potential, and they tend to be seen as embarrassments to their families. Golko was one such individual. He left his planet out of spite, and found a profitable niche renting slaves to the Empire.

  You see, Imperial law forbids its citizens from owning slaves, but its elites exploit a loophole that allows slave-owning aliens based outside the Empire’s borders to “rent” these slaves to Imperial citizens. Golko is a very big player in this market, having clawed his way to the top both literally and figuratively. He sells human and alien slaves to rich nobles and businessmen, bloodsport arenas, and to whoever else wants to buy any. He also keeps a portion of them for himself, particularly those who display psionic abilities. Golko is funding a secret lab whose scientists experiment on these psions in hopes of finding a way to awaken his own psionic abilities.

  The PCs have recently dealt blows to all of these operations, either by disrupting his slave shipments or by escaping slavery themselves. Golko’s current obsession is making an example out of all of them, so that business as usual can resume.

  Golko’s organization is composed of criminals belonging to several more common species, like humans and other humanoid aliens. Many of them use Imperial gear that comes to Golko through the same routes through which he sells his slaves. He also has a sizable force of brand new combat droids acquired through the same channels.

  Design Notes

  The details of Golko’s business operations and his psionics obsession were all given to me by the players, as was the fact that he could be described as a “creature”, which meant he’s an alien.

  Now, an alien slaver inevitably draws comparisons to Jabba the Hutt, who fills this role in Star Wars. I wanted my Golko to be both reminiscent of Jabba while also being different from him. So you have a large, non-humanoid alien crime lord who isn’t an immobile mound of quivering flesh, and is instead a formidable threat all by himself. All of this is known to the PCs, which is why I’m posting it as part of the blog. Further campaign developments will be posted as they appear in actual play!

  Geryon, the name of his native planet, is also the name of a mythological giant defeated by Hercules in one of his twelve labors: he had three heads and six arms. Golko has a different collection of surplus appendages, but I still felt the name was appropriate.

• Mar 30, 2017

  GURPS X-COM: The Arsenal of Ruin, Part 1

  

  As I mentioned back in the post about my campaign setup on this game, I can’t post adaptations of the Dreams of Ruin creatures here without violating the book’s license. What I can do, however, is post stats for their gear in this campaign, since it’s different from what’s in the original book. Today, we’ll focus on the Puppets of Ruin, which are the only alien the group met in their first operation that actually uses gear.

  Original-flavor Puppets of Ruin carry magic swords, bolt-action rifles, concussion hand grenades, and ocasionally a RPG launcher. That’s a terrifying loadout for anyone in the medieval fantasy worlds they’re meant to attack! With this equipment, and at 3 Hit Dice, they’re supposed to be superior to any conventional force of 1 HD soldiers or even 2 HD humanoids. That would be even truer in a GURPS campaign, where they’re taking TL 7 weapons into a TL 3 world. Even powerful adventurers wouldn’t be able to face them head-on!

  However, in this campaign they’re attacking a late TL8 world, which means their original equipment would actually be less advanced than what’s typically available to an outfit like X-COM! That feels wrong to me - it’s not a proper X-COM game unless even the “weakest” alien has a technological edge over your soldiers. Therefore, I decided they needed an upgrade. And now, for the first time, I’m publishing stats for their weapons:

  Puppet Gear

  These weapons and their corresponding ammunition are grown by the Body Trees rather than manufactured. Their construction and functionality is equivalent to Tech Level 9. They tend to have a curvy, organic look, with no unecessary seams. Each individual item is slightly different from all others, though ammunition for a specific weapon will always fit another weapon of the same type.

  Weapon stats are all as described in the Basic Set, with two exceptions. Weight is in kilograms, not pounds, because I like the metric system more; and monetary cost is not listed, because I didn’t use it in the campaign itself. Filling a cost in shouldn’t be too hard for those GMs that want it, and to figure out an item’s weight in pounds just multiply the listed numbers by 2.

  These days, I prefer to use the alternate Guns specialties presented in Pyramid #3/65: Alternate GURPS III. I did so in the campaign itself, and I do so in this article, though I also note what Basic Set skills the weapons require.

  Puppet Sword

  Around 1 meter long, this sword has a straight double-edged blade made of a ceramic/metal composite material and a substantial handguard similar to that of a cavalry saber. As puppets are more proficient in melee combat than just about any typical modern soldier, this is probably their most dangerous weapon if they happen to be within easy reach of their targets.

  Treat this as a Superfine (p. UT163) backsword (p. MA227 or LT66). It’s used with the Broadsword skill. All puppets have one.

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Reach	Parry	Weight	ST
  9	Puppet Sword	sw+3(2) cut	1	0	1.5	10
  		or thr+3(2) imp

  
  

  Puppet Rifle

  This is a short, semi-automatic carbine firing caseless 7.77mm rounds with an Electrothermal-Chemical (ETC) action. It contains no targetting electronics, but the puppets’ own senses and link with the forest more than compensate for this. It’s made from the same materials as the sword and self-cleaning, requiring no regular maintenance. It’s extremely reliable and won’t malfunction unless some external factor lowers its Malf.

  The Puppet Rifle is fired with Guns (Longarm), or Guns (Rifle) if using the Basic Set skills. All puppets have a fully loaded rifle plus 3 or 4 extra magazines. The Trees of Woe bear extra reloads as fruit, so they can resupply if they have access to a thicket.

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  9	Puppet Rifle	7d+2 pi	4	750/4500	3/0.33	3	20(3)	9	-4	2

  
  

  Puppet Grenade

  This is a concussion grenade with an advanced plastic explosive filling and a soft outer shell that limits fragmentation. It’s used with Throwing, and every puppet carries from 1 to 3. These also grow from the Trees of Woe, so puppets near a thicket will be profiligate in their use.

  The Puppet Grenade is essentially a TL 9 HEC hand grenade (p. UT146 and UT154).

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Weight	Fuse	Bulk
  9	Puppet Grenade	8dx2 cr ex	0.5	2	-2

  
  

  Puppet RPG

  This weapon is a thin launch tube with handles and iron sights, firing a 77mm over-caliber warhead which vaguely resembles a RPG-7 round. It takes 3 seconds to set up. While launchers and their ammo are also provided by the forest, they appear at a slower rate, and only where the Trees of Woe are at their densest. Only about 1 in 7 puppets has a launcher, and will typically carry from 1 to 3 rounds for it. Its squad mates might carry extra rounds as well.

  The launcher has a hazardous backblast that causes 2d burning damage. It uses Guns (LAW), which has the same name in both skill systems.

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  9	Puppet RPG	6dx8(10) cr exp	2	10/1000	9/2.5	1	1(4)	9	-6	1
  	linked	6dx3 cr exp

  
  

  Using the Arsenal of Ruin

  These weapons have other campaign roles aside from equipping the Puppets of Ruin! They occupy the same niche as lasers in the original X-COM or magnetic weapons in the 2015 XCOM 2, using technology that’s a step up from what’s initially available to human soldiers but not as good as what the alien masterminds have at their disposal.

  Unlike the alien weapons from the X-COM computer games, they can be easily operated by humans and contain no biometric locks, self-destruct failsafes or anything of the sort. Someone who came across one of them lying on the floor could just pick it up and use it, assuming they had the appropriate skills.

  This is by design! The Forest wants people to commit violence within its borders, and is only too happy to provide them with the tools to do so. Any local Servants of Ruin drawn to its borders will soon find themselves well-supplied with these weapons, and possibly in command of a puppet posse. Even people who aren’t quite as evil might be gifted with weapons as a temptation. They are also chock-full of spores, so taking them beyond the forest’s borders aids the spread of the Dreams.

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