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Arcturus Pankrator, The Knight of the Deep
One of the player characters for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.
Arcturus Pankrator is a renowned hero and slayer of monsters among the underwater peoples that make their home near Ravounel. Landlubbers have no idea who he is, which is somewhat unfortunate for him because that’s where he’s headed for the foreseeable future.
His newest quest was given to him by the leader of the sea elf village of Acisazi: he is to seek the help of Shensen, the famous singer and priestess of Sarenrae who lives in Kintargo. The village has been plagued by a horrible curse, and since Shensen is an old friend of theirs she would have both the willingness and the power to help them out. However, she has not answered their magical messages, so something might have happened to her. Time to send in an actual envoy to find out what happened and help Shensen out if needed. An excellent job for a hero of his caliber!
Unfortunately Arcturus’ wallet was considerably leaner than his muscles, so he’s more or less completely broke when he arrives at Kintargo. The information he manages to gather about the city’s situation isn’t all that encouraging either, with Shensen missing and this new human dictator causing a pall of anger and sorrow to hang over the city.
The Atlantean wrestler isn’t exactly a genius detective. His method of investigation can be summed by the word “vibes”. Therefore, Arcturus is absolutely sure that the shortest path to completing his quest lies in opposing this land-monster, which is why he’s at the big protest against him at the start of the campaign.
Description
Arcturus is an obvious expy of Aquaman from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and that’s exactly what he looks like. You can make his hair brown instead of blond if you won’t want a 100% exact match, but you should still take all your roleplaying cues from that version of Aquaman.
Build Notes
Arcturus is a mix of the Wrestler and Martial Artist archetypes. The Wrestler first appeared in Pyramid #3/111. Art makes extensive use of the Fantastic Dungeon Grappling rules, as does the campaign he’s in.
He’s an Atlantean, which means he has no problem operating underwater. His fighting style works well both in and out of water: grab’em, and stab’em. That is, inflict a reasonable bunch of Control Points onto an enemy using Wrestling, and then stab them with his knife while spending as many CP as possible to boost the knife’s damage dice. If there’s no time to draw the knife, the damage dice from CP alone should let Art inflict some involuntary yoga on almost any opponent anyway.
Character advancement is simple. More ST, more DR, higher combat skills, more attacks! Those can come from either straight up increases or Martial Artist and Wrestler powers (or better armor in the case of DR). He can also make excellent use of Extra Attacks and Fast-Draw, which let the grab-and-stab loop happen much faster. Any branching out will mostly be towards the addition of more acrobatic and movement skills. Let everyone else do the talking and investigating, Arcturus Pankrator is here to punch things and tie them in knots. Point him at any nazis, sea monsters, or nazi sea monsters and watch the spectacle.
Character Sheet
Attributes
ST 14 {40}; DX 15 {100}; IQ 10 {0}; HT 12 {20};
Damage 1d/2d; Basic Lift 19.6kg; HP 14; Will 10; Per 10; FP 12; Basic Speed 7 {5}; Basic Move 8 {5};
Advantages
- Amphibious {10}
- Combat Reflexes {15}
- Doesn’t Breathe (Gills) {10}
- Enhanced Parry (Bare Hands) {15}
- Trained by a Master {30}
- Wrestling Master {10}
Disadvantages
- Code of Honor (Chivalry) {-15}
- Impulsiveness (12) {-10}
- Obsession (Find the missing sea elves) {-5}
- Overconfidence (12) {-5}
- Sense of Duty {-5}
- Wealth: Struggling {-10}
Quirks
- Pick your own! {-5}
Skills
- Carousing (E) HT {1} - 12
- Hiking (A) HT-1 {1} - 11
- Judo (H) DX {4} - 15
- Karate (H) DX-1 {1} - 14
- Knife (E) DX+1 {2} - 16
- Knot-Tying (E) DX {1} - 15
- Stealth (A) DX-1 {1} - 14
- Swimming (E) HT {1} - 12
- Wrestling (A) DX+5 {20} - 20
Chi Skills
- Immovable Stance (H) DX {4} - 15
- Push (H) DX {4} - 15
- Throwing Art (E) DX {4} - 15
Loadout
- Large Knife: $40, 0.5kg.
- Clothing: Free, 1kg.
- Armor: Nothing on head, light scale on body, light cloth/leather everywhere else. $336, 8.4kg.
- Pouch: Stores 1.5kg of small objects. $10, 0.1kg.
- Coins: 1 silver, 10 copper. $30, 0.11kg.
Combat
- Defenses
- Dodge: 11
- Parry: 17 (Wrestling), 14F (Judo), 11 (Knife).
- DR: 2 on skull, 0 on head, 3 (2 vs Crushing) on body, 1 everywhere else.
- Attacks
- Large Knife (16): 2d-2 cut (Reach C, 1) or 1d imp (Reach C).
- Wrestling Grab (20): 1d+3 control, Reach C.
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Jade Irinka, the Sixth Raven
One of the player characters for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.
Jade Irinka was an orphan of uncertain but numinous parentage who was adopted as a sort of mascot by the original Silver Ravens during their early exploits. She was too young to go out with the Ravens on their missions, but she witnessed their results and listened to their stories with rapt attention. Jackdaw, knowing victory would be uncertain in the final Thrune invasion, sent her away from the city with other non-combatant friends, hoping they would be able to come back once the fighting was over.
Things didn’t turn out well, and Jade never got the chance to return. She aged slowly but eventually reached maturity and set out to follow on the footsteps of her heroes. Her natural charisma and skill with the sword let her achieve some small measure of renown around the Inner Sea as an heroic adventurer.
Recent news from Cheliax convinced Jade it’s finally time to return home and take up the Ravens’ fight. She doesn’t remember many details about those days, but she’s confident she will find a way. Everything she’s done so far has been to prepare herself for this. As the campaign starts, she has just caught up on the events and rumors of the last few days and decides to attend the Aria Park protest to learn more.
Description
As you might have guessed from her name, Jade is inspired by Jasper Irinka, the Child of the Sun, one of the iconic characters from Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish Granting Engine. I’m using Jade instead of Jasper as the name because I like it more - it’s the name of Jasper’s Mother, the Angel of the Sun.
So Jade looks almost exactly like Jasper. Dark brown skin, voluminous and fiery red hair, green or blue eyes depending on the light. She has an athlethic build from all her adventuring, though her equipment is somewhat less than elegant at the moment. Unlike Jasper, she has only two arms at present and is unlikely to grow more.
This name might also give you a hint about who her ancestors are in the Pathfinder setting.
Build notes
Jade’s stats below are based on the Aristocrat archetype from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Swashbucklers. This gives her amazing sword and leadership skills, though I removed some of the template’s more classist traits.
Her being a long-lived half-spirit is mostly a story thing for now, as I didn’t take an official template. You can use these stats for a charismatic human swashbuckler in some other campaign without changing any numbers. If you do want to emphasize her supernatural side, you can let her gradually take on Half-Spirit traits with earned character points. That’s what I intend to do eventually.
Jade already has a +5 reaction bonus from almost everyone and an extra +3 from professional fighters. I’m hoping to use earned points to increase that even further, maxing out her Charisma, Born War-Leader talent, and perhaps even Appearance. She’s going to be the public face of the rebellion, after all. Holiness and its attendant powers are also not out of the question in the future, as they’d make her even better at fighting demons.
Character Sheet
ST 11 {10}; DX 15 {100}; IQ 12 {40}; HT 12 {20};
Damage 1d-1/1d+1; Basic Lift 12.1kg; HP 11; Will 12; Per 12; FP 12; Basic Speed 7; Basic Move 7;
Advantages
- Ambidexterity {5}
- Appearance (Impressive) {12}
- Born War Leader 3 {15}
- Charisma 2 {10}
- Combat Reflexes {15}
- Luck {15}
- Weapon Master (Backsword) {-20}
- Weapon Adaptation (Broadsword to Saber) {1}
Disadvantages
- Code of Honor (Soldier’s) {-10}
- Enemies (Monster of the Week) (9-) {-15}
- Pacifism: Cannot Harm Innocents {-10}
- Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions) {-5}
- Vow (Never refuse a challenge to combat) {-10}
Quirks
- Pick your own! {-5}
Skills
- Acrobatics (H) DX-1 {2} - 14
- Diplomacy (H) IQ-2 {1} - 10
- Fast-Draw (Sword) (E) DX+1 {1}1 - 16
- Gesture (E) IQ {1} - 12
- Guns (Pistol) (E) DX+1 {2} - 16
- Jumping (E) DX {1} - 15
- Leadership (A) IQ+4 {1}23 - 16
- Public Speaking (A) IQ+1 {1}3 - 13
- Saber (A) DX+5 {20} - 20
- Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ {1} - 12
- Stealth (A) DX-1 {1} - 14
- Strategy (H) IQ+2 {2}2 - 14
- Tactics (H) IQ+2 {2}2 - 14
- Wrestling (A) DX-1 {1} - 14
Loadout
$1000, 11.41kg. No encumbrance.
- Ordinary Clothing: Free; 1kg.
- Backsword: Basket hilt gives DR 4 to the hand and allows a Hilt Punch. $550, 1.5kg.
- Pouch: Fits 1.5kg of small items. $10, 0.1kg.
- Coins: 8 silvers, 23 coppers. $183, 0.31kg.
- Minor Healing Potion: Heals 1d HP. $120, 0.25kg.
- Light Cloth Armor Suit: DR 1 to all locations except the head. $137, 8.25kg.
Combat
Assumes no encumbrance.
- Defenses
- Dodge: 11
- Parry: 14F (sword), 11 (Unarmed, DX)
- DR: 2 on skull, 0 on eyes, 5 in sword hand, 1 everywhere else.
- Attacks
- Backsword (20): 1d+4 cut or 1d+2 imp, Reach 1.
- Hilt Punch (15): 1d-1 cr, Reach C.
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Review: GURPS Gun Stats
Imagine the following situation: you want to feature a certain gun in your campaign, but you want to do it “properly”. You’re not the kind of GM who would feel good about just tossing some random numbers in there.
The weapon in question is not in any of your books, and it’s different enough from the ones that are that you can’t just reskin an existing gun. That’d be the same as using random numbers.
If the story above resonated with you, then you’ll love GURPS Gun Stats. It gives you an official system to write up GURPS 4th Edition stats for guns starting from their real world data. If the lack of these rules stopped you before, you’ll love this book.
Sure, players who were really into statting up guns might already have been doing this for years by either building them using the rules from GURPS Vehicles for 3rd edition, or by using a very scary unofficial spreadsheet cooked up by Douglas Cole for his own use. Gun Stats is still useful for them, as it’s much simpler than the spreadsheet.
How It Looks
This is a typical Warehouse 23 PDF. All black and white, with the by now classical GURPS two-column layout combined with the usual excellent table of contents and index. Its written by David Pulver with additional material by S.A. Fisher Hans-Christian Vortisch, which is kind of a seal of quality in itself when it comes to gun-nut material in GURPS.
The interior art is mostly a mix of illustrations clearly based on photos or 3D models with a weird “acid etching” surface filter applied to them to unify the look. You also have a few hand-drawn illustrations. The art credits are fairly long, listing several photo repositories and 3D studios in addition to a couple of individual artists. I admit the “acid etching” filter made me take a closer look, but I believe all the art in this book is either drawn or edited by human hands.
The Totally-Not-From-Assassin’s Creed lady on page 9 has a bit of an awkward pose, but it’s organic awkwardness. The rest of the pieces are fine, and look good without getting in the way of the text.
How It Works
One thing I found nifty about the book is that it’s more than a collection of formulas. It has some instruction on how to actually do the research to get that real-life gun data, and a little checklist. You’ll need things like the empty weight, barrel length and overall length of the gun itself; the weight and dimensions of its projectile and of the whole cartridge; and how much propellant it uses per shot.
Some of those stats (like the weights and costs) can be written straight into the stat sheet, while others are used in relatively simple equations to derive stuff like damage, Accuracy, and range.
And that’s it. While those simple calculations can still be a little intense they’ll get you the results you want.
At the end of the book you have a printable checklist for your own research, and three example weapons: a French anti-material rifle, a 19th-century 6-pounder cannon, and the gun on the M1A2 Abrams tank.
Caveats and Annoyances
The book works best when dealing with historical or modern guns that have ample information available to the public, whether in Wikipedia, more specialized sites, or even sales brochures. The less information is available for a specific weapon, the more you’ll have to guesstimate when filling your checklist.
You can already see this with the Abrams tank gun here. Recent data about it and its ammunition is classified, so they either use Gulf War-era information or just make educated guesses about some of its measurements.
Fictional guns will often be harder, because they very often lack a lot of measurements entirely, as those weren’t necessary to tell the story. You’ll have to come up with those yourself, or maybe go looking for the work of other fans who have already spent a ton of time doing exactly that.
This is all perfectly doable, but presumably you wanted this book because you didn’t want to guess all the numbers. On the other hand, doing this will give you a pretty good ideas of the ways in which this or that fictional weapon is unrealistic.
A final annoyance for me specifically: like all other GURPS books, this one uses Imperial measurements exclusively for its calculations. Yes, even though modern gun data is often presented in metric. You gotta convert all of that to feet, pounds, and inches before doing the work, which is doubly annoying to me because I’m going to convert a lot of that right back for the final writeups.
Final Impressions
GURPS Gun Stats gives me the same impression as a classical UNIX or Linux command line tool. It’s designed to do one job, it does that job pretty well despite some usability issues, and it has a lot of options that can be difficult to remember without looking at the documentation.
If you need to do that job, this is the tool for you, and the learning curve is worth it. If you’re happy to just toss some eyeballed stats onto a table and call it a day, then you can skip it.
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Let's Play Hell's Rebels has a project page!
It’s right here, and you can also access it via the Projects link on the site’s header. Turns out I’ve already published a lot of stuff about this project over the years.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Wilderness Hazards
Continuing our read of the Hazards section, we’ll now see a few Wilderness hazards. These are all naturally occurring, and most are extra-dangerous versions of the terrain we saw earlier.
Wilderness Hazards
Chokedust Cloud (Level 2 Lurker)
A more dangerous version of the stuff you might find in ash wastes, silt pools, and deserts with particularly fine sand. This is a 3-by-3 area of particularly fine and powdery stuff, and the slightest disturbance will cause it to form a cloud.
Characters can roll Perception to notice the area is different, and if they pass that first test they can roll an easier Nature one to learn exactly why.
The hazard triggers when someone steps into the area, or when a portion of it is included in a blast or burst attack. The entire area erupts into a choking cloud that attacks the Fortitude of those standing on it. On a hit it blinds and inflicts ongoing 5 damage (save ends). The cloud stays around after this - victims cannot save against its effects while they remain inside. I imagine it also attacks anyone who steps into it after this.
Characters can roll Acrobatics when moving into the area to avoid disturbing it, and they can roll Endurance to steel themselves and gain a +2 to Fortitude against the cloud’s next attack.
Badlands Tremor (Level 5 Lurker)
A small localized earthquake. It has four epicenter squares scattered through the encounter area. The GM can either roll randomly or place them for maximum inconvenience.
Characters can roll Perception to listen for the groaning noise that precedes the tremor, and then Nature to identify it as an incoming earthquake and (with a good enough roll) where the epicenters are.
The tremor starts when the encounter does - roll initiative for it. On its initiative count, a random epicenter makes a Close Burst 5 attack vs. Reflex that damages and knocks prone on a hit, half on a miss, and makes its area difficult terrain.
The only countermeasure is an Acrobatics check on your turn to brace yourself for the next tremor. Staying away from the tremor areas also works, but it might not be feasible depending on the map’s layout.
Silt Sink (Level 8 Lurker)
A much more dangerous version of the Silt Pool terrain from before. This is a 4-by-4 squares wide, 30-foot deep hole filled with silt.
It takes a Perception roll to notice the ground is different, and then a Nature check to realize this is a deep pit that could bury someone.
If someone steps onto the pit’s area, they suffer an attack against their Reflex. On a hit they take fall damage (3d10, as if the pit was empty), and then get immobilized and begin to take ongoing 5 damage until they escape.
An escape attempt requires a series of Athletics or Acrobatics check against the pit’s escape DC. Each success causes the victm to rise 10 feet towards the surface. If they’re still in the pit at the end of their turn, they remain immobilized however. So it takes 3 successes for someone to fully escape.
Another character can try to help the victim if they can find a way to reach them (such as with a long branch or pole), using a move action to automatically pull them up by 10 feet.
Devil Dune (Level 9 Obstacle)
A huge pile of loose sand that is currently being pushed by the winds and moving at a surprisingly high speed. This could be a natural phenomenon, or it could be the work of an angry spirit.
It can be automatically noticed, and there’s a Nature check to realize it’s dangerous. The dune rolls Initiative, and on its turn it shifts 4 square towards the nearest creature. When it enters a creature’s space, it can attack their Reflex to try to engulf them. This damages, slows, inflicts ongoing 5 damage, and obscures vision beyond 2 squares (save ends all). On a miss, it just slows for a turn.
Someone who starts their turn entirely inside the dune takes an attack against their Fortitude, which deals heavy damage and restrains. It takes an escape roll, not a save, to get out of the sand.
The only countermeasure, other than staying the heck away, is the option to roll Acrobatics as an interrupt before the dune attacks your Reflex. The result of the roll becomes your new defense against that attack, even if it was lower than your Reflex.
False Oasis (Level 13 Elite Lurker)
This 6-by-6 square area looks like an oasis, but it’s actually an illusion. Behind it is a 2-by-2 area filled with blood-sucking creeper plants, which counts as blocking terrain. Sounds like just the kind of thing a group of sand brides would set up.
An Insight check might let someone recognize the oasis as an illusion, but not identify what it hides. A harder Arcana test can do both.
If someone gets to within 3 squares of the illusion’s borders, the hazard rolls initiative. On its turn, the creepers reach out and try to pull the victim, an attack against AC that deals no damage and pulls the target 2 squares. This can target up to three creatures, so it not being an opportunity attack is actually an advantage. There’s enough time for multiple victims to approach the sweet, sweet illusion.
If a character starts their turn adjacent to the actual creeper squares, they’re targetted by an opportunity action that attacks their Fortitude and, on a hit, weakens and inflicts ongoing 10 necrotic damage (save ends). On a miss, it deals 5 necrotic damage.
If you can’t pierce the illusion or staying away is not an option, you can destroy the false oasis with violence (105 HP, vulnerable 15 radiant).
Dust Funnel (Level 15 Blaster)
A tornado, more or less.
Roll Initiative for the hazard when combat starts, and choose a square on the battle map. On its first turn, the dust funnel manifests in a Close Burst 2 around that square, and takes up that much space.
A Perception or an easier Nature test can identify this spot as the forces build up, before the funnel manifests.
On its turns, the funnel moves 1d10 squares and makes an attack against anyone who happens to be in its area. On a hit, it damages, knocks prone, and immobilizes its targets (save ends). Until the target passes a save, they get dragged along with the funnel whenever it moves. Of course, targets who get dragged along will suffer the attack again next turn, since they will be in reach of it.
Imagine if this thing manages to grab every other combatant, monsters and PCs alike. That’d be hilarious.
Characters can make a hard Nature check to figure out where the funnel will move in its next turn, and if they can’t escape its path they can spend a standard action to grab onto something and get +4 to all defenses against its next attack.
Desert Glass (Level 17 Obstacle)
We already saw what an even mix of sand and powdered glass can do. This is a stretch of ground that’s mostly pure glass, in much bigger chunks. It’s super slippery and cuts you to ribbons if you fall.
The hazard covers 20 contiguous squares, in any configuration the GM wants. All of them are difficult terrain. If they’re not obvious, such as if there’s a thin layer of sand over them, they can be identified with a Perception test.
Anyone who enters, starts their turn, or stands up from prone on one of these squares takes an attack against Reflex that damages, knocks prone, and inflicts ongoing 10 damage (save ends). It the target was already prone, they are dazed for a turn instead.
If one or more squares of the glass are included in an area attack that has the cold, thunder, or force keywords, the affected squares make a Close Burst 1 attack that deals the same amount of immediate and ongoing damage as the other one, and then disappear. They got shattered and blew up.
Venomous Spines (Level 21 Blaster)
These are from a species of tree that grows on some of the rare jungle biomes of Athas. When someone gets near, the tree forcibly ejects an omni-directional cloud of venomous spines.
A Perception check can notice there’s something funny about that tree. A Nature check can identify it before the PCs enter its range.
The attack hits a Close Burst 5 around the tree, dealing heavy poison damage and making a secondary attack that on a hit blinds and inflicts ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends). On a miss, it deals half damage.
Someone who knows the tree is dangerous can close in without triggering it with an Acrobatics or Stealth check. They can then use hard Nature checks to reduce the size of the burst by 2 per successful check, entirely “disarming” the tree with the third success. I’m guessing they’re plucking the spines.
Defiled Plain (Level 24 Obstacle)
A patch of ground so thoroughly defiled it’s not just dead, it’s “undead”. Anyone stepping on it will have their life force drained.
A Perception check can tell the ground is unnatural, and an Arcana check can identify its danger.
The attack deals heavy necrotic damage and inflicts vulnerable 10 to all damage (save ends). The first failed save causes the target to lose a healing surge, and the second one makes the vulnerability permanent until cured by a ritual like Remove Affliction. A miss deals half damage.
A character near or on the affected area can make a hard Arcana check to neutralize it for a turn. Characters without Arcane Defiling powers or abilities have a +2 on this test. Those who have these take a -2 instead. A preserver (which I assume means someone without those abilities) can choose to spend 2 healing surges to destroy the hazard, which I guess means they can restore some of the place’s lost life. The book says those healing surges can only be regained through an extended rest, which feels redundant but I guess means no other trick that would normally allow an early recovery can do so.
Final Impressions
These hazards are generally scarier versions of the terrain we saw earlier, so they’re certainly appropriate for inclusion in battles taking place in that terrain.
And that’s it for the book! I hope you enjoyed the reading. I’m trying to think of what to do next, so any suggestions are welcome.
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