GURPS: Lon's House Rules

The Ficke Adventure Lon's Games page

Character Development

• Attribute xp - You do not pay double for stats and some advantages after character creation. See the Advantages list for which advantages are available.
• Advantages/Disadvantages/Skills -
  • Many advantages are available at normal cost after the start of the game.
  • I've adjusted the cost of some disadvantages to reflect the impact on playing the character.
  • I've added notes for some skills. The Survival page goes into more detail.
• Languages - You learn your native tongue as a ME skill based on IQ (except default is IQ-2). Thus default for the average guy (IQ-2=8) would be "adequate reading and speaking vocabulary"; he would sound uneducated. see Languages for all learned languages.
• Wealth - the base status level for the character (heroes) is 3; you are the lesser noblility. Thus you will usualy be able to have just about any normal equipment you want. You are free to by Wealth/Status, but use 3 as the base and we'll define the circumstances of your rank before we start. Typically your 'job' will be a duty to the landed lord (no point value) which is often the adventure seed. (see Color Of Money below).

Combat

• Advanced Combat System - Miniatures and maps are the norm.
• Quick Combat (B108 sidebar) - This encourages players to keep buying skills above 15 because you'll eventually run into someone better than you. Although I avoid the cinematic rules, this does let the advanced fighter have a cinematic-like advantage over the run-of-the-mill soldier.
• Damage - Damage is a function of how well you hit. The number you hit by divided by 2 is the minimum number of pips per die. Thus if you hit by 5, any die roll of 1 becomes a 2. You have to hit by a lot to really make a difference.
• Shock - your penalty for the following turn is equal to the greatest damage from a single blow; it is not the cumulative damage taken that turn. I've noticed that with Quick-Combat, the first person to get hit gets behind the curve and his opponent's best tactic is just to keep hitting with 'All-out-Attack'. This won't stop that tactic, but it should slow it down a little.
• Combat Cards - We tried using Combat Cards but it seemed to slow things down too much. I keep the info here because I think there are times when it would be useful, but mostly I rely on memory. Tycho explains the idea here; My versions of the cards are here. Another thought: You must also lay down a card for your next action. You can abort the action on your turn and do a "perceive" and lay down the next card (e.g. someone else killed the guy you were going to attack). If you have Combat Reflexes, you can change the card on your turn, i.e. abort directly to a new card/action.
• Cheet Sheets - Crits, Hit Location, Maneuvers, Missile Mods.
• Turn Sequence - I always found the Archery and Spell casting sequence confusing. Here is a detailed discussion.
• Maneuvers - I use the Swashbucklers world book with a few additional maneuvers. Remember: you canot spend more points in maneuvers than you have in the base skill.
• Increased Step for High Move - (pCII72)

  I do use this cinematic option. "For every 4 full points of move, Step is increased by one, with a minimum value of 1". Thus...

  Move Step 0-7 1 8-11 2 12-15 3 etc...

• Perception - see the list of modfiiers for observing during combat.
• Difficulty modifiers for various common actions
• Healing - special rules on healing (Minor/Major Healing is unavailable)
• Passive Defense - just working out these ideas.

Magic

• Magic - There are a few Magic House Rules that we're trying out. So far I really like them.
• Music Magic - a more detailed description derived from pCI39.

Miscellaneous

• Long Distance Travel - swags at the distance you can travel in a day.
• Long Distance Travel, Ver 2 - The fatigue you take per mile
• Strategic Movement Rules - rules governing movement and combat on a 'strategic' map, 100yds / hex.
• Castle Construction - example 'Conwy'

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