I finally gave GURPS 4th edition a perusal, and I was really impressed. It looks like it fixes some of the bigger problems I had with 3rd edition. I am happy to see that point costs for HT and ST have been decreased to reflect their in-game utility relative to DX and IQ. Also, point costs for changing these four attributes have been made linear, which gets rid of the weird bump in 3rd ed. and looks prettier, though I will not go so far as to say a linear cost progression is necessarily the right way to go. Since probabilities of success follow a nice normal curve, we see decreasing returns on investment either way, but less severely with the linear costs.
I am also a big fan of many powers being turned into "advantages", and the wide variety of modifiers available to customize how the powers work and how much they cost. I haven't taken the system for a ride yet, but it looks good.
The main downside is how bulky it is. Well, maybe it's an upside. My impulse is to say that players should make characters by first thinking up a detailed character concept, then going through the books from the beginning writing down what that character would cost, then selecting deleting that go over the point limit for the campaign, or enhancing what's there if the limit has not been reached. There's way too much to memorize or keep in mind to make quick characters, but likewise it is far harder than other systems to game. It is less obvious how to make characters that are uniformly better than others for the same points. I'll keep poking at it over time.
Now that I've got falling deaths out of my system, I'm thinking of working on analyses and guides for strength scales or movement speeds. I've got some good numbers hanging around, but not as much time as I'd like.
Showing posts with label GURPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GURPS. Show all posts
Jun 10, 2011
May 25, 2011
Death by Falling
[Edit: If you're looking for real information on deaths by falls, see my next two posts here and here.]
This is the first of several posts I have planned about simulating the results of falls from elevations. Here I simply determined the minimum distance necessary to fall for an average human to die, the distance at which an average person would die on average, and the maximum distance that an average person could fall without dying for ten different systems.
As you can see, there are wide differences among systems. The grades I give are subjectively based on how each mechanic models reality and contributes to game balance.
This is the first of several posts I have planned about simulating the results of falls from elevations. Here I simply determined the minimum distance necessary to fall for an average human to die, the distance at which an average person would die on average, and the maximum distance that an average person could fall without dying for ten different systems.
- Aberrant: For any fall under 30 meters, even the most feeble person has a 99.6% chance of only sustaining minor injuries that will heal in a day (bashing damage). At 30 meters, damage becomes lethal and maxes out at 10 dice (an average of 4 levels of damage), with only a 1.3% chance of dying even when falling miles. F
- Chaosium: Average health is actually 12hp, not 11, but the distances are correct. 1d6 damage for each 3 meters gives us a nice distribution of injuries and chances of death up to the assured death point at 36 meters. B
- D&D 3.5 (OGL): The average human in this system has 1d4 hp, which I round up to 3, but does not die until reaching -10 hp. Most falls that are not immediately fatal will still result in wounds that may result in a person's eventual death if not stabilized, but I did not calculate that. B
- D&D 4th ed.: The most appropriate stats I found for a non-heroic person in this game were for "Human Rabble", who have 1 hp. At 1d10 damage for each 10' fallen, everybody dies from any fall of at least 10'. D
- GURPS 3rd ed.: Damage involves rolling 1d6 and subtracting a constant for each yard fallen. Since it is possible to roll the constant or less on each 1d6, it is possible to take no damage at all when falling from any height. Instant death requires 6xHealth damage in the GURPS systems. D
- GURPS 4th ed.: Now there is an equation for determining how many d6 to roll based on velocity. GURPS in one of the few systems that takes acceleration into account instead of just distance. A-
- Heavy Gear: Roll 1d6 for each meter up to 10 meters, and multiply the result by meters fallen up to 30. Remember that the Silhouette system is funky, so "result" means the highest number rolled among the dice, and additional 6s each add 1 to the first 6. It is possible (ridiculously unlikely) to roll all 1s and survive any fall. It is also possible (ridiculously unlikely) to roll all 6s and die falling 5 meters. An average person has a 40% chance of death falling 8 meters, and an 81% chance of death falling 9 meters. B-
- Marvel Super Heroes 2nd ed.: The rules as written were clearly not proofread or edited. They make absolutely no sense in the English language. On page 21 the rules say to take 1 point of damage for each floor fallen (a person would have to fall 24 floors), but also say to treat falling as a charge attack. Charge attack rules on page 27 gave me the numbers I use for this post. Using the Empire State Building for reference, I decided that a "floor" is 12 feet. F
- Rifts: People take 1 point of damage for each 10' fallen. Instant death is at -(PE+1) hp. A healthy average person will survive any fall under 390'. F
- Shadowrun 4th ed.: I did not find stats for an average human. Humans have 1-6 body points, bought up from 1 at character creation. Looking at sample characters, I figured that an average human has a body of 2. Damage from falls over 6m is about (distance+4)/2, and characters roll (Body)d6 to resist some damage. For someone with a Body of 3, the distances are 22m, 24m, 28m. C
- 7th Sea: This is a game focused on dramatic swashbuckling stories, and seems to not have rules for falls.
Feb 21, 2011
GURPS Optimizing: DX and Skills
This post is a continuation of the previous post on IQ and skills. When playing GURPS (Steve Jackson's Generic Universal Role-Playing System), what is the best DX score to buy to make the most efficient use of your character creation points?
DX has the same point costs and levels as IQ, but the related skills are priced differently. Skills are only easy, average, or hard. An easy skill costs 1 point to buy at the same level as the character's DX, an average skill costs 2, and a hard skill costs 4. Lower levels can be bought for half the price as the next higher level, down to .5 points (so .5 points will buy a hard skill at the DX-3 level). Higher levels cost twice as much as the previous level until the cost is 16 points (e.g.: average skill at the DX+3 level), then each level costs 8 more points than the previous level did. Buying hard skills above one's DX score is very expensive indeed.
Here is a graph showing the probabilities of success with average DX skills by cost and DX score:
DX has the same point costs and levels as IQ, but the related skills are priced differently. Skills are only easy, average, or hard. An easy skill costs 1 point to buy at the same level as the character's DX, an average skill costs 2, and a hard skill costs 4. Lower levels can be bought for half the price as the next higher level, down to .5 points (so .5 points will buy a hard skill at the DX-3 level). Higher levels cost twice as much as the previous level until the cost is 16 points (e.g.: average skill at the DX+3 level), then each level costs 8 more points than the previous level did. Buying hard skills above one's DX score is very expensive indeed.
Here is a graph showing the probabilities of success with average DX skills by cost and DX score:
I also created a table that you can use to easily see what DX to buy after you decide how many average DX skills (or equivalent) you want and how often you want to be successful using them (success probabilities below 25% are not shown):
*Though an DX of 3 is technically optimal in these cells, a score up to 9 may be a better choice because the point cost difference is very small and DX will have impacts on game play beyond the cost of skills.
You can see that this table is much easier to use than the IQ table. The multipliers to convert easy and hard skills to average skill equivalents do not change (they change for some inefficient arrangements, but not for any optimal arrangements). For all white cells: easy skills count as .5 average skills, and hard skills count as 2 average skills. For the grey cells, the multipliers vary, but are irrelevant.
Similarly to the IQ table, we see that a score of 13 is great if you want your character to be pretty consistently successful at a good handful of skills. A below average (10) DX score is only appropriate if you want your character to never be effective at more than a single DX skill. Min-maxers may be tempted to trash a stat to get points to spend on the other, but I would be hard-pressed to think up a character (okay, besides a Professor Xavier type) that would be better off with a low DX. In fact, it seems that most characters should have both a DX and an IQ of at least 13, and would not be significantly sacrificing uniqueness or wasting points.
A nit-picker may point out that many skills have default values (e.g.: DX-6), so characters technically have lots of skills for free. The default values are such that even with a DX of 15, the character may have a 50% chance of success with an average skill. A DX of 17 only gives about a 75% chance of success. High enough DX or IQ scores to make default skill levels reliable are so expensive that a character will have significant opportunity costs for other features that were passed up. The term "Jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. It is generally more effective and efficient to be a specialist, and spend the points on actually having the skills you think will be useful for you.
Feb 16, 2011
GURPS Optimizing: IQ and Skills
When playing GURPS (3rd ed.), what IQ should your character have in order to optimize your use of character creation points?
GURPS lets players buy skills for their characters at different costs depending on the levels of the characters' attributes and the difficulty of each skill. I will focus on the IQ attribute and its related skills for now. IQ is purchased with points, ranges from 1 to infinity (practically 20), and defaults to an average score of 10. Increasing IQ costs 10 points for each of the first three increases above 10, then 15 points for each of the next two steps, 20 points for each of the next two steps, and 25 points for each subsequent step. So, having an IQ of 18 costs 125 points. A character can get points back by having a below average IQ, earning 10 points for each level below 10 (except, inexplicably, the only 5 points for level 8).
Skills are either easy, average, hard, or very hard. There are very many mental skills. For 1 point, you can get an easy skill at the same level as your IQ, an average skill at IQ-1, a hard skill at IQ-2, or a very hard skill at IQ-3. Spending half a point instead of 1 reduces the skill level by one (this is the lowest you can go), or you can increase your skill level by 1 for an additional 1 point (additional increases cost more per point: 2 each for the next three increases, then 4 each above that).
To succeed at a task, you roll 3d6 (3 six-sided dice) and sum the results. If the sum is less than or equal to your skill level, you succeed, but a sum of 17 or 18 always fails (critical successes and failures are not important for this analysis). Given our knowledge of the distribution of results on 3d6, we can figure out the best way to spend our points on IQ and skills for our characters.
Step 1) Figure out what mental skills you want your character to have, and what percent of attempts you want your character to be successful using them.
Step 2) Consult the table:
This shows the optimal IQ to have for a given number of average difficulty level skills (or their equivalents, see notes below) at a given average success rate (I did not bother showing success rates below 25%).
*Though an IQ of 3 is technically optimal in these cells, a 9 may be a better choice because the point cost difference is very small and IQ will have impacts on game play beyond the cost of skills.
How to convert non-average difficulty skills into average skill equivalents:
Derp is a big tough guy who lets his sword do most of the thinking for him. He doesn't need many mental skills at all. He takes four, but he wants to be really good at them because failure makes him mad. An IQ of 3 would let him be regularly successful with his four mental skills while freeing up the most points to spend elsewhere, like on ST, DX, and HT. An IQ of 9 may be a small but worthwhile expense, though, depending on role-playing goals.
Brainiac McGee knows how to do everything. He got his first doctorate at the age of 7, and went back for more. He is never (hardly ever) wrong, so the desire success rate for everything is 98.1%. Since he'll have more than 9 mental skills, he'll definitely be in the white cell area, so very hard skills count as 3 average skills, and hard skills count as 2. Somewhere between 40 and 50 average skill equivalents is where an IQ of 18 is a better buy than an IQ of 17.
Bob is a suave dude. He's got a good mix of social and professional skills. He's not the best, but he gets by pretty well. With a success rate target in the mid 80%s, an IQ of 13 is best for 5-14 average skills. If he wants to be better at what he does, and has more than 7 skills, he should increase his IQ. If he has 7 or fewer skills and wants to be better, he should just spend points on the skills. An IQ of 13 is great for someone who wants to excel at a few core mental skills, especially if they are hard.
If you want to have a bunch of skills at different success rates, you're on your own. This table was a beast, and I'm not making one for each of the thousands of likely combinations of skill success rates that people might want. I recommend just planning to be really good at whatever skills you want, and working from there. Or just have an IQ of 13 and don't think about it too much.
GURPS lets players buy skills for their characters at different costs depending on the levels of the characters' attributes and the difficulty of each skill. I will focus on the IQ attribute and its related skills for now. IQ is purchased with points, ranges from 1 to infinity (practically 20), and defaults to an average score of 10. Increasing IQ costs 10 points for each of the first three increases above 10, then 15 points for each of the next two steps, 20 points for each of the next two steps, and 25 points for each subsequent step. So, having an IQ of 18 costs 125 points. A character can get points back by having a below average IQ, earning 10 points for each level below 10 (except, inexplicably, the only 5 points for level 8).
Skills are either easy, average, hard, or very hard. There are very many mental skills. For 1 point, you can get an easy skill at the same level as your IQ, an average skill at IQ-1, a hard skill at IQ-2, or a very hard skill at IQ-3. Spending half a point instead of 1 reduces the skill level by one (this is the lowest you can go), or you can increase your skill level by 1 for an additional 1 point (additional increases cost more per point: 2 each for the next three increases, then 4 each above that).
To succeed at a task, you roll 3d6 (3 six-sided dice) and sum the results. If the sum is less than or equal to your skill level, you succeed, but a sum of 17 or 18 always fails (critical successes and failures are not important for this analysis). Given our knowledge of the distribution of results on 3d6, we can figure out the best way to spend our points on IQ and skills for our characters.
Step 1) Figure out what mental skills you want your character to have, and what percent of attempts you want your character to be successful using them.
Step 2) Consult the table:
This shows the optimal IQ to have for a given number of average difficulty level skills (or their equivalents, see notes below) at a given average success rate (I did not bother showing success rates below 25%).
*Though an IQ of 3 is technically optimal in these cells, a 9 may be a better choice because the point cost difference is very small and IQ will have impacts on game play beyond the cost of skills.
How to convert non-average difficulty skills into average skill equivalents:
- White cells: Easy skills count as .5, Hard skills count as 2, Very Hard skills count as 3.
- Black cells: Easy skills count as .5, Hard skills count as 1.5, Very Hard skills count as 2.
- Medium grey cells with white text: Easy count as .67; Hard count as 1.33, Very Hard count as 2.
- Light grey cells: Easy count as .75, Hard count as 1.25, Very Hard count as 2.
- Medium grey cells with black text: conversion is variable and not worth including
Derp is a big tough guy who lets his sword do most of the thinking for him. He doesn't need many mental skills at all. He takes four, but he wants to be really good at them because failure makes him mad. An IQ of 3 would let him be regularly successful with his four mental skills while freeing up the most points to spend elsewhere, like on ST, DX, and HT. An IQ of 9 may be a small but worthwhile expense, though, depending on role-playing goals.
Brainiac McGee knows how to do everything. He got his first doctorate at the age of 7, and went back for more. He is never (hardly ever) wrong, so the desire success rate for everything is 98.1%. Since he'll have more than 9 mental skills, he'll definitely be in the white cell area, so very hard skills count as 3 average skills, and hard skills count as 2. Somewhere between 40 and 50 average skill equivalents is where an IQ of 18 is a better buy than an IQ of 17.
Bob is a suave dude. He's got a good mix of social and professional skills. He's not the best, but he gets by pretty well. With a success rate target in the mid 80%s, an IQ of 13 is best for 5-14 average skills. If he wants to be better at what he does, and has more than 7 skills, he should increase his IQ. If he has 7 or fewer skills and wants to be better, he should just spend points on the skills. An IQ of 13 is great for someone who wants to excel at a few core mental skills, especially if they are hard.
If you want to have a bunch of skills at different success rates, you're on your own. This table was a beast, and I'm not making one for each of the thousands of likely combinations of skill success rates that people might want. I recommend just planning to be really good at whatever skills you want, and working from there. Or just have an IQ of 13 and don't think about it too much.
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