Quote Originally Posted by Kizara View Post
Where is Deceptive Attack? It's not listed in the "combat lite" section at the back of characters, so I assume its hidden in the imtimidating second book. Also, where are the rules about hit locations/aimed hits? That's exactly the sort of thing I came here (to GURPS) for!
I don't have my books with me right now, but I'm pretty sure it's all in "the intimidating second book".

You seem pretty literate; why don't you try reading the books again, or at least trying to find the parts you're confused about? I appreciate that you find it easier to get people on the internet to answer your questions, but we're not your research assistants. Put a little effort in so we don't feel like you're wasting our time because you value it less than yours.

In reality, the kind of blow you can land with something (say, a bastard sword) with one hand vs a two-handed swing isn't a 10% difference, its like a 50% difference. Thus +1 damage seems miserly. The most telling point comes when you look at the same sword (bastard sword) on the 2 different tables, and see only a single point difference. Not much of an offensive power increase, unless two-handing has other benefits hidden elsewhere.
Well, it's necessary for bigger weapons, unless you have a high enough ST. That's kind of like a benefit.

Other than that, I'd need to see some kind of study or experiment measuring the force generated by one-handed vs. two-handed swings before I accepted your numbers. I mean, it makes intuitive sense that you can swing big things harder with two hands, but I'm not sure it's a 50% difference. (In fact, I suspect it's not linear at all; it would depend on how strong you are, how heavy your weapon is, how the weapon is shaped, and how you're using it. The majority of two-handed sword use really isn't swinging for the fences, for instance; those swords mostly saw battlefield use, and that kind of thing leaves you wide open.)

Just how much damage do you think someone can do with a two-handed sword? You can't cut trees down with one; heck, you probably can't even cut a body in half with one - not unless it's held taut and braced at just the right angle. Historically speaking, even a two-handed sword couldn't chop through metal armor. There might not actually be all that much damage difference between a one-handed sword and a two-handed sword, and since you can't do fractional points of damage in GURPS, they had to stick the bastard sword somewhere in the middle.

I'm concerned that my friend who has limited patience these days will be willing to re-think how he does challenges/rolling at such a fundamental level.
It's a game mechanic, not a religion. You're supposed to be having fun. Offer your friend a tall, frosty glass of perspective.

Also, the whole "after 16 more is generally useless" bit is silly. The difference between 'good' and 'very good' is there, but after that you max out almost immediately.
A lot of people say that because they don't know how to drag effective skill down without feeling arbitrarily punitive.

Here's the thing. If someone has a high skill and you want to challenge him, give him harder challenges. So you have a 16 in Lockpicking and you can pick any lock? Great - here's an particularly well-crafted lock. You're at -2 to effective skill to pick it. Still easy? Okay - but you're trying to escape from prison, and you're picking the lock with a twisty stick and a dagger (-4) that you took from the guy that you strangled outside your cell, and it's dark in here (-2). Oh, and pick fast - you can hear the guards coming, so you only have seconds instead of minutes (let's say another -2 to rush the job), and you have to get it right on the first shot because you won't get another chance.

Still feel like an expert? The guy with skill 16 is very good, but snapping open a good lock with a twisty stick with one quick try is crazy talk. You'd have to be some kind of legendary master to pull that trick off.

So instead of thinking "nothing matters after 16", think "you start to become increasingly badass after 16". 16 is the "black belt" level where the true learning begins. Any fighter worth his salt can fight an orc on a plain in the daytime. Real legendary heroes fight an orc in the dark, in a sticky swamp, while trying not to succumb to a deadly poison that's spreading through their veins, after they haven't slept for two days, using an improvised weapon. Or something like that. The level where skills start to pass completely beyond the limits of realism and there's not much point in buying them any higher unless you want to be able to do things so silly they strain your suspension of disbelief is closer to 25. At that point, what you really want to be doing is looking for ways to broaden your ability.

Really, it's no different than high level D&D 3.x characters needing ridiculously high DC challenges.

Where can I find an expanded equipment list? For a system that's so deep in some ways, it is lacking some very important things in it's equipment lists. The higher-tech lists are even more sparse.
There's only so much room in the Basic books; they had to settle for representative samples for weapons and armor, and "figure it out yourself" for everything else (especially the futuristic gear, where there's nothing real to base stats on). The gear books you're looking for are Low-Tech (recently in playtesting, and expected out later this year, IIRC), High-Tech, and Ultra-Tech.

On that note, where are the mounted combat rules? I will doubtless have questions on them after reviewing as well.
Intimidating second book, IIRC.

And on that train of thought, what book has something like a beastiary? Noone I play with is going to want to have to boil-up every creature on the spot with a system we still barely know. I can do it with 3.5 (I rarely use an MM now, despite owning 5), but only after playing the system for like 6 years. The 'humanoid mook' thing is doable, and I appreciate the guidelines you both have given me, but there's a lot of wierder stuff I don't want to have to put-togther and adjust dozens of different things for each time.
One of the most common requests from new players (as far as I can tell) is a bestiary. There mostly isn't one, and the reason is that people argued for years over what they wanted to see in it (both in terms of what kind of creatures were included, and how much information there is about each creature). Eventually they realized that making everyone happy, or even most people happy, was an impossible task. The current plan is to have a lot of themed mini-bestiaries available on e23, and then people can just get the kind of creatures they want.

It's worth keeping in mind that monster stats are technically part of a world design. D&D has the luxury of saying, "this is what OUR troll is like". GURPS can't assume that you're playing in any particular setting, so any assumption the writers try to make might not apply in your world. Do you want a D&D troll, all tall and skinny with regeneration? Or do you want a bridge troll that's all stout and muscular, like a dwarf crossed with a monkey? Or do you want a scandinavian troll as big as a two-story house?

That said, there are a few volumes of horror creatures, but I think that's about it. SJG has a limited amount of writers (many of them freelance) and a limited editing staff, and a limited budget for paying them to write and edit things, and they're busy with other projects, so the bestiaries are getting neglected.