Rate My GURPS setting (or something like that)

[Shademan]

Does this sound playable and fun?

The players gets about 170 points (pluss disadvantages) to build a human from any time period they want.
Thats all the info they get.


The year is 2030 and earth is under attack by a alien species that travels space and time at the same time, constantly jumping in and out of existence. which makes fighting them a TAD bit difficult. So the best scientists on earth creates a machine that emulates their time jumping abilities so that they can send a team inside their mothership and blow it up.
needless to say, the machine is shot down just as it is about to leave the atmosphere and falls back towards earth, and trough time.
The aliens follow the heroes trough time, intent on completely destroying the machine and ensuring their victory.

so yeah, this campaign would kinda flow like a action adventure series, like stargate or something. with characters from different time periods, the surviving crew member of the timejumper machine will teach them ROUGHLY how to use it and tell them to save earth before he dies. The heroes(players) will jump trough time, fighting aliens and solving different problems that arise.

so, would you play in this? do you think it will work? any ideas you'd like to share?

[kyoryu]

Think hard about this one. TL differences in GURPS mean a whoooole heckuva lot. A character from a modern time period will destroy anything from a medieval time period, just based on gear differences alone. A reasonably high-tech rifle might do 10d or more damage, with higher accuracy and faster shooting than any bow could manage.

The only way to mitigate this will be to make ammo rare, which will effectively nerf the high-TL characters.

The "GURPS can run lots of settings, so let's do all settings at once!" thing has been tried for over 20 years. I've never seen it work well.

[Severus]

This isn't really fair to your players.

Conan the Barbarian types would be a complete waste at the tech levels involved here. It would all be about plasma blasters and mag lev repeating rifles.

Having survival skills would be useful, but in GURPS your biggest investment is in your stats, so a earlier period choice (strength to stab things rather than dex to shoot things) would be bad if advanced weapons are available.

Though I think a part of this is the problem with GURPS and with a system that didn't require such a commitment to stats like Hero, players could work around that much better with the limited info.

[SPoD]

There's no reason the Conan character couldn't pick up a Laser Broadsword in the very first adventure and use all of his existing skills on that.

Also, if I understand it, no character will have access to the future tech. All the PCs will come from the past. The machine will crash into the past and the future soldier will tell them how to use it before dying, Abin Sur style. There won't be any "plasma blasters and mag lev repeating rifles" around, there will be whatever weapons they themselves have, until they loot something off of the aliens who come after them (and then, they'd all be equally unprepared to use them). A knight, a caveman, and a British navy officer jump in a time machine and figure it out along the way; the tech level differences between them would be insignificant.

Not to mention, combat does not need to be everything, anyway. "Action" can involve a lot of things that low tech characters can be good at.

[Severus]

Then if it is set in the past, then the barbarian type trumps the dex/int type.

The point is that for GURPS you can't design a character for the environment without knowing it. Everything is too stat intensive. You build differently depending upon what's available in the world. A LOT differently.

If you used a system that didn't have this issue, then you can fudge it, since nobody's starting build would be really bad.

[Severus]

You could also do something of a fix if you're set on GURPS by setting a very low cap on stats and forcing people to buy skills and abilities.

[kyoryu]

There's no reason the Conan character couldn't pick up a Laser Broadsword in the very first adventure and use all of his existing skills on that.

Which still leaves the problem that, at high tech levels, ranged > melee (by a lot).

Also, if I understand it, no character will have access to the future tech. All the PCs will come from the past. The machine will crash into the past and the future soldier will tell them how to use it before dying, Abin Sur style. There won't be any "plasma blasters and mag lev repeating rifles" around, there will be whatever weapons they themselves have, until they loot something off of the aliens who come after them (and then, they'd all be equally unprepared to use them).

Which means that the low TL guys will be at a massive disadvantage.

A knight, a caveman, and a British navy officer jump in a time machine and figure it out along the way; the tech level differences between them would be insignificant.

Except that the high TL skills will default better. Plasma blasters will likely be able to default from modern firearms better than they can from a longbow. And even if they don't, the stats and advantages will be more in line.

Not to mention, combat does not need to be everything, anyway. "Action" can involve a lot of things that low tech characters can be good at.

No, it doesn't. But it's a big part of most games (though GURPS does a better job than a lot of systems in minimizing this). At any rate, it's a major imbalance point that needs to be addressed as part of the scenario for it to work well. It's not that "you can't do this in a balanced way," it's more a matter of "there are balance issues here, you'd better think about how you're going to address them."

[SPoD]

Then if it is set in the past, then the barbarian type trumps the dex/int type.

Why? Why can't a dex/int type pick up a bow? Or solve a problem using their wits instead of a sword? Why is it one or the other?

The point is that for GURPS you can't design a character for the environment without knowing it.

You can if you don't care about combat optimization as much as building an interesting character who you would enjoy playing. If the players are told to build a character from any time period in human history, they are going to know what is available: Everything from human history. The fun will be in characters with wildly different abilities trying to survive in different time periods.

Note that he didn't even say the character would HAVE combat skills. A Conan character will still trump a 21st century librarian in combat regardless of time period or setting. GURPS isn't D&D, combat isn't everything.

Except that the high TL skills will default better. Plasma blasters will likely be able to default from modern firearms better than they can from a longbow. And even if they don't, the stats and advantages will be more in line.

I did say "Laser Broadsword" didn't I? How about a Force Shield that can block lasers and is worn like a kite shield? Or how about taking a page out of Dune and giving the aliens a force field that lasers can't penetrate, but swords can?

I recall a guy named Luke who didn't seem to have much of a problem using a melee weapon against blasters.

[Shademan]

looting weapons from the aliens wont be a problem, as the weapons are integrated into the aliens and cannot be used by the humans.
I like this discussion. it has given me some ideas, such as forcefields and aliens not expecting a fully armed knight slamming into them.

that being said, the aliens will often not confront the players directly, as they don't want to mess up the timeline too much, but they will manipulate other humans to do their dirty-work.
when the players DO fight the aliens they will rarely fight more than one alien at a time (except for when they at long last reach the mothership) and it's gonna be a big deal.

[Swooper]

Or how about taking a page out of Dune and giving the aliens a force field that lasers can't penetrate, but swords can?

[nitpick]Lasers could penetrate them, they just pretty much caused a nuclear explosion when they hit the shields. So nobody used lasguns in warfare, because firing them at a shielded target would not just kill the target, but also the guy who fired and everything within several dozen kilometres.[/nitpick]



This is still a solid suggestion, though.

[SPoD]

that being said, the aliens will often not confront the players directly, as they don't want to mess up the timeline too much, but they will manipulate other humans to do their dirty-work.

This is good news, because it means that the players won't want to mess up the timeline by killing the humans, either. That will put more emphasis on negotiation and non-violent (or at least non-lethal) conflict resolution.

If I may suggest, stealth-based missions would be a great way to equalize players from different time periods. Stealth skills are pretty much the same all across the board, and a caveman who hunts for his food is just as likely to have them as a 20th-century cat burglar.

Maybe you should suggest to your players when they build their characters to carefully consider all of the skills that their character may have, not just combat stuff. Suggest that they make a well-rounded character and that they think about all the talents they would need to survive and prosper in their home time period. You may even want to suggest that a character who started play with NO practical combat skills would be an acceptable choice in this campaign, as long as everyone didn't do it. That way, you don't have the problem of someone optimizing a Conan character in such a way that they can't contribute anything if combat isn't an option.

[Shademan]

good points there, SPoD.
I think I shall tell them that.

I reckon they will win their battles by stealth, PC-cleverness and allies. sure the aliens can manipulate Reynald de ridefort but the players can ask saladin for help, or when the aliens make Nero their puppet the players blow up Rome...waitwhat!?.... oh well...Rome did burn at one point...