Frak, Frel and Other "F" Words

Now that I have all of the planned characters for this, I've officially started working on actual planning for this. A GURPS: Monster Hunters game that is set in the Dresden Files universe (albeit located here in OKC), I'm planning on trying something slightly different (and potentially game-breaking if this blows up in my face) wherein I'm going to be intentionally not having the characters be in a group until the climax. This is definitely going to be something of an experiment to see if I can actually pull this off, but I've got a decent game plan, I think.

Evidently, they've changed how they operate and no longer allow me to use their damned service the way it's always worked. Unless I pay them, of course. So all of my Obsidian Portals sites that refer to the images there are thoroughly broken. Clearly, I must now upload all of those images to my own site and hotlink from there, which means my time with Photobucket is rapidly nearing an end.

One of my players has two characters - looking at doing the troupe kind of play - and finally got around to finalizing his second one. He is going to be a wizardly type but will not a dedicated combat mage. You won’t see him hurling fireballs or calling lightning. What he does is more subtle – by altering probability and utilizing discreet illusions, he will no doubt be a very dangerous foe. Curiously, technology does not seem to hate him like it does other White Council mages, which indicates there is definitely more to him than meets the eye. (This requires an Unusual Background.) Have discussed making Serendipity a "sorcery power" - normally, it costs 15/level, however if we apply Sorcery (-15%) and Karma (-20%), this would come to 10 pts/level. With Karma, we would use the Distortion Points thing from Thaumatology p193 which works like Paradox; each time he activates Serendipity, he gains a Distortion Point and once he has 3, he would begin rolling against that number wh...

In the ConsOps game (which is just GURPS: Action!), we have a Wheelman and it occurred to me that a neat scenario could exist wherein the PC in question ends up being the driver in some big race (Grand Prix, of course.) Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything that really fits rules for this.

Took my pistol to the range this a.m. and put a couple hundred rounds though it (225, to be precise.) While my miserable shot grouping isn't the subject of this post - clearly, I only have a single point in Guns (Pistol) - what did occur to me is how frequently I lost track of the bullet count and was momentarily surprised when my magazine was empty. This led me to thinking: how is it that PCs in a RPG are able to know exactly how many rounds they actually have fired? In an Ultra Tech situation, that's easy - an ammo counter might display this, ala the M41A Pulse Rifle of Aliens fame or perhaps the character has a HUD running that tells him this - but in a more modern society? I spent four years in the Army as an infantryman and even in a carefully controlled environment like a gun range, I lose track of my count. In GURPS: Tactical Shooting , there's a bit about Situational Awareness on page 11 that remarks simply that the game presumes everyone is aware of things that...

Went ahead and signed up for The Great Courses Plus  because I'm a big ass nerd and have been watching the King Arthur lectures, what with me actually running an Arthurian game and all. It's pretty much what I'd expected - basically an examination of the literary history of Arthur with one lecture on what the most likely historical character (Ambrosius Aurelianus and/or Riothamus, who may be the same person) before then mostly focusing on the various literature that padded out the myth. Still, it's fascinating to me. Not sure what I'll be watching next. Would actually like something on Charlemagne, honestly...

By now, we've all (presumably) seen  Rogue One.  It was, mostly, unnecessary in the grand scheme of things but still managed to be pretty awesome. The Battle of Scarif was flat out fantastic, but it led me to thinking ... what about this?