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Never played RoS, but I was a GURPS fanboy in my college days. I definitely could get my GURPS on again!
IMHO, GURPS 4e is a huge improvement over GURPS 3e - especially if you are interested in running a high-powered cinematic game. I was a GURPS fan back in the early 90s, but drifted away from the system towards the end of the 3e period. However, in the past year or two I've been drawn back to the system by the quality of recent products.
Reign of Steel is now part of the Infinite Worlds setting that was originally published in the 3e GURPS Time Travel, allowing you to do cool Terminator-style stories involving the manipulation of past events. The Infinite Worlds hadcover for GURPS 4e was written by Ken Hite and won a couple of awards for best RPG sourcebook, if memory serves me right.
David,
I tried making a character last night, and I'm flummoxed. I'm afraid I need more guidance than "125 points," because different referees have different expectations about what's reasonable for player characters. If I sink half those points into interpersonal skills and connections, and somebody else devotes their entire kit-and-kaboodle to being the twitchiest quick-draw with a laser rifle, then we're playing to different assumptions. Any combat that would provide her a challenge would turn my character into a well-connected smear. Any subplot that plays to my character's investigative and diplomatic strengths would be a waste of her time. (Another way to put it: she's playing a bug-hunt. I'm playing the Reign of Steel version of Call of C'thulhu, where deadly robots don't show up very often, and where it's always a Very Bad Day when they do.)
It looks like you're going to end up with a pretty small party -- I don't know how anybody who doesn't already own GURPS: Robots and Reign of Steel would find the rules. What kind of campaign style do you expect?
@Chris: Thanks! Hoping it comes together. Your idea sounds like a good one...and would help cover a broad range of situations. For the 'connected' person you sort of highlighted above I'd guess Contact/Contact Group or Claim to Hospitality (not sure what they are in 3e) with some of the nearby folks (nomad groups, resistance fighters, junkrats) would be a real benefit. For the other character either a military type or Macgyver-ranger or, maybe even a techie, would be cool.
I guess we'd need to hear from David more about what he'd like to run. If he wants us to start at Tranquility we'd need different characters than if we're in Zone Washington or Zone London or one of the less-friendly machine zones. Since it's 125 points I'd guess a limit of 60ish in disads? I also assume no supernatural stuff (or can we be escapees from one of the AI freakshows)?
M
Edit: Oh yeah...and I guess I'd need to find out if he wants me to join the game in the first place :) Assumptive close I guess.
Okay, Zone Denver is here we will be starting. The characters should be human and have no robot allies, so no mechriders. Beyond that I ca pretty much tailor a game around what ever you guys come up with. You hae $5000 to play with for equiptment, but anything you don't spend is lost. Anything else you want to know?
Edit: No freaky supernatural stuff and 50 points worth of disads.
How did I know he was going to say Denver? Cthulu it is. :)
I just looked at my copy of RoS and notice it references Third Edition (revised). It seems my rules are just Third Edition. I'm guessing the revised version integrates some of the stuff from Compendium I and II? My book doesn't even include Ally Group or Contact/Contact Group.
Sorry, I got GURPS back in the day, played it a little and then put RPGs aside for a long while. Been into 4th Edition since it came out and have bought up a lot of the old 3e books to read (RoS, Mars, w23, etc.) I'll see if any of my friends have a newer edition of the book or if I can find it on eBay or something.
When are you wanting to start? Any rules/preferences regarding the game (post frequency, format, etc.)?
M
Hi David,
Still moving with this? If so, can you give a little detail on where in Zone Denver, any background, starting year, major groups we might meet, etc.? I have some character ideas and have located the necessary rules (turns out the update to revised is free on SJG's site) so some details on our corner of the RoS world would help me flesh that out.
M
BTW, I may be able to fish up another player. She's not a Paizo member but loves RoS and post-apocalyptic fare in general. If you're interested I'll see if she wants to 'jine up.
Hi David,
Still moving with this? If so, can you give a little detail on where in Zone Denver, any background, starting year, major groups we might meet, etc.? I have some character ideas and have located the necessary rules (turns out the update to revised is free on SJG's site) so some details on our corner of the RoS world would help me flesh that out.
MBTW, I may be able to fish up another player. She's not a Paizo member but loves RoS and post-apocalyptic fare in general. If you're interested I'll see if she wants to 'jine up.
Yes, I'm still moving forward with this. Another player would be great. I'll get you the details when I get to where my books are. Right now I'm at work and my books are at home.
Okay, here is what I can tell you. The major group activein Zone Dnver is the Human Liberation Army. The HLA is ery mch like the Resistance in the Terminator movies, loosely organized and split up into cells. They also have operatves for the one Washington group Free America that operate in Zone Denver. Zone Denvr isexceptionl because it is known that it builds cyborg operatives. Starting year is 2047, Zone Denver comprises the central United States and Canada from the the Nevada-Utah border to the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. It extends south to the Rio Grande. There are only about 400,000 survivors in Zone Denver, with roughly half being held in Denver's "processing camps." The est tend toward being solitary nomads called junkrats, or resistance fighters. However, the major human power in the zone arwe so called zonegangs, which are basicly biker gangs that have addapted to survive in their new reality.
Cool! Thanks for the update.
I was thinking of having my character be an outdoorsy type, raised by survivalists somewhere in eastern California/Oregon/Washington (depending on where in Denver you want to set it) after his parents were killed in the final war. A few months ago his home (bunker) was raided and destroyed by exterminators, killing the only family he knew. His goal now is to cross from Zone Denver to Zone Washington - his survivalist pack had been listening to radio communications from there for years but never had the stones to set off cross-country to reach it. He thinks Washington sounds like the promised land - but will probably learn better someday soon.
I've got the detail on chargen and will post a first-pass character between now and the end of the week (sorry, little busy with work atm).
Once we get going, how often do you want us to post. I could probably do one to two times daily if necessary - or less if the pace is slower.
M
David, I'd like to set my PC up as the last survivor of a notoriously brave biker gang named [you supply the name]. Maybe even one of the founding members.
The gang kept chewing up the robots during its resource raids, with surprise hit-and-run strategies and oddball tactics. As son as the robots figured out how to deal with pairs of bikers with electrified chains running from one cycle to the other, the gang would switch to wolf-pack tactics, or lure machines into pit traps, or something else bizarre. But each encounter cost the gang a couple of members, and they eventually threw themselves into a sacrificial attack that, a week later, hadn't accomplished much.
The man himself? He's, ah, grizzled, a reasonable rider, and he's got a serious reputation in Zone Denver as the [name of gang] member too smart to try killing a factory with a dozen cycles. His best qualities are his extensive knowledge of the zone, and the way he can talk sense to most people. His worst quality is his pig-headed nature. He's not the most likely man in the world to change his mind, once he's got it made up.
And he's available as a guide through the zone.