Character creation for humans is actually something that I find to be of little difficulty. Perhaps that is because I'm familiar with the 'fluff' and if you're creating an RPG supplement for general access you have to be more specific. Ah well...
Indeed. But without some kind of direction, won’t we keep covering the same bases? I guess I am most interested in getting started, so I’d probably be interested in getting some rudimentary Character creation rules down, tweak the skill system, combat system (all of this very lightly), lift the necessary Ultra-Tech entries and place them into 40k, create some profiles for alien races (and have everyone look them over, or borrow what’s already been created), create a magic/psyker and faith system (as well as a Chaos mutation system – probably mutations bought with XPs), equipment and currency list, …gosh I guess that is a big question.
That's because it is a wargame and such things are of little interest to most people. Treating 40k as more of an 'average' soft sci-fi than it claims to be solves the problem. (The same situation also occurs with WFRP and its claim to be a unique 'dark fantasy' RPG... )
I don’t think 40k is “average” science fiction, with all due respect. I’d rather treat it like average fantasy. But anyway, I think what you meant was include the more playable explanations of a Science Fiction Universe, and that makes all kinds of sense. I think the Rogue Trader vision of 40k allows this much more than the exceedingly dark, completely medieval, and almost ridiculously xenophobic Imperium that we have with 3rd edition. However, shining through the clouds of what seems to be a Papal/Stalinistic universe are little rays of fluff that promise role-playing potential. So we just have to stick to those ideas.
And of course there is the Ant-Imperium campaign, but I haven’t thought enough about that.
Surely the point of GURPS is that you can handle all types of character? In the limited character generations that I've undertaken I've had everything from a TechPriest to mercenary, from a high-ranking Imperial noble to a navigator, to an eldar...
Yes. But don’t we need templates of some sort? Restrictions on cyber implants? I dunno…
Do you mean a consideration of those genre-specific skills that are appropriate to the 40k universe? If so, what would you suggest? In my previous consideration I identified few skills that could not be covered by the standard set mentioned in GURPS. But with that said perhaps it is the specific variation of these standard skills that you're talking about?Hidden Lore for the
adeptus mechanicus, or the history of the Imperium... or what-not.
Hidden Lore for the adeptus mechanicus, or the history of the Imperium... or what-not.”
Exactly. Some are new, some are variations. Let’s see:
Advantages/disadvantages:
Faith
Navigator Gene
Mutant (well, this is really a disadvantage, isn’t it?)
Chaos touched (in some fluff, this is the same as above)
Group membership: Redemption
Group membership: Adeptus Ministorum
Group membership: Ganger (is this necessary? Or should these all be templates, or both?)
Terrifying scars (see below – I’d like to rename GURPS material to resemble existing 40k/necro/Inqu. Terminology)
Star Child Descendant ( I forget what these guys are called – Sentinels?, but this would be like 500 points)
Psiker (could be borrowed from existing GURPS advantages, I think)
Skills:
Xeno tech
Knowledge: xenos
Knowledge: Daemon
Some kind of Daemon summoning skills?
Language: High/low gothic, tech language (I forget what it’s called)
Skills for various psi powers (as per GURPS) – I think looking into Necromunda and Inquisitor would help here. The Wyrds are rather well-described, IIRC (I have 2 copies of the game, go figure I should check).
Gunfighter (two-weapon fighting, renamed to sound more like 40k – hey I’m a sucker for etymology), quickshot, etc.
Machine prayers, slug weapons
Machine prayers, Bolt weapons
Machine prayers, heavy ballistic, etc.
Although this is one of the more complex issues since in some regards the Imperium is about the restriction of too-high levels of technology and about maintenance of lower technologies... Ack! Hard to describe since the standard approach of the 'fluff' is untenable.Here we have issues with the fluff, IMHO. First off, I believe, firmly, that the average person should view technology with some kind of suspicion. However, the fluff doesn’t stick to that well – in one of the Last Chancer’s novels (the 13th Legion, IIRC), the characters talk about their technology like grunts in WWII did. They clearly understand technology (lower tech, err lasers and such) for what it is, and have no problems using it or blowing it up. I’m more inclined to think that your average person pays lip-service to the fear of technology, but would love to have a plasma grill on the back porch if he could get it (and some hive rat steaks to go with it). Still, he doesn’t understand it like, say, Luke Skywalker does in Star wars. Nor is technology designed so that he can. But 20th century technology – anything mechanical – is fair game, with the exception of most combustion engines and such. The fluff seems to bear this out.
Unsure of what you mean. Combat is covered in the normal GURPS system surely?
Yes.
I'm an advocate of, where possible, using pre-established GURPS 'gadgets' to explain 40k phenomena. Every single conversion that I've ever seen which tried to recreate the 40k universe have failed... miserably... awfully. Thus I personally look at such things as the gyroc and the blaster and say, respectively, 'ooh bolter' and 'ooh lasgun'. And then I think about what that says about those two weapons, rather than merely creating 40k in GURPS. Is there truly a difference? I think the answer addresses many important questions on how you see the 40k universe operation! <grin>
In some cases I agree. In others I don’t. A bolter is a lower-damage Gyroc…a lasgun is about the same as a laser rifle in Gurps. BUT the reliability, ammo capacities, and ROF should be adjusted accordingly. Note that in Anargo there might be many different versions of autoguns, stubbs, maybe even Lasguns. We should try to capture that gritty feel if we can…besides, it won’t take much work. Players need a choice of technology, especially when it comes to weapons and such.
And naturally the technology in 40k is under-explained…I think it is more prevalent than we are led to believe. In some cases, this is taken to a laughable extreme – for example, with some of the vehicles.
Yes, there are certain poisons in the canonical 40k universe that would have to be described using the guildeines from GURPS Compendium II...I don’t have GC:II, but I do know the poisons in 40k are crazy toxic – but that’s mostly Assassin poison, and stuff that Dark Eldar use. Otherwise, we can assume exotic forms of “normal” poisons.
Now there is a race that you're welcome with, if you can get the explanations by me. I despire the orks as they are currently represented in the game.Eh? Ok, the fungi thing may seem odd, but really it works with ork horde concept. And I HATED the 2nd edition silliness of the orks (though I absolutely loved some of the Ork boyz models – normal size, cool clothing and equipment, they had the “trooper look.”). There isn’t much one can do to avoid the fungi ork theory, which is what most people hate. The idea that latent psi ability improves their technology is cool by me, and most people misinterpret it as “psi ability MAKES stuff work.” Not so – the Imperial Ork fighters can use shootas, for example.
Now, what I WOULD like to see is a more realistic approach to Ork psychology. Orks trade with humans, in rare circumstances. They adventure. They can speak smidgeons of gothic…so they could be mercenaries, pirates, treasure-hunters, etc. And they DO co-exist amongst themselves.
You're going to have to explain this one a bit more. With that said, however, I feel that the basic concept of having 'Mana' and 'Faith' zones has a great deal of potential in explaining the various features of the 40k universe...Faith must be explained. I think acts of faith should be incorporated as both advantages and skills, depending on the act. But generally speaking, anything with an observable effect would be high, high level.
Magic/psi is generally much easier to do. But I think there should always be a risk that a psyker could become tainted, at which point he takes on access to Chaos “spells,” and mutations (all of which he must pay for in XPs). There’s so much potential there…
A common problem in the interpretation of the 40k universe. I've personally gone from using psionics to using magic... Now I'm going to stick with the original idea that I had and use
both.
Warp travel?
I meant Warp travel, but isn’t it expensive? It’s damn hard to book passage on a long Warp flight, I think, and a year or so is going to pass by in the interim. I imagine most RPGs will be run on single planets, or in nearby solar systems/sub-sectors.
Definitely something that is up for grabs. I personally go for the example of post-Southern Trading Company UK examples for limited trading companies in the 40k universe...I don’t know about either model, however my guess is most trade by Guilders resembles a mixture between Dune-like trading houses and Renaissance-era Italian Merchant families, with some poor/low-level “Gold-rush” grizzly adams types scraping a living together doing Archeotech horde runs and such. Ooh, that sounds like fun…
Another one that you're going to have to take some more time to explain.The Inquistion squeezes from the top, the Redemption from the bottom. Basically you WILL believe.
-Volsung