Sternvale Adventures

The Basics The Thrust vs Swing argument - debate, comparison - is a long and storied one. Much of it stems from the confusion around what damage actually means in GURPS, which is a difficult question to answer. In fact, it's already half-answered. The damage of high-tech guns and bullets is well-documented. By defining 1" of RHA steel as having DR 70, we can use the penetration energy of the projectile and its other properties (expressed as a long and complicated formula), below, to calculate its penetration and its damage.  Penetration Damage (points) = sqrt(KE1.04/Xsect0.314)/13.3926 and  Wound Channel Damage (points) = MV × Xsect* x 26,220 where Xsect* = (1-V/600) ×π(Bore/2)2 + (V2)/216,000 ×Bore2 ×(Aspect Ratio) (From http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2794) Ugly. Regardless, it's a system, and it works. What we have for low-tech damage - fists and melee weapons - is more arbitrary. Whether or not it works is another question. Muscle-powered damage is split ...

 A common failure mode I run into when designing a dungeon is the need to have rooms with a purpose. I'm very much a fan of verisimilitude in my games, whether those be tabletop or video games, and I like form to follow function. The problem with this is that it's often boring ; most historical castles didn't have a huge variety of needs. Think about your own house - you have a kitchen, a living room, enough beds for everyone, a bathroom, a garage, maybe a storage room or two... and then what? This is one reason why I struggle to play much Minecraft  these days - I've built a bedroom, a storage room, an enchanting room - what else do I need? Farleigh Hungerford Castle, in Somerset, England We can see most of these have rough analogues in medieval castles (and therefore fantasy). We can even throw in some things that are historical but not really in the right place - why does every other dungeon in Skyrim have a well-stocked forge, anyway? - but we're likely to end ...

Lottie the thief awakens under an unfamiliar roof as the sun begins to shine through the shutters. A quick pat-down reveals that all of her organs are (mostly) in place, although the blackened bandages around her chest - and the sharp pain when she tries to breathe - reveal that not all is fine and dandy just yet.  Lottie: HT, vs 10: 13.  Her condition hasn't improved overnight, but it hasn't got worse, so she forces herself to her feet and joins the other party members in the dining room. Miguel and Garret are hard at work preparing their weapons; Miguel in particular seems very happy to have his sword back, and he sits at the table oiling it enthusiastically. Almost gleefully, in fact. Garret's weapon is not as sensitive as the sword; his preparation mostly consists of swinging the flail around a few times to loosen the chain, barely missing Elias as he comes in. "Good morning," he says to Lottie. "How do you feel?" "Like I've been shot in the...

The party set out the following morning. Miguel finds he's slightly overburdened, so he places his rucksack in the wheelbarrow for Garret apologetically. The big lad's a little grumpy, but it doesn't slow him down significantly, and he would have been far more annoyed if they'd taken longer to travel because Miguel was walking slowly.  Weather: 7, passable.  Travelling at a leisurely 2 miles an hour, they make it to the outskirts of Old Man Rutger's land before lunchtime. The barrows are visible behind his fields, although you wouldn't recognise them as such unless you knew what they were beforehand - they're sufficiently covered in turf that they barely stand out from the sometimes-hilly landscape. A handful of sheep can be spotted grazing away happily on their slopes, and the sounds of chickens clucking can be heard from the gate. "Looks normal to me," says Garret, as he trundles the wheelbarrow up the rough path towards the farmhouse. The house ...

The party's week in town is over all too quickly. The innkeep starts making oblique references to their advance payment being over, so they need to start looking for more work. Elias, as a travelling monk, spends his off days giving street sermons; Lottie is often found in the crowd of said sermons, lifting the purses of the faithful, while telling Elias that she absolutely was paying attention, and she's sure she'll come to the next one. Miguel and Garret, ever the hard workers, hit the bar. 

Lottie, Garret, Miguel and Elias have each earned 6 points and $745 in cash from their short adventure to the monastery, making them 131-point characters. Let's see how they spend them, and in the process clarify the options available to them (which don't vary much from those found in DF Setting 1: Caverntown).  Mundane weapons and equipment are easy to find, including cheap versions. There's lots of dead bandits, brigands, mercenaries, and adventurers about, and just as many opportunistic scavengers willing to sell their stuff on for a quick buck. Anything fancy, especially well-made or of foreign construction is unlikely to appear, but might on a roll of 6 on 3d, with a penalty equal to the total cost factor/10. If it can't be found, they'll have to wait a week and check again, or get it made specially, which takes 1d+1 weeks, and needs to be paid for in advance. Armour, on the other hand, is made specifically for its owner. Sometimes it can be refitted - a suitab...