Character Creation: GURPS 3rd Ed

"GURPS" is a fun word. Sounds like a noise a bullfrog would make.

The Game: GURPS 3rd. Edition, using the Creatures of the Night book
The Publisher: Steve Jackson Games.
Degree of Familiarity: Not a hell of a lot. I've played GURPS on occasion, usually with Karafa, but never run it and never made my own character.
Books Required: Just the GURPS book, but like I said, I'm using a sourcebook as flavor for the stew.

 

OK, GURPS, as probably everyone still reading these posts (anybody?) knows, is Generic Universal Roleplaying System. It's just...a system, and TMK was the first one using this setup; publishing the system as its own book and then a bunch of sourcebooks for any damn thing you want. Seriously, d20 talks a good game, but GURPS, at last count, has approximately eleventy-twice billionty sourcebooks available.

Well, I only own three. Creatures of the Night is one I've owned for a long time, I sing its praises frequently because it's a goddamn awesome buy if you run any kind of horror. I've never run GURPS, but of the 67 (!) creatures in this book (hang on) at least 30 and probably more have found their way into the games I've run.

But that's the thing: I'm using this book primarily as inspiration, because the creatures in it aren't really playable. Well, a few of them might be. But let's do this: Each creature has several adventure seeds. So I'll randomly pick a creature, pick one of those seeds, and then make a character appropriate to that scenario.

Hang on, gonna need some entropy.

My result creature is the Fabricant. These are living creatures who are slowly turning into robots. I can't remember if I've used these guys or not; seems like I might have in an old game of Mage: The Ascension (where they'd have fit in nicely), but I don't know anymore. In any event, GURPS measures Tech Level; we're at approximately Tech Level 7 right now (amusingly, the years listed for TL8 start at 2001, so where the hell are the fusion powered spacecraft, huh?). Fabricants always turn into beings two TL above their surroundings, so one made in the modern day would be TL 9, and have access to awesome stuff accordingly.

Oh, further coolness: Fabricants grow a lair of flesh over themselves, which they can peel off at will and scare the crap out of people. If living beings eat this flesh, they change into fabricants, too. Indeed, that's how fabricants can repair themselves - feed their flesh to animals, then cannibalize the animals for parts.

Let's have a look at the adventure seeds. One of them ("Discarded Miracles") doesn't do much for me; it's about a fabricant hanging out in a junkyard full of weird science. It's OK, but eh. But then the other one, "Fermina", is kind of interesting. Fermina is a vampire/fabricant. She's TL9, so she has bionic limbs and retractable fangs, as well as whatever other TL9 stuff the GM might like. She likes to rip off her skin and go skiving around the city's rooftops "nude," but still acts like a vampire. But an interesting point: Can she still drink blood? I think if I were the GM, I might introduce some kind of reactor in her innards that converts the energy of living blood into an efficient fuel. Then, after we take this bitch down, we have to decide what to do about that engine. It'd be damned useful, and it's not like it's hard to get blood, right?

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's see. My character is a modern-day person who's going to wind up hunting down a robotic vampire. The temptation to take the same backstory I used for the Gremlin and apply it here is great, but I'll refrain. Instead, I think I'll play someone who knows vampires, but not robots.

Actually, if you'll pardon a really weird inspiration, did you happen to catch the movie Turbulence? Ray Liotta as a serial killer, some...blond woman as the star (Lauren Holly, now that I've looked). But what I remember about the movie, apart from being pretty unimpressed, was that in the opening scene where Liotta's character is captured, Hector Elizondo plays a cop who thinks he knows Liotta front and back, and is pretty arrogant about it (and is wrong on some key points). So my character will be a self-styled vampire expert, and in the game would get to see the vampire "tells"...and then get totally rocked when it turns out that she's a robot vampire.

Step One: Basic Attributes. I picture this person as being mostly mental, rather than physical. That means putting Intelligence high at a sacrifice to the other attributes. I'll put INT at 15; that eats 60 of my 100 points. I'll put STR at 10 (Average, costs nothing) and DEX at 9 ("costs" -10). I'll put Health at 10, Average, as well. Overall, I've spent 50.

My Speed score is (HT + DEX)/4, or 4.75.

Step Two: Physical Appearance. I can picture this guy. Black hair, balding, bad comb-back job, pasty skin, glasses, with a predilection for poofy shirts and other weird affectations of clothing. You've met him at cons, I'm sure. I think that's "Unattractive Appearance," so I get 5 points back.

Step Three: Wealth and Status. In the real world, having a lot of knowledge in some esoteric area of lore (like, say, vampires) doesn't pay unless you write novels that sell. It'd be an interesting twist to make this guy a novelist and give him money and status in that area. Actually, hell, that'd be fun to play. I'll take "Wealthy," which means I start with about $75K and work only 20 hours a week. I figure he actually works a lot more than that when he works, but his "work" is mostly research and when he writes, he goes on benders and burns out a book in a couple of months.

Now, Reputation. Enough people read my guy's books that he enjoys a +2 reaction bonus (10 points) with a fairly large group of people (folks who like lurid vampires novels), but he's not recognized all that often (sometimes). So that's 2 points it costs me.

I'm not changing his Status; while he's nominally a celebrity, he's also kind of a jerk, definitely arrogant, and doesn't really mix with other folks in his monetary class.

Step Four: Advantages. OK, let's see what's appropriate for my guy.

I think I'd like Eidetic Memory. I always wonder about this merit/advantage in RPGs, because it's so hard to simulate, but here, it gives you a double return on points into mental skills, and since I'm sure I'll be taking some of those, this seems like a good investment. That's 30 points.

Honestly, though, beyond that I don't see much else that grabs me. So I'll move on.

Step Five: Disadvantages. I'm currently at 97 points spent, so I'll need some disadvantages so I can buy skills.

OK, I'll take Odious Personal Habit. Yes, this will cancel my reputation bonus, but it is what it is. My character has a habit of getting too close to people, and it's off-putting.

I'll take Bad Sight (remember those thick glasses); that's another 10 points.

Hell, just to make my life hard, I'll take Hemophilia for 30 points. He likes to talk about how bleeding endlessly from tiny cuts first interested him in vampires. I'll take Combat Paralysis, because it's appropriate (did you notice I wrote rules for this into Armory Reloaded?). And I think that'll do. I have 58 points now.

Step Six: Quirks. Love these. Just weird little character bits, but you get a point each for them, up to five. Let's see. I'll take these five quirks:

- Calls attractive women "milady."
- Carries a pocket mirror and checks people he suspects of being vampires (with a laugh and a nudge; he doesn't really think that would work)
- Only wears black slacks, because they "go with anything"
- Dislikes guns and loud noises
- Spells using English spellings ("colour" and so on)

Step Seven: Skills. Right, here's the real meat-and-butter. I can only use points equal to twice my age, but I picture this guy as being at least 35, so that's not an issue. I get double the skill points on mental skills. The skills I want:

Writing 15 (1)
Breath Control 13 (1)
Fencing 10 (4)
Language (French) 15 (1)
Language (Spanish) 15 (1)
Computer Operation 16 (1)
Forensics 14 (1)
History 15 (2)
Literature 15 (2)
Occultism 16 (2)
Psychology 14 (1)
Research 15 (2)
Theology 15 (2)
Carousing 13 (16)
Savoir-Faire 16 (1)
Driving (car) 10 (4)

Wow, that still means I have 21 points left. Hell, are there other skills I should take? My skill totals are pretty damned impressive for average difficulties. I'll bump Occultism up to 20, which eats a further 4 points, and I'll specialize in Vampires. That means I have an effective 25 when dealing with vampires, but a 19 (still impressive) when dealing with anything else. 17 points left. I'll take the Night Vision Advantage (10 points); I figure he's mostly nocturnal anyway.

And, some more Skills:

Photography 15 (1)
Crossbow 11 (2) (for keeping up appearances)
Stealth 10 (4)

Step Eight: Equipment and Encumbrance. This won't take long. As long as I'm not carrying more than 20lbs of stuff on me, which I'm not, I don't take an encumbrance penalty. I figure the most this guy carries is a palm pilot, maybe a laptop. I don't wear armor or carry a weapon, normally.

Step Nine: Completing Your Character. Almost there! Really, all I need is:

Name: The book says I ought to know this by now. I am abased. Well, I figure his real name is something average and dull. We'll say he was born Ethan Williams. However, he writes novels under the name E. Lewis Paver.

And that's it! Lewis is ready to get out there and find that the real creatures of the night are a lot more techologically sophisticated than he is.