The Dragon Tablets: Iteration Two – Races

The Elder Scrolls have many races, variants of humans, variants of elves, and others. Variations that don’t fit the racial templates already available in GURPS. We also return to the question of magic. Every hero, no matter race, is capable of using magic in TES. There are three ways to make that possible in GURPS.
1. If the world is High Mana, everyone in the world could learn to use magic. But I don’t like that solution.
2. If Magery is part of every racial template a hero could have, everyone of a hero race could learn to use magic. But I don’t like that solution either.
3. If we change the magic system so that the system doesn’t require Magery, everyone could learn to use magic. There are portions of that I do like. But others that I don’t.

A big problem with giving everyone the capacity to learn magic, is that magic could become commonplace. And that a wizard has less to do with talent and more to do with having the money to pay for the training. And this is not the feel I get from TES. Every hero can learn magic, but everyone cannot learn magic. And to keep this feeling of talent and rarity, it seems better not to allow Magery as part of the racial templates.

Instead I am going to use a combination of traits from TES, GURPS, and perhaps other influences in designing the racial templates.

In later iterations, I want to do something with the social aspect of where they come from, how they were raised, as well as when they were born, as their constellations actually have an effect on people in TES. I am also going to add variants to the “beast races” in a similar way to the variants that already exist for elves (nice) and humans (nen).

Yes, I have chosen “nice” as the Common word used to identify elves. Its etymology is from Elven and refers to the elves themselves, in plural. The word “elves” is a much older Common word, but racist humans started to use the word “nice” instead. Referring, in a derogatory way, to both elves and elf-loving humans, as a noun. They also used it as an adjective about anything that was too elf-like. And with time, it was adopted by those targeted and brought into mainstream Common. It has been part of Common for so long that terms such as “she’s so nice” are almost impossible to decipher without contextual information about the person in question. Similarly, “nen” comes from Elven and when used in Common refers to the nouns human, humans, and humanity.

Cat-Folk

Racial Cost: 74 points

Raoflin by Unknown

They are humanoid cats from Urdinia with catlike fur coloration and patterns. They have normal build according to their ST.
Attribute Modifiers: ST -1 [-10]; DX +1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP +1 [2]; Per +1 [5]; Will -1 [-5].
Advantages: Catfall [10]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Dark Vision [25]; Fur [1]; Perfect Balance [15]; Silence 1 [5]; Striking ST 2 [10]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Minority) [-10].
Features: Tail (neither a manipulator nor enough of a problem to interfere with armor). Cannot wear human helmets that cover their face.

Gord

Racial Cost: 60 points

My new norn necro, Sivrunn, by Baewall

They are a type of human from Gordfast and generally have tanned to dark skin, black hair, and dark eyes. They have normal build according to their ST.
Attribute Modifiers: ST +1 [10]; DX +1 [20]; IQ -1 [-20]; HT +1 [10].
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Luck [15].

High Elf

Racial Cost: 65 points

Dragon Eyes by neven

They are a type of elf and generally have pale or pale golden skin, red or brown hair, and green, amber, or yellow, almond shaped eyes. They are 7 inches taller than their ST would suggest, but their weight is based on ST+1. Their ears are pointy, but not much larger than human ears.
Attribute Modifiers: ST -1 [-10]; DX +1 [20]; IQ +1 [20]; HT -1 [-10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Magicka +5 [15].
Advantages: Immunity to Sickness [15];  Unaging [15].
Features: They can learn the Recover Energy spell without any prerequisites.

Palatial

Racial Cost: 45 points

The Guardian by LAS-T

They are a type of human from Cornia and generally have tanned skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. They have normal build according to their ST.
Attribute Modifiers: IQ +1 [20]; HT +1 [10].
Advantages: Luck [15].

Reptonian

Racial Cost: 92 points

Koviell by WillOBrien

They are humanoid reptiles from Marshlands.
Attribute Modifiers: DX +1 [20]; HT -1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed +1.00 [20].
Advantages: Amphibious [10]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Damage Resistance 1 [5]; Doesn’t Breathe (Gills, -50%) [10]; Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]; Perfect Balance [15]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Striker (Tail; Crushing) [5]; Teeth (Sharp) [1];  Terrain Adaptation (Swamp) [5].
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Minority) [-10].
Features: Armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor. Born Biter.

Shadow Elf

Racial Cost: 85 points

Old Vadril by TheMinttu

They are a type of elf from Lunarstream and generally have dark, black, or purple skin, bone-white to cobweb-gray to jet-black hair, and black, red, or yellow, almond shaped eyes. They are 2-3 inches taller than their ST would suggest, but their weight is based on ST. Their ears are pointy, but not much larger than human ears.
Attribute Modifiers: DX +1 [20]; IQ +1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per +1 [5].
Advantages: Dark Vision [25]; Silence 2 [10]; Unaging [15].
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Minority) [-10].

Soder

Racial Cost: 76 points

Nobility by merillizaART

They are a type of human from Celement and generally have pale skin, fair hair, and light eyes. They have normal build according to their ST.
Attribute Modifiers: ST +1 [10]; DX +1 [20]; IQ -1 [-20]; HT +1 [10].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Luck [15]; Rapid Healing [5]; Temperature Tolerance (Cold) 3 [3]; Terror (Auditory) [30].

Wellen

Racial Cost: 0 points

They are a type of human from Rockwell and generally have pale skin, fair to medium hair, and dark eyes. They have normal build according to their ST.

Wood Elf

Racial Cost: 40 points

They are a type of elf and generally have tan to dark to green skin, dark to green hair, and violet or brown, almond shaped eyes. They are 2-3 inches taller than their ST would suggest, but their weight is based on ST. Their ears are pointy, but not much larger than human ears.
Attribute Modifiers: ST -1 [-10]; DX +1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move +1 [5]; Will -1 [-5].
Advantages: Forest Guardian 2 [10]; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30];  Unaging [15].
Disadvantages: Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15]; Social Stigma (Minority) [-10].

Ogre

Racial Cost: 31 points

orc hunter by yy6242

They generally have light green to dark brown skin, dark to green hair, and green eyes. They have normal build according to their ST.
Attribute Modifiers: ST +4 [40]; IQ -1 [-20]; HT +1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Will +2 [10].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Fearlessness 1 [2]; Night Vision 3 [3]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Social Stigma (Minority) [-10].
Features: Tusks.

The Dragon Tablets: Iteration Two – New Rules

In Iteration One, we took the first quick steps with some basic volumes of GURPS and some basic tenants of The Elder Scrolls to create the cinematic fantasy setting of The Dragon Tablets. And according to the playtest, it works! We can use what we have, but it is a broad strokes setting that still needs many of the fine details filled out before it becomes a masterpiece.

The heroes felt capable enough in the playtest, even though there are small details and large systems that should change for that TES feel. As well as molding the templates into what we need them to be.

Some GURPS works have added worked examples or variant rules on old subjects or created new subjects altogether. As The Dragon Tablets won’t confine itself to the Basic Set, we saw some of that in Iteration One, this is a good time to start listing those changes. Some of these does not take their inspiration from TES, but as I mentioned in the very beginning of Iteration One, adding other sources of inspiration is one of the advantages of creation over conversion.

In Iteration Two, we cover what I’ve already included, GURPS Powers, the worked examples, GURPS Action 1: Heroes, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers, GURPS Monster Hunters 1: Champions, and the volumes that add the most systematic changes, GURPS Powers: Divine Favors and GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery.

Traits from some of the above works will be given a specific cost as those works are looked at. These costs only relate to the trait as it is presented in the work in question. And doesn't mean that that is the only version of that trait available. Nor does it mean that these are the only traits available in the various powers listed.

Powers

Optional Rule: Alternative Abilities uses the rules from Chapter One. If you want to use more than one ability of the set at the same time, you pay for that many abilities at full cost and the rest at 1/5 cost.
Optional Rules for Affliction uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Awe uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Optional Rule: Multiplicative Modifiers uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Energy Reserves uses the rules from Chapter Two, except Magicka is the only one that exists and is used with every power source. And as listed in Iteration One, everyone has ER (Magicka) 10 for free and this cannot be sold away to get extra points.

Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers

Chi Mastery uses the rules from Chapter Four.
Druidic Arts uses the rules from Chapter Five, except Allies can be of a lower point total.
Holy Might uses the rules from Chapter Five, except Allies can be of a lower point total; and the Mysticism abilities from Monster Hunters Chapter Two also fall under Holy Might.
Extra Money uses the rules from Chapter Five.
Wealth in Play uses the rules from Chapter Five on selling things, but not its assumption on society.

Druidic Arts

Allies cost 18 or 27 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.

Holy Might

The Holy Power Modifier may be more limiting than -10% for those that have a stricter relationship with their source. Ask your GM about how to calculate the value of the new power modifier and the new cost of abilities.
Allies cost 18 or 27 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Patron cost 35 and 68 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
True Faith cost 23 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.

Monster Hunters 1: Champions

Luck or Skill uses the rules from Chapter One.
Destiny uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Higher Purpose uses the rules from Chapter Two as well as from Action Chapter Two.
Hyper-Competency uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Other Uses for Points uses the rules from Chapter Two, but with Holy Might instead of Mysticism.
Bioenhancement uses the rules from Chapter Two, as modified for fantasy technology.
Mysticism is replaced by Holy Might
Magic vs. Powers uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Psionics uses the rules from Chapter Two, as modified for fantasy technology, except there is no Teleportation and the three remaining powers are folded into a single power with a 10 point/level Psionic Talent.
Anti-Psi uses the rules from Chapter Two.

Bioenhancement

Cerebral-Motor Multitasking cost 27 or 54 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Neural Computational Matrix cost is 7 or 14 points as there are no computers.

Mysticism

These abilities are counted as if they were part of Holy Might. And all rules affecting Holy Might affects these abilities.
Eyes of the Dead cost 15 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Lay on Hands cost 33 or 46 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Prayer cost 23 or 45 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Smite cost 11, 16, or 21 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Spirit Communication cost 14 or 23 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Turn Evil cost 23 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.

Psionics

Psi Sense cost 13 or 22 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Remote Senses cost 35 or 46 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Seekersense cost 19 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Spirit Communication see Mysticism.
Cryokinesis cost 19 points/level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Psychic Healing cost 27, 38, or 53 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Pyrokinesis cost 12 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Mental Blow cost 30 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Mindwipe cost 29 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Telecontrol cost 30 points for one race and 45 points for two instead of what is listed, and only one cost is listed for both levels as both levels have the same cost because of multiplicative modifiers.
Telescan cost 22 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.

Powers: Divine Favors

All rules are used as listed. Including the listed cost of Divine Favor, even though it under the hood should have another cost because of multiplicative modifiers. The Holy power modifier is used instead of Divine and counts as a part of Holy Might.

The listed costs for the learned prayers use the assumption that Holy is a -10% modifier.

Feed the Masses costs 14 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Fireproof costs 15 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Divine Guidance costs 15 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Spirit Weapon costs 19 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Traveler’s Blessing costs 21 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Walk on Water costs 27 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Sense True Evil costs 28 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Lay on Hands costs 14 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Fireproof (Enhanced) costs 38 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Holy Glory costs 41 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Smite costs 11 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Consecrate Ground costs 18 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Feed the Masses (Enhanced) costs 42 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
See Evil costs 42 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Walk on Water (Enhanced) costs 60 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Rainmaker costs 40 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Golem costs 72 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Smite (Enhanced) costs 19 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Consecrate Ground (Enhanced) costs 30 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Holy Glory (Enhanced) costs 95 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Lay on Hands (Enhanced) costs 66 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Eclipse costs 101 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Plague of Insects costs 120 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Part the Sea costs 180 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Resurrection costs 59 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.

Thaumatology: Sorcery

Use all rules as listed, except Imbuments, Gate Spells, and spells related to technology that doesn’t exist.

The listed cost per level may be rounded, so calculate the total cost from the book if you pick up such an ability.
Air Jet costs 4 points/level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
No-Smell costs 51 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Repel Animals costs 31 points and additional levels of Area Effect cost 3 points per level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Haircut costs 3 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Tanglefoot costs 8 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Gift of Tongues costs 26 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Sense Life costs 26 or 51 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Flesh to Stone costs 53 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Walk Through Earth costs 49 or 61 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Enchant costs 9 instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Penetrating Weapon costs 31, 42, 52, 63, 73, or 83 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Ignite Fire costs 1 or 2 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Shape Fire 16 points/level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Minor Healing 18 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Complex Illusion costs 39 points and 13 points per level of Area Effect.
Create Object costs 42 or 47 points and 2 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Divination costs 18 or 24 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Light costs 8 or 10 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Disintegrate costs 38 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Inspired Creation costs 27 instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Dispel Magic costs 25 points and additional levels of Area Effect costs 7 points per level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Remove Curse costs 21 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Scryguard costs 57 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Lesser Geas costs 48 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Terror costs 43 points and 15 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Grease costs 30 points for the first level and 6 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Turn Zombie costs 21 for the first level and 3 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Blight costs 23 points for the first level and 3 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Body of Wood costs 85 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Magelock costs 7 points for the first level and 3 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Reverse Missiles costs 52 points for the first level and 47 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Delayed Message costs 34 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Thunderclap costs 25 points for the first level and  3 points/additional level instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Icy Weapon costs 12 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Whirlpool costs 3 points/level, minimum 4 levels, instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Cool costs 5 points + 2 points/level, 10 points + 4 points/level, 15 points + 6 points/level, 19 points + 7 points/level, or 24 points + 8 points/level, instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.
Predict Weather costs 8 or 11 points instead of what is listed, because of multiplicative modifiers.

Action 1: Heroes

Enhanced Dodge (Dive for Cover) uses the rules from Chapter Two.
Higher Purpose see the Monster Hunters listing.
Pulling Rank uses the rules from Chapter Three, as modified for fantasy technology and available organizations.

Other

Cost of Living: The various worked examples deal with cost of living differently, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring and add another way of doing it.

Assume it costs you half the sum listed in the Cost of Living Table for every week you spend in inns and live at your Status level. $300 for Status 0, $600 for Status 1, $1,500 for Status 2 and $6,000 for Status 3. You may live at one level below your Status without meaningful repercussions. If you live in your home, you pay the listed monthly Cost of Living for your home. If you live in the wild, you spend one-tenth of the above sum per week for travel rations. If you have a home, but are living elsewhere, you pay both costs.

The Dragon Tablets: Iteration One Playtest

There are many aspects of interaction and this playtest will test combat. My estimate is that each of the heroes, Nephithi Andas, Edward Ashcroft, and Arthur Wing will be able to handle four of these orc bandits each. TES combat is not so easy that an enemy is downed by minimal injury, so I have decided that they will automatically go down when their hp has reached 0. But they will not defend themselves or make All-Out Attacks.

Setting the Stage

The heroes are traveling on foot along a road, through a wooded area, during the day time and nothing is out of the ordinary.

Turn 1

Twelve orc bandits are ambushing the heroes from among the trees. As all three heroes have Combat Reflexes, this Total Surprise is treated as a Partial Surprise. As Nephithi is the leader of the heroes and she has Combat Reflexes, they get a +2 bonus to the initiative roll, she also has a higher IQ than the leader of the orcs, for another +1, but she doesn’t have the Tactics skill. The orc leader has Combat Reflexes and get a +2 bonus, but it doesn’t have Tactics. Nephithi rolled 5 and with her +3 bonus that’s 8. And the orc leader needs to roll 6 for a tie, but only rolled 4. So despite this being an ambush, the heroes get to act first.

Edward spends a Ready maneuver to get his bow from his back. He makes a Fast-Draw roll to draw an arrow as a free action. And a Bow -3 roll to ready the bow as a Free Action (thanks to Heroic Archer), he makes both rolls easily.

Nephithi makes a Fast-Draw roll to draw her sword as a free action and succeeded easily. She selected the Wait maneuver, planning on converting it to an Attack maneuver to thrust her sword into the first orc’s vitals.

With the shield already strapped to his arm, Arthur drew his sword in no time with a successful Fast-Draw roll, and Waited for the first orc to come close enough to him. He would have liked to bash their skull in, but that’s a -7 move and with a skill of only 17, having a 50/50 chance to hit seemed to risky. So he would only clobber them normally.

Thanks to their Combat Reflexes, all 12 orcs were able to snap out of the mental stun and all of them take Move and Attack maneuvers. The first time one of them came close enough to Nephithi, she mad a Broadsword -3 roll of 15 which is lower than the adjusted 18, which means that she hit and skewered the orc with her sword, rolling 1d+1, or 6, for damage. Which is tripled for impaling damage to the vitals, or 18. Thus dropping it. Because of her Extra Attack, she repeated her move for the next orc to close, hitting again, but only doing 12 damage. Fortunately that is high enough and another orc drops.

When the first orc was close enough to Arthur, he swung his hammer at it. He rolled Axe/Mace for 7 to hit and 2d+6, or 14, for damage, downing it without the multiply by 4 he would have gotten for bashing it on the skull.

All four orcs with large knives banded up on Edward and went into Close Combat, so as to make sure to lower his skill with the bow by -3. They all make knife rolls, but having moved this turn, they have a -4 penalty to their skill. Still three of them make it. But Edward is quick and he rolls against Dodge, which he can do normally in Close Combat, and rolling 10, 8, and 12, he avoids all attacks.

An orc with a light club and another with a spear are the only remaining orcs around Nephithi. Neither of them enter Close Combat. The clubber swung his club at her, rolling 9 vs. 12, a potential hit. But Nephithi rolled 11 vs. 15 to parry the club with her sword. The spear carrier attacked from two yards away, instead of the one for the clubber, rolled 8 vs. 12 for a potential hit, but Nephithi rolled 8 vs. 12 to dodge successfully.

The three remaining orcs were all spear carriers and focused on Arthur. All of them attacked from two yards away. One of them missed with a 14, but the other two had potential hits with 10 and 11. He blocked the first spear with his shield, 12 vs. 13, but failed to dodge the second at 13 vs. 11. Rolling 1d+2 for 3 damage. Fortunately the damage resistance of his torso armor is 5, so the attack doesn’t penetrate. And he is still fine.

Turn 2

And so it is Edward’s turn again. As he is an Heroic Archer, he doesn’t have to apply the weapon’s Bulk penalty when attacking with a ranged weapon in Close Combat. Edward feels more confident and shots for the skull, rolling 9 vs. 12 and hitting. Rolling 1d+3 or 5 for damage. The skull has  damage resistance 2, so only 3 goes through. But with the x4 damage multiplier for attacks to the skull, injury becomes 12. Enough to down the orc. He fast draws another arrow, 13 vs. 16, and a Bow -3 roll, 13 vs. 16, to draw it.

Nephithi casts Flame Jet, 4 vs. 17. So this is a critical success! Thus there is no energy cost for the spell and the GM is directed to be both generous and creative as to what other results. I checked out the Critical Hit Table for suggestions and decided to just roll on it. This might also be the only time we have the chance to do that in this example. I rolled 8, so shock penalty doubles (to a maximum penalty of -8). I had been planning on spending 3 Magicka on the spell and with this having no energy cost, there’s even more reason to do so. I only rolled 9 for damage though and then 12 vs. 13 to hit, as she’s using her offhand to attack. So the three yard flame jet injures, but doesn’t kill the spear carrier. With her Extra Attack, she stabbed the clubber in the vitals, rolling 11 vs. 18 to hit and 4 on 1d+1 for 12 injury, enough to down the orc.

Arthur takes an Attack maneuver and Steps towards one of the spear carriers attacking him, to get close enough to bash him. Rolls 11 vs. 17 to hit and 2d+6 for 12 damage, bringing it down.

The three orcs with large knives try to attack Edward, one miss, one critically fail and rolls an 8 on the table, having to spend a Ready maneuver before he can attack again, and one might actually hit, but Edward parried the attack.

The spear carrier on Nephithi tries to stab her with the spear and it rolls 4 vs. 4, with the shock penalty, for a critical success. Thus she cannot defend herself. Rolling 1d+2 for a damage of 4. Her armor has a DR of 2, so she suffers an injury of 2.

The spear carriers on Arthur both had to take steps to get back into reach, one of them steps into his back hex, as he cannot defend against such attacks, and they rolled 13 and 11 vs. 12. Fortunately the orc in the back hex missed. And Arthur rolled 14 vs. 11 to dodge, failing to avoid the spear. The orc rolled 1d+2 for 3 damage, which is less than DR 5 on his armor, so he takes no injury.

Turn 3

Edward takes the Attack maneuver and attempts to fire another arrow into an orc skull, he rolls 6 vs. 12. Rolling 1d+3 for 5 damage, the same bad roll as last turn, but it’s still enough to bring an orc down. He rolls Fast-Draw and Bow -3 again, 6 and 8 this time, and draws an arrow and readies the bow to shoot.

Nephithi takes the Concentrate maneuver and takes a step closer to the orc attacking her. She then used her flame jet on one of the spear carriers attacking Arthur, rolling 10 vs. 15, for shock penalty, to cast the spell and 15 vs. 12, for shock penalty, to hit, so she missed, wasting the 3 Magicka she used. With her Extra Attack, she attacked the orc attacking her.  She rolled 8 vs.16, with the extra -2 for shock, to hit the vitals. Rolling 1d+1 for 2 damage, translating to 6 injury for the vitals, enough to bring it down.

Arthur turns around and steps towards one of his attackers to start his Attack maneuver. He then rolls 12 vs. 17 to hit and 2d+6 for 12 damage to bring the orc down.

One of the orcs readied his knife and the other attacked Edward, rolling 10 vs. 12 to hit. While Edward rolled 13 vs. 14 to parry, so he avoided being hit.

The spear carrier tried to stab Arthur again, rolling 9 vs. 12 and Arthur rolled 14 vs. 13 and failed to block. The orc rolls 1d+2 for 8 damage. Arthur’s armor deals with 5 so only 3 penetrates. And as the spear does impaling damage, that is turned into 6 injury.

Turn 4

Edward lets go of another arrow, rolling 5 vs. 12 for another skull hit and 1d+3 for 5 damage, turning into 20 injury and dropping the orc.

Nephithi took a Movement maneuver to move to the final spear carrier and used her Extra Attack to attack it, rolling 12 vs. 18 to hit the vitals and 1d+1 for 4 damage, turning into 12 injury and bringing the orc down

Arthur took a Move and Attack maneuver and moved to the final orc. Rolling 9 vs. 9, -2 penalty to attack into close combat, -4 penalty for move and attack, and another -2 to get it down to the maximum 9 and thus hitting. Rolling 2d+6 for 15 damage and bringing the final orc down.

After Action Report

The heroes finishing 12 orcs in four turns wasn’t bad. That’s an average of 1 orc per PC per turn.

Looking at Nephithi, as she is the leader, it may be useful for her to spend 1 point in Tactics to get another +1 bonus if they are ambushed by more worthy foes. As she took the Wait maneuver during her first turn, she might actually not have access to her Extra Attack at that time. As she uses spells in her off-hand, there is a -4 penalty to attack and it might be a good idea to do something about that. With the books I’m using for the First Iteration, the only viable solution is Ambidexterity, but there are other solutions available in other books. Being able to attack twice per turn, it was not unexpected that she dealt with more orcs than either of the other two. She could have cast Armor to protect herself from injury, but in this case it would have added a 5th turn to the battle.

Edward is the fastest of the three, that’s why he acted first, but not having a Fast-Draw (Bow) skill, he had to spend his first turn not attacking, thus dealing with fewer orcs than the others. After that, he made great use of Heroic Archer as his bow has a -7 bulk penalty he didn’t need to worry about when attacking in close combat.

Arthur may be less skilled with his weapon than the others, but he does much more damage with it so he didn’t need to target the vitals or the skull the way the others did. The heavier armor also paid off for him.

Clearly the First Iteration works. These three characters are playable, even if I only used a limited set of their options in this combat. It would be interesting to pit them against foes that defend themselves or a boss kind of encounter.

Having seen some weapons and armor, a little magic, and two races other than human, we can use The Dragon Tablets with what we have, but there are improvements we can do to make it better.

The Dragon Tablets: Orc Bandits 1.0

If we are to do a combat example, we need an enemy. Orc bandits seem like a good place to start. Fantasy even has an Orc template. And as these are combat NPCs, we don’t have to make them as detailed as the heroes nor do we need to use points.

Orc Morax by Mantic Games as example Orc

Attributes

ST 11; DX 12; IQ 9; HT 11
Secondary Characteristics
Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11; Will 9; Per 9; FP 11; Energy Reserve (Magicka) 10.
Basic Speed: 6.00 Basic Move: 6 Dodge: 10

Advantages

Acute Taste and Smell 2
Combat Reflexes
Fearlessness 2
Fit (Only at Night)
Infravision
Rapid Healing
Resistant to Disease +3

Disadvantages

Appearance (Unattractive)
Bad Temper (12)
Callous
Disturbing Voice
Impulsiveness (12)
Sadism (12)
Unfit (Only by Day)

Quirks

Bowlegged

Skills

Combat Skill-12

Gear

One of:
Light Club-12 1d+2/1d cr
Large Knife-12 1d-1 cut/1d-1 imp
Spear-12 1d+2 imp

Notes

I was making this as easy as possible. Where the heroes got occupational templates, these orcs did not.

The Dragon Tablets: Arthur Wing 1.0

For the third character, I wanted to do something different from the other two. Both Nephithi and Edward were lightly armored, so let's make Arthur wear heavy armor. The most armored template in Dungeon Fantasy 1 Adventurers is the Knight. I then looked for what’s missing in the trio to decide what the second template should be and as there is no divine point of view in the group, I went with a Cleric. I could have used Holy Warrior, but he already has the Knight template, or Druid, but that’s more Nature than Divine, so Cleric seems to be the best fit. To that, as before, I add Magicka and some computer game traits from The Elder Scrolls. Arthur ends up being 518 points.

I wanted a two-handed weapon with a head that did crushing damage on one end and impaling damage on the other, but I couldn’t find an image like that, and there wasn’t a weapon like that in the books I’m using for Iteration One anyway, and the only template that has Two-Handed Axe/Mace is Barbarian. So I went with a hammer and shield combo instead.

Cleric Comm by YamaOrce as Arthur Wing

Attributes

ST 14 [40]; DX 14 [80]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 13 [30]

Secondary Characteristics

Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0]; FP 13 [0]; Energy Reserve (Magicka) 10 [0].
Basic Speed: 7.00 [5] Basic Move: 7 [0]
Move 4; Dodge: 11/9+2 Parry (Hammer) 12U+2 Block 11+2

Advantages/Perks

Accessory (Map) [1]
Absolute Direction [5]
Alcohol Tolerance (Cosmic) [3]
Allies (Divine servant of equal points; 12 or less; Holy, -10%; Summonable, +100%) [18]
Born War Leader 2 [10]
Clerical Investment [5]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Enhanced Parry (Axe/Mace) [5]
Healing (Faith Healing, +20%; Holy, -10%) [33]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Immunity to Fear [15]
Luck [15]
Magery 3 [35]
Penetrating Voice [1]
Shtick (Absolute Direction and your senses updates the Map automatically) [1]
Shtick (Absolute Direction shows the direction to all locations on the map) [1]
Signature Gear [7]
Striking ST 2 [10]
True Faith (Holy, -10%; Turning, +65%) [23]
Weapon Bond (Hammer) [1]
Weapon Master (Hammer) [20]

Disadvantages

Charitable (12) [-15]
Code of Honor (Chivalry) [-15]
Compulsive Generosity (12) [-5]
Honesty (12) [-10]
Intolerance (Evil religions) [-5]
Obsession (Slay Demons) (12) [-5]
Truthfulness (12) [-5]
Vow (Chastity) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Companions) [-5]

Skills

Armoury (Body Armor) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15
Armoury (Melee Weapons) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15
Axe/Mace (A) DX+2 [8]-16
Bow (A) DX+1 [4]-15
Brawling (E) DX+1 [2]-15
Broadsword (A) DX+2 [8]-16
Carousing (E) HT [1]-13
Climbing (A) DX-1 [1]-13
Connoisseur (Weapons) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15
Diagnosis (H) IQ-2 [1]-12
Esoteric Medicine (Holy) (H) Per [4]-14
Exorcism (H) Will [4]-14
Fast-Draw (Axe/Mace) (E) DX+1 [1]-15*
First Aid (E) IQ [1]-14
Flail (H) DX+1 [8]-15
Forced Entry (E) DX [1]-14
Gambling (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Gesture (E) IQ [1]-14
Heraldry (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Hidden Lore (Demons) (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Hiking (A) HT-1 [1]-12
Innate Attack (Beam) (E) DX+2 [4]-16
Intimidation (A) Will-1 [1]-13
Knife (E) DX [1]-14
Leadership (A) IQ+1 [1]-15†
Meditation (H) Will-2 [1]-12
Observation (A) Per-1 [1]-13
Occultism (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Public Speaking (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Religious Ritual (H) IQ-2 [1]-12
Riding (Horse) (A) DX+2 [8]-16
Research (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ [1]-14
Shield (E) DX+2 [4]-16
Stealth (A) DX-1 [1]-13
Strategy (H) IQ+1 [2]-15†
Surgery (VH) IQ-2 [2]-12
Tactics (H) IQ+1 [2]-15†
Teaching (A) IQ-1 [1]-13
Theology (H) IQ-2 [1]-12
Wrestling (A) DX [2]-14
Writing (A) IQ-1 [1]-13


* Includes +1 for Combat Reflexes
† Includes +2 Born War Leader

Spells*

Armor (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Clumsiness (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Earth to Stone (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Extinguish Fire (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Fireproof (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Flesh to Stone (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Ignite Fire (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Itch (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Pain (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Paralyze Limb (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Resist Fire (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Seek Earth (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Shape Earth (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Shield (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Spasm (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Stone to Earth (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Stone to Flesh (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Stop Paralysis (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Stop Spasm (H) IQ+1 [1]-15
Stun (H) IQ+1 [1]-15


* Includes +3 for Magery

Gear

I’m only listing combat gear.
Medium Encumbrance (97 lbs).

Clothes $0 2 lbs
Hammer-17 2d+6 cr (reach 1) $50. 5 lbs.
Medium Shield-16 DB 2 $60 15 lbs
Steel Laminated Plate DR 5 $900 30 lbs. torso, groin.
Plate Arms/Legs DR 6 $2,200 35 lbs. arms, legs
Gauntlets DR 4 $100 2 lbs. hands
Sollerets DR 4 $150 7 lbs. feet
Blessed Holy Symbol $250 1 lb.
$290

Notes

Arthur is a caring and honorable person who hates Evil and kills demons.

Accessory (Map) gives him a mental map, as accurate as his senses and other maps available in the campaign. It is both a map of the world or city, as well as a floor plan of any building, cave, or similar that he is in, have been in, or have seen the map/floor plan of. The map doesn’t include anything that happened before the start of the campaign.

I decided to add a little bit of a house rule to this character, adding Alcohol Tolerance (Cosmic) [3], which triples the cost of the perk, rather than using the pricier Immunity to Alcohol [5], to indicate that alcohol has no effect on this character. That design seems more appropriate to me.

The template only gave me access to an equally powerful divine servant, I can’t quite see what that would be, so I will change that in the next iteration.

As Unfazeable is more than I want, I created an Immunity to Fear trait at the same point cost.

As Elder Scrolls don’t differentiate between arcane and divine magic, I’m using Magery instead of Power Investiture. In TES, every character can learn to cast magic. In GURPS that means that its either High Mana or every character has Magery 0 or more. TES also give us the Magicka stat, which those that don’t use magic don’t need. Allowing them to lower that trait to 0 would give them 30 character points for free, which I don’t want to do. So I have to do something about that in a future iteration.

Shtick (Absolute Direction and your senses updates the Map automatically) means that his map instantly updates with information given by his senses and Absolute Direction.

Shtick (Absolute Direction shows the direction to all locations on the map) allows Absolute Direction to tell his the direction to anywhere on the map.

There is an optional rule in GURPS Powers, called Multiplicative Modifiers, that change how modifiers affect the cost of a trait. As I always use that, it changed the cost of Healing (same cost) and True Faith (1 point cheaper than the standard method) accordingly. Even though I wasn’t supposed to use that book in this iteration.

The Dragon Tablets: Edward Ashcroft 1.0

So let's go for something completely different this time. When I watched the first trailer to Elder Scrolls Online, I was especially impressed by the Breton Rogue. So let's do a character like that. Let's just go with the standard human template (nothing at all) and the Thief and Scout templates from Dungeon Fantasy 1 Adventurers. Again, adding Magicka and some computer game traits. There’s no problem finding images for him online. I’m not saying that this is him, it’s just my inspiration. And as most of the images I found made him left handed even though the trailer shows that he is right handed, I decided to go with that to distinguish the two. He is less powerful than Nephithi and he too has issues to deal with in future iterations. He ended up at 434 points.

Breton Rogue by Bethesda as Edward Ashcroft

Attributes

ST 13 [30]; DX 15 [100]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 12 [20]

Secondary Characteristics

Damage 1d/2d-1; BL 34 lbs.; HP 13 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 16 [15]; FP 12 [0]; Energy Reserve (Magicka) 10 [0].
Basic Speed: 8.00 [15] Basic Move: 8 [0] Move 6.
Dodge: 12/11+2 Parry (Broadsword) 12+2 Parry (Knife) 9+2 Block 10+2

Advantages/Perks

Accessory (Map) [1]
Absolute Direction [5]
Ambidexterity [5]
Catfall [10]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Fit [5]
Flexibility [5]
Heroic Archer [20]
High Manual Dexterity 1 [5]
Luck [15]
Outdoorsman 2 [20]
Perfect Balance [15]
Shtick (Absolute Direction and  your senses updates the Map automatically) [1]
Shtick (Absolute Direction shows the direction to all locations on the map) [1]
Wealth (Comfortable) [10]

Disadvantages

Code of Honor (Pirate’s) [-5]
Overconfidence (12) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Companions) [-5]
Trickster (12) [-15]
Vow (Never Sleep Indoors) [-10]
Vow (Own no more than what can be carried) [-10]

Skills

Acrobatics (H) DX-1 [1]-14§
Boating (Unpowered) (A) DX-1 [1]-14
Bow (A) DX+4 [16]-19
Brawling (E) DX [1]-15
Broadsword (A) DX+3 [12]-18
Camouflage (E) IQ+3 [2]-16*
Carousing (E) HT [1]-12
Cartography (A) IQ+1 [4]-14
Climbing (A) DX+3 [1]-18‡§
Cloak (A) DX-1 [1]-14
Connoisseur (Art) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12
Connoisseur (Luxuries) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12
Escape (H) DX+1 [1]-16‡
Fast-Draw (Arrow) (E) DX+1 [1]-16†
Fast-Draw (Sword) (E) DX+1 [1]-16†
Fast-Talk (A) IQ-1 [1]-12
Filch (A) DX [2]-15
First Aid (E) IQ [1]-13
Forced Entry (E) DX [1]-15
Gambling (A) IQ-1 [1]-12
Gesture (E) IQ+1 [2]-14
Hiking (A) HT [2]-12
Holdout (A) IQ [2]-13
Jumping (E) DX [1]-15
Knife (E) DX [1]-15
Knot-Tying (E) DX [1]-15
Lip Reading (A) Per-1 [1]-15
Lockpicking (A) IQ+1 [4]-14
Merchant (A) IQ-1 [1]-12
Mimicry (Bird Calls) (H) IQ+1 [2]-14*
Navigation (Land) (A) IQ+4 [1]-17£*
Observation (A) Per [2]-16
Pickpocket (H) DX [2]-15@
Riding (Horse) (A) DX-1 [1]-14
Running (A) HT-1 [1]-11
Scrounging (E) Per [1]-16
Search (A) Per [2]-16
Sleight of Hand (H) DX-1 [1]-14@
Shadowing (A) IQ+1 [4]-14
Shortsword (A) DX-1 [1]-14
Smuggling (A) IQ [2]-13
Stealth (A) DX+3 [12]-18
Streetwise (A) IQ [2]-13
Survival (Woodland) (A) Per+1 [1]-17*
Swimming (E) HT [1]-12
Throwing (A) DX-1 [1]-14
Thrown Weapon (Knife) (E) DX [1]-15
Tracking (A) Per+2 [2]-18*
Traps (A) IQ+1 [4]-14
Urban Survival (A) Per [2]-16
Weather Sense (A) IQ-1 [1]-12
Wrestling (A) DX-1 [1]-14

* Includes +2 for Outdoorsman
† Includes +1 for Combat Reflexes
‡ Includes +3 for Flexibility
§ Includes +1 for Perfect Balance
@ Includes +1 for High Manual Dexterity
£ Includes +3 for Absolute Direction

Gear

I’m only listing combat gear.
Light Encumbrance (40.7 lbs).

Clothes $0 2 lbs.

Thrusting Broadsword-18 2d cut/1d+2 imp (reach 1) $600 3 lbs

4x Small Knife-15 2d-4 cut/1d-1 imp (reach C-1/C) Parry -1 $30 0.5 lbs. Thrown-15 1d-1 imp Range x0.5/x1 RoF 1 Shots T(1) Bulk -1

Composite Bow-19 1d+3 imp Acc 3 Range x20/x25 Wt 4/0.1 lbs RoF 1 Shots 1(2) $900 Bulk -7

Shoulder Quiver $10 0.5 lbs. Holds 12 arrows

Heavy Cloak-14 DB 2 $50 5 lbs. Damage spec. Acc 1 Range 2 RoF 1 Shots T(1) Bulk -6

Light Scale Armor DR 3 $150 15 lbs. torso

Cloth Sleeves DR 1* $20 2 lbs. arms.

Leather Pants DR 1* $40 3 lbs. legs, groin

Leather Gloves DR 2* $30 neg. hands.

Boots DR 2* $80 3 lbs. feet.

$66

Notes

Edward is a more complex character than Nephithi Andas. An antisocial who cares for his friends, but does whatever he wants to do. Going about doing more derring-do than he should. He’s quite capable with the bow (Bow-19, Fast-Draw-16, and Heroic Archer), almost as capable with a sword (Broadsword-18, Fast-Draw-16), but not as good with knives (Knife-15, Thrown Knife-15). He is quite outdoorsy with a minor in thieving skills.

Accessory (Map) gives him a mental map, as accurate as her senses and other maps available in the campaign. It is both a map of the world or city, as well as a floor plan of any building, cave, or similar that he is in, have been in, or have seen the map/floor plan of. The map doesn’t include anything that happened before the start of the campaign.

Shtick (Absolute Direction and your senses update the Map automatically) means that his map instantly updates with information given by his senses and Absolute Direction.

Shtick (Absolute Direction shows the direction to all locations on the map) allows Absolute Direction to tell him the direction to anywhere on the map.

The Dragon Tablets: Nephithi Andas 1.1

When I play Elder Scrolls, I normally play a male Dunmer with a sword in one hand and magic in the other, wearing light armor. So that’s the kind of character I want to start creating. I didn’t find any good images filling all the above criteria, so I made this character female.

Looking at the available templates, I’m going to use the Elf template in Fantasy and both the Swashbuckler and Wizard templates from Dungeon Fantasy 1 Adventurers, adding Magicka and some computer game related traits taken from The Elder Scrolls games. It will make her more powerful than I want her to be, but I can’t create the character I want with only one template. And even with two templates, she will still not be everything I need her to be. I’ll have to deal with that in some later iteration. She ended up being 554 points.

Feriel by kerembeyit as Nephithi Andas

Attributes

ST 11 [10]; DX 16 [120]; IQ 15 [100]; HT 13 [30].

Secondary Characteristics

Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11 [0]; Will 15 [0]; Per 13 [-10]; FP 13 [0]; Energy Reserve (Magicka) 14 [12].
Basic Speed 7.00 [0]; Basic Move 7 [0].
Move 7; Dodge 12; Parry (Broadsword) 15

Advantages/Perks

Absolute Direction [5]
Accessory (Map) [1]
Alcohol Tolerance [1]
Appearance (Attractive) [4]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Eidetic Memory [5]
Enhanced Dodge 1 [15]
Enhanced Parry 1 (Broadsword) [5]
Extra Attack 1 [25]
Luck [15]
Intuition [15]
Magery 4 [45]
Perfect Balance [15]
Serendipity 1 [15]
Shtick (Absolute Direction and  your senses updates the Map automatically) [1]
Shtick (Absolute Direction shows the direction to all locations on the map) [1]
Telescopic Vision 1 [5]
Unaging [15]
Voice [10]
Weapon Bond (Sword) [1];
Weapon Master (Broadsword) [20]

Disadvantages

Code of Honor (Gentleman’s) [-10]
Obsession (Become the best swordsman in the world!) (12) [-10]
Obsession (Become the best wizard in the world!) (12) [-10]
Sense of Duty (Companions) [-5]
Vow (Never refuse a challenge to combat) [-10]
Weirdness Magnet [-15]

Skills

Acrobatics (H) DX+1 [4]-17‡
Alchemy (VH) IQ [8]-15
Brawling (E) DX+1 [2]-17
Broadsword (A) DX+4 [16]-20
Carousing (E) HT [1]-13
Cartography (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Climbing (A) DX [1]-16‡
Cloak (A) DX+1 [4]-17
Connoisseur (Natural Environments) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Diplomacy (H) IQ [1]-15§
Fast-Draw (Knife) (E) DX+1 [1]-17*
Fast-Draw (Potion) (E) DX+1 [1]-17*
Fast-Draw (Sword) (E) DX+1 [1]-17*
Fast-Talk (A) IQ+1 [1]-16§
First Aid (E) IQ [1]-15
Gambling (A) IQ-1 [1]-14;
Gesture (E) IQ [1]-15
Hazardous Materials (Magical) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Hidden Lore (Demons) (A) IQ [2]-15
Hidden Lore (Magic Items) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Hidden Lore (Magical Writings) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Hidden Lore (Spirits) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Hiking (A) HT-1 [1]-12
Innate Attack (Beam) (E) DX+2 [4]-18
Innate Attack (Projectile) (E) DX+2 [4]-18
Jumping (E) DX [1]-16
Meditation (H) Will-1 [2]-14
Occultism (A) IQ [2]-15
Physiology (Demon) (H) IQ-2 [1]-13
Physiology (Mundane) (H) IQ-2 [1]-13
Research (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ+1 [2]-16
Scrounging (E) Per [1]-13
Search (A) Per-1 [1]-12
Speed-Reading (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Staff (A) DX+2 [8]-18
Stealth (A) DX-1 [1]-15
Teaching (A) IQ-1 [1]-14
Thaumatology (VH) IQ [1]-15†
Throwing (A) DX [2]-16
Wrestling (A) DX [2]-15
Writing (A) IQ-1 [1]-14


* Includes +1 for Combat Reflexes
† Includes +4 for Magery
‡ Includes +1 for Perfect Balance
§ Includes +2 for Voice

Spells*

Armor (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Breathe Water (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Burning Touch (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Concussion (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Create Air (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Create Fire (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Create Water (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Dark Vision (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Deflect Energy (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Destroy Water (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Explosive Fireball (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Fireball (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Flame Jet (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Heat (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Ignite Fire (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Infravision (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Keen Vision (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Lend Energy (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Lend Vitality (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Lightning (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Major Healing (VH) IQ+1 [1]-16
Minor Healing (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Purify Air (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Recover Energy (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Resist Fire (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Shape Air (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Shape Fire (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Shield (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Sound (H) IQ+2 [1]-17
Thunderclap (H) IQ+2 [1]-17

* Includes +4 for Magery

Gear

I’m only listing combat gear.
No  Encumbrance (24 lbs).

Clothes $0 2 lbs.
Thrusting Broadsword-21 1d+2 cut/1d+1 imp (reach 1) $600 3 lbs
Leather Armor DR 2 $100 10 lbs. torso, groin.
Heavy Leather Leggings/Sleeves DR 2 $110 6 lbs. arms, legs.
Boots DR 2* $80 3 lbs.
$110

Notes

Nephithi may be more than a starting Elder Scrolls character in some ways, but the restrictions of the templates makes her less than a starting character in other ways. She may have a lot of the spells I find iconic for my play style in TES, but her versatility in combat is paltry compared to the all capable TES prisoner. She wants to grow in power, similarly to a TES player who wants their character to increase in level. She’s someone around whom the strange frequently takes place.

Accessory (Map) gives her a mental map, as accurate as her senses and other maps available in the campaign. It is both a map of the world or city, as well as a floor plan of any building, cave, or similar that she is in, have been in, or have seen the map/floor plan of. The map doesn’t include anything that happened before the start of the campaign.

Shtick (Absolute Direction and your senses updates the Map automatically) means that her map instantly updates with information given by her senses and Absolute Direction.

Shtick (Absolute Direction shows the direction to all locations on the map) allows Absolute Direction to tell her the direction to anywhere on your map.

The Dragon Tablets: Iteration One

Dragonlance by StawickiArt

In January of 2016, Daniel Dover of Mailanka's Musings, started his Psi-Wars blog series. His way of filing off the serial number of Star Wars and creating his own setting to be used with GURPS. This is another example of that process. Showing its versatility by going in another direction from another starting point. The Elder Scrolls (or TES).

He pointed out a few reasons why creating something new is better than simply converting something old to GURPS:
* The new product is yours; it doesn’t belong to someone else. So you can do whatever you want with it.
* Things work the way you want them to work and avoids any inconsistencies or varying interpretations of the original.
* You can add stuff from multiple sources and make your unique creation larger than the sum of its parts.
* GURPS has already filed off the serial number of some stuff.
* Creation allows you to be creative, while conversion stifles creativity.

His process is to quickly get something playable, by creating the setting step by step. Starting with a simple core and adding complexity with each iteration, while simultaneously fixing flaws. Or in other words, creating an imperfect setting that can be used NOW! And improving it with each cycle.

For the first step, we’ll need GURPS Basic Set, GURPS Fantasy, GURPS Low-Tech, GURPS Magic, and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers.

The Dragon Tablets: The Concept

What is The Dragon Tablets? It is The Elder Scrolls with the serial number filed off. A single player fantasy computer roleplaying game turned into an RPG setting for groups that can be used without computers. The Elder Scrolls is a very cinematic setting and the hero can learn how to do just about anything and become larger than life. Including learning how to kill dragons permanently by stealing their souls. There are kill moves, powering magic items by stealing lesser beings’ souls, multiple pantheons, joining and progressing in the ranks of guilds/factions, choosing sides in conflicts that aren’t black and white. It’s about saving the world while helping the little guy along the way.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Core Activity

So what are you going to do? What is the “core activity” of Elder Scrolls? Trying to answer that from the tools GURPS Fantasy gives us, starting at page 6 for genre and setting and on page 174 for adventures.
* The genre seems to be a mix of High Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery.
* The setting is a fantasy world, or more specifically, limited to the continent of Tamriel.
* Into the Labyrinth: TES has a lot of quests that take the hero underground, normally into natural caverns or forgotten ruins. These are generally quite small compared to most D&D dungeons.
* Perilous Journeys: Exploration and quests are other big things in TES. Though they are not usually as long as mentioned here.
* Hunting Parties: Some of the quests in TES are to kill monsters.
* Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils: There are a few covert/espionage quests in TES, but these are rare.
* Diplomacy: On the small scale, such as trading. Courtship is generally handled differently in the game if it’s there at all. But this seems the best place to put it in The Dragon Tablets.
* Investigation: There are a few investigation type quests in TES, but they are rare.
* Confrontations: Most things end up with confrontation, but only a rare few start there in TES.
* Shore Leave: Doesn’t really offer quests in TES, but it exists between quests and could be a part of The Dragon Tablets.

The stories tend to be exploration and quest driven, with a distinct fantasy action focus. Sometimes with the aid of stealth or negotiation. Politics and religion play a role, but mostly in the background as motivations for action or as groups to join for additional quests. Or as a source of healing and blessings that temporarily improve the character.

Economics can play a big or small part. It can be in the background as motivation, the hero goes on quests to get more money so that he can buy better gear. Or it can be in the foreground as the hero finds raw material, crafts stuff to use or to sell, alchemy and enchantment work similarly, and there can be plenty of trade, for those that so chooses.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: Motifs

GURPS Fantasy has two sidebars about motifs that players might expect.
* Cook’s Tour: The hero travels and explores as much as he likes, despite any other goings-on. Well, most of the time. The beginning of Elder Scrolls games can limit this somewhat. And away from the computer, this is too unrealistic to keep in The Dragon Tablets.
* Flashy Magic: Magic is combat ready, including fireballs, and can be quite deadly.
* Healers: Healing magic is available both to the heroes and others.
* Letter of the Law: Wishes/Prayers can be dicey, depending on whom you are dealing with.
* Lingua Franca: There is a Common tongue, though there are separate languages as well.
* Nonhumans: There are a number of different races.
* Taverns: You can find taverns or inns all over the place.
* Women Warriors: Women, at least if she is a hero or an important NPC, can become pretty much what she wants.

Though The Elder Scrolls pits the hero against the world, or whatever part of the world that irks him or his employer at the time, Duels isn’t really applicable as mass combat isn’t part of the game’s core activity.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: Scope

Where is the hero? Scope covers the location(s) used in the campaign. As exploration is so important, the hero can travel where ever. Various games have allowed travel over all of Tamriel, one or two provinces, or less than a province. But travel and exploration have always been of great importance.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: Realism

This is fantasy and magic, so the campaign isn’t realistic, but there are still elements of realism.

Action

In the games, you can save and are technically immune to Bad Stuff ™. But this is going to be a multiplayer experience, so saving is unpractical. As a computer game, the hero doesn’t need to sleep or eat. Doesn’t have to worry about the temperature, being wet, getting dirty, or using the bathroom. Away from the computer, the heroes have to worry about these things, except, perhaps, the dirt and the bathroom.

Action is cinematic to the extent that a single hero is much more combat capable than most characters. Gear and weapons don’t have to be maintained.

Action is realistic to the extent that there is danger. Injury, fatigue, and magicka are tracked and limited. You have to roll to pick a campsite or set up camp. Forage for food if you don’t have any and roll for the suitable skill to do so. Someone has to stand watch if you don’t want to risk surprise. And a skill roll is needed to do so.

Characterization

In a computer game, the hero has the personality the player decides. So characters are as human, complex, flawed, stereotypical, and archetypical as the player wants.

Setting

The setting is cinematic enough that the differences to the game world introduced by magic aren’t explored. It is a happier place than the real past. Though there is abject poverty, there doesn’t seem to be any serfs. Torture is generally not used. The rich and the highborn may marry for political reasons, but the rest marry for whatever reasons they like. War may be in the background, but the brutal details are beyond the scope of the setting.

Style

As mentioned before, there is poverty, but starvation is beyond the scope of the setting. You have sometimes been able to toggle blood and gore on and off in the game and sometimes not. As I don’t like such things, blood and gore is turned off in The Dragon Tablets. There may be corruption and other political machinations.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Setting

The Elder Scrolls setting is the continent of Tamriel on Nirn and the games have spread out pretty well all over the continent. Some areas more than others. So let’s call the The Dragon Tablets world Boros and the continent Regnarok. This is only iteration one and we can figure out a better name later.

Here is a quick image of the nine provinces:
* Celement is a Control Rating 3 Feudal Colony of the Cornian Empire.
* Cornia has a Control Rating 4 Feudal government with an Emperor at its head.
* Gordfast has a Control Rating 2 Tribal government that recently has left the Cornian Empire.
* Lunarstream is a Control Rating 3 Colony of the Cornian Empire, with a titular king to lead it.
* Marshlands is a Control Rating 4 Dictatorship (Monarchy).
* Rockwell doesn’t have a province-wide government; it is divided into smaller kingdoms and city-states.
* Shokwood is a Control Rating 3 Dictatorship (Monarchy)
* Springfell Isles is a Control Rating 3 Colony of the Cornian Empire, with a titular king to lead it.
* Urdinia is a Control Rating 3 Theocracy.

A quick list of the organizations the hero can join, all of whom will need more detail in future iterations; for now, all we need to know is what they do and that there is some sort of ranking system:
* Wizard Guild: Teaches magic and have magic related quests.
* Warriors Guild: Teaches combat skills and have combat related quests.
* Thieves Guild: Teaches thief skills and have theft related quests.
* Assassins Guild: Has assassination related quests, where there may be instructions on how the mark is supposed to die.

There are other organizations, of course. Most of them are outside the scope of the setting. Organizations the heroes might interact with include, various city watches, that may be different in different cities/towns, various temples/shrines, though a temple devoted to the same god will be similar even in different provinces. The military may be involved, on a small scale.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Supernatural

TES has magic and so does The Dragon Tablets. For now, we simply use the magic rules from GURPS Magic. More detail has to be added to magic as well as to what kind of supernatural creatures and realms exist in the setting.

Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Technology

The dwarves had a much more advanced technology than what is left in Tamriel now. For the heroes, we can ignore that as it doesn’t have to be explained to them. They may find it. It works, but they have no chance of discovering how. I’m probably being too detailed in this section, for iteration one.

The setting is TL 3 with some deviations here and there.
* Transportation is TL 4, but navigational tools are still only TL3.
* Black powder/gunpowder doesn’t exist. So there are no weapons that need them or fireworks.
* Spider silk is used as a fiber, as are reeds, cotton, wool, and silk.
* The following TL4 weapons are available: Cavalry Saber, Edged Rapier, Late Katana, and Saber
* The following TL3 weapons don’t exist: Flamethrowers, Rockets
* The following TL 4 armors are available: Brigandine (all), Plate (all)
* Animals aren’t armored.
* Submarines don’t exist.

The Dragon Tablets Characters

Now that there is a core setting, we need characters to fill it. Both GURPS Fantasy and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1 Adventurers have templates to help create these characters, though neither is as powerful as I want them to be. I am used to PCs in the 400 character points neighborhood, but these lesser templates can be useful for NPCs.

Looking at the Fantasy templates first, the following jump out at me as particularly useful as a starting point for the heroes: Archer, Assassin, Bandit, Battle Wizard, Holy Man, Knight, Spellcaster, and Thief. All of the Dungeon Fantasy templates are more or less useful.

Races

As mentioned earlier, humans are not the only race around. Fortunately, there are racial templates in the Basic Set and Fantasy. There are other GURPS books with additional races, such as Dungeon Fantasy 3 The Next Level, Monster Hunters 3 The Enemy, Bio-Tech, as well as some 3rd edition GURPS books such as Aliens and Fantasy Folk. Some of those books are not written with Fantasy in mind, but they could be used anyway, perhaps after a little modification.

The Dragon Tablets!

And there we are. The first draft of The Dragon Tablets. There are still things to do. The continent is not well described, for those interested there’s nearly an infinite amount of work to do on that point alone. The organizations need to be fleshed out, as does the supernatural. I need to design templates that are suitable to the power level I want and decide what races I want and if the templates for those available in GURPS products are what I want or if something else is needed, I bet it’s the latter. Still, it is a workable setting that you can play in.

Blogging and Inspiration

Last year the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game was published by Steve Jackson Games. And the year before that, they started a Kickstarter for it. And the awesomeness it promised drew me there like a moth to a flame.

It was the first, and only, Kickstarter I’ve ever joined. They raised 76% more money then they had set out to do. But as international shipping costs a lot of money, I had not at first intended to join, but with a special set up they provided that lowered those costs and stretch goals that lowered them further, I decided to join anyway. And I ended up pledging more than I had intended because of the added value they provided in extra digital and physical products.

It took them a little longer than planned to deliver, but oh did they deliver. So much so that it inspired me to do things I have never done before.

Blogging

As I’m writing this here, let’s start with blogging. I did some blogging over at livejournal four years ago about playing Skyrim and Star Wars the Old Republic. It lasted two months and I had completely forgotten about it. Though when I was looking into where I would post my new blog, I had remembered them and looked there first. But I didn’t like their license agreement, so I looked elsewhere. I compared a few different sites and decided to do it here.

Suitably, my first blog post was DFRPG related, the town of Hot Newt where my DFRPG game takes place.

Now I’m working on Dragon Tablets, a fantasy RPG setting inspired by The Elder Scrolls and other sources, after the method used by Daniel Dover at Mailanka’s Musings to turn Star Wars into Psi-Wars. I was looking into the method much earlier than this to work on the Wheel of Time, but gathering all the material I want from the novels will take years, so that will come later. Perhaps as its own series, but perhaps as part of Dragon Tablets. We’ll see when we get there.

My intention was to post Dragon Tablet material once a week, on Thursdays, but now it seems that twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, will be the schedule I’m going to follow. But as today is New Years Day, I decided to make a different kind of post and get the first Dragon Tablet post up tomorrow.

In addition to those, there may be other things I’ll blog about, just as I did with Hot Newt. It will likely be DFRPG and/or GURPS related, but we’ll see what the new year brings.

Youtube

My livejournal blog from four years ago was stuff most people probably would have made youtube videos about, but that was not something I was interested in doing back then. Not living in an English speaking country for the past 20 years has taken its toll on my accent and my active vocabulary. Even though I understand English as well as ever.

Now I’ve decided to start a Youtube channel anyway. It will mostly be me playing whatever video games I’m interested in at the time. I’m starting with a little bit of Star Wars the Old Republic and will continue with games such as Assassins Creed Origins, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Destiny 2. Most likely in that order.

It was my plan to post twice a week, on Friday and Saturday, with one game series running on Fridays and another game on Saturdays. But due to technical issues, it will only be once a week at first. As I’m only making a quick subscriber/free to play comparison on SWTOR and only playing the solo campaign on Battlefront II, those will not take very long.

Unboxing

Another thing I wanted to do was unboxing videos. I’m listing this separately from the above Youtube heading, even though these videos also would be posted there, because these videos need a camera.

And so I went looking for a camera. I found the TomTom Bandit, which looked very cool. I checked out some reviews and though it definitely wasn’t created for this type of recording, I saw myself using it when running too. The story of the overweight geek getting into shape kind of thing. The synergy sounded awesome. So I bought it.

As it turned out, the Bandit was completely useless for indoor unboxing videos. My phone was too old to link up with it, so it couldn’t be used as a screen during recording. And as the Bandit doesn’t have a screen on its own to show what you are recording, I needed that, I couldn't see what I was recording until I was done. And that didn't work very well. And for health reasons I haven’t been out running since I bought it, but hopefully, that will work out better later.

Math Geek and Motivations

As this blog post comes to its end, I would like to share a tidbit of my personal goals for the new year. I wouldn’t like to call it a New Years Resolution as in my experience those fail. I’ve decided to summarize it into the mathematical statement ${C} \choose {-S}$. But what that means, I will be keeping to myself.

Have a wonderful new year everyone!