Steve Jackson Games
SKU: SJG37-0157
Back To Basics
GURPS lets you run any campaign, of any genre, in any setting – that's what "generic" and "universal" promise. Yet one size does not always fit all; sometimes, you want a game that's built for the stories you plan to tell and the style of gaming you prefer. You can do this in GURPS by choosing which traits, optional rules, and supplements to use . . . but that gets tricky for attributes, which the entire system quietly accepts as fundamental.
GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes explores repricing, adding, subtracting, and generally rethinking basic attributes and secondary characteristics. Topics include:
- Examining the many faces of existing stats and deciding what each element is worth so you can price them to better reflect their value and importance in your campaign – whether that means lowering or raising price per level, using non-uniform progressions, or simply picking numbers you find more pleasing.
- Changing the formulas for secondary characteristics, and even doing away with formulas and treating these traits as basic attributes.
- Adding new scores by converting advantages into attributes, splitting up existing traits, and inventing things wholesale – along with advice on naming it all.
- Getting rid of attributes you don't need without leaving ugly gaps.
- Changing the limits on scores and rethinking baseline values.
- Adjusting everything else – advantages, disadvantages, skills, point budget, and all the rules of the game – to accommodate your revisions.
Rebuilding the foundations is a laborious task, but GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
Written by Sean Punch