Jaffa Cake Monster (125 pt)

Jaffa Cake Monster (referred to as Jaff) is a close cousin of Cookie Monster. Having grown up on The Street, he has always been friendly but as he matured, it became apparent that his diet would have to consist entirely of Jaffa cakes. In frighteningly short supply in his native home on The Street, Jaff went in search of an adventuring party to fuel is unusual appetite.

Jaffa Cake Monster!

(Credit: Benedict Farley
Facebook/Patreon,
used by permission)

A good all round fighter, his natural puppet invulnerability mixed with all round fun makes him a good addition to any silly (and maybe some serious) campaigns.

Friend?

As an Ally, Jaff makes friends easily and puts people at ease. However, he is not the most discerning character and will always try and make friends with others, even obvious enemies! If threatened, Jaff flys into a Berserk fueled rage and bites the nearest enemy. The only thing that is guaranteed to distract him is the sweet taste of Jaffa cakes; anyone who places Jaffa cakes on the battlefield can expect Jaff to run straight to them and eat them at a rate of 30 Jaffa cakes/second.

Or Foe?

As an enemy, Jaff is a scavenger, seeking out Jaffa cakes wherever he can. His stealth is terrible when seeking out Jaffa cakes so he'll be easily spotted by PCs, however this only makes him more dangerous! Biting at 1d cr when threatened, made worse by Supernatural Durability and Injury Tolerance (Unliving), the players' best recourse will often be negotiation aided by Jaffa cakes. Failing that, a tactical retreat is often advisable!

Attack(s)

Bite(14) 1d cr Whenever possible, Jaff will attack using his considerable bite. This will always be in a Berserk fuelled rage with an All Out Attack. GM's choice whether determined, rapid, etc.

Stats (125 pt)

Basic Attributes: ST 14[40]; DX 9[-20]; IQ 8[-40]; HT 10[0]

Secondary Characteristics: HP 14[0];  Per 8[0]; Will 8[0]; FP 10[0]; Basic Speed 5[5]; Basic Move 5[0]; Dodge 8; sw 2d; thr 1d; DR 0; SM -1

Advantages: Addiction (Jaffa cakes)[0]; Fur[1]; Injury Tolerance
(Unliving)[20]; Luck, Extraordinary[30]; Supernatural Durability[150]; Teeth,
Blunt[0]; Unaging[15]

Disadvantages: Berserk (Battle Rage, +50%)[-15]; Chummy[-5];
Compulsive Jaffa cake eating and shouting ‘Jaffa cake!’[-5]; Disturbing
Voice[-10]; Ham-fisted[-5]; Noisy 1 (Only when finding/eating Jaffa cakes,
-50%)[-1]; Restricted Diet (Jaffa cake)[-20]; Sexless[-1]; Unhealing (Total,
needs sewing)[-30]

Skills: Brawling 14[16]

Benedict Farley (who drew this week's monster) is currently open to commissions! You can contact him through Facebook or consider supporting him on Patreon.

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Situational Luck or Roll Once Luck

Luck in GURPS is often used for characters that are experts in their field. It can emulate the gunman who has unusual experience finding the perfect shot across the bar, the computer hacker that sees their favourite algorithm in play or even the martial artist who knows the enemy's style from their morning study. These heroes have an advantage because they work so hard that sometimes it pays off all at once. When Luck is used to simulate this expertise, players are left to the fate of a second dice roll, even though the normal way to deal with advantageous situations is a positive modifier.

So how much do you have to add to a dice roll to have the same chances as rolling twice? Turns out, the answer is...

Situational Luck [varies]: add +2 to effective skill before rolling. If that roll is a critical success, the luck is not 'used up' and the cooldown is instant (i.e. this ability can be used again straight away). Frequency and points cost as Luck (p. B66)

Why does it work?

(If you get queasy thinking about maths and graphs, you should probably skip this section!)

Situational Luck works by assuming that players use Luck to increase their probability of success by getting at least one of two successes. But there is more than one way to turn the odds: a +2 to a roll increases the chances of success by about the same as rolling twice.

How much luckier situational luck is based on the roll it's applied to

As you can see from the graph above, the difference in raw probability from rolling twice or adding a +2 modifier is pretty close. At skill levels 10+, Situational Luck disfavours the player a little, but not enough for concern. At skill levels 9 or less, the player gains a significant advantage with Situational Luck but since you have to declare it before you roll, I figure the chances balance out.

But what about Serendipity?

The experienced GURPser may notice that this advantage is quite similar to the Serendipity advantage. The key difference is that with Situational Luck, the player decides when it applies and gives a fixed bonus (unlike Serendipity where the GM decides everything).

So, can Situational Luck be used in place of Luck?

Yes!

It has some key differences to Luck, but if the GM understands these caveats then it shouldn't be a problem.

Conclusion

Situational Luck is a nice drop in replacement for Luck. It has caveats (some of which have not been discussed here): favours the player at low skill levels, etc. but overall if the flavour of Luck you are after is making the character better instead of luckier, Situational Luck is a step in the right direction.

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GURPS: Space Bestiary Review ★★★★☆

The cover and contents (from Warehouse 23)

GURPS Space Bestiary is exactly what it promises to be: a bestiary. The monsters are good and flavourful, the environments they inhabit are very varied (from cold tundra to hot silicon to complete vacuum) and most of all, it is fun!

Content:	★★★★☆
Clarity:	★★★★★
Grab & go-ability:	★★★☆☆
Overall:	★★★★☆
Availability:	PDF Only ($4.99)

I have really enjoyed reading from this book. From page 1, descriptions are clear and it's easy to see how to apply these creatures to any campaign. Some of the standout creatures are:

• Sea blimp p. 15 - an interesting take on lighter-than-water swimmers
• Turbo shark, p. 16 - think shark meets jet engine
• Korreath p. 60 - 'realistic' pheonix complete with (limited) physics explanation
• Animator p. 79 - telekinetic mountain burrowers
• Bio-planetoid p. 85 - proto-sentient planets from birth to adulthood

There is a short discussion (3 pages) on creating custom creatures with no tables to roll on. It would be nice to have more in this regard but since it's a bestiary, I can't really complain.

One thing that stands out about this book is the completeness of each creature. The creatures are designed to be stand-out features of an alien ecosystem rather than parts of a whole, so you can sketch something out with only 2 or 3 of these creations and a little fluff. While this may not sound like much, the film Avatar (2009) did exactly this when it created the world of Pandora; a world so wonderful that some viewers became invested to the point that they felt depressed they couldn't actually live there.

Another thing which (doesn't) stand out is that this book has not aged a day despite the fact that it is 28 years old! The descriptions come alive and feel as if they could have been written yesterday. Discerning readers may notice the book mentions SJ games BBS (which was famously raided by the secret service), but this can definitely be forgiven, since this book is literally as old as the World Wide Web!

From a GURPS 4e perspective, a nice feature of the book is that it has core stats and damage dice in a table, but describes attacks and behaviour in the text so you do not need to rely on 3rd edition knowledge. This can be a double-edge sword though, since you will need to prep these creatures beforehand or leave your players hanging for 2-3 minutes while you read the description. If there is ever an update of this book, fully statted 4e creatures would be very welcome.

I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to create new alien ecosystems on a regular basis since it can be used to create something believable in 10-15 minutes. While this book is certainly not a grab and go (I won't be using it for surprise encounters), it makes great fuel for the imagination and is perfect for when PCs are approaching a world which should be truly alien.

Quintapod 5000

This post is the first of many in my Friend or Foe series where I take a point total and make a thing which can be taken as-is to be an ally or an enemy!

Kind of like this, but with 5 legs instead of 4. Credit: Pascal

Initially designed as cheap but effective security bots by UrRobotNeeds Ltd., the Quintapod 5000 is a small adaptable, arachnid-like bot with 5 legs and basic visual and audio inputs. It’s main feature are the 10 chip slots which can be used for weaponry, extra compute power, adding specific skills, etc.. They work best in packs but due to their low cost are often used as little assistants for menial work/basic security.

When left to their own devices without explicit programming they are naturally curious and seek out pre-programmed threats. Since they have HiveMind™ capabilities, they automatically link up with other friendly quintapods and share their sensory input. If found in a combat situation a hive will favour aiming first, using Hive Aim (see below) then shooting en masse. It takes 1 minute to change the module(s) on the quintapod. Upgrades are available at 3.5 points/level for Modular Abilities (Chip Slots). The GM has the final say on what is possible; modular abilities should be consistent with the rest of the quintapods features (e.g. not lifting more than basic lift, etc.).

Language: Beeps and boops The language of beeps and boops is uniquely suited to the kinds of things a quintapod would want to communicate. Any communications attempting to convey location, security details, bot operations or anything the GM feels appropriate is transmitted at 5x speed. (Details that bots wouldn’t usually talk about is transmitted at 0.2x speed, e.g. describing art work.)
HiveMind™ Any quintapods within range automatically attempt to form a MindLink which transmits sight, sound and location.
Hive Perception If any quintapod passes a perception roll, it may communicate this to any linked quintapods as a free action. (This is really a combination of Absolute Direction, MindLink and Language: Beeps and boops.)

Laser rifle (12) 3d pi- Shoot with it’s mounted laser rifle  
Hive Aim If a quintapod acquires an aim, any linked quintapod can acquire the same aim as a full turn action without rolling

EDIT: (This creature is now available on GURPS Calculator)


Stats (25 pt)

Base stats ST 5[-60]; DX 10[0]; IQ 8[-40]; HT 8[-20]; HP 16[22]; Per 10[10]; Will 8[0]; FP 8[0]
Other Basic Move 4; Basic Speed 5[10]; DR 0; Dodge 7; SM -2; sw 1d-3; thr 1d-4 Advantages Absolute Direction (Requires signal -20%, 3D Spacial Sense +5, Requires mindlink from other quintapods)[8]; Doesn’t Breathe[20]; Doesn’t Sleep[20]; Extra Arm 2 (Foot manipulators -30%, Weak (Half body ST) -25%)[9]; Extra Legs (5 legs)[10]; Injury Tolerance (No Blood)[5]; Injury Tolerance (Unliving)[20]; Innate Attack (Small Pierce, Low signature (small bright dot on target) +10%, Laser weapon) 3[10]; Language: Beeps and boops (Native spoken & written)[0]; Language: Common (Native spoken & written)[6]; Mindlink (up to 99 nearby quintapods +20, Cybernetic Only -50%, Racial (Quintapods) -20%, Telecommunication, -20%)[4]; Modular Abilities (Chip Slots) 10[35]; No fatigue points[0]; Resistant (Immunity to Metabolic Hazards)[30]
Disadvantages Acts in self interest when not given programming[-1]; Curious (only when not given programming)[-1]; Electrical[-20]; Hidebound[-5]; Horizontal[-10]; No Sense of Smell/Taste[-5]; Reprogrammable[-10]; Unhealing (Total)[-30]
Skills Innate Attack (Laser rifle) 12[8]

Building a homebrew GURPS sourcebook for free with LaTeX

An excerpt from my current System51 homebrew GURPS setting book.

If you are like me, one of the things you love about GURPS is all of the pretty books. Like, all, of them. Wouldn't it just be the best if your homebrew campaign also had a book? Well, that's what I've been doing for about a year now.

I regularly use LaTeX, and after recently reading Gaming Ballistic's recent post, I thought it would be a good time to go through what I do to make my homebrew supplements.

There are basically two parts to my process for typesetting sourcebooks: good defaults and the gurps LaTeX package (which I maintain).

Good defaults

I'm a big fan of the memoir package for non-scientific works with the twocolumn option to make maximum use of the space without really long lines. Memoir provides good defaults so I don't find myself doing much customisation.

I also use the microtype package to give my documents that extra clean edge, among other things.

Most of my sourcebooks also double up as my GM notes, so it's useful to have little aside boxes (like in official GURPS material!). For these, I just use an uncustomized tcolorbox. It works straight out of the box, but you can change colour etc. as much as you like.

The gurps LaTeX package

I've also started to develop a GURPS LaTeX package and github and on CTAN. (Wherever possible, its good to get the github version as this package is still in alpha.) Some of the features include:

• Automated character environment for quick sketching NPCs.
• Steve Jackson's online policy disclaimer as \SJGamesOnlinePolicyGameAid{author name}
• \dice macros for GURPS dice notation formatting. 

The macros are not super advanced, but useful for quick prototyping of GURPS documents.

Summary

LaTeX is a good match for sketching out adventures quickly. It's use of macros and environments (like the character environment) makes it easy to get things done. I highly recommend it for any GM looking to make their campaign feel a little more special, without having to splash out on professional software.