Review: Pyramid 3-91: Thaumatology IV

Today, it's time to review the May 2016 Pyramid: Thaumatology IV.  Anyone reading should know by now that I'm a big fan of the standard magic system, so these sort of issues are always right up my alley.

Technomysticism by W. A. Frick

This is an article geared towards GURPS Monster Hunters, and I don't own or use that series, so I skipped this one entirely.

Grade: No grade on this one; I don't like Monster Hunters so I didn't even read it beyond the intro.

The Tome of the Black Island by J. Edward Tremlett

This article centers around a black magic grimoire a-la the Necronomicon or Conan's Books of Skelos.  The background is interesting, and creepy as black magic should be.  It looks like the germ of a good idea, but there's not enough information about the spells included in the book to make them useful.  The game rules here are too bare bones, and the spell descriptions are missing any mention of any of the existing GURPS magic systems, which I find to be a fatal flaw in a GURPS article.

Grade: D.  A simple paragraph or two, or an inset with stats for at least the standard magic system or even Ritual Path Magic would easily have made this one a B, but for me it would be much more work than it's worth to write up detailed write-ups of all the spells.

Update: PK reminded me on the forums that the color codes for the articles have meaning.  I don't pay that much attention, usually, as I think of Pyramid as the GURPS magazine so anything in it should relate to GURPS, but it's certainly accurate that my judgement of the article  was unfair based on that .

Revised Grade:  C.It's no more usable to me in it's current format but lacking any relevant GURPS statistics is irrelevant.

Eidetic Memory: Dark Alchemy by David L. Pulver

This article is about evil alchemy, more or less. I think with two big articles about naughty magic you have the seed of a good Halloween Thaumatology issue here. I liked the elixirs and found most of them immediately useful, and I always like articles about Alchemy anyway.

Grade: A.  Good and usable stuff here, which fits my games with minimal tweaking.

The Thaumaturgy of Metallurgy by Ted Brock

An expansion for GURPS Magic, we get the College of Metal here.  There are some really good spells in here, and it's a good addition with notes about spells already in the magic system. I have to say both that I like the Anvil Strike spell since it puts me in mind of Bugs Bunny and that it's a bit too cartoony for my use.

Grade: A.  Another solid one that I'm seriously thinking about putting in to my gameworld with some minor adjustments.

Codex Duello by Christopher R. Rice

A duelling system for spellcasters, this article is something I didn't even know I wanted.  The general framework is really good, and I like the idea of a mutually created magical shield that keeps bystanders safe.

The stages of the magical duel are evocative and there are a couple of ideas I may develop more.  For a while now I've been giving Wands, Staffs, and Rods all a +2 to offset Regular and Area range penalties instead of reducing range by their length.  I'm going to riff off the Foci mentioned here into more of a range of things that can reduce the penalty from anywhere from 1 to 4 based on the price.  It would give me a reason to present a "wand of hawthorn with a core of basilisk sinew" or similar descriptors like in Harry Potter, and it could make the Focus of a particular PC or NPC mage more vivid, which is always a good thing.

Grade: A+.  Really top notch.

Random Thought Table: The Power of a Good Reputation by Steven Marsh

Fame as magical power.  This one's a bit far out for me and I don't think I'd use it but it's a neat idea nonetheless.

Grade: B.  I'm not going to use it but it's a cool concept.

Final Grade: B.  A good issue overall, but I found one of the articles had some serious flaws.

Revised Grade: A-.  "The Tome of the Black Island" wasn't a strictly GURPS article so I regraded it.

Review: Pyramid 3-90: After the End

Today's review is the April Pyramid, which offers more support for the new After the End books.  It's good to see so much coming out for a fresh line.

"Are We Not Men?" by Jason "PK" Levine

The first article is an expansion of After the End 1's mutant powers.  There are both new abilities and some discussion of a few the that were already described in AtE1.  There are some neat abilities in here, and barring a full book of "After the End X: Power-ups" a Pyramid article is probably the best vehicle to add these.  Some of the abilities in here are a bit more "comic book rubber science" instead of "B-movie rubber science," but for my part there aren't any I wouldn't use in a game that had mutant powers in the first place.

Grade: B+.  A solid article with some neat abilities in it.

"Robots After the End" by Roger Burton West

This article is a quick rundown of how to use GURPS Reign of Steel as a setting book for After the End campaigns.  I consider Reign of Steel one of the best GURPS settings ever, so this was definitely a good article to include.  A GM has lots to consider and work on in doing conversions of the 3rd edition material, and anything helps.  My only objection is that this one could have been longer, but what's here is really good.

Grade: A-.  An excellent but short article.

"Eidetic Memory: The Mercy Dolls" by David Pulver

This article presents an After the End setting, a post-plague world which includes lots of elements of AtE goodness: mutants, radiation, robots, and a depopulated Earth.  If I was to run a post apocalyptic game I could see myself using this setting, or at the least drawing inspiration from it.  The Mercy-bots themselves are definitely an element you could lift wholesale for another setting and throw in without much difficulty.

Grade: B.  A generally interesting setting, and I'd probably use bits of it even though I'd likely create my own background.

"Warping Monsters Into Mutants" by Peter Dell'Orto

A short piece on using Dungeon Fantasy Monsters in an After the End game.  This is probably a good idea, as DF has a fairly large stable of beasties to use, though changing the magical background out is really a matter for long consideration.  My own instinct would be to use material from other post-apocalyptic RPGs first, but it's definitely easier to convert stuff over from another GURPS sub-line.

Grade: B-.  Useful notes, and there's nothing I really disagree with in it.

"Survival at the End" by Christopher R. Rice

This is an expansion or reworking of Survival, and I like the random Survival Skill Modifiers table at the beginning.  There's a lot of information for a high-detail survival approach, but personally I like the low-detail approach from After the End 2 more.  The reduced die-rolls per day in that suit me better.  Since it clashes with my own style I wouldn't use it, but I will say that doesn't make it a bad article and if you prefer a more highly detailed approach to Survival it will prove useful to you.

Grade: C.  A good article in general but not personally useful.

"Random Thought Table: The Aftermath Protocol" by Steven Marsh

A scenario which I could describe as "After the End: After Harder," it presents the threat of an almost-apocalypse the PCs might be in the right place at the right time to stop.  Or facilitate.  It's a decent outline and could be fleshed out to an interesting adventure.

Grade:  B-.  A scenario that could be thrown in to most AtE settings that involve nukes.

Final Grade: B.  A good issue, with the traditional mix of short and longer articles. There were a couple that could have been longer but I liked it overall and all the articles were thematic.

Review: GURPS After the End 2: The New World

The release a couple of weeks ago was the follow-up to After the End 1.  I did a quick review of the first volume, but I decided to mull this one over a bit more and post a more thorough breakdown.

The End

I like the mild joke of making "The End" the first chapter.  This is a list of possible end-of-the-world causes, secondary effects, and pointers to appropriate hazards, discussed in the next chapter.  This is a comprehensive list: bombs, robots, nature's wrath, and other such elements are discussed, as well as ways to mix and match them.  I'm sure you could come up with some that aren't listed but it definitely hits all the most common elements, covering the background elements of Mad Max, Fallout, and most post apocalyptic B-Movies at the very least.  I really liked the Primary Cause and Secondary Effects sections of each catastrophe, as they include lots of good notes about things to look up and consider.

Wasteland Hazards

This chapter covers the places and things that want to kill you in the Wasteland. It's a very meaty discussion, broken up into sub-sections by theme, so you have Chemicals and Munitions, Climate, Disease, Gangs, Mutants (complete with Fallout Super Mutants with the serial numbers filed off,) Nanotech, Paramilitaries, Radation, Rogue Bots, and Zombies.  Throwing all of these at the PCs at once means you're either a very naughty GM or you're running an even more kitchen-sink setting than Fallout.

I thought this chapter was excellent.  There's a lot of good notes about each category of badness, and while, as usual, a GURPS GM has quite a lot of prep work to do, you at least have a list of things to go through and consider what elements you want or need to throw in, with enough guidelines to make the decisions easier.

Boldly Going Forth

This is the "How do the PCs use their skills" section that all the dedicated lines have, and it's as good as I've come to expect from these ongoing series.  The Survival section has a quick Survival skill rule about gathering supplies I'm probably going to immediately start using in my Fantasy games, as it cuts down on the non-exciting rolls while making high skill levels still important.

The section on Ruins is worth mentioning as well, as a quick die roll can settle the important question of "Is this piece-of-crap gonna fall on my head?"

Next is Scavenging, with some of the best guidelines for using Scrounging I've seen yet.  That's rather appropriate, considering the book's aimed at the genre where scavenging is at it's most important, but it's also useful and is something else I might start using in my non-AtE games.

The next section, on inventing stuff, is also very good, with a couple of charts of modifiers worth printing out for your Gadgeteer if you have one in the game.

Computers, Combat, and Persuasion round out the chapter, and they're useful but don't have anything worth noting independently unlike the earlier sections.

Post-Apocalyptic Game Mastering

The final chapter is the GMing chapter, which I sort of glossed over in my reading.  It's a bad habit of mine with most if not all gaming books I own.  I will say the section on Making Everyone Useful is definitely worth a second read-through.

Final Grade: A.  This was a solid book, and it's another must-have for post-Apocalyptic GURPS.  I'd highly recommend picking it up.

Review: Pyramid 3-89: Alternate Dungeons II

Last week's release was the March Pyramid, which a follow-up to Pyramid 3-72.  It's focused on Dungeon Fantasy, and even though I don't run straight DF I find most of the releases for that series useful.  Here's my opinions article-by-article.

Havens and Hells by Sean Punch

A big article on a specific background for Dungeon Fantasy campaigns: the characters are citizens of Havens, totally safe zones where no-one can die except by old age or suicide, surrounded by a vast Hell of chaos.  The Havens are safe, but lack resources, so PCs are required to adventure in Hell to get stuff (including wood and other mundane supplies.)  If they die outside the Havens, they respawn in the nearest Haven minus their equipment (and 25 points.)

This would be a good basis for a MMORPG or Diablo inspired campaign.  I'll never use it myself but it's a solid setting.  So: this one was an enjoyable read, but not much practical use for me and not very inspirational for my purposes because it's very far removed from what I run.

Eastern Adventures by Christopher R. Rice

This one is essentially Oriental Adventures for GURPS.  There are notes on the basic Dungeon Fantasy 1 templates, a Samurai lens for Knights and Swashbucklers, new Races, and Power-Ups.  It goes to show that even the aggressively background-free DF line can use some tweaking to cover cultures removed from the "Medieval Europe with modern sensibilities" default of most dungeon-fantasy gaming.  It's good, solid advice and I could see similar articles for other broad scopes, like African or Arabian Nights inspired settings.

My favorite bit was a tweaking of the Duel of Wills from Martial Arts at the end of the article.  I've always found that a neat rule and this expands it a bit.  This was a good article and somewhat timely as my next campaign (all fighters all the time) may be set in my gameworld's East.

Eidetic Memory - The Titan’s House by David L. Pulver

A short adventure showcasing the stronghold of a really, really big giant (30') and his family and attendants.  I usually only find published adventures useful for inspiration, but a short and sweet one like this is an exception.  I think the enemies are a touch too stout for most of my starting characters as I normally run at 150 points.  It's an adventure which would probably take no more than a session to play out.

I liked this one. I could see myself throwing this at a party at some point, and I don't often use published adventures of any sort.  The shortness of it, the inherent danger present with high ST foes in GURPS, and the generous potential treasure (much of which is easily overlooked) makes it useful to me. The thought of PCs being savaged by a deadly giant chicken also had me chuckling.

Random Thought Table - The Secret of the Explorers by Steven Marsh

"What if adventurers were outlaws" is the best explanation I have for this one.  It's another setting framework, wherein the players can cause too damn much trouble by kicking in doors.  The world's in the grip of a supernatural Cold War and jerks like the PCs could make it hot again.

I found this one neat, though once again I doubt I'll ever use it.  The nature of the Explorers is a bit of setting background the gameworld would have to start with, and since I run in the same world I've used for twenty five years or so, it's not happening.

Short Bursts - Five Best Places to Nearly Get Killed Before You Die! by Matt Riggsby

Cool, Car Wars is coming back.

Final Grade: B-.  A solid issue, but there's too much in there I won't ever use.  I'd likely use some of it if I was creating a new campaign from scratch, but I run in the same world I've used for quite a while.  Still, the articles are thematic and it includes a rarity for me: an adventure I might run as written.

Review: GURPS Powers: The Weird

Last Thursday's release was GURPS Powers: The Weird, which covers "weird powers: the capabilities of exotic and mysterious supers, of cosmic entities, of alien beings who have slipped in through the cracks in reality... and of human explorers who have gone there and come back changed."

There are three chapters after the intro.  The first is "Weird Science," which covers the necessary Traits.  It also introduces a new variation of Styles in Weird-science Styles, which I found very interesting.  Styles are being used in a variety of interesting ways.  I've briefly considered creating Alchemy Styles, using the GURPS Magic Alchemy system, but I haven't had any luck with fleshing them out.  Seeing this makes me want to take another stab at that.

Another thing that occurred to me after reading the first advantage description in this chapter was using one-shot Gadgeteer to create AD&D style artifacts.  Gadgeteer, with "Cosmic, Items need not obey local laws of physics, +50%"  could certainly cover that.

Perks, Skills, and Techniques are also covered, with the Techniques section being really interesting with a good number of new ones.

The second chapter is "Realms and Phenomena," covering Other Places, astral realms, hyperspace, and the Cabalistic structure of worlds among other things.  This is a fairly short chapter with lots of good bits and food for thought for weird-worldbuilding.

The final chapter is "Powers," and this is the really meaty part of the book.  A couple of powers listed were neat, Logos being the real winner for me. With a bit of tweaking it could handle the abilities of the Bene Gesserit of  the Dune series perfectly, and this is the first time I've seen a power write-up that really could.  Noumena and Metamateriality were also good enough to deserve specific mention.

Final Grade: A-.  This book contains solidly built styles and excellent powers, as well as evocative descriptions of the abilities that had me thinking about ways to use this in my ongoing Fantasy games, even though they aren't really thematic for that.  Anyone who likes the GURPS Powers framework should definitely pick this one up.

Short Review: GURPS After the End 1

So, in an earlier post I was discussing repurposing the radiation rules to represent magical contamination.  Who could have predicted that GURPS After the End 1: Wastelanders, the most recent release, would have something I can immediately use?  The simplified Radiation Points system, as well as Mutations and Freakishness, do what I was going for.  With a bit of tweaking for flavor they'll be exactly what I want.  Kudos to PK on this one.

It's an excellent book. The templates are well-balanced but focused enough to be good at their core purposes, which is more of a challenge at 150 points than the 250+ in the other themed series.  I think dropping Wealth in this series is a good idea; paying points for equipment directly makes more sense. After all, there would be no Jobs in the "40 hours a week" sense and Wealth interacts with and relies on jobs to a great degree.

The "grab and play" series (Dungeon Fantasy, Action, and Monster Hunters) have been really good in general. For me, Dungeon Fantasy is the best, but if this series lives up to this strong start it could be as good.  I know there's at least one more planned and I hope it spawns a decent sized series, as this is a genre GURPS has missed because Steve Jackson had dibs on writing it (GURPS Survivors, anyway).  Makes me wonder why he dropped that objection, though he hasn't written for GURPS in a while so that likely plays a part.


Final Grade: A.  It's definitely a recommended buy for any GURPS GM with any interest in post-apoc gaming.  Like most GURPS books it has things in it that can be mined for other genres as well.