GURPS Felarya Roleplay: Organisation Thread

Plain and simple, I'm considering running a Felarya roleplay game using GURPS.
An ambitious Zahn Nomaden noble family is recruiting a small expedition force of mercenaries, explorers and scouts to map out possible resources and settlement sites. At least, that's what they're saying. The Zahn representative said that the expedition be dropped off via jetbike at the family owned fortress town, where the expedition will have a vehicle and driver allocated to them. With the Zahn car, complete freedom of the Fields is theirs. You are part of the expedition.


GURPS stands for Generic Universal Roleplaying System; it's a system designed to accommodate any kind of roleplay possible.

For those who don't know, roleplaying games differ from freeform [the most common roleplay on this forum] roleplay in three main aspects:
There is a game master who controls and describes the environment, including non-player characters, monsters and such. The Game master is supposed to lead the players on a plot.
Characters have skills and stats*.
These are used in conjunction with rolling dice to determine the outcome of combat and other events.

The reason I'm using a system is I like the idea of the outcome of events being determined by the randomness of dice, rather than arbitrary decisions made by players. The aspects of plot and character progression for the players are also appealing.

As for how play will be carried out;
There are a number of ways to do it. Forumotion has an RPG feature that allows dice rolls and character sheets to be inserted and used in posts, but it's not active on the Felarya forum.
There are various other ways to do it with different chats or even email. Google docs is a possibility too. I'll see what suits the players, assuming anyone wants to play that is.

That said, this is not the thread for the roleplay, this is the thread for organising the roleplay. If you're interested in playing a roleplay that will have planned events, unknown outcomes and character progression, this is the one, please post here to express your interest.

Lastly, character creation and statting* is something I'll go over on a case-by-case basis.

A quick example of combat:

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* Stats, short for statistics are a measure of how good things are at something. They are expressed as numbers, as are skills.

I'm interested I just need to know how the character creation system works.

It's not hard; there are tools like GURPS Character Sheet that can help.
Anyway, there are 4 main statistics in character creation;
Attribute - these are things like Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc
Skills - Pretty self explanatory; to do something well, your character needs to have a relevant skill. if they don't, they will either have to use a similar skill or attempt to wing it. Skills cover everything from first aid, weapon use to mathematics, machinery operation and such.
Advantages/Disadvantages - An “advantage” is a useful trait that gives you a mental, physical, or social “edge” over someone else who otherwise has the same abilities as you. A disadvantage is the opposite
Equipment - What your character has on them.

All these cost character points (except disadvantages, which GIVE you character points). The amount of points is given at character creation, but you can earn more through gameplay. There's no levelling up like D&D.
Oh, and the starting points for this will be 160

Basically, come up with a a character concept and backstory, then choose the relevant statistics to reflect your character. There's a skill or advantage for pretty much everything.
I'll help you with character creation through private messages or MSN.

If you're not interested or you have some concerns, please post with the reason. I'd like to know either way.

I have been wog on writing a full Felarya RPG (using a 100 percentile system of my own design), but GURPS seems to fit the setting better.

Yeah, I actually considered using Basic Role-playing, a D100 percentile system, but when I looked at GURPS, I found that it already had rules for really large (and small) creatures. I worked out the numbers for a giant centaur with relative ease.

I think it's a good idea. I used to do a lot of paper & pencil & dice roleplaying, and Felarya is well suited to the "classic" form of roleplaying. I won't take part, due to lack of time, but I hope it's a success.

One thing I would suggest is giving some indication right from the start as to the type of group that the PCs should be part of. (What brought them together; what motivates their adventure out into the wild.) Before people start creating their characters.

Thanks French Snack.

As for what brought the player characters together, that's in the OP. I've just embiggened the relevant text in the OP, for those who may have missed it. It's a little sparse now,but as I said, I don't want to give away everything before things have even begun.

The point of types is characters is also important, so I'll address it now.

If you're interested in this RPG, the type of character you should be creating should be a explorer, scout or soldier of fortune. It can be any species or race that can enter Negav. But keep in mind that while combat skills are important for fighters, I recommend that combat characters have at least one skill that can be used outside combat. While Felarya is akin to a deathworld, this campaign should be more than episodes of Monsters vs Mercenaries.

For example; The skills Geology and Prospecting may help your character identify an Ascarlin vein, find drinkable water or identify a weak rock formation that can be collapsed on an enemy!
There are skills for almost anything, so when you've got your character concept a bit of a backstory, think about what they would have been taught and learned from experience. There are skills for almost anything, so if you want to know the details of a skill or if it exists, just ask, even if it's out of curiosity.
(There's even a skill for Running. Your character can be good at running without having a high 'health' stat, which otherwise governs that.)

Current players: Stabs, Mr Nobody, Archvile, Space Samurai, Beefnautz and Buddha

I'm not taking on any more players for this roleplay, sorry.

Well I'm interested too so sign me up.

*EDIT*

Actually. :S The more I read about it the more I doubt. After considerable thought I'm probably gonna pass actually. No real reason, it just doesn't seem like my cup of tea.

All players should check page 288 of Basic Set as it has a list of useful items for camping and adventuring; please contact me if you're not happy with equipment lists right now.

Also, the matter of dice rolls needs to be discussed before we begin, which should be soon.