Optional Rules and House Rules

Those rules from published GURPS books will be given page numbers and summarized; houserules will be explained in full.

Character Creation, Advantage, and Attribute Rules

• Weapon Master has been merged with Trained by a Master, which has been given a variant pricing scheme. Choose one of:
  • A single unarmed combat skill (e.g. Judo): 15 points
  • One specific weapon (e.g. the Sword of Goujian): 15 points
  • A single kind of weapon (e.g. the Jian or Unarmed): 20 points
  • Any two weapons (e.g. the Jian and Unarmed): 25 points
  • All weapons used with a specific Skill (e.g. all weapons used with the Broadsword Skill): 25 points
  • A small class of three to five weapons (e.g. “Pak Hok Weapons”: Jian, Gùn, Qiang, and Jiǔjiébiān): 30 points
  • A medium class of six to fifteen weapons (e.g. all swords): 35 points
  • A large class of sixteen or more weapons (e.g. all bladed weapons or all one-handed weapons): 40 points
  • All muscle-powered weapons: 45 points.
    A warrior with Trained by a Master gains all of the benefits of Trained by a Master AND Weapon Master when using a weapon covered by his specialty (with the exception of unarmed skills, which do not gain another damage bonus).
• Per is now based on HT rather than IQ.
• The costs of IQ and HT have changed; they are now both 15 points/level.
• A new Attribute, Spirit (SI), has been added, covering supernatural "health". SI can take one modifier: No Fine Supernatural Manipulators, -40%, which prevents you from using your SI for anything other than resisting attacks. Will is now based on SI rather than IQ.
• A new Secondary Characteristic, Spirit Points (SP), has also been added:
  • SP start equal to your SI and can be bought up or down; see Attributes and Secondary Characteristics, below.
  • SP replace FP in all non-physical situations.
  • SP act as a buffer against supernatural effects; when expenditures or losses leave you with less than 1/3 of your SP, halve your SI and any bonuses from Resistant; when they leave you with 0 or fewer SP, quarter them instead.
  • Spent SP are regained at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes, regardless of whether or not you are resting. This recovery rate can be modified by purchasing one of the following new advantages, or via Breath Control:
    • Resilient Spirit: You get +1 to all SI rolls (to go into SP debt, to avoid injury when going into SP debt, when resisting involuntary SP loss, etc.). This does not improve your SI attribute or SI-based skills! You also recover SP at twice the normal rate. Prerequisite: Spirit 10+. 5 points.
    • Very Resilient Spirit: As above, but the bonus to SI rolls is +2. In addition, whenever you lose SP to draining effects (but not when you voluntarily spend it), you lose it at only half the normal rate. Prerequisite: Spirit 12+. 15 points.
  • A desperate person may tap into “deeper” reserves. Doing this is dangerous. The character must have a current SP of 0 or less and either take a Concentrate maneuver or make an Spirit-4 roll. Tell the GM how many multiples of your base SP you want to access, up to two times your SI if you want to stay conscious. You may access up to 5x your SI, but you fall into a Coma (see p. B429) two turns after you gain access to the extra SP, with all that the condition entails; if you access up to 4x your SI, you must also make an immediate SI roll or else permanently lose a point of SI; if you access up to 5x your SI, this loss is automatic. Two turns after you get the extra Spirit Points, you must make a Spirit roll, at -2 if you accessed 2x your SI. Critical success means you lose 1d FP, success means you take 1d points of injury, failure means you take 3d points of injury and must make another SI roll or fall unconscious until your SP is above 0, and critical failure means you fall into a Coma, just as if you had accessed more than 2x your SP. These “extra points” are used exactly like standard SP.
• All "meta-game" traits (that is, Cursed, Daredevil, Destiny, Luck, Serendipity, Super Luck, and Unluckiness) are unavailable. Instead, these have been replaced with two new traits: Heroic Destiny [5/level], and Ruinous Destiny [-5/level]. You are limited to five levels of each trait. Much like Reputation, if you have both Heroic Destiny and Ruinous Destiny, total their costs before determining if the total trait is a net Advantage or Disadvantage. Each level of Heroic Destiny works as a character point you can use on any of the options listed under Impulse Buys, below; each level of Ruinous Destiny counts as the same, for the villains to use! Each of these regenerate spent points at a rate of 1/session, regardless of your level. One or both of these traits can be modified with the following Limitation:
  • Aspected or Doubly Aspected: Your points only apply to certain tasks, in certain situations, or for specific spending uses. For example, you could have Heroic Destiny Points that only apply to athletics, social interactions, job-related skills, critical failures, combat, etc.; this is worth -20%. Points may also be “doubly aspected” – they can only be used to mitigate critical failures in combat, job-related social interactions, and so on; this is worth -40%. You could specify something like “Only when death is on the line” (for aspected) or “Only when death is on the line against Sicilians” (for doubly aspected). For spending uses, treat each broad category from Impulse Buys (e.g., Survival) as a single aspect and each subheading (e.g., Flesh Wounds) as “doubly aspected.”

Combat Rules

• Any per-die damage bonuses (from high skill, Claws, Trained by a Master, etc.) are now flat bonuses.
• Postures, Hit Locations, and Techniques: MA, pp.98-99.
• The Simplified Range Table from GF, p.7 is in use, and the Size/Speed/Range Table is ignored. To summarize: At 0-5 yards, the distance penalty is 0, but the Bulk penalty applies if you are close enough to punch or grapple and lack Heroic Archer or Trained by a Master. At 6-20 yards, the distance penalty is -3. At 21-100 yards, the distance penalty is -7. At 101-500 yards, the distance penalty is -11. At 501+ yards, the distance penalty is -15.

Maneuvers

• All-Out Attack (Long): Gives an extra hex of Reach. MA, p.97
• Committed Attack: MA, pp. 99-100
• Countering Feints and Deceptive Attacks: MA, p.100
• Defensive Attack: MA, p.100
• Evaluate and Non-Combat Skills: MA, p.100