Sunday, January 5, 2014

GURPS: Dwarf vs Dwarf vs Dwarf

When you get to a system with as many rulebooks as GURPS, you're bound to wind up with some overlap. The basic set gives a template for Dwarves. So does Dungeon Fantasy. They are both significantly different. And of course, every setting decides they're going to do it differently, so my dwarves for the Wastelands are also slightly different. This difference happens elsewhere too (how many types of elves are there? Shoemaker elves who are more like gnomes from the standard fantasy template, wood elves, high elves, etc) but dwarves are the fantasy race I am most likely to play, for a variety of reasons.

Basic set dwarves are, far as I can tell, the dwarves from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Diminutive, with stubby arms and legs, gold sensitivity, and resilient health. Good vision in the dark, high strength for their size, and long lives round them out. Given stats for the template are as follows

Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers:
SM -1; Will+1 [5].
Advantages: Artificer 1 [10]; Detect
Gold (Vague, -50%) [3]; Extended
Lifespan 1 [2]; Night Vision 5 [5].


I'd actually thought that they had Dwarfism for their SM -1, which would kind of make sense, but it seems the template doesn't use that. They're typically strong enough to still use standard gear, despite being smaller (which is good, as Basic Set gives no rules for smaller gear). Despite their smaller size, these dwarves can go fast, as they do not have the reduced move found in dwarves in many settings.

The Dungeon Fantasy dwarves are those one might find in D&D. They keep the same resilient health, but they're big. What size they lose in height, they gain right back in width, maintaining their SM 0 status, and ability to use full size weapons. They lose their gold sense, but pick up greed instead to show their love of wealth. Extra toughness and a natural ability to carry weight balance out slower movement due to their broad builds. Given template stats are

Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: FP+3 [9]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Alcohol Tolerance [1]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough
Skin, -40%) [3]; Lifting ST 2 [6]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Pickaxe
Penchant 1* [5]; Resistant to Poison (+3) [5].
Perks: Dwarven Gear† [1].
Disadvantages: Greed (12) [-15]; Stubbornness [-5].
Features: Armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor.
* Pickaxe Penchant: You’re a natural at fighting, bashing, and
mining with axes and picks. This Talent adds to Axe/Mace,
Forced Entry, Prospecting, Thrown Weapon (Axe/Mace), and
Two-Handed Axe/Mace. Only dwarves can have it, and may buy
up to three more levels at character creation. Reaction bonus:
Miners. 5 points/level.
† Dwarven Gear: 10% off the final price of gear qualified as
“dwarven” – armor, rations, shields, weapons, whetstones, etc.

Finally, we get to my dwarves. Similar to the dungeon fantasy dwarves, the dwarves of the Wasteland have a few things others don't. Many settings give dwarves the ability to see in total darkness, either by darkvision, or by thermographic vision. A combination of infravision and night vision seemed to make the most sense, particularly for masters smiths, where the ability to see something's color would be of great benefit, and ability to navigate one's way out of a lightless cave could be the difference between life and death. I'll go into a LOT more detail of their history and traditions, but here's my template just for a glance.

Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: FP+1 [3], Basic Move-1 [-5]
Advantages: Alcohol Tolerance [1]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough
Skin, -40%) [3]; Lifting ST 1 [3]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Infravision [10];
Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Extended Lifespan 1 [2];
Longevity [2]; Magic Resistance (1) [5]
Disadvantag es: Greed (15) [-7]; Stubbornness [-5], Hidebound [-5], Miserliness (15) [-5]
Quirks: Likes Alcohol [-1], Distinctive Feature (Beard/Hair) [-1], Attentive [-1], Chauvinistic (racial enemies) [-1]
Optional Quirks: Staid [-1], Proud [-1]
Features: Armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor.

Template cost: 23 points

Where am I going with all this? Nowhere in particular, just thought it interesting to look at all the different ways to represent what is essentially the same concept. 

EDIT: updated for readability and to update my template because of things I missed because I'd been building GURPS characters for ~4 hours at the time of writing.

2 comments:

  1. Fantasy p.107-108

    Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10]
    Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -1; Will+1 [5]
    Advantages: Alcohol Tolerance [1]; Artificer 1 [10]; Detect Gold (Vague, -50%) [3]; Extended Lifespan 1 [2]; Lifting ST +2 [6]; Night Vision 5 [5].
    Disadvantages: Greed (15) [-7].

    Template cost: 35 points

    Banestorm p.189-190

    Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; HT+1 [10].
    Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: FP+3 [9]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
    Advantages: Artificer 1 [10]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Extended Lifespan 1 [2]; Lifting ST+2 [6]; Longevity [2]; Resistant to Poison (+3) [5]; Signature Gear [1].
    Disadvantages: Greed (12) [-15]; Intolerance (Racial enemies) [-5]; Miserliness (15) [-5]; Stubbornness [-5].
    Quirks: Expects male dwarves to have long beards; Prefers gold to other precious metals [-2].
    Racial Skills: Axe/Mace (A) DX [2]-10; Merchant (A) IQ [2]-10.
    Features: Taboo Traits (Jumping, Running Skills).

    Template cost: 35 points

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  2. It's interesting, all the various dwarves are very similar, but the slight differences will give them a slightly different society and personalities for each, if roleplayed properly.

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