Dungeon Fantastic

Felltower & Atheism disadvantage levels

2026-10-18T18:31:26.428-04:00

Atheism in Felltower is always a disadvantage.

For an earlier discussion that underpins this, see my post on Felltower Religion & Intolerance.

Quirk-level: Thinking all magic is just magic, regardless of wether it comes from the Good God, or Nature, or wizardly Mana, is a quirk. It's seen as a misunderstanding. At worst, some (especially those with Intolerance) as a mild heresy. But it's unlikely to cause you any real trouble. It's just an oddity. Clerics react to you at a -1.

Delusion [-5] level: Characters who think there might be a big powerful being called the Good God, but that the Good God isn't the paramount diety or that the Good God doesn't have incredible power and reach, have this level of delusion. The "the Good God used to just be a powerful wizard" line of thought is this level of delusion. That the Good God exists and has powers and can provide a specific class of spells to its worshippers is provable fact. The Good God doesn't need your belief to exist. All that's required is your worship. Everyone reacts to you at a -1, clerics at a -3.

Delusion [-15] level: Not believing in the Good God as a God is a serious flaw. You'll be regarded as insane, dangerous, a heretic, and an idiot. Disbelieving in the existance of the Good God as a God is like disbelieving in rain or fire. Everyone reacts to you at a -3, and Clerics won't have better than a neutral reaction.

Believing in gods other than the Good God is fine, and isn't even a quirk. Disbelieving in them is best handed as Intolerance. Worshipping other gods is considered heretical, and is at least quirk-level and usually more like -5 level Delusion. Intolerance will handle the reactions back to that, too, and can and will stack.

Worshipping demons can get you excommunicated, but also cool powers - see Evil Clerics - but doesn't bode well for your reaction rolls in town.

DF Felltower - Caps & Limits Draft II - Further Reflections

2026-10-07T19:10:36.870-04:00

I'm still noodling around with my ideas in this last post.

Absolute Base Skill Cap

Skills are capped at 30. Skills above 30 can be purchased, or you can end up with them thanks due to stat boosts and buffs, but any skill about 30 will be discarded before applying any modifiers.

This is not an effective skill cap, it's a base skill cap.

This seems a little fairer than Stat+10 as a limit. It doesn't matter how you get it. DX 13 and Broadsword @ DX+17 is a fair build. But when you get DX 14, you have a 30. Stipulating it's not an effective skill cap means you can't, say, get 33, absorb -2 for Bad Footing and a -1 for a foe's SM and still have a 30. You can't get 34 and just always do at least -2 in Deceptive Attack. We lock it down to 30, and then apply any situational modifiers.

Safest way to deal with this is to stop getting skill somewhere in the mid-20s, and just know that sometimes you down a DX potion and wield a Balanced sword with Accuracy 3 and end up with a 30.

There are some downsides to this, but they should only fall on folks with a massive skill who then try to pile on a lot of bonuses.

Flat Effect Potions

I'm officially promoting this one to be up for a vote. I like the +3. It's still a very nice boost. Potions are still a fantastic way to gain a large bonus for a small cost with a long duration. But they're not going to be swingy if I get a solid yes vote on these.

Fixed-Effect Feint

Resolve a Feint, Beat, or Ruse normally.

If the attacker wins by the contest, the target defends at -4.

Extreme Feints

For high-skill fighters in cinematic games, this optional rule allows them to leverage their skill further. Resolve the Feint, Beat, or Ruse normally. If the attacker wins the contest, the target defends at -4. If the attacker wins the contest by 10+, the target defends at -8.

The other option is that Feints apply normally, but you can't inflict any more than -10 on your target. That's the cap.

Finally, it might be worth a defense cap, like the one discussed here. A maximum 20 defense before modifiers would get rid of a lot of need to defense-maximize, which means I don't need to find as many high-skill foes as possible just to give them a shot at hitting high-DX foes.

We'll see what everyone thinks of these.

This last big fight wasn't ruined by high skill, but I do want to make sure limits mean people know the upper bounded limits of the system. Put the limits in that allow for such a fight as a special occasion skill blowout, but not a defacto basis for character expectations. Skill bosses will still be dangerous, and PCs won't essentially out-DX and out-skill the entire monster catalog . . . with a high cost in character points and fun and a low return on investment in effectiveness within the game.

DF Felltower - Caps & Limits Draft

2026-10-04T11:34:28.164-04:00

This is really an attempt to head off long-term issues before they become a real problem. We're already at a point where PC skills are quite high. Do they need to be higher? I think no - I've talked about why offensively (crazy feints) and defensively (defenses so high foes can only crit fish.)

Here is where I am leaning:

Hard Skill Cap - Stat+10 limit on any/all skills.

If I do this, I may consider a Power-Up that allows you to except the limits. It wouldn't be a perk, sorry, but it would be a limited Power-Up, perhaps capped at 3 levels like a lot of the maxima-exceeding power-ups.

This way a fighter-type has a clear idea of what the most possible skill you'll ever be able to get. That's skill-35 for a thief with maxed out DX, not that anyone runs thieves in my game.

Can foes exceed this? Yeah, of course. Foes can have all sorts of stuff you can't as a PC. Deal with it. Dealing with it is part of the game.

Mundane DB sources don't stack.
Magic DB sources don't stack

This is more of a clarification - I ruled this before again and again but I am concerned people forget it when it matters, especially given the math done by the VTT "helping" us.

You can benefit at most from one source of mundane DB - a shield.

You can benefit at from one source of magical DB - Deflect or Shield spells, in general.

I expect this will generate questions about edge cases, but I honestly can't think of any. Have a shield? Get the shield DB. Have a magic shield? Get the shield DB including Deflect. Have a Shield spell? Get that, instead, if it's higher than your Fortify level on the shield you're wielding.

This was how I'd been runing it for a long time, but I am not sure if the VTT sheets can handle this. And the way my players sometimes count up bonuses by trying to get the net ("I'm +2 for Shield, but -4 for stunning, so I'm at -2") can potentially lead to a double count error (". . . and my magic shield is DB 5 so I'm at a net +3.")

I'm still undecided on fixed-effect Feints and Deceptive Attacks, if only because it gives PCs a fixed target of defenses to aim for, even higher than they generally have now. No one wants to roll less than a 16 for defenses if possible even with situational penalties. It's the downside of a "build" system instead of a class-and-level system without feats. And a Rule of 16 for defenses would be awesome but no one will accept that later in an ongoing campaign when they've worked up to higher defenses.

If my players like this, we'll consider adding another:

Fixed Potion Effects - All +1d6 buff potions are actually +3. Notably this includes Strength and Agility potions.

They'll just work with a flat effect, which will save on potion costs (people down them until they get a good roll) but also mean I don't have to deal with +5 to +6 DX in fights.

Any other limits I should give some thought to?

What will people learn from the GFS II fighting?

2026-09-27T11:14:11.296-04:00

This post is a connected followup to Boss/Worthy/Fodder ranking the GFS II guys.

Meta-gamey concerns I have as a GM

The Master/Gith almost solo'd the whole group, even with them using potions and Great Haste. This was for a few reasons.

One, he was using buffs, too. Missile Shield for one, some spellstones and potions graciously donated by previous delvers for another.

Second, the players didn't have their cleric with them, which meant the Master/Gith wasn't trying to undo Curse over and over, and the PCs - used to constant and immediate healing - had the same problem the Master/Gith did, which was, no one to heal injuries.

Third, he was legitimately boss-level - some very potent advantages, some magical gear, excellent armor, and spells. His skills were also high - experienced PC level skills.

He lost anyway, for a few reasons.

His disadvantages dictated a way to fight and a way to handle the threats of the PC. He couldn't just do the most efficient thing in the moment, although he generally had a lot of good options.

The PCs outnumbered him in the end, and it didn't all that much to take out what forces he could muster to help him. With no one to watch his back, the PCs kept after him tightly, forcing him to hit and move and hit and move until he made a mistake (disads are disadvantageous, it happens) and was taken down.
But still, he managed to kill one PC, and knock out two others, before going down.

My game concern is that the players will react by thinking, well, if DX 25 (!) and Skill 25-28 wasn't enough to overwhelm this guy without taking losses, we need to be at least skill 25-28 before DX potions. Slams didn't work well on this guy because he was very strong for his slight build, so people might start thinking, we also need more strength on everyone. You know, what if - just what if - everyone else got killed and one of the PCs had to solo one of these guys. Better for all concerned that the PC has more skill, more ST, and more DX than this guy, right?

That will work.

But then it means instead of a foe like this being interesting, a foe like this has to become the new baseline. Otherwise, any foe with attacks that work on mundane lines - roll to hit, apply defenses, apply DR on a hit, inflict injury - will likely be total wastes of time. Crit-fishing will still work just fine, but their defenses won't when a skill-30 guy succeeds by 20 on average and their defenses don't even reach 20. In fact, defenses in the mid-teens are rare on foes. 12-13 are more common, and 10-12 more common, still. In an attempt to make a boss (one on many a match for PCs) like this more like a worthy-level foe (one on one a match for a PC), it came mean just about total overkill against everything else. When that happens, as a GM, I really have no choice but to make high skill and high defenses and Feints less or not at all relevant. More trick monsters, less like-on-like challenges for the PCs. This is the Invulnerability Trap I have discussed before.

So I am considering skill-capping. Sure, that means more people pushing to DX 20, but they're going to do that anyway. But DX+10 as a skill cap is on my mind.

Might be seen as unfair, because I won't promise you'll never find a skill-25 guy with DX 14 on the other side, but it might stop people from pouring more and more and more points into a single axis of power and groaning when the adventures present broader axes of demand.

Another possible issue is, we can't do it without (blank.) That might be (our cleric), or (another wizard), or (buff spells on everyone), or (a fountain of DX and ST and Speed potions). It's a dangerous road ahead, for sure, but it's going to be tough if no one is willing to go without a massive amount of buffs. It will become a logistical hurdle to delving in new areas. This I am less concerned by. If PCs achieve overkill by spending thousands of dollars per delver per fight, it'll naturally become a bleed for excess cash. It's annoying as a GM when it means you can't really gauge the strength of the PCs - are they ST 15-20 or more like 21-25 due to potions, or DX 20+ due to potions, or immune to missile fire due to Missile Shield, or are they not? But it's not a problem.

My final concern is the caution trap, which is the two above plus more. If this was so hard here, what about a couple levels down . . . is it worse? Yes. Will that mean people insist on doing to this level what they did to every level above? That is to say, loot it down to the door hinges and not move on until they've "cleared" the level to maximize their point value before taking a further risk? They may. I sincerely hope this teaches them that a forward risk is the way to go - the big loot, the big fun fights, the cool exploration and insight into Felltower's internal logic as rewards for pushing the envelope a bit.

We will see.

Boss/Worthy/Fodder ranking the GFS II guys

2026-09-24T16:59:18.243-04:00

The group the PCs just fought was:

One Master aka Gith
One Master aka Gith Lichor
Two Master aka Gith Axemen
Twelve ratmen (3 each phase, crystal, slime, and electric)

The PCs? Two knights, a scout, a wizard, and a martial artist, ranging from 343 points to 391 points. The scout at 343 is the only one below 360 points.

How would I rate the enemy based on 250 point characters?

Master/Gith: Boss. Should be able to solo a group of 3-4 250-point characters, at least draw against 5-6 of them.
Lichtor: Worthy. A little tougher than usual, but equal to a single 250-275 point character.
Axemen: Worthy/Fodder border. One on one should lose to any 250 point combatant, and probably edge out a 250 point support character (cleric, thief, etc.)
Ratmen: Fodder. Need to significantly outnumber a 250 point delver to stand a chance of victory; even then heavy losses are almost assured.

You can probably go back to the earlier fights and fill in the gaps - norker brutes are fodder, albiet tough fodder, and trokers are on the worthy/fodder border (worthy-like immunities, fodder-level attacks and defenses.) Golden swordsmen, worthy to worthy+. Obsidian Golems and Iron Spectres? Worthy to worthy+. The PCs managed to - over time - fight their way through a rigged battlefield (Deathtouch floor!) against a nice mix of foes with a variety of attacks. Over time, and a lot of delves and attacks, they wore these guys all down. Total casualties? Apart from the TPK from when they got teleported nude (heh) and captured and expended like so many Created Servants, a not much. Check the graveyard and see who got killed by these guys. Until last session, nobody.

It took a long time, but they ground down everything they faced at this landing of the second Giant Fanatastic Staircase aka GFS. They took home scads of loot.

This most recent fight was very last-stand like. Ambush in an open area, flying opponents vs. flying PCs (well, air-mobile, anyway), lots of magic, the PCs lacking non-potion healing . . . and a boss-level opponent . . . and it still ended up in a victory for the PCs. They won. The enemy suffered 16/16 casualties. The PCs, 3 of 5, only one of who was lasting (slain Duncan.) Call it net 1 out of 5.

I believe they will take some lessons from this.

What will come of this?

I'll go over some of my thoughts in my next post.

This much loot was always in Felltower.

2026-09-22T05:23:00.000-04:00

Loot recently has had a big uptick in Felltower. It had a rep for being a stingy place, and I always argued this was because of how it was explored, not stocked.*

These last few delves are proving my point. The issue was often the PCs being risk averse - how can we find just enough loot to make our loot thresholds for XP with the minimum risk? They didn't go in saying, how can we find the most net loot, even if the risk means we spend some of it on healing and resurrection and replacing gear and potions? I understand the very old-school ideal of performing executions not fighting battles, but it made for a less adventurous grind.

The PCs ground down everything in every area, in Felltower and in the attached areas - Caves of Chaos, the Brotherhood Complex, the Lost City, and the Cold Fens - until not a coin that could be found was left behind. Only now are they putting on their big boy pants and wading into the hellscale of death and unfair wandering damage that are the lower levels.

And they're winning fights, even when they show up without a cleric and foolishly leave their wizard near someone with skill enough to take out a DX-boosted DX-monster with Great Haste. The loot? It's practically obscene.

People have tens of thousands of dollars sitting around. They're running out of things to buy. Why?

Because the loot down there is very, very good. Yeah, you might have to face a beholder and a packed of gargoyles. Or ranks of trorkers, norker brutes, Gith, golden swordsmen, rat-men, and constructs in a low sanctity zone. But then you walk out with multiple pieces of jewelry that each would meet your loot threshold for the group, and multiple magical items, and rare potions that you cannot purchase, and so on.

The danger multiplies as you delve deeper but the loot multiplies, too.

So does the fun. It's been a long time since anyone griped about wasting a Sunday doing basically nothing. They walk out of fights saying, "Whew!" and gleefully pouring over the loot.

It's high-risk high-reward. The low-risk low-reward won't do it, won't matter, and won't be fun.

So yeah, the look has spiked up with the risk. It was there the whole time. I'd been behind my screen watching people tiptoe around a winnable but brutal fight with $20K per person in loot behind it saying how they needed to find some place to make loot and it was too dangerous here.

Now they're taking their guys into the real Felltower. The top was the preliminaries. The gate level was a lot of fun and still a lot of fun. But more than half of what I wrote for Felltower is down below . . . along with a lot of the answers to questions that came up all the way back in 2011-12 during the Caves of Chaos.

I'm enjoying the reveals. And I'm glad people are willing to bet their paper men that they can win the fights, take the loot, and find out the answers.

* Well, as initially stocked, it was too low. But I corrected that quickly and did not add to but rather multiplied the amount of loot to what it is now. But that's for the top levels. These loot piles down here? Some of them were always that big . . .

Rules & Rulings from 9/20/26

2026-09-21T13:25:36.540-04:00

Not a lot of rulings from yesterday's session, but here they are.

- Orders are from the Monday after session, unless the party returns Monday or later. In those cases it's +1 day after. The group always arrives late to town, and you can't run directly into town, sell everything on Sunday night at maximum available price, and then place orders for gear. That's a Monday thing.

- We rolling stunning and knockdown seperately, because I think that's more realistic and way cooler at the same time. We roll them in that order - stunning, knockdown. Does that matter? No. But sometimes people click the rolls twice and aren't sure which was for which roll. Stunning, knockdown.

- You can dodge the blast radius of an explosion when it's behind you, but only if you saw the shot pass . . . and are willing to dodge and retreat regardless of where it actually hits. You might guess wrong and dodge something that isn't a threat.

I ruled something else but I forget now what it was. I was pre-ruling on something before Vic asks when Jon tries it, but I forget what it was. Heh.

Related, what about bringing a not-fully-dead foe into town?

Town is safe, but only if the players also treat it as safe for everyone and everything else. So, bringing a weird creature to town to get help from in-town people to look at it? Borderline. Getting help killing it, or killing it, or potentially questioning it if it's able to be questioned? No. That makes town not safe across the board and thus not safe for the PCs, either. If the PCs rob NPCs in town, NPCs will rob the PCs in town. Kill NPCs? Kill PCs. It's all equal-ish, but determined by the GM not by anyone else. Rules-edging or boundry-edging by the players could result in disaster.

So nothing in town will do for killing this Gith they brought home. They could do it and did it, but there is going to be a bit of unpleasant association for the PCs for a while. I didn't warn them directly, but I don't think I needed to have to - town is safe unless you violate that, and this is pushing a boundary a bit.

They're looking to do some research, but because this is a special circumstance, I need explanation on what they're exactly doing, what they're hiring someone for, and then we'll make the rolls and pay the funds to deal with it. This isn't routine.

GURPS DF Session 226, Felltower 142 - Vat room battle - Part II

2026-09-20T18:52:40.835-04:00

Date: 9/20/2026
Game Date: 9/6/2026
Weather: Warm and partly cloudy.

Characters
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (382 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (367 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (391 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (343 points)

Later:
Chop, human cleric (367 points)

We picked up mid fight.

The fight was brief but nasty. Percy, Hannari, and Duncan faced the solitary Master Gith, while Thor faced a half-dozen ratmen.

The Master Gith zipped back and forth, using his air move and good speed (though less than Great Hasted Hannari and Percy) to do a Move and Attack on Duncan, attacking with a runaround and Run and Hit to stun him with a pair of cuts to the neck. Duncan used Blink but blew his Body Sense roll and then his stunning check and his death check, and was Mortally Wounded. Hannari desperately slammed the Gith, doing 11 or 12 crushing with an 18-yard Move, but took 19 in return and bounced off. A second later the Gith cut Duncan down with a second cut to the neck and a blow to the skull. Duncan dropped, dead.

Percy clipped the Gith with a skull blow but didn't put him down. Hannari tried resorting to thrown weapons, pump-faking with ranged feints and then throwing some of his collection of bespoke meteoric all-metal kama to some effect, wounding the Gith twice. Percy moved up slowly, using Wait to threaten a zone of destruction without getting out ahead of Agar's Wand so he was maximally protected.

Thor cut down all of the remaining ratmen while this was happening, although one briefly menaced Percy and phased and dodged his blows before going berserk. Once that last one went down, Thor joined the boss fray. The Gith built up and threw a 12d Explosive Lighting at the ground in Percy's hex, hurting him (22 damage) and Thor (11 damage). Then he run away and back in. As he zipped past Hannari, he knocked him cold with a skull shot but dropped his sword on a lucky critical defense by Hannari (we run multiple blows against one foe as a cascading simultaneous sequence.) Thor tried a slam and missed, travelling a few yards past the dodging Gith. Percy rushed up but couldn't reach him. The Gith drew his small mace and lowered down to recover his sword.

That was the only mistake he made, and it cost him. Staying put to gather his dropped sword left him facing away from Thor, who cut him twice to the neck and dropped him, "dead."

Thor approached with his meteoric long knife, took the Gith's helmet off, and saw him staring blankly and white-eyed into nothing. He tried to cut its head off but couldn't. So he tried his flaming sword. Nope. They tried a silver blade, nope. So they used an Awaken spellstone - luckily Percy could remember where hyper-organized Hannari keeps them - and got Vlad and Hannari awake. Then Thor cut off the tip of Duncan's wooden sword (his Staff) and rammed it into the heart of the Gith. Then they did the same with a silver knife of Hannari's. They left them in going forward.

As this went on Chop caught up to the group (in other words, the player was waiting to join in the session.)

Nothing they could do would harm the fallen Gith.

They stripped the Gith of gear, checked the room with See Secrets and took a quick look at the vats (eww, fleshy sweaty embalming fluidy stinking white good that mvoed around and seemed to be forming body parts briefly) and walls (pictographs and weird runes.) They couldn't figure out what to do. So they took the Gith and the gear and left. Using See Secrets they spotted a large secret door with no way to open it and made a note where to find it next time.

It took some work but they made it out of the dungeon and into town.

They got Duncan Resurrection for 15,000, and found the church doesn't have any idea what to do with, or interest in dealing with, the Gith. Duncan claimed it was an Elder Thing after examining it with Hidden Lore, but it's Good vs. Evil, Bunny vs. Squid, and Holy doesn't have any special effect on the Squid axis. They know they regenerate, but something is keeping it from regenerating. In the end, they left the church, checked out their loot, and decided what to do next time. A check of the loot from the Gith, however, turned up a necklace with a vial on it . . . with the last remant of some human blood in it.

Notes:

- the PCs now have a dead Gith. The church won't fix this for them. They can't just leave it in town, or cast Entombment on it in town (illegal), or have it dumped into cement and bricked up in a wall. Oh no. They'll need to do this in the dungeon. So the will figure out how, but the plan is now to gag him, chain him up, carry him into the dungeon, and brick him up in a room with earth and turn it to solid stone. Which probably means a few wheelbarrow loads of dirt since Create Earth will end in 24 hours. They'll probaby add warnings and a cryptic note. Maybe some other delve in another day with another group will turn up the area and they'll break in, and steal the silver knife and sharped stake as loot . . .

- the loot was something obsecene, like $35,000 each. I forget offhand. They sold four suits of magescale, two without helmets (thanks Percy), two greataxes, a four sets of cloaks and boots that provide camo and silence, a few magical fencing swords and a mace, and a few other bits taken a previous delve and never identified. They kept a magical Gith longsword, a Salamander amulet, and not much else. Vlad took a bunch of jewelry in lieu of cash. They're wondering just how many more sets of magescale are out there . . .

- XP was 6 each for everyone but Chop - 4 xp loot, 1 xp new area explored. +1 for a split session delve. Chop got 5, since he wasn't there for part I. Generous, but I think fair - they gave him the loot, and snatching the 1 xp for new area explored felt silly. MVP was Thor for the killing blow and dropping 5-6 ratmen.

Preliminary Felltower Flight rulings

2026-09-13T15:40:36.273-04:00

Answwering my own questions from last week:

What happens when you fall?

You suffer a two yard fall - as if a standing person's head (up in hex 2 from the ground) went to the floor (up in hex 0 from the ground.)

What happens when you lose consciousness?

You fall. See above. If the spell is still on when you wake up, you're still capable of flight. Otherwise, you fall at 11 yards per second - aka 32 fpsps - and normally after that.

What movement effects actually change your Air Move?

Magical effects will work normally - Haste, Slow, Great Haste, Speed potions. I can't think of much else.

What happens when you're stunned and knocked down?

You fall. See above.

How does posture affect Air Move?

No posture matters, but if you want to change posture you must use Change Posture normally, and combat effects are as normal.

Flight questions to be answered

2026-09-09T21:12:06.183-04:00

I haven't made rulings on all of these, but with 0 to maintain Flight on the way, I will need to.

What happens when you fall?

What happens when you lose consciousness?

What movement effects actually change your Air Move?

What happens when you're stunned and knocked down?

How does posture affect Air Move?

My players especially - any others I'm missing?

GURPS DF Session 225, Felltower 142 - Vat room battle - Part I

2026-09-07T16:33:02.500-04:00

Game Date: 9/6/2026
Weather: Warm and partly cloudy.

Characters
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (382 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (367 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (391 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (343 points)

We started off in town, with the PCs buying some potions and Strengthen Will spellstones.

The PCs headed into the dungeon via the well entrance, and down to the first GFS (giant fantastic staircase), and into the so-called Gate Level. The air was close and stale. Vlad tried to push for going to burn off the gas they'd discovered in one area of caves on this level a few sessions back, but Hannari wanted to "stay on target."

They made it to the room with the "Will Wall." Hannari touched one of the mummified six-fingered "Gith" hands to the door, as he had with the GFS. It opened the door, but also got a bit ratty - the 1 injury inflicted when anything touches the door still seemed to apply. He wasn't hurt but it's not clear how much these hands can take - maybe a few more touches?

The Will Wall was more trouble, and in the end several of the PCs had to use Strengthen Will spellstones to get in. From there, it was down to the first landing of the second GFS. Hannari touched the door, it opened, and they went in, all using Walk on Air from Duncan. The chime went off as they advanced - a low gong-like ringing. It kept going, every five or six seconds, continuously. A Dispel Magic on the area did nothing.

They moved in "map south" and crossed the room, using Walk on Air. Thor cut down a whispy curtain of shadowy material and burned it away, and they headed down through a rectangular room and into a circular room with a passage out to their upper right. It had a whispy curtain partway down its length. They had Vlad mapping, the chime going low in the background, and then they had Hannari try to cut down the curtain with his best kama. It worked, but it took some cutting - the stuff cut like paper using bad scissors, but when cut away it whisped into nothing, defying Hannari's goal of keeping some for testing or use.

Beyond was a clearly large room. Only Vlad and Duncan could see - a giant vat, a dozen or so yards across, about 4' high, with a semi-circle of two-yard wide vats with equally tall sides. In the biggest of them was an off-white goo that moved and rippled a little without anything clearly stirring it. The room smelled of flesh and sweat, mixed with a bit of a formaldehyde smell as well. The other six couldn't be seen into from anyone's starting vantage point.

Beyond the vat were four Masters - two with greataxes, one taller one armed as a Lichtor, and one very tall one armed similarly.

Hannari opened by his usual routine by now - fast-sheath his weapon, fast-draw a spellstone from a potion slot, throw it to the limit of his sight, fast-draw his weapon back out (at a -0, -4, -0 to the throw, -8). He'd throw another to the limit of that one's light radius, too, a second later.

The other PCs moved in, Vlad launching arrows at the Masters in succession, only to have them all just miss - clearly Missile Shield. The PCs advanced, going towards and around the left side of the big vat. As they closed with the smallest vat, Thor went to engage an axeman . . . and up popped a ratman, hidden until the moment behind the vat and under some whispy shadowy material. It bit Thor, who didn't see it until it hit him, but a terrible damage roll meant even its armor-piercing phase bite didn't do anything. The ratman flicked and snapped and jolted around, and one of Vlad's two arrows just passed through it harmlessly, but it twitched into the path of the other and took an arrow to the face. Thor's counter swing a moment later - as he backed out of close combat - cut the ratman nearly in half and dropped him. Others popped up, one throwing corrosive slime at Percy, who dodged, but it left a nasty goo pile in the hex he'd been in.

The PCs moved up. Percy quickly became a terror to the skull-owning ratmen and axemen. He killed one axeman in a brief exchange, then a ratman, and then the licthor - all three knocked straight to -10xHP from skull smashes, not incidentally destroying the Mage Scale helmets from those two suits. In each of his three strikes he'd get one critical hit, which usually was enough to finish off his foes. Thor backed up slightly and cut off the leg of another axeman. But then, the Master leader they'd been ignoring had circled wide of the melee going on. For whatever reason, they didn't pay attention to him until he was just withing rushing distance of Duncan. He zipped up, running 8 yards on the air (they use magical flight abilities, too) to stab Duncan twice in the eyes. Duncan used Blink (we forgot to make him roll Body Sense, didn't we?) and blocked, barely fending off the two strikes. Hannari rushed the melee, trying to slam the Master but missing. Duncan retreated. The Master rushed Vlad, next, and stabbed him in the eye (after a blisteringly good Feint - IIRC Vlad was at -14 or so from the Feint), knocking him unconscious. He dropped a few yards and lay still. Meanwhile, the axeman crippled by Thor had levitated himself back up and into the fray, so Percy killed him.

Thor and Hannari pressed the Master, who stabbed at both of them. Thor barely blocked his attack (he had a 5!), and Hannari more easily delt with his attack. They Feinted back, but even with a +5 DX from the usual potion quaffed at the beginning of the fight, Hannari couldn't overmatch the Master. They don't know his skill, but for comparison, Thor is at 22 and Hannari 28 (I think.) Duncan helped out by putting Great Haste on Hannari and Percy.

Meanwhile, a half-dozen more ratmen joined the six who'd popped up near the PCs and rushed into the fray, closing in on the Master. Some threw crystals, to no effect as the PCs blocked or Dodged them.

Then Percy stepped up and took two swings at the Master, who dodged one and took the other to the skull thanks to a Critical Hit. He knocked his head back and wounded him, but he was still up.

He ended it there for time.

Notes:

- Duncan is a few points away from getting Flight 25. That's 0 to maintain. Essentially, I expect most fights to involve multiple flying PCs. People treat it as unlimited air move; I wish it specified "cannot hover" so Levitation still made some sense as a seperate spell once you have a high level of Flight. Also, I like how it expands out adventure possibilities, but I'm not looking forward to how it completely eliminates entire swathes of adventure challenges. The PCs will never need to worry more than a modicum about cliffs, floor traps, difficult to reach foes, ledges, etc. Open spaces become PCs killing zones and closed areas funnels for NPCs to be forced to fight one on one vs. PCs. Free to maintain flight is a significant game changer. I'm ready for the challenge but it does mean we're going to need to do 3-D range estimation and reach rulings and "how far can I fly and are level changes free while I move?" every single combat and time-based challenge around. I should start to make rulings about falling while flying, stunning while flying, etc. I expected the arguments will be made that it's like walking, only much, much better. Heh. Only NMZs are going to force some care and caution, here. You'd think, maybe, that Walk on Air already does this - but Flight is substantially better in most respects, and dramatically reduces the concerns that keep people from using it for flight-based adventuring. I do plan to put paid to the whole 1" off the ground b.s. that people do all the time. With flight, it'll be limited to whole yards.

This is why, by the way, one of my proposed rules for a future game using GURPS Magic is a minimum cost to cast and maintain of 1. No free spells on all the time for anyone. Most of my old hands don't like it, which tells me it's a good, workable rule.

- We had a bit of miscommunication. I always give directions relative to facing. They often had a predisposed idea of "map north" based on battle maps or whatever, and so it skewed a little bit of mapping until I put up a battle map. This kind of issue goes way back. I said "upper right" and the heard it as "over our right shoulders."

- I love the ratmen. Matt Riggsby thinks DF like I think DF, sometimes. I don't use the plain ones anymore . . . phase, crystal, slime, and electric ones for me, thank you.

- We would could have finished this fight in one go, but we had the usual VTT issues (especially because some modules I used to use for management were superceded by native changes to either GURPS Game Aid or Foundry), and everyone was slow. It's hard to be on the ball after a three month layoff. We'll pick up the battle next session in a couple of weeks and go from there. I don't blame anyone, we were just slow, and Hannari is complicated and his player had to be in and out due to a real world problem, which also slowed us down. Oh well.

- Quote of the session was Doug, who said, "I don't play games to do bookkeeping." Agreed. My current campaign is probably above the upper limit I'd set if we weren't already there.

- MVP was Percy for piles of foe-ending criticals, and a nasty one on the Master right at the end.

Felltower preview

2026-09-06T19:05:42.625-04:00

We played a partial delve today in Felltower.

Pretty much, the PCs went down to the second GFS, down that giant staircase to the first level, moved in deeper, and ran into Masters.

And a big vat of smelly off-white goo.

They're in a big fight with ratmen of various kinds (phase, crystal, and slime) and masters, and it's going okay, unless you have a skull (the NPCs) or your name is spelled "v-l-a-d."

Details tomorrow.

DF Felltower - Rumors running dry

2026-08-31T18:36:58.391-04:00

We're scheduled for Felltower on Sunday. But I've hit a bit of a wall for rumors. The PCs have repeatedly hit the same area over and over. There isn't much more to say about it, nothing new discovered to prompt new rumors.

Therefore I'm simply going to either skip them entirely, or if I get an idea or so, I'll put them down and give them out if enough accumulate to allow for a die roll. Or I might just skip - if they're nothing to say, and the PCs already have a plan, what's the point of derailing them?

DF Felltower: Ornate resale value & armor refitting costs

2026-08-30T16:20:02.389-04:00

Two rulings on armor, largely, for DF Felltower.

Ornate Item Resale

Ornate weapons and armor resale at base of 80%, not 40%, of purchase price.

Notes: This is a change. I'd ruled long ago Ornate sold at 100% of value. This has meant a few things - people essentially always take ornate, because it allows you to "rent" armor until you have money for a better set. There is no cost incurred for trading it in on a new set. It also doesn't make a lot of sense in the game world, because a merchant buying at 100% has no margin of profit, and loses on every transaction. At 80%, it's still a good deal for both sides. Finally, it made armor as good of a piece of loot as coins and jewelry, if not better, which is always not quite what I liked to see happen.

Refitting Armor

Refitting a suit of armor for a new wearer costs 10% of the all-in, final cost of the armor including all prefixes and enchantments. A normal suit of armor generally will fit another of the same general size and shape. Fine armor always needs a refit for a new wearer. Sufficiently unique armors (such as Magescale) cannot be refitted, due to a lack of materials, know-how, or the delicacy of the armor or the fragility of its enchantments.

Cost in this cast is always based on the cost to purchase, not the resale value - refitting Crude armor (resale value - none!) is not free.

Refitting armor takes 1d+1 weeks, as for any special order.

Revised GURPS Basic Set & DF Felltower

2026-08-23T19:26:05.137-04:00

What newly featured rules in GURPS Basic Set will make it to Felltower?

Note this isn't automatic. We, by default, play with the DFRPG rules, adding in assorted extras from other sourcebooks. We don't automatically use all rules from Basic Set.

In no particular order, here are the ones I think we'll have to think about.

All-Out Defense (Mental Defense) - long requested, and I like it. This one is in. I don't see it getting used much, except everyone will start to ask if they can use it for a bonus on Will rolls outside of combat, to Will-based rolls outside of combat, to Will-based rolls in combat, etc. So no, it won't do that. It's a flat bonus to resist supernatural attacks if focus and concentration would matter in the GM's opinion.

All-Out Concentrate. Hmm. This is one I need to think about. Long requested, but it is basically a +1 to all spells outside of combat. Sure, sure, those don't matter too much, and failure is unusual . . . except this is a +1 to all Information spells. All of them. Always. No one casts Seek anything in combat. I may consider allowing this but say it does not affect Information spells. And you might need a Will roll to keep AOC going for the whole length of a long spell like Summon Demon or Zombie.

Simplified Range - we already do this most of the time.

Expanded hit locations - nope. Not that kind of a game.

Flat Cost Signature Gear - we already do this.

Retreat facing change - I'm okay with this, kind of. It's a bigger change than it looks - instead of facing the hex you left, you can face another hexside within limits. If it annoys us (me) in combat, it'll go.

Statistically Speaking - yes, if it seems like a good solution to large-group fights. My call when to use it or not.

Not much of anything else really changes anything for DFRPG.

What's new in the Revised GURPS Basic Set?

2026-08-20T17:48:25.002-04:00

Wondering what's up with the revised GURPS Basic Set?

A guest post over on Ravens and Pennies looks at the changes.

GURPS 4th Edition Revised – Changes Review

Generally, the changes are fine. I'm mainly interested in the rules additions and the at-last fixes to say "damage" when "damage" is meant and "injury" when "injury" is meant. You can look at them all over at the link above.

I also like that some of the rules we use all of the time - Committed Attack, for example - shows up in Basic Set now. It will make future references to it easier since it's no longer text we'd need to repeat.

I did eventually get a comp copy of this revised Basic Set. I haven't written anything new for SJG in a number of years. But I did write a lot, and co-wrote GURPS Martial Arts - and that one early in the cycle. Sean and I got to writing it before Basic Set was out. So I'm down in the credits and that earned me a comp PDF.

Felltower Updates

2026-07-22T03:49:16.117-04:00

I did a little blog maintenance today.

I updated the DF Campaign page with links to to last 5 sessions, and also a link to the heavier crossbow rules we use.

I further put the equipment/magic item links together offset from the house rules a little bit, for ease of finding them.

Felltower - Monsters Fleeing between Sessions vs. PCs replenishing

2026-06-28T13:08:59.978-04:00

Is monsters picking up what's left of their goods and lives and fleeing to parts unknown - deeper in the dungeon, or, with access, out of the dungeon - okay in a megadungeon game?

It happens in Felltower and in the surrounding adventure areas - the Caves of Chaos, the Cold Fens, the Lost City, and the Brotherhood Complex, to list them all.

Is it fair? That's unclear. It does make sense.

Before we look at what options monsters have, what happens to delvers between sessions?

In town, the delvers have access to:

- effectively unlimited 250-point replacement characters or new characters (if a new player joins)
- replacement and upgraded equipment
- consumables of all sorts - ammunition, alchemical mixes, mundane mixes, poisons, spell stones, scrolls, and so on
- new spells, chosen to suit their current needs
- complete healing
- skill and advantage upgrades

In other words, the PCs leave the dungeon, and come back with at least what they brought last time, barring loss of a unique magic item or the permanent death of a lost PC. Both of those are rare. The last PC to die in a non-TPK situation and not come back was so long ago I can't even find one on the list. The last lost unique magic items were as a result of a TPK.

So, in general, the PCs come back better than when they left. At worst, they come back less well off, but better prepared. And always better informed, thanks to hearsay, Summon Spirit, and other things that explain the meta-gaming of the same players with different PCs or different players with 200+ session summaries in their heads and an easy-to-search blog at their fingertips.

The monsters do not have access to these open-ended resources. They don't have much, if anything, beyond what's in the dungeon already. That really means they have three options:

Stand and die. In other words, deal with the status quo. Accept whatever losses, and try again to defend themselves from delvers in place.

Reinforce, stand and die. They may possibly be able to heal (not all can), they may possibly multiply, or they may be able to set up better traps, etc. In practice, the only thing that can defeat a delver is a stronger opponent, and all the traps, alarms, and barricades in the world extend the lifespan of those using them by a few seconds or cost the delvers a potion or two.

Run. Take off for parts unknown, or deeper in the dungeon. Take with them what they can.

The players tend to look at all three in descending order of approval. Stand and die is the most popular. Don't use up any treasure, don't spend a coin, don't reinforce. Stay there with their treasure (which rightfully belongs to the PCs, just ask them, no matter what their disadvantages say they generally act this way.)

Reinforcements and rebuilding . . . the players dislike this. They'll gripe about it, mildly, usually, about how it's unfair that the monsters get weeks off between delves to reinforce and make the PCs do the whole defeating them over again. So much so that a considerable amount of time has been spent thinking of how to rest, hidden and safe, in the dungeon while they fully replenish FP, HP, ER, and so on before coming out to start the fight against the monsters before they can really do anything substantial. But they'll live with it, because I make them live with it.

Running . . . clearing out and leaving, especially taking their treasure, isn't popular with the players. But sometimes it's the only sensible reaction. Intelligent monsters won't stick around to just die if there is a better option. I don't apply this as often as I could, mostly because running during encounters is 100% suicidal for enemies who can't outrun Move 20+ (seriously) or become unseen without Invisibility (very, very rare). The PCs will run down and kill anything they possibly can. So running between sessions is often the only way to escape certain demise. Not everything can or will run - and that leaves the other two options.

Again, is this fair? Maybe not. Maybe the PCs have weeks off hurts them, because the monsters leave with their loot. But the PCs get a lot with those weeks off. I think it may not balance out but it's what it is.

VTT Wish List - Vision Options & Fully Ported Advantages

2026-06-25T20:59:16.461-04:00

Here are a few things I wish Foundry VTT with the GURPS Games Aid did:

Limited Vision Option

Vision is 360 by default. It would be lovely - although probably wouldn't make the players happy - if you could only see in the arc you can actually observe based on your disadvantages/advantages. Have Peripheral Vision? Great, you can see a wider area. Have a helmet with No Peripheral Vision? Then you see what your character sees, and probably understand why most people would doff that helmet outside of a direct fight.

Light is also 360 by default. Wearing a light stone on your chest on a strap? It lights up 360 degrees with no blank spots, as it was shining from directly above your head, and went through any and all obstacles. Nothing short of a wall or door obstructs vision. That's too bad, because it means you can't hide small monsters behind big ones, or get a sense of what is hard to see. You get the illusion of total vision yet the GM isn't going to play it that way.

Complete Monster Actors

Monsters are in the VTT, but they aren't wholly there. Advantages don't all port over. Damage Reduction doesn't come into play unless you manually check the box off on each and every hit. Given PCs that hit 2-3 times per PC per turn, this is a slowdown. It also means no monster in the system is to be played with a thorough review of everything they should be able to do, and careful checking to make sure it's implemented correctly on each attack, defense, or damage result. You have to check yourself for weaknesses, follow-up attacks, and so on. It gives the illusion of being good to go but you don't really know if you're doing it right.

GMing Shortcuts in Felltower

2026-06-17T15:14:10.274-04:00

Here are some ways we speed up play in DF Felltower.

Marching Order

Have a marching order. This makes things very easy to visualize as people walk around. When a tripwire crossbow trap goes off or a rust monster wanders up or a fight starts, we know where everyone has agreed they are.

Handwaving Leaving the Dungeon

If the PCs agree to go straight back to town, no deviations on their path, no "just check this one thing!" on their way home, and they have a clear and safe path to do so . . . we just handwave the trip back.

If any of those are not true, we play it out. If the PCs are dragging a pile of loot and bodies to strip, a few unconcious buddies over shoulders, swords and shields in no way ready for quick use, etc. - we play it out. Pursued by faster foes? We play it out. Want to stop and check on a door, or toss an enemy prisoner down a pit, etc.? We play it out.

The goal is to speed up the end of the session. We don't do this at the beginning of the session, because so often what's between the PCs and their current stated goal is something that can change the goal. We play out the boring hike into the dungeon; we only skip the return trip if it's definitely going to be event-less. If something might happen . . . we play the game. Oh, and "we've lost the only copy of the map" has happened, and yes, we did play that trip back.

Devolve Tasks to the Players

I don't roll for availability of consumables. I don't price out scrolls. I don't do character encumbrance. I don't update the GCS sheets we upload to Foundry. I don't even upload them to Foundry. The players do all of that. That leaves me time to do any work I need to do for the NPCs and the dungeon, or answer questions.

It's pretty simple stuff, but this cuts some time that isn't dungeon fun out of the actual session.

Rules & Rulings from Session 224

2026-06-15T21:12:28.742-04:00

A few things came up in Session 224.

- He probably wasn't seriously fishing for this* but a player asked if the Gorilla Gloves from DFT3 give him any affinity towards apes . . . sense their former presence in the "Apetrium" (a player-named room in the dungeon where they fought killer apes a decade or so back.) No, they may have an affinity towards you from the gloves but it's one way.

- Step for Move 11-20 is 2, for 21-30 is 3. How does that mesh with Committed Attack done for an extra step? I consider all of this additive, not multiplicative. So you get +1 step for CA if you choose the extra step. It's already a lot; it gets out of hand fast if each "step" gets doubled. This lines up with extra attacks from AOA, for example, which gives +1, not a doubling.

- The magical shield bracelet the PCs found gives DB 3. It doesn't create a magical translucent forcefield. Or an opaque one. Or whatever crappy sci-fi/Marvel movie image you're considering. It's a bracelet which gives DB 3 and acts like a shield. It doesn't gain any extra "width" any more than a DB 1 shield with Deflect 2 gains any. It's just magic, take your 3 DB without needing a shield in hand and be happy about it. The hand still needs to be able to block, so no, you can't be holding a bow or a two-handed weapon or whatever and block with it. That hand is effectively occupied, barring the Third Hand perk's benefits.

- It's $100 per item for a mage in town to check if it's magical. You can wait for your mage buddy to ID it when he's around, but he damn well should be charging you $100 per item per guild regulations. Not charging for it in the dungeon is fine, of course, because that's extralegal territory per established Felltower law.

* Although I assume most joking suggestions are more like hopeful suggestions with plausible deniability.

GURPS DF Session 224, Felltower 141 - Second GFS exploration

2026-06-14T20:49:34.120-04:00

Game Date: 6/14/2026
Weather: Hot and partly cloudy.

Characters
Chop, human cleric (367 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (259 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (373 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)

We started off in town, with the PCs gathering rumors and sorting out a lot of purchases.

The PCs headed down into the dungeons, and made their way to the gate level, using the taxidermied six-fingered hands to open doors. That worked, but didn't mitigate any downsides (like the one door that inflicts injury when touched.) On the gate level, they noted the Lost City gate was open. They found that the black hemisphere in the room where they'd fought the slorn was back, so Vlad shot it apart with Cornucopia Quiver arrows.

They found their way towards the "will wall," but stumbled into a huge pudding - three yards across and a yard high! They lit it up with a lightstone, briefly, as it was tossed too far. Then Hannari lit it on fire with a splash from a close miss from an alchemist's fire. It charged them. Rogar charged back. He blocked its slam but was still overrun and smothered down to the floor. Chop but Resist Acid on the front line before contact, so he was more-or-less fine. The pudding got chopped into submission by Percy (with an axe), Hannari (with two axes), and Thor (with his flaming sword). Thor dealt a crazy amount of damage to it, and soon it was motionless. They pushed it up enough to get to Rogar and drag him out, and then climbed over it to safety. First, of course, they gave it a once-over to see if any loot was stuck to or in it. I blame D&D for making everything thing slimes and such have treasure in them.

They pressed on, and soon to the first landing. They used Walk on Air spellstones to cross the floor, but they soon expired. Hannari downed two Speed potions and Thor two Strength potions (since the first turned up a "1") and they got to exploring, ready to fight at any time. Eventually it fell to just exploring.

Several times, they found small rooms with floor that inflicted damage (Deathtouch, they believe), mostly on Vlad before they swapped scouts. They found a room with some meditation mats, well-worn yellow ones, of no clear value. Chop had See Secrets on to help explore.

They found a stone chest with a 4 x 4 grid of buttons, and despite some clever investigation they couldn't figure out how to puzzle out the puzzle. So Hannari tried his dwarven lockpicks to directly spring the lock. He rolled a 6 on an effective skill of 25 or so. It was enough - a critical, assuming a penalty of -9 or less, but either way, it was enough to work.

Inside was 10,000 sp (40 pounds . . . ) in coins, four gold necklaces, and three potions (they eventually turned out to be Giant Strength and two Oil of Puissance.

In another room they found an iron chest with a different puzzle lock. Thor tried to force it, hear a noise, and found he'd jammed the lock. Hannari found it was never going to open for his lockpicks, and a try with the crowby by Thor was a disaster. He jammed it tn and rolled an 18 . . . oops. So he decided to carry the chest by the handle. Coins shifted inside, but something also made tinkling noises. Hannari used an alkahest on it to dissolve the lock entirely. Inside was 1000 gp ($20k, and 4 pounds) and the broken bits of a semi-corporeal ruby dagger. Oops. Was it magical? Was it one of the "glass monsters" recent rumor had pointed to? Was it a magical key? Who knows? Thor likes to think it was a cursed item of great danger and clearly already broken when he did his thing.

Next, they found a room with four levers. They managed to convince Thor not to play around with them, but it took some work.

After this, they found an armoury of sorts, and recovered three suits of magescale, a few grenades (nothing special, just normal stuff), two pieces of star-shaped soapstone, and a bracelet of silver with golden D'Aboan horses on it.

Then they found a room with a damaging floor, again, so Thor drank a flight potion and flew over. And kept going. And going. He's Impulsive and Curious, and it showed. Eventually Hannari jumped the floor's length to catch up to Thor, who'd found a scenic overlook, and then another room overlooking a large cavern that smelled of ammonia and something gone sour.

They regrouped, spotting three rooms with gemstone-patterend walls along the way, and did a little mapping before they headed out.

Back to town.

Notes:

- Puddings are fun, but it's pretty much all or nothing for them as monsters. Against a high-damage-output squad, it's nothing. I was interested to note the PCs never even tried to back off, see if it would move on, tried to lure it away - they just stood to fight it. Rogar will rush into a fight, always, but that doesn't mean before one starts they can't find another option. Who am I kidding? They were curious if any of the rocks embedded in the pudding were valuable. If you regard monsters as something you must kill on the off chance they may have loot, well . . . you'll fight everything.

- the loot total was $32,350 per person. That didn't include any of the jewelry because they didn't want to sell them without having a PC evaluate them. Duncan is currently the only person who has the skills to evaluate magic items, gems, jewelry, and assorted luxuries. They're really cleaning up, which is the reward for the heavy fighting that it took to open up these areas. Megadungeon play is both immediate and cumulative.

- I'll reveal it here - the puzzle lock was solvable either of two ways - the players figure out either of the codes, or someone makes an IQ-based Lockpicking at a steep penalty. Or, you know, brute force. I doubled the penalty for the complexity of the lock to swap to DX, and that made that 6 not nearly a critical . . . but still enough to pop the lock.

- MVP was Hannari for his lockpicking. XP was 4 each for loot, 1 each for exploration. Thor really should have gotten extra for exploration but he didn't quite get enough extra places. But he really leans into his disadvantages and it makes for a better game. That's a pretty good reward.

GURPS Ring of Fire

2026-06-10T16:51:34.893-04:00

There is a new GURPS book in the offing over on BackerKit. GURPS Ring of Fire. Sadly, it's not about the Johnny Cash song or the Wall of Voodoo cover of said song.

It's not my kind of setting, I'm not a big alternate-history kind of gamer. But it might be yours!

It also is a chance to get the new GURPS 4th Edition Revised - a combined volume of the two Basic Set books plus some additional material. I don't really feel a need for it, as I'm not planning on doing any GURPS writing at this point. But it might be worth getting in just to get that.

Felltower House Rules Examined

2026-06-07T10:45:02.931-04:00

As promised in the comments, I decided to take a look at some house rules/ways we run the rules in Felltower. Our base rules set is DFRPG, but with specific add-ons from Basic Set, Martial Arts, and some other DF supplements.

The format here is a quick look at what the rule is, the slant towards PCs or NPCs, and why I think so. I'd be curious to hear comments on the ratings from both players and readers, but obviously play experience is critical for determining how they actually work.

My ratings are:

Pro-PC: This generally makes the game easier on PCs, usually by making it easier to accomplish tasks that save their lives or inflict damage.

Neutral: A toss-up. Helps NPCs and PCs equally. Probably exists in the game to make everyone's lives easier but that's not always the case.

Pro-NPC: Turns up the difficulty on PCs.

This is ~~probably~~ definitely not a complete list, but let's try.

Missile Spell Casting/Explosion Rules

Missile Spells in DF Felltower get a cost reduction every second of buildup, contrary to the rules as written. They also do damage at 1, 2/3, and 1/3 of the roll in a 3-hex area blast for explosive spells, there are explosive variants of every missile spell, and explosive spells are not a different spell, just a different cost.

Favorability: Pro-PC. These make casters much more effective at a lower costs in character points, energy costs, and skill. Sure, NPCs also use these spells, but NPCs don't have the same issues - they aren't working with a point budget (not a fixed one, anyway), and don't have to worry about FP recovery and Paut costs as much.

Potion Drinking Speed

The rules as written require you to draw a potion (Ready), open it (Ready), then quaff it (Ready.) The effects take place the following turn.

As we run them?

Draw a potion (Ready), Open and Drink (Ready), effects are instant.

Favorability to the PCs: Pro-PC.

It's quite rare for enemies to use potions. They'll use grenades, some quite liberally, but not as drinkable potions. The speed is so quick that a major wound can be dealt with very quickly and efficiently, and any special-purpose attack (like, say, Magebane grenades) can be undone in a single second with a good Fast-Draw roll. NPCs can deal an attack in the order at A, the PC can go on B and undo it, and then we move on before anyone can take advantage. This happens so frequently that if we switched back to the rules as written it would significantly alter the balance of power against the PCs in resource-heavy fights.

Item Enchantment Speed

The rules as written don't have any enchantment speed.

Our rules are 1 day per $100. $30,000 items take 300 days.

Favorability to the PCs: Neutral.

NPCs don't ever order magic items, so this doesn't affect them. But the PCs get access to on-demand enchantment, which isn't actually what the rules as written say - they specifically say the GM decides what the shop has, not that the PCs can order whatever they like. Those two changes I feel cancel each other out and make this neutral. You can order from a list but you have to wait vs. you have to just have cash in hand and luck into the shop selling what you want.

Bypassing Missile Shield with a 3-4

The rules as written makes this spell absolute defense, just like any other immunity-type spell.

Favorability to PCs: Pro-PC.

PCs dominate the higher-skill and damage missile role, and often have missile types - Scouts, wizards - in the back of heavy front line fighters. Monsters don't always have the luxury of this in encounters that come off as believable - you can't have archer-types and ranged spellcaster variants of every monster to mix in, or at least Felltower does not. The house rule allows for missile-heavy characters - let's face it, basically Scouts - to put 1-2 shots per second at a magic-using foe out of their inevitable twin Cornucopia Quivers until they get a lucky hit. That hit is a critical, so it also means the foe cannot defend . . . although the original ruling states they could. It does not spell out how to square "3-4 always a critical" and criticals bypassing defenses with the issue of two defenses. I have ideas, but they add a lot of complication and can and will get rules lawyer arguments about expanding them to Sacrificial defenses or All-Out Defense (Double) in ways I don't want to deal with.

No special effects on most criticals

Rules as written? Roll on the Critical Hit Table.

Our rules? 3 is max damage. Any other critical hit just bypasses defenses. (This is taken from the abstract combat system in Basic Set.)

Favorability to PCs: Pro-PC.

The PCs are on the receiving end of more criticals than they deal out, and also generally have high-damage attacks. Foes with lower damage attacks simply can't get a lucky double or triple damage hit, or force a funny bone cripple, or reduce or bypass DR, get a fluke disarm or eye shot. You have 1d+1 cutting damage and the PCs have DR 7+? Oh well. PCs never have to adjust for an unexpected case - their DR really does decide if they can be hurt or crippled and no roll can bypass that unless it's a random hit on a lightly armored or unarmored location.

Unconsciousness Roll Timing

Rules as written have you roll to fall unconcious at the end of a turn where you do something other than Do Nothing.

Felltower has them rolled at the start of a turn in which you decide to do something other than Do Nothing.

Favorability to the PCs: Pro-NPC.

This would be neutral, but look at the potion rules. Allowing a full turn to act before needing to roll means you can get out and drink a potion to heal yourself, which, with a good enough potion and roll, potentially takes you out of the range of injury that forces a roll. Or you can move close to your cleric and let the chips fall where they may, knowing Major Healing and Awaken - also boosted in speed of casting time by potion recovery timing with Paut - will undo a poor roll.

There are more, but this is a good start. I'll have to get to Size Modifier poison rules, our grappling rules, effects of PI and Magery levels on spell limits, etc. some other time. But at a quick glance, it seems like the rules generally slant pro-PC . . . and that the potion rules really skew other rules hard.

Defense trumps offense in GURPS DF?

2026-06-04T21:05:07.539-04:00

My players have some recently discovered the whole "amulets" section of the magic item list. So, naturally, with a big windfall, there are a lot of Ironskin Amulets getting ordered. They'll take 288 days to arrive, but it's +3 DR for, almost everyone. Oh, and at least one is looking at Defending Weapon, for a bonus to block or parry. Salamander and Serpent's Amulets are getting ordered as well.

So pretty soon everyone will be immune to fire and poison, and have +3 DR. Given that 8 DR is low for this group, it's likely this will be DR 11 being the bottom end of basic armor. Foes with 2d attacks are going to have a hard time being a threat. Those with 1d attacks will be harmless barring a max-damage hit on an eye. I already expect to be asked about the Armor spell stacking with this - no, it does not. It probably should by a strict reading of the rules, but do I really want people chucking +3-6 DR on top of their "soft" characters to give them DR 15+?

No, I do not.

I regret not putting in a limit ala every video game - one ring on each hand maximum, one necklace. Even if I did, people would be asking about nipple rings, bracelets, anklets, pocket lucky charms they could sew into a pouch in their under-armor clothes, whatever. So I'm not sure it's worth the effort. But cash is becoming a route to flat-out immunities. It's my own fault for selling the things, true, but 15 years into the game is a bit late for deciding to restrict magic item purchases even further.

What I find interesting is that the first, second, and third priorities of most people with money is improved defense. Better armor, enchanted with Fortify and Lighten, layered with other, better armor whenever possible (Knights always do this, thanks to Armor Mastery). Better shields, with DB boosted up quite high and further enchanted with Lighten and, of course, made Balanced. Defensive-oriented magic - the above-mentioned amulets - also factor in. Thank goodness I'm not allowing people to buy Bless items or they'd all have those as a matter of course.

Offense is harder to come by. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars to get better and better defensive gear - those amulets, more armor, lighter armor, better shields. Getting a primo weapon is hard . . . and even if I allow for much more powerful weapon enchantments, people generally would rather have +1 DR than +1 or +2 damage . . . and you can buy nearly "end-game" armor - say, Fortify +2 Lighten 50% Fine Epic Plate - but the best you can get weapon-wise is just a few more points of damage. Or a specialty weapon, such as a meteoric weapon to bypass enemy defenses.

Even then, defense outsells offense.

I get the logic - this is my only guy, I don't want him to die, it's a dangerous dungeon. But from my side of the screen, if everyone has defenses that fail on 17-18 only, DR that shrugs off anything that isn't armor-bypassing or armor-dividing or very, very high damage, and immunities to very broad types of special attacks . . . what do you think comes along as a challenge? I think the answer is obvious. The arms race is real. And obviously I'll need to make foes that require more offense . . . which probably will just lead to "we need EVEN MORE DEFENSE to keep up!"

As I say, I can't blame them - it's the best use of the money in the system - but it leads to an arms race in which fun probably isn't the winner.