Max Damage

Despite the somewhat ambiguous name, this is another GURPS character that we used in the last session. Again, it'll be carted around in my briefcase

ST: 12 HP: 12
DX: 12 Per: 10
IQ: 10 Will: 10
HT: 12 FP: 12

Basic move 6. Dodge 11

Advantages:
Combat Reflexes
Daredevil
High Pain Threshold

Disadvantages:
Clueless
Impulsiveness (12 or less)
Tobacco habit
On the Edge
Pyromania

Quirks:
Believes all beautiful women are attracted to him
Catchphrase "Take it to the Max!"
Dislikes college educated nerds
Frequently smokes cigars
Never leaves enemy buildings without trying to blow them up.

Skills:
Pistol 14
Rifle 12
Light machine gun 12
Machine gun turret 12
Minigun 14
Knife 12
Brawling 14
Explosives 11
Fast draw (pistol) 13
Interrogation 9
Intimidate 9
Motorcycle 11
Gambling 9

Now, I didn't have the Max Damage sheet done when the holiday session came around, so I handed it off to one of the experienced min maxers-

Ok, I'm writing this as another role playing session is going on in the background. We've been ordered to kill all the rebels, and found out that there are women and children behind them, who we've also apparently been ordered to kill. (I took a nasty sword wound, so I'm unconscious and out of the battle, so I've got time to blog.) I'm hearing them discuss what to do about the orders:

Nuba: Do we really have to kill them all?
Sprok: I could leave the children, kill the women.
Nuba: What? NO!
Kimball: What? NO! Sprok; we're near a coastal town. We can sell them into slavery.

If you could pay off moral bankruptcy on an installment plan we'd be making payments into the next century.

Back to where I interrupted myself: Ok, I had handed the character sheet over to one of the min maxers, who promptly fiddled some extra stuff on here. So if you're reading this, this is where berserk went. Didn't fit the character. And the skills have been shuffled around.

The discussion behind me has gone into auditing someone's parry skill. As far as we can tell it's five points higher than he thought it was. Fascinating stuff. Maybe I should keep blogging...

"Black" Tyrone Gallowglass

A while back I expressed my desire to cart around a mobile GURPS session in my briefcase. As such, I've slowly been accumulating a cast of generic characters to let people borrow. The idea is to be ready at a moments notice, and be able to introduce the game to anyone who's willing to try it. This is one of those characters. First, a bit of background.

He's named for the Black Tyrone, a famed British regiment in India. And by "British" I mean it served the crown, but was composed of Irishmen. Kipling wrote about it. I figured that Black Tyrone makes an excellent name, so I borrowed it. Yeah, stealing names isn't very creative, but I want simple names that evoke the character for this suite. So by appending to him the title "Irish Mercenary" you know most of what you need to know about him, and his character. If you're still annoyed, well, save your complaints until we get to Max Damage, ok? Cause they'll be even more relevant then. On with the sheet:

Oh, wait, one more thing. I abbreviate things on the sheet to make it slightly less confusing to the new player. If you want calculate a basic lift for encumbrance and such, go ahead but I'll ignore it.

ST: 11 HP 12
DX: 12 WP 10
IQ: 10 PE 10
HT: 11 FP 11

Basic move: 5, dodge 9

Advantages:
Combat Reflexes
Patron (Irish Underground)
Danger Sense
Fearless (1)

Disadvantages:
Paranoia
Chummy
Duty (Irish Underground)
Greed
Compulsive Spending

Quirks:
Hates Englishmen
Dirks Irish Beer, Whiskey. Will drink other things, but will complain about them not being irish.
Uses Colorful Profanity
Tells great stories, carefully scoured of identifying details
Always believes the fight is going well.

Skills:
Streetwise 14
Fasttalk 12
Brawling 15
Lockpick 10
Stealth 10
Pistol 15
Rapier 14
Intimidate 9
Gambling 11
Move Silently 9

So yeah, one big amalgamation of Irish jokes, right? I'd apologize if I felt there was anything to apologize for. Be thankful that I didn't give him "homemade explosives" as a skill. Still, I expect he's a lot of fun to play; he certainly looked like it when my brother Sam took him for a test run over the holidays. Greed means he's willing and eager to take any mission for money, compulsive spending and chummy mean that he'd rather buy a round for the bar than hoard the money. And paranoia means he's never too trusting of his new drinking buddies. Oh, and he hates the English. Of course he does.

So let's ask Private Mulvaney what he thinks:

"Now there are Oirish an' Oirish. The good are as good as the best, but the bad are wurrst than the wurrst. 'Tis this way. They clog together in pieces as fast as thieves, an' no wan knows fwhat they will do till wan turns informer an' the gang is bruk. But ut begisn again a day later, meetin' in holes an' corners an' swearin' bloody oaths an' shtickin' a man in the back an' runnin' away, an' thin waitin' for the blood-money on the reward papers-- to see if it's worth enough. Those are the Black Oirish, an' 'tis they that bring dishgrace upon the name av Oireland, an' thim I wud kill--as I nearly killed wan wanst."

(From Soldiers Three, by Ruyard Kipling)

The Briefcase of Wonders

I am the sort of man who walks around with a briefcase. I also wax my mustache and wear a fedora, but that's the subject for another time. While there are many and varied uses for a briefcase, the one I'm going through right now it it's ability to work as a mobile repository of games. I've been making an effort to carry as many games as I possibly can around in that thing, so as to be prepared for whatever the situation might dictate. Let's take a look, shall we?


That's the briefcase in it's packed form. In the bottom is a visible bit of wood, that's a cribbage board. Directly up from it are two decks of standard playing cards. Above those decks are two blue deck boxes which contain a prototype for the Presidential Rumble, one of the Awesome Games we're designing. Then are the two be-artted mid sized boxes. They originally came from Magic the Gathering fat packs, for Shadowmoor and Eventide. Now I'm using them as conveniently sized discrete storing units. The one contains a set of dime store poker chips and a complete chess set, the other contains a couple Magic decks.

"Which magic decks" is an interesting question. Assuming I'm going to be using this briefcase amongst an unknown audience I don't want to bring too many. I can (and have) filled the entire space with decks of various kinds before. The main thing though, consonant with the purposes of the briefcase at large, is to provide myself options for any sort of pick up magic game I might run into. Currently the box contains an Elder Dragon Highlander deck (Sedris, the Traitor king as general), my standard Goblins deck, my extended five color reveillark deck, and two simple starter decks, which are designed as a way to teach the game to anyone willing to learn. Naturally, that's not nearly enough. I'd like also to bring along a low power silly casual deck (for environments where tournament decks are less welcome) and at least a draft set of sealed packs.\

Moving on, to the right you see another blue Dragon Shield deck box. They make good good card sleeves. We use them all the time for proxying up cards for our games. If you take the sleeves, put a bulk common magic card in them, you can slip a piece of paper in front of said card and make a game card, which can be shuffled over and over again without suffering wear and tear. In this case though, I believe that box in particular holds a magic deck, Zombies.

The large brown box also holds a number of magic decks, but this one is mostly a place holder. I'm looking to fill that space with more diverse games, although I'm not sure what goes in there. More on that later. Hard to see in the picture, but underneath that box you'll find a notebook where I keep permanent notes, a notepad where I dash off scores for games, and a chess/checkers board.

The pouch on the lid of the briefcase contains a wealth of dice; 25 six sided dice, four twenty sided dice (two of which are the spindowns from those fat packs) various D4s, D8s, and D10s, but oddly enough no D12s. There are a couple pens, and a couple documents stashed there, some boards from various games we're making and the occasional rules printout.

Again with the picture, only all laid out:



So here comes my next question: what else do I try to fit into my briefcase? I already pointed out the brown box can probably go, seeing as I only really need so many magic decks (All of them!). The problem is I've got to fit it that same size space. I've been considering fitting a RISK set in there too, since the cards and the armies wouldn't take up much space, but I'm not sure I can manage another board; the thing can be tricky to close as it is. On the other hand, there isn't much else I can think of to stick in that last area. Well, there are plenty of things, just they aren't games.

One other thing, I can fit an entire role playing session in there real easy. I've got a couple GURPS books on the thumb drive in my keychain, so all I need are a couple peripherals and a premade, one session adventure. I've been drawing up character sheets, maybe I'll post them one of these days.