GM: Captain Joy
Arena Battles Started: Thursday 8 May 2020
Season 3.1 Started: Thursday 1 September 2022
Campaign name: Arena Battles
Campaign's Base: Various "Arenas"
Tech Level (TL): 5 (and 5+1)
Genre: Action
Theme: Player vs Player Combat
Goals: Complete missions for your Secret Society on a 1799 Steampunk Earth.
Realism Level: Larger than Life (M239) — all of the barely realistic and cinematic rules listed under Cinematic Combat (M125-133) are in effect except for Chambara Fighting (M128-130) and More Cinematic Combat Rules (M132-133). This allows acrobatics and extra effort in combat – and makes multiple attacks and defenses easier – but everything is within the realm of the possible under absolutely ideal conditions (that rarely occur in real life!).
Consequences: Agents that die may be replaced by a counterpart: a secret twin, reanimated by an application of élan vital and electricity, whatever; but they come back as 200 point characters. Agents that survive are healed back to full ability — via esoteric knowledge known to their secret society — in time for their next mission. Replacement equipment: bullets, explosives, broken weapons, etc. must be repurchased with money. (You may exchange character points for money.)
Required GURPS Books:
Required Resources:
Optional GURPS Books:
Even More Optional GURPS Books:
You will earn an addition character point for submitting each of the following. Expect these will end up on our Gladiators webpage.
No more than 30% (round down) of your character points may be spent on exotic abilities; this means 60 points for a starting 200 point character. GURPS published templates do not supersede the campaign's Disadvantages and Exotic Abilities restrictions. You may find the Advantages List: Cinematic vs Realistic thread in the Steve Jackson Games forums useful.
To have access to cinematic abilities, you must have one of the following advantages: Gunslinger, Heroic Archer (MA45), Trained by a Master, Weapon Master.
Attribute Caps: Attributes are capped as given in the Basic Set, pp. 14-18. E.g. ST, DX, IQ, and HT may not exceed 20.
ST: costs ±9/lvl. This comes from Power Up 9: Alternate Attributes, p. 4.
IQ: costs ±10/lvl. An IQ roll is required to recover from your mesmeric state at the start of each mission. IQ below 10 is penalized via these house rules.
Hit Points (HP): The cost of Hit Points in excess of 130% increases arithmetically: once you exceed 130% of ST, additional HP costs increase as follows: 3, 4, 5, 6, …. So 1 extra HP beyond 130% ST costs 3 point. 2 extra HP would cost a total of 7 points. 3 extra works cost a total of 12 points. Hit Points in excess of 130% of ST counts against the exotic abilities limit.
Size Modifier (SM): Only size modifiers between -2 (1 yard tall) and +2 (5 yards tall) inclusive are allowed.
Allies (B36-8): An Ally's point total may come to no more that 0 character points. You may have no more than 1 ally accompany you at any given time. Your ally's exotic traits count against your exotic abilities cap. Allies have no disadvantage cap and may have any IQ score.
Arm ST (B40): Capped at 20. Counts as an exotic ability.
Innate Attack (B61): Basic damage capped at 7d (like a rifle). If your Innate Attack is enhanced to make your attack rolls easier or your foe's defense rolls more difficult, then basic damage is capped at 3d (like a submachine gun). Counts as an exotic ability.
Striking ST (B88): Capped at 20. Counts as an exotic ability.
Talents: Only talents published in the required or optional books are allowed. I am considering allowing a form of Job Training (Power Ups 2: Talents, pp. 25-26). If you're interested, let me know; I'm not going to put the time into formalizing this unless someone intends to make use of it.
Tough Skin (MA43): One level of DR (Tough Skin, -40%) [3/level] is allowed to anybody. It is considered cinematic, not exotic.
Partial (MA43): This can allow for two levels of DR (Partial and Tough Skin) but requires the Trained by a Master advantage and an Iron Body Parts perk. It is considered cinematic, not exotic.
Exotic: Biological or Technological modifications can justify natural DR up to 5 (7 skull). Together they can justify DR up to 10 (12 skull). Such DR is subject to the campaign’s exotic points limit. “Natural DR” in this case refers to DR that is a part of you and not simply worn.
Body Armor: What you choose to wear as body armor is subject to the usual restrictions: what you can afford, what you can carry, what is technologically available, …
You are restricted to biological and/or technological means to justify exotic abilities.
Biological: See Powers, pp. 26 and 175 for explanation and advice on Biological Powers.
High-Tech: See Powers, p. 175 for advice on High-Tech Powers.
Magic/Psionic/Supernatural/Etc.: Not allowed.
Prohibited: Wealth advantages. If you want more money to purchase more equipment, you may trade character points for money.
Prohibited: Disadvantages that are not a disadvantage in an arean battle are not allowed. E.g. One Eye = allowed; Greed = not allowed. You may take not-allowed Disadvantages as a Quirks however. For your convenience, a listing of Suitable Disadvatanges is provided. Reduced Wealth has been houseruled: you may start off with less than $5,000 as a Disadvantage worth -1 per $1000.
Templates: Disadvantages in Templates do count against the disadvantages limit. For example, the Quadruped Morphology Meta-Trait (B263) would count as -40 points against the campaign's disadvantage limit, not just -35 points.
Cinematic skills must have an appropriate prerequisite advantage: Gunslinger, Heroic Archer, Trained by a Master, or Weapon Master. Exotic skills count against the exotic points limit. Currently their is no cap on skill levels.
Starting Money: Starting Wealth for TL5 is $5,000 (B27), of which 20% is normally available for "adventuring" gear (B26). But agents of secret societies start off with $2,500 worth of gear. Standard Wealth Advantages/Disadvantages are not used in Arean Battles. You may start off with less than $2,500 as a Disadvantage worth -1 per $500.
Trading Points for Money: 1 character point gets you $500 (B26). You may spend both starting and earned character points.
Signature Gear: The Signature Gear advantage gets you $2500 in value per character point for a single nonexpendable item (B85). Sets are considered a single item for this purpose, e.g. a set of body armor or a matching set of pistols.
1799: Purchase equipment from the required and optional GURPS books. If a piece of equipment shows up in both the Basic Set and a Tech book, use the stats from the Tech book. TL5 (including TL4+1) equipment available by 1799 may be purchased freely.
After 1799: Some secret societies have access to TL5, TL6, (and TL5+1) equipment introduced after 1799: prototypes and whatnot. Such gear can be expensive (Cost Factor) and requires agents to take an Unusual Background.
Weapons: Melee, thrown, ranged weapons, explosives and incendiaries are allowed.
Replacement Items: Materials that are used up, e.g. bullets and broken weapons, can be purchased with money. Things protected with character points, e.g. innate attack or signature gear, are exempt: you can get them back for free.
The information below may represent an agent as first encountered by your secret society. It may not be a completely accurate representation of an agent's current abilities.
Buying Success: You may spend 2 unused character points to change a critical failure that you have rolled into a failure.
Feints: Feints are publicly declared, but the Quick Contest is not rolled until right before the attack it will affect.
Off-Hand Penalties: Unarmed combat skills are subject to off-hand penalties the same as armed combat skills.
Dates and Times: Fights will be on Thursdays, at different times depending on which Thursday of the month it is.
Beginning a Mission: To maintain security, agents are inserted into their missions under deep hypnosis. An IQ roll is required to snap out of your mesmeric state at the start of each mission. Combat Reflexes gives a +6 to this roll. On a failure, you are mentally stunned: you must take a Do Nothing maneuver, your defenses rolls are at a -4, and you may not retreat (B420). You will need to make this IQ roll every turn until you snap out of it, but at a cumulative +1 each turn (B393).
Conditions: Victory conditions, environmental conditions, and potential complications will change from mission to missioin. I will make heavy use of Instant Tournament from Pyramid #3:14 Martial Arts, pp. 21-23.
Character Points: You will earn character points after each mission (assuming you survive).
