UbiquitousRat's Roleplaying Dreams

UbiquitousRat's Roleplaying Dreams: August 2011

Thursday 25 August 2011

Last Contact


When humanity first engaged the prototype Gateway Drive they took their first steps into a wider galaxy, filled with possibility. Little did the fledgling star travellers suspect that, early on in their exploration and colonisation of other star systems, they would discover that they were not alone…


Inspired by both my run through with GURPS using Uglok and revisiting SF themes over the last week or so, I have begun to draft an introductory adventure entitled, 'Last Contact'.

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Saturday 20 August 2011

Talking SF

Science-fiction. Long have I been a fan of SF. As long as I have been roleplaying there have been SF RPGs: Traveller was the first and, as a hobby, we have never looked back since. It's natural, then, that as I ponder what roleplaying dreams I might have nestling away in my heart, that my mind turns to SF.

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Thursday 18 August 2011

Say Hello to Uglok

Getting into an RPG system can be daunting. That's made worse when the system allows you loads of cool choices, like GURPS does. For me, the way into any game has always been to build a hero and take the playing from there.

This article builds upon the idea from my last, which outlined a Neanderthal fantasy, and recounts my attempt to begin gaming with the birth of Uglok. If you're interested in how to get going in GURPS or are curious about the setting, read on...

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Tuesday 16 August 2011

Inspired By Neanderthals

One the fairly cute ideas for an RPG setting that has been buzzing around my head for some time now is a fantasy based upon the speculations of the late Stan Gooch. This is a world of nocturnal prehistory made alive by the coming of the Sun-worshippers.

Stan Gooch was a psychologist who also dabbled in the study of prehistory and spirituality. Most notably, Gooch was the originator of the 'hybrid-origin theory'.

This theory is nicely summarised as follows:
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Monday 15 August 2011

Why GURPS?

GURPS Basic Set: Characters, Fourth Edition


One of the reasons I love blogging is that it allows me the chance to offload and work out my thinking. I'm pretty sure that I've written about this before somewhere, perhaps on an old and defunct website, but today's thinking is probably quite different from the thinking back then. Let's find out...

What is GURPS?
GURPS is Steve Jackson Games' award-winning roleplaying game system. Without getting into a whole big product review, the name started out as a kind of joke and stands for "Generic Universal Role Playing System".

The game has two core rulebooks, which are really two halves of one whole - so much so that they actually cross-reference one-another, and the second volume starts with Chapter 10.

Book One is GURPS: Characters and Book Two is GURPS: Campaigns.

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Off-loading the imagination...

The Hobby Pile
So here's the thing: I'm one of those prolific gamers who is involved in roleplaying with a group on a fairly regular basis.

We have been playing D&D 4e for a while, on and off, and we've also dabbled in other stuff. More recently, however, I've been wanting to bring a bad habit under control.

Buying too many books
I buy far too many RPG books, as the photo from my hobby space at home will attest: frankly, it has become slightly overwhelming.
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