Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary and Reflections

Literally the first result for
April Flowers

What's crackin' in Blogburg?

New Blogs

Let's take a look at what's new

• Ironemblem Gaming A very new Tumblr blog. Very interesting so far as the author demonstrates the process of putting together a GURPS dungeon in the vein of an OSR game.
• Hard Maths From the posts, I feel like I've spoken with this guy before? From the title alone, he seems to share my sense of humor. I look forward to reading more in the future.

Yay, two new blogs, and they are on my frequency. Funny thing about GURPS is that it is such a broad beast, it means different things to different people. Opinions being what they are, what I think is interesting isn't what everyone thinks is interesting, but this week I'm lucky I guess!

The Other Tendrils of the Blog-Backed Beast

Chris Bower's review for alternate dungeons II really resonated with me. I liked the issue, definitely, but what I like about the Alternative [^ ]*[0-9IVX]* Pyramid articles is that they usually come with some workings of foreign mechanics or retooling of existing ones. I liked the issue, but maybe it would have been better to give it a different moniker?

+Christopher R. Rice  is putting out an open call for players, and I'd love to be a part of that, but the timing doesn't work so well for me. Oh, and also, I enjoyed his post on the adversary mechanic. It sounds really good, but I am totally hurting for players right now, so getting an extra person for assistant GMing seems like a luxury outside of my grasp.

Other than that, it feels like it has been a bit of a drought. Ah well.

Self Reflection

As the type of posts I like the most, rules crunching, pontificating, and ivory tower theorycrafting, have been a little light this week, I've started reading more session recaps from other players, and they are surprisingly a little helpful. Sometimes, seeing the ideas that other people run into in other campaigns sparks a bit of inspiration. I still feel a little out of my depth though just randomly grabbing "Super Epic Years Long Journey, Part CLVI" Maybe there is an easy rss tool to aggregate a bunch of session recaps in the correct order so I can read one or two in moments of boredom or withdrawal.

My short treatise on the Trickster disadvantage was mildly popular, maybe I should do some more of those. They are a bit softer in content, and I feel like I'd run out of things to say if I did too many in a row, but at least, the one change of pace was enjoyable.

My post on the feint maneuver generated a lot of discussion. Maybe because it is so fundamental of a mechanic, it seems a bit more approachable to discuss? I think maybe it's because I couched it as a more interactive query than stating it as facts outright. In fact, I think doing so has tricked people into thinking I know more than I do. I would be happy to have more debate or active, helpful criticism in my comments section, but maybe it's the fact that I like to post things with a high degree of objectivity, rather than subjectivity that makes conversation difficult. A fact is a fact, and there is no disputing it, but an opinion on the other hand...
Sometimes I find myself wanting to write something, and I'm not sure if I can or not without getting somebody mad because it requires such an intricate understanding of published GURPS or Pyramid content. For exmple, I like the Pointless Slaying and Looting from Alternate Dungeons and would like to write up some packages for it, but will writing them out accidentally give away too much secret sauce? Likewise, the Havens and Hells article from Alternate Dungeons II, I'd like to tool around with a detailed purification/corruption mechanic, but I dunno if that would be stepping on someone's toes.