House Rules

These are some house rules that I find more compelling than the standard GURPS rules. Some of these have been incorporated into GURPS as optional rules.

Combat Move

Basic Speed is divided into two Speeds, Combat Speed and Long-Distance Speed.

Combat Speed

Combat Speed is equal to ( ST + DX ) / 2. This relfects the fact that strength plays an important role in determining anaerobic sprinting speed. This works well for roughly man-sized creatures. Weight should be a factor, though I haven't decided, yet, how. Perhaps the Combat Speed could be multiplied by some ratio of average human mass to actual mass.

Long-Distance Speed

Long-distance is ( HT + DX ) / 2. This is, of course, the standard GURPS Basic Speed. Optionally, Long-Distance Speed could be ( HT + ST ) / 2.

Fatigue and Hit Points

Rather than basing Hit Points off of Health and Fatigue off of Strength, I prefer to switch them. Therefore:

Hits = ST
Fatigue = HT

Justification: Strength and Endurance are often not the same in a given individual. For example, a sprinter or weightlifter may be very fast and strong, but not able to exert himself for a long time. A marathon runner, on the other hand, is not as fast as the sprinter over short distances but can run for a very long time. Health, which represents general physical well-being, better models cardiovascular condition and the ability to flush metabolic poisons from tissue. Hit Points, on the other hand, represent the ability to soak up damage. Generally, a high strength indicates more mass to soak up damage and more muscle tissue, which is tough and better able to resist damage. Health is still used for survival rolls as these rolls are based on your overall condition but Strength represents the amount of physical trauma you can absorb.

Vehicle Construction: Streamlining

I generally use GURPS Vehicles to create vehicles. I make liberal use of MA Lloyd's Vehicles Additions, especially the rules for streamlining and surface area. This goes back to a seemingly eternal debate on the "waste space" that many systems use for streamlined ships.

Many systems required that streamlined ships set aside a certain amount of volume as "waste space." Most are vague on what this space is for. Many people assume that it is difficult to access space inside the hull that is created by the odd shape of a streamlined vessel. Some have even proposed using it for liquid fuel that will fill any odd shape. I have always assumed that this space was a fiction that gave a streamlined ship more surface area for the same volume. Since this is true (streamlined ships have more surface area for the same volume), it made sense to me. This is why I prefer to increase the surface area of a streamlined ship rather than use "waste space." This way my volume rating actaully reflects the internal volume of the hull and can be used for things like flotation, volume based FTL drives, etc... This assumes that all the space can be used, but even now, engineers are pretty good at finding something to stick in every nook and cranny.

Here is a table that gives the surface area ratios for shapes of the same volume. The volume is assumed to be 100 units and the ratio of length to height to width is given. The surface area is calculated and then divided by the surfacea area of a cube, the default shape in GURPS Vehicles.

Other Optional Rules

For some other optional rules, check out Dr. Kromm's Optional Rules.

Last modified: Saturday, July 28, 2001 by Bolie Williams IV, bolie@io.com.
This page is Copyright 1997 by Bolie Williams IV, all rights reserved.