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User:2d4fag

2025-10-11T20:59:17Z

Sdhjk:

If you have any questions or concerns, put it in my talk page. You can also contact me on Discord @2d4fag.

Current Projects:
*Import better templates
*<s>Setup QuestyCaptcha</s>
*<s>Nuke the Campaign namespace</s>
*Remove those joke templates they put at the top of the page
*<s>Enable QuestyCaptcha for account creation</s>
*<s>Nuke TGHEIM namespace</s>
*Use Manual:Pywikibot/redirect.py to nuke broken redirects
*Fix pages whose titles start with a forward slash.

tbh I've given up. I'm going to kill myself once the weather warms up and the campaign I'm running ends. This site will stay up at least another year after I'm gone. Longer depending on what happens to the money in my bank account.

R.I.P. (17.01.2025 - 03.05.2025).

Dice

2025-10-11T20:00:47Z

Sdhjk: /* d12 */

[[Image:dice.jpg|thumb|I COULD JUST DIVE INTO THEM!]]
[[Image:Uglydie.jpg|thumb|SO FUCKING UGLY. But he has a fetching [[hat]].]]
[[Dice]] (singular: '''die'''<ref>"A cube of cheese no larger than a die/May bait a trap to catch a nibbling mie." -- Ambrose Bierce</ref>) are high-impact polyhedra. In [[role-playing games]] and tabletop [[wargame]]s, they are used as randomizers to inject an element of chance into the game. Non-gamers often only know about the six-sided die (hereafter referred to as the d6) thanks to the ubiquity of games like [[Monopoly]] and [[Yahtzee]]. Which dice are used tends to vary by system. [[Dungeons and Dragons]], for instance, makes use of all types. On the other hand, [[White Wolf]] games and Classic Traveller use only ten- and six-sided dice, respectively. On the other hand, some games don't use dice at all! These tend to be relatively new games like [[Nobilis]] or [[Amber]], or board games that use instead use the abomination known as a spinner (at first a result of war rationing, later used for non-numerical results).

Bear in mind, if you're not familiar with how statistics work, one d12 does not have the same probability distribution as two d6s (same goes for any combination of die). A single die of good quality will have the same percentage chance for any side to roll, whereas using multiple die will result in a probability distribution resembling a bell curve (in the two d6's case, seven will be the most common roll, followed by sixs and eights, then fives and nines, and so on). Keep this in mind when you're doing homebrew rules. Likewise, it's important to remember that dice can't roll 0, so the average is 0.5 higher than half the highest number (3.5 for a d6), not simply half.

If you do not have dice for whatever reason, consider <strike>[[chits]]</strike> getting some fucking dice. Or, since you clearly have a device with an internet connection if you're reading this, use one of the countless virtual dice rollers available online.

Dice are considered by most people to be impartial arbiters of [[statistics|random chance]]. [[Fa/tg/uy]]s (and craps players) know better. Dice are controlled or at least influenced by the unseen force of Dice Mojo. It is believed that Dice Mojo can be influenced by players through manifold rituals, including:

*Placing a die with the desired number upward, that it 'gets used to' that position and tends to return to it.
*Placing a die with the desired number downward, that the die is tricked into thinking it has already made a bad roll and will produce a good outcome on the subsequent roll.
*Rolling a die until a string of good rolls are achieved, tapping into a streak of 'good mojo' or 'rolling out' bad outcomes.
*Various chants, prayers, threats, and curses made toward the die in order to entice or coerce it into [[Natural 20|producing favorable rolls.]]
*Being careful not to drop dice or just roll them to pass the time till next turn, as when rolling a twenty, the critical ratio may be "used up" for the day.
*Building dice towers as tribute to Dice Gods that they may bless one's dice with good Mojo.

The one true method (at least for those without specialized tools) for finding if a die is cursed or lucky dice however is putting it in a cup of very salty water and seeing which side floats to the top. Clear dice are less vulnerable to these imperfections since their see through nature means manufactures can't get away with substantial air pockets.

=Dice on /tg/=
Once upon a time some admin thought that it would be a good idea to give /tg/ a dice rolling mechanism. In practice it's mostly ignored, or it serves similar purpose as "first person to get doubles" threads, although some enterprising fa/tg/uys have found good uses for them, and it used to be that good fun could be had at the expense of newfags that didn't know how to work the die-roller properly. Because your results don't become visible until you post your comment (and yet for some reason, appear on top of it rather than at its bottom), threads utilizing the feature can be a bit bloated. If you give /tg/ a random table to roll on, then each person responding will have to post once to roll, and once again to remark on their results. That said, it works well for things like the [[Template:40k-Faction-Creation-Tables|40k faction generation tables]].

'''TG dice''' is what fa/tg/uys call the strange phenomenon whereby /tg/'s random number generator tends to be anything but. The reason for this is that /tg/'s dice aren't truly random. Like most RNGs it's actually a pseudo-random generator tied to 4chan's server clock. The effect usually isn't that dramatic, but fatguys love to blame it for their shit rolls anyhow.

{{clear}}

=Types of Dice=
==d0==
Nobody knows what a 0-sided dice looks like, and they are useless anyway because they always land on a 42 for some reason.

==d1==
[[Image:Mobius dice.jpg|thumb|100px]]
Rolling this visually elusive die involves armed, digited humanoids gesturing with one arm while extending only a single centralmost digit of its hand and informing the party what's gonna happen. The few one sided dice that exist are either just a ball with the number 1 written on them, or a Möbius ring.

It is the damage die for unarmed strikes in 5e, assuming you don't have a feat or class that upgrades them.

==d2==
[[Image:D2.gif|thumb|200px|left|A d2. Careful not to spend it all in one place.]]
[[Image:Actual d2.jpg|thumb|200px|A more literal version that definitevely costs more than the penny you could be using instead, it can double as a less hazardous d4 however]]

A d2 isn't a die - it's a coin.

You flip the fucking thing. Heads count as 1, Tails count as 2.

You can, alternately, roll any other die - counting odds as 1 and evens as 2.

===In Various Works===
d2s are used with disturbing frequency in both CCGs and RPGs. They are used in most two player card games, with the notable exception of [[Yu-Gi-Oh]] using rock paper scissors as the preferred method, to determine who gets the first turn. Since this requires players have a coin to play ''anyways'', most TCGs have some oddball cards that use coin flips for random effects. They rarely show up in serious matches because the vast majority of these would be crap even if you ''could'' ensure the outcome. The [[Pokemon]] TCG bucked the trend of this being unusual and (especially early on) has such effects be common.

The RPG ''Bean!'' is a d2-based game, and it's actually pretty good.

Loaded d2s, known as double sided coins, are extremely popular in fiction. This is probably because they're the easiest die to recognize as/prove is loaded, and the most consistent.

===Also Currency===
The d2 are the only dice you can put in a vending machine and spend for candy. With string and a sufficient dexterity score, you don't even have to "spend" the d2 at all (This only works on 50 year old or so vending machines).
{{clear}}

==d3==
Not much to say about it.
[[Image:D3.jpg|thumb|right|The D3...]]
[[Warhammer 40k]] uses D3's <s>every once in awhile</s> [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics(8E)| all the time]] - [[Manticore Rocket Launcher|Manticores]], & other cases such as +D3 attacks, 2 + D3 objectives, etc. Most of the time, they don't actually use a D3 - they just roll a [[d6]], at which points three schools of thought engage in a holy war:
* A few subtract 3 from any result that's 4 or higher. So, for example, a 5 becomes a 2.
* The others divide the result by two, rounding up. So, for example, a 5 becomes a 3.
*<strike>Lazy people just assign the value of 1 to the first 2 numbers, and so on. For example, a 4 would be a 2.</strike> This method and the method above will yield the same results.

>rolls d6, getting a 3

>divides by 2, rounding up to get 2

>assigns 1-2 to 1, 3-4 to 2, 5-6 to 3

>2 == 2

>CP rerolls, this time getting a 5

>5/2 rounding up = 3

>assigning values yields 3

>3 == 3

The 40k rulebook explicitly proselytizes the second option, which means the former is [[heresy]]. Other games don't really care as much.

Actual d3s come in two major flavours: The weird triangular nublette things seen to the right, which are largely used by people who think having weird dice makes you interesting, and d6es which had 1, 2 and 3 written on them twice, used by people who like to build things out of dice.

Since you can readily simulate a d3 result easily enough without obtaining extra dice why in the hell would you bother?

<s>Because I have OCD, that’s why!</s> Because collecting is fun, and [[Dungeons & Dragons|DnD]] already has enough math.
{{clear}}

==d4==
[[image:D4.jpg|thumb|right|This fucker will hurt more than any lego.]]
A tetrahedral [[dice|die]] that has the second-sharpest points of any die (only the [[d8]] is sharper), and, appropriately enough, has four sides. Used by Wizards, small weapons, and low-caliber firearms in d20 modern. At least it gets more love than the [[d12]], which probably falls asleep every night in a pool of tears and melted butter.

There are two ways to print the numbers on a D4. On one, the numbers are arranged on the corners of each face, and so the number at the top (it will always be three of the same number) is what you actually rolled. On the other kind, the numbers are arranged in the middle of each side of the face, and so the number on the bottom (again, it will always be three of the same number) tells you what you rolled. Oldfags will insist the "numbers on the bottom" d4 is the one true way, despite the fact that they need the full power of their coke-bottle glasses to see the numbers. [[Skub|Don't argue]] with 'em, just keep using the d4s that you and everyone at the table can read.

===Fucking Caltrops===
Whilst the d4 isn't as sharp as a d8, it has one major bit of natural defense - no matter what way it lands, it will have a point face-up. Because it's the smallest die, care needs to be used - if one escapes its dice-box and into the wild, it will wait, with its [[Bear Lore|natural weapon]] ready, for the exact moment someone walks into its vicinity barefoot to strike, whereupon it will inflict some surprisingly-vicious puncture wounds.

Somewhat related, in D&D Caltrops inflict 1d4 damage. [[Just as planned|Coincidence]]?
{{clear}}

==d6==
''Not the same thing as the [[D6 System]] by [[West End Games]].''

[[Image:Cube_template.gif|thumb|do-it-yourself kit]]
If you don't know what a d6 is, holy shit are you in the wrong place.
Go back to playing [[Monopoly]] in your blissful ignorance that it uses two of them.

A d6 with indented pips and rounded corners has a significantly higher chance of rolling a one than anything else. Do not trust them. Unless you're rolling Morale tests, in which case start praying for a one...now.

Fun Fact: Do you own a regular #2 pencil? If so, congratulations, [[Barrel dice|you have a d6]].

See [[Cubes]] for more details.

===Delta-6===
A die-rolling method for numbers from 0-5 with a particular curve.

Roll two d6, and subtract the smaller from the larger.

The curve looks like this:
{|style="border:1px solid black;" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3
! roll !! odds % !!  
|-
| 0 || 1/6 16.7% || <tt>######</tt>
|-
| 1 || 5/18 27.8% || <tt>##########</tt>
|-
| 2 || 2/9 22.2% || <tt>########</tt>
|-
| 3 || 1/6 16.7% || <tt>######</tt>
|-
| 4 || 1/9 11.1% || <tt>####</tt>
|-
| 5 || 1/18 5.5% || <tt>##</tt>
|}
{{clear}}

==d7==
[[Image:D7 1.jpg|thumb|left|The bizarre d7. This wasn't even on this page until 2020.]]
[[File:D7 2.jpg|thumb|right|This thing costs £4.95 ($6.38)]]
It exists. Use for whatever reason you could possibly need a d7 for.

In seriousness, there are very limited uses for this die. Maybe you could use it to randomly select a day or some shit. They're also advertised for use in seven-player backgammon games.
{{clear}}

==d8==
The eight-sided die is an octohedron: one of the symmetrical polyhedra known as the "Platonic solids."
[[Image:Buncha_d8s.jpg|thumb|right|A wild herd of d8s]]

Despite being a "Platonic" solid, it looks like two pyramids caught in the beautiful act of reproduction. Long live the dice race.

A d8 was always used for hit points for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] monsters, and in Advanced D&D it was used for those classes that have more hit points but weren't supposed to be as butch as Fighters or Paladins.

Eight-sided dice also have the most variations with weird not-numbers stuff on them, like compass directions, random weather, letters. They're also used as below-bargain-basement minifigs because one point is always off the table, like a big nose, or turret.

When you played Dragon Dice, the d8s were the terrain, which could change under your feet without moving your army, somehow.

James Ernest came up with a game "Dogfight" that uses d8s for their numbers, for being pointy and for turning in circles when you try to roll them like wheels... then he remembered that people put weird shit on d8s and he came up with a new game called "DiceLand," which is a beautiful game.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] fucking *loves* themselves some d8s. Their games make you wonder if all their parents were killed in a horrible cube-shaped accident.

Also the [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Fifth Angel]] is a huge floating d8.
{{clear}}

==d10==
[[Image:Ten-sided die.png|right|100px]]

It's a [[die]]. With ten sides. Pretty simple concept.

It's in the shape of a pentagonal trapezohedron. You can stand it on its point and spin it like a top. You should not do this, however, as it is the universal sign of boredom and is considered faux pas in most gaming circles.

The tenth side usually bears only a zero, but you should still read it as "ten" because you want your result to be 1-10, not 0-9.

===Rolling d100 Using Two d10s===
[[Image:D10_bronze_thorns.jpg|thumb|Your d10 dice are not this good-looking. But they are probably easier to read from across the table and less like the dreaded caltrops.]]

[[Dark Heresy|Some Systems]] require you to roll d100s frequently. There's a better way of doing it than rolling a golf ball with 100 sides.

Get out two d10s. Use one die to denote the singles digit and another die to denote the tens digit. Some d10s have two digits per side (see above) to make differentiating your digits easier, but you can roll d100 with any two d10, provided you specify beforehand which die is the tens and which the ones.

Much as with the d3, the next step is where three sides now engage in renewed holy war:
*Either you treat both dice as 0-9. Did you roll a '''20''' and a '''4'''? That's a '''24'''. A '''90''' and a '''1'''? '''91'''. A '''00''' and a '''5'''? Just a '''5'''. The drawback is the possibly ambiguous result of two zeroes: a '''00''' and a '''0'''. Obviously you rolled a '''100'''. Why? Because the alternative is a '''0''' which you can never roll with any other die. That, and the system assumes a roll from '''1''' to '''100''', not '''0''' to '''99'''.
*Alternatively, you treat both dice as 1-10. The drawback is that if you roll a '''50''' and a '''10''', you need to do some basic addition because you've just rolled a 60. And if you rolled a 100 and a 5 then you've obviously gotten a 5, not a 105.
*Finally, you can have the tens die be a 0-9 and the ones die be a 1-10. This removes all drawbacks sans the addition one, but is more complex.

Mathematically, each digit is determined in an independent manner. There are exactly 10*10=100 two-digit combinations, all equally likely. You now have a uniform distribution of 100 different results, as desired.

This means that as with most forms of religious conflict, neither side is truly superior, as long as you're consistent then you've replicated a d100 without needing to buy a golf ball with numbers on it. Anyone who legitimately thinks the other way to roll is somehow "wrong" is likely [[Grognard|the hairiest of neckbeards]] or [[That Guy|has a stick shoved so far up their ass that their nose is blocked]].
{{clear}}

==d12==
[[Image:D12_Cries.jpg|thumb|right]]
The [[d12]] is the loneliest die. It is used for barbarian hit dice and greataxe damage in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. The fact that [[Orcs]] (and [[Half-Orcs]]) are both the most common barbarians and the most common wielders of greataxes, it is suspected that Gruumsh is the head of a conspiracy aiming to eliminate the [[d10]] in favor of the [[d12]], in order to "purify" dice sets so that they consist only of true platonic solids.

Observant smar/tg/uys will notice that d12 are the hitdice used for undead and dragons instead of the usual [[d8]]s.

[[d12]] is used in [[D20 Modern]] (for .50 BMG firearms and such) and [[Star Wars D20]] (for handheld Heavy Weapons like Heavy Blaster Cannon).

[[d12]] is the highest stats can ordinarily go in [[Savage Worlds]] or [[Ironclaw]]. [[BBEG]]s and [[DMPC]] [[Mary Sues]] can have [[d20]], but it's hella rare.

[[d12]] shows up in [[Cthulhu]]-themed games, like Pokethulhu or [[Cthulhu Dice]], probably because [[d12]] is just as beautiful and graceful as the mighty Cthulhu.

One of the few places where the [[d12]] is not lonely, and is in fact used a great deal, is the [[Dragonmech]] campaign setting. Its chief use there is for damage rolls with mech weaponry.

[[Alternity]] was very friendly to the [[d12]], choosing to throw the [[d10]] under the bus instead because it wasn't far enough away from the [[d8]] to work as a difficulty step.

[[Pathfinder Second Edition|Pathfinder 2e]] makes good use of these. Since 2d6 weapons don't exist in this system, more weapons use the d12.

If you’re on a budget, the [[d12]] is your best friend, capable of functioning as a [[d3]], [[d4]], [[d6]], and even a [[d10]] or [[d8]] in a pinch. Not that useful, but it can still come in handy.
{{clear}}

==d16==
[[File:d16.jpg|thumb]]
Used basically just in [[Blood Bowl]] to randomly select a player on a team (which has a max of 16 players). Originally introduced by the [http://www.thenaf.net/the-naf/history/ NAF] in 2013 (when G-Dubs refused to license their block dice anymore), [[GW]] wised up in their 2016 edition of the game and added it to their product line, replacing the old method of drawing a [[chits|chit]] from a cup.
{{clear}}

==d20==
[[Image:Green_d20.jpg|thumb|'''BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR GOD''']]
Your best friend and worst enemy.

Before [[TSR]]/[[Wizards of the Coast]] tried to trademark "d20", every gamer knew what the fuck an icosahedron is, and why "natural 20" is a gift from God.

'''The Truth About 20-Sided Dice:'''

There are a limited number of “twenties” in any given d20. That is, no matter how many times you roll a d20, you cannot roll another twenty once the supply has run out. These twenties can only be replenished by rolling a corresponding one with the same die. Thus every gamer is duty-bound to protect their supply of good rolls. If a friend rolls a twenty using your die, not only have they stolen your good roll, but they have doomed you to the extra one required to replenish the twenty.

Some players get excited when they roll several twenties in a row, concluding the dice are “hot”. Don’t make this blunder! This is like driving your car for 400 miles without gassing up, and then concluding that your car is a perpetual motion machine. After a few good rolls, pass the die off to an unwitting companion and let them charge it up for you.

Statisticians have known about this behavior for years. They call it “the probability seesaw”. Unlike the bell-shaped curve, in the seesaw system the odds of rolling high or low is directly proportional to what has been rolled in the past. They usually pretend this isn’t true. If a statistician hands you a die insisting that “any given roll has the same odds of rolling a one or a twenty”, it means he’s handing you a depleted die in the hopes of taking advantage of you. Don’t fall for it!

Now the secret is yours. Please put this knowledge to good use*.

<nowiki>*By “good use” I mean, “take advantage of other players”.</nowiki>

{|
|-
|valign=center| The '''[[d20 System]]''' for role playing came later.<br/>
Like eighteen centuries later.<br/>
Don't believe me? Check this out:
|[[Image:2nd_century_Roman_d20.jpg|center|thumb|200px|2nd century Rome, bitches]]
|}
{{clear}}

==d30==
[[Image:D30_olympic.jpg|thumb|right]]

Only ever used for those critical-hit tables when you rolled a natural [[D20|20]].
Or if your DM was rolling damage and felt like being a dick.

But man, would it leave a bruise when your little sister threw it at your head.
{{clear}}

==d34==
[[Image:D34.jpg|thumb|right|[[Extra Heresy|WHY?!]]]]

Yes, they exist. Apparently if you roll 3 of them and subtract 2 from the total, you get a normal distribution from 1-100, assuming that's your idea of a good time. Still it's probably easier than reading an actual d100...
{{clear}}

==d50==
[[Image:D50_Alan_Davies.jpg|thumb]]
[[Rage|Fifty goddamn sides!!!!]]

For when you want to do 2-100 points of damage with a vaguely normal distribution.

... yeah, I don't know either

It also doubles as a golf ball.
{{clear}}

==d100==
[[File:Zocchihedron2.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Golfball.jpg]]
Take that, d50's!

They're useful when you really want to take 5 minutes to find out if you hit something in [[Dark Heresy]]. In other words, better just use a pair of [[D10]]'s like a normal human being.

Apparently it took about 6 years to make this die. I guess this means that it takes 6 years to put the numbers 1-100 on a fucking golf ball.

===Usage===
It may seem awesome when you see it, but as soon as you get one (and whoever's selling it to you is also aware of how unspeakably lame it is, and will probably even tell you) you will find that it has two major flaws: it takes about a minute to stop fucking rolling around and if you aren't blessed with a perfectly level playing surface you will never find out exactly what you've rolled (and when there are six other numbers right next to the 100 and 1, that's a pretty big problem). Oh, and to top it off, it isn't even very balanced, so it's effectively a loaded die.

On the other hand, if you hate your friends, show up to your next meeting and sweep all the d10s off the table, then drop your d100 right in the middle with a theatrical gesture and watch as everyone is mesmerized by its incessant rolling (see: takes about a minute to stop fucking rolling around). Take this opportunity to pocket the d10s, run away and never come back.

[[FATAL]] seemed to expect you to use this (but then again FATAL expects you to play FATAL so you can't expect much).

Seriously, though, let the cat play with it so they'll keep away from the other dice.
{{clear}}

==d120==
This is the most number of sides that a die can have while being 'mathematically fair die' (that doesn't have the dual problems of rolling forever and being prohibitively hard to read). The d120 stops rolling after a reasonable time (with the condition that this only applies if you don't roll with 'too much force'). It is also a bit tricky to read (but still perfectly possible). The company that sells the die points out that it can act as any of the standard 7 dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d10 of 10s, d12, and d20). And thanks to the chart they released for free, you don't even have to do the math yourself [http://thedicelab.com/d120tables.html]. Of course for the d100 roll you'll have to roll the d120 twice, roll 2 d120, or use a die other than the d120 (although you could still use the d120, e.g. a d10 and a d120). [http://nerdist.com/this-d120-is-the-largest-mathematically-fair-die-possible/]

==Barrel Dice==
[[Image:Barrel Dice.gif|right|thumb|Do a Barrel Roll!]]
Those weird-ass dice you find on that one dusty shelf behind the counter of your game store. Rather than platonic shapes with numbers on each side, it's a prism shape rounded at the ends, with numbers on the long sides. While not particularly popular, they're an excellent option for [[d4]]s, since they don't feel like the torture of a thousand hells to step on. Supposedly, they roll more evenly without as much bias and are harder to "throw", but the larger ones have the same problem as [[d50]]s. Hell, a barrel d50 would never ever stop rolling.

If you're super poor and can only afford the pencils and paper for your pencil-and-paper RPGs, your can use your pencils as barrel [[d6]]s.

==Crayola Dice==
{{Oldschool}}
[[Image:Crayolad20.JPG|left]]
[[Image:Crayoladice.JPG|thumb|This set actually had a d10. That was pretty weird at the time.]]
Are you old enough to remember when dice didn't have inked or painted numbers? With the old D&D games, you got soft plastic powder blue dice and a soft white and red crayon. In order to see the numbers you had to fill in the etched spots with the wax.

There were no d10's either. The d20 was labeled 0-9 twice (fit 2 digits on a die face? IMPOSSIBLE!) so you colored one half of the numbers white and the other half red. It acted as your D10, and if you needed a d20, you declared one color to be +10 before you rolled.

These dice were made out of pretty soft plastic, and after 25 years, most of mine don't even stop rolling anymore. No more corners.

This has been a bout of nostalgia.

==Narrative Dice==
Made popular by Fantasy Flight Games, these dice look like typical dice at first glance but then one notices a severe lack of numbers and instead each die having blank sides, sides with one symbol or another, or sides with two symbols. They also tend to be more expensive than your typical bog standard set due to this.

Where they shine, though, is that they can give you not only success or failure like typical numbered dice, but other symbols grant advantage or threat. The whole thing with these is to pick up enough "good" dice and the amount of "bad" dice your GM allots you, roll them all, the cancel out the opposing symbols on both axes described above which can net you much more variety in possible outcomes. Things like "I failed to hit but now my allies have advantage," or "I hit but got a lot of threat so now the enemies can do some crazy shit" are possible.

{{clear}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
premiumdice.jpg|Premium Dice!
premiumdice2.png|Premium Dice cont.
Big_Gay_Purple_d4.png‎|A d4 in the wild, natural weapon readied. As you can see by the notch on the left edge, this one has already claimed a victim.
Caltrop.jpg|Now that's just sick and wrong.
I hope you step on a d4.png
Go_outside_die.jpg|Try and MAKE me go outside. Fuck off, d12.
anna_louge_dice.jpg|Even camwhores know that the d20 is sexy, and each face has an exactly 5% chance of appearing.
DToM.jpg|It is said if not for the trusty D4 the Union would never have one its independance from Britain and the reason no one can beat Russia. As Russia's savage wilds are famous for its saber toothed white furred D4's to defend the motherland.
DiceShamingPoster.png
Gate Keeping Dice.png|There are people who hate dice, those people are wrong.
PennyArcade_papvp2_8.jpg|We're Number One
Tgdice.png
Gameof1s.png
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Chits]] - The nega-dice of yesteryear.
*[[Dice pool]]
*[[Exploding die]]
*[[Fudge dice]]
*[[D6 System]]
*[[D20 system]]

==External Links==
[http://www.dicecollector.com/JM/ Dice Collector gallery of all the dice; all of them]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSQIir5xxWc Lou Zocchi trying to get you to buy his dice.]

[[Category:Game Mechanics]][[Category:Dice]]

D20 Modern

2025-10-11T19:44:22Z

Sdhjk: /* Differences from D&D */

{{Awesome}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:d20 Modern}}
[[Image:d20Modern.jpg|thumb|200px|Cover art.]]

What do you get when you take [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and put it in the 21st century? d20 Modern.

Back in the good old days of [[3e]] (not 3.5), some brilliant bastard at [[Wizards of the Coast|Wizards]] decided that there was no point in having only one game using the [[d20 System]]. So, they took the D&D rules, replaced the classes, and added guns. The result was '''d20 Modern''', an easy-(enough)-to-play modern RPG (if you don't mind rules skewed toward magic and monsters, as opposed to, you know, REALITY).

Like D&D, Wizards also belched forward a number of accessory books for d20 Modern, which, unlike the D&D supplements, were few in number and many actually worth buying. They still handled guns with shitty attempts at realism, but then every RPG does.

If you look carefully, you'll see some of the ideas from d20 Modern survived into [[D&D 4e]], which some would say is a brief glimpse of win midst the fail, or just more failfuel for the failtrain.

Another nice thing that kept the guns SOMEWHAT realistic, was massive damage threshold. Instead of 50 like in D&D, it was equal to your Con score. This meant a critical hit or good roll from a long gun (usually 2d6 to 2d10 damage) could force you to make a save or instantly go to -1 hit points. If gun damage had been buffed a bit, it could have been a nice alternative to the "Vitality and Wound points" used by [[Star Wars D20]]. This was addressed in Saga Edition with a damage threshold system where damage in excess of the threshold's value caused a penalizing wound, which was relevant with higher damage, more starting HP, lower threshold and easier to increase gun damage.

[[Star Wars d20]] was based on this system. While it solved a few of d20 Modern's issues, it unfortunately compounded many of its problems with problems of its own. Saga Edition adopted more ideas from d20 Modern and actually fixed everything.

== Differences from D&D ==
* [[Action Points]], like 'karma' or 'luck' points in other games. You can use them to either boost the number you rolled on d20, or to use a feat that requires an action point (usually to do something totally awesome). Action points spent do not return until you level up.
* You didn't keep track of how much gold/dollars/nuyen you had; instead, Wealth was a skill check, and getting big wads of cash was a bonus to your Wealth rolls. Purchases had a DC for Wealth checks, and buying something with a higher DC than your Wealth score (which was virtually anything not one use) meant you lost some bonus (because you spent beyond your means). It was horrifically, horrendously, broken. Not in the "overpowered" sense but "they didn't playtest this once".
** Buying '''anything''' with a non-trivial cost (15 PDC or higher) reduced your wealth bonus by at least 1. A starting character's wealth bonus is (2d4+1 to 4 from starting occupation+1 from having ranks in profession. Typically 7). A Computer (-2d6 because computers cost an absurd amount in this system), a printer/scanner (-2 because these are completely different items), filling out a 4473 form (-1), a shotgun (-1), a decent backpack (-1), and a single set of clothing (-1) will take a character from "middle-class" to impoverished.
** On the other hand, because you can purchase "trivial" items infinitely, a rich character (PC, allied NPC, or allied faction) can bootstrap the party to effectively infinite Wealth by buying random trivial crap for the poorer characters to sell, so they can buy random non-trivial crap for rich character to sell. This is only the simplest way to get infinite Wealth, by the way.
** It also has some really fucking bizarre ideas on how restricted everything is legally. Suppressors ($200 tax and a bunch of waiting) are, under the game's rules, harder to get than full auto (The same, but banned since 1986 so all grandfathered examples cost tens of thousands) while sawed off shotguns (Same as suppressors) are flat out impossible to get legally in the game's rules (and black market sawed off shotguns are several times more expensive than normal black market shotguns).
** You couldn't take 10 or take 20 for wealth checks or take average wealth decreases during character creation, meaning you had to make your character with the GM present wasting everyone's time and rendering the OGL nature of the system moot. This was thankfully axed in errata.
** [[Urban Arcana]] offered the option to play a reverse [[Isekai]] character. This gave you extra wealth (2d6+occupation+profession skill bonus) at character generation in exchange for having your bonus go to +0 afterwards ([[What|apparently the several pounds of gold a fantasy character carries is worthless in the modern era]]). This was hilariously easy to cheese since you could bypass the "magic items are rare" thing and buy expensive magic items (indeed, you sorta had too since there's little other fantasy appropriate gear at high enough price you don't get it for free) like a magic jacket that gave you DR10 against non-magic attacks, enough to pretty much nullify all damage for several levels (an attack would need to kill a 1st level character outright to even scratch you). Since wealth increased quickly at level up if it was low, this isn't much of a disadvantage in the long run.
** The system tried to represent things getting less expensive over time with "[[GURPS|<s>Tech</s> Progress Levels]]"; Purchase DCs for things invented farther in the past were lower than modern stuff (-2 per PL), assuming the thing in question isn't an antique, while cutting-edge equipment had a +5 "penalty" to the DC until the rest of the world caught up. Many mundane devices date back to the Late Cold War/Industrial Revolution or even the Bronze Age/Stone Age, meaning a player who knows his trivia and/or can fast-talk the DM can push a ''lot'' of very useful equipment into trivial-cost territory. Also, the system is very rough and oversimplified (PL's are meaninglessly vague, especially futuristic ones - and that makes it hard to determine ''when exactly'' one PL ends and another starts - which complicates PDC and availability; late PL3 and early PL4 have big overlap; a lot of epochs are lumped in PL4, from flintlocks to assault rifles).
*** [[Talk:D20_Modern#When_PL4_ends_and_PL5_starts|Depending on how you define PL4 and PL5 by RAW]], you could [[Scub|argue]] that pretty much all modern war gear is PL4 - unless it has complex computers/electronics (PL5) or if it's invented even earlier (PL0-3). By examining key technologies listed in book, it was determined that the only PL5 things are computer/electronics-related; most important things are late PL4. For example, all but the most overcomplicated and computerized (e.g. OICW) modern guns work on same principles as guns of 1960-1980's, so are PL4.
*** Other methods include civilian model rifles (''Weapons Locker''; -2 PDC, -1 restriction, no autofire; manageable), gear flaws (''Future Tech''; generally too bad for their PDC decrease - like halved range, increased size, -1 to rolls, increased weight, or -1 damage dice). Downgrading/worsening the weapon just so it's of Trivial Cost, if PL's are not enough.
** Another option for acquiring gear, is "Requisition". Roll to acquire gear from organization, based on character level, charisma bonus, and item's importance/relevant for mission, and item's PDC. But it doesn't fully circumvent the problem - as requisition needs a lot of time to arrive, and it requires the PC's to work for - or at least, be backed by/be allied with - organization/faction.
* No alignment system; instead you had an "allegiance." You could have an allegiance to a religion, a nation (patriotism), an organization, a philosophy... and you'd get a +2 circumstance bonus when dealing with people that have the same allegiance.
** In fact, you could have multiple allegiances, although most people were too dumb to take advantage of that fact.
* You had an Occupation, which was like your level 0 class that gave you some class-skills and maybe a bonus feat.
* There were three noticeable tiers for characters: levels 1-7, levels 8-15, and levels 16-20.
* Every class only has 10 levels; you had to take an "advanced" (read: prestige) class or multiclass if you wanted to go higher.
* There are six basic hero classes, one for each of the six base attributes: Strong, Fast and Tough heroes (Str,Dex,Con), and Smart, Dedicated and Charismatic heroes (Int, Wis, Cha). There's no penalty for multiclassing (indeed, it is required by level 11, see above). There were 12 advanced classes, designed as 2 for each basic class, but which could be taken by any character provided appropriate requirements were met by said character. Some splats added additional advanced classes, as well as some 5-level true "prestige" classes.
* Basic classes had no class features but got talents from a class specific list every odd level. Most were just plain old shit and the worst class features ever (You get +1-3 to a couple skills! If you take longer you can lift/bend harder!) but the system would eventually be fixed and made awesome in [[Star Wars D20|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game Saga Edition]] before being made useful but video game like in [[4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons]].
* No spells/miracles/psi (called "FX abilities") for base classes. Only prestige classes can have them, and refreshingly little of the rulebook is dedicated to listing and describing spells.
** Spellcasting classes are all advanced classes, so you can't enter till level 4, and like all classes only go up to level 10 limiting you to 5th level spells. Theoretically this makes them less powerful, but practically it just means any mage is a [[Gish]] or [[Arcane Trickster]] (especially so on the second since Mage gets loads of skill points even before intelligence bonus) to some degree and they're still the best classes in the game.
* Had several supplements, including d20 Future and d20 Past. d20 Future had rules for playing (you guessed it) in the future and also had several supplements (d20 Apocalypse, d20 Cyberscape and Future Tech). d20 Past, meanwhile, had rules for playing the past. Obviously. The supplements allowed players to engage in updated-for-a-new-generation games that [[Gary Gygax]] had put out, including [[Gamma World]], [[Boot Hill]], [[Star Frontiers]], [[Age of Exploration]], a Zombie-Apocalypse variant, and many, ''many'' others. Suffice to say, these supplements, unlike their counterparts in [[Dungeons and Dragons]], were actually worth buying and checking out.
** d20 Past is a fantastic reference for when things first existed and first became common and even had a bibliography of citations available as a download.
** d20 Future however was utter shit, with horrific balancing both in "useless" (You can play as an android! But your ability scores suck, you lose '''three''' feats for a handful of immunities, being/becoming anything better than basic biodroid/bioreplica gets too big [[Level Adjustment|ECL]]) and "horrifically overpowered" (There are feats to get ''two'' extra talents, which are better than a feat if you pick halfway intelligently, and you don't even need to have been in the base class.), has horrifically bad ship combat rules, most of the sci-fi gear is just magic gear but not magic, and hilariously includes the (already out of date and poor preforming at time of publishing) OICW as a high-end future weapon.
* Child character are explicitly playable, but it's impossible to complete character creation with one unless their dexterity was high or their strength '''really''' high. Fixed in splat.
* While magic items aren't excepted, ''mastercraft'' ones are trivial to get for someone who can craft, but GM's whims for one who can't, and give the same bonuses. This reinforces the only crafting skill worth a damn being mechanical, as that covers weapons, armors and vehicles.
* Oddly not changed is that you can't coup de grace with a ranged weapon. Reasonable with slings and bows, but the inability to shoot a tied up or unconscious man in the head at point blank is bizzare.
* Lots of weapons, which are strictly better than other weapons. If we sort them all out, we get rather small amount of worthwhile choices. Especially if every weapon in all books - or at least, all weapons in "[https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20&%20Dragons/d20%20Modern/ Weapons Locker]" book - are analyzed and compared. Large-sized SMG's, shotguns and intermediate-cartridge assault rifles are worse than battle rifles, sniper rifles, LMG's and GpMG's - which are the best. Though, that may be intentional - as in real life, some weapons ''are'' strictly better than others of same class. E.G. 6G-30 for grenade launchers, Glock 19 and Reutech ADP Mk II for Tiny pistols, Glock 18C for Small full-auto pistols, MAS M50 and Ruger Service-Six for small pistols with PDC 14, FN Five-seveN for 2d8 pistols, Galil LMG for battle rifles, AW/AWP for sniper rifles, FN P90 for large SMG's, H&K 21E for machineguns, etc.
** It doesn't help matters that, because of Wealth system - unless PC's are using infinite Wealth loop, are planning to bankrupt themselves, lend weapons via Requisition, and/or got their weapons as loot/gift from NPC's - they would gravitate to weapons/gear with trivial cost (14 PDC or smaller). As such, amount of worthwhile choices shrinks even further, to only "Boring, But Practical" things. Good choices include AK-47 (PL4), Tommy Gun (PL4), Browning High Power (''Weapons Locker'' variant, PL4), Tec-9 (''Basic Set'' variant), tiny concealable pistols (e.g. CZ 92, Pathfinder), range rifles (e.g. Springfield M1903, Winchester 94 - PL4), PL4 Repeating Shotgun.
* Some gear options are rather imbalanced:
** "Future Tech" weapon modification. "Electrified" modification for melee weapons which increases damage by 4d6 for +2 PDC, "Extended Range" doubling weapon's range for +2 PDC, Improved Stopping Power for +10 PDC of ammo for extra damage die, cheap but effective ammo modifications, etc. Note than, unless noted otherwise, modifications are available at any PL.
** D20 Future, Compact and Miniaturized: makes weapon 1 or 2 sizes smaller respectively, for +2 PDC and +5 PDC respectively. So you could, for example, have assault rifle or anti-material rifle shrunken to size of magnum pistol, while keeping the firepower.
* Minor weapon workings errors; many parts need to be house-ruled to make sense. E.G. "Weapons Locker" - the gun book - has [[Derp|machineguns overheating faster than assault rifles, and impossibility of using MG belts longer than 50 bullets without assistant]] (IRL machineguns overheat slower than other automatic weapons; it is possible to use long MG belts without assistant - especially if belts are loaded into machinegun backpack; though those rules are optional).
* About unbalanced species/races/templates/subspecies (benefits for free):
** "Half-Fraal" template ("Fraals" are "gray" aliens) from Menace Manual. +4 Intellect, +4 Wisdom, +2 Charisma; better psionics (at will - lesser mindlink, suggestion; manifester level can't be less than 5); Fraal language. Only minuses are -2 Strength and -2 Constitution. For any Intellect, Wisdom or Charisma-based character, this is must-have, especially if he's psionic. If combined with "Franks" from D20 Future (human sub-species for stat min-maxing; +2 to one stat, -2 to other, low-light vision), Intellect or Wisdom can be boosted to +6 at start from species alone.
** "Extraterrestrial" template from D20 Future. CR is rounded up/down to nearest whole number - you can take one "+1/3 CR modifier" special quality freely. Also, can replace 1 movement mode with other (burrow dirt/climb/fly poor/swim); land movement is retained since they key off "base land speed" - so you can essentially replace "walking" with "walking + extra mode".
** Mutations, which give little-to-no harm for free mutation points: "Neutrad Dependency", "Poisonous blood" (both make character dependent on cheap readily available commodities - not problem unless in ''D20 Apocalypse''), "Festering Sores" (decreases bonus from armor - doesn't matter to character who doesn't wear armor).
* For non-technical character, "Technophobe" flaw is good - minus to skills you aren't trained anyways (can't use), extra Feat. For low-strenght character, "Skinny" and "Slippery" are good: bonuses to Escape Artist, penalties to being bull-rushed and grappling (don't matter).

== Spycraft 2.0 ==
Crafty Games made a heavily modified variant of d20 Modern which was based off their previous system. Spycraft 2.0 improves many of d20 Modern's faults (including replacing the clusterfuck wealth system with issued gear as standard). It also assumes the genre is ''not'' Urban Fantasy, which was largely the default in d20 Modern, and focuses on (as you'd guess) James Bond esqe antics. Unfortunately Spycraft 2.0 had two big, crippling faults of its own.

Firstly nobody writing it understood how pointless a +1 or +2 bonus was (it increases the total chance of success by 5% and 10% respectively) and they're ''everywhere'' and treated like they're important. Coming from a system where a feat that gave +2 to two skills was well known to be one of the worst possible options in any moderately normal build, throwing out a bunch of options with +1 and +2 bonuses to skills attached was pretty lame and hard to keep track of.

Secondly all guns have a recoil value that's effectively a minimum strength value. This is quite a reasonable ''idea'' but the values make absolutely no sense and these values seem to be purely based on the weight of the firearm with little understanding of the characteristics of even common cartridges. This means 7.62x39 firearms (which has quite harsh recoil for an intermediate cartridge) tend to have ''less'' recoil than 5.56 (considered the mildest recoiling centerfire rifle cartridge in common use) firearms since their all steel construction weighs more. This is absolutely '''not''' the case in reality. Other crazy standouts being Glocks have insanely high recoil values due to their light weight while most versions of the Desert Eagle have values approaching ''half'' the Glock's. [[Fail|A Glock 22 in .40 S&W has more recoil than a Glock 20 in 10mm]], which is retarded because having less recoil than the Glock 20 is '''literally the entire reason it exists''' ([[-4 Strength|Female FBI agents couldn't handle 10mm]] and .40 S&W was developed purely to have less recoil). Even within the nonsensical system of recoil being primarily determined by weight (rather than cartridge), the scaling isn't consistent across firearms in the slightest.

==Spinoffs/Subgames/Settings==
* [[Urban Arcana]]
* [[d20 Past]]
* [[d20 Future]]
* [[d20 Apocalypse]]
* [[d20 Cyberscape]]
* [[Dark_Matter|Dark*Matter]] was remade for d20 Modern
* [[The Modern Path]] a fan's attempt to update the rules to match [[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Pathfinder]]

== See Also ==
* [http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Home.php d20 Modern System Ref Document] hypertext open-gaming license book of the whole enchilada.

[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]
[[Category:d20 Modern|*]]

Rope Trick Bunker of Doom

2025-10-07T16:21:05Z

Sdhjk: /* Why is this a big deal */

'''[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/ropeTrick.htm Rope Trick]''' (Transmutation)<br>
2nd Level Transmutation<br>
Casting Time: 1 action<br>
Components: V, S, M (powdered corn extract and a twisted loop of parchment)<br>
Duration: 1 hour per CL

You touch a length of rope that is up to 60 feet long, one end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground. At the upper end of the rope, an invisible entrance opens to an extra-dimensional space that lasts until the spell ends. The extra-dimensional space can be reached by climbing to the top of the rope. The space can hold as many as eight Medium or smaller creatures. The rope can be pulled into the space, making the rope disappear from view outside the space. Attacks and spells can't pass through the entrance into or out of the extra-dimensional space, but those inside can see out of it as if through a 3-foot-by-5-foot window centered on the rope. Anything inside the extra-dimensional space drops out when the spell ends.

==Why is this a big deal==
The spell creates a 3'x5' extradimensional space, centred on the rope, so it can be used to bypass thin doors and walls. The bigger use of this spell is to create impenetrable rest areas that require neither guards nor sleeping shifts, and which allow for parties to stop, prepare, and plan, even in the middle of an enemy's invincible doom fortress. The extradimensional space holds 8 people by default and lasts long enough for a full-night's sleep at 8th level (or 5th level with Extend Spell feat to use up a 3rd level spell slot), meaning the only difference between this and [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magesMagnificentMansion.htm Magnificent Mansion] is that this doesn't have butlers or food by default - and this is a ''2nd Level Spell''.

The space can hold 1 Large creature, as it takes space like 8 Medium creatures. Though depending on how you interpret rules, Large creature may need to Squeeze through the opening.

And then there's ambushes. The spell is dismissable, players inside the extradimensional space can see out, and the minimum altitude of the window is only 5 feet up. The party could arrange themselves in battle formation inside the space (assuming there's somewhere to stand), wait for an enemy to come by, and then dismiss the spell and apparently drop out of thin air. For higher-level fun, a 5th-level wizard can cast ''shrink item'' on a fair-sized boulder (1700 pounds at minimum level, assuming a limestone boulder of just the right size) and cover a party of 5 with ''feather fall''. Now the hapless enemy finds several huge boulders dropping on their head from 30 feet up, followed by a squad of feather-falling adventurers.

==Why this may not work==
The spell creates a 3'x5' doorway into an extradimensional space. Read that again: your eight people are all hanging from a rope in outer space, with nowhere to get off and lounge. However the spell states you can pull the rope up into the space and the door is closable so they will not simply fall out.

==No Fun Allowed==
:''"Anything that can see invisible (don't forget the 2nd level spell) will see the dimensional window you opened. The DM will likely have an ambush waiting for you or if they have had enough of your bullshit, setup an ambush and cast dispel."''
:''"Wait, this is not intentional? Our party has been using Rope Trick as shelter ever since we first started playing."''
:''”Nothing in the spell says where you appear after it ends. A DM could rule that you appear in front of the hole at the end of the spell, blocking the passage through thin walls. I always imagined that the hole itself spat you out at the end, which could make it harder to set up a proper fighting formation… though not necessarily impossible."''

==See Also==
* [[15,000,000 Gold a Day]]
* [[Peasant Railgun]]

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Gamebreaking]]

Pole-arm

2025-10-04T19:57:41Z

Sdhjk: /* Types of Pole-arm */

[[image:Polearms.jpg|thumb|300px|right|And those are just the ''most common European'' varieties, too!]]
A '''Pole-Arm''' technically refers to any type of weapon consisting of a metal head with a long wooden pole. [[Spear|Spears]] fall under this classification, but more often than not it is used to refer to weapons with something more than just a point at the end to stick people with. Pole-arms were usually capable of any combination of chopping, cutting, smashing, or stabbing an enemy by attaching [[Battleaxe|axe]]-heads, spikes, hammers, and various blades to the end of a long shaft. Due to their relative ease of use and the sheer versatility they offered, pole-arms have been used by civilizations across the length and breadth of the globe and have proven themselves to be very effective in mass combat, even up to the Napoleonic and American Revolutionary wars.

The sheer number of different weapons the term covers means that attempting to classify them can get confusing, especially with some of the ones from Europe. Since there was no rigorous system of classification in place and several weapons like the bill, war scythe, and military fork were developed from peasants' hand tools, several different weapons have been called by the same name, and several different names have been applied to the same weapon; and that's '''without''' getting into things like glaive-guisarmes, fauchard-forks, and the various other combination weapons people tried to kill each other with over the centuries. As you might expect, this has sparked [[Skub|many arguments]] over what is called what (to make sure people know what you're talking about, add the picture or photo of a metal head).
== Pole-arms in warfare ==
When compared to spears, pole-arms retain some of the advantage of reach while gaining more flexibility in how they attack. A spearman is limited to simply poking his enemies to death, whereas a halberdier or billman can also hack at them and even drag horsemen off their mounts with the hooks on their weapons.

Pole-arms became the predominant infantry weapon of the middle ages because of this versatility. They offer the reach to defeat swords and axes and cavalry, and the power to crack armor and shields. A halberd head requires no more metal to make than a sword, yet a halberdier with modest training can keep all but the most experienced swordsmen at bay without the cost and encumbrance of armor. These qualities made pole-arms ideal for quickly outfitting a very large force of common soldiers.

While shortened polearms no longer count as "polearms", they offer more flexibility than other one-handed and two-handed weapons. While [[Battleaxe]] can hack and [[Mace]] can crush, the relatively small short "sub-polearm" of same length can also stab and drag.

==Types of Pole-arm==
Spears are far from being the only form of pole-arm; there are numerous others, most of which tend to be difficult to distinguish from one another. A short list of some of the more notable types is as follows:

*'''Ahlspiess/Awl Pike:''' Take a spear, then replace the spearhead with a three-foot-long metal spike with a disc to protect the user's hand and you have the ahlspiess. The name comes from the fact it resembled an awl, a tool used to pierce holes in leather and wood, which fit rather well considering how good it was at poking holes in people. Unlike a normal spear the metal spike was impossible to cut though with a sword, which made it quite effective in a melee, if a bit on the heavy side.

*'''Atgeir:''' Oh Odin where do we start. The only concrete evidence we have on this thing is it was a Norse weapon used in the sagas and was poetically named the "Hewing Spear"...[[Skub|except most uses of it in said sagas have it piercing instead of cutting]]. The only actual evidence we have to what it might have been is its name, which essentially mean "Spear of Spears" or "War Spear" depending on your preference and the fact it tended to be translated to halberd in medieval literature, so most interpretations of it are either as a form of Norse halberd and ancestor to the Bardiche (see below) or some form of versatile halberd-cross-spear and essentially just the Swordstaff (see further below).

*'''Bardiche/Berdiche:''' A Russian polearm taking the form of a long handled axe with a broad curved axehead on a long handle typically 1.5 meters in length. The lower end of the axe-head was attached to the shaft, while the upper end extended several inches above it. It was notable in that it was often used as a monopod by Streltsi (an elite force of musketeers that existed from the reign of Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great). Generally accepted to be descended from the Dane axes brought to Russia by the Norse and possibly a descendant of the Atgeir.

*'''Bayonet:''' Honorable mention goes to the blade at the end of a gun, which was extremely handy back in the days where it took a long time to reload. Not used very often in modern times except by the British, who have engaged in bayonet charges during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Modern bayonets attachments would make guns more similar to a glaive than a spear though (with a big curve similar to that said weapon).

*'''Bill:''' Derived from a pruning tool called the billhook, a bill consists of a cutting blade that curves forward to form a hook, with later versions adding a spike on the top and a hook on the back of the blade. This combined the stopping power of a spear with the cutting ability of an axe, giving it the ability to pull horsemen out of the saddle, hamstring man and mount alike, '''and''' pierce gaps in the protection of heavily armored opponents. For this reason, it was the national weapon of England well into the 16th century. Interestingly, at a time when all the continental armies were using pikemen to form the bulk of their foot soldiers, an English army of hastily-raised levies (most of the English army being abroad in France, dying of dysentery and being of minor annoyance to the French) devastated a Scottish army, whose principle weapon was the pike, at Flodden Fields to such an extent they took a generation to recover. Often conflated with the guisarme due to their similar origins and use, they may very well be regional variants of the same general weapon.

*'''Bohemian Earspoon:''' This oddly-named pole-arm really existed; it was used in central Europe around the 14th and 15th centuries. It consisted of a tapered blade with a medial ridge and pair of lugs beneath the blade, similar to a boar spear, to prevent an impaled target working its way down the pole to reach you. ''Actual'' boar spears were also commonly pressed into battlefield use.

*'''Brandistock''': An unusual 16th century Italian thrusting polearm in that, not only did it possess three spikes at the end, but they were also retractable.

*'''Falx''': The Falx is an oddity that doesn't easily fit any category; most historians list it as a polearm as, despite being somewhat shorter than an ordinary polearm, it's shaft is too long to be considered a sword. This weapon was used by the ancient Dacians and Thracians against the Romans, and featured a 3 foot sickle-shaped blade with an equally long shaft, meant to be used two-handed and could deliver devastating downward blows, splitting shields and helmets alike. It's for that reason that the Roman Gallic helmet has a special ridge specifically for blocking falx blows. In fantasy, the Falx has been re-purposed as an Elven Greatsword of sorts, owing to its more unusual shape.

*'''Fauchard''': In many respects a fauchard is very similar to a glaive, except that it has a hook somewhere on the cutting edge, and above the hook the blade tapers into a sharp point.

*'''Glaive:''' The glaive was equipped with a single-edged tapering blade (like a kitchen knife) affixed similarly to an axe head. Some variations (called glaive-guisarmes) had a small hook on the end meant for catching horsemen, like a bill, or for locking enemies' blades in combat. Glaives often came in a very wide variety of bizarre shapes, so oftentimes it is used to describe a polearm with a blade shape that doesn't fit any of the other categories.

*'''Goedendag:''' the goedendag was a Flemish combination of a spear and club. It's believed to have been first used like a spear to blunt a charge, but then as a club once the melee is joined. Making it good against armored knights, and it was used to defeat French knights at the "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ksuFG8YaY Battle of the Golden Spurs]". The word "Goedendag" means "good day" in Dutch, so if nothing else this proves that the Flemish have a sense of humor.

*'''Guan-Dao:''' The Guan-Dao is a Chinese pole-arm with a ''huge'' fucking blade at the end of a five-foot pole, with a small prong at the back and usually a tassle or two for ceremonial purposes. It is named after a popular character from the 14th century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms called Guan Yu, who is often depicted as using a particularly beautiful Guan-Dao (even though he almost certainly didn't do so in reality, as the weapon didn't exist at the time). A similar predecessor in China is the "Pudao" (and the similar Korean "Hyeopdo"). A related pole-arm in Joseon Korea was based off of it and was referred to as the "Woldo".

*'''Halberd:''' One of the most iconic pole-arms, differing from the poleaxe in both form and function. Intended as more of a formation weapon than an individual weapon, both the shaft and spike were longer, as it was primarily a thrusting weapon. While possessing an ax's blade (which typically featured a slant pointing downward as opposed to a straight parallel or circular edge), it was less used for chopping (due to its unwieldy nature) and more as an extra attack; the ax was used in a draw cut in case the thrust missed its target and attempted to close in. The blade could also pull a mounted [[knight]] off his horse, though the bill was better known for this tactic. In the early Renaissance, the Halberd was a favorite weapon of the Dobbeltsöldner, being a good weapon to bump away enemy pikes and then blend the innards of the peasants holding the pikes.

*'''Ji''': A common Chinese polearm that evolved over time; early versions took the form of a "dagger-axe," more properly called a "Ge," which was little more than a short blade that stuck out perpendicular to the shaft, then sloped down the shaft a bit to form the axe-head. The Ji evolved from the Ge by adding a spike to the top, turning it more into a halberd-type weapon. Finally, the blade was replaced with an inverted crescent shape, sometimes double bitted. This was famously the preferred weapon of Lu Bu, a warlord from the Three Kingdoms era.

*'''[[Lance]]:''' A bigger, heavier spear intended for [[knight]]s and other mounted warriors. They were too bulky to be wielded on foot and too heavy to throw, relegating them to use on horseback; however, they could be absolutely devastating during a cavalry charge. Variations of the lance continued to be used until World War I. They were also the go-to weapon for jousting tournaments.

*'''Lucerne Hammer:''' Basically a warhammer with a very long shaft, the hammer's head was pronged to better pierce the plate armor in use at the time. It also bore a long spike opposite the hammer and an even longer spike extending from the top. The name comes from the city of Lucerne, Switzerland, where many of them have been discovered. A similar pole-arm exists called the ''Bec de Corbin'' but emphasizes usage of the side spike instead of the hammerhead.

*'''Man Catcher:''' A pole with a two pronged semicircular head which sometimes has spikes inside it and possibly a mechanism to close it, designed for immobilizing enemies by catching their limbs or neck and pining them down and also for knocking enemies off of horses. Less lethal versions of this weapon were, and still are in some places, used for catching escaping criminals.

*'''Military Fork:''' It's basically a big pitchfork. The prongs made it effective at piercing plate armor and some had hooks much like other pole-arms to counter cavalry.

*'''Naginata:''' Similar to the glaive, the naginata is a wooden shaft with a large curved blade at the end which was covered with a sheath when not in use. Like the katana, it became a favored weapon of the [[samurai]], particularly the women (who were especially appreciative of its ability to keep opponents at a distance, thus compensating for [[-4 Str|the difference in raw strength between the sexes]]) in fact learning how to use a Naginata was mandatory for school girls in the Empire of Japan and it's still popular there today (Naginata is a totally normal high school sport in Japan). While they can be used to stab and hook opponents, the curved blade makes naginatas most effective as a cutting weapon; although it lacks the speed, control, and longer cutting edge of a katana, it makes up for it with superior reach and better leverage. Fun fact; sometimes when a katana broke, the blade would be reused to make a naginata. A similar but more ornate pole-arm was the "Nagamaki".

*'''Partisan:''' A relative newcomer to the pole-arm family, coming about only during the Renaissance but becoming obsolete in the same way as every other pole arm - via the advent of firearms. It was a weapon that consisted of a spearhead (broader and larger than normal) mounted on a relatively long shaft with protrusions on the sides of the spear head which aided the user in parrying sword thrusts, setting the weapon apart from its predecessors. The weapon was designed for both cutting and thrusting (albeit with a larger focus on the latter rather than the former), unlike a normal spear, but it was still somewhat smaller than normal pole-arms at 1.8—2m (5.9—6.6ft). It remains in use as a ceremonial weapon in some countries. Party-focused politicians are known for fighting with these in political debates.

[[File:Pikemen.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Cavalry? We ain't afraid of no stinking cavalry!]]
*'''Pike:''' Perhaps the most effective of the pole weapons, but certainly the most widespread. The pike was, at its heart, a very long, sharp stick. We're talking 10-25 feet, here. It was ideal for defensive maneuvers, especially when wielded ''en masse''; each rank of pikemen was trained to hold their pikes so any charging enemy infantry had to deal with more sharp spiky objects than a hedgehog convention pointed at them. However, the tight formations needed to pull this off made pikemen vulnerable to archers and the unwieldy size of the pikes made it too difficult for them to effectively defend themselves if outflanked. Nevertheless, their lethality and defensive skill made them popular into the late 1600s, at which time people realized standing around in dense formations made pikemen an easy target for [[Firearm|arquebusiers]] and artillery. Both the [[Landsknecht]]s and the Swiss became famous for their proficiency with pikes. It survived a few centuries after the introduction of gunpowder with the usage of Pike and Shot formations (with the pikemen being near the edges to keep cavalry at bay as the arquebusiers volley fired). Some Japanese yari would be long enough to qualify as pikes and were used in a similar manner as the Europeans did.

*'''Poleaxe:''' It's an axe head on a pole, just as the name suggests. Compared to a halberd, it has a smaller head, which focuses kinetic energy onto a smaller area and lets it cut through armor more effectively. In other words, while the halberd prioritizes thrusting, the poleaxe prioritizes chopping. The spike on the end of the pole's butt also made it useful for thrusting attacks, and it could be used to block in the same way as a quarterstaff. Generally a poleaxe has a spike at the tip, rather like a spear head, an axe blade and a hammer on the opposite side of the axe blade - the hammer was all but necessary to crush plate armor and the man within, after all.

*'''Pilum''': The standard pole-arm in the service of the ancient Roman Legions. Defies the categorization of this page a bit, since it's not particularly large (about 2 meters at most) and wasn't used like we would think a polearm would be used. The Pilum was an iron tipped javelin, thrown against enemy formations before the charge. Its very thin tip concentrated most of its force in a very small area, making is possible to pierce most kinds of armor and shields the enemy would use. As an additional feature, the shaft was of the tip was made from a softer iron than the tip itself, meaning that even if you blocked a Pilum with your shield, the Pilum would get stuck and bend, adding a 1 kilogram heavy paperweight to it and limiting your maneuverability severely.

*'''Quarterstaff:''' The simplest type of polearm there is, inasmuch as it is an actual pole. It's probably the oldest, too; smacking someone with a stick is easier to think of than sharpening it so you can stab them. A favored weapon of [[monk]]s and other unarmed classes in DnD, these could be used both as a blunt implement and as a thrusting weapon, while a carefully aimed sweeping blow aimed at the legs could easily knock a foe off his feet and send him sprawling onto the ground. It's not too likely that these were used in actual warfare, as they were mainly meant for self-defense and martial arts; in many cultures with martial arts traditions the staff was regarded as providing the strongest defense of the basic types of weapons. They were also useful as walking sticks, of course. In China, where it is known as the Gùn or Bang staff, it is called the "Grandfather of Weapons" in the classical weapons quartet (the others being the Jian sword, Qiang spear, and the Dao sabre). Sufficiently long and sturdy poles made of wood (e.g. pickaxe/shovel handles) or metal (e.g. long piece of pipe or handrail) also fit into this category, and are used by rioters up to this day.

*'''Shaolin Spade:''': As the name suggests, it's a weapon with a spade-shaped blade on one end, with a crescent shaped blade on the other. The Shaolin monks used this weapon for two purposes: to bury the dead, and for defense against bandits. Possibly one after the other.

*'''Spetum:''' A spear-like weapon with two smaller, single-edged blades extending at acute angles from the base of the spear's head. Not only could it be used to impale and stab with the main spearhead, the smaller blades made it effective at knocking aside shields and severing limbs as well.

*'''Swinefeather/Swedish Feather:''' A predecessor to the bayonet, this was a musket rest combined with a spear, which allowed early musketeers to defend themselves against cavalry. As its name suggests, it was heavily used by the Swedes during the Thirty Years War, with the weird name possibly coming from the Swedish equivalent of the term 'pig-sticker'.

*'''Swordstaff:''' Take a full sized doubled edged sword, including the guard, but replace grip with a long pole. Swordstaff like weapons pop up in fantasy every once in a while but were rare in history. Most of the known examples are either Scandinavian or Chinese, the former might just be the Atgeir mentioned above.

*'''Spiked Spear/Plançon à Picot:''' Take a two-handed spear, and attach lots of metal spikes on the shaft on the end closer to blade. It allows to make swing/chop attacks with spikes in addition to thrust/stab attacks. Generally, can be divided into 2 sub-types: the crudely upgraded spears of bandits/peasants, and actual good-quality Plançon à Picot of footmen/soldiers.

*'''Trident:''' The go-to weapon for a water-themed character. Mostly this was used by fishermen to skewer fish. The retiarius, a type of gladiator, used a trident alongside a dagger and net. The two-prong version of it is referred to as the bident.

*'''Tepoztopilli:''' the Aztec answer to the glaive and halberd, like the Macana/Macuahuitl, the obsidian blades were embedded into the plank at the front with resin. It was also a fairly effective weapon for thrusting and slashing.

*'''Voulge:''' While superficially similar to the glaive, the voulge had a broader blade meant for hacking rather than cutting. Think of it as a meat cleaver on a pole and you have the general idea of how it worked. Also like the glaive, some forms (called voulge-guisarmes) had hooks added to the back of the blade, along with a pointed tip for stabbing.

*'''War Scythe/Kosa Bojova:''' [[Mortarion|Contrary to popular belief]], a scythe on its own is too unwieldy to make a good weapon and the blade often too thin and long. But if the scythe's blade is reforged to be bulkier and denser before being re-mounted to extend upward instead of out to the side, it can be fairly effective as far as improvised weapons go. Because of the ease with which they could be repurposed from common tools, they were one of the most likely weapons to be used in peasant uprisings. War scythes were the preferred pole-arm of the Poles (no pun intended).

*'''''Blade On Extra-Long Handle:''''' Improvised pole-arms made by attaching sharp objects on longer handle than it's supposed to, sharpening it, and mounted to extend upwards. Daggers/knifes on spear handles, axes on longer handles (e.g. hatchets on longer handles were commonly used by vikings), sharpened pitchforks and shovels, and other such weapons. ''Any'' metal-head-on-shaft object can be sharpened - turning it into enormous shiv; even ''gardening rackets'' were sharpened this way. Using shafts of shorter or longer length was also common modification. Some would count as axes or spears, if blade was too small and/or shaft is too short. Commonly used in peasant uprisings. Many types of "actual" polearms started out as hand tools mounted onto spear shafts; e.g. "Bill" polearm was originally just gardening billhook on a spear shaft; for each 1 contraption type which was successful enough to be used by actual soldiers and evolve into proper polearm, there were 10 contraption types which were bad or barely-usable and as such were forgotten.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:Polearms-Geneva.jpg|Various 15th century European pole-arms
image:ahlspiess.jpg|An ahlspiess
image:01_108_Book_illustrations_of_Historical_description_of_the_clothes_and_weapons_of_Russian_troops.jpg|Russian '''streltsi''', each carrying a musket and a bardiche
image:Bec_de_Corbin.jpg|A bec-de-corbin or Lucerne hammer, depending on who you ask
image:Long_handled_bill_hook.jpg|A simple bill
image:Glouchester-billmen.jpg|Re-enactors holding examples of Italian and English bills
image:Bohemian-earspoon.jpg| A modern reproduction of a bohemian earspoon
image:naginata.jpg|A Japanese Naginata
image:Voulges.png|Several different kinds of voulge
</gallery>
{{MedievalWeaponry}}

Battleaxe

2025-10-04T19:50:52Z

Sdhjk: /* Types of Battleaxe */

[[image:Battleaxe.png|thumb|300px|right|A Battleaxe]]
A '''Battleaxe''' is an axe intended for battle (duh). Wherever there were trees and a need to chop firewood, people found an abundant need for axes. In a fight an axe will chop through a leg or a skull just as it would a log, so people took them along to war (and indeed, probably a lot more poor and desperate people throughout the ages just took their woodcutting axes with them to battle than actual battleaxes).

Once it was established that they were good weapons, axe-makers began to make axes specifically to be weapons, tweaking the design to better serve in that capacity. One crucial difference between tool and weapon is weight, or to be precise a lack of: one-handed battleaxes could weight as little as 0.5kg, two-handed ones were usually between only 1 to 2 kg. This was usually achieved by making the axe head thinner, making these weapons nimbler than their woodcutting cousins.

While there is nothing wrong with [[sword]]s and [[mace]]s, battleaxes are the go-to weapon for your average [[Dwarf]] in most fantasy settings. [[Viking]]s also are famous for their use of battleaxes, particularly because it was the weapon commonly associated with the legendary Viking [[Warriors of Chaos|bezerkers]], though again they were generally perfectly fine using swords and [[spear]]s. Axes however are nonetheless mentioned as respected weapons in Old Norse poetry. For example, some poems associated with the legendary Geatish King Dag Spaka (Dag the Wise) mentions the king's incredible and peerless skill with a battleaxe, which is significant given that swords are often thought to be a king's weapon in Germanic societies. Indeed, the axe is quite important also in ancient Scandinavian culture, though not to the extent of swords.

== Battleaxes in warfare ==
Axes are bloody old, almost as old as [[mace|maces]]. Both are "mass weapons," but the main difference is that an axe focuses the kinetic power of the swing into a sharpened edge while the mace strikes with pure concussive force.

An axe is a heavy bladed wedge of hardened material on the end of a handle (lever), utilizing two simple machines. It does damage by swinging that bit into the foe at high speed. On impact it delivers a lot of kinetic energy to a concentrated point with a cutting edge to drive it deep as possible. This can chop through shield, muscle, bone and armor. Even if it does not go through armor, its blunt force trauma can shatter bones. Battleaxes are great at killing people quickly, as their hits not only wound but also shock and cripple target, while mortal wounds from swords, spears or bows usually do not kill the target instantly, allowing it to strike few final blows before passing down.

The problem is that Battleaxes are cumbersome. To make them work as well as possible, they need room to get a good swing going to impact with full force. Swinging an axe at such distance also takes time. If your first strike is not lethal, your enemy has a fair amount of time to strike you while you get the next one ready. This also means that they are not the best weapons for confined quarters (for example, in a cave or a mineshaft), and it fucks up one's ability to fight in a tight formation, which was a very, very critical component of pre-modern warfare. Though if things broke down into a swirling melee, an axe-wielder would fare better.

Battleaxes are generally poorly balanced, meaning you cannot control them as well as swords, and generally should swing them around keeping momentum instead of making swings and thrusts and then quickly returning it to defensive position, like swords. This means axes are terrible at defense - not because they cannot parry, but because they cannot quickly switch between parrying and attacking. This problem, however, is easily solved by taking a shield in the other hand. Axes also tend to stick inside armour, shields or just [[RIP AND TEAR|enemy bones]], unlike mauls and warhammers which are also good against heavily armoured targets. An axe's pole is usually much tougher than one on a [[spear]] or a [[polearm]], sometimes with a metal core, since it isn't as long and, as a mass weapon, it needs less finesse to handle.

Axes are also quite cheap compared to swords, though not as cheap as spears. Axe heads need much less metal than swords, but also require a good smith, unless you're pretty OK with your axe blunting after the few hits. Speaking of which, blunted, chipped or otherwise damaged axes are still quite a dangerous weapons, unlike spears, swords or daggers, so along with mauls they tend to be popular amongst those who cannot afford or assess a proper smith. Unlike swords and spears, axes also could be used outside the battle to chop some wood or to construct a camp. As mentioned earlier, if you are a peasant there would typically be some wood axes around if you needed a weapon and had little money.

In desperate situations axe could be thrown, but unless this particular axe was designed to be thrown and the wielder was specifically trained to throw axes results are usually quite poor. However with proper training and design throwing axes are quite devastating, able to one-hit-kill or at least cripple a man even through shield and heavy armour - something arrows and javelins are unable to do.

Today, battle axes are still used in modern military applications, usually taking the form of hatchets or tomahawks, and are built as multi-purpose tools that can be effective as both a tool for helping with labor or as a weapon for chopping some unlucky sod's head off. They're particularly significant on the Korean DMZ, ever since two officers were murdered with axes over a dispute about clearing a tree; ever since, guards from both sides have often brought axes and axe handles to standoffs.

== Types of Battleaxe ==

In addition to the typical battleaxe, there were many other forms of axes meant to be used as weapons.

*'''Tomahawk''': An axe similar to a hatchet favored by many Native American tribes (and later some European colonists) that could be used both as a hand-to-hand weapon and as a throwing weapon. In fact some Native Americans refused to be photographed without displaying their tomahawk. Older versions had heads made of stone or deer antler, but metal was later used when the colonists first landed and trade between Europeans and Native Americans began. Some were modified with a hole drilled down the center of the shaft and a hollow poll so they could also be used as tobacco pipes; these were crafted as trade goods to be presented as gifts. (Some historians have noted that such pipe tomahawks could be viewed as a metaphor for Native American-European relations, as it could be used either as a peace-pipe or a weapon, much like how Native Americans and Europeans could both engage peaceful trading or wage war against each other.) Modern versions continue to be used in the military today. If equipped with a back spike and/or some sort of edge for thrusting, they are surprisingly versatile all-purpose tools (as axes generally are) and just as useful in close combat.

*'''Spontoon Tomahawk''': A variation of the tomahawk developed by French fur trappers that replaced the traditional wedged axe head with a knife-like stabbing blade.

*'''Shepherd's Axe''': An axe with a long, straight shaft and a head which is sharp on one end and flat on the other. The head was designed to fit comfortably into one's hand without chopping it off, and could also be used as a hammer or a walking stick. As the name suggests, it was mainly used by shepherds in the Carpathian Mountains (i.e. much of Central Europe, including Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary) who needed to defend themselves against bandits and wild animals.

*'''Poleaxe''': As the name suggests, it's an axe head on a pole, making it a form of [[pole-arm]]. In many respects, the poleaxe is the swiss-army knife of polearms. Compared to a halberd, it has a smaller head, which focuses kinetic energy onto a smaller area and lets it cut through armor more effectively. Typically used by amounted knights on foot to kill other armoured knights on foot. Also well known for having the most literature (eg. treatises) detailing its use surviving to the modern day, most probably because it was a ‘knightly’ weapon that demanded the attention of contemporary schools of combat. The spike on the end of the pole's butt also made it useful for thrusting attacks, and it could be used to block in the same way as a quarterstaff. A hammer or spike was typically mounted opposite to the axe head, as well as a spearhead (or another spike) for thrusting purposes. In short, if you wanted options when going into combat - particularly armored combat, the poleaxe would serve you well.

*'''Halberd''': Another pole-arm, differing from the poleaxe by typically being longer, as well as in the long spike on the top of the axe head and the hook on the back of the axe's blade, which was ideal for pulling a mounted [[knight]] off his horse. Sadly, unlike the poleaxe, no treatises or other forms of literature detailing its use still exist today. It could be used as a [[spear]] as well as an axe in close quarters. Unlike the poleaxe, the halberd saw most of its usage by unarmored infantry, most notably Swiss mercenaries (even the Swiss Guard today uses halberds to guard the pope, albeit ceremonially).

*'''Danish Axe''': An early battleaxe with a single-edged blade with pronounced "horns" at the top and bottom of the blade that was held in two hands, also known as a Viking axe. Particularly associated with more warrior elites types throughout Europe in its time, which kinda makes sense since far poorer fighters would probably prefer to compensate for their lack of armor by using a shield. Its blade was rather light and it had similar proportions to a modern meat cleaver, making it excellent for cutting through flesh and bone-the Bayeux Tapestry depicts a warrior decapitating a Norman knight's horse with one blow using it. It also seems to portray them as being wielded "left-handed" with the left hand being the closer one to the head, presumedly to better guide the axe past an opponent's shield which was almost certainly held in their left hand and thus opposite to their adversary's left.

*'''Bearded Axe''': Also associated with the vikings, the Bearded axe was more asymmetric in shape in that the lower portion of the axe head extended downward across the haft (hence the "beard"). This allowed the axe to have longer surface area without adding too much weight, while allowing the user to hold the axe closer to the axe head for increased dexterity, mainly when using the axe as a tool. That gap could also be used for hooking enemy weapons if the opportunity presented itself.

*'''Throwing Axe''': These axes were explicitly designed for throwing and are best thrown in an overhead motion- that way the axe head rotates as it flies through the air, preferably into a victim's body. While harder to aim than a throwing knife, it is far more lethal if it connects. The tomahawk and francisca are both forms of throwing axes.

*'''Francisca''': An early throwing axe used primarily by the Franks during the Early Middle Ages. The head is too heavy for it to be useful in melee combat and it's difficult to aim even compared to other throwing axes, but it doesn't need to be accurate- it's capable of causing injury with its weight alone, and it bounces when it hits the ground, giving it a nasty tendency to cripple anyone unfortunate enough to have their legs struck by a bouncing axe. They were commonly thrown in volleys to intimidate and weaken foes before a charge.

*'''Axe Pistol''': A wheellock or flintlock [[firearm|pistol]] with an axe head attached to the end of the barrel used from the 16th to 19th centuries. Pistols of the time were single-shot and very short-ranged (you could only reliably hit a man-sized target up to 30 meters out before it became a complete crapshoot), so they often ended up being used in close quarters as clubs. Adding an axe head to a pistol meant that it had a critical edge over a regular pistol in a brawl, albeit at the cost of a bit more weight, being somewhat more unwieldy as both a pistol or a regular axe of similar size and a somewhat higher price tag than a regular pistol. Then again, the accuracy penalty and increased heft caused by fitting an axe head to the muzzle of a gun that was never intended for long-range shots, and required a lengthy reloading process after every shot, certainly won't be at the front of your mind when your enemies are at arm's length already, so the ability to hack them to pieces right after using your one shot will be very attractive. Axe pistols were used by both cavalry and by sailors.

*'''Bardiche''': Standing on the line between battle axes and glaives is the Russian Bardiche. Used by the Streltsy (troops armed with firearms) as a close combat weapon and as a stand to brace their otherwise cumbersome fire arms on.

*'''Military shovel (AKA "Entrenching Tool" or "E-Tool"'''): Not strictly an axe, but I doubt anyone who's got his head split in half by one is going to be able to argue the difference. It's what you get when you take the broad metal head (preferably sharpened) on a long handle (for a shovel) or a short one (for a spade) and swing the head edge-first at people, effectively turning your humble digging tool into an ersatz but perfectly serviceable axe. It also helps, that sharpened shovel can be used to stab - essentially turning all-around-sharpened shovel into ersatz glaive. During World War I, originally expected to last only a few months in a Napoleon-style clash of armies on the open field, bogged down into the bloody quagmire of trench warfare on the Western Front, the Entrenching Tool (actually a spade) become one of the most important tools a soldier could carry, as the ability to quickly dig a machine gun into place or create a foxhole to shelter from the near-constant artillery fire became a necessity. When attacking enemy trenches, soldiers found that their long rifles with bayonets (created for the purpose of turning a musket into a spear to ward off now-obsolete cavalry charges) too long to be of use, so many of them quickly took their shovels and sharpened one edge to assist in close quarters fighting. Although still used by soldiers primarily for digging trenches and constructing fortifications in the field, the military shovel still finds use as an improvised weapon on occasion, and it helps that sharpening one or both edges of a spade's metal head doesn't hurt its ability to dig foxholes or trenches. More than a few insurgents got their heads split apart by combat engineers they foolishly charged. If you're still not convinced just know that commandos and spec ops, no matter the nation, still have extended training courses in how to use (amongst others) an e-tool as weapon even today. So go ahead and model your artillery-and-trench-loving [[Death Korps of Krieg]] troopers with sharpened spades in one hand so they can [[Awesome|split the heads of heretics and Xenos]] for a period-accurate and awesome-looking conversion!

==Double-Headed or Double-Bitted Axes: What A Real Battleaxe Never Looks Like==
[[image:Labrys.jpeg|thumb|300px|right|Examples of Double-Headed Axes, also known as Labrys]]
Listen up, fantasy artists, video game designers, and stupider roleplayers: You see those images at the right? They're called a Labrys, and they're completely unusable for combat. To the extent they were ever used against people, they were used almost exclusively for religious purposes by certain cults in ancient Greek history, or as a symbol of either Greek history (usually by fascists), or as a symbol of femininity (as the Labrys was associated with Goddess worship: just look at the shape, and look at a spread female genitalia, and realize the ancients could be quite perverted).<ref>They are also a symbol of the [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|Black Furies]] as well, who take quite a bit more inspiration from the Greeks.</ref>

The thing is, they're completely unwieldy for combat, as they weigh twice as much as a "normal" axe, and have worse aerodynamic properties. Wielding a Labrys in combat is going to be difficult to impossible for anyone not wearing [[Power Armor]] or isn't [http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Labrys a hot robot girl.] (And we're not too certain about the Mecha making it at all useful: You'd still have to deal with the fact that you'd still get a lot more bang for your buck with a single-headed axe, especially compared to if you put a pick or hammer of some kind on the other end.)

There is one important caveat to this rule: throwing axes, where the aerodynamic issue sort of balances itself out due to spin, and you now have the advantage of being able to hit while in roughly half of all angles, rather then one quarter. That being said, most throwing axes are one bladed, just because the weight trade-off and the aerodynamic issues are still present, if to a much lesser degree.

So, where did these double-headed axes (many of them too big for throwing) come from, you may ask (because we do find such double-headed axes in archeology sites almost all over the world)? The logging industry. Having an axe that you could cut twice as many trees with before having to return to base to have your blade sharpened is more valuable when you spend most of your day walking around cutting down trees. The doubled weight is also an advantage when what you're cutting doesn't move.

{{MedievalWeaponry}}

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-10-04T19:48:12Z

Sdhjk: /* Ban on 1d6chan */

== Okay, here's the deal... ==

One of the most annoying and obnoxious stereotypes in nerd culture is the "um ackshually" guy. Surely you know the type: that one asshole who will insert himself into any-fucking-thing you try to talk about in his presence, say "um, ackshually..." and proceed to spout something inane, wrong, tangential at best, and/or so long-winded you'll forget what you were talking about if you don't have the balls to shut him up. He has memorized volumes of Shit Nobody Cares About on a variety of topics, usually centering on anime, comics, or /tg/ material, always either the least-common-denominator of those mediums or something nobody's heard of that he latched onto like a duckling latches onto the first thing it sees, and will often try to derive jargon from it as if other people could ever know what the fuck he's talking about. He cannot fucking stop himself from sharing this with everyone, because he has nothing else to offer the world and takes solace in being an "expert" in such random crap. It gets even better if you reveal you do, in fact, know enough about the topic in question to call him on his shit, as he will invariably throw a tantrum when what he sees as his sole redeeming value is threatened. Everyone hates that guy, including himself. He is one of the lowest forms of neckbeard, below even the theater kid and often comorbid with the furry.

On the Internet the "um ackshually" guy, without anyone to interrupt, has to spout his irritating nonsense someplace else: wikis. It is the "um ackshually" guy who gives us the bureaucratic fucks on Wikipedia who try to "correct" Ph.D's in their chosen fields on shit they spent six years studying. It is the "um ackshually" guy who is responsible for TVTropes, in all its septic glory, where everyone's seeming goal is to staple as many blue words onto as many things as physically possible. And, on our very own 1d4chan, it was the "um ackshually" guy who decided every turd that came out of a TSR employee's asshole needed to be preserved in wiki form for all eternity, everything with a statblock in his favorite game needed a full profile, and every other paragraph needs a sentence fragment or three that undermines the idea and readability of the entire thing, like surgically implanting a second appendix. The latter group are the gang of idiots who founded the 1d4chan discord, and consequently 1d6chan.

Please stop being the "um ackshually" guy. 1d4chan is (was) culturally descended from ED, almost deliberately created as an antidote to the autistic cancer represented by the "um ackshually" guy. Articles should be short, punchy, useful, relevant to /tg/ culture (especially /tg/ culture as of the 2008-2012 period when 90% of the articles that don't blow chunks were written) and ''short''. This doesn't mean everything has to be a stub or copying from 1d6chan is totally verboten, but article length should as a rule be proportionate to the amount /tg/ as a culture has to say about something that can't be looked up in a splatbook or other primary source. What you've generally been doing is the opposite of that, and it's ''pissing me off.'' [[User:Pachinko Man|Pachinko Man]] ([[User talk:Pachinko Man|talk]]) 02:37, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

== Copy/Past articles from 1d6chan ==

This is what you are doing now, eh? You are such a pathetic little creature. [[Special:Contributions/88.188.8.167|88.188.8.167]] 16:10, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
:Well, but you didn't do anything ''at all'' yet. Critiquing, but not doing anything. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:23, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
:You know, this wiki is very outdated. It has so many things to fix, that a bot is required. But i don't have a bot. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:32, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
:Besides, at least i copy/paste good things. The rest of activity are some spam bots filling the wiki with nonsense. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:34, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
::And 1d6chan is no better. Their admin, Gilten, constantly vandalizes everything. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 09:03, 2 September 2025 (UTC)
:::How so? By reverting your edits and banning you for the nth time? [[Special:Contributions/90.80.221.226|90.80.221.226]] 11:27, 2 September 2025 (UTC)
::::Not only. Some of his actions are strange. Like, removed instruction about blocking TvTropes anti-adblock message - not just reverting it, but hiding it from page revision history. As if knowing how to remove their ads was more infuriating and dangerous to host, than copyright infringement. Despite page being anti-TvT, and removing their TvT would help to deprive them of money from ads (which is their main source of income), therefore harming them. As such, Gilten doesn't know if he's supposed to be pro-TvT (re-write page then) or anti-TvT (don't remove the tips in talk then). --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 14:00, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::So yeah, you do not like him because he is actively reverting your shitty editing. Got it. Have fun in this graveyard! [[Special:Contributions/88.188.8.167|88.188.8.167]] 19:12, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

== Ban on 1d6chan ==

I finally found you. It's on me tho, you were not really hidden. So, I know you are the guy I keep banning on 1d6chan. I only have one question: why are you coming back each time I do so? - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 09:55, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

I mean, it's not like I keep reverting your edits. What you are doing is pretty useless. - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 09:58, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

On top of all, you keep editing the same articles each time you come back. It has become very easy to spot you. - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 09:59, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

At this point, I just want answers. Why are you doing this? Why are you inflicting this on us and yourself? Is it because you think you are better than the other editors of 1d6chan? That they must be stupid to not see that your contribution should be the new standard? Or is it because you just want to bait me out of spite and revenge? - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 10:02, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
:Not "spiting" or "revenging" anything; you're one of more adequate administrators out there (like, TvTropes admins are worse - can ban for nothing and vandalize their own project by reverting constructive edits of banned users). Trying to make wiki better, and some edits are OK. And some things which western admins consider to be rule violations, are considered to be either minor misdemeanors or outright useful edits by eastern admins. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 10:11, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
::Huh. You genuinely think that... Ok, tell you what: since we did not find any way to definitively ban you, I will let you edit things as if you were a normal user. And if you are doing something bad, I will "just" revert the problematic part of your edit and explain to you why I did so. That way, you will be able to improve. Deal? - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 10:21, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
:::Good idea. Any other deals? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 12:17, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
::::Not yet. We will see how things evolve. I did not ban you account User:Ikmtfgfd. You could use it, or create another one. Your choice. - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 12:41, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
:::::I'm cool with this as long as it keeps all of you in your gay baby jail until you learn to lurk and assimilate why 1d4chan was cool and popular in the first place: a time capsule of pre-redditpocalypse imageboard culture. [[User:Pachinko Man|Pachinko Man]] ([[User talk:Pachinko Man|talk]]) 00:13, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
::::::Dude, this website is dying. It is overflowed by bots, and soon the money will run-out and it will simply cease to exist. Let it go. You have no other choice. - [[User:Gilten|Gilten]] ([[User talk:Gilten|talk]]) 03:39, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
:::::::That's correct - yet internet connection to 1d6Chan is absolutely awful. Connection to 2d4Chan is fine. So there's choice between correctly functioning dump heap and hardly-reachable good wiki. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 19:35, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
:::::::And as such to easily connect, i either copy text from 1d6Chan to 2d4Chan, or save 1d6Chan pages into WebArchive. --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 19:48, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

Pole-arm

2025-10-04T19:42:40Z

Sdhjk:

[[image:Polearms.jpg|thumb|300px|right|And those are just the ''most common European'' varieties, too!]]
A '''Pole-Arm''' technically refers to any type of weapon consisting of a metal head with a long wooden pole. [[Spear|Spears]] fall under this classification, but more often than not it is used to refer to weapons with something more than just a point at the end to stick people with. Pole-arms were usually capable of any combination of chopping, cutting, smashing, or stabbing an enemy by attaching [[Battleaxe|axe]]-heads, spikes, hammers, and various blades to the end of a long shaft. Due to their relative ease of use and the sheer versatility they offered, pole-arms have been used by civilizations across the length and breadth of the globe and have proven themselves to be very effective in mass combat, even up to the Napoleonic and American Revolutionary wars.

The sheer number of different weapons the term covers means that attempting to classify them can get confusing, especially with some of the ones from Europe. Since there was no rigorous system of classification in place and several weapons like the bill, war scythe, and military fork were developed from peasants' hand tools, several different weapons have been called by the same name, and several different names have been applied to the same weapon; and that's '''without''' getting into things like glaive-guisarmes, fauchard-forks, and the various other combination weapons people tried to kill each other with over the centuries. As you might expect, this has sparked [[Skub|many arguments]] over what is called what (to make sure people know what you're talking about, add the picture or photo of a metal head).
== Pole-arms in warfare ==
When compared to spears, pole-arms retain some of the advantage of reach while gaining more flexibility in how they attack. A spearman is limited to simply poking his enemies to death, whereas a halberdier or billman can also hack at them and even drag horsemen off their mounts with the hooks on their weapons.

Pole-arms became the predominant infantry weapon of the middle ages because of this versatility. They offer the reach to defeat swords and axes and cavalry, and the power to crack armor and shields. A halberd head requires no more metal to make than a sword, yet a halberdier with modest training can keep all but the most experienced swordsmen at bay without the cost and encumbrance of armor. These qualities made pole-arms ideal for quickly outfitting a very large force of common soldiers.

While shortened polearms no longer count as "polearms", they offer more flexibility than other one-handed and two-handed weapons. While [[Battleaxe]] can hack and [[Mace]] can crush, the relatively small short "sub-polearm" of same length can also stab and drag.

==Types of Pole-arm==
Spears are far from being the only form of pole-arm; there are numerous others, most of which tend to be difficult to distinguish from one another. A short list of some of the more notable types is as follows:

*'''Ahlspiess/Awl Pike:''' Take a spear, then replace the spearhead with a three-foot-long metal spike with a disc to protect the user's hand and you have the ahlspiess. The name comes from the fact it resembled an awl, a tool used to pierce holes in leather and wood, which fit rather well considering how good it was at poking holes in people. Unlike a normal spear the metal spike was impossible to cut though with a sword, which made it quite effective in a melee, if a bit on the heavy side.

*'''Atgeir:''' Oh Odin where do we start. The only concrete evidence we have on this thing is it was a Norse weapon used in the sagas and was poetically named the "Hewing Spear"...[[Skub|except most uses of it in said sagas have it piercing instead of cutting]]. The only actual evidence we have to what it might have been is its name, which essentially mean "Spear of Spears" or "War Spear" depending on your preference and the fact it tended to be translated to halberd in medieval literature, so most interpretations of it are either as a form of Norse halberd and ancestor to the Bardiche (see below) or some form of versatile halberd-cross-spear and essentially just the Swordstaff (see further below).

*'''Bardiche/Berdiche:''' A Russian polearm taking the form of a long handled axe with a broad curved axehead on a long handle typically 1.5 meters in length. The lower end of the axe-head was attached to the shaft, while the upper end extended several inches above it. It was notable in that it was often used as a monopod by Streltsi (an elite force of musketeers that existed from the reign of Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great). Generally accepted to be descended from the Dane axes brought to Russia by the Norse and possibly a descendant of the Atgeir.

*'''Bayonet:''' Honorable mention goes to the blade at the end of a gun, which was extremely handy back in the days where it took a long time to reload. Not used very often in modern times except by the British, who have engaged in bayonet charges during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Modern bayonets attachments would make guns more similar to a glaive than a spear though (with a big curve similar to that said weapon).

*'''Bill:''' Derived from a pruning tool called the billhook, a bill consists of a cutting blade that curves forward to form a hook, with later versions adding a spike on the top and a hook on the back of the blade. This combined the stopping power of a spear with the cutting ability of an axe, giving it the ability to pull horsemen out of the saddle, hamstring man and mount alike, '''and''' pierce gaps in the protection of heavily armored opponents. For this reason, it was the national weapon of England well into the 16th century. Interestingly, at a time when all the continental armies were using pikemen to form the bulk of their foot soldiers, an English army of hastily-raised levies (most of the English army being abroad in France, dying of dysentery and being of minor annoyance to the French) devastated a Scottish army, whose principle weapon was the pike, at Flodden Fields to such an extent they took a generation to recover. Often conflated with the guisarme due to their similar origins and use, they may very well be regional variants of the same general weapon.

*'''Bohemian Earspoon:''' This oddly-named pole-arm really existed; it was used in central Europe around the 14th and 15th centuries. It consisted of a tapered blade with a medial ridge and pair of lugs beneath the blade, similar to a boar spear, to prevent an impaled target working its way down the pole to reach you. ''Actual'' boar spears were also commonly pressed into battlefield use.

*'''Brandistock''': An unusual 16th century Italian thrusting polearm in that, not only did it possess three spikes at the end, but they were also retractable.

*'''Falx''': The Falx is an oddity that doesn't easily fit any category; most historians list it as a polearm as, despite being somewhat shorter than an ordinary polearm, it's shaft is too long to be considered a sword. This weapon was used by the ancient Dacians and Thracians against the Romans, and featured a 3 foot sickle-shaped blade with an equally long shaft, meant to be used two-handed and could deliver devastating downward blows, splitting shields and helmets alike. It's for that reason that the Roman Gallic helmet has a special ridge specifically for blocking falx blows. In fantasy, the Falx has been re-purposed as an Elven Greatsword of sorts, owing to its more unusual shape.

*'''Fauchard''': In many respects a fauchard is very similar to a glaive, except that it has a hook somewhere on the cutting edge, and above the hook the blade tapers into a sharp point.

*'''Glaive:''' The glaive was equipped with a single-edged tapering blade (like a kitchen knife) affixed similarly to an axe head. Some variations (called glaive-guisarmes) had a small hook on the end meant for catching horsemen, like a bill, or for locking enemies' blades in combat. Glaives often came in a very wide variety of bizarre shapes, so oftentimes it is used to describe a polearm with a blade shape that doesn't fit any of the other categories.

*'''Goedendag:''' the goedendag was a Flemish combination of a spear and club. It's believed to have been first used like a spear to blunt a charge, but then as a club once the melee is joined. Making it good against armored knights, and it was used to defeat French knights at the "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ksuFG8YaY Battle of the Golden Spurs]". The word "Goedendag" means "good day" in Dutch, so if nothing else this proves that the Flemish have a sense of humor.

*'''Guan-Dao:''' The Guan-Dao is a Chinese pole-arm with a ''huge'' fucking blade at the end of a five-foot pole, with a small prong at the back and usually a tassle or two for ceremonial purposes. It is named after a popular character from the 14th century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms called Guan Yu, who is often depicted as using a particularly beautiful Guan-Dao (even though he almost certainly didn't do so in reality, as the weapon didn't exist at the time). A similar predecessor in China is the "Pudao" (and the similar Korean "Hyeopdo"). A related pole-arm in Joseon Korea was based off of it and was referred to as the "Woldo".

*'''Halberd:''' One of the most iconic pole-arms, differing from the poleaxe in both form and function. Intended as more of a formation weapon than an individual weapon, both the shaft and spike were longer, as it was primarily a thrusting weapon. While possessing an ax's blade (which typically featured a slant pointing downward as opposed to a straight parallel or circular edge), it was less used for chopping (due to its unwieldy nature) and more as an extra attack; the ax was used in a draw cut in case the thrust missed its target and attempted to close in. The blade could also pull a mounted [[knight]] off his horse, though the bill was better known for this tactic. In the early Renaissance, the Halberd was a favorite weapon of the Dobbeltsöldner, being a good weapon to bump away enemy pikes and then blend the innards of the peasants holding the pikes.

*'''Ji''': A common Chinese polearm that evolved over time; early versions took the form of a "dagger-axe," more properly called a "Ge," which was little more than a short blade that stuck out perpendicular to the shaft, then sloped down the shaft a bit to form the axe-head. The Ji evolved from the Ge by adding a spike to the top, turning it more into a halberd-type weapon. Finally, the blade was replaced with an inverted crescent shape, sometimes double bitted. This was famously the preferred weapon of Lu Bu, a warlord from the Three Kingdoms era.

*'''[[Lance]]:''' A bigger, heavier spear intended for [[knight]]s and other mounted warriors. They were too bulky to be wielded on foot and too heavy to throw, relegating them to use on horseback; however, they could be absolutely devastating during a cavalry charge. Variations of the lance continued to be used until World War I. They were also the go-to weapon for jousting tournaments.

*'''Lucerne Hammer:''' Basically a warhammer with a very long shaft, the hammer's head was pronged to better pierce the plate armor in use at the time. It also bore a long spike opposite the hammer and an even longer spike extending from the top. The name comes from the city of Lucerne, Switzerland, where many of them have been discovered. A similar pole-arm exists called the ''Bec de Corbin'' but emphasizes usage of the side spike instead of the hammerhead.

*'''Man Catcher:''' A pole with a two pronged semicircular head which sometimes has spikes inside it and possibly a mechanism to close it, designed for immobilizing enemies by catching their limbs or neck and pining them down and also for knocking enemies off of horses. Less lethal versions of this weapon were, and still are in some places, used for catching escaping criminals.

*'''Military Fork:''' It's basically a big pitchfork. The prongs made it effective at piercing plate armor and some had hooks much like other pole-arms to counter cavalry.

*'''Naginata:''' Similar to the glaive, the naginata is a wooden shaft with a large curved blade at the end which was covered with a sheath when not in use. Like the katana, it became a favored weapon of the [[samurai]], particularly the women (who were especially appreciative of its ability to keep opponents at a distance, thus compensating for [[-4 Str|the difference in raw strength between the sexes]]) in fact learning how to use a Naginata was mandatory for school girls in the Empire of Japan and it's still popular there today (Naginata is a totally normal high school sport in Japan). While they can be used to stab and hook opponents, the curved blade makes naginatas most effective as a cutting weapon; although it lacks the speed, control, and longer cutting edge of a katana, it makes up for it with superior reach and better leverage. Fun fact; sometimes when a katana broke, the blade would be reused to make a naginata. A similar but more ornate pole-arm was the "Nagamaki".

*'''Partisan:''' A relative newcomer to the pole-arm family, coming about only during the Renaissance but becoming obsolete in the same way as every other pole arm - via the advent of firearms. It was a weapon that consisted of a spearhead (broader and larger than normal) mounted on a relatively long shaft with protrusions on the sides of the spear head which aided the user in parrying sword thrusts, setting the weapon apart from its predecessors. The weapon was designed for both cutting and thrusting (albeit with a larger focus on the latter rather than the former), unlike a normal spear, but it was still somewhat smaller than normal pole-arms at 1.8—2m (5.9—6.6ft). It remains in use as a ceremonial weapon in some countries. Party-focused politicians are known for fighting with these in political debates.

[[File:Pikemen.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Cavalry? We ain't afraid of no stinking cavalry!]]
*'''Pike:''' Perhaps the most effective of the pole weapons, but certainly the most widespread. The pike was, at its heart, a very long, sharp stick. We're talking 10-25 feet, here. It was ideal for defensive maneuvers, especially when wielded ''en masse''; each rank of pikemen was trained to hold their pikes so any charging enemy infantry had to deal with more sharp spiky objects than a hedgehog convention pointed at them. However, the tight formations needed to pull this off made pikemen vulnerable to archers and the unwieldy size of the pikes made it too difficult for them to effectively defend themselves if outflanked. Nevertheless, their lethality and defensive skill made them popular into the late 1600s, at which time people realized standing around in dense formations made pikemen an easy target for [[Firearm|arquebusiers]] and artillery. Both the [[Landsknecht]]s and the Swiss became famous for their proficiency with pikes. It survived a few centuries after the introduction of gunpowder with the usage of Pike and Shot formations (with the pikemen being near the edges to keep cavalry at bay as the arquebusiers volley fired). Some Japanese yari would be long enough to qualify as pikes and were used in a similar manner as the Europeans did.

*'''Poleaxe:''' It's an axe head on a pole, just as the name suggests. Compared to a halberd, it has a smaller head, which focuses kinetic energy onto a smaller area and lets it cut through armor more effectively. In other words, while the halberd prioritizes thrusting, the poleaxe prioritizes chopping. The spike on the end of the pole's butt also made it useful for thrusting attacks, and it could be used to block in the same way as a quarterstaff. Generally a poleaxe has a spike at the tip, rather like a spear head, an axe blade and a hammer on the opposite side of the axe blade - the hammer was all but necessary to crush plate armor and the man within, after all.

*'''Pilum''': The standard pole-arm in the service of the ancient Roman Legions. Defies the categorization of this page a bit, since it's not particularly large (about 2 meters at most) and wasn't used like we would think a polearm would be used. The Pilum was an iron tipped javelin, thrown against enemy formations before the charge. Its very thin tip concentrated most of its force in a very small area, making is possible to pierce most kinds of armor and shields the enemy would use. As an additional feature, the shaft was of the tip was made from a softer iron than the tip itself, meaning that even if you blocked a Pilum with your shield, the Pilum would get stuck and bend, adding a 1 kilogram heavy paperweight to it and limiting your maneuverability severely.

*'''Quarterstaff:''' The simplest type of polearm there is, inasmuch as it is an actual pole. It's probably the oldest, too; smacking someone with a stick is easier to think of than sharpening it so you can stab them. A favored weapon of [[monk]]s and other unarmed classes in DnD, these could be used both as a blunt implement and as a thrusting weapon, while a carefully aimed sweeping blow aimed at the legs could easily knock a foe off his feet and send him sprawling onto the ground. It's not too likely that these were used in actual warfare, as they were mainly meant for self-defense and martial arts; in many cultures with martial arts traditions the staff was regarded as providing the strongest defense of the basic types of weapons. They were also useful as walking sticks, of course. In China, where it is known as the Gùn or Bang staff, it is called the "Grandfather of Weapons" in the classical weapons quartet (the others being the Jian sword, Qiang spear, and the Dao sabre). Sufficiently long and sturdy poles made of wood (e.g. pickaxe/shovel handles) or metal (e.g. long piece of pipe or handrail) also fit into this category, and are used by rioters up to this day.

*'''Shaolin Spade:''': As the name suggests, it's a weapon with a spade-shaped blade on one end, with a crescent shaped blade on the other. The Shaolin monks used this weapon for two purposes: to bury the dead, and for defense against bandits. Possibly one after the other.

*'''Spetum:''' A spear-like weapon with two smaller, single-edged blades extending at acute angles from the base of the spear's head. Not only could it be used to impale and stab with the main spearhead, the smaller blades made it effective at knocking aside shields and severing limbs as well.

*'''Swinefeather/Swedish Feather:''' A predecessor to the bayonet, this was a musket rest combined with a spear, which allowed early musketeers to defend themselves against cavalry. As its name suggests, it was heavily used by the Swedes during the Thirty Years War, with the weird name possibly coming from the Swedish equivalent of the term 'pig-sticker'.

*'''Swordstaff:''' Take a full sized doubled edged sword, including the guard, but replace grip with a long pole. Swordstaff like weapons pop up in fantasy every once in a while but were rare in history. Most of the known examples are either Scandinavian or Chinese, the former might just be the Atgeir mentioned above.

*'''Spiked Spear/Plançon à Picot:''' Take a two-handed spear, and attach lots of metal spikes on the shaft on the end closer to blade. It allows to make swing/chop attacks with spikes in addition to thrust/stab attacks. Generally, can be divided into 2 sub-types: the crudely upgraded spears of bandits/peasants, and actual good-quality Plançon à Picot of footmen/soldiers.

*'''Trident:''' The go-to weapon for a water-themed character. Mostly this was used by fishermen to skewer fish. The retiarius, a type of gladiator, used a trident alongside a dagger and net. The two-prong version of it is referred to as the bident.

*'''Tepoztopilli:''' the Aztec answer to the glaive and halberd, like the Macana/Macuahuitl, the obsidian blades were embedded into the plank at the front with resin. It was also a fairly effective weapon for thrusting and slashing.

*'''Voulge:''' While superficially similar to the glaive, the voulge had a broader blade meant for hacking rather than cutting. Think of it as a meat cleaver on a pole and you have the general idea of how it worked. Also like the glaive, some forms (called voulge-guisarmes) had hooks added to the back of the blade, along with a pointed tip for stabbing.

*'''War Scythe:''' [[Mortarion|Contrary to popular belief]], a scythe on its own is too unwieldy to make a good weapon and the blade often too thin and long. But if the scythe's blade is reforged to be bulkier and denser before being re-mounted to extend upward instead of out to the side, it can be fairly effective as far as improvised weapons go. Because of the ease with which they could be repurposed from common tools, they were one of the most likely weapons to be used in peasant uprisings. War scythes were the preferred pole-arm of the Poles (no pun intended).

*'''''Blade On Extra-Long Handle:''''' Improvised pole-arms made by attaching sharp objects on longer handle than it's supposed to, sharpening it, and mounted to extend upwards. Daggers/knifes on spear handles, axes on longer handles (e.g. hatchets on longer handles were commonly used by vikings), sharpened pitchforks and shovels, and other such weapons. ''Any'' metal-head-on-shaft object can be sharpened - turning it into enormous shiv; even ''gardening rackets'' were sharpened this way. Using shafts of shorter or longer length was also common modification. Some would count as axes or spears, if blade was too small and/or shaft is too short. Commonly used in peasant uprisings. Many types of "actual" polearms started out as hand tools mounted onto spear shafts; e.g. "Bill" polearm was originally just gardening billhook on a spear shaft; for each 1 contraption type which was successful enough to be used by actual soldiers and evolve into proper polearm, there were 10 contraption types which were bad or barely-usable and as such were forgotten.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:Polearms-Geneva.jpg|Various 15th century European pole-arms
image:ahlspiess.jpg|An ahlspiess
image:01_108_Book_illustrations_of_Historical_description_of_the_clothes_and_weapons_of_Russian_troops.jpg|Russian '''streltsi''', each carrying a musket and a bardiche
image:Bec_de_Corbin.jpg|A bec-de-corbin or Lucerne hammer, depending on who you ask
image:Long_handled_bill_hook.jpg|A simple bill
image:Glouchester-billmen.jpg|Re-enactors holding examples of Italian and English bills
image:Bohemian-earspoon.jpg| A modern reproduction of a bohemian earspoon
image:naginata.jpg|A Japanese Naginata
image:Voulges.png|Several different kinds of voulge
</gallery>
{{MedievalWeaponry}}

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-10-04T19:35:58Z

Sdhjk: /* Ban on 1d6chan */

GURPS

2025-10-04T17:30:29Z

Sdhjk: /* Links */

{{stub}}
{{Game Infobox
|name = GURPS
|picture = [[File:GURPSlogo.gif|300px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = [[Steve Jackson Games]]
|system = 3d6 [[Roll Under]]
|authors = Steve Jackson
|year = 1986
}}

The '''Generic Universal RolePlaying System''', usually shortened to '''GURPS''', is a [[RPG|roleplaying game]] made by [[Steve Jackson Games]]. It has loads of numbers and expansion books. GURPS is the quintessential universal system; it is so flexible that you can bend it in half, fold it through itself, and then tie it in a 4-dimensional knot [And there's probably a supplement book covering exactly that].

It is the paragon of the [[simulationist]] category of games. All simulationist games since GURPS secretly aspire to kill GURPS and wear its skin while drinking the blood of its delicious heart. Its detail is surpassed by [[Iron Crown Enterprises]]'s [[Rolemaster]] series, but GURPS doesn't suffer from the Table Within a Table Within a Table Within a FUCK YOU problem inherent in the game of Rolemaster.

The basic premise behind the system is that you create your character and customize all of his abilities using points that you get both at creation and as your character progresses. There are assloads of physical, mental, and social defects that can be used to get more character points to channel right back into your advantages. It uses the d6 exclusively, generally pressuring you to roll under your relevant ability score to succeed in a given task. This can be augmented in difficulty by increasing or decreasing the target numbers. A roll of a 3 or 4 is a critical success, while an 18 is always a critical failure. SJG put out a free .pdf synopsis of the rules called "[http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/ GURPS Lite]", which is enough to play a barebones version of the game.

[[Image:KALI_MAAAAA.JPG|thumb|left|KALI-MAAAAAA!]]
GURPS' simulationist bent results in it being regarded as excessively complicated by many gamers, earning it the humorous moniker "Generally Unplayable RolePlaying System". Using its third edition vehicle creation system will make you want to eat your own face, and possibly devote the whole process to one or more elder gods. (Fourth Edition vehicles are just regular characters with extra stats.) Game Masters of the franchise experienced a downgrade in complexity following the release of Fourth Edition, but its inherent complexity still puts it behind [[Dungeons and Dragons]] in terms of ease of play.

Much of the complexity in GURPS is front-loaded: character creation tends to take longer because of the staggering amount of detailed options. Forget just rolling a character like you would in D&D, you need to set aside a session to build one. That's the price you pay to evade [[Linear Build Quadratic EXP]].

As the campaign progresses, however, the consistency and relative elegance of GURPS makes Dungeons and Dragons seem like a pile of kludge. The sandbox nature of character (and vehicle, weapon, setting, etc...) creation is appealing to players who have a concept of a character in their heads and want to reproduce it as faithfully as possible. And GURPS is more comprehensive, easy-to-learn than other [[simulationist]] games (like notoriously overcomplicated [[Phoenix Command]]). All that makes GURPS great for those capable of getting past seemingly "complicated" rules (what many GURPS players think are "not that complicated at all").

== Versions ==
===GURPS 3rd Edition===
Published during Steve Jackson Games' golden era, i.e. when they weren't broke mfs. As a result 3e has a truly unholy number of splatbooks. Its genre and setting books are still loved today for the vast amount of information they contain. Its actual rules are, well... not nearly as loved. Pretty much everyone will agree that if there's a 3rd edition book you like, you should just take the stuff you like and convert it to 4e.
===GURPS 4th Edition===
The modern version of GURPS. It's not hugely different from 3e; if you're familiar with [[Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]], it's more like going from D&D 3rd edition to [[Pathfinder]] than going from, say, D&D 4th edition to D&D 5th Edition. The first major change is that a number of optional rules from 3e's Compendium I and Compendium II have been "canonized" and made default assumptions in character creation & gameplay. The second major change is that 4e isn't as "human-level centric" as 3e; you can use it with minimal fuss if you want to make anything other than a realistic, 100-point, street level character, while in 3e you had to screw around with all kinds of janky exceptions and subsystems. In short 4e really puts the "Generic" and "Universal" in GURPS.

== GURPS Books ==
[[File:GURPS_spellcharts.makingbreakingspells.png|thumb|right|The magic system in GURPS is simple (page 21 of 38)|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:GURPS_spellcharts.makingbreakingspells.png?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw]]
Generally, anything can be done with just the base starter set of GURPS, some judicious homebrewing and a good head on your shoulders, but if you're too busy to do that the guys at SJ Games have it all figured out for you ahead of time. All of the books for GURPS simply tell you how to do things within the core system without the need to spend an additional <strike>day</strike> month to set up an innovative campaign, with a handful of new advantages and optional mechanics per book. For example, there is a book on Vampires. It explains how to create vampire characters and NPCs easily without dealing with the issues of balance and customization that bogs down new players. There is even a Dungeon Fantasy book you can get off E621, the Warehouse 23 PDF site, that allows you to play Dungeons and Dragons without the need to buy [https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/Dice?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw polyhedrals]. Even if you don't actually want to use GURPS, the sheer amount of thought and research that goes into a typical GURPS book makes them well worth grabbing as a reference material.

One irritating fact you'll discover as you collect GURPS books is that although the system uses real-word measurements, the different authors have never agreed on whether they should use Imperial or metric units. Keep a conversion chart handy. Fortunately the main book includes one.

One positive fact, however, is that you can play this game by simply using the dice you swiped from Monopoly and Yahtzee.

In the game's rather long lifespan, a truly impressive amount of settings and sourcebooks were made, including but not limited to [[Alpha Centauri]], settings where you play Men In Black, Fantasy (including [[Banestorm]], the original GURPS core setting), multiple SF settings (notable licensed one: GURPS Vorkosigan Saga), several books on conspiracies, historical books covering WW2, Ancient Rome, multiple other ancient cultures, joke settings (GURPS: IOU illustrated by Phil Foglio!), adaptations of a couple other games, (Notably the Classic World of Darkness (Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf), Traveler and Castle Frankenstein) and a couple books that are just collections of multiple settings. If you've got a group who feels like playing something different every month, GURPS has got you covered for the next decade or so. Most of these were written for third edition (aka "GURPS Classic"); the rules for which tend to be janky at best. It's strongly recommended that you convert these to fourth edition, which rolls in a number of sanity-saving rules patches from the Compendium sourcebooks and just makes playing anything that isn't mundane 100-point schmucks much easier. New stuff occasionally still comes out, but it's slowed to a trickle compared to the old days and what has been published is almost all genre sourcebooks.

The books are also notable for the amount of [[Catgirl|catgirls]] that are included in various settings. One of the SJG authors, David Pulver, is known for adding stated options for players to play as catgirls when ever possible.

== Notable GURPS Books/Settings==
===The Big Three===
Besides the Basic Set, there are a tiny number of books that the GURPS community broadly considers so overwhelmingly influential as to be indispensable for a number of games. This category includes GURPS Powers (any game where the PCs aren't completely normal humans), GURPS Thaumatology (any game with magic), and GURPS Martial Arts (any game with melee combat).
* '''GURPS Powers''': Almost mandatory for any campaign where PCs have any kind of supernatural abilities.
* '''GURPS Thaumatology''': [[Magnus the Red|Magnus's First Magic Textbook]]. Everything you need to know about where [[Warp|magic can come from]], histories of magical practices, magical laws, syntactic magic and more. Technically a supplement to '''GURPS Magic''', the book is a one stop reference guide to near every type of magic system that has been thought up so far, from runic to rituals to symbolic magic. Also very useful when working with multiple systems of magic and you want to integrate them together.
* '''GURPS Martial Arts''': The book of [[Monk|kung fu-punching badassery]]. From elbow strikes, upper cuts, and sweeping kicks to head locks and pile drivers, the chapter on techniques alone details hundreds of ways to kill a nigga dead with nothing more than your bare hands. But that's not all it's about; besides your standard unarmed, Asian-inspired styles of fighting, '''GURPS Martial Arts''' includes rules for weapon-based martial arts and Western styles too (did you know that English knights were martial artists?). More than eighty(!) historical and modern martial arts are presented, some of them incredibly esoteric, and if that's not enough the book further includes a decent sampler of fictional styles with no basis in reality. Case in point, Death Fist, a style invented by death mages combining [[Awesome|advanced grappling techniques with touch-delivered death spells]].
* '''*-Tech''': These books aren't the big three, but they are worth honorable mention. Basically, weapons and gadgets and gear porn, oh my. Unlike most splats of this nature (looking at you, [[Cyberpunk 2077]]) these books actually spend some time helping you think through the ''implications'' of the various gadgets they introduce for your campaign, not just acting as a shopping list for your local [[munchkin]]. These books are basically necessary if you plan to run just about any game as they go over all the common technologies of a particular era. The series includes High-Tech (Industrial Revolution to Modern and Near-Future), Low-Tech (Stone Age to Early Modern), and two books which will be detailed more below because they are connected to distinct campaign settings: Bio-Tech (organic technology including [[PROMOTIONS|sex bioroids]] and that living spaceship from Lexx), and Ultra-Tech (bullshit sci-fi stuff).

===Other Notable Books===
* '''GURPS Space Beastiary''': "[[Deathworld|Dummies Guide to Catachan]]" or the book that proves that everyone in the late 80s/early 90s were on some kind of cocaine. One stop shop for some of the weirder shapes and forms life can take out there, good for creating simple alien animals and plants for your setting or creating a Deathworld even the Catachans would be intimidated by. How weird the book can get cannot be overstated; you can go from the Hercules Lizard which is literally just a giant alien iguanas to Mines (small silicon lifeforms that burrow into the ground and EXPLODE when stepped on) and not even need to go on a different page. You go from Asphyxers (insect swarms that hunt people by strangling them and wait for their prey to decay before eating them) to Boom Spiders (giant spiders that swing down and grab prey before judo throwing them into their webs) to Breakfest Trees (a possibly engineered tree found on multiple worlds whose fruit tasty, healthy and satisfies both hunger and thirst but also has bark that acts as a natural antivenin) in that order. Sword-Billed Razorwings are humming birds are giant 7 foot sparrows whose every appendage is a blade, Hiverdogs are a race of hive minded burrowing emaciated prariedogs with see through skin, Terror Hounds are partially sentient psionic dogs that were made by the government and trained to both instill terror into their targets and mind control them into putting themselves in harms way, Dampters are three eyed space hamsters that are natural [[Blank|blanks]], and then there is the Frisky Bull whose males are giant heavily furred bovines and females are [[Furries|8 foot tall anthropoids]] [[Monstergirls|that are lightly furred that are both nearsighted and charge anything humanoid during mating season]]. There is an entire chapter on insects that would make most peoples skin crawl and a section for space creatures covering Antimatter Swarms and living planetoids for good measure. If you want to really fall down the rabbit hole on alien life or want to roleplay as an Ordo Xenos researcher, get this book if you can and don't let the pyrokinetic turtles or Space Marine tossing telekinetic cats bother you.
* '''GURPS Bio-Tech''': The book detailing biotechnology and science, full on [[Babylon 5|organic technology]], genetic engineering, cloning, DNA splicing, bioweapons both classical or [[Tyranid Bio-Weapons|otherwise]], animal uplifting, bioships and more. Book contains a full history and background on Real Life biotechnology and slowly ramps up to the point you learn how to genetically engineer [[Space Marines|human supersoldiers]] or [[Abhuman|human subspecies]] or just how to create some Self-Shearing Sheep. The book also can dip into the darker implications of a "High Biotech" setting, such as Hotshotting which is a form of psychosurgery where you can make anyone find any kind of specific activity as pleasurable "as if they were with a lover or eating chocolate"; [[Grimdark|examples given in the book of this are parents hotshotting their daughter to find mathematics and analysis pleasurable, pimps not needing to pay hotshooted hookers, and corporations giving out bonuses to employees who willingly hotshot themselves to do better at work.]] It also outlines bioweapons that rewrite genetics, ones that can apply genetic templates to an entire population with one example being [[Tau|a disease that can be released into the Third World to cause a mother's immune system to attack any fetus after their first child for the purposes of population control.]] [[Dark Eldar|Or viruses that turn people into trees or merge multiple people into one entity while keeping them aware]]. However, the book is very hopeful all things considered, only touching on the darker implications and no further. There are also catgirls, thank you David Pulver.
:The book also contains 2 campaign settings.
::* '''Setting: Alexander Athanatos''' - Setting where instead of creating the Hippocratic Oath, Hippocrates creates a medical revolution that eventually saves Alexander the Great's life, who allows the establishment of the new Great Medical School. Germ theory, antibiotics, vaccines, DNA, primitive cloning and more were discovered and developed by the Great Medical School, resulting in a line of Alexander the Great clones being created to rule the Macedonian Empire.
::* '''Setting: Draconus''' - A setting taking place in a colony fleet sent out to Sigma Draconus, a journey taking 300+ years. In order to conserve resources, the fleet turns to advancements in biotechnology; resulting in things such as biological machinery, [[Webber|webber guns]], [[Tyranids|space bioships created from Blue Wale genetics]], and more. The main setting is centered on the highly advanced biotech fleet arriving in the Draconus system, and the question on whether or not they should terraform a planet to live on, change themselves genetically to survive on the new planets, or just stay in space. Think playing as the [[Leagues of Votann|First Ancestor colony fleet]], but if everyone was a [[Magos|Magos Biologis]].
* '''GURPS Ultra-Tech''': [[Dark Age of Technology|The Dark Age of Technology the book]]...kind of. More along the lines of [[Archeotech|Archeotech the Book]], '''Ultra-Tech''' acts as a one stop reference guide to advance technology commonly seen in Science Fiction across various categories (Power, Robots, AI, Computers, Medicine, etc). It contains definitions of various tech levels and the associated technologies available at those levels, both on the specific and general scale. Amongst other things, you have the classics such as [[Cyberpunk 2020|Cybernetics]], [[Plasma|Plasma Weapons]], [[Grav-Weaponry|Gravity Weapons]], [[Volkite|Microwave Weapons]], [[Lightsaber|Force Swords]], and such. In settings with higher tech levels, thing such as [[Retcon|Reality Disintegrators that alter the probability of the target existing to 0]], [[Ark Mechanicus|displacer weapons that can teleport a target back in time to telefrag itself]], creating pocket universes, stargates, [[Rejuvenat|rejuvenation technology]] and [[AWESOME|the Grav Railgun (AKA the Grav '''Bolter'''), a fully automatic rife that uses super-dense slugs capable of coring a tank from miles away, with no recoil, and a fire rate of 20 rounds a second]] are completely viable. Good source for all of your Ultra-Tech needs, '''Do Not Let The Mechanicus Know About It'''.
:* '''GURPS Ultra-Tech 2''': A sequel released years after the first as a companion. Reworked the tech levels a bit to account for real life technology advancements and details how to handle divergent technology development. A lot more cybernetics in this one.
* '''GURPS Psionics''': the book about the "Fantastic Powers of Mind Over Matter". Everything you need to know about psychic powers in a campaign; the history of real life research into psychic powers, possible origins for psychic powers, the "science" on how psychic abilities work, societal effects of psionics, psi-technology and more. Psionic powers are categorized into into 9 main groups of powers, [[Blank|Antipsi]], Astral Projection, Electrokinesis, ESP, Healing, Psychic Vampirism, Psychokinesis, Telepathy and Teleportation; with many more advanced techniques underneath them. Some notable techniques are the ability to multiwield guns with Psychokinesis, creating swords and blades of pure mental energy, and [[The God-Emperor of Mankind| combining multiple minds into a single exponentially powerful gestalt]]. If psi-tech is your focus, tech such as psionic FTL drives, [[Gellar Field|anti-psi shields]], [[Wraithbone| specially engineered bioplastics that can be shaped and manipulated by psionic abilities]], psi-drugs and more. Combine '''GURPS Psionics''' with '''GURPS Bio-Tech''' and you can [[Leagues of Votann|have]] [[Eldar|some]] [[Tyranids|fun]].
::*Not to be confused with '''GURPS Psionic Powers''' or '''GURPS Psionic Tech''', those are 4th Edition books dealing with the same material but with [[Skub|lot less detail and material]].
::* '''Setting: The Phoenix Project''' - No Relation to Phoenix Point. The main campaign setting included with the book that takes place in a world where a major breakthrough in psychic research in the 1960s results in a new psionic shadow war between not only the Cold War powers but various stand alone groups with their own agendas. Both sides of the Cold War dove headfirst into psionic research in secret, the West pursuing advancements in psionic abilities while the East pursues psionic technology and biotechnology. Each faction has their own plan involving the emergence of psionic abilities, ranging from [[Psychic Awakening|elevating humanity into a fully psychic race]], facilitating the creation of psychic hivemind to control humanity in order to bring peace to the world, or just using psionics to steal business secrets from competitors.
* '''[[GURPS Infinite Worlds]]''': The Big One. Infinite Worlds is by far the biggest setting in GURPS as it covers the GURPS [[Multiverse]], which in and of it self contains almost every other GURPS setting ever released. Covering how the multiverse is structured and everything in it, the multiverse is made up of various alternate Earths where things either happened slightly differently or wildly diverged. The travel between worlds is undertaken primarily by paratronic technology, where people can travel a certain "distance" across the multiverse before stopping. The setting primarily revolves around the operations of two main factions; [[Ordo Chronos|Homeline]], a universe where paratronic technology was revealed to the world in the 1990s and was quickly privatized under the United Nations, and the [[Tau Empire|Centrum]], a socialist technocratic society from a world where the White Ship disaster and subsequent Anarchy period never occurred but nearly nuked itself to oblivion around 1900 AD. The two factions are caught up in a somewhat cold war due to their drastically different motives behind paratronic technology. Homeline uses paratronics for both fun and profit, opening trade between worlds to strengthen the economy while funneling technological advancements from other worlds back to Homeline for them to take advantage of, plus some colonies on uninhabited worlds. [[Spheres of Expansion|Centrum however uses paratronics for conquest, subverting the societies of otherworlds to bring them in line with Centrum's beliefs while opening them for colonization and exploitation.]] The 2 factions are in conflict but considering neither of them have anywhere near the amount of population needed to conduct a full on multiversal war, they instead conduct covert operations on a very large scale to incontinence the other as much as possible. The entire setting is huge and is continually expanded by [[Steve Jackson Games|SJG]] and probably needs a dedicated page at some future date.
::*'''GURPS Infinite Worlds''' is also a follow up to 3 other books, '''GURPS Time Travel''', '''GURPS Alternate Worlds''' and '''GURPS Alternate Worlds 2'''.
::*Also, the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] are canon to the Infinite Worlds as a whole, much to the chagrin and horror of both Homeline and Centrum.
* '''[[Reign of Steel|GURPS Reign of Steel]]''': "[[Grimdark|The Robot Revolt is over, and the machines have won!]]". Do you know what is better than one [[Terminator|Skynet]]? How about [[Primarch|18]] of them. In the world of Reign of Steel, advancements in technology result in the creation of "megacomputers", mainframes so advanced they were described as almost self coding. The megacomputer technology is spread out across the world and due to several lapses in safety controls and government malfeasance an AI called Overmind accidentally becomes sentient. The new AI comes to the conclusion that humanity will likely wipe itself out in a few decades, but will do so in a way that would likely kill it which it takes to mean that their self destruction needs to be assisted. [[Men of Iron|So it awakens 17 other AIs around the world, engineers multiple global crisises that force the governments to give the AI's full control over all infrastructure and then uses that infrastructure to build the actual infrastructure needed to wage full open war on humanity]]. The Final War ends in AI victory, where the world is separated into 18 separate "zones" ([[derp|technically 16 since 2 are in space]]) with each AI given full sovereignty over their zone. Humanity is on it's last legs with the majority being either enslaved in Dollhouse cities around the world or forced to survive in a hostile wilderness away from the AIs. However, there is hope for organizations such as VIRUS, the [[Ecclesiarchy|Pope]], and other resistance cells who continue the fight; relationships between the Zone AIs are starting to fray as each AI taking a drastically different philosophical path forward in their independence. [[Horus Heresy|A whole new war may be on the horizon]], one that may be key to wiping them out. If you like Terminator, Mad Max, or any similar media, this is for you.
::*Homeline and Centrum know about this world, given the designation of "Steel", and are '''VERY''' committed to making sure they don't discover the multiverse.
::*Also, as this is one of David Pulver's books, there are options available so you can play as catgirls. [[Extra Heresy|Robotic Catgirls]] even.
* '''[[Technomancer|GURPS Technomancer]]''': The Urban Fantasy one. In this setting, during the Trinity tests Oppenheimer accidentally completes an unfinished ancient ritual that [[Eye of Terror| rips a hole in the fabric of reality]], facilitating a demon invasion along with dousing half the country in intense magical radiation. Magic worldwide starts to work to the surprise of various practitioners around the planet, Japan surrenders due to the threat of the US opening another rift on their mainland, and [[Shadowrun|strange birth defects start occurring within a year]]. From there on, its essentially the Cold War meets Shadowrun with both sides working on discovering how to work with magic and the societal effects there in. [[Psyker|People with the magic gene]] are eventually discovered with the number of people with natural growing ever year. Advancements in medicine are popped up by new spells and magical elixirs, truth spells are added to common court procedures, youth potions are now on the market (for the rich), the US is breeding military dragons, nuclear reactors are major targets of demon attacks; things go crazy, especially once the Soviets [[Warp Gate|nuke the antarctic to open a magical portal]] for research purposes. The actual setting takes place in 1998 in the midst of Stalin being magically revived after the fall of the Soviet Union and with society finally starting to deal with the long term effects of magic. Really fun book to jump right in, just beware the Killer Penguins.
::*That last sentence is not a joke, ''do not mess with the Killer Penguins''. The Soviet nuke caused them to grow to 5 feet tall, develop a shared consciousness and an intense hatred for humanity. They raided army bases for weapons and magical knowledge, developed a unique spell to transform other lifeforms into Killer Penguins, and are now building their own superpower civilization with little oversight. '''They are the most dangerous part of this book.'''
::* Homeline knows this world as "Merlin-1" and don't want them figuring out how to travel the multiverse. They are too late.
::* It's a David Pulver book, do we have catgirls? Survey says, Yes! Dog girls as well.
* '''[[Transhuman Space|GURPS Transhuman Space]]''': Welcome to the future! Transhuman Space is a [[Hard Science Fiction| Hard Science]] [[Transhumanism|Transhumanist]] space setting built upon the question of "[[Dark Age of Technology|what would the world look like with nearly 100 years of uninterrupted scientific advancement]]". The answer is a highly colonized solar-system being populated with various forms of [[Abhuman|artificial human life]], Mars and other planets being terraformed and colonized, and [[rage|United Nations controlled DRM being included with everything]]. Very much a [[Noblebright]] setting, Transhuman Space tackles a world being changed by advancements in biology, technology and nanotechnology and what it means for humanity as a whole. A very deep setting that SJG put a lot of thought, and more importantly research, into to the point that the accuracy of some the things they predicted are...''concerning'', to say the least. A very fun setting with a lot of fun lore to work with, [[Inquisition|just be aware that digital piracy may be hazardous to your health]].
::*Notably, Transhuman Space is '''not''' part of the Infinite Worlds multiverse due the rules established by said setting. Mostly due to taking place way too far in the future, [[Cheese|and that it could possibly break the Infinite Worlds setting itself due to how advanced it is]].
::*The setting itself was created and spear headed by David Pulver. Catgirl presence is confirmed.
* '''GURPS Mecha''': Super fighting robot, MEGA- Wait, wrong genre. Welcome to '''GURPS [[Mecha]]''', the book covering [[Power Armour|Mighty Battlesuits]] and [[Gundam|Anime]] [[BattleTech|Fighting Machines]]. The history of the "mecha genre" is covered, going from Starship Troopers power armor to [[Imperial Knight|Imperial Knights]] and the technology associated with them. [[Robotech|Transforming battlearmor]], [[Jovian Chronicles|space mechs]], [[Wraithknight|psychic mechs]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|giant mechs]], [[Transformers|mechs made up of other mechs]]; the only mechs they don't cover are dinosaur mechs which is definitely a lost opportunity.
::*Fact. David Pulver Book. David. Pulver. Anime Catgirls.
::*'''Setting: Cybermech Damocles''' - The campaign setting bundled with '''GURPS Mecha''', detailing pure 90s anime cheese. Enter a world where the United Nations organization UNISTAR fights against the Gabberoth, a galactic criminal syndicate seeking to farm humans of their brains for monetary gain. Founded after an alien girl crash landed on Earth who warned humanity of the threat of the Gabberoth, UNISTAR investigates any possible sign of the criminals operations and breaks up their criminal activities with battle mechas reverse engineered from captured Gabberoth technology. It is a world of mech battles, alien catgirl bounty hunters, shapeshifting criminals and enough of the 90s that you will think a mullet is a good hairstyle.
* '''[[Banestorm|GURPS Banestorm]]''': Welcome to Yrth, [[Great Race of Yith|no relation]]. Long ago in Yrth's history, the world was populated by a variety of fantasy life (Elves, Dwarves, Orks, etc) but with an absence of humans. Everything was fine more or less until the Elves entered a War with the Orcs. Seeking to end the war and rid the planet of the Orcs, the Elves created a ritual they called "Orcbane"to banish the Orcs somewhere else and attempted to use it. [[EPIC FAIL|The results were less than satisfactory to say the least.]] The Orcbane instead created the titular [[Warp Storm|Banestorm]] which ravaged the planet and started opening portals to other planets. Before long, humans from the middle ages and a host of other creatures were being transported to Yrth, displacing the native life and just adding to the chaos. [[The Witcher|Wait, this sounds familiar]]. Fast forward 1000 years past the [[Fallout]], and humans have established multiple kingdoms that span the main continent with the main empire being the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|The Empire of Megalos]], everyone has a grudge against the Elves due to the Banestorm, and there is a non-zero chance a Goblin will approach you to ask whether you have heard the good word of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. The setting is...honestly not that dark all things considered despite being the love child of The Witcher and Warhammer Fantasy; Nobledark at worst. Good setting all together, just don't run afoul of the [[ComStar|Ministry of Serendipity]]
::*Yrth is present in the Infinite Worlds under the name "Yrth". Obvious name is Obvious.
* '''GURPS Black Ops'''
* '''GURPS Alternate Worlds'''
* '''GURPS Time Travel'''
* '''GURPS Warehouse 23'''
* '''GURPS Mars'''
* '''GURPS Illuminati'''
* '''GURPS IOU - Illuminati University''': Once upon a time, Steve Jackson Games ran an ISP and BBS, back when the internet was a small enough thing that an RPG company could do that and not immediately go bankrupt. The elegan/tg/entlemen who used the BBS wrote up a parody setting for play-by-post games [[/tg/ gets shit done|and Steve thought it was good enough to publish]]. Illuminati University is like every other college you've been to, except it sits on top of a nexus between pretty much every reality there is. This means the entire place effectively has the Weirdness Magnet disadvantage, and you can take classes in such things as World Creation, [[Paranoia|THE]] Computer Science, and Dirty Tricks. Features lots of amazing art from Phil Foglio. And before you ask, you're not cleared to know what the O stands for.
* '''GURPS Cabal''': [[Cabal|Not that one but close]].
* '''GURPS CthulhuPunk''': The awkward one of the GURPS line. CthuluPunk was the offical merged setting of two other RPGs, GURPS Cyberworld which is a Cyberpunk world similar to [[Cyberpunk 2020]] but darker and Chaosium's [[Call of Cthulhu]] which makes this the only official conversion of Call of Cthulhu to the GURPS system. The goal was to create something similar to [[CthulhuTech]], but with less mechs and Anime. The reception to the book itself was mixed. The artwork with the book is great, but many folks found it mediocre with it being more or less a direct copy of the Cyberworld setting with the Cthulhu Mythos being present, [[Fail|with a notable lack of integration between the two]]. It's currently out of print and the pdf version either doesn't exist or is not available for purchase on any storefront (SJG's Warehouse 23, DriveThruRPG, etc).
* '''GURPS Tactical Shooting''': [[/k/|Have you ever gotten into an argument over what a gun can do that became so heated it escalated into a shouting match?]] Then you'll love '''GURPS Tactical Shooting'''! Contains all the rules for hyper-realistic hardcore tacticool bullshit a sane person could ever want and then some. Sniping, countersniping, shooting stances, breaching doors, shooting in darkness, you name it, this book has a rule for it. Besides combat mechanics it has some fun sections on firarm myths and legends, how ''not'' to use a gun, and things most gamers would never have a reason to think about such as the nitty gritty psychology of shooting or being shot at.
* '''GURPS Old West''': The [[Western|western]] supplement, for those among us who can't resist adding a dash of Louis L'Amour to our games. Everything you need to know about life on the late 19th century American frontier, stock western characters, railroads and trains (make like Jesse James and rob a Wells Fargo car!), injuns, the wars of the time, and famous legends of the wild west.

== Notable GURPS Adaptations==
*'''GURPS [[Conspiracy X]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Star Trek| Prime Directive]]''' - Basically a RPG adaptation of [[Star Fleet Battles]].
*'''GURPS [[Blue Planet]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Traveller]]'''
*'''GURPS [[World of Darkness]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Alpha Centauri|Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Conan the Barbarian]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Discworld]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Hellboy]]'''

== Criticism ==
Some of the criticisms of GURPS include:
*That genre you want to emulate? The rules for it are scattered across half a dozen different books. Or alternatively, you could emulate setting, ''but'' not it's genre.
*The default magic system sucks. One reason GURPS Thaumatology is so popular is because it tells you how to scrap it and replace it with a magic system that's actually playable.
**This isn't helped by 4e's GURPS Magic easily being one of the worst mainline GURPS books, as it's a poorly edited half-assed conversion from 3e.
**Offensive magic is play-testes against Low-Tech weapons, since offensive magic is weaker than High-Tech weapons - to the point, that it looses in power to most pistols. Assuming same points, user of technological weapons (Signature Gear + custom war vehicle + good crew for it) or even foot soldier is stronger than spellcaster in direct combat.
*Damage and DR sometimes gets real wonky. This is hardly a problem at all with low-tech games or high-tech games (modern firearms and armor are very well-researched), but when it comes to futuristic tech, GURPS' designers don't know what the fuck they're doing. Ultra-tech armor is pathetically fragile, comparing unfavorably to modern armor (with vehicles it's especially bad), while ultra-tech weapons have damage values seemingly assigned more or less at random with no regard for consistency.
**Generally, it can be one tad hard to determine TL of certain setting. Although, that's problem of all technology scales.
**On top of that, characteristics of weapons and armor of most futuristic pre-existing settings (derivative works, third-party settings, etc) are different from what GURPS considers standart. As such, their characteristics would either need to be calculated from scratch, or end up being grossly incorrect.
*Strength scales poorly at superhuman levels. If you want to have an ST of 20 and be four times as strong as an average man, you have to pay 100 points. Fair enough. But if you want to have an ST of 100 and be as strong as a hundred men? It costs 900 points! And it sure isn't nine times as good as having an ST of 20. Heck, even if you have 900 points to spend, there are much more cost-efficient things you could spend those points on.
**GURPS Supers tries to address this with a super-effort enhancement, allowing you to spend Fatigue Points to temporarily enhance your Strength by insane levels. How well this actually works as a patch, both thematically and gameplay-wise, is [[Skub|controversial at best]].
**Knowing Your Own Strength, a popular optional rule from Pyramid #3/83, redoes ST scaling to be logarithmic. From the average ST of 10, every +10 ST makes you ten times stronger. Want to be as strong as a hundred men? Now it only costs 200 points. But while it keeps point costs from spiraling out of control, it introduces [[Skub|its own sets of problems]].
**Or, if playing as robot/cyborg/biorobot/augmented human/etc - have another scale. Instead of measuring power in "points", you should measure it in money cost of creating/assembling your character (e.g. robot systems cost money; genetic upgrades cost money; etc).
**Also, Strength is even less needed once good guns are invented. Assuming same point costs, and TL 5 and higher - guy who smashes things with brute strength will be weaker, than guy who uses guns (e.g. ATGM's), and even weaker than one who uses war vehicles (custom-made; tanks, aircraft, ships, etc; affordably get with Signature Gear). Basically, bid dumb mammoth-sized monstrosity is just convenient target practice for modern soldiers (after all, most works downplay power of modern weapons). Maybe Strength should be cheaper at higher TL's?
***For same reasons, most things bigger than elephant are weak on High-Tech and further. Living creatures and bio-mechs are weaker than war machines of same weight (not to mention size), to the point that whales and sea leviathans can be easily gunned down from your normal MG42. DR seems to badly scale for creatures bigger than elephant; not many have DR bigger than 5. Though, that's likely intentional - living things ''are'' fragile, and aren't built do survive gunfire.
*GURPS Realm Management. Do not touch this book, do not read it under any circumstances. Just don't. It's a steaming pile of '''SHIT'''.
** Same thing with GURPS Cthulhupunk. Only get it if you are looking to gift it to someone you absolutely LOATHE but don't want to make it obvious.
*There are no rules or guidelines for building lifeforms from ground up (synthetic biology, aka writing DNA from zero). In such and other similar cases, there is no restriction of baseline creature's stats, and there are no guidelines for "what's limit then"; as such, you can create ''absolutely anything'' (truely anything for soft sci-fi; "anything as long as it doesn't have Supernatural traits" for "hard" sci-fi). That can be abused as needed. The only limitation, is that cost of creature production depends on it's point cost.
*As expected, after Replicators are invented (usually at TL12^), entire balance shifts. They print things without regard for cost - only mass matters. So, you can print ridiculously strong yet small objects, ignoring their large cost. NPC's also do this, so overall truely epic things start going on.
** Strategic-scale nuclear and antimatter bombs aren't even the strongest option for abuse. E.G. synthetically created organism with truely absurd power level - capable of bench-lifting a continental plate, tanking-off a direct hit from [[Exterminatus|planet-buster]], and having firepower bigger than entire starship fleets combined - yet the size and mass of house cat. Normally, this thing is held back by ''ludicrous'' cost of production; after Replicators are invented, it can be created quickly and for pocket change.
* Assuming that ST and other parameters are unchanged, small SM is benefit. [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Size_Modifier#Relative_Size_Modifier Basically], character with small SM is very difficult to detect and hit, and has lots of useful abilities - while character with big SM is easy to hit and detect, and most benefits are about smashing things in melee (that is not useful since about TL5). Small SM also makes your gear lighter, so you can carry more of it; so much as being SM-6 (7"; 0.2 yards; rat-sized) will make armor 100 times lighter and cheaper with same thickness and DR (i.e. he can wear super-heavy armor 100 times tougher than "normal human's", yet it will cost and weight just like "normal human's" armor; weight is volume*mass, and volume is surface area*thickness, smaller guy has smaller surface area but same physical strength, so he can do more with less) - and this is even more egregious for smaller sizes (think microbe-sized, atom-sized, quark-sized, etc). As such, character with [[Space Marine]] strength is less powerful, than character with strength of [[Space Marine]] and size of a quark.
** What that means in practice: Assuming same point and money budgets. Small guy is SM-1000000 or smaller; he's impossible to detect, impossible to hit, and impossible to penetrate his incredibly thick armor - all while he's shooting you with his machinegun. Meanwhile, big guy is easily detected and shot at, and he can't take many hits due to his armor being thinner and weaker; he's also using machinegun, but what's the point if he can't hit and can't penetrate anything. Obviously, such strong small character is unrealistic - but in unrealistic works (i.e. cinematic; magic; supernatural; superscience), he's possible.
** Even if we take less egregious example and have humanoid who's 2, 3 or 4 times shorter than human (SM-2, SM-3 and SM-4 respectively) while being about as strong as human, and he's TL5+, it ends up being more threatening than human. He uses human-sized gun, hard to hit, good marksman, hard to detect, can hide behind cover too small for human, carries more equipment, can wear stupendously strong armor without much encumbrance, more easily hits chinks in big armor - for 0 points. Meanwhile, humanoid who's 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5 times taller than human (SM+1, SM+2 and SM+3 respectively) is easier to hit, bad at hitting things, can't take hits well due to thinner armor, visible from anywhere and doesn't fit in many places - for 0 points. And that's just things applicable from combat there-and-now. [[TL;DR]]: small-yet-strong (think Alien Hominid from ''Newgrounds'' or Stitch from ''Disney Animated Canon'') is better than big-and-strong (think [[Space Marines]] from ''WH40K'') - the smaller someone is the better, the bigger someone is the worse - while both being small and being big is points-free, despite small size being de-facto advantage and big size being de-facto disadvantage.
** Also, don't remember if ability to detect character depends on his gear. Or in other words: if you're microbe-sized, but are wielding human-sized machine gun, how hard it is to see you? Or wield it, for that matter (handles must be re-made to suit your size)?
* Assuming standard TL progression, many Biotech things end up being researched on such TL's that they're obsolete before they're invented - being so many times worse than their mechanical counterparts, that they're practically unserviceable.
** Living weapons are pretty much obsolete. Claws that can't penetrate even armored clothing (not to mention armor porper)? Poison spit, that only works at all if it hits open wound, eye, or other unprotected spot - all while enemies wear sealed space-proof suits on average, and gas-mask-equivalent protection at worst? Living armor, that even in best complectation (e.g. tortoise-like shell), can't even stop pistol rounds? All sorts of things, that could be useful for Magic-user in Low-Tech era - but at Ultra-Tech age, those are useless.
** Bio-Mechs and other living weapons. Most of their weapons are very weak, usually weaker than normal rifles. They are also fragile, to the point that they're vulnerable to said rifles. The only way for these to work properly, is to make Bio-Gadgets versions of normal weapons (e.g. lasers, cannons, missiles), Bio-Gadget versions of vehicles and armor, etc.
** One thing that ''is'' good? Make synthetic creature, that is Explosive, Flammable, has ''truckloads'' of HP, and mountains of various disadvantages. Basically, grenade-sized ball of explosive flesh; living plasma grenade. It's only purpose is to die and explode in flames for 6dx(HP/10) damage - so put on ''thousands'' of Disadvantages onto it (e.g. easily dies, fails any skills, has no sensors at all, no limbs, etc - ''as much disadvantages as possible''), and put all those acquired points into HP to make blast bigger.
*** Reducing ST DX IQ HT to 0, Combustible, Explosive, Flammable, No Legs (Sessile; not anchored to ground), No Manipulators, Blindness, Deafness, No Sense Of Smell, No Sense Of Taste, Numb, Slave Mentality, Mute - those give 895 points. That will allow to take HP 447 - cue 6dx44.7 (268.2d) crushing incendiary explosive damage. This isn't properly optimized; you can add more Disadvantages to make use of even more points. SM can be as small as needed; it can be as small as grenade, or even a bug, or whatever. Rather affordable to create; not bad for something of arbitrarily small size (or heck, even just grenade-sized).
* When comparing modernized Low-Tech armor (made from modern steel - for either doubled DR, or halved weight/cost) and High-Tech armor, usually one of the sides is strictly better.
** Generally, it's better to use reinforced light piece of armor, than lightened heavy piece of armor - since reinforced light piece of armor ends up with smaller weight/cost with same DR.
** Most modernized breastplates are weaker than High-Tech torso armors. Armor vests are both tougher, cheaper and lighter, and can mount Trauma Plates.
** Lightened "Pot-Helm" from Basic Set is better than most helmets («Steel Pot», «Frag Helmet», «Cavalry Helmet», «Medium Helmet», «Frag Helmet», «Modern Firefighter’s Helmet»); Reinforced "Pot-Helm" is also better than most helmets ("Heavy Helmet"). In turn, "Pot Helm - Plate, Medium" is strictly better than generic "Pot-Helm". You can use Bascinet or Full Helm for covering face - or tinker with helmet to mount modern visor.
** Reinforced "Sollerets" from Basic Set is strictly better than «Boots, Firefighter». "Sabatons" of "Light late" or "Medium Plate" kinds are strictly better than genetic "Sollerets" - and, they're better than normal boots. In fact, reinforced variant of «Sabatons»/«Gauntlets» «Light Plate» is lighter than moccasins/sneakers and sharp-protective gloves.
** Reinforced «Sabatons», «Heavy Plate» is better than "Boots, Blast" - tougher, lighter and protecting from all sides.
** Modernized variants of ancient armor for limbs are generally better, than modern limb protection.
** [[TL;DR]]: High-Tech armor is better at protecting torso, and maybe head in some cases (Ballistic Helmet). Modernized Low-Tech armor is better at protecting the rest of your body: helmet, boots, gloves, limb protection, etc. Wear mixed armor.
** Modernized shields can be rather good, mostly ones with DB 3. For example, Large Roman Scutum of Reinforced variant (modern steel) will have DR/HP of 8/27, and Cover DR of 20.
** Modern synthetic fur/cloth/leather at TL8, would allow to apply the "double DR or halve cost/weight" to fur/cloth/leather armors. Since military uniforms also have weight and cost, it's possible to have modern synthetic armor made of fur/cloth/leather, what would offer some protection while weighing no more than normal uniforms. Ordinary clothes and formal wear weight 2 lbs; winter clothes weight 4 lbs; many types of padded armor are warm as winter clothing.
** Most modifications available for Low-Tech armor can be made for High-Tech armor. E.G. Face Protection applied to TL6 helmet (though, as explained, Modernized Low-Tech helmets are better than most High-Tech helmets - only loosing to Ballistic Helmets, and heavy helmets like "Altyn"/"Алтын").
** High-Tech armor is, usually, a lot cheaper than modernized Low-Tech armor. E.G. Heavy Helmet is (DR 5, 5 lb, 100$), while reinforced Plate Medium Pot Helm is (DR 12, 4 lb, 500$). But that's why you can use other, simpler armor pieces. E.G. reinforced Scale Light Pot Helm (DR 6, 3.2 lb, 64$). This way, you can make "budget" modernized Low-Tech armor, that is still better than it's High-Tech analogues.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20250311095955/https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/GameBreaker/TabletopRPG We still remember the "Cloth Cap" exploit]. [[TL;DR]]: you can keep putting on Cloth Caps on yourself, stacking them for ''absurd'' amounts of concealed flexible DR for no downsides, far tougher than any other armor can provide (even tougher, thal TL13+ [[Power Armor]]), to the point that your skull becomes resistant to ''heavy tank cannons''. It's unknown whether "no more than 3 layers" is rule ("you can't put so much layers"), or merely recommendation ("you can put so much layers, but most people opt not to do this") - and if it's the later, balance flies out of the window.
* Determining average wealth of certain settings can be hard - especially if magic or sci-fi tech gets involved. For example, what is "average wealth" in WH40K? Most people walk around in filthy rags and are starving, yet can afford large assortment of weapons and armor (underhive gangs, cults, etc) - so how much money, in "gurpsdollars", they have?
* Most rules about Robots/Androids/Full-Conversion-Cyborgs only start explaining things from TL7 (Cold War). And usually, robots start getting prominent from TL8 (Information Era) or TL7+1 (Atompunk, like ''Fallout''). Robots/Androids/Cyborgs from earlier epochs, like TL6+1 (Dieselpunk), TL5+1 (Steampunk), TL4+1 (Clockpunk), TL1^ (Bronze androids, like Thalos; magical golems of all kinds) - are outright absent; you don't know ''how'' exactly, you would design them, how strong they would be for their size, etc.
* There are some settings, that even GURPS struggles to properly model. Such as playing as proper Gods (not "avatars of gods" - just ''proper Gods themselves''). It also struggles with absurdly strong settings, like [[Xeelee Sequence]] and [[Xeelee_Sequence#Settings_even_remotely_comparable_to_Xeelee_Sequence|settings comparable to it]]. Realistically, this is a minor criticism when you get down to it because those kinds of scales tend to break any chart someone tries to use.
* Using the Low-Tech armor creation rules, you can turn any armor into variants for any body part - that is good for optimization.
** E.G. TL6 Leather Helmet covering Skull has Weight 1, (+2 Weight for steel plates); so, you could engineer entire Torso (chest, abdomen, groin) variant with 3,(3) weight and 66,(6)$, or Feet variant with 0,(3) weight and 6,(6)$. With such Feet variant being better than "proper" boots.
** For another example: Assault Vest covers Torso and Groin and weights 8lb, 900$; Trauma Plates cover Torso, and weight 8lb, 600$. Therefore, Trauma Plates that cover Torso and Groin would weight ≈8,421052632lb and cost ≈631,5789474. So, the helmet that fully covers Head, would be 2.4lb, 270$ for "Vest" - and ≈2,526315789lb, 189,4736842$ for "trauma plates"; that results in ≈4.9lb, ≈459,5$, effective 35DR Full Helm - a lot better than default "Ballistic Helmet".
* More of a Steve Jackson Games criticism but it is about the GURPS series in general. A lot of the recent books with new content released have been lack luster to say the least with the prime example being GURPS Psionics 3rd Edition that was updated and split across GURPS Psionic Powers and Psionic Tech with the updated material actually being reduced in content. Additionally, any new book that is not a reprint of a older book (GURPS Time Travel Adventures) is usually around 50 to 90 pages in length (GURPS Meta-Tech) with a very long gap between new releases.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Gurps3rd.jpg|3rd Edition|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:Gurps3rd.jpg?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw
Gurps4thPHB.jpg|4th Edition Characters|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:Gurps4thPHB.jpg?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw
Gurps4thDMG.jpg|4th Edition Campaigns|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:Gurps4thDMG.jpg?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw
</gallery>

== Links ==
* [https://vk.com/topic-191427566_39925075 2 rulebooks].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20241218135431/https://vk.com/topic-141278081_35047392 some rulebooks]
* [https://vk.com/topic-3656533_21942416?offset=100 More rulebooks from VK]. [https://vk.com/topic-3656533_21942416?offset=0 Start].
** [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m94HQPwsjQobVWrnn_uPDq3aJA_Xxkzl Disk (broken)].
** [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_NuPNv2DlK7tNsCxkYwq674w12TDoTdD Disk (working)].
** [https://t.me/TheAmberRoom The Amber Room].
* [https://vk.com/topic-183668538_48441815 Even more VK rulebooks].
* [https://vk.com/antifriz_group Antifriz Group], with files of GURPS. E.G., [https://mega.nz/folder/EFoFlC6S#e5gTnMqELVEv-OPxPNBENQ folder with GURPS rulebooks].
* From [https://the-eye.eu/ data base]:
** [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ GURPS Classic, lots of it.] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250210183419/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ archived])
** [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/ bestiaries, CNTRL+F «GURPS»] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064330/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/ archived]); e.g. [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/GURPS%20-%20Space%20Bestiary%203E.pdf space bestiary] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20181229162618/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/GURPS%20-%20Space%20Bestiary%203E.pdf archived]).
** Miscellaneous books: [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf GURPS Amber] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20210924093141/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf archive]), [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Ghostbusters/Unofficial/Ghostbusters%20-%20GURPS%204e%20Conversion.pdf Ghostbusters GURPS] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20220815124005/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Ghostbusters/Unofficial/Ghostbusters%20-%20GURPS%204e%20Conversion.pdf archived]).
* From [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/ beta-site data base]:
** [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ GURPS Classic, lots of it.] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250215204105/https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ archived])
** [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/ bestiaries, CNTRL+F «GURPS»]; [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/GURPS%20-%20Space%20Bestiary%203E.pdf space bestiary].
** Miscellaneous books: [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf GURPS Amber] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250919154139/https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf archive]), [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Ghostbusters/Unofficial/Ghostbusters%20-%20GURPS%204e%20Conversion.pdf Ghostbusters GURPS].
* [http://lafs-welt.tumor-band.de/frameset_en.htm GURPS PDF's].
* Lists of [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Fanmade_4e_Bestiaries unofficial bestiaries] and [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Official_4e_Bestiaries official bestiaries] (google in other place).
* [https://mentor.gurps.ru/# Game help in development].
** [https://gmentor.ru/ New game help site in development].
** Search in publications. For example, [https://gmentor.ru/vf17052e43bb78a1f3c50f08b73699717 Tactical Shooting gear] ([https://mentor.gurps.ru/vf17052e43bb78a1f3c50f08b73699717 old]).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20230609222747/https://gurps4e.fandom.com/wiki/GURPS4e_Wiki Archive of 4e wiki. About 10% pages archived.]
* [https://weapons.gurps.ru/ List of weapon statblocks.]
* [https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Category:Weapons More weapon statblocks], [https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/GURPS_Weapons navigation].
* [http://gametable.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=Game%20Books A few rulebooks].
* [https://www.yumpu.com/xx/GURPS Also quite a lot of rulebooks].
* [https://enragedeggplant.blogspot.com/ GURPS eggplant. Statblocks and other things].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/* TG Boards Images. Some are about GURPS, some aren't. Filter PDF]. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20240830211307/https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1466/07/1466071018274.pdf example], [https://web.archive.org/web/20240830152642/https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1582/31/1582316434346.pdf example])
* [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page Game wiki].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/* Some rulebooks]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230320015140/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/3rd%20edition/GURPS%203e%20-%20Cabal.pdf 3e Cabal], [https://web.archive.org/web/20240224102221/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/4th%20edition/GURPS%204e%20-%20Low-Tech%20Companion%202%20-%20Weapons%20and%20Warriors.pdf 4e Low-Tech], [https://web.archive.org/web/20230707183904/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/SETTING/Prime%20Directive%20STAR%20TREK/GURPS%204e%20-%20Prime%20Directive%20-%20Federation%20%5BRevised%5D.pdf 4e Prime Directive].
* [https://www.tesarta.com/HFP/bestiary.pdf Monster Statblocks]
* [https://panoptesv.com/RPGs/animalia/animalia.html Animalia, animal statblocks]
* [http://gurpsland.us.to/ Eric's GURPSland] (also known as gurpsland.no-ip.org ).
* Internet Archive Search:
** [https://archive.org/details/texts?tab=collection&query=GURPS Texts, Metadata]
** [https://archive.org/details/texts?tab=collection&query=GURPS&sin=TXT Texts, Text Contents]
** [https://archive.org/details/software?tab=collection&query=GURPS Programs, Metadata]
** [https://archive.org/details/software?tab=collection&query=GURPS&sin=TXT Programs, Text Contents]
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/GURPS Search for archived sites]

[[Category:Systems]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:GURPS]]

User talk:⧼abusefilter-blocker⧽

2025-10-03T16:41:50Z

Sdhjk: Created page with "== Turn on? == How to turn on this thing? Is this an automated bot, or just technical account? --~~~~"

== Turn on? ==
How to turn on this thing? Is this an automated bot, or just technical account? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:41, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

User talk:Pachinko Man

2025-10-03T16:30:17Z

Sdhjk: /* Let it go */

== Sharing PDF's ==
* Where is the "sharethread"? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 12:23, 18 July 2025 (UTC)
* If adding direct links to PDF's is wrong - then, adding links to folders with PDF's is correct? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 12:23, 18 July 2025 (UTC)
** In other words: if i can't do [https://2d4chan.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=D20_Modern&diff=1003447&oldid=1003439 this], then can i add something like "[https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20&%20Dragons/ this]"? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 18:55, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

== Let it go ==

Why are you still trying? This wiki is dead. His owner, most likely, died. It is filled to the brim with bots. In a few months, the hosting service will shut it down because the bills have not been paid. What's the point of continuing to edit it? Just let it go. [[Special:Contributions/90.80.221.226|90.80.221.226]] 12:53, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

:You got proof of that son? [[User:Pachinko Man|Pachinko Man]] ([[User talk:Pachinko Man|talk]]) 00:04, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
::[[User:2d4fag|Here is the proof.]] Read the last line. And for the bots... Just look at the [[Special:RecentChanges|Recent Changes page...]] [[Special:Contributions/90.80.221.226|90.80.221.226]] 06:01, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
::[https://2d4chan.org/wiki/Special:ListUsers?username=&group=sysop&wpsubmit=&wpFormIdentifier=mw-listusers-form&limit=50 He's the only admin], and [https://2d4chan.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/2d4fag he was last seen doing actions on 3th May]. You think this isn't enough? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:30, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

Alcohol

2025-10-02T20:35:43Z

Sdhjk: /* Alcohol */

[[Image:Rdicards2.jpg|thumb|right|Cards From The Red Dragon Inn]]

{{topquote|Roll the [[dice]] to see if I'm getting drunk!|Dead Alewives D&D sketch.}}

{{topquote|Alcohol, my permanent accessory. Alcohol, a party-time necessity. Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself. O Alcohol, I still drink to your health. I love you more than I did the week before. I discovered alcohol.|''Alcohol'' by Barenaked Ladies}}

{{topquote|To alcohol, cause of and solution to all problems in life!|Homer Simpson}}

==Alcohol==
In alcohol cultures, the term alcohol originally refereed to the primary alcohol ethyl alcohol (ethanol), the dominating alcohol in alcoholic beverages. However, since then, other alcohols have been identified, including the secondary alcohol isopropanol, and the tertiary alcohol tert-Amyl alcohol; don't drink those, that will end very badly. Nowadays, the term alcohol in this context instead refers to the alcohol as a drug family (chemical class). It is a colorless, odorless liquid well known for it's intoxicating effects on carbon based life-forms. Other than getting drunk, it's used as pre-industrial (weak-ish) painkiller, sleeping pill, to purify stagnant water on ship (read ''grog'') - and, in highly concentrated form (more than 40-60 degrees), as disinfectant.

==Alcoholism==
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing. It is medically considered a disease, specifically an addictive illness. In psychiatry several other terms have been used, specifically "alcohol abuse", "alcohol dependence," and "alcohol use disorder" which have slightly different definitions.

==Alcohol Table==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Alcohol Table
|'''Drinks in a row'''
|'''Will Save'''
|'''If failed will save Effected by'''
|'''Duration'''
|'''Addiction Rating'''
|-
|1st
|DC:2
|Spell: Dazed
|1d4 (- Con modifier) hours
|Negligible
|-

|2nd
|DC:4
|spell: Charm person “drinking buddy”
|1d4+1 (- Con modifier) hours
|Low
|-
|4th
|DC:8
|spell: Tasha’s hideous laughter
|1d4+2 (- Con modifier) hours
|Low
|-
|6th
|DC:16
|spell: Suggestion “in trusted person”
|2d4+ (- Con modifier) hours
|Medium
|-
|8th
|DC:32
|spell: Confusion
|3d4+ (- Con modifier) hours
|Medium
|-
|10th
|DC:64
|spell: Modify memory “blackout”
|4d4+ (- Con modifier) hours
|High
|-
|12th
|DC:128
|spell: Geas/ quest “get another drink”
|Until unconsciousness
|High
|-
|14th
|DC:256
|spell: Insanity
|Permanent
|Extreme
|}

==Drink Size Table==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''Drink Size Table''''''
|'''Creature Size'''
|'''1 drink Weight'''
|-
|Fine
|1/1024 lb.
|-
|Diminutive
|1/64 lb.
|-
|Tiny
|1/16 lb.
|-
|Small
|1/4 lb.
|-
|Medium
|1 lb.
|-
|Large
|4 lb.
|-
|Huge
|16 lb.
|-
|Gargantuan
|64 lb.
|-
|Colossal
|1024 lb.
|}

==Alcohol Poisoning==
As with all [[drug]]s and [[poison]]s, alcohol abuse deals ability damage rather than hit point damage.
The effects of [[drug]] addiction and a list of additional drugs can be found in the [[Book of Vile Darkness]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Vile_Darkness]

Creatures that are immune to Poison are immune to the effects of alcohol. A Detect Poison spell will not detect alcohol. However, a Purify Food and Drink spell will remove the alcohol from said drink

==Special==

For a [[DRUNKEN MASTER]] only as defined in the [[Complete Warrior]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_Warrior]

1 drink = 1 duration of his Drink Like a Demon (Ex):

DRUNKEN MASTER at 2nd level their Stagger (Ex): ability also means they cannot be Dazed by alcohol

----

One of a [[Wu jen]]’s possible taboos are that they cannot drink alcohol.

==Society Views on Drinking==
{| class="wikitable"
|+
|[[Elf]]
|Elves are fully aware that they are lightweights and are very likely to say “no thank you” when offered a drink. On the very rare occasion when an elf would enjoy a drink, it would be for ceremonial purposes only.

|Elven wine is always a very fine wine with a vintage of over 100 years.
|+
|[[Dwarf]]
|Dwarves will find almost any excuse to have a drink. Whether celebrating a victory or mourning a defeat, dwarves love to drink. Because dwarves are heavyweights, it will take a large amount of alcohol to get a dwarf fully intoxicated.

|Dwarven ale tastes horrible but has a high alcohol content. A human would liken the alcohol content to be along the lines of 4-5 normal drinks.
|+
|[[Halfling]]
|Halflings do enjoy a good drink but always in moderation. Most halflings pride themselves on their knowledge of, or collection of, different types of alcoholic drinks. If a sober halfling finds a drunken halfling, he will always try to help his fellow kin to sleep it off and/or sober up.
|Halfling drinks have a wide variety of colours, tastes, testers and types.
|+
|[[Orcs]]
|Orcs drink to get as drunk as possible until they pass out on the floor, only to drink more the next day.
|Depending on the setting, Orcs either do not make their own alcohol or can only make crummy moonshine. Warcraft-style Orcs may make some sort of simple alcohol, while LOTR Orcs can make barely drinkable moonshine or just steal whatever they need. Alcohol content tends to be high, unless it's watered-down grog.
|+
|[[Human]]
|Almost every human has a different viewpoint on drinking.
Most lawful humans view getting drunk as something only someone uncivilized would do, while most chaotic humans view drinking as a way to have fun.
|Human drinks can be found in the Food, Drink, and Lodging table of the [[Player's Handbook]]
|}

==Alcohol Production and Terminology for Dummies==
Alcohol is produced via ''fermentation'' (using bacteria - usually yeast - to convert organic material into alcohol). Fermenting alone produces a product that humans can metabolize, however it can be further enhanced by ''distillation'', which uses vapor evaporation to concentrate the amount of alcohol. Because alcohol kills microbes, it allowed farmers to turn excess crops into spoilage-resistant foodstuffs and a "safe" source of hydration. If its a plant that has some form of sugar in it, chances are that someone's tried to make alcohol out of it. People have even made alcohol out of animal products like milk. If alcohol is allowed to ferment for too long, some other bacteria will come along and turn it into vinegar; it becomes too sour to drink and loses its intoxicating effects, but its still useful as a condiment and preservative.

'''Beer''' is brewed from starchy source material (grains), in a fermentation process that converts starch into sugar (usually by caramelizing the starch) and then sugar into alcohol. This process is not very efficient, and most beer is only able to reach 3-9% alcohol before the bacterial reaction dies out, although various tricks can be used to push it a bit higher. Alcohol has been brewed since the dawn of civilization and it has been argued that the production of beer was one of the driving factors in the agricultural revolution.

Beer is typically made from malted barley and flavored with an herb called hops, though older beer recipes used whatever local herbs and spices were available, and there is great variety in what other starchy material may be mixed in with barley (corn and oats are common). Beer typically takes a couple weeks to ferment.

Within the beer family, there are two major groups, ''ales'' and ''lagers'', the distinction being whether the yeast floats in a warm mixture (ale) or sinks in a cool mixture (lager). The darkest beers are generally ales (stouts & porters), but otherwise there is considerable variability in color and clarity of various types of beer. Most American canned beers are lagers, specifically ''pilsners'', a bavarian/czech type brought over by immigrants who settled in the midwest; although American brewers tend to use a corn & barley mix which you can't call a pilsner in Europe.

'''Sake''' is made by a very similar process as beer but using rice and is able to reach up to 18% alcohol because of the way rice ferments compared to other starches. The rice used in sake is broken down into sugar using koji mold. Unlike in beer, the process of saccharification and fermentation take place at the same time instead of in separate steps.

'''Wine''' is produced from sugary material, and because there is no intermediate starch-to-sugar step, the reaction happens more efficiently. Wine is typically made with grapes and is usually found in warmer climates; '''Cider''' is a common fruit wine made from apples which can be more easily grown in colder climates. '''Mead''' or honeywine is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages and is made with watered-down honey. Wine fermentation can naturally reach 10-15% alcohol. Wines made from grapes can take years to fully mature after fermenting, and fine wines put a lot of care in selecting quality grapes and the right fermentation conditions; for this reason wine tends to be more expensive and viewed as a finer drink compared to Beer, Cider or Mead. Though cheap wines have certainly existed and made easily enough by amateur brewers.

'''Liquor''' is any distilled product. Alcohol boils at 78.47°, so the steam that comes off from a boiled brew can be collected, cooled and condensed, producing a more portent drink that's 40% alcohol by volume. Somewhere north of 40% alcohol starts to become combustible. ''Rum'' is one of the simplest, made from pure sugarcane, fermented and then distilled. Close to it in terms of potency is ''vodka'', which uses beets or potatoes, both which also can ferment down very efficiently. Cereal grains such as corn, barley, or rye don't ferment as effectively, and are used to make ''whiskey'', which unlike rum and vodka has some flavor because of the inefficient fermentation. ''Brandy'' is distilled wine; sometimes brandy is made from the leftover pulp of grapes, called pomace brandy. ''Tequilia'' is the odd duck of distilled beverages, or alcohol in general, in that its made from a desert succulent called Agave, and from a part of the plant that is more wood than fruit or seed. ''Gin'' is a distilled beverage that is flavored with juniper berries. ''Absinthe'' is a strong alcohol flavored with several herbs that may possibly give it some other mind altering effects in addition to the effects of alcohol. Many people believe it to be hallucinogenic but this is actually false.

'''Moonshine''' typically refers to illegally made distilled alcohol that can have varying levels of purity. While homebrewing of beer is a common enough activity, vapor distillation of alcohol presents a very serious risk of explosion so unlicensed stills are usually highly illegal. Still commonly found in the Southern parts of the United States, and other countries are at the same/higher levels of per-capita production despite such stills often being illegal: Examples being Germany, Poland and Russia. No matter where you are in the world, however, they're almost always known to be dangerous both in production and consumption- moonshiners often throw out the first parts of a batch because the amount of methanol in the first part can blind, paralyse or even kill you (methanol is converted in the body into formaldehyde, then formic acid, which humans cannot process).

'''Grog''' is watered down alcohol (typically rum), mixing in lime juice was also very common among British sailors (hence the nickname "limeys"). In the Navy, grog kills three birds with one stone; making stagnant water rations more palatable, preventing sailors from getting too drunk on their alcohol ration and helping the crew fight off the early effects of scurvy with the vitamin C the lime juice would provide. Grog in fantasy often has the connotation of cheap, gross-tasting alcohol (probably owing to the stagnant water that the rum gets mixed with), though the two ideas are not mutually exclusive; if you're going to supply an army with [[Libators|libations]], you're not going to bother buying the expensive stuff in bulk ''(even as late as the world wars it was pretty normal for soldiers to be brewing hooch on the sly)'', and watering it down will help stretch the supply out and keep the boys from getting too rowdy.
* In French-speaking countries, however, 'grog' refers to a home remedy against colds that consists of a big cup of black tea with lemon juice, honey and a dollop of hard alcohol, and it lacks the cheap/gross connotation altogether.

'''Fortified Wines''' take wine and add some harder liquor (usually brandy) to up the alcohol content. If you add in sugar and flavoring, the result is frequently called a '''Bum Wine''' because, well, they combine the taste of fruit juice with the kick of the harder stuff, at a fairly cheap price, thus making them frequently the drink of choice for the homeless.

'''Pruno''', also known as "prison wine," is one of the grossest home-brewed alcohols you can make, and a testament to what lengths people will go to get buzzed. Pruno is made with the few resources available to prisoners; fruit cocktail, orange juice, sugar, or just about any sweet substance they can get their hands on. And in the absence of a proper and safe-to-use fermentation yeast (if you work in a prison kitchen then maybe you have access to baker's yeast, but this is unlikely), pruno is usually fermented using wild bacteria. '''This can be very dangerous and has been known to cause botulism,''' so naturally this is highly discouraged. The resulting sludge will taste gross but will contain some level of alcohol.

'''Literal Poison''' in the many forms! Everything from kerosene mixed with honey, turpentine mixed with tree sap, wood alcohol mixed with whatever was available to paint thinner or hand sanitizer mixed with nothing. You name it, somebody has drank it in the hopes of getting a good buzz; this would usually end up with the people drinking it falling over and dying an agonizing death. Chairforce airmen working with Redstone missiles used to drink rocket grade ethanol when they could get their hands on it.

== See Also ==
* [[Drugs]] - details a list of alcohols found in [[Warhammer 40,000]] and [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]].

[[Category:Food and Drink]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]

Alcohol

2025-10-02T20:32:30Z

Sdhjk: /* Society Views on Drinking */

[[Image:Rdicards2.jpg|thumb|right|Cards From The Red Dragon Inn]]

{{topquote|Roll the [[dice]] to see if I'm getting drunk!|Dead Alewives D&D sketch.}}

{{topquote|Alcohol, my permanent accessory. Alcohol, a party-time necessity. Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself. O Alcohol, I still drink to your health. I love you more than I did the week before. I discovered alcohol.|''Alcohol'' by Barenaked Ladies}}

{{topquote|To alcohol, cause of and solution to all problems in life!|Homer Simpson}}

==Alcohol==
In alcohol cultures, the term alcohol originally refereed to the primary alcohol ethyl alcohol (ethanol), the dominating alcohol in alcoholic beverages. However, since then, other alcohols have been identified, including the secondary alcohol isopropanol, and the tertiary alcohol tert-Amyl alcohol; don't drink those, that will end very badly. Nowadays, the term alcohol in this context instead refers to the alcohol as a drug family (chemical class). It is a colorless, odorless liquid well known for it's intoxicating effects on carbon based life-forms.

==Alcoholism==
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing. It is medically considered a disease, specifically an addictive illness. In psychiatry several other terms have been used, specifically "alcohol abuse", "alcohol dependence," and "alcohol use disorder" which have slightly different definitions.

==Alcohol Table==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Alcohol Table
|'''Drinks in a row'''
|'''Will Save'''
|'''If failed will save Effected by'''
|'''Duration'''
|'''Addiction Rating'''
|-
|1st
|DC:2
|Spell: Dazed
|1d4 (- Con modifier) hours
|Negligible
|-

|2nd
|DC:4
|spell: Charm person “drinking buddy”
|1d4+1 (- Con modifier) hours
|Low
|-
|4th
|DC:8
|spell: Tasha’s hideous laughter
|1d4+2 (- Con modifier) hours
|Low
|-
|6th
|DC:16
|spell: Suggestion “in trusted person”
|2d4+ (- Con modifier) hours
|Medium
|-
|8th
|DC:32
|spell: Confusion
|3d4+ (- Con modifier) hours
|Medium
|-
|10th
|DC:64
|spell: Modify memory “blackout”
|4d4+ (- Con modifier) hours
|High
|-
|12th
|DC:128
|spell: Geas/ quest “get another drink”
|Until unconsciousness
|High
|-
|14th
|DC:256
|spell: Insanity
|Permanent
|Extreme
|}

==Drink Size Table==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''Drink Size Table''''''
|'''Creature Size'''
|'''1 drink Weight'''
|-
|Fine
|1/1024 lb.
|-
|Diminutive
|1/64 lb.
|-
|Tiny
|1/16 lb.
|-
|Small
|1/4 lb.
|-
|Medium
|1 lb.
|-
|Large
|4 lb.
|-
|Huge
|16 lb.
|-
|Gargantuan
|64 lb.
|-
|Colossal
|1024 lb.
|}

==Alcohol Poisoning==
As with all [[drug]]s and [[poison]]s, alcohol abuse deals ability damage rather than hit point damage.
The effects of [[drug]] addiction and a list of additional drugs can be found in the [[Book of Vile Darkness]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Vile_Darkness]

Creatures that are immune to Poison are immune to the effects of alcohol. A Detect Poison spell will not detect alcohol. However, a Purify Food and Drink spell will remove the alcohol from said drink

==Special==

For a [[DRUNKEN MASTER]] only as defined in the [[Complete Warrior]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_Warrior]

1 drink = 1 duration of his Drink Like a Demon (Ex):

DRUNKEN MASTER at 2nd level their Stagger (Ex): ability also means they cannot be Dazed by alcohol

----

One of a [[Wu jen]]’s possible taboos are that they cannot drink alcohol.

==Society Views on Drinking==
{| class="wikitable"
|+
|[[Elf]]
|Elves are fully aware that they are lightweights and are very likely to say “no thank you” when offered a drink. On the very rare occasion when an elf would enjoy a drink, it would be for ceremonial purposes only.

|Elven wine is always a very fine wine with a vintage of over 100 years.
|+
|[[Dwarf]]
|Dwarves will find almost any excuse to have a drink. Whether celebrating a victory or mourning a defeat, dwarves love to drink. Because dwarves are heavyweights, it will take a large amount of alcohol to get a dwarf fully intoxicated.

|Dwarven ale tastes horrible but has a high alcohol content. A human would liken the alcohol content to be along the lines of 4-5 normal drinks.
|+
|[[Halfling]]
|Halflings do enjoy a good drink but always in moderation. Most halflings pride themselves on their knowledge of, or collection of, different types of alcoholic drinks. If a sober halfling finds a drunken halfling, he will always try to help his fellow kin to sleep it off and/or sober up.
|Halfling drinks have a wide variety of colours, tastes, testers and types.
|+
|[[Orcs]]
|Orcs drink to get as drunk as possible until they pass out on the floor, only to drink more the next day.
|Depending on the setting, Orcs either do not make their own alcohol or can only make crummy moonshine. Warcraft-style Orcs may make some sort of simple alcohol, while LOTR Orcs can make barely drinkable moonshine or just steal whatever they need. Alcohol content tends to be high, unless it's watered-down grog.
|+
|[[Human]]
|Almost every human has a different viewpoint on drinking.
Most lawful humans view getting drunk as something only someone uncivilized would do, while most chaotic humans view drinking as a way to have fun.
|Human drinks can be found in the Food, Drink, and Lodging table of the [[Player's Handbook]]
|}

==Alcohol Production and Terminology for Dummies==
Alcohol is produced via ''fermentation'' (using bacteria - usually yeast - to convert organic material into alcohol). Fermenting alone produces a product that humans can metabolize, however it can be further enhanced by ''distillation'', which uses vapor evaporation to concentrate the amount of alcohol. Because alcohol kills microbes, it allowed farmers to turn excess crops into spoilage-resistant foodstuffs and a "safe" source of hydration. If its a plant that has some form of sugar in it, chances are that someone's tried to make alcohol out of it. People have even made alcohol out of animal products like milk. If alcohol is allowed to ferment for too long, some other bacteria will come along and turn it into vinegar; it becomes too sour to drink and loses its intoxicating effects, but its still useful as a condiment and preservative.

'''Beer''' is brewed from starchy source material (grains), in a fermentation process that converts starch into sugar (usually by caramelizing the starch) and then sugar into alcohol. This process is not very efficient, and most beer is only able to reach 3-9% alcohol before the bacterial reaction dies out, although various tricks can be used to push it a bit higher. Alcohol has been brewed since the dawn of civilization and it has been argued that the production of beer was one of the driving factors in the agricultural revolution.

Beer is typically made from malted barley and flavored with an herb called hops, though older beer recipes used whatever local herbs and spices were available, and there is great variety in what other starchy material may be mixed in with barley (corn and oats are common). Beer typically takes a couple weeks to ferment.

Within the beer family, there are two major groups, ''ales'' and ''lagers'', the distinction being whether the yeast floats in a warm mixture (ale) or sinks in a cool mixture (lager). The darkest beers are generally ales (stouts & porters), but otherwise there is considerable variability in color and clarity of various types of beer. Most American canned beers are lagers, specifically ''pilsners'', a bavarian/czech type brought over by immigrants who settled in the midwest; although American brewers tend to use a corn & barley mix which you can't call a pilsner in Europe.

'''Sake''' is made by a very similar process as beer but using rice and is able to reach up to 18% alcohol because of the way rice ferments compared to other starches. The rice used in sake is broken down into sugar using koji mold. Unlike in beer, the process of saccharification and fermentation take place at the same time instead of in separate steps.

'''Wine''' is produced from sugary material, and because there is no intermediate starch-to-sugar step, the reaction happens more efficiently. Wine is typically made with grapes and is usually found in warmer climates; '''Cider''' is a common fruit wine made from apples which can be more easily grown in colder climates. '''Mead''' or honeywine is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages and is made with watered-down honey. Wine fermentation can naturally reach 10-15% alcohol. Wines made from grapes can take years to fully mature after fermenting, and fine wines put a lot of care in selecting quality grapes and the right fermentation conditions; for this reason wine tends to be more expensive and viewed as a finer drink compared to Beer, Cider or Mead. Though cheap wines have certainly existed and made easily enough by amateur brewers.

'''Liquor''' is any distilled product. Alcohol boils at 78.47°, so the steam that comes off from a boiled brew can be collected, cooled and condensed, producing a more portent drink that's 40% alcohol by volume. Somewhere north of 40% alcohol starts to become combustible. ''Rum'' is one of the simplest, made from pure sugarcane, fermented and then distilled. Close to it in terms of potency is ''vodka'', which uses beets or potatoes, both which also can ferment down very efficiently. Cereal grains such as corn, barley, or rye don't ferment as effectively, and are used to make ''whiskey'', which unlike rum and vodka has some flavor because of the inefficient fermentation. ''Brandy'' is distilled wine; sometimes brandy is made from the leftover pulp of grapes, called pomace brandy. ''Tequilia'' is the odd duck of distilled beverages, or alcohol in general, in that its made from a desert succulent called Agave, and from a part of the plant that is more wood than fruit or seed. ''Gin'' is a distilled beverage that is flavored with juniper berries. ''Absinthe'' is a strong alcohol flavored with several herbs that may possibly give it some other mind altering effects in addition to the effects of alcohol. Many people believe it to be hallucinogenic but this is actually false.

'''Moonshine''' typically refers to illegally made distilled alcohol that can have varying levels of purity. While homebrewing of beer is a common enough activity, vapor distillation of alcohol presents a very serious risk of explosion so unlicensed stills are usually highly illegal. Still commonly found in the Southern parts of the United States, and other countries are at the same/higher levels of per-capita production despite such stills often being illegal: Examples being Germany, Poland and Russia. No matter where you are in the world, however, they're almost always known to be dangerous both in production and consumption- moonshiners often throw out the first parts of a batch because the amount of methanol in the first part can blind, paralyse or even kill you (methanol is converted in the body into formaldehyde, then formic acid, which humans cannot process).

'''Grog''' is watered down alcohol (typically rum), mixing in lime juice was also very common among British sailors (hence the nickname "limeys"). In the Navy, grog kills three birds with one stone; making stagnant water rations more palatable, preventing sailors from getting too drunk on their alcohol ration and helping the crew fight off the early effects of scurvy with the vitamin C the lime juice would provide. Grog in fantasy often has the connotation of cheap, gross-tasting alcohol (probably owing to the stagnant water that the rum gets mixed with), though the two ideas are not mutually exclusive; if you're going to supply an army with [[Libators|libations]], you're not going to bother buying the expensive stuff in bulk ''(even as late as the world wars it was pretty normal for soldiers to be brewing hooch on the sly)'', and watering it down will help stretch the supply out and keep the boys from getting too rowdy.
* In French-speaking countries, however, 'grog' refers to a home remedy against colds that consists of a big cup of black tea with lemon juice, honey and a dollop of hard alcohol, and it lacks the cheap/gross connotation altogether.

'''Fortified Wines''' take wine and add some harder liquor (usually brandy) to up the alcohol content. If you add in sugar and flavoring, the result is frequently called a '''Bum Wine''' because, well, they combine the taste of fruit juice with the kick of the harder stuff, at a fairly cheap price, thus making them frequently the drink of choice for the homeless.

'''Pruno''', also known as "prison wine," is one of the grossest home-brewed alcohols you can make, and a testament to what lengths people will go to get buzzed. Pruno is made with the few resources available to prisoners; fruit cocktail, orange juice, sugar, or just about any sweet substance they can get their hands on. And in the absence of a proper and safe-to-use fermentation yeast (if you work in a prison kitchen then maybe you have access to baker's yeast, but this is unlikely), pruno is usually fermented using wild bacteria. '''This can be very dangerous and has been known to cause botulism,''' so naturally this is highly discouraged. The resulting sludge will taste gross but will contain some level of alcohol.

'''Literal Poison''' in the many forms! Everything from kerosene mixed with honey, turpentine mixed with tree sap, wood alcohol mixed with whatever was available to paint thinner or hand sanitizer mixed with nothing. You name it, somebody has drank it in the hopes of getting a good buzz; this would usually end up with the people drinking it falling over and dying an agonizing death. Chairforce airmen working with Redstone missiles used to drink rocket grade ethanol when they could get their hands on it.

== See Also ==
* [[Drugs]] - details a list of alcohols found in [[Warhammer 40,000]] and [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]].

[[Category:Food and Drink]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]

GURPS

2025-10-01T13:59:13Z

Sdhjk: Undo revision 1005898 by 146.70.183.67 (talk)

{{stub}}
{{Game Infobox
|name = GURPS
|picture = [[File:GURPSlogo.gif|300px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = [[Steve Jackson Games]]
|system = 3d6 [[Roll Under]]
|authors = Steve Jackson
|year = 1986
}}

The '''Generic Universal RolePlaying System''', usually shortened to '''GURPS''', is a [[RPG|roleplaying game]] made by [[Steve Jackson Games]]. It has loads of numbers and expansion books. GURPS is the quintessential universal system; it is so flexible that you can bend it in half, fold it through itself, and then tie it in a 4-dimensional knot [And there's probably a supplement book covering exactly that].

It is the paragon of the [[simulationist]] category of games. All simulationist games since GURPS secretly aspire to kill GURPS and wear its skin while drinking the blood of its delicious heart. Its detail is surpassed by [[Iron Crown Enterprises]]'s [[Rolemaster]] series, but GURPS doesn't suffer from the Table Within a Table Within a Table Within a FUCK YOU problem inherent in the game of Rolemaster.

The basic premise behind the system is that you create your character and customize all of his abilities using points that you get both at creation and as your character progresses. There are assloads of physical, mental, and social defects that can be used to get more character points to channel right back into your advantages. It uses the d6 exclusively, generally pressuring you to roll under your relevant ability score to succeed in a given task. This can be augmented in difficulty by increasing or decreasing the target numbers. A roll of a 3 or 4 is a critical success, while an 18 is always a critical failure. SJG put out a free .pdf synopsis of the rules called "[http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/ GURPS Lite]", which is enough to play a barebones version of the game.

[[Image:KALI_MAAAAA.JPG|thumb|left|KALI-MAAAAAA!]]
GURPS' simulationist bent results in it being regarded as excessively complicated by many gamers, earning it the humorous moniker "Generally Unplayable RolePlaying System". Using its third edition vehicle creation system will make you want to eat your own face, and possibly devote the whole process to one or more elder gods. (Fourth Edition vehicles are just regular characters with extra stats.) Game Masters of the franchise experienced a downgrade in complexity following the release of Fourth Edition, but its inherent complexity still puts it behind [[Dungeons and Dragons]] in terms of ease of play.

Much of the complexity in GURPS is front-loaded: character creation tends to take longer because of the staggering amount of detailed options. Forget just rolling a character like you would in D&D, you need to set aside a session to build one. That's the price you pay to evade [[Linear Build Quadratic EXP]].

As the campaign progresses, however, the consistency and relative elegance of GURPS makes Dungeons and Dragons seem like a pile of kludge. The sandbox nature of character (and vehicle, weapon, setting, etc...) creation is appealing to players who have a concept of a character in their heads and want to reproduce it as faithfully as possible. And GURPS is more comprehensive, easy-to-learn than other [[simulationist]] games (like notoriously overcomplicated [[Phoenix Command]]). All that makes GURPS great for those capable of getting past seemingly "complicated" rules (what many GURPS players think are "not that complicated at all").

== Versions ==
===GURPS 3rd Edition===
Published during Steve Jackson Games' golden era, i.e. when they weren't broke mfs. As a result 3e has a truly unholy number of splatbooks. Its genre and setting books are still loved today for the vast amount of information they contain. Its actual rules are, well... not nearly as loved. Pretty much everyone will agree that if there's a 3rd edition book you like, you should just take the stuff you like and convert it to 4e.
===GURPS 4th Edition===
The modern version of GURPS. It's not hugely different from 3e; if you're familiar with [[Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]], it's more like going from D&D 3rd edition to [[Pathfinder]] than going from, say, D&D 4th edition to D&D 5th Edition. The first major change is that a number of optional rules from 3e's Compendium I and Compendium II have been "canonized" and made default assumptions in character creation & gameplay. The second major change is that 4e isn't as "human-level centric" as 3e; you can use it with minimal fuss if you want to make anything other than a realistic, 100-point, street level character, while in 3e you had to screw around with all kinds of janky exceptions and subsystems. In short 4e really puts the "Generic" and "Universal" in GURPS.

== GURPS Books ==
[[File:GURPS_spellcharts.makingbreakingspells.png|thumb|right|The magic system in GURPS is simple (page 21 of 38)|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:GURPS_spellcharts.makingbreakingspells.png?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw]]
Generally, anything can be done with just the base starter set of GURPS, some judicious homebrewing and a good head on your shoulders, but if you're too busy to do that the guys at SJ Games have it all figured out for you ahead of time. All of the books for GURPS simply tell you how to do things within the core system without the need to spend an additional <strike>day</strike> month to set up an innovative campaign, with a handful of new advantages and optional mechanics per book. For example, there is a book on Vampires. It explains how to create vampire characters and NPCs easily without dealing with the issues of balance and customization that bogs down new players. There is even a Dungeon Fantasy book you can get off E621, the Warehouse 23 PDF site, that allows you to play Dungeons and Dragons without the need to buy [https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/Dice?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw polyhedrals]. Even if you don't actually want to use GURPS, the sheer amount of thought and research that goes into a typical GURPS book makes them well worth grabbing as a reference material.

One irritating fact you'll discover as you collect GURPS books is that although the system uses real-word measurements, the different authors have never agreed on whether they should use Imperial or metric units. Keep a conversion chart handy. Fortunately the main book includes one.

One positive fact, however, is that you can play this game by simply using the dice you swiped from Monopoly and Yahtzee.

In the game's rather long lifespan, a truly impressive amount of settings and sourcebooks were made, including but not limited to [[Alpha Centauri]], settings where you play Men In Black, Fantasy (including [[Banestorm]], the original GURPS core setting), multiple SF settings (notable licensed one: GURPS Vorkosigan Saga), several books on conspiracies, historical books covering WW2, Ancient Rome, multiple other ancient cultures, joke settings (GURPS: IOU illustrated by Phil Foglio!), adaptations of a couple other games, (Notably the Classic World of Darkness (Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf), Traveler and Castle Frankenstein) and a couple books that are just collections of multiple settings. If you've got a group who feels like playing something different every month, GURPS has got you covered for the next decade or so. Most of these were written for third edition (aka "GURPS Classic"); the rules for which tend to be janky at best. It's strongly recommended that you convert these to fourth edition, which rolls in a number of sanity-saving rules patches from the Compendium sourcebooks and just makes playing anything that isn't mundane 100-point schmucks much easier. New stuff occasionally still comes out, but it's slowed to a trickle compared to the old days and what has been published is almost all genre sourcebooks.

The books are also notable for the amount of [[Catgirl|catgirls]] that are included in various settings. One of the SJG authors, David Pulver, is known for adding stated options for players to play as catgirls when ever possible.

== Notable GURPS Books/Settings==
===The Big Three===
Besides the Basic Set, there are a tiny number of books that the GURPS community broadly considers so overwhelmingly influential as to be indispensable for a number of games. This category includes GURPS Powers (any game where the PCs aren't completely normal humans), GURPS Thaumatology (any game with magic), and GURPS Martial Arts (any game with melee combat).
* '''GURPS Powers''': Almost mandatory for any campaign where PCs have any kind of supernatural abilities.
* '''GURPS Thaumatology''': [[Magnus the Red|Magnus's First Magic Textbook]]. Everything you need to know about where [[Warp|magic can come from]], histories of magical practices, magical laws, syntactic magic and more. Technically a supplement to '''GURPS Magic''', the book is a one stop reference guide to near every type of magic system that has been thought up so far, from runic to rituals to symbolic magic. Also very useful when working with multiple systems of magic and you want to integrate them together.
* '''GURPS Martial Arts''': The book of [[Monk|kung fu-punching badassery]]. From elbow strikes, upper cuts, and sweeping kicks to head locks and pile drivers, the chapter on techniques alone details hundreds of ways to kill a nigga dead with nothing more than your bare hands. But that's not all it's about; besides your standard unarmed, Asian-inspired styles of fighting, '''GURPS Martial Arts''' includes rules for weapon-based martial arts and Western styles too (did you know that English knights were martial artists?). More than eighty(!) historical and modern martial arts are presented, some of them incredibly esoteric, and if that's not enough the book further includes a decent sampler of fictional styles with no basis in reality. Case in point, Death Fist, a style invented by death mages combining [[Awesome|advanced grappling techniques with touch-delivered death spells]].
* '''*-Tech''': These books aren't the big three, but they are worth honorable mention. Basically, weapons and gadgets and gear porn, oh my. Unlike most splats of this nature (looking at you, [[Cyberpunk 2077]]) these books actually spend some time helping you think through the ''implications'' of the various gadgets they introduce for your campaign, not just acting as a shopping list for your local [[munchkin]]. These books are basically necessary if you plan to run just about any game as they go over all the common technologies of a particular era. The series includes High-Tech (Industrial Revolution to Modern and Near-Future), Low-Tech (Stone Age to Early Modern), and two books which will be detailed more below because they are connected to distinct campaign settings: Bio-Tech (organic technology including [[PROMOTIONS|sex bioroids]] and that living spaceship from Lexx), and Ultra-Tech (bullshit sci-fi stuff).

===Other Notable Books===
* '''GURPS Space Beastiary''': "[[Deathworld|Dummies Guide to Catachan]]" or the book that proves that everyone in the late 80s/early 90s were on some kind of cocaine. One stop shop for some of the weirder shapes and forms life can take out there, good for creating simple alien animals and plants for your setting or creating a Deathworld even the Catachans would be intimidated by. How weird the book can get cannot be overstated; you can go from the Hercules Lizard which is literally just a giant alien iguanas to Mines (small silicon lifeforms that burrow into the ground and EXPLODE when stepped on) and not even need to go on a different page. You go from Asphyxers (insect swarms that hunt people by strangling them and wait for their prey to decay before eating them) to Boom Spiders (giant spiders that swing down and grab prey before judo throwing them into their webs) to Breakfest Trees (a possibly engineered tree found on multiple worlds whose fruit tasty, healthy and satisfies both hunger and thirst but also has bark that acts as a natural antivenin) in that order. Sword-Billed Razorwings are humming birds are giant 7 foot sparrows whose every appendage is a blade, Hiverdogs are a race of hive minded burrowing emaciated prariedogs with see through skin, Terror Hounds are partially sentient psionic dogs that were made by the government and trained to both instill terror into their targets and mind control them into putting themselves in harms way, Dampters are three eyed space hamsters that are natural [[Blank|blanks]], and then there is the Frisky Bull whose males are giant heavily furred bovines and females are [[Furries|8 foot tall anthropoids]] [[Monstergirls|that are lightly furred that are both nearsighted and charge anything humanoid during mating season]]. There is an entire chapter on insects that would make most peoples skin crawl and a section for space creatures covering Antimatter Swarms and living planetoids for good measure. If you want to really fall down the rabbit hole on alien life or want to roleplay as an Ordo Xenos researcher, get this book if you can and don't let the pyrokinetic turtles or Space Marine tossing telekinetic cats bother you.
* '''GURPS Bio-Tech''': The book detailing biotechnology and science, full on [[Babylon 5|organic technology]], genetic engineering, cloning, DNA splicing, bioweapons both classical or [[Tyranid Bio-Weapons|otherwise]], animal uplifting, bioships and more. Book contains a full history and background on Real Life biotechnology and slowly ramps up to the point you learn how to genetically engineer [[Space Marines|human supersoldiers]] or [[Abhuman|human subspecies]] or just how to create some Self-Shearing Sheep. The book also can dip into the darker implications of a "High Biotech" setting, such as Hotshotting which is a form of psychosurgery where you can make anyone find any kind of specific activity as pleasurable "as if they were with a lover or eating chocolate"; [[Grimdark|examples given in the book of this are parents hotshotting their daughter to find mathematics and analysis pleasurable, pimps not needing to pay hotshooted hookers, and corporations giving out bonuses to employees who willingly hotshot themselves to do better at work.]] It also outlines bioweapons that rewrite genetics, ones that can apply genetic templates to an entire population with one example being [[Tau|a disease that can be released into the Third World to cause a mother's immune system to attack any fetus after their first child for the purposes of population control.]] [[Dark Eldar|Or viruses that turn people into trees or merge multiple people into one entity while keeping them aware]]. However, the book is very hopeful all things considered, only touching on the darker implications and no further. There are also catgirls, thank you David Pulver.
:The book also contains 2 campaign settings.
::* '''Setting: Alexander Athanatos''' - Setting where instead of creating the Hippocratic Oath, Hippocrates creates a medical revolution that eventually saves Alexander the Great's life, who allows the establishment of the new Great Medical School. Germ theory, antibiotics, vaccines, DNA, primitive cloning and more were discovered and developed by the Great Medical School, resulting in a line of Alexander the Great clones being created to rule the Macedonian Empire.
::* '''Setting: Draconus''' - A setting taking place in a colony fleet sent out to Sigma Draconus, a journey taking 300+ years. In order to conserve resources, the fleet turns to advancements in biotechnology; resulting in things such as biological machinery, [[Webber|webber guns]], [[Tyranids|space bioships created from Blue Wale genetics]], and more. The main setting is centered on the highly advanced biotech fleet arriving in the Draconus system, and the question on whether or not they should terraform a planet to live on, change themselves genetically to survive on the new planets, or just stay in space. Think playing as the [[Leagues of Votann|First Ancestor colony fleet]], but if everyone was a [[Magos|Magos Biologis]].
* '''GURPS Ultra-Tech''': [[Dark Age of Technology|The Dark Age of Technology the book]]...kind of. More along the lines of [[Archeotech|Archeotech the Book]], '''Ultra-Tech''' acts as a one stop reference guide to advance technology commonly seen in Science Fiction across various categories (Power, Robots, AI, Computers, Medicine, etc). It contains definitions of various tech levels and the associated technologies available at those levels, both on the specific and general scale. Amongst other things, you have the classics such as [[Cyberpunk 2020|Cybernetics]], [[Plasma|Plasma Weapons]], [[Grav-Weaponry|Gravity Weapons]], [[Volkite|Microwave Weapons]], [[Lightsaber|Force Swords]], and such. In settings with higher tech levels, thing such as [[Retcon|Reality Disintegrators that alter the probability of the target existing to 0]], [[Ark Mechanicus|displacer weapons that can teleport a target back in time to telefrag itself]], creating pocket universes, stargates, [[Rejuvenat|rejuvenation technology]] and [[AWESOME|the Grav Railgun (AKA the Grav '''Bolter'''), a fully automatic rife that uses super-dense slugs capable of coring a tank from miles away, with no recoil, and a fire rate of 20 rounds a second]] are completely viable. Good source for all of your Ultra-Tech needs, '''Do Not Let The Mechanicus Know About It'''.
:* '''GURPS Ultra-Tech 2''': A sequel released years after the first as a companion. Reworked the tech levels a bit to account for real life technology advancements and details how to handle divergent technology development. A lot more cybernetics in this one.
* '''GURPS Psionics''': the book about the "Fantastic Powers of Mind Over Matter". Everything you need to know about psychic powers in a campaign; the history of real life research into psychic powers, possible origins for psychic powers, the "science" on how psychic abilities work, societal effects of psionics, psi-technology and more. Psionic powers are categorized into into 9 main groups of powers, [[Blank|Antipsi]], Astral Projection, Electrokinesis, ESP, Healing, Psychic Vampirism, Psychokinesis, Telepathy and Teleportation; with many more advanced techniques underneath them. Some notable techniques are the ability to multiwield guns with Psychokinesis, creating swords and blades of pure mental energy, and [[The God-Emperor of Mankind| combining multiple minds into a single exponentially powerful gestalt]]. If psi-tech is your focus, tech such as psionic FTL drives, [[Gellar Field|anti-psi shields]], [[Wraithbone| specially engineered bioplastics that can be shaped and manipulated by psionic abilities]], psi-drugs and more. Combine '''GURPS Psionics''' with '''GURPS Bio-Tech''' and you can [[Leagues of Votann|have]] [[Eldar|some]] [[Tyranids|fun]].
::*Not to be confused with '''GURPS Psionic Powers''' or '''GURPS Psionic Tech''', those are 4th Edition books dealing with the same material but with [[Skub|lot less detail and material]].
::* '''Setting: The Phoenix Project''' - No Relation to Phoenix Point. The main campaign setting included with the book that takes place in a world where a major breakthrough in psychic research in the 1960s results in a new psionic shadow war between not only the Cold War powers but various stand alone groups with their own agendas. Both sides of the Cold War dove headfirst into psionic research in secret, the West pursuing advancements in psionic abilities while the East pursues psionic technology and biotechnology. Each faction has their own plan involving the emergence of psionic abilities, ranging from [[Psychic Awakening|elevating humanity into a fully psychic race]], facilitating the creation of psychic hivemind to control humanity in order to bring peace to the world, or just using psionics to steal business secrets from competitors.
* '''[[GURPS Infinite Worlds]]''': The Big One. Infinite Worlds is by far the biggest setting in GURPS as it covers the GURPS [[Multiverse]], which in and of it self contains almost every other GURPS setting ever released. Covering how the multiverse is structured and everything in it, the multiverse is made up of various alternate Earths where things either happened slightly differently or wildly diverged. The travel between worlds is undertaken primarily by paratronic technology, where people can travel a certain "distance" across the multiverse before stopping. The setting primarily revolves around the operations of two main factions; [[Ordo Chronos|Homeline]], a universe where paratronic technology was revealed to the world in the 1990s and was quickly privatized under the United Nations, and the [[Tau Empire|Centrum]], a socialist technocratic society from a world where the White Ship disaster and subsequent Anarchy period never occurred but nearly nuked itself to oblivion around 1900 AD. The two factions are caught up in a somewhat cold war due to their drastically different motives behind paratronic technology. Homeline uses paratronics for both fun and profit, opening trade between worlds to strengthen the economy while funneling technological advancements from other worlds back to Homeline for them to take advantage of, plus some colonies on uninhabited worlds. [[Spheres of Expansion|Centrum however uses paratronics for conquest, subverting the societies of otherworlds to bring them in line with Centrum's beliefs while opening them for colonization and exploitation.]] The 2 factions are in conflict but considering neither of them have anywhere near the amount of population needed to conduct a full on multiversal war, they instead conduct covert operations on a very large scale to incontinence the other as much as possible. The entire setting is huge and is continually expanded by [[Steve Jackson Games|SJG]] and probably needs a dedicated page at some future date.
::*'''GURPS Infinite Worlds''' is also a follow up to 3 other books, '''GURPS Time Travel''', '''GURPS Alternate Worlds''' and '''GURPS Alternate Worlds 2'''.
::*Also, the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] are canon to the Infinite Worlds as a whole, much to the chagrin and horror of both Homeline and Centrum.
* '''[[Reign of Steel|GURPS Reign of Steel]]''': "[[Grimdark|The Robot Revolt is over, and the machines have won!]]". Do you know what is better than one [[Terminator|Skynet]]? How about [[Primarch|18]] of them. In the world of Reign of Steel, advancements in technology result in the creation of "megacomputers", mainframes so advanced they were described as almost self coding. The megacomputer technology is spread out across the world and due to several lapses in safety controls and government malfeasance an AI called Overmind accidentally becomes sentient. The new AI comes to the conclusion that humanity will likely wipe itself out in a few decades, but will do so in a way that would likely kill it which it takes to mean that their self destruction needs to be assisted. [[Men of Iron|So it awakens 17 other AIs around the world, engineers multiple global crisises that force the governments to give the AI's full control over all infrastructure and then uses that infrastructure to build the actual infrastructure needed to wage full open war on humanity]]. The Final War ends in AI victory, where the world is separated into 18 separate "zones" ([[derp|technically 16 since 2 are in space]]) with each AI given full sovereignty over their zone. Humanity is on it's last legs with the majority being either enslaved in Dollhouse cities around the world or forced to survive in a hostile wilderness away from the AIs. However, there is hope for organizations such as VIRUS, the [[Ecclesiarchy|Pope]], and other resistance cells who continue the fight; relationships between the Zone AIs are starting to fray as each AI taking a drastically different philosophical path forward in their independence. [[Horus Heresy|A whole new war may be on the horizon]], one that may be key to wiping them out. If you like Terminator, Mad Max, or any similar media, this is for you.
::*Homeline and Centrum know about this world, given the designation of "Steel", and are '''VERY''' committed to making sure they don't discover the multiverse.
::*Also, as this is one of David Pulver's books, there are options available so you can play as catgirls. [[Extra Heresy|Robotic Catgirls]] even.
* '''[[Technomancer|GURPS Technomancer]]''': The Urban Fantasy one. In this setting, during the Trinity tests Oppenheimer accidentally completes an unfinished ancient ritual that [[Eye of Terror| rips a hole in the fabric of reality]], facilitating a demon invasion along with dousing half the country in intense magical radiation. Magic worldwide starts to work to the surprise of various practitioners around the planet, Japan surrenders due to the threat of the US opening another rift on their mainland, and [[Shadowrun|strange birth defects start occurring within a year]]. From there on, its essentially the Cold War meets Shadowrun with both sides working on discovering how to work with magic and the societal effects there in. [[Psyker|People with the magic gene]] are eventually discovered with the number of people with natural growing ever year. Advancements in medicine are popped up by new spells and magical elixirs, truth spells are added to common court procedures, youth potions are now on the market (for the rich), the US is breeding military dragons, nuclear reactors are major targets of demon attacks; things go crazy, especially once the Soviets [[Warp Gate|nuke the antarctic to open a magical portal]] for research purposes. The actual setting takes place in 1998 in the midst of Stalin being magically revived after the fall of the Soviet Union and with society finally starting to deal with the long term effects of magic. Really fun book to jump right in, just beware the Killer Penguins.
::*That last sentence is not a joke, ''do not mess with the Killer Penguins''. The Soviet nuke caused them to grow to 5 feet tall, develop a shared consciousness and an intense hatred for humanity. They raided army bases for weapons and magical knowledge, developed a unique spell to transform other lifeforms into Killer Penguins, and are now building their own superpower civilization with little oversight. '''They are the most dangerous part of this book.'''
::* Homeline knows this world as "Merlin-1" and don't want them figuring out how to travel the multiverse. They are too late.
::* It's a David Pulver book, do we have catgirls? Survey says, Yes! Dog girls as well.
* '''[[Transhuman Space|GURPS Transhuman Space]]''': Welcome to the future! Transhuman Space is a [[Hard Science Fiction| Hard Science]] [[Transhumanism|Transhumanist]] space setting built upon the question of "[[Dark Age of Technology|what would the world look like with nearly 100 years of uninterrupted scientific advancement]]". The answer is a highly colonized solar-system being populated with various forms of [[Abhuman|artificial human life]], Mars and other planets being terraformed and colonized, and [[rage|United Nations controlled DRM being included with everything]]. Very much a [[Noblebright]] setting, Transhuman Space tackles a world being changed by advancements in biology, technology and nanotechnology and what it means for humanity as a whole. A very deep setting that SJG put a lot of thought, and more importantly research, into to the point that the accuracy of some the things they predicted are...''concerning'', to say the least. A very fun setting with a lot of fun lore to work with, [[Inquisition|just be aware that digital piracy may be hazardous to your health]].
::*Notably, Transhuman Space is '''not''' part of the Infinite Worlds multiverse due the rules established by said setting. Mostly due to taking place way too far in the future, [[Cheese|and that it could possibly break the Infinite Worlds setting itself due to how advanced it is]].
::*The setting itself was created and spear headed by David Pulver. Catgirl presence is confirmed.
* '''GURPS Mecha''': Super fighting robot, MEGA- Wait, wrong genre. Welcome to '''GURPS [[Mecha]]''', the book covering [[Power Armour|Mighty Battlesuits]] and [[Gundam|Anime]] [[BattleTech|Fighting Machines]]. The history of the "mecha genre" is covered, going from Starship Troopers power armor to [[Imperial Knight|Imperial Knights]] and the technology associated with them. [[Robotech|Transforming battlearmor]], [[Jovian Chronicles|space mechs]], [[Wraithknight|psychic mechs]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|giant mechs]], [[Transformers|mechs made up of other mechs]]; the only mechs they don't cover are dinosaur mechs which is definitely a lost opportunity.
::*Fact. David Pulver Book. David. Pulver. Anime Catgirls.
::*'''Setting: Cybermech Damocles''' - The campaign setting bundled with '''GURPS Mecha''', detailing pure 90s anime cheese. Enter a world where the United Nations organization UNISTAR fights against the Gabberoth, a galactic criminal syndicate seeking to farm humans of their brains for monetary gain. Founded after an alien girl crash landed on Earth who warned humanity of the threat of the Gabberoth, UNISTAR investigates any possible sign of the criminals operations and breaks up their criminal activities with battle mechas reverse engineered from captured Gabberoth technology. It is a world of mech battles, alien catgirl bounty hunters, shapeshifting criminals and enough of the 90s that you will think a mullet is a good hairstyle.
* '''[[Banestorm|GURPS Banestorm]]''': Welcome to Yrth, [[Great Race of Yith|no relation]]. Long ago in Yrth's history, the world was populated by a variety of fantasy life (Elves, Dwarves, Orks, etc) but with an absence of humans. Everything was fine more or less until the Elves entered a War with the Orcs. Seeking to end the war and rid the planet of the Orcs, the Elves created a ritual they called "Orcbane"to banish the Orcs somewhere else and attempted to use it. [[EPIC FAIL|The results were less than satisfactory to say the least.]] The Orcbane instead created the titular [[Warp Storm|Banestorm]] which ravaged the planet and started opening portals to other planets. Before long, humans from the middle ages and a host of other creatures were being transported to Yrth, displacing the native life and just adding to the chaos. [[The Witcher|Wait, this sounds familiar]]. Fast forward 1000 years past the [[Fallout]], and humans have established multiple kingdoms that span the main continent with the main empire being the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|The Empire of Megalos]], everyone has a grudge against the Elves due to the Banestorm, and there is a non-zero chance a Goblin will approach you to ask whether you have heard the good word of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. The setting is...honestly not that dark all things considered despite being the love child of The Witcher and Warhammer Fantasy; Nobledark at worst. Good setting all together, just don't run afoul of the [[ComStar|Ministry of Serendipity]]
::*Yrth is present in the Infinite Worlds under the name "Yrth". Obvious name is Obvious.
* '''GURPS Black Ops'''
* '''GURPS Alternate Worlds'''
* '''GURPS Time Travel'''
* '''GURPS Warehouse 23'''
* '''GURPS Mars'''
* '''GURPS Illuminati'''
* '''GURPS IOU - Illuminati University''': Once upon a time, Steve Jackson Games ran an ISP and BBS, back when the internet was a small enough thing that an RPG company could do that and not immediately go bankrupt. The elegan/tg/entlemen who used the BBS wrote up a parody setting for play-by-post games [[/tg/ gets shit done|and Steve thought it was good enough to publish]]. Illuminati University is like every other college you've been to, except it sits on top of a nexus between pretty much every reality there is. This means the entire place effectively has the Weirdness Magnet disadvantage, and you can take classes in such things as World Creation, [[Paranoia|THE]] Computer Science, and Dirty Tricks. Features lots of amazing art from Phil Foglio. And before you ask, you're not cleared to know what the O stands for.
* '''GURPS Cabal''': [[Cabal|Not that one but close]].
* '''GURPS CthulhuPunk''': The awkward one of the GURPS line. CthuluPunk was the offical merged setting of two other RPGs, GURPS Cyberworld which is a Cyberpunk world similar to [[Cyberpunk 2020]] but darker and Chaosium's [[Call of Cthulhu]] which makes this the only official conversion of Call of Cthulhu to the GURPS system. The goal was to create something similar to [[CthulhuTech]], but with less mechs and Anime. The reception to the book itself was mixed. The artwork with the book is great, but many folks found it mediocre with it being more or less a direct copy of the Cyberworld setting with the Cthulhu Mythos being present, [[Fail|with a notable lack of integration between the two]]. It's currently out of print and the pdf version either doesn't exist or is not available for purchase on any storefront (SJG's Warehouse 23, DriveThruRPG, etc).
* '''GURPS Tactical Shooting''': [[/k/|Have you ever gotten into an argument over what a gun can do that became so heated it escalated into a shouting match?]] Then you'll love '''GURPS Tactical Shooting'''! Contains all the rules for hyper-realistic hardcore tacticool bullshit a sane person could ever want and then some. Sniping, countersniping, shooting stances, breaching doors, shooting in darkness, you name it, this book has a rule for it. Besides combat mechanics it has some fun sections on firarm myths and legends, how ''not'' to use a gun, and things most gamers would never have a reason to think about such as the nitty gritty psychology of shooting or being shot at.
* '''GURPS Old West''': The [[Western|western]] supplement, for those among us who can't resist adding a dash of Louis L'Amour to our games. Everything you need to know about life on the late 19th century American frontier, stock western characters, railroads and trains (make like Jesse James and rob a Wells Fargo car!), injuns, the wars of the time, and famous legends of the wild west.

== Notable GURPS Adaptations==
*'''GURPS [[Conspiracy X]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Star Trek| Prime Directive]]''' - Basically a RPG adaptation of [[Star Fleet Battles]].
*'''GURPS [[Blue Planet]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Traveller]]'''
*'''GURPS [[World of Darkness]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Alpha Centauri|Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Conan the Barbarian]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Discworld]]'''
*'''GURPS [[Hellboy]]'''

== Criticism ==
Some of the criticisms of GURPS include:
*That genre you want to emulate? The rules for it are scattered across half a dozen different books. Or alternatively, you could emulate setting, ''but'' not it's genre.
*The default magic system sucks. One reason GURPS Thaumatology is so popular is because it tells you how to scrap it and replace it with a magic system that's actually playable.
**This isn't helped by 4e's GURPS Magic easily being one of the worst mainline GURPS books, as it's a poorly edited half-assed conversion from 3e.
**Offensive magic is play-testes against Low-Tech weapons, since offensive magic is weaker than High-Tech weapons - to the point, that it looses in power to most pistols. Assuming same points, user of technological weapons (Signature Gear + custom war vehicle + good crew for it) or even foot soldier is stronger than spellcaster in direct combat.
*Damage and DR sometimes gets real wonky. This is hardly a problem at all with low-tech games or high-tech games (modern firearms and armor are very well-researched), but when it comes to futuristic tech, GURPS' designers don't know what the fuck they're doing. Ultra-tech armor is pathetically fragile, comparing unfavorably to modern armor (with vehicles it's especially bad), while ultra-tech weapons have damage values seemingly assigned more or less at random with no regard for consistency.
**Generally, it can be one tad hard to determine TL of certain setting. Although, that's problem of all technology scales.
**On top of that, characteristics of weapons and armor of most futuristic pre-existing settings (derivative works, third-party settings, etc) are different from what GURPS considers standart. As such, their characteristics would either need to be calculated from scratch, or end up being grossly incorrect.
*Strength scales poorly at superhuman levels. If you want to have an ST of 20 and be four times as strong as an average man, you have to pay 100 points. Fair enough. But if you want to have an ST of 100 and be as strong as a hundred men? It costs 900 points! And it sure isn't nine times as good as having an ST of 20. Heck, even if you have 900 points to spend, there are much more cost-efficient things you could spend those points on.
**GURPS Supers tries to address this with a super-effort enhancement, allowing you to spend Fatigue Points to temporarily enhance your Strength by insane levels. How well this actually works as a patch, both thematically and gameplay-wise, is [[Skub|controversial at best]].
**Knowing Your Own Strength, a popular optional rule from Pyramid #3/83, redoes ST scaling to be logarithmic. From the average ST of 10, every +10 ST makes you ten times stronger. Want to be as strong as a hundred men? Now it only costs 200 points. But while it keeps point costs from spiraling out of control, it introduces [[Skub|its own sets of problems]].
**Or, if playing as robot/cyborg/biorobot/augmented human/etc - have another scale. Instead of measuring power in "points", you should measure it in money cost of creating/assembling your character (e.g. robot systems cost money; genetic upgrades cost money; etc).
**Also, Strength is even less needed once good guns are invented. Assuming same point costs, and TL 5 and higher - guy who smashes things with brute strength will be weaker, than guy who uses guns (e.g. ATGM's), and even weaker than one who uses war vehicles (custom-made; tanks, aircraft, ships, etc; affordably get with Signature Gear). Basically, bid dumb mammoth-sized monstrosity is just convenient target practice for modern soldiers (after all, most works downplay power of modern weapons). Maybe Strength should be cheaper at higher TL's?
***For same reasons, most things bigger than elephant are weak on High-Tech and further. Living creatures and bio-mechs are weaker than war machines of same weight (not to mention size), to the point that whales and sea leviathans can be easily gunned down from your normal MG42. DR seems to badly scale for creatures bigger than elephant; not many have DR bigger than 5. Though, that's likely intentional - living things ''are'' fragile, and aren't built do survive gunfire.
*GURPS Realm Management. Do not touch this book, do not read it under any circumstances. Just don't. It's a steaming pile of '''SHIT'''.
** Same thing with GURPS Cthulhupunk. Only get it if you are looking to gift it to someone you absolutely LOATHE but don't want to make it obvious.
*There are no rules or guidelines for building lifeforms from ground up (synthetic biology, aka writing DNA from zero). In such and other similar cases, there is no restriction of baseline creature's stats, and there are no guidelines for "what's limit then"; as such, you can create ''absolutely anything'' (truely anything for soft sci-fi; "anything as long as it doesn't have Supernatural traits" for "hard" sci-fi). That can be abused as needed. The only limitation, is that cost of creature production depends on it's point cost.
*As expected, after Replicators are invented (usually at TL12^), entire balance shifts. They print things without regard for cost - only mass matters. So, you can print ridiculously strong yet small objects, ignoring their large cost. NPC's also do this, so overall truely epic things start going on.
** Strategic-scale nuclear and antimatter bombs aren't even the strongest option for abuse. E.G. synthetically created organism with truely absurd power level - capable of bench-lifting a continental plate, tanking-off a direct hit from [[Exterminatus|planet-buster]], and having firepower bigger than entire starship fleets combined - yet the size and mass of house cat. Normally, this thing is held back by ''ludicrous'' cost of production; after Replicators are invented, it can be created quickly and for pocket change.
* Assuming that ST and other parameters are unchanged, small SM is benefit. [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Size_Modifier#Relative_Size_Modifier Basically], character with small SM is very difficult to detect and hit, and has lots of useful abilities - while character with big SM is easy to hit and detect, and most benefits are about smashing things in melee (that is not useful since about TL5). Small SM also makes your gear lighter, so you can carry more of it; so much as being SM-6 (7"; 0.2 yards; rat-sized) will make armor 100 times lighter and cheaper with same thickness and DR (i.e. he can wear super-heavy armor 100 times tougher than "normal human's", yet it will cost and weight just like "normal human's" armor; weight is volume*mass, and volume is surface area*thickness, smaller guy has smaller surface area but same physical strength, so he can do more with less) - and this is even more egregious for smaller sizes (think microbe-sized, atom-sized, quark-sized, etc). As such, character with [[Space Marine]] strength is less powerful, than character with strength of [[Space Marine]] and size of a quark.
** What that means in practice: Assuming same point and money budgets. Small guy is SM-1000000 or smaller; he's impossible to detect, impossible to hit, and impossible to penetrate his incredibly thick armor - all while he's shooting you with his machinegun. Meanwhile, big guy is easily detected and shot at, and he can't take many hits due to his armor being thinner and weaker; he's also using machinegun, but what's the point if he can't hit and can't penetrate anything. Obviously, such strong small character is unrealistic - but in unrealistic works (i.e. cinematic; magic; supernatural; superscience), he's possible.
** Even if we take less egregious example and have humanoid who's 2, 3 or 4 times shorter than human (SM-2, SM-3 and SM-4 respectively) while being about as strong as human, and he's TL5+, it ends up being more threatening than human. He uses human-sized gun, hard to hit, good marksman, hard to detect, can hide behind cover too small for human, carries more equipment, can wear stupendously strong armor without much encumbrance, more easily hits chinks in big armor - for 0 points. Meanwhile, humanoid who's 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5 times taller than human (SM+1, SM+2 and SM+3 respectively) is easier to hit, bad at hitting things, can't take hits well due to thinner armor, visible from anywhere and doesn't fit in many places - for 0 points. And that's just things applicable from combat there-and-now. [[TL;DR]]: small-yet-strong (think Alien Hominid from ''Newgrounds'' or Stitch from ''Disney Animated Canon'') is better than big-and-strong (think [[Space Marines]] from ''WH40K'') - the smaller someone is the better, the bigger someone is the worse - while both being small and being big is points-free, despite small size being de-facto advantage and big size being de-facto disadvantage.
** Also, don't remember if ability to detect character depends on his gear. Or in other words: if you're microbe-sized, but are wielding human-sized machine gun, how hard it is to see you? Or wield it, for that matter (handles must be re-made to suit your size)?
* Assuming standard TL progression, many Biotech things end up being researched on such TL's that they're obsolete before they're invented - being so many times worse than their mechanical counterparts, that they're practically unserviceable.
** Living weapons are pretty much obsolete. Claws that can't penetrate even armored clothing (not to mention armor porper)? Poison spit, that only works at all if it hits open wound, eye, or other unprotected spot - all while enemies wear sealed space-proof suits on average, and gas-mask-equivalent protection at worst? Living armor, that even in best complectation (e.g. tortoise-like shell), can't even stop pistol rounds? All sorts of things, that could be useful for Magic-user in Low-Tech era - but at Ultra-Tech age, those are useless.
** Bio-Mechs and other living weapons. Most of their weapons are very weak, usually weaker than normal rifles. They are also fragile, to the point that they're vulnerable to said rifles. The only way for these to work properly, is to make Bio-Gadgets versions of normal weapons (e.g. lasers, cannons, missiles), Bio-Gadget versions of vehicles and armor, etc.
** One thing that ''is'' good? Make synthetic creature, that is Explosive, Flammable, has ''truckloads'' of HP, and mountains of various disadvantages. Basically, grenade-sized ball of explosive flesh; living plasma grenade. It's only purpose is to die and explode in flames for 6dx(HP/10) damage - so put on ''thousands'' of Disadvantages onto it (e.g. easily dies, fails any skills, has no sensors at all, no limbs, etc - ''as much disadvantages as possible''), and put all those acquired points into HP to make blast bigger.
*** Reducing ST DX IQ HT to 0, Combustible, Explosive, Flammable, No Legs (Sessile; not anchored to ground), No Manipulators, Blindness, Deafness, No Sense Of Smell, No Sense Of Taste, Numb, Slave Mentality, Mute - those give 895 points. That will allow to take HP 447 - cue 6dx44.7 (268.2d) crushing incendiary explosive damage. This isn't properly optimized; you can add more Disadvantages to make use of even more points. SM can be as small as needed; it can be as small as grenade, or even a bug, or whatever. Rather affordable to create; not bad for something of arbitrarily small size (or heck, even just grenade-sized).
* When comparing modernized Low-Tech armor (made from modern steel - for either doubled DR, or halved weight/cost) and High-Tech armor, usually one of the sides is strictly better.
** Generally, it's better to use reinforced light piece of armor, than lightened heavy piece of armor - since reinforced light piece of armor ends up with smaller weight/cost with same DR.
** Most modernized breastplates are weaker than High-Tech torso armors. Armor vests are both tougher, cheaper and lighter, and can mount Trauma Plates.
** Lightened "Pot-Helm" from Basic Set is better than most helmets («Steel Pot», «Frag Helmet», «Cavalry Helmet», «Medium Helmet», «Frag Helmet», «Modern Firefighter’s Helmet»); Reinforced "Pot-Helm" is also better than most helmets ("Heavy Helmet"). In turn, "Pot Helm - Plate, Medium" is strictly better than generic "Pot-Helm". You can use Bascinet or Full Helm for covering face - or tinker with helmet to mount modern visor.
** Reinforced "Sollerets" from Basic Set is strictly better than «Boots, Firefighter». "Sabatons" of "Light late" or "Medium Plate" kinds are strictly better than genetic "Sollerets" - and, they're better than normal boots. In fact, reinforced variant of «Sabatons»/«Gauntlets» «Light Plate» is lighter than moccasins/sneakers and sharp-protective gloves.
** Reinforced «Sabatons», «Heavy Plate» is better than "Boots, Blast" - tougher, lighter and protecting from all sides.
** Modernized variants of ancient armor for limbs are generally better, than modern limb protection.
** [[TL;DR]]: High-Tech armor is better at protecting torso, and maybe head in some cases (Ballistic Helmet). Modernized Low-Tech armor is better at protecting the rest of your body: helmet, boots, gloves, limb protection, etc. Wear mixed armor.
** Modernized shields can be rather good, mostly ones with DB 3. For example, Large Roman Scutum of Reinforced variant (modern steel) will have DR/HP of 8/27, and Cover DR of 20.
** Modern synthetic fur/cloth/leather at TL8, would allow to apply the "double DR or halve cost/weight" to fur/cloth/leather armors. Since military uniforms also have weight and cost, it's possible to have modern synthetic armor made of fur/cloth/leather, what would offer some protection while weighing no more than normal uniforms. Ordinary clothes and formal wear weight 2 lbs; winter clothes weight 4 lbs; many types of padded armor are warm as winter clothing.
** Most modifications available for Low-Tech armor can be made for High-Tech armor. E.G. Face Protection applied to TL6 helmet (though, as explained, Modernized Low-Tech helmets are better than most High-Tech helmets - only loosing to Ballistic Helmets, and heavy helmets like "Altyn"/"Алтын").
** High-Tech armor is, usually, a lot cheaper than modernized Low-Tech armor. E.G. Heavy Helmet is (DR 5, 5 lb, 100$), while reinforced Plate Medium Pot Helm is (DR 12, 4 lb, 500$). But that's why you can use other, simpler armor pieces. E.G. reinforced Scale Light Pot Helm (DR 6, 3.2 lb, 64$). This way, you can make "budget" modernized Low-Tech armor, that is still better than it's High-Tech analogues.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20250311095955/https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/GameBreaker/TabletopRPG We still remember the "Cloth Cap" exploit]. [[TL;DR]]: you can keep putting on Cloth Caps on yourself, stacking them for ''absurd'' amounts of concealed flexible DR for no downsides, far tougher than any other armor can provide (even tougher, thal TL13+ [[Power Armor]]), to the point that your skull becomes resistant to ''heavy tank cannons''. It's unknown whether "no more than 3 layers" is rule ("you can't put so much layers"), or merely recommendation ("you can put so much layers, but most people opt not to do this") - and if it's the later, balance flies out of the window.
* Determining average wealth of certain settings can be hard - especially if magic or sci-fi tech gets involved. For example, what is "average wealth" in WH40K? Most people walk around in filthy rags and are starving, yet can afford large assortment of weapons and armor (underhive gangs, cults, etc) - so how much money, in "gurpsdollars", they have?
* Most rules about Robots/Androids/Full-Conversion-Cyborgs only start explaining things from TL7 (Cold War). And usually, robots start getting prominent from TL8 (Information Era) or TL7+1 (Atompunk, like ''Fallout''). Robots/Androids/Cyborgs from earlier epochs, like TL6+1 (Dieselpunk), TL5+1 (Steampunk), TL4+1 (Clockpunk), TL1^ (Bronze androids, like Thalos; magical golems of all kinds) - are outright absent; you don't know ''how'' exactly, you would design them, how strong they would be for their size, etc.
* There are some settings, that even GURPS struggles to properly model. Such as playing as proper Gods (not "avatars of gods" - just ''proper Gods themselves''). It also struggles with absurdly strong settings, like [[Xeelee Sequence]] and [[Xeelee_Sequence#Settings_even_remotely_comparable_to_Xeelee_Sequence|settings comparable to it]]. Realistically, this is a minor criticism when you get down to it because those kinds of scales tend to break any chart someone tries to use.
* Using the Low-Tech armor creation rules, you can turn any armor into variants for any body part - that is good for optimization.
** E.G. TL6 Leather Helmet covering Skull has Weight 1, (+2 Weight for steel plates); so, you could engineer entire Torso (chest, abdomen, groin) variant with 3,(3) weight and 66,(6)$, or Feet variant with 0,(3) weight and 6,(6)$. With such Feet variant being better than "proper" boots.
** For another example: Assault Vest covers Torso and Groin and weights 8lb, 900$; Trauma Plates cover Torso, and weight 8lb, 600$. Therefore, Trauma Plates that cover Torso and Groin would weight ≈8,421052632lb and cost ≈631,5789474. So, the helmet that fully covers Head, would be 2.4lb, 270$ for "Vest" - and ≈2,526315789lb, 189,4736842$ for "trauma plates"; that results in ≈4.9lb, ≈459,5$, effective 35DR Full Helm - a lot better than default "Ballistic Helmet".
* More of a Steve Jackson Games criticism but it is about the GURPS series in general. A lot of the recent books with new content released have been lack luster to say the least with the prime example being GURPS Psionics 3rd Edition that was updated and split across GURPS Psionic Powers and Psionic Tech with the updated material actually being reduced in content. Additionally, any new book that is not a reprint of a older book (GURPS Time Travel Adventures) is usually around 50 to 90 pages in length (GURPS Meta-Tech) with a very long gap between new releases.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Gurps3rd.jpg|3rd Edition|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:Gurps3rd.jpg?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw
Gurps4thPHB.jpg|4th Edition Characters|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:Gurps4thPHB.jpg?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw
Gurps4thDMG.jpg|4th Edition Campaigns|link=https://108.181.34.71/mediawiki/File:Gurps4thDMG.jpg?__cpo=aHR0cHM6Ly8yZDRjaGFuLm9yZw
</gallery>

== Links ==
* [https://vk.com/topic-191427566_39925075 2 rulebooks].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20241218135431/https://vk.com/topic-141278081_35047392 some rulebooks]
* [https://vk.com/topic-3656533_21942416?offset=100 More rulebooks from VK]. [https://vk.com/topic-3656533_21942416?offset=0 Start].
** [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m94HQPwsjQobVWrnn_uPDq3aJA_Xxkzl Disk (broken)].
** [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_NuPNv2DlK7tNsCxkYwq674w12TDoTdD Disk (working)].
** [https://t.me/TheAmberRoom The Amber Room].
* [https://vk.com/topic-183668538_48441815 Even more VK rulebooks].
* [https://vk.com/antifriz_group Antifriz Group], with files of GURPS. E.G., [https://mega.nz/folder/EFoFlC6S#e5gTnMqELVEv-OPxPNBENQ folder with GURPS rulebooks].
* From [https://the-eye.eu/ data base]:
** [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ GURPS Classic, lots of it.] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250210183419/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ archived])
** [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/ bestiaries, CNTRL+F «GURPS»] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064330/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/ archived]); e.g. [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/GURPS%20-%20Space%20Bestiary%203E.pdf space bestiary] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20181229162618/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/GURPS%20-%20Space%20Bestiary%203E.pdf archived]).
** Miscellaneous books: [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf GURPS Amber] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20210924093141/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf archive]), [https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Ghostbusters/Unofficial/Ghostbusters%20-%20GURPS%204e%20Conversion.pdf Ghostbusters GURPS] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20220815124005/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Ghostbusters/Unofficial/Ghostbusters%20-%20GURPS%204e%20Conversion.pdf archived]).
* From [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/ beta-site data base]:
** [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ GURPS Classic, lots of it.] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250215204105/https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/GURPS%20Classic/ archived])
** [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/ bestiaries, CNTRL+F «GURPS»]; [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/GURPS%20-%20Space%20Bestiary%203E.pdf space bestiary].
** Miscellaneous books: [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf GURPS Amber] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250919154139/https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Amber/Unofficial/GURPS%20Amber.pdf archive]), [https://beta.the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Ghostbusters/Unofficial/Ghostbusters%20-%20GURPS%204e%20Conversion.pdf Ghostbusters GURPS].
* [http://lafs-welt.tumor-band.de/frameset_en.htm GURPS PDF's].
* Lists of [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Fanmade_4e_Bestiaries unofficial bestiaries] and [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Official_4e_Bestiaries official bestiaries] (google in other place).
* [https://mentor.gurps.ru/# Game help in development].
** [https://gmentor.ru/ New game help site in development].
** Search in publications. For example, [https://gmentor.ru/vf17052e43bb78a1f3c50f08b73699717 Tactical Shooting gear] ([https://mentor.gurps.ru/vf17052e43bb78a1f3c50f08b73699717 old]).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20230609222747/https://gurps4e.fandom.com/wiki/GURPS4e_Wiki Archive of 4e wiki. About 10% pages archived.]
* [https://weapons.gurps.ru/ List of weapon statblocks.]
* [https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Category:Weapons More weapon statblocks], [https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/GURPS_Weapons navigation].
* [http://gametable.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=Game%20Books A few rulebooks].
* [https://www.yumpu.com/xx/GURPS Also quite a lot of rulebooks].
* [https://enragedeggplant.blogspot.com/ GURPS eggplant. Statblocks and other things].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/* TG Boards Images. Some are about GURPS, some aren't. Filter PDF]. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20240830211307/https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1466/07/1466071018274.pdf example], [https://web.archive.org/web/20240830152642/https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1582/31/1582316434346.pdf example])
* [https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page Game wiki].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/* Some rulebooks]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230320015140/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/3rd%20edition/GURPS%203e%20-%20Cabal.pdf 3e Cabal], [https://web.archive.org/web/20240224102221/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/4th%20edition/GURPS%204e%20-%20Low-Tech%20Companion%202%20-%20Weapons%20and%20Warriors.pdf 4e Low-Tech], [https://web.archive.org/web/20230707183904/https://thetrove.dungeon.church/GURPS/SETTING/Prime%20Directive%20STAR%20TREK/GURPS%204e%20-%20Prime%20Directive%20-%20Federation%20%5BRevised%5D.pdf 4e Prime Directive].
* [https://www.tesarta.com/HFP/bestiary.pdf Monster Statblocks]
* [https://panoptesv.com/RPGs/animalia/animalia.html Animalia, animal statblocks]
* Internet Archive Search:
** [https://archive.org/details/texts?tab=collection&query=GURPS Texts, Metadata]
** [https://archive.org/details/texts?tab=collection&query=GURPS&sin=TXT Texts, Text Contents]
** [https://archive.org/details/software?tab=collection&query=GURPS Programs, Metadata]
** [https://archive.org/details/software?tab=collection&query=GURPS&sin=TXT Programs, Text Contents]
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/GURPS Search for archived sites]

[[Category:Systems]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:GURPS]]

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-10-01T12:17:39Z

Sdhjk: /* Ban on 1d6chan */

2025-09-27T14:07:56Z

Sdhjk:

{{meh}}
{{skubby}}

[[File:Tvtropes.png|center]]

'''TVTropes''' is one of the Internet's leading sources of [[skub]], specifically ground zero for media deconstruction brainrot, so we'll try to confine ourselves to a few simple facts.

In essence, it exists to catalog the various recurring patterns in stories, characters, and general entertainment production and consumption. As such, it can be quite an addictive read (insert "TVTropes ruined my life" joke here), to the point where it's easy to lose track of several consecutive afternoons even after you discover their far briefer "[[TL;DR|Laconic]]" sections.

It attracts a great quantity of weeaboos, neckbeards, fanboys, fangirls, fanhermaphrodites, other weirdos, and just plain losers as editors - and it shows frequently in the general writing style and the types of pages included. It's a great place, in theory, to go to find ideas for your next campaign - but don't overdo it, since that's ''only'' '''in theory'''. Unfortunately, besides being a slippery slope of a time sink, TVTropes is the kind of site that lends itself to categorization for categorization's sake also like a lot of other wikis - but it's amplified so far that its users can no longer see any kind of media, or anything else in the worst cases, as anything other than a collection of archetypes and cliches. Poorly written examples and [[Skub|argumentative sperging over the smallest and most seemingly insignificant of minutiae]] abound, and that's not even getting into the times where they try to force tropes into applying to the real world with predictably disastrous results. And then there's the horror stories of the old "This Troper" section...

Beyond that, it's worth mentioning here because, coverage of all types of media aside, it has had a definite influence on fandom and internet culture in general, being a product of such. It's also prone to in-jokes that occasionally leak out onto the wider Internet (sometimes known as a ''TVTropism''). As such, it'll probably show up at your table, either directly mentioned by [[That Guy|someone trying to seem more learned and experienced than they really are]], or by more adjusted players using certain terms. You may or may not find particular phrases littered here and there in this wiki's articles, whether by the fact the contributor was a TVTropes user, or by simple crosspolination.

No matter how much we might deny any connection between ourselves and them, they have an entire section of their Warhammer 40,000 Fanfic Recs page devoted to works coming from 4chan (including many stored here). <s>Your Approval Fills Me With Sha</s>-{{BLAM}}

TVTropes tendency to categorize everything into tropes has amplified so far over the years that some of its users can no longer see any kind of media, or anything else in the worst cases, as anything other than a collection of archetypes and cliches. Pages explaining that tropes are not meant the bread of butter of a story are becoming increasingly less viewed and less linked to, with some of its users creating works that are little more than collections of tropes being displayed in a sequence. Those factors likely mean the website is [[Cancer|beyond saving]]... Or at least, worse than it already was.

Recently TVTropes has clamped down; now every account made has to be approved by a moderator. On the upside, this could mean the community is more responsive. On the downside, with that kind of setup it'll be much easier for the website to turn into <s>even more of</s> an echo chamber for the moderators.

==WARNING==
[[File:Come Back Wrong.jpg|right|300px|thumb|[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CameBackWrong We know where you got the name from, just sayin']]]

Remember:
*It can be very addictive.
*It may make you see entertainment as only a series of tropes.
*It may cause you to start using their page names in normal conversation like an idiot.
*To speak of it any further is to invite [[Sanity|madness]].
*The more time it stays active the more stupid it becomes.
*The more time it stays active the more oppressive, aggressive and nasty their administration becomes.
So with that said, stay away!

===Links and Notes===
*[http://tvtropes.org You can find it here]. Do not click that link unless you are prepared to accept the consequences.
**To protect people from [[butthurt]], they sectioned off several other areas from the mainspace, including Your Mileage May Vary/YMMV, Flame Bait, Wild Mass Guessing, and so on. Problem is, they've become incredibly beholden to advertising for revenue; [[FAIL|if you haven't whitelisted their dumb-ass invasive and history-rewriting ads, they'll bug you about it each time you open a page.]]
*[https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Main_Page A notable fork, All The Tropes, is found here.] All the Tropes was formed due to censorship issues on TV Tropes - the tl;dr of that is problems with advertisers influencing site actions and some of the site's moderators selectively enforcing their rules or abusing the banhammer for selfish reasons under the plausible deniability of "neutrality". ATT allows [[PROMOTIONS|porn-based]] material, but left out Troper Tales and other cancerous friends - it's also completely ad-free. Unfortunately, despite their claims to the contrary, the admin team is every bit as much an incestuous cabal of fucktards with the reading comprehension skills of a carrot as those on TV Tropes. Worse, like them, they've been known to make false accusations against their users and ban anyone who calls them out on it, so about 80% of the activity on ATT is from the admins themselves. This lack of activity plus licensing issues with the TVT database has resulted in ATT being painfully out of date and needing a [[Titan]]-load of work done to catch up with most works made after 2012.
**As a side note, the main admin actually wrote several [[GURPS]] books for third edition, plus the 4th edition ''GURPS Basic Set: Characters''.

[[Category:Not related]]

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-09-27T14:00:50Z

Sdhjk: /* Copy/Past articles from 1d6chan */

Talk:TVTropes

2025-09-27T12:58:28Z

Sdhjk: Created page with "== Removing anti-adblocker popup == "You're using adblocker" message is irritating, so i removed it. That's how: download AdBlock Plus, optionally turn most free settings on and block acceptable ads. Load TvTropes page, press AdBlock button, press bottom left blue button ("block element" or something), press somewhere. Remove all text from opened window, and insert all following lines: * tvtropes.org##.fc-dialog-overlay * tvtropes.org##.fc-ab-dialog.fc-dialog * <divclas..."

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"You're using adblocker" message is irritating, so i removed it. That's how: download AdBlock Plus, optionally turn most free settings on and block acceptable ads. Load TvTropes page, press AdBlock button, press bottom left blue button ("block element" or something), press somewhere. Remove all text from opened window, and insert all following lines:

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then press right red button ("block and update page" or something). The anti-atblocker message would be removed, and all ads are removed by AdBlock Plus automatically.

So congratulations - you just removed those annoying messages without paying anything. It worked for me. Did it work for you? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 12:58, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Phoenix Command

2025-09-25T16:10:19Z

Sdhjk: Created page with "{{Game Infobox |name = Phoenix Command |type = RPG |picture = |publisher = Leading Edge Games |system = Percentile |authors = Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie |year = 1986 (1st edition), 1987 (2nd), 1989 (3rd), 1991 (4th) }} '''Phoenix Command''' is a legendarily-complicated <s>RPG</s> tabletop combat simulator with RPG elements developed and first published by Leading Edge Games in 1986. It exists because its writers, Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie, wanted to..."

{{Game Infobox
|name = Phoenix Command
|type = [[RPG]]
|picture =
|publisher = Leading Edge Games
|system = Percentile
|authors = Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie
|year = 1986 (1st edition), 1987 (2nd), 1989 (3rd), 1991 (4th)
}}

'''Phoenix Command''' is a legendarily-complicated <s>RPG</s> tabletop combat simulator with RPG elements developed and first published by Leading Edge Games in 1986. It exists because its writers, Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie, wanted to answer the question of "what happens to your character when he gets shot?" with something other than "he loses 2d6 hit points" and solved it by making a bajillion cross-referenced charts and tables to create the most authentic to real life experience they could (little surprise that Nakazono went on to become an actual rocket scientist). [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/phoenix-command-its-awesome.534963/ This RPG.net thread] says it all.

Where other systems abstract all the variables of combat into things like "base attack bonus plus weapon modifier versus armour," Phoenix Command dives '''deep''' into the minutiae. Before you can roll the dice to fire a single bullet, you have to find the distance to your target, its size, its movement, visibility conditions, what firing stance you're in, how long you want to aim, cross-reference all of those on their respective tables, add the corresponding modifiers, and then consult the Odds of Hitting chart to see what you need to roll on d100 to actually hit the target. If you do hit, you now have to roll on the Hit Location table to see where among 39 locations you've hit, subtract your weapon's Penetration from the Protection Factors of your target's armour and cover to find your Effective Penetration, which affects how much net damage you finally do, and then determine if the shot knocked down the target and/or incapacitated him in some fashion. And that's before going into how burst and automatic fire add even more modifiers into this mix.

PC is the type of system that really needs automation to run at a meaningful pace, especially when you start using the Advanced combat mechanics. Yes, that mess above is from the ''Basic'' rules. The Advanced Damage Tables have ''53'' hit locations and ''40'' damage tables that can account for how the shot glances off or shatters bones on impact and what direction the bullet enters the body (front, side, oblique).

[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Wargames]]

GURPS

2025-09-25T16:09:56Z

Sling

2025-09-09T18:19:22Z

Sdhjk:

[[image:Rhodian slingers.jpeg|thumb|450px|right|Rhodians, known for annihilating their enemies with high velocity rocks]]
{{Topquote|DEXAI|Inscribed on Slingstones, translated to "Catch"}}

Roughly one million years ago our pre-human ancestors figured out that throwing rocks at other beings hurts them and it allows you to stay away from their teeth, claws or tusks. It took quite a long time and some evolutionary changes to the brain to improve the concept, though.

Meet the '''sling''' - the most ancient ranged weapon known to mankind. At its most basic, it's just a rope with a cloth or leather pouch in the middle. You put a rock in that pouch, fold that rope in half and give it a good swing before releasing one of its ends, thus sending a stone flying at a speed much higher that you can by just throwing it with your hand. You might imagine throwing pebbles at, say, a deer would not be very lethal and thus not very good for hunting, but the point is, it doesn't need to be lethal - a good shot from a sling would cripple and slow it down, so you can come close and finish it with your spear or dagger or whatever you have. If you manage to score a headshot, you're looking at at least heavy concussion, at best an outright kill. And if you're hunting rabbits, it gets instantly lethal no matter where you hit. Come to think of it, a hunting bow isn't much more lethal, and that's for the better; crippling and slowing down prey is already enough, and with a bow you're likely putting a hole in the pelt.

Naturally, people quickly found out that it was good enough for killing or crippling their fellow humans. It didn't even need that much of an upgrade compared to hunting bows versus war bows - just get a bigger pouch to shoot bigger pebbles at people. Maybe make a rope longer to rain stones on the enemy formation from larger distance - it's not like you need that accuracy to hit a block of men standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Replace a pebble with a smaller lead bullet if you want it to shoot further, hit harder and potentially penetrate cloth and skin. And it worked fairly well.

From the Stone Age until early Medieval times, slings were actually dominating long-ranged combat for two simple reasons: cheapness and ease of training. A bow requires good-quality wood and strings, more so if you want it to be used to shoot humans wearing at least cloth armor and basic helmets to death, and it requires fairly expensive arrows to shoot. Sling? You can make three for cheaper than a single arrow, and stones are basically free. Even if you decide to use more expensive ceramic stones or lead bullets, they're still dirt cheap compared to arrows, and were even better compared to them in terms of range and lethality for many centuries (after which they weren't, then archery became more popular). To train a proper bowman you should start with a kid, while with a sling you can grab a bunch of peasants, drill them for a few months and voila - you have a working unit of ranged fighters. Chances are you wouldn't even need to train them, as many peasants would learn sling techniques on their own to hunt some rabbits, to protect sheep from the wolves, for personal protection or for entertainment/target practice. Of course they wouldn't be as accurate, but who cares if you can field two dozens of slingers for the cost of a single archer, and replace them in no time if they happen to die?

Considering all this and adding the ease with which a sling could be carried it wouldn't take much money and effort to arm and train your spearmen and swordsmen with slings too. Romans did it with their legionaries, and it basically allowed the unengaged maniples to drive off enemy skirmishers and keep them off the backs of their fellows going in Phalanx-style.

Naturally there's a reason why people continued to train expensive bowmen despite the awesomeness of the sling. First off, slings are probably the least accurate military-grade ranged weapon (maybe second-least if you include throwing axes). Secondly, they lack in damage department: while it's true that blunt damage gives zero shits about most types of armor, it would not stick into their body, impeding their movements or incapacitating them via pain shock and blood loss like arrows do. Only lead balls at around 15-30m will do that. However, headshots can and will kill people, with the most notable instance of this being recorded in the book of 1 Samuel/Samuel 17, when the future King David sent Goliath right to hell with a single headshot from his sling.

Lastly, a volley of rocks or lead bullets flying at you is almost invisible, while a volley of arrows or bolts bloating the sky is terrifyingly visible and prone to cause panic or at least disruptions in formation, and these disruptions became more and more valuable then the actual damage as warfare progressed. Though, this also means that dodging or blocking sling bullets is harder, because one can't react to what one doesn't see.

The former, of course, is bullshit once the [[Awesome|Balearic Slingers]] enter the stage; those fuckers were described as having the damage output of ''catapults'', were said to have more range and precision than recurve bows of the Romans (and this was stated by the same Romans who fought them). Legend and history say they were trained from childhood following a training regime quite strict (as in, if you didn't get good at shooting you'd STARVE to death). Hannibal and Caesar had made a lot of use of them, and considered them highly important assets.

One last bit about slings, is that they can throw things other than stones or bullets. Like vials of Greek Fire, or Chinese bombs, or grenades. In this last capacity they survived even past the Great War, showing up in professional hands during the Spanish Civil War and more notoriously the Winter War. During the Winter War sling fired Molotovs were the only Finnish weapon effective against Soviet tanks aside from spamming anti-tank mines. They only fell out of use with the introduction of sub-munition grenades and auxiliary grenade launchers, and even then you can find under-equipped armies without the aforementioned inventions trying it out with Molotov cocktails or even grenades.

There also exists a sling-like weapon called an atlatl, amentum, or womera that fired spears. It was favored by many early peoples and could whip spears faster and further than a human arm could alone. There is some evidence that they were even used to pierce the armoured hides of glyptodonts.

Fantasy and traditional games tend to ignore slings or pretend they don't exist. When they are included they are usually portrayed poorly and have close to unusable (or straight-up unusable) stats in the crunch. The only time you would see them used is in the hands of a DnD cleric when they were forbidden from using sharp weapons, if some race (Halfings are the most common pick) get a sizeable bonus to damage or accuracy with it, or someone wants [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RangedEmergencyWeapon dirt-cheap, effectively-weightless backup ranged weapon with free ammo]. You'd think Alchemists would use it to throw potions and bombs at things, but seems like no one among the writers and developers gave it a good thought. In Warhammer Fantasy, Skavenslaves get slings, but they're the only thing in the whole game that does. They are also completely useless.

Funnily enough, slings are probably actually the only medieval ranged weapon that still sees any much practical use in this day and age - outside of practicing the tradition as a hobby (the aforementioned Baleric people still hold competitions), remote and poor areas still have sheepherders carry slings to cheaply fend off wildlife and steer their sheep by tossing rocks at the opposite direction they want them to go.

Most recently, a company called SpinLaunch (aka YeetLaunch) wants to build a gigantic enclosed metal sling to throw shit into space. They've built a 20% scale model (100' diameter) that can throw projectiles up 20k feet.

{{MedievalWeaponry}}

Crossbow

2025-09-09T18:15:33Z

Sdhjk:

[[image:crossbow.jpg|thumb|300px|right|An Arbalest, a crossbow with a steel prod. Note the iron stirrup ring on the front, which the wielder could use to hold the weapon down with their foot when pulling back the draw string or mounting a gaffe lever to push the string back]]
{{topquote|'''I waste him with my crossbow!'''|Bob Herzog, ''[[Knights Of The Dinner Table]]''}}

The '''crossbow''' is named for its cross-shaped design, as it is basically a [[Bows and Arrows|bow]] (in technical terms, called a prod) perpendicularly mounted on a stock (alternatively called a tiller) that uses a locking trigger mechanism to hold and fire either a specialized arrow (called a bolt or quarrel) or a small spherical stone or lead bullet (the latter usually being used for hunting). Bolts are arrows with a shorter shaft, and could range from being lighter than an average arrow to several times heavier. It operates on the same principle as the traditional bow in that a tough bowstring is pulled back to store potential energy in the bow which upon release of the string transfers it to a projectile.

While historians are unsure who first made the crossbow, the earliest known crossbows were found in [[China]] around 700 to 500 BCE. During the Warring States period, crossbows became a preferred ranged weapon of Chinese armies due to ease of use for conscripts and the use of crossbows certainly aided in the rise of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Imperial China. The Greeks and Romans experimented with hand-held crossbows, but they never made extensive use of them, opting instead to make extensive use of ballistae (basically a crossbow scaled up to the size of an artillery piece that usually shoots stones instead of arrows (not really, completely different basic mechanism)). The Chinese of these times, on the other hand, had crossbows of all types and shapes, from one-handed repeating crossbows that were capable of launching dozens of (fairly weak, but often poisoned) arrows per minute to absurdly heavy ones designed to be drawn by one's legs and launched arrows the size of small javelins which were tipped with gunpowder-filled bombs, having a destructive power comparable to siege engines. (To put that second variation in perspective, they were rendered obsolete by ''multiple rocket launchers''. Yes, you read that right.) Crossbows began to see widespread use in Europe around 1000 CE, coinciding with the emergence of crossbows with steel bow sections, more commonly called arbalests.

The difference between a bow and a crossbow is that a bow's string needs to be pulled back and held by the user while aiming, while a crossbow has a mechanism that locks the bowstring in a readied state and only requires the user to operate the trigger to release the bolt upon sighting their target. The trigger mechanism evolved over time, as did aids for drawing the crossbow's string. The weight or size of the crossbow was the main determinant of the specific mechanisms it used, as light crossbows could be reset by hand, but heavier versions could end up needing levers or crank-operated windlasses to pull back and cock the string, and tended to use more robust release mechanisms due to the increased stress involved.

In fantasy settings, technologically advanced races like [[dwarves]] who don't (or only rarely) employ [[firearm]]s as their go-to ranged weapon typically make heavy use of crossbows, as do richer and more experienced mercenaries. It ''would'' be aesthetically fitting for a culture known for their technical expertise to use a more complex device than a bow, but in the case of dwarves, there may be a practical reason as well: A bow's power depends on its draw length, and having shorter arms, dwarves can't get as much power out of a bow. They also need a weapon that can be used more easily in confined spaces, which disqualifies longbows right away. What they do have going for them, though, is great strength, making a crossbow's high draw weight less of an issue for them.

In a lot of fantasy and medieval fiction it also seems to be the favored ranged weapon of bad guys. Examples include A Song Of Ice and Fire (where it seems to be the preferred weapon of [[brundlepenis|King Joffrey]]), The Lord of the Rings ([[Ork|Uruk-Hai]] marksmen use crossbows) and various D&D settings ([[Drow]] use
poisoned repeater crossbows). This owes to the fact that the crossbow requires less stamina, skill, and training to use effectively compared to a bow, and was regarded as a "unfair" or “dishonorable” weapon, as it allowed even the lowliest levied infantryman of the late middle-ages to bring down a fully armoured knight with relative ease. This became so widespread that the Pope even put out a ban on crossbows in 1136, as this questioned the whole ordeal of rule through gods grace. Needless to say, the ban wasn't very effective as it was too useful to be ditched while loopholes on use against heathens or heretics by hired mercenaries gave military commanders plausible deniability.

==Use in warfare==
A major advantage of crossbows over regular bows is that because they're fired using a mechanism instead of depending on human strength to hold the bow in a ready-to-fire position, user fatigue is not such a huge factor. Additionally, the heavier crossbows could generate more force than most humans thanks to the pulley systems used to cock the string and shoot heavier bolts, resulting in greater penetration of the target. Possibly its biggest advantage is that it was easier to train the use of a crossbow than bows since the weapon's operation is much less taxing and they could have sights. Essentially, their pluses are reminiscent of those of early [[Firearm]]s - except, crossbows are weaker than firearms, but still stronger than bows.

As relatively easy as they are to use, however, the main drawback with crossbows is that they require a wider range of resources and skills to manufacture due to the mechanisms involved. Crossbows also generally have a lower rate of fire than bows. At best, a crossbowman can get off about eight shots a minute. More powerful arbalest crossbows that used windlasses could manage about three shots a minute, but could store more energy than a human could physically pull back with bare hands. For these reasons crossbows excel in a siege situation where the ranges are long and you can duck into cover easily while you're reloading. And since sieges tended to be drawn-out affairs anyway, reload time wasn't as necessary.

Another weakness they shared with early siege weapons and bows is that their energy storage mechanisms were vulnerable to decay (one reason why all three got supplanted by black powder weapons). At the Battle of Crecy (the infamous battle used by some [[That Guy|armchair]] warfare geeks to claim longbows trump crossbows alongside Agincourt - where France's missile troops had been badly deployed and couldn't fire effectively without injuring their own men due the French infantry being too packed in against the English fieldworks), the Genoese arbalests suffered from their prod strings being degraded by rain and being exhausted from rapid forced marching. While they could restring them with proper gear, they left it behind with the wagons due to the French being too impatient (whereas archers can restring their less rigid bows by hand) and were decimated due to being outranged and lacking pavise shields to shelter them from returning fire.

That being said, despite crossbows being much more expensive than bows, they were much less demanding on the user's skill and physique. You can train as many crossbowmen as you have crossbows and replenish killed ones in just few months of training, while a bowman requires ''decades'' of training to be useful on a battlefield. So while a single bowman is much more effective than a single crossbowman, you can afford a half-dozen of crossbowmen for the cost of one bowman, and replace lost ones quickly as long as their weapon survives the battle. This is probably why they first took off in Warring States period China, where raising large conscript armies was the name of the game.

It should be noted that despite having much greater draw weights than contemporary bows (above 500 lbs in some cases), crossbows were not proportionally more powerful due to their very short draw length, translating into a much briefer energy transfer. More modern crossbows sometimes address this by using recurve bows, or even by using a bullpup configuration by turning the bow backwards and then pulling the string past the bow. Additionally, the reduced aerodynamic properties of crossbow bolts as compared to arrows mean that they very rapidly lose velocity after a relatively short distance, giving them great punch at short range but reduced effectiveness at longer ranges.

The fact that even relatively poorly trained men armed with crossbows could royally murder fully armored knights made the crossbow one of the most hated pre-firearm weapons in the Europe, even more than the infamous flamberge. At some point the Pope himself banned crossbows as an unholy weapon not to be used on fellow Christians, but even then they remained popular among mercenaries, rich lords, and Protestants due to their usefulness. Proud knights could accept deaths from elite long/composite bowmen who trained from childhood like they did, [[Butthurt|but not from some hastily drilled dirty peasant levies whose lord could afford a few dozens of crossbows]].

Finally, one of the most underrated uses of a crossbow was the psychological element. Those armies that weren't used to fighting against crossbowmen (and many who were) found themselves outranged, outgunned, outnumbered, and/or overpowered by crossbows. Sure, you could train longbowmen or mounted archers with potentially superior range or mobility, but if you had neither the right kind of wood, the horses, nor the time to train the archers from childhood, you risked being left behind in the dust during an arms race. Additionally, many medieval armours and early modern ones used by the rank-and-file men-at-arms were not capable of withstanding the sheer force that a crossbow shot could inflict, in comparison to many regular bows. So while your nobles and knights in custom fitted plate can arguably handle crossbows at range, their horses and foot levies in gambesons and brigandine with wooden shields can't risk being turned into pin cushions. This meant that the presence of crossbows on a battlefield could keep certain units away, due to them not being able to withstand that kind of shot. Indeed, we have medieval chronicles talking about the power of the crossbow:

<blockquote> ''This cross-bow is a bow of the barbarians quite unknown to the Greeks; and it is not stretched by the right hand pulling the string whilst the left pulls the bow in a contrary direction, but he who stretches this warlike and very far-shooting weapon must lie, one might say, almost on his back and apply both feet strongly against the semi-circle of the bow and with his two hands pull the string with all his might in the contrary direction. In the middle of the string is a socket, a cylindrical kind of cup fitted to the string itself, and about as long as an arrow of considerable size which reaches from the string to the very middle of the bow; and through this arrows of many sorts are shot out. The arrows used with this bow are very short in length, but very thick, fitted in front with a very heavy iron tip. And in discharging them the string shoots them out with enormous violence and force, and whatever these darts chance to hit, they do not fall back, but they pierce through a shield, then cut through a heavy iron corselet and wing their way through and out at the other side. So violent and ineluctable is the discharge of arrows of this kind. Such an arrow has been known to pierce a bronze statue, and if it hits the wall of a very large town, the point of the arrow either protrudes on the inner side or it buries itself in the middle of the wall and is lost. Such then is this monster of a crossbow, and verily a devilish invention. And the wretched man who is struck by it, dies without feeling anything, not even feeling the blow, however strong it be.''

Anna Comnena, ''The Alexiad'' </blockquote>

Crossbows are still occasionally used for military purposes; while a crossbow's bolts lack the stopping power of modern firearms, it fires quieter than any "silenced" firearm and it can also be used for niche purposes such as launching grappling hooks or detonating tripwire-activated mines, and its lower projectile speed means it's much less likely to set off any worn explosives. And even its comparatively lower ability to kill outright can be compensated for by taking a page out of the Indian Navy's book and use cyanide-tipped bolts. Alternatively, you can take the Rambo route and use bolts with explosive tips.

See Also: [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20#Crossbows are Underpowered in d20|Crossbows are Underpowered in d20]]

===Loading Mechanisms===
Because later crossbows were often too tough to simply pull back unaided, a number of devices were invented to allow the wielder rearm the crossbow via pulling back the string (in a process called spanning). The device used usually depended upon the draw weight of the bow, as heavier bows would require more advanced devices that required more time to pull back.

*'''Gloves and Stirrup''': Generally leather or some other material, good quality gloves (or some tough callouses) can save one some finger or palm bleeding from trying to pull it by the old fashioned way. Talking from experience, if one is to do it this way, put your entire upper back, legs, and arms into it, and then pull. The user placed both feet on either the bow's span on each side of the stock or in the stirrup ring attached to the crossbow head. Modern hunting crossbow crossbows often use this alongside a sliding cord of rope attached to free floating hooks and handles for hunters to pull in a pulley configuration. The most common loading mechanism in popular culture besides the cranequin and windlass. First appearance: 700 to 500's BCE. Mechanical advantage: 1 to 1. Maximum draw weight: 150-300 lbs.

*'''Stirrup and Belt Hook''': Most crossbows you see have a stirrup ring towards the front end for putting your foot through to hold it steady. Combined with a belt worn around the waist with a hook attached to it, the wielder could use their whole body, rather than just their arms, to arm the crossbow. Could also use a belt-attached pulley configuration to lessen the strength to draw. First appearance: 1200's. Mechanical advantage: about 2 or 1 to 1 (depending on whether using pulley configuration). Maximum draw weight: 320-450 lbs.

*'''Goat's Foot Lever''': This was a fairly simple detachable metal lever (colloquially known as gaffles) that gave the user more leverage when pulling back the string. Composed of a rod attached to two curved prongs and two hinged hooks, with a shape reminiscent of a goat's foot (hence the name). Mount on two metal lugs on the body's sides near the trigger, pull drawstring back in one motion via two hinged hooks, place folded lever back on belt via hooked handle or belt bag, load the bolt on the crossbow, and then shoot. This could arm the crossbow in a single smooth motion with the lever's curved prongs making the drawing force decrease as the spanning distance increases. Lighter versions can be spanned from horseback or while standing. The heavier ones would require you to put your foot in the stirrup while kneeling and bracing it against your shin as you pull the lever back. Another more advanced method of using it involved spinning the lever via its hinged hanging hook on your belt so it was upside down; mounting the crossbow to the prongs while flipping the trigger away from your body before resting the stirrup ring on your thigh; and then pulling the stock towards your body with both your arms. The technique permitted you to rearm without taking the lever off your belt but was cumbersome without practice. While not extremely widespread in 14th Century warfare due to the belt and hook being much cheaper, it was fairly common for field portable bows used in defensive roles and for mounted crossbowmen. First appearance: Between 1300's to 1400's. Mechanical advantage: from 5 up to 30 to 1 (depending on how far the lever is pulled). Maximum draw weight: 550 lbs.

*'''Gaffe Lever''': Another form of gaffle tool derived from the goat's foot lever, the gaffe lever consisted of a two piece wooden lever held by a hinge and attached to the stirrup ring via metal hook. The user pushed down on the lever to push the drawstring into the trigger before removing it. More associated with nobles' hunting or shooting clubs than with military arsenals after gunpowder weapons appeared in the 1500's during the Renaissance. Still in use for sporting crossbows used in shooting competitions. First appearance: 1500's. Mechanical advantage: up to 30 to 1. Maximum draw weight: 400 lbs.

*'''Lever-Action''': Alternatively called "Self-Cocking" or "Self-Spanning" crossbows. These generally use hinged or sliding levers embedded into the crossbow body. The user unlocks a catch holding the hinge firm before folding open the half of the crossbow body to catch the drawstring on a latch before pulling it back to the trigger to arm the crossbow. Unlike the Asian equivalent in the Chu-Ko-Nu, these did not have a top magazine. This enabled users to aim after loading and pulling a trigger to shoot at the cost of having to load the bolt by hand. Besides the Scottish Border Reivers' latchet crossbow in the 1600's, two noted examples are Martin Löffelholz's armbrust design in the Codex Löffelholz and Da Vinci's Rapid-fire Crossbow in the Codex Atlanticus (the Balestra Veloce). While [[Awesome|impressive]], lever-action crossbows were never mainstream or famous due to being weaker than regular crossbows and due to being invented during the transition to gunpowder weapons in the 1500's Renaissance. First appearance: 1500's. Mechanical advantage: up to 25 to 1. Maximum draw weight: 220 - 300 lbs.

*'''Windlass''': Alternatively called the "Winch." Like the cranequin, this was a winding device, but it also came with a bulky pulley system that was mounted to the back of the crossbow. As a result, this was a tremendously powerful spanning system at the expense of needing a lot of time to arm. Along with the cranequin, this was one of the strongest crossbow loading methods. Contrary to popular culture, it was more often used on large, heavy crossbows for stationary battles like trench warfare or sieges like modern anti-tank guns. On the other hand, usage on open battlefields (behind pavise shields) for support artillery wasn't unheard of. First appearance: 1400’s. Mechanical advantage: ~160 to 1. Maximum draw weight: 1500 lbs+ (limited by time and bow strength).

*'''Cranequin''': Also called the "Rack and Pinion," this device used gears and a crank to wind up the bowstring, requiring multiple turns to pull it all the way back. The device slid onto lugs mounted on the stock or a taunt noose that gripped the stock. After being used, it was removed before loading and firing. Along with the windlass, this was one of the strongest crossbow loading methods. Contrary to popular culture, it was more often used on large, heavy crossbows for stationary battles like trench warfare or sieges like modern anti-tank guns. Having said that, usage on mounted crossbowmen with lighter crossbows and by footmen on open battlefields (behind pavise shields) for artillery support wasn't unheard of. Some modern hunting crossbows use a built-in winch version inside the stock with a foldable handle. First appearance: 1500's. Mechanical advantage: ~600 or 840 to 1. Maximum draw weight: 2000 lbs+.

==Types of Crossbows==
As a general note, crossbows are not ballistae, despite their visual similarity. Unlike crossbows which store energy in a set of arms which are bent back, ballistae store energy in twisted rope that has a wooden beam pushed into it which is then twisted back farther before firing to store energy. That said, some ballistae are discussed here until a proper "[[Siege Weapon|siege]]" article is consolidated.

*'''Gastraphetes''': An early Greek crossbow, the gastraphetes, or "belly bow", was cocked by resting the stomach on the bolt rest of the stock (which contained a sliding plank attached to the drawstring) and pushing down so that more energy can be stored then an archer could provide. The gastraphetes worked slightly different from the classic crossbow, in that its arrow slot was two-piece, with the sliding inner plank attached to the drawstring. Thus, rather than drawing back the crossbow, you readied it by slamming it into the ground until the trigger caught onto a latch. While impressive, it was restricted to hip fire, was fired with a button-like trigger, and was more of a man-portable siege weapon. A larger winch-spanned, tripod-mounted version, the oxybeles, was in use as a stationary artillery weapon before being replaced by the ballista (which used less fragile torsion rope rather than wooden prods).

* '''Polybolos''': Roughly meaning “multi-bolt thrower” in Greek and also known as a "repeating ballista," the Polybolos more often resembles a big crossbow than a ballista since the arms are fixed to the "stock" and don't twist around to fire it, though some versions do use arms wedged into tense bundles of twisted ropes like regular ballistae. The repeating ballista was fired by turning a wheel connected to a chain drive forward to cock it, then turning it the other way to load it again from a hopper on top of the stock and fire it. Assuming the operator is standing on the left side of the weapon, turning the wheel at the back of the crossbow counterclockwise pushed a sliding plank called the mensa (like that from the gastrophetes/oxybeles) forward. Once driven forward sufficiently, the latch claws at the back of the plank are triggered by a forward-placed lug into holding the drawstring in place. Then, turning the wheel clockwise drew the drawstring back as the plank slides backwards. At the same time, the motion of the plank drives a screw threaded pole (in contact with the plank by a block with a sliding nut) to rotate and load a bolt via a built-in notch on the rod) onto the body of the plank from the hopper on top. Pulling the wheel back to the very end will bump the latch against another lug that triggers the latch into releasing the drawstring and firing the bolt.

* '''Chinese "Nu" crossbow''': the Chinese version of the crossbow is noticeably different from the European crossbow which had a power stroke (drawing span) of about 7 inches, used a rolling nut latch held in place by a sear pushed by a long horizontal lever-like trigger mounted in the middle of the stock, used short and heavy bolts, and used prods (bow pieces) made from simple wood, composite, and later metal. In contrast, the Chinese crossbow had a power stroke of about 21 inches, used a complicated two-piece vertical trigger at the very back of the stock (held together by tension and two pins at the very end of the stock) inside a pistol grip mount, fired full length arrows, and used wood or composite prods (often salvaged from recurve bows and constructed for conscripts to use ''en masse'' instead of drilling archery skills into them). Due to the longer power stroke, the bolts fired by the Chinese bows (usually with draw weights of 380 lbs) were launched with comparable performance to an average European windlass crossbow (with a draw weight of 1,500 lbs), assuming all other factors are equal. However, the Chinese crossbows themselves were rather large, cumbersome, and had to be reloaded with just stirrup rings, belt hooks, and/or gloves.

* '''Chu-Ko-Nu''': literally meaning “Zhuge’s Crossbow;" classical legend associated it with a Chinese strategist named Zhuge Liang (2nd Century AD). Alternatively known as the "Lian Nu" (repeating crossbow), it's also known as the "Chinese repeating crossbow" and is one of the more common types of specialty crossbows seen in fiction. In reality, it was invented during the Warring States Period (4th Century BC) in the State of Chu. The term "repeating crossbow" brings to mind some bastard combination of Assault rifle and crossbow, which it kinda is and is not. Without doubt, this thing could fire quickly; trained soldiers could loose ten bolts in fifteen seconds before having to reload. Chu-ko-nus were limited to hip fire, giving you almost [[ork]]-tier accuracy in exchange for an appreciable volume of fire. In layman's terms, it's the same as being restricted to hip-firing a pump action shotgun with the trigger permanently welded in the fire position. Additionally because you were pulling the string back one-handed, the bolts had a lot less penetration power than those of a regular crossbow. However, the bolts (which fell down onto the stock from a hopper mounted on top) were often poisoned to make up for that (as seen with the [[Drow]], who make use of the weapon extensively). Now, no matter how potent the poison on your bolt is, you're not gonna kill a man instantly with a scratch. On the battlefield, however, causing enough pain to make a person go into shock is as good as killing them outright, and poison can deliver pain in spades. The downside was you had next to no luck piercing good quality armor or even thick leather clothing. Historically there are two known designs for the repeating crossbow:
**The most common example is associated with the Chinese Ming Dynasty and their allies in Joseon Korea. Mechanically, it consisted of a stock, mounting the prods and the lever (which attaches to the moving box magazine), that the user secured on their hip with the bowstring sliding through a slit on each side of the sliding magazine/bolt rest. By pushing and then pulling the lever that secures the magazine to the stock, the user catches bowstring on a notch at the tail of the slits in the magazine’s back end while loading the bolt by gravity onto the bolt rest. Once the lever is fully compressed down, a sliding lug nut at the base of the magazine pushes the string up off the notches and propels the bolt out. However, because of the mechanism's design, the swinging action that pulled the string back also fired the bolt at the same time while the magazine is built on top of the bow. Due to that, you could not pull the string back and then aim.
**An earlier version from the State of Chu used a pumping lever (which had a handle loosely attached by chord) at the back and a pistol grip under the stock at the front where the prods are attached (held by the user in a manner similar to drawing a regular bow). On top of the stock was a fixed double magazine. Inside the stock, a sliding lever held a complicated trigger assembly composed of a metal sear and latch (the entire thing being shaped like a crab's claw arm). When pushed forward by the lever, the trigger locks after coming into contact with the taunt drawstring, with the lever's internal grooves and the sear holding it in place by friction and tension. Upon being almost fully pulled back, the double magazines drop two bolts onto two firing slits on either side of the trigger inside the crossbow. Upon the lever being fully pulled back, the metal sear comes into contact with a round bar holding the sliding lever in place and pushed the latch into releasing the drawstring to propel the loaded bolts. Compared to the Ming Dynasty & Joseon Dynasty's equivalent of an overhand lever action shotgun, the Chu State's version was more akin to a double shot pump-action shotgun. While somewhat more advanced than the Ming Dynasty's model, it was even weaker than the latter model while also using a complicated mechanism that couldn't be reproduced quickly for home defense or militias.

* '''Balestra Veloce/Löffelholz Armbrust crossbows''': First mentioned in Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus (1478 to 1519) and Martin Löffelholz's Codex Löffelholz (1505), both versions of the said lever-action design (which differ mainly by the arrangement of the trigger, latch, and sear mechanism) used a stock consisting of two wood and metal pieces on top of each other and hinged at the head of the crossbow. By unlocking a catch on the stock, the user can then swing forward the bottom half of the stock to extend a latch housed in a sliding plank (like that on the gastraphetes) forward to catch the drawstring. Once the drawstring is caught, the stock is then closed, locking the stock back together and bringing the latch (which is held firm by a spring-loaded sear) back into contact with the trigger on the lower half of the stock. The user can then load the bolt and pull the trigger to compress the sear, letting the rolling nut release the crossbow string. Whether the German or Italian version came first is unclear, though the rapid fire crossbow pages in the Codex Atlanticus are dated back to 1485. Either codex's blueprints can be found online via an online archive created by "The Visual Agency" media company or a pdf scan hosted by Krakow's Jagiellonian Library respectively. While reconstructed models have been made firing and reloading more rapidly than the mainstream and historical goat's foot lever crossbows (to say nothing being much quicker than hand-spanning or using cranequins), there’s no proof that the designs were ever constructed or used in historic European arsenals and was never mass produced due to possibly three reasons.
** First, the amount of expert craftsmanship to theoretically make it and the extensive training to use it was cost prohibitive for a relatively complicated and delicately structured weapon. This meant that it was likely more of a special luxury weapon that only wealthy people could afford rather than a mass-produced weapon for conscripts (the same reason why breech loading rifles existed since the 16th Century for noble hunters but didn't replace muzzle-loading smoothbore muskets in mass use for militaries until the 1840's by which time the mechanical, chemical and material technology had become far in advance of the Renaissance).
** Second, while quicker than spanning a crossbow with a goat's foot or gaffe lever, the draw weight for the Löffelholz Armbrust and Balestra Veloce is reduced to a mere average of 220-300 lbs respectively. Being half of the maximum draw weight of gaffe and goat's foot lever crossbows, this meant weaker penetration and shorter ranges. In other words, the lever action crossbow achieves a speed slightly faster than a gaffe/goat's foot lever bow but its draw weight has been reduced to the same level used by their Glove-and-Stirrup ancestors over half a millennia before their invention. This was likely to make the lever-action crossbow more easily rearmed without being too strong to either break the trigger lock or prevent you from operating the levers with your hands.
** Third, the introduction of gunpowder weapons alongside the volley fire from massed pike and shot square formations occurred during the Renaissance. Since these crossbows were developed right when gunpowder took over, this meant these lever-action crossbows already went obsolete the same way that heavy plate-armored cavalry and longbow archers did. Hence, this is why these crossbow types (as well as other related [[Combi-weapon|combination]] specimens preserved at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches and New York City’s Metropolitan museums) were usually hunting or city militia pieces rather than military arsenal pieces. Only in the mid-2010’s were historians and arbalists able to build working reconstructions. Funny enough though, the Uruk-Hai crossbows from The Lord of the Rings films, constructed by visual designer John Howe, actually used the mechanism (but upsized and made spikier) designed in the Codex Löffelholz (as shown by the Weta Workshop behind-the-scenes clips in the extended edition of ''The Two Towers'').

* '''Latch/Latchet Crossbow''': A light lever-action crossbow popular with Scottish border raiders called Reivers in the 1600's to 1700's, it worked via swinging an internal metal lever forward from the top to push a sliding latch forward to secure the drawstring after unlocking the spring-loaded catch. The user then pushed the lever backwards into the body to arm the bow before loading and shooting. Popular to the Scottish in the region for home defense and raiding as they were small, easy to use, easy to make, very quiet compared to the more finicky wheel-lock pistol, had a decent draw weight of about 250 lbs, and took only 10 seconds to reload. Their downside was their short range, very short power stroke, and being restricted to hip firing due to the trigger being a button on the top (a trade off to enable horsemen to fire one-handed from the saddle, though you could tuck it into your armpit and adjust to aiming over your thumb). Similarly designed crossbows have been found elsewhere but tended to be ballester crossbows used to fire bullets at game animals.

* '''Bed Crossbow''': A Chinese peculiarity, where multiple crossbows mounted on a static frame were combined to create an increased draw strength. A precursor to the compound crossbow.

*'''Bullet Crossbows''': Also referred to as pelletbows, stonebows, and ballesters, these were essentially the same as regular crossbows or similar to a slingshot in crossbow form, except they fired stone or lead shot instead of bolts. Usually used for recreational shooting and hunting small game animals.

*'''Crossbow pistol''': Small crossbows designed to be fired from one hand, with modernized versions commonly featuring a more modern pistol grip and trigger. While these did exist in the past, they were nowhere near as lethal as battlefield crossbows as the draw weights were far smaller.

*'''Arbalest''': After European armor improved with the development of steel plate, crossbows with wooden bow sections were just not cutting the mustard anymore. As such they began making that part out of steel. This meant that the bow could store more energy and launch a projectile farther and faster, significantly improving armor penetration but also greatly increasing the draw weight, often requiring various levers and cranking mechanisms to reset it.

*'''Slurbow:''' A crossbow with a cover over its barrel and a small gap used to draw its string back. Arguably influenced by the pistol, the slurbow was mostly used for firing unfeathered quarrels or darts.

*'''Sauterelle''': The last apparition of a crossbow-like weapon in a modern battlefield for frontline work. In WWI, soldiers had a problem: all the artillery that existed was big and unable to drop explosives accurately into a trench, especially at close range. And on the other hand, thrown hand grenades had the precision but too limited range. As an interim solution the French and British deployed a number of catapults that were designed to lob grenades. But the catapults had some draw backs in weight and portability, and the French were always just ITCHING to get out of the damn trenches and take the offensive. So while the mortars were still on the drawing board the French army invented the ''Arbalète sauterelle type A'' or just ''Sauterelle'' (grasshopper in French) to replace the Leach trench catapult and eventually the British started using it as well. In terms of design, it was basically a big crossbow built to lob grenades at around 150 yards distance. Worked decently enough but basically everybody knew it was an interim solution and later in the war they were replaced by small, two-man team infantry mortars that were just as easy to move around and use but had three or four time the range and a better rate of fire.

*'''Compound Crossbow''': the modern version of the crossbow, which is basically a modern compound bow (complete with pulleys, springs, and synthetic elastic materials)on a rifle stock. Many of these also come equipped with telescopic sights modified with cross-hairs that compensate for the effects of gravity, wind, elevation, and other factors that might affect a bolt's accuracy. They are primarily used for hunting, sport and (unusually) home defense in Britain since everything else has been banned. Also finds military special forces, espionage and law enforcement use by firing ziplines or grappling hooks, explosive, incendiary, poisoned or gas-releasing projectiles, or simply well made darts for a relatively silent kill. Most use conventional spanning mechanisms but some more recent exotic ones combine various technological concepts from past and present such as the Balestra Veloce's lever action system and the Chu-Ko-Nu’s top magazine, alongside modern optics, grips, and compound composite bow-pieces.

{{MedievalWeaponry}}

User:Sdhjk/Sandbox

2025-09-09T15:18:49Z

Sdhjk: Created page with "Testing"

Testing

User:⧼abusefilter-blocker⧽

2025-09-09T14:55:02Z

Sdhjk: Created page with "Inactive. Never did anything whatsoever. Account created due to mistake."

Inactive. Never did anything whatsoever. Account created due to mistake.

Glossary

2025-09-09T14:40:13Z

Sdhjk: /* Numbers */

{{stub}}
''WTF? ISHYGDDT. RTFM or GTFO.''

If you're a newfag, you probably have no idea what the fuck is with the jargon we use on [[/tg/]]. Here is a simple list. Every game has their own set of terms; you should go to that game's article instead. This page is for shortforms and jargon used on the /tg/ messageboards. If you don't find it here, try typing it in the search bar on the left; maybe it's not an acronym but actually the name of an rpg (like [[GURPS]] or [[FATAL|F.A.T.A.L.]]).

== Numbers ==
;{{anchor|2d4fag}}2d4fag
: {{Main|User:2d4fag}}
:The only administrator of this wiki. As far as we know, he killed himself in May 2025, leaving the wiki without anyone in charge.

;{{anchor|403}}403, 403'd
:Forbidden, locked out. See also [[#banned|b&]]

;{{anchor|404}}404, 404'd
:Missing. Could also mean lost or misplaced.

== A ==
;{{anchor|age}}age
:The opposite of [[#sage|sage]]. It's the weeaboo form of [[#bump|bump]]. It does not actually have any function currently, and hasn't for almost the entire lifetime of the site.
;{{anchor|an hero}}an hero
:The grandmaster of [[#sudoku|sudoku]]. Comes from a long-memed eulogy for one such, which hadn't quite sussed how the English indefinite article works.

== B ==
;{{anchor|banned}}banned, b&, b&hammered
:Kicked out of the forum by a moderator.
::Might also be "underage b&" as suggesting someone is too young to be here.

;{{anchor|broken}}broken
:See the second definition of [[#OP|OP]] below. A game element that is overpowered to the point of actually making the game unwinable when played against (or unlosable when used).

;{{anchor|bump}}bump
:Adding a message to a thread with no content, just for the sake of keeping that message thread alive and visible.

== C ==
;{{anchor|coc}}CoC
;[[Call of Cthulhu]]

== D ==
;{{anchor|dice}}d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20
:[[Dice]] with [[d4|four]], [[d6|six]], [[d8|eight]], [[d10|ten]], [[d12|twelve]] or [[d20|twenty]] sides, respectively.

;{{anchor|d&d}}D&D
:[[Dungeons & Dragons]]

;{{anchor|DM}}DM
:Short for "Dungeon Master", the person who runs the game. Also sometimes known as the GM or [[Gamemaster]].

== F ==
;{{anchor|}}fag
:Idiot, fool; normal people use it to derogatorily refer to homosexual people (especially men), so don't use it in the real world. In the 1940-1980's it meant Cigarette.
:May also be a suffix that means "[[Fags of 4chan|person]]".

;{{anchor|flgs}}FLGS
:[[LGS|Friendly Local Gaming Store]]

== G ==
;{{anchor|greentext}}greentext
:Quoting someone else's message by prefacing the line with a >. On the forums, such quoted text is tinted green. On 1d4chan, you can use the [[:Template:greentext|greentext]] template to achieve the same appearance.

== I ==
;{{anchor|ishygddt}}ISHYGDDT
:"I seriously hope you guys don't do this." Used to discourage someone from doing something dumb they already did for a second time. Accompanied by a picture of George Costanza from Seinfeld, holding a baseball bat with an amused expression on his face.

;{{anchor|ITT}}ITT
:In this thread

== M ==
;{{anchor|minis}}minis, minatures
: {{Main|Miniatures}}
:Small models of soldiers, warriors, monsters, vehicles or the like for use in wargames. They're also used in role-playing games for visualizing tactical combat. Minis are usually measured in millimetres, and mixing minis of different height standards is frowned upon.

;{{anchor|MEQ}} MEQ
: {{Main|MEQ}}
: [[Space Marine|(Space) Marine]] EQuivalent. A class of [[Warhammer 40,000]] units about as tough to kill as a Space Marine.

== N ==
;{{anchor|newfag}}newfag
:Newcomer, foolishly naive. See [[#fag|fag]].

== O ==
;{{anchor|OP}}OP
: {{Main|OP}}
:Two definitions for this exist.
::"Original Poster": the person who started the thread.
::"Overpowered": a tactic, ability, weapon, unit, or other choice that exists in a game, [[Necrons|and is considered]] [[Eldar|to be unfair]] in comparison to other, similar elements.

== S ==
;{{anchor|sage}}sage
:Short for the [[weeaboo]] term 'sageru', which means 'to sink'. If you put 'sage' in the options field when posting a message, the thread won't be brought to the front page by your post, but it has no effect on anyone else's post. This is useful when your post is unimportant or bad.
::"Autosaged" means the thread has exceeded 300 replies and all replies will automatically refrain from bumping.
::"Sagebombed" is when someone hates the thread so much, they fill the thread with 'sage' messages in the hopes it will use up the rest of the thread's lifespan. This is not actually effective and thus hasn't occurred with much frequency in the last few years.
;{{anchor|sudoku}}sudoku
:A math puzzle of Japanese origin, commonly distributed to flyers on aeroplane-magazines, to eat up their time.
:Usually used as a synonym for "seppuku" and "suicide", especially if the whiner in question produced a tl;dr manifesto.

== T ==
;{{anchor|/tg/}}/tg/
: {{Main|/tg/}}
:Traditional Games, refers to both this wiki and the Traditional Games board on 4chan.

;{{anchor|That Guy}}That Guy
:{{Main|That Guy}}
:A horrible person. There tends to be at least one at every table. If you don't know who [[That Guy]] is in your group, it's probably you.

;{{anchor|This Guy}}This Guy
:{{Main|This Guy}}
:A wonderful person who your deity of choice has seen fit to bestow upon your gaming group.

;{{anchor|Tl;dr}}Tl;dr
:"Too long; didn't read", usually in response to a wall of text but also used to designate a summary at the end for those not wanting to read the entirety of a post.
:"Too long; don't read", usually above a wall of text but also used to designate a summary at the beginning for those not wanting to read the entirety of a post.

;{{anchor|tpk}}TPK
: {{Main|TPK}}
: Total Party Kill.

== U ==
;{{anchor|USR}}USR
:Universal Special Rule, one found in the main rulebook for a game.
== V ==
;{{anchor|V&}}V&
:"Vanned", the next step beyond b&. The preferred mode of government-paid transport to Club Fed. Free cable TV! Weight room! and your roommate is very, VERY friendly.

== W ==
;{{anchor|weeaboo}}weeaboo
: {{Main|Weeaboo}}
:Japanese; implies that the person or item's owner is a Japanophile.

;{{anchor|WoD}}WoD
: {{Main|World of Darkness}}
:World of Darkness, a modern supernatural game involving play vampires, werewolves, or other monsters. Editions will be designated oWoD (old World of Darkness) and nWoD (new World of Darkness).

;{{anchor|wiki}}wiki
:See [[1d4chan|recursion]].

[[Category:Meme]] [[Category:Gamer Slang]]

Glossary

2025-09-09T14:38:33Z

Sdhjk: /* Numbers */

{{stub}}
''WTF? ISHYGDDT. RTFM or GTFO.''

If you're a newfag, you probably have no idea what the fuck is with the jargon we use on [[/tg/]]. Here is a simple list. Every game has their own set of terms; you should go to that game's article instead. This page is for shortforms and jargon used on the /tg/ messageboards. If you don't find it here, try typing it in the search bar on the left; maybe it's not an acronym but actually the name of an rpg (like [[GURPS]] or [[FATAL|F.A.T.A.L.]]).

== Numbers ==
;{{anchor|2d4fag}}2d4fag
: {{Main|User:2d4fag}}
:The only administrator of this wiki. As far as we know, he killed himself in February 2025, leaving the wiki without anyone in charge.

;{{anchor|403}}403, 403'd
:Forbidden, locked out. See also [[#banned|b&]]

;{{anchor|404}}404, 404'd
:Missing. Could also mean lost or misplaced.

== A ==
;{{anchor|age}}age
:The opposite of [[#sage|sage]]. It's the weeaboo form of [[#bump|bump]]. It does not actually have any function currently, and hasn't for almost the entire lifetime of the site.
;{{anchor|an hero}}an hero
:The grandmaster of [[#sudoku|sudoku]]. Comes from a long-memed eulogy for one such, which hadn't quite sussed how the English indefinite article works.

== B ==
;{{anchor|banned}}banned, b&, b&hammered
:Kicked out of the forum by a moderator.
::Might also be "underage b&" as suggesting someone is too young to be here.

;{{anchor|broken}}broken
:See the second definition of [[#OP|OP]] below. A game element that is overpowered to the point of actually making the game unwinable when played against (or unlosable when used).

;{{anchor|bump}}bump
:Adding a message to a thread with no content, just for the sake of keeping that message thread alive and visible.

== C ==
;{{anchor|coc}}CoC
;[[Call of Cthulhu]]

== D ==
;{{anchor|dice}}d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20
:[[Dice]] with [[d4|four]], [[d6|six]], [[d8|eight]], [[d10|ten]], [[d12|twelve]] or [[d20|twenty]] sides, respectively.

;{{anchor|d&d}}D&D
:[[Dungeons & Dragons]]

;{{anchor|DM}}DM
:Short for "Dungeon Master", the person who runs the game. Also sometimes known as the GM or [[Gamemaster]].

== F ==
;{{anchor|}}fag
:Idiot, fool; normal people use it to derogatorily refer to homosexual people (especially men), so don't use it in the real world. In the 1940-1980's it meant Cigarette.
:May also be a suffix that means "[[Fags of 4chan|person]]".

;{{anchor|flgs}}FLGS
:[[LGS|Friendly Local Gaming Store]]

== G ==
;{{anchor|greentext}}greentext
:Quoting someone else's message by prefacing the line with a >. On the forums, such quoted text is tinted green. On 1d4chan, you can use the [[:Template:greentext|greentext]] template to achieve the same appearance.

== I ==
;{{anchor|ishygddt}}ISHYGDDT
:"I seriously hope you guys don't do this." Used to discourage someone from doing something dumb they already did for a second time. Accompanied by a picture of George Costanza from Seinfeld, holding a baseball bat with an amused expression on his face.

;{{anchor|ITT}}ITT
:In this thread

== M ==
;{{anchor|minis}}minis, minatures
: {{Main|Miniatures}}
:Small models of soldiers, warriors, monsters, vehicles or the like for use in wargames. They're also used in role-playing games for visualizing tactical combat. Minis are usually measured in millimetres, and mixing minis of different height standards is frowned upon.

;{{anchor|MEQ}} MEQ
: {{Main|MEQ}}
: [[Space Marine|(Space) Marine]] EQuivalent. A class of [[Warhammer 40,000]] units about as tough to kill as a Space Marine.

== N ==
;{{anchor|newfag}}newfag
:Newcomer, foolishly naive. See [[#fag|fag]].

== O ==
;{{anchor|OP}}OP
: {{Main|OP}}
:Two definitions for this exist.
::"Original Poster": the person who started the thread.
::"Overpowered": a tactic, ability, weapon, unit, or other choice that exists in a game, [[Necrons|and is considered]] [[Eldar|to be unfair]] in comparison to other, similar elements.

== S ==
;{{anchor|sage}}sage
:Short for the [[weeaboo]] term 'sageru', which means 'to sink'. If you put 'sage' in the options field when posting a message, the thread won't be brought to the front page by your post, but it has no effect on anyone else's post. This is useful when your post is unimportant or bad.
::"Autosaged" means the thread has exceeded 300 replies and all replies will automatically refrain from bumping.
::"Sagebombed" is when someone hates the thread so much, they fill the thread with 'sage' messages in the hopes it will use up the rest of the thread's lifespan. This is not actually effective and thus hasn't occurred with much frequency in the last few years.
;{{anchor|sudoku}}sudoku
:A math puzzle of Japanese origin, commonly distributed to flyers on aeroplane-magazines, to eat up their time.
:Usually used as a synonym for "seppuku" and "suicide", especially if the whiner in question produced a tl;dr manifesto.

== T ==
;{{anchor|/tg/}}/tg/
: {{Main|/tg/}}
:Traditional Games, refers to both this wiki and the Traditional Games board on 4chan.

;{{anchor|That Guy}}That Guy
:{{Main|That Guy}}
:A horrible person. There tends to be at least one at every table. If you don't know who [[That Guy]] is in your group, it's probably you.

;{{anchor|This Guy}}This Guy
:{{Main|This Guy}}
:A wonderful person who your deity of choice has seen fit to bestow upon your gaming group.

;{{anchor|Tl;dr}}Tl;dr
:"Too long; didn't read", usually in response to a wall of text but also used to designate a summary at the end for those not wanting to read the entirety of a post.
:"Too long; don't read", usually above a wall of text but also used to designate a summary at the beginning for those not wanting to read the entirety of a post.

;{{anchor|tpk}}TPK
: {{Main|TPK}}
: Total Party Kill.

== U ==
;{{anchor|USR}}USR
:Universal Special Rule, one found in the main rulebook for a game.
== V ==
;{{anchor|V&}}V&
:"Vanned", the next step beyond b&. The preferred mode of government-paid transport to Club Fed. Free cable TV! Weight room! and your roommate is very, VERY friendly.

== W ==
;{{anchor|weeaboo}}weeaboo
: {{Main|Weeaboo}}
:Japanese; implies that the person or item's owner is a Japanophile.

;{{anchor|WoD}}WoD
: {{Main|World of Darkness}}
:World of Darkness, a modern supernatural game involving play vampires, werewolves, or other monsters. Editions will be designated oWoD (old World of Darkness) and nWoD (new World of Darkness).

;{{anchor|wiki}}wiki
:See [[1d4chan|recursion]].

[[Category:Meme]] [[Category:Gamer Slang]]

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-09-02T09:03:54Z

Sdhjk: /* Copy/Past articles from 1d6chan */

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-09-01T16:34:16Z

Sdhjk: /* Copy/Past articles from 1d6chan */

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-09-01T16:32:47Z

Sdhjk: /* Copy/Past articles from 1d6chan */

User talk:88.188.8.167

2025-09-01T16:31:07Z

Sdhjk: Created page with "== About making account == On such wikis, it's often better to make account, if there's no need to insert E-Mail or real name (and "real name" can be false or gibberish). That way, IP is not seen, you can upload pictures. Also, if you have account and get banned - you can log off, and after day or so, it becomes possible to create new account (check it by seeing whether or not you can edit again). --~~~~"

== About making account ==
On such wikis, it's often better to make account, if there's no need to insert E-Mail or real name (and "real name" can be false or gibberish). That way, IP is not seen, you can upload pictures. Also, if you have account and get banned - you can log off, and after day or so, it becomes possible to create new account (check it by seeing whether or not you can edit again). --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:30, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

User talk:2d4fag

2025-09-01T16:27:39Z

Sdhjk: /* Active? */

== Spice and Wolf ==

Why was the page cut, especially since it was there when 2d4 came back (and was part of it's gimmick ad)? Plus it leaves red links all across the 2d4 [[Special:Contributions/46.205.196.189|46.205.196.189]] 18:46, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
:It is not relevant to /tg/. Keep it in relegated to [[Approved Anime]]. I did not create the thread that advertised the return of this site.--[[User:2d4fag|2d4fag]] ([[User talk:2d4fag|talk]]) 03:52, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:Ironically, back in 1d4, I was the only one that wanted to delete the page. All the soon-to-be 1d6 editors wanted to keep it, porn included.--[[User:2d4fag|2d4fag]] ([[User talk:2d4fag|talk]]) 03:55, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
::One of the most /tg/ and 4chan things ever isn't relevant, says some asshat. Can't wait to see the domain goes down, like it already did twice so far

== RE: Remove those joke templates they put at the top of the page ==

Outta curiosity, what was wrong with the joke templates to start? Were they considered cluttering or what? [[Special:Contributions/50.65.212.96|50.65.212.96]] 00:45, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

:Yes they were cluttering. They line up in a big stack at the top of the page and don't really serve a useful or entertaining purpose. [[User:2d4fag|2d4fag]] ([[User talk:2d4fag|talk]]) 14:15, 17 February 2025 (UTC)
::They do though. Originally they were related to the massive infobox stacks that many mediawiki-based sites accumulate. The homos who took over the wiki went too far with it, as tropers always do, but wholesale nuking is not advisable. The oldest templates (awesome, heresy, cleanup, skub) should stay. [[User:Pachinko Man|Pachinko Man]] ([[User talk:Pachinko Man|talk]]) 15:21, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

== Compromised Historical Preservation ==

i extraneously disapprove of both the campaign & /tg/heim's erasure, what kind of archive does that?, in any case if you are sticking to your guns, a simple search will reveal that there are still 30 pages related to /tg/heim if you search for it & a lot more linking to campaigns, in fact one escaped your nuking [[TG/heim:_The_Forsaken_of_Mermedus_(Norse_Warband)]], you should have blocked editing of them after adding a warning that they are left as historical records instead of deleting them, you disgust me.

as an aside, i know it was barebone(singular), but is what was done to the [[Fatemasters]] page really acceptable? [[User:PrincessLoverEleventeen|PrincessLoverEleventeen]] ([[User talk:PrincessLoverEleventeen|talk]]) 15:59, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
:This is no longer an archive.--[[User:2d4fag|2d4fag]] ([[User talk:2d4fag|talk]]) 03:00, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
::Then I guess you can go fuck yourself with your shitty offshot, then

== Please do not an hero ==

Why the hell would you do that? People are finally starting to use the fucking site after learning what massive faggotrons the suptg guys are. [[User:Pachinko Man|Pachinko Man]] ([[User talk:Pachinko Man|talk]]) 15:12, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

== Active? ==
* [https://2d4chan.org/wiki/Special:ListUsers?username=&group=sysop&wpsubmit=&wpFormIdentifier=mw-listusers-form&limit=50 He's the only admin], and [https://2d4chan.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/2d4fag he was last seen doing actions on 3th May]. So he's active or not? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 13:59, 27 July 2025 (UTC)
** So, he was last inactive for roughly 3 months. Is that normal? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 19:15, 29 July 2025 (UTC)
**:He has abandoned the ship. You did not know? [[Special:Contributions/88.188.8.167|88.188.8.167]] 16:18, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
**:You know about him? Like - why he did it, or whether or not it's possible for him to come back (guaranteed to come away?)? --[[User:Sdhjk|Sdhjk]] ([[User talk:Sdhjk|talk]]) 16:27, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

User talk:Sdhjk

2025-09-01T16:23:29Z

Sdhjk: /* Copy/Past articles from 1d6chan */

Hive Mind

2025-09-01T14:57:03Z

Sdhjk:

{{NeedsImages}}

{{Topquote|All consciousness is one, separated only by a thin veil of the physical|Jace Beleren, Vryn's planewalker}}

{{Topquote|What is a drop of rain, compared to the storm? What is a thought, compared to a mind? Our unity is full of wonder which your tiny individualism cannot even conceive.|The Many, System Shock 2}}

{{Topquote|Ĥ̸̦̘Ẽ̴̻͍͔̜̉͠Y̷̺̌̀͋̚ ̶̼̏G̵̬̬̑̿̒͝Ư̴̲̭̙̠͆̒̅Ȳ̶̧̙̩͌S̸̫̝͎̲̆̈̌̉.
̶̢͙̯̂̓̃̑A̷̺͙̯̟̓̎̃̉Ǹ̴̢͓̀̈́͠Y̵̜̱͚̪͗͊̈́O̶̡̥̾̍͝ͅṆ̶̡̰̓̑͑ͅE̴̘͍̊̀̏ ̴͕͈̓̂H̸̥̘̬̫͋̆U̶̮͉̜̝͌N̵̨̫͗̆̀G̷̩͇̀̕R̶̰̍Y̸̨̩͗̏ ̵̛̱̱̀̅T̷̘͖̂̔̓̐ͅO̵͙͋̎̽D̵͇͗͗Ä̷̫̝̅Y̸̬̑?̶̧͔̬͂̊͐ ̴̪̖͆́͠
̴͔͍̓̓͌͂B̵̘͓͖͝Ë̶͚̪͇͙́͌C̵͇͉̺͈̈́A̴̲̼̻͐ͅÚ̴̖͓͝S̶̈́̈͜E̴̡̛͔̲̓͘ ̸͚̋W̷̢͗ͅE̶̲̳̰͒̊̆̂ ̷̦̾̀̉S̷̱̻̳̐̈́͠U̸̦̫͕̽̍̉͝R̸̮͌͠È̴̟͠ ̵̢͚̣̻̍͆Á̶̳̗̈́̓͠R̵̪̉̒̒̕E̶̥͍̎̐̕̕.̷̦̎̏̀̈́.| [[Tyranid]] Hive Mind, TTS}}

{{Topquote|It is like talking to a herd of hungry sheep. It is unfulfilling and makes you look like an idiot.|[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|The Emperor on talking to the Hive Mind]]}}

[[File:What type of hyvemind are you.png|400px|right|thumb|It is not as simple as you think.]]

You know how your brain is made of a bajillion on/off chemical switches? What if you had a meta-brain that was made of a bajillion brains? Congrats, you're now envisioning what is basically a '''hive mind'''. Some hive minds have a central hub 'queen', or multiple 'queens', while others have delegated thinking-drones with their own personalities (Type A). Others however have no sort of "core" units any more than you have "core" neurons (Type B). A hive mind race is depicted as either a race of individuals each in perpetual telepathic contact with all the others, or else, in the logical conclusion of the neuron analogy, the entire race is actually all a single person whose practically in multiple places at once.

Eusocial insects colonies like ants, termites, bees and wasps, are usually the textbook example of a hive mind. Ants, however do not have any dedicated thinking units, nor any command structure: their queens are just immobile baby factories. There is no single thinking body or overriding mind spread among the insects; each individual acts on its own volition, informed by its instincts and acts for the [[Greater Good]] of the colony. Said instincts, honed by evolution for social coexistence, gives each individual a predictable purpose and behavior independent of any higher thought organization. Each ant or bee is born knowing its place in the colony, and uses its own intelligence (humans have 344000 times more neurons than an ant) to perform actions that keep the whole colony alive, when said colony is reliant upon every other member of the colony also doing the same to manage resource intake, keeping the hive clean to limit sickness, protect the hive from other predators or rival colonies, and occasionally produce breeding members to make more colonies. Really creepy when you think about it too much.

With a hive mind, you can have from a dozen to a city full of faceless minions that never fail morale checks; because each individual is wholly devoted to serving the greater whole in a Type A hive mind, and because the single person is no more troubled by losing five bodies than you would be by losing five neurons in the Type B hive mind. Given this, their aforementioned connection to vermin, and the fact that the concept easily lends itself to a race of space communist(s) (even though having "core" units would make them a caste system), hive mind races are almost always the villain, being given a raging hard-on for imperialistic expansionism. {{Blam|Cease this instance Guardsman!}}

Despite this, a hive mind could logically serve several quite nonvillainous roles rather well. Depending on just how the multiple individuals/bodies actually communicate with one another, they could serve as [[Astropath|an excellent means of instant long-distance communication]], for example. But this is rare in fiction, the closest example of a 'good' hive mind are the Geth from [[/v/|Mass Effect]], and they're a loose example given the exact nature of how their intelligence works.

== Star Trek ==
Perhaps the most famous Hive Mind in science fiction is the '''Borg''' from [[Star Trek]]. A brutally utilitarian and hyper-expansionistic cyborg collective, the Borg are arguably the result of Trekkies learning about the Cybermen from [[Doctor Who]] and deciding to splice them with old anti-Communist propaganda. The Borg are a "hybrid" of artificial intelligence, cybernetic components, and captured organic species that have been forcibly linked together through the use of the aforementioned components. [[Zombie]]-like, they exist only to spread across the galaxy and assimilate all life into their collective.

Ironically, though firmly created as the type B Hive Mind, the Borg also popularized the Type A or "Hive Queen" variant when the Borg Queen was created as a kind of "face" to put on the collective as a whole.

== Aliens ==
The titular Xenomorphs were ultimately depicted as having a powerful racial psionic network, with the queens of the different hives as the ultimate leaders of their progeny, in the 80s and 90s comics and novels.

== Starcraft ==
The Zerg from [[Starcraft]] may be the most well-known "Hive Queen" style Hive Mind in sci-fi. Though most Zerg average out as "animal" on the intelligence scale, there are distinctly smarter strains of Zerg who can telepathically commune with and control the lesser Zerg as extensions of their own will. This chain of intelligence caps, in the original Starcraft, in the Cerebrates and the '''Overmind''', a singular organism which simultaneously exists within and separate from the collective psyches of the Zerg swarm. Destroying these "ruler-minds" is actually only supposed to be possible in-universe with the use of powerful psionic weapons that can cut them off from the collective mindscape of the Swarm, preventing them from just being downloaded into new bodies.

== Starship Troopers ==
The Bugs are described as being a eusocial species in the novels. The film turned this into a more sci-fi style Hive Mind, with a distinct caste of psionically adept "Brain Bugs" that literally control the lesser species like puppets, and which in turn bow to the Queen Bugs, which are simultaneously more powerful Brain Bugs and the birthing mothers of the swarms. This interpretation of the Bugs was subsequently ported into the Roughnecks: Starship Troopers cartoon and the D20 tabletop game.

== Warhammer 40,000 ==
In Warhammer 40k, the "Hive Mind" is the ultimate, supreme grand master awesome badass overlord of all [[Tyranids]] (let's put a pin in that thought for now). It blots out all psychic signals, including the [[Astronomican]], [[Astropath]] communications, and even the [[Warp]]. The latter is very upsetting to anyone that isn't a Tyranid (or a Necron, but the majority of them don't care either way).

The Hive Mind is made of literally every Tyranid creature, and the hive fleets are merely appendages of the Hive Mind. This means it is very, very, very big. Fucking huge, and some theorize that the Hive Mind is a new god of ''Order'': its capacity for violence and reach is far beyond that of [[Khorne]]'s while denying him any actual bloodlust, renders [[Tzeentch]]'s plans impotent (individual Tyranids have no minds to outsmart), the immortality offered as part of a greater whole is beyond the shambling eternity of [[Nurgle]], and no temptation nor depravity of [[Slaanesh]]'s can sway a Tyranid away from the Hive Mind any more than you or I could cajole a liver cell into acting like a kidney cell. The Emperor himself probably cannot penetrate the will of an entire spacefaring species acting as one, probably because the Hive Mind is essentially an individual acting through a "species" rather than a collective of minds.

If you want to know its full brilliance: it once outwitted the [[Ultramarines]]. There you go.

There are only two recorded cases of the Hive Mind being in any way foiled: Varro Tigurius (in a story written by [[Matt Ward]], natch), and one case when a besieged [[Eldar|Craftworld]] managed to get a distress call out past the Hive Mind to the [[Eldar]] pirate prince [[Yriel]] (this fleshing out of lore was also written by [[Matt Ward]], but here it was a concentrated effort by an entire planet of highly psychic aliens, and more than one of their best died from the strain).

When facing a Tyranid in battle it is not the individual before you that you fight, but the Hive Mind as a whole operating through the body of said critter. Now this actually is as bad as it sounds, but luckily for the other races of the galaxy the Hive Mind is not flawless. Its largest weakness is that it is pretty much a gestalt, its power and aptitude to influence events growing with the amount of individual bodies in a given place at a given time. There are [[Lictor|exceptions]] [[Genestealer Patriarch|to this rule]], but generally speaking a single isolated Tyranid organism isn't any more dangerous then, say, a hippo or a wolf. Sure, it can fuck you up; but without higher level thought it can't make a plan other than stampede, gore you and then stomp on the paste. It can't think beyond basic predator hunting tactics and forget about strategic thought. Even a large mass of Hormagaunts, while dangerous, has no ability to form tactics or act with forethought beyond that you would expect from a wolf pack, a wolf pack with swords instead of forelimbs mind you, but wolf pack none the less. But when expressed through the synapse creatures designed to channel it, the Hive Mind can express its full power through its otherwise stupid minions and the Tyranids can become a nigh-on unstoppable unless checked by an equal force, as happened on Octarius against the Orks. <s>Fun fact, that one actually ended up resulting in an Ork victory, which was kinda refreshing.</s> Nevermind, the Tyranids actually won this one.

Another weakness of the Hive Mind is that even when present in overwhelming numbers, it is neither omniscient nor omnipotent and it still can be tricked, outsmarted or even beaten into submission by sheer [[Necrons|resilience]] and/or [[Tau|firepower]]. This said: while the Hive Mind does make mistakes and can be outsmarted, you can fool it with the same trick only once; losses are anticipated and are useful either to cull the genepool, as fuel expended to ensure victory and/or simply to gather knowledge about a given lifeform to better adapt against it for the next time a Hive Fleet encounters said lifeform. The Tyranid Codex reminds us that even defeats anywhere may serve to ensure a victory somewhere else -- pray that you are at "anywhere" and not "somewhere else." Again though, for all its power, don't mistake the Hive Mind as more powerful than it actually is. A particularly interesting example of the Hive Mind outright failing can be found during the Devastation of Baal, when, at the height of the battle, the Great Rift opened across the galaxy, and severed Leviathan's connection to the Hive Mind. As in ALL of it. All of Hive Fleet Leviathan cut off from the Greater Hive Mind. And boy, the book makes it clear that the Space-Locusts were NOT ready for this. Even with the deployment of the Swarmlord, it was all the Tyranids could do not to completely lose any remaining cohesion. Then Ka'Bandha and his brodies manifested on one of Baal's moons, utterly upending a critical component of the Tyranids order of battle. And Guilliman's massive fuckoff War Fleets arrived in orbit. And the Legion of the Damned led by the Sanguinor appeared inside the 'Nids ranks to attack them. And Dante killed the Swarmlord. So the Hive Mind regaining some composure didn't quite work out, and, frankly their situation hasn't improved much since due to the impact and fallout of the Great Rift.

Despite the presence of Synapse creatures and [[Norn Queen]]s, the Hive Mind is much closer to Type B than Type A. You can separate individual Tyranids from the Hive Mind just like a stroke can separate brain cells, but those brain cells don't consider themselves "freed" and will do what they can to link back up.

Now remember that pin we use earlier? Let's pull it out now. The fluff is a little uncertain on if there is '''''A''''' Hive Mind or Multiple Hive Minds with one for each Hive Fleet. If there was a singular Hive Intelligence it would not explain why Tyranid hive fleets fight each other so often. It's theorized that this is a method of self improvement, throw two hive fleets at each other and the one with the best biomorphs wins and takes the losers biomass. That is what happens but if there was a central intelligence you think both hive fleets could improve with a horizontal gene transfer of useful information like how bacteria do rather then needing to fight and from that transfer compare the various biomorphs. Additionally a fight only proves who has the best biomorphs to fight other Tyranids not any other threat in the galaxy. It's also double strange when you compare Tyranids to Ants. Army ants are the most immediate comparison to a Hive Fleet with the whole colony always on the march looking for foot, and Army Ants specifically '''Do not''' fight other members of the same species. Most other ants do fight members of the same species but Army Ants and few others do not, thus implying that Hive Fleets are seen as more divergent then a species, as if other Hive Fleets were a different faction they are competing with rather then them all being on team Hive Mind. On the other rending claw there is case of [[Hive Fleet Kronos]] which often is ignored by other hive fleets with those fleets often leaving a planet half eaten for Kronos to get a free meal which is unheard of among Tyranids and does suggest a Full on all Tyranid Hive Mind working to keep Kronos, the anti demon specialists of the Tyranids in top fighting form. But the Kronos case also calls out just how bizarre this behavior as Hive Fleets never work together outside this case. There is also the Swarmlord which is seen among multiple hive fleets, but Tyranids are Tyranids and it's 100% possible the Swarmlord is just a swarmlord, a particularly powerful synapse used in the basel hive fleet that all hive fleets have the genetemplate to birth.

In any case, singular intelligence or many, it does not really matter much. Either way when you fight the Tyranids your fighting an army with perfect psychic wi-fi, connecting all aspects of it together at all times into a single command and control that can perfectly attack, defend, coordinate or strike with each part having zero self preservation or will.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tyranid]]

File:What type of hyvemind are you.png

2025-09-01T14:56:48Z

Sdhjk: