[TML] Advice for Beginning Players and Referees

[Richard Aiken]

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 10:10 PM, Derek Wildstar <wildstar at io.com> wrote:
> I did allow a Vargr character to have a FPMP-16 (Fusion Pistol, Man-
> Portable, TL-16) constructed at great trouble and expense.
> He was insanely happy with the thing.
> It broke his arm the first and only time he tried to fire it.

I once ran a GURPS Space game that featured squirrel-sized sapients -
the Cidi, from SJGame's (non-traveller) Alien races book.  I had a
player at the time - don't we all? - who exclusively played combat
monsters.  Frank decided that he wanted to "try something different"
and would play a Cidi this time around.  Riiiiiight.

Try to imagine a suit of powered armor the size of a small trash can . . .

. . . now imagine Frank starting a bar fight with full-sized sapients . . .

. . . now imagine Frank's bewildered anger as his built-in "Big Gun" -
a pistol-sized Gyrojet launcher (mounted because anything with
appreciable recoil was impossible and a laser power pack would have
been bigger than the suit . . .) - only bloodies his opponent's nose
at the range of two feet . . .

. . . finally, imagine Frank's wide-eyed shock as said opponent pins
his "invulnerable" suit down to the bar and then shouts to a
companion, "Hey, Lenny!  Did you bring your tool belt?!"

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein