You'll notice that the character you directly control is an Astral Entity. He is invisible, immaterial, and normally can't do much more than make noise. The spirit is anchored to one of the main characters usually. To represent some of the unique problems in having multiple people contribute to controlling a single character, the spirit has partial amnesia and multiple personalities. This should account for most of the malicious and silly behavior I've seen in other quests. Partial amnesia means you know what skills you have, but you don't remember how you got them, nor what happened before you entered the game.

If you're familiar with GURPS, a couple of items on the sheet will stand out. Altered Time Rate means you always have all the time you need to plan, and if your spirit ever gets a way to affect the material world, will mean you get a major advantage in combat situations. Temporal Inertia means that if the world changes thanks to a time paradox or some other similar problem, you won't. You'll retain your memories. Photographic Memory is what it says: you'll always be able to remember what you know when you want to.

The skill package I put together for the spirit reflects what I've seen you guys display in other quests. Take note that cryptography is only at TL/6 while your other skills are at TL/8 or are not TL skills. That's the only oddity in the skill list.

>>332155
Interesting, I used a pared down Gurps statline to post the character choices for my quest. Didn't bother stating the suggesters becasue well, it's us. Plot device, ect, ect.

Name: Anonymous Spirit
Race: Ghost

Attributes [-50]
ST 0 [-100]
DX 10
IQ 11 [20]
HT 10

HP 10 [20]
Will 11
Per 13 [10]
FP 10

Basic Lift 0
Damage 1d-6/1d-5

Basic Speed 5
Basic Move 0


Social Background
TL: 8 [0]
Cultural Familiarities:
Languages: English (Native) [0].

Advantages [369]
360° Vision [25]
Altered Time Rate (1) [100]
Destiny (Major) [10]
Doesn't Breathe [20*]
Doesn't Eat or Drink [10*]
Doesn't Sleep [20*]
Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30*]
Insubstantiality (Always On) [40*]
Invisibility (Substantial Only) [36*]
Mindlink (Host) (1 person) [5]
Photographic Memory [10]
Telecommunication (Telesend) (Mindlink Required; Universal) [33]
Temporal Inertia [15]
Unaging [15*]
* = item is owned by another, point value is included in the other item.

Disadvantages [-97]
Amnesia (Partial) [-10]
No Legs (Sessile) [-50]
Sense of Duty (Host) (Individual) [-2]
Split Personality (12 or less) [-15]
Split Personality Package [-20]

Packages [0]
Astral Entity [171]

Skills [48]
Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) IQ/A - IQ-1 10 [1]
Artist (Drawing) IQ/H - IQ-1 10 [2]
Body Language (Human) Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Camouflage IQ/E - IQ+0 11 [1]
Chemistry/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-2 9 [1]
Computer Operation/TL8 IQ/E - IQ+0 11 [1]
Cryptography/TL6 IQ/H - IQ-2 9 [1]
Diplomacy IQ/H - IQ+0 11 [4]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Computers) IQ/A - IQ+0 11 [2]
Escape DX/H - DX-1 9 [2]
Fast-Talk IQ/A - IQ+0 11 [2]
First Aid/TL8 (Human) IQ/E - IQ+0 11 [1]
Forensics/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-1 10 [2]
Fortune-Telling (Augury) IQ/A - IQ+0 11 [2]
Gardening IQ/E - IQ+0 11 [1]
Interrogation IQ/A - IQ+0 11 [2]
Intimidation Will/A - Will+0 11 [2]
Leadership IQ/A - IQ+0 11 [2]
Lockpicking/TL8 IQ/A - IQ-1 10 [1]
Mathematics/TL8 (Applied) IQ/H - IQ-2 9 [1]
Observation Per/A - Per+0 13 [2]
Public Speaking IQ/A - IQ-1 10 [1]
Research/TL8 IQ/A - IQ-1 10 [1]
Search Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Strategy (Land) IQ/H - IQ-1 10 [2]
Survival (Arctic) Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Survival (Desert) Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Survival (Radioactive Wasteland) Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Survival (Woodlands) Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Tactics IQ/H - IQ-1 10 [2]
Tracking Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Urban Survival Per/A - Per-1 12 [1]
Writing IQ/A - IQ-1 10 [1]

Stats [-50] Ads [369] Disads [-97] Quirks [0] Skills [48] = Total [270]

I noticed I made a mistake in the sheet I first posted. I let it auto-calculate the HP, which does not work when you have 0 ST.

Name: Sherman Lee
Race: Human

Attributes [70]
ST 9 [-10]
DX 10
IQ 14 [80]
HT 10

HP 9
Will 14
Per 14
FP 10

Basic Lift 16
Damage 1d-2/1d-1

Basic Speed 5
Basic Move 5

Ground Move 5
Water Move 1

Social Background
TL: 9 [0]
Cultural Familiarities:
Languages: Ancient Greek (Accented) [4]; Chinese (Native) [6]; English (Native) [0]; French (Native) [6]; Italian (Native) [6]; Latin (Native) [6]; Modern Greek (Accented) [4]; Spanish (Accented) [4]; Sumerian (Native) [6].

Advantages [105]
Contact Group (Academic Colleagues) (Effective Skill 12) (6 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [3]
Cultural Adaptability [10]
Gizmo (1) [5]
High TL (1) [5]
Mindlink (1 person) [5]
Social Regard (Venerated) (1) [5]
Wealth (Very Wealthy) [30]

Perks [1]
Honorary Title (1) [1]

Disadvantages [-40]
Debt (-10) [-10]
Enemy (Professor Gardin) (Equal in power to the PC) (9 or less; Rival) [-5]
Reputation (Total Quack, Academics) (-3) (All the time; Small class) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5]
Weirdness Magnet [-15]

Skills [114]
Armoury/TL9 (Small Arms) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Artist (Calligraphy) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Artist (Drawing) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Beam Weapons/TL9 (Pistol) DX/E - DX+0 10 [1]
Bioengineering/TL9 (Cloning) IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Bioengineering/TL9 (Genetic Engineering) IQ/H - IQ+0 14 [4]
Bioengineering/TL9 (Tissue Engineering) IQ/H - IQ+1 15 [8]
Biology/TL8 (Earthlike) IQ/VH - IQ-3 11 [1]
Boating/TL8 (Sailboat) DX/A - DX+0 10 [2]
Chemistry/TL9 IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Computer Hacking/TL8 IQ/VH - IQ-1 13 [4]
Computer Operation/TL8 IQ/E - IQ+1 15 [2]
Computer Programming/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Connoisseur (Literature) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Connoisseur (Wine) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Current Affairs/TL8 (Science & Technology) IQ/E - IQ+0 14 [1]
Detect Lies Per/H - Per-1 13 [2]
Driving/TL8 (Automobile) DX/A - DX+0 10 [1]
Electrician/TL8 IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Communications) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Medical) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Scientific) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Security) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Surveillance) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Communications) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Computers) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Medical) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Scientific) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Security) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Electronics Repair/TL8 (Surveillance) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Engineer/TL8 (Electronics) IQ/H - IQ+0 14 [4]
Engineer/TL8 (Microtechnology) IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Explosives/TL8 (Demolition) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Explosives/TL9 (Fireworks) IQ/A - IQ+1 15 [4]
First Aid/TL8 (Human) IQ/E - IQ+0 14 [1]
Forensics/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Forgery/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Fortune-Telling (Astrology) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Gardening IQ/E - IQ+0 14 [1]
Guns/TL8 (Pistol) DX/E - DX+0 10 [1]
Hazardous Materials/TL9 (Biological) IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [2]
Hazardous Materials/TL8 (Chemical) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Hazardous Materials/TL8 (Radioactive) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Hidden Lore (Conspiracies) IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Hidden Lore (Magical Writings Lore) IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [2]
Lip Reading Per/A - Per-1 13 [1]
Mathematics/TL8 (Applied) IQ/H - IQ+0 14 [4]
Mathematics/TL8 (Computer Science) IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Mathematics/TL8 (Statistics) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Naturalist (Earth) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Observation Per/A - Per-1 13 [1]
Occultism IQ/A - IQ+1 15 [4]
Pharmacy/TL8 (Herbal) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Philosophy (Stoicism) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Physician/TL8 (Human) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Physiology/TL8 (Human) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Public Speaking IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Research/TL8 IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Riding (Equines) DX/A - DX-1 9 [1]
Ritual Magic (Sumerian Graphemic) IQ/VH - IQ-2 12 [2]
Sociology IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Swimming HT/E - HT+1 11 [2]
Symbol Drawing (Sumerian Graphemic) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1]
Symbol: Communication (Graphemic) IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [2]
Symbol: Consciousness (Graphemic) IQ/VH - IQ-2 12 [2]
Symbol: Motion (Graphemic) IQ/VH - IQ-3 11 [1]
Symbol: Non (Graphemic) IQ/VH - IQ-3 11 [1]
Teaching IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Traps/TL8 IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]
Weird Science IQ/VH - IQ-1 13 [4]
Writing IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1]

Stats [70] Ads [105] Disads [-40] Quirks [0] Skills [114] = Total [250]

Noteworthy stuff on the sheet: He's got the High TL advantage, which means he's already adjusted to the new ways of thinking about technology and its underlying principles. Most of his technical skills are still TL/8 skills though, since he learned the basics of them earlier in his life. Sherman's old. Old enough that he's going to have to make aging rolls in the course of play, unless you guys help him figure out way to cheat the ravages of time.

He has the Weird Science skill, useful for dealing with completely alien objects, pursuing novel lines of research, and other oddball things. Chief among them is the integration of his research into a universal symbolic metaphysics into his more conventional research. It's yielded mixed results.

Sherman is a Weirdness Magnet. It's just part of his very nature to encounter strange things that pick at the edges of reality. You're one of those weird things.

Sherman's name is on many patents, but he's been using the money from selling a few of them to bankroll independent research. He's gotten some interesting groundwork research done, but he's getting into debt. Right now he has liabilities of $40,000 a month that he has to account for, on top of his living expenses and whatever he puts into research.

>>332155
dude i am from a really old version of gurps. half that stuff is from a time travel set that could make most players wish they had a computer to run the campaing.

>DX 10
wait we have dexterity? huh.
>Destiny (Major) [10]
always spoil stuff that can affect plot devices.
>Astral Entity [171]
ill have to look for it in the new books.
>Gardening IQ/E - IQ+0 11 [1]
wait what
>no sex appeal
yeah that sounds about right.

>>332163
lets hope he fares better that saulanna.

having weird magnet and high TL will be interesting, but getting the unaging advantage should take priority before our atributes take damage.

a small question since it has been over 5 years i dont look at my book, but the prof is old without the age disvantage?

>>332168

Astral Entity is a racial template. It's broken down in the sheet itself.

Destiny (Major) means you guys get one guaranteed major vixtory. Once it is used, the points are exchanged for reputation or other advantages related to the nature of the event that your destiny was tied to. Nothing terribly spoilery in that.

Gardening refers to the small scale farming advice I've seen other anons give in other threads.

>>332169

Aging in GURPS 4th edition works like this: Starting at age 50 you make four rolls every game year against your HT, plus a modifier based on the level of medical technology available. Each roll is for your basic stats. A failure reduces the stat by one, and a critical failure by two. Optionally, you can pick up new age-related disadvantages (like hard of hearing) or sacrifice physical advantages in place of the stat, should you fail an aging roll.

At age 70 the aging rolls increase in frequency to once every six months. At 90, once every three months. Eventually old age will catch up with your character.

Sherman is turning 70 this year.

>>332172
See, I need to now steal these stats so I can write up the ORB properly. Anyway, awesome - I love me my GURPS, so gonna try and join. ANd intresting, that we're actually playing the Orb.

>>/quest/223129
That's why I just winked - it'd be a mystery to the other two and still not be an explicit confirmation or denial for her. Trust me here, I have some metanarrativistic manners.

>>332172
i mentioned that because i remember that starting with a old character by itself was a disvantage, as it would be if the character would be too young.

>>332181

Yes, it was like that in 3rd edition. They changed the way it's handled now. Since for a game the most important aspects of playing a very young or old character are how other characters react to them, the disadvantages to being a minor or elder are mainly social in nature now.

I am having a ridiculous amount of fun speaking in non-English languages that I don't actually know. Making the translations stable before I post them (in Google Translator, at least) is kind of tough, but hey, it's great anyway.

I didn't even notice the rather impressive list of languages that the doc knows on his character sheet before this, though. And looking at his character sheet... Sumerian graphemic ritual magic? What is that, and how does it work?

>>332207

It's magic rune drawing, basically. It takes awhile to make even a minor enchantment with it (think weeks to months, and years for complicated pieces), but it works even when other sorts of magic would not, and it doesn't require the Magery advantage to use. A grapheme is a discrete concept that can be displayed in a single image or graphic. Each symbol is its own skill, and you can chain them together on an item or scroll to achieve different effects.

Sherman learned the Sumerian version of it, though other cultures independently developed their own versions of it as well, the best known being the Futhark runic alphabet used by ancient Germanic people (these are the runes used in the Ultima games, for example). There are advantages and disadvantages to Sherman's choice of the more ancient Sumerian system. The chief advantages are a different vocabulary (and thus different effects compared to the way Futhark runes are used), and that only a literal handful of scholars and practical mages in the world know Sumerian symbol magic at all.

>>332207

Oh, and you guys are communicating to Sherman through a telepathic link that transcends language. He understands what you mean, even if he doesn't know the language. You can understand whatever languages he knows, if he actively decides to translate for you. Since your character has Split Personality, it's possible for different personalities to know languages other than English, but most of the other personalities won't know what a non-English speaking personality is saying.

>>332210
Oh, don't worry. It gives the feeling of complete madness before we settle down and fuck with the ACTA. By the way, can they see us over here? It's really creepy.

For those of us with no GURPS background, could you go over the basics of the system mechanics? I seem to recall that one buys skills at a level which is a function of their attributes, and that it's based on 3d6, but that's basically all I've got.

For instance, I don't know if one succeeds on a high roll or a low one, or if there are exceptional success/critical fail rules.

>>332215

The barebones basics of GURPS can be learned by taking a look at GURPS Lite: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/

You roll against your skill, lower rolls are better, critical success/failure is possible (3 and 4 for crit successes, 17, 18, and 10 above your effective skill for crit failures).

Skills are based on a stat or another skill to start, usually DX or INT, or a closely related skill (Using a rifle is similar enough to using a pistol, for instance, that you can just use your Rifle skill with a penalty as the starting point for your Pistol skill).

I just want to note.. I recently discovered the ACTA was very really and we should probably stop the fuck out of it... http://www.anti-acta.com/

So, you guys got some character points! 6 of them, even. They can be saved or spent, however you agree on it. You don't have to spend them all at once, either.

Character points can be used for:

Improving existing skills.
Learning new skills.
Improving stats.
Buying advantages and perks.
Paying off disadvantages.
Buying a success on a single roll (1 point to improve a critical failure to a normal failure, 2 points to improve a normal failure to a success).

Even if you don't have the GURPS books, you can certainly describe a power or skill that you want and I'll try to assign a fair point value to it.

One advantage in particular is important to you guys. Mindlink. Your telepathy ability relies on having an existing mindlink with someone. As a special feature, when you're physically near a person with whom you have a mindlink, you can hitch a ride with them. Finally, you have a chance of getting messages to people you have a mindlink with, even if they're far away (it gets harder the further away they are).

You can also take other powers and have them require a mindlink. This reduces the price of the power, since it limits who you can use it on/with.

>>332306
How many points will it cost to have the Professor build us our own body? He's already got a (probably used) skeleton, so it won't take a whole lot of material acquisition to do.

>>332384

It depends on how you interface with the body. If you're a permanent part of the body, as in your soul is inserted into the body and you bond properly with it, you'll effectively be changing your template. You'll lose the Astral Entity template and adopt a normal human template (probably one with an additional 71 points in advantages, since a vanilla human template with all the base stats set to 10 is 0 points).

If you can jump in and out of the body, you'll have to buy the body as a Puppet (5 points), and get the Possession advantage with the Puppet Only, Spiritual, and Mindlink Required limitations. Possession is normally a 100 point advantage, but with all three limitations it would only cost 20 points. The mindlink with your puppet body would cost 5 points, so you're looking at 30 points total to have a body that you could exclusively control, and at your leisure leave (like when the body needs to sleep, or when you want to peek through a wall).

If you dropped the Puppet Only limitation, or bought it off at a later point, you would be able to attempt a contest of wills with anyone you have a mindlink with, and take over their body without their permission.

The Spiritual limitation would make it possible for trained priests and other people with genuine exorcism training to have a chance at forcibly ejecting you from a body you were possessing.

If you wanted a body you could control without the spiritual limitation, you would need to buy Possession with the Teleoperation enhancement. Possession (teleoperation, puppet only, mindlink) would cost 80 points.

>>332389
How much would it cost to raise our stats? It seems like almost all our skills are based on IQ or Per, so it would probably be a solid investment.

How much would it cost to get an Unaging for our mindlink guy?

>>332403

10 points per improvement in HT or ST, 20 per improvement in DX or IQ. If you buy up ST you'll be able to interact with and affect intangible things (for example, you could hit another spirit). You'll need to buy off the "Always On" limitation on your Insubstantiality advantage if you want to be able to affect the normal physical world.

Improving Perception or Willpower costs 5 character points per improvement. HP costs 2 points per improvement and FP costs 3 points.

>>332418

The point cost is 15 character points, but I won't make you guys pay for Sherman's upgrades. If you want him to discover how to stop senescence in humans, you will need to go on at least one adventure with him to gather private research he doesn't have access to, and doesn't have time to duplicate. He'll also need some time in the lab to work out the finer points of it on his own.

The soccer teams I picked (L.A. Galaxy and Club Deportivo Chivas USA) are real Major League Soccer teams. They're both based out of the Home Depot Center, a new stadium designed especially for soccer (also used for track, cycling, and tennis). The uniforms in the art are their home uniforms as of the 2010 season.