GURPS (4th ed.)-Thaumatology-Age Of Gold.pdf

Age of Gold TM

Written by PHIL MASTERS Edited by NIKOLA VRTIS

Illustrated by PAUL DALY, RAMÓN PÉREZ,

DOUG SHULER, and DAN SMITH

An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS ®

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

Stock #37-1651

Version 1.0 – November 2008

C ONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Useful GURPS Supplements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3. C HARACTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

S TARTING P OINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Basic Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

“Leader and Assistants” Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

C HARACTER T RAITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Martial Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Wildcard Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

E XAMPLE A DVERSARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

The Secret Pharaoh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Madame Jasmine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

The Jungle Madness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

1. T HE S ETTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

B ACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

M AGICAL W ORLD H ISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Ancient Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Victorian Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Great Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

T HE S TATE OF THE W ORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Occult Nazis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Shambhala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Shanghai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Black Dragon Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4. C AMPAIGNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

P OWER L EVEL AND E NEMIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Pulp Adventurers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Mystery Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

G AME T HEMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Crime Fighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Exotic Places. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Arcane Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

I NFINITE W ORLDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Exotic Mana and Impure Alchemy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

“The Futuremen” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2. T HE M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

P ATH /B OOK M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Widespread Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Conversion Between Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Known Diabolism Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

A LCHEMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Laboratory Alchemy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Magical “Herbalism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Weird Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Personal Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

M AGICAL “S UPERS ” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Alchemically Transformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Ancient Artifacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Game Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

S PIRIT -A SSISTED S PELL M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

“Cooperative” Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Spells Granted and Cast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

D EMONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

True Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

F URTHER R EADING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

I NDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

It is the spirit and not the form

of law that keeps justice alive.

– Earl Warren

GURPS System Design

❚

STEVE JACKSON

Managing Editor

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PHILIP REED

Marketing Director

❚

PAUL CHAPMAN

GURPS Line Editor

❚

SEAN PUNCH

WILL SCHOONOVER

Production Artist

❚

Director of Sales

❚

ROSS JEPSON

e23 Manager

❚

STEVEN MARSH

❚

NIKOLA VRTIS

FADE MANLEY

GURPS FAQ Maintainer

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Page Design

❚

PHIL REED and

JUSTIN DE WITT

Indexer

❚

NIKOLA VRTIS

–––––––

VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO

❚

Prepress Checker

❚

MONICA STEPHENS

Playtesters: Frederick Brackin, C. Lee Davis, Emily Smirle

GURPS , Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid , Thaumatology, Age of Gold , e23, and the names

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C ONTENTS

Art Director

Errata Coordinator

It was when he saw two winged demons come howling down

Fifth Avenue that Professor Blake realized that the Secret

Kingdom was deadly serious about its threats.

He had received a series of demands, first subtle, then increas-

ingly sinister, from that clandestine organization, but he had

laughed at all of them. He was a man who still doubted all those

claims that he had heard about magic – even though some of

them came from respectable scholars these days – and the so-

called Secret Pharaoh seemed to him a joke in very poor taste.

But on the night before his great discoveries were due to be

unveiled to the public, he left the Metropolitan Museum of Art

just in time to hear the screaming start, and what he saw swoop-

ing toward him banished his doubts completely.

Blake had served in the Great War, and he had spent most of

the 15 years since it ended on expeditions to remote areas of

Egypt; he was used to danger. He instantly turned on his heel and

fled, without the hesitation that would have killed other men. But

he could hear great wings behind him. At any moment, he

expected to feel barbed claws in his flesh. Someone stepped out

into his path, and he veered around the person, shouting at him

to flee. But the other man stood his ground, hefting something in

both hands . . .

Professor Blake heard a dull thud behind him – and the lead-

ing demon’s cry was cut short. Blake risked a glance backward,

and then he spun around in astonishment. He was just in time

to see the second demon struck square in the ribs with a great

two-handed mace. The creature lurched to the ground, but it was

still fighting, and it leaped for its opponent’s throat. Its claws

found no purchase, and a second mace-blow finished the fight.

The demon vanished like a bad dream, leaving only a foul stench.

The newcomer turned to Professor Blake, who recognized a

description from stories in the press. “Doc Mudra!” he exclaimed.

The masked mystery man nodded. “Professor Blake?” he

inquired, and Blake nodded in turn. “I’m pleased that I found

you in time. The Secret Pharaoh evidently believes that you dis-

covered a new form of the Philosopher’s Stone in Karnak last

year, and this won’t be his last attempt to get hold of it.”

Age of Gold is a GURPS game setting that showcases many

of the options and rules in GURPS Thaumatology. Specifi-

cally, it is a world based on the 1930s of our own history – but

it’s a version of that past era in which magic of several kinds

works and is being exploited with increasing enthusiasm by

those few gifted folk who can get it to function or who’ve been

imbued with supernatural power by destiny or blind chance.

The 1930s correspond to the latter part of the “pulp era” and

the very early days of the “Golden Age” of superhero comics,

and that’s very relevant here. Age of Gold is an age of pulp

magic and arcane superheroics. Adventurers in this setting may

be two-fisted pulp-style heroes – battling evil masterminds with

grit, skill, and scholarship – or masked “mystery men” –

alchemically transformed into something more than human.

Most of the background will be familiar to anyone who knows

the history of our own world in the era, but foreground charac-

ters and plots should be wildly dramatic and melodramatic.

Magic, it seems, does this to those who encounter it. Some of

this magic is ritualistic or alchemical and stylish, while some

of it is focused and powerful; the rules from Thaumatology

allow it to be represented in all its diversity.

About GURPS

Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of

GURPS players. Our address is SJ Games, P.O. Box 18957,

Austin, TX 78760. Please include a self-addressed, stamped

envelope (SASE) any time you write us! We can also be

reached by e-mail: info@sjgames.com . Resources include:

Pyramid ( www.sjgames.com/pyramid ) . Our online

magazine includes new GURPS rules and articles. It also

covers the d20 system , Ars Magica, BESM, Call of

Cthulhu, and many more top games – and other Steve

Jackson Games releases like Illuminati, Car Wars, Tran-

shuman Space, and more. Pyramid subscribers also get

opportunities to playtest new GURPS books!

New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to

grow, and we’ll be happy to let you know what’s new. For a

current catalog, send us a legal-sized SASE, or just visit

www.warehouse23.com .

e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS adven-

tures, play aids, and support not available anywhere else!

Just head over to e23.sjgames.com .

Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we

do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata sheets for all

GURPS releases, including this book, are available on our

website – see below.

Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at

www.sjgames.com for errata, updates, Q&A, and much

more. To discuss GURPS with SJ Games staff and fellow

gamers, come to our forums at forums.sjgames.com . The

web page for GURPS Thaumatology: Age of Gold is at

www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ageofgold .

Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibli-

ographies, and we’re putting them online – with links to let

you buy the books that interest you! Go to the book’s web

page and look for the “Bibliography” link.

Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the

GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that

begin with B refer to that book, not this one.

I NTRODUCTION

Why “ Age of Gold ”? What better name for a setting that not

only draws on the Golden Age of comics, but features

alchemists seeking to transform lead into precious metal?

Some e23 GURPS products contain highly rele-

vant information. GURPS Martial Arts: Fairbairn

Close Combat Systems describes fighting styles

that developed in the 1930s and that were used in

Shanghai in particular (see p. 13); it also discusses

their creator (himself something of a real-life pulp

hero figure). The two volumes of GURPS High-

Tech: Pulp Guns provide many more options for

adventurer firepower (or for their opponents’

weaponry). Meanwhile, GURPS Lands Out of

Time could be useful for a “lost world” setting and

its monsters. Visit the e23 site often to discover

more handy material.

There are also a number of older Third Edition

books that may be relevant. Some of these are still

available in paper form, and some can be obtained

as PDFs from e23. They definitely include GURPS

Cliffhangers, which contains extensive information

on the world in the 1930s, and more on the pulp

mode of adventure. GURPS WWII and its accompa-

nying line of books mostly cover the next decade, of

course, but they provide quite a bit on the 1930s by way of con-

text – and World War II is where the world is headed in Age of

Gold, unless things diverge radically from our history. GURPS

WWII: Weird War II is especially useful for its coverage of the

lead-up to the war from a weird history/conspiracy theory

point of view. Furthermore, some of the equipment and mili-

tary information in these books may be significant. Lastly,

GURPS China and GURPS Egypt can offer cultural context

for some Age of Gold games, GURPS Places of Mystery can

exist as a source of stylish scenario locations, and the GURPS

Magic Items series might suggest a few interesting artifacts for

mystery men to employ.

U SEFUL GURPS

S UPPLEMENTS

This supplement is linked to GURPS Thaumatology;

games will need that in addition to the Basic Set. Some GMs

and players may find GURPS Magic worth referencing,

although “spell-based” wizardry and the sort of alchemy that

produces handy potions are only small parts of the setting.

They can easily enough be downplayed, ignored altogether, or

restricted to those spells described in the GURPS Basic Set.

Likewise, GURPS Powers and GURPS Supers may be useful

when designing and playing high-powered “mystery men,” but

they aren’t mandatory.

In addition, other GURPS books may help, although they’re

strictly optional. GURPS High-Tech includes information on

the sort of TL6 equipment that adventurers may well want,

including especially a range of firearms. GURPS Martial Arts

may be useful for Age of Gold campaigns featuring lots of

melee combat (see p. 31). GURPS Infinite Worlds could pro-

vide a wider context for all this (see p. 43).

A BOUT THE A UTHOR

Phil Masters, the author of this book and GURPS

Thaumatology, is also the author or co-author of such GURPS

products as Places of Mystery, Atlantis, Dragons, and

Banestorm, along with the Discworld Roleplaying Game and

the Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game. He likewise

edited some recent pulp-era-related products for the line. In his

hilltop lair far across the ocean, he plots further arcane contor-

tions in the universe of roleplaying games, even as you read

these words.

We are living in what the Greeks called the right time for a

“metamorphosis of the gods,” i.e., of the fundamental principles

and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not

of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious

man within us who is changing.

– Carl Jung

I NTRODUCTION

T HE S ETTING

Vultures were circling high in the cloudless African sky. But

when a shadow fell on them from even higher, they scattered

nervously. The pride of lions far below would take its time about

its kill, after all.

Aboard the amazing helix-plane, its inventor and pilot

adjusted the controls and turned to his passenger. “So, monsieur

le commandant – this is the land where you served in the past

unpleasantness, n’est-pas?”

Major George Gregory, late of the British Army, nodded briefly.

“I had a colonial posting out here in ’14,” he confirmed, “and they

kept me here while we chased that old fox Lettow-Vorbeck for

next four years.”

“So this is a place with many ghosts for you . . . ah, I am sorry,

my friend – that was a jest of a poor sort.”

“No offense taken, old chap. Yes, this is a land with a lot of

ghosts, going a very long way back. But they aren’t as unhappy as

the ones you’d find in Flanders.”

“I can comprehend that, I think. How does India compare,

though? Or China?”

Gregory frowned and gazed out of the helix-plane’s windscreen.

“Every nation’s ghosts are a little different, in my experience . . .”

But before he could explain further, his eyes widened. “Look out!”

he barked. Pierre de Rocheford understood his comrade’s super-

human awareness too well to question the warning. He cut

power to one rotor, and the helix-plane slipped sharply down and

sideways – just in time to avoid the claws of a great winged mon-

ster that had appeared seemingly from nowhere.

“Sacrebleu!” exclaimed the Frenchman.

“Just so,” murmured Gregory, as he swiftly extracted his hunt-

ing rifle from its traveling case. “Now, hold this thing steady a

moment, old chap. It looks like we’ll have a little shooting today!”

Age of Gold is a world-wide game setting – and with 20th-

century transport technology and the adventurous pulp ethos

both very much to the fore, PCs should know that they have a

whole world to play with. Nonetheless, mystery, drama, and

deadly threats fill this world. Not everything is known as yet,

and some of the unknown regions of the planet are stuffed full

of strangeness and deathtraps. Supernatural power exists and

can very definitely be used for evil as much as for good.

Meanwhile, even in the most “civilized” corners of the known

world, utterly mundane evils are emerging that threaten to

drag the planet down into darkness.

B ACKGROUND

The 1930s are a time of instability and widespread public

uncertainty. Since the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the world

plunged into the Great Depression – a period of economic

decline and mass unemployment. With the democratic capital-

ist system seemingly in crisis, rival political systems – totalitar-

ian mass movements such as Fascism, Nazism, and Soviet

Communism – appear to offer powerful alternatives.

Meanwhile, new scientific and medical ideas such as

Einsteinian relativity and Freudian psychology shake the very

foundations of human belief, while astronomers discover just

how huge the universe really is.

This much echoes our own history. In the world of Age of

Gold, though, another, older challenge to conventional think-

ing is also on the rise: the power of the supernatural.

However, the Victorian age, with its global European-domi-

nated empires and increasing ease of travel, saw a lot of com-

munication between different magical traditions, each with

small fragments of useful knowledge and power. This lead to

scholarly cross-fertilization, while the growth of scientific

archaeology brought important ancient material to the atten-

tion of intellectuals. This process peaked with the discovery of

a sample of the Philosopher’s Stone in an Egyptian New

Kingdom tomb by noted archaeologist Flinders Petrie in 1919.

With the key to alchemy, the most scientific of the magical

arts, now available, broad-minded scientists began to probe

the truth behind the old wives’ tales and superstitions. Marie

Curie investigated the relationship between the elements in the

light of alchemical theory, and Albert Einstein theorized about

the nature of alchemical forces. Unfortunately, despite the best

efforts of such geniuses, magic still keeps many of its secrets,

driving investigators crazy with its elusiveness – but a few

researchers have achieved useful results, mostly by not trying

too hard to work out why magic works, but just using it; the

fusion of alchemy and modern science sometimes produces

especially dramatic effects. In game terms, the results of

applied alchemy, as it were, tend to take the form of seriously

weird, pulpy “superscience,” which sometimes only works for

the crazy genius who invented it.

M AGIC

Magic, it seems, has existed throughout history, and many

of the usual suspects (Merlin, Michael Scot, John Dee, Faust,

Cagliostro, etc.) were probably genuine wizards – but magic

was often unreliable, and wizards tended to be autodidactic

loners, so its effects on history were limited at best. Events

transpired much as in our past, and indeed, many sensible

pundits could and did deny the very existence of magic.

T HE S ETTING

C HAPTER O NE

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: