Giant Characters in Heroes & Other Worlds

I originally began working on this because my son wanted to play a giant character and he was overwhelmed by the huge number of options in GURPS and Heroes & Other Worlds. My plan was to use a Traveller style approach to turn it into more of a mini-game that had a fewer number of options at each step in order to counter his tendency towards analysis paralysis. In any event, my son began drawing maps for an imaginary world and working up characters on his own before I could complete this system. (It turned out that a  few sample characters was all he needed to get over that initial hump.) While I don’t actually need this system here to inspire him to play, it bugged me that I had unfinished work in a notebook. I’ve chosen to finish it merely as an exercise in design.

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Step One: To determine your giant’s attributes, roll 2d6 four times on the table below.

	ST	DX	IQ	EN
2	11	8	8	8
3	12	8	8	8
4	13	8	8	8
5	14	8	8	9
6	15	9	8	9
7	15	9	9	9
8	16	9	9	10
9	16	10	9	10
10	17	10	10	10
11	17	11	10	11
12	18	12	11	11

Step Two: Check for literacy. Gain Literacy on 4D/IQ.

Step Three: Check for social savvy. Gain Charm on 9+ on 2d6.

Step Four: Generate career. If a character fails a survival roll, he may choose to dishonor himself by changing careers to Outcast. If he makes the roll to enlist, he completes his term as an Outcast. If he fails, then he dies a particularly shameful death.

	Minion ____________	Boss ____________	Magi ____________	Outcast ____________
Enlistment	6+	8+	10+	8+
DM+1 if	EN 10+	IN 9+	IQ 10+	Charm
DM+2 if	ST 15+	ST 16+	Literate	EN 10+
Draft	1-4	—	—	5-6
Survival	5+	7+	6+	7+
DM +2 if	EN 10+	ST 15+	DX 9+	DX 10+
Commission	9+	7+	8+	—
DM +1 if	DEX 8+	Charm	EN 10+	—
Promotion	10+	8+	9+	—
DM +1 if	Charm	Literate	IQ 9+	—
Reenlist	5+	6+	7+	4+

Default skill table. Roll once per term. Outcasts roll twice per term.

	Minion ______________	Boss ______________	Magi ______________	Outcast ______________
1	+1 ST	Diplomacy	+1 IQ	Climbing
2	Ax/Mace/Club	Tactics	Sorcerer’s Tongue	Detect Hidden/Hide
3	Pole Arms	+1 ST	Giant Lore	Survival
4	Athletics	+1 EN	Astronomer	Thief
5	Animal Handler	Sword	Staff	Throw
6	Craftsman	Shield	Dagger	Unarmed Combat

Alternate skill table. Minion, Boss, and Magi characters roll a on this table when they are commissioned and each time they are promoted. Outcasts with an IQ of 10+ may roll on this table instead of taking a roll on the default skill table.

	Minion ______________	Boss ______________	Magi ______________	Outcast ______________
1	+1 ST	Reveal Magic	Summon Wolf	Athletics
2	Pole Arms	Far Seeing	Lock/Knock	Detect/Tell Lies
3	Bows	Crossbow	Alchemy	Hunting/Trapping
4	+1 DX	Detect/Tell Lies	Naturalist	Sling
5	+1 EN	Recognize Value	Physicker	Stealth
6	Professional Skill	Two Weapon Combat	Any Spell	Track

Step Five: Muster out. Roll one time on the chart below for each two terms of service completed. Roll again for each level of rank (ie, once for being commissioned and again each time the character was promoted.) The character may add his rank to each die roll if he wishes. “Weapon” indicates a good quality weapon of a type the character is skilled in is received. Boss characters make take additional weapon results as magical bonuses for previously rolled weapons.

Each result of “special” confers an increasing level of special abilities: stone giant powers, ice giant powers, fire giant powers, and cloud giant powers. (To get fire giant powers, for example, you’d have to roll “special” three times.) The specifics of these abilities are left to the game master to work out. Additionally, the giant character is commissioned to establish a fortress in an exotic location that is consistent with the theme of their new powers.

	Minion ______________	Boss ______________	Magi ______________	Outcast ______________
1	+1 ST	+1 ST	+1 IQ	+1 DX
2	Weapon	Weapon	Weapon	Weapon
3	Jewelry worth 2d6 x 100 gold	Jewelry worth 3d6 x 100 gold	Jewelry worth 3d6 x 100 gold	2×6 x 10 gold pieces
4	+1 EN	+1 EN	+1 EN	Naturalist
5	Pole Arms	2 Henchmen	Any IQ-11 Spell	Alertness
6	Throw	+ 1 ST	Any IQ-12 Spell	A cave in the wilderness
7	2 Henchmen	5 Henchmen	1 Disciple	—
8	Alertness	Any Spell rated up to the character’s IQ	Any Spell	—
9	Streetwise	+2 ST	Any Spell	—
10+	Merchant	Special	Any Spell	—

Step Six: Starting with the third term, the character must roll each of 3/ST, 3/DX, and 3/EN or else lose a point in the corresponding attribute. Starting with the fifth term, he must roll 4/ST, 4/DX, 4/IQ, and 4/EN.

Note: This is a first draft and will probably need to be tweaked in order to get the different outcomes in line with each other. I will keep this post updated as I come across things that need to be tuned up.

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