GURPS Forces You to Prep Until Your Body Becomes a Soulless Husk Animated Only by Raw Malevolence

I could have stopped. I had plenty of figures already after working up the kobolds and the half-orcs. But no. We were just getting warmed up. I not only wanted to stat up everything from Cardboard Heroes set three, I wanted a full range of power levels for my humanoid weapon-toting Melee-type monsters.

Which is good, actually. I’ve got three levels of monster difficulty laid out now– Easy, Tough, and Monstrous. I can get the traditional random party of four unique individuals with these guys. Or I could make a random party of ten where they are all identical, probably for theater of the mind type situations. Finally, if I use these guys to hand-stock a dungeon, then the area will be super-detailed with even a lot of personality invested even into the most boring guard figure.

Is this Overkill? Probably. Is this a good idea? Only play will tell! I am certain now that these Denis Loubet figures were all designed with Melee in mind. I think it was supposed to be less work to stat them all up like this. Second Edition GURPS was The Fantasy Trip reworked to solve problems that were hampering ongoing campaigns– i.e., players just mindlessly buying up their attributes until these was nothing left to do and nowhere to go with these lame supercharacters. I think I prefer Second Edition GURPS over the Fantasy Trip, but what we’re seeing right now is that those improvements come at a steep cost.

Of course, once somebody pays that cost, everyone else rides for free. It’s called game development, folks. And what you’re seeing in these posts is no different than what you would have found in old game books like GDW’s Supplement 1: 1001 Characters or Adventure 1: Kinunir. The latter is especially intriguing as it includes stats for every individual on a starship. Judges Guild went all in on this sort of thing, too, which you can see in their highly detailed world write-up for Tancred. And lastly, Steve Jackson Hisownself went down this same road with the bizarre Car Warriors supplement which gave full 100-point player characters for every counter from Cardboard Heroes Set 18. As far as I can tell, nobody wanted that sort of thing. GURPS would promptly collapse into a bizarre internet subculture where people would create GURPS Vehicles designs for Onno Meyer to critique and which nobody would ever actually play in a real game.

That was clearly not the way! The figures below are something you can immediately use in whatever fantasy campaign you are running. (I know you’re running 4th edition and not 2nd. You can probably convert them all in like ten minutes, though.) Your life will be improved immensely the moment your players find 3-4 Reptile Man with Axe at the bottom of a very deep kobold pit trap. They are going to persuade him to join the party. He is going to help your players win at RPGs. Just like I am going to help YOU win at RPGs.

Enjoy!

• [1] 3-1 Reptile Man Leader — ST 19, IQ 11, DX 13, HT 15, natural DR 1, Mace-14* (crushing, swing+3, 3+4 damage, 5 lbs.), Scale mail (PD 3, DR 4, 50 lbs.), Large Shield-15 (PD 4, 25 lbs.). Basic Speed 7, Total Weight 80 lbs., Medium Encumbrance (2), Move 5. Dodge 6, Parry 8, Block 5.
• [2] 3-2 Reptile Man Wizard — ST 18, IQ 12, DX 13, HT 15, natural DR 1, Staff-14 (crushing, swing+2, 3+2 damage, 4 lbs., Scale mail (PD 3, DR 4, 50 lbs.), Throwing-17. Basic Speed 7, Total Weight 54 lbs., Light Encumbrance (1) Move 6, Dodge 6. Parry 7.
• [3] 3-3 Reptile Man with Full Plate) — ST 20, IQ 10, DX 13, HT 16, natural DR 1, Two-Handed Thrusting Bastard Sword-15* (crushing, swing+2, 3+4 damage OR impaling, thrust+3, 2+2 damage, 10 lbs.), Heavy Plate (PD 4, DR 7, 110 lbs.). Basic Speed 7.25, Total Weight 120 lbs., Medium Encumbrance (2), Move 5, Dodge 5, Parry 7.
• [4] 3-4 Reptile Man with Axe — ST 19, IQ 10, DX 14, HT 14, natural DR 1, Greataxe-16 (cutting/swing+3/3+4, 8 lbs.). Basic Speed 7, Total Weight 8 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 7. Dodge 7, Parry 8.
• [5] 3-5 Reptile Man Advancing — ST 19, IQ 10, DX 13, HT 13, natural DR 1, Bastard sword-13* (cutting/swing+1/3+2 or crushing/thrust+1/2, 3 lbs.), Tail Mace-13* (crushing, swing+3, 3+4 damage, 5 lbs.), Scale mail (PD 3, DR 4, 50 lbs.), Large Shield-15 (PD 4, 25 lbs. Basic Speed 6.5, Total Weight 82 lbs., Medium Encumbrance (2), Move 4. Dodge 4, Parry 7, Block 5.
• [6] 3-6 Reptile Man with Spear — ST 18, IQ 10, DX 13, HT 14, natural DR 1, Spear-14 (impaling/thrust+2/1+4, 4 lbs.), Thrown Spear-15 (impaling/thrust+3/1+5, PB 4, Inc. 5, 1/2 D 18, Max 27), Tail Mace-13* (crushing, swing+3, 3+3 damage, 5 lbs.). Basic Speed 6.75, Total Weight 9 lbs., No Encumbrance (0) Move 6, Dodge 6. Parry 7.
• [7] 3-7 Reptile Man with Glaive — ST 18, IQ 10, DX 12, HT 13, natural DR 1, Glaive-13 (cutting/swing+3/3+3 or impaling/thrust+3/1+5, 8 lbs.), Knife-13 (cutting/swing-2/3-2 or impaling/thrust/1+2, 1 lbs.). Basic Speed 6.25, Total Weight 9 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 6, Dodge 6. Parry 6.
• [8] 3-8 Reptile Man with Blunderbuss — ST 22, IQ 10, DX 12, HT 13, natural DR 1, Blunderbus-15 (crushing/5, PB 3, Inc. 3, 1/2 D 50, Max 100, 34 lbs.), Brawling-14. Basic Speed 6.25, Total Weight 9 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 6, Dodge 6.
• [9] 3-9 Reptile Man Readying Crossbow — ST 21, IQ 10, DX 13, HT 13, natural DR 1,  Crossbow-15 (impaling/thrust+4/2+4, PB 5, Inc. 26, 1/2 D 420, Max 525, 6 lbs.), Goat’s foot (2 lbs.), Quiver with 10 bolts (1 lb.), Broadsword-14 (cutting/swing+1/4 or crushing/thrust+1/2+1, 3 lbs.). Basic Speed 6.5, Total Weight 13 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 6, Dodge 6.
• [10] 3-10 Barbaric Reptile Man — ST 18, IQ 11, DX 14, HT 14, natural DR 1, Greatsword-16 (cutting/swing+3/3+2 or crushing/thrust+2/1+4, 3 lbs.), Dagger-14 (impaling/thrust-1/1+1, 1 lbs.), Tail Mace-15 (crushing, swing+3, 3+3 damage, 5 lbs.). Basic Speed 7, Total Weight 8 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 7, Dodge 7, Parry 8.
• [11] 3-11 Reptile Man with Axe — ST 18, IQ 10, DX 14, HT 12, natural DR 1, Axe-16 (cutting/swing+2/3+4, 8 lbs.), Medium Shield-15 (PD 3, 15 lbs.). Basic Speed 6.5, Total Weight 23 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 6. Dodge 7, Parry 8.
• [12] 3-12 Reptile Man with Crossbow — ST 18, IQ 10, DX 13, HT 12, natural DR 1, Crossbow-15 (impaling/thrust+4/1+6, PB 5, Inc. 26, 1/2 D 420, Max 525, 6 lbs.), Goat’s foot (2 lbs.), Quiver with 10 bolts (1 lb.), Greatsword-14 (cutting/swing+3/3+2 or crushing/thrust+2/1+4, 3 lbs.), Dagger-14 (impaling/thrust-1/1+1, 1 lbs.). Basic Speed 6.25, Total Weight 13 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 6, Dodge 6.
• [13] 3-13 Barbarian Reptile Man with Mace — ST 18, IQ 11, DX 13, HT 15, natural DR 1, Mace-15 (crushing/swing+1/3+1 or crushing/thrust+1/1+3, 5 lbs.). Basic Speed 7, Total Weight 5 lbs., No Encumbrance (0), Move 7, Dodge 7, Parry 7.
• [14] 3-14 Reptile Man with Greatsword — ST 18, IQ 10, DX 15, HT 13, natural DR 1, Broadsword-14* (cutting/swing+2/3+4, 8 lbs.), Large Shield-15 (PD 4, 25 lbs.), Longbow-16 (impaling/thrust+2/1+4, PB 5, Inc. 12, 1/2 D 180, Max 240, 3 lbs.), Quiver with 10 arrows (1 lb.). Basic Speed 7, Total Weight 37 lbs., Light Encumbrance (1), Move 6. Dodge 6, Parry 7, Block 5. (Treat one-handed Greatsword as Broadsword if figure is ST 18+.)

* Weapon skill at -2 if you have a large shield.
** Weapon skill at -1 if you are wearing plate.

Random Half-orc Skill:

1. Riding (Giant Iguana)
2. Brawling
3. Intimidation
4. Tactics
5. Barbarian (Roll below))
6. Leader (Roll below)

Random Leader Skill:

1. Tactics
2. Strategy
3. Diplomacy
4. Leadership
5. First Aid
6. Weapon (Raise any weapon skill by one level.)

Random Barbarian Skill:

1. Climbing
2. Fishing
3. Hunting
4. Survival (Woodlands)
5. First Aid
6. Tracking

The cleric/mage/shaman rolls on this table to determine how many spell colleges he is familiar with:

1. One spell college
2. One spell college with 1d6 additional spell points
3. Two spell colleges
4. Two spell colleges
5. Two spell colleges, one of which gets 1d6 additional skill points.
6. Roll twice on this table

Wizards gets 2d6 skill points to spend in each one, doubles add and roll over.

The leader figure may roll on the either the leader table or the standard skill table as he wishes. The barbarian figures may roll on either the barbarian table or the standard skill table as he wishes.

Each skill result on these tables represent four character points worth of ability.