Reading "Mike Mignola's Hellboy: Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game" (GURPS)

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Chapter Two: Playing The Game

This chapter is 18 pages long.

We start with the standard success roll (which is 3d6 and roll equal to or less than the ability/skill being tested).

Critical success and failure is explained (3 or 4 is always a critical success, 5 is a critical success if you effective skill if 15+ and 6 is if you skill is 16+. 18 is always a critical failure, if you effective skill is 16 or better 17 is an ordinary failure, if it's under 16 it's a critical failure and any roll 10 greater than your effective skill is a critical failure). The effect of critical success/failure is up to the GM. This makes me wince a bit...

We then get lots of additional material - repeated attempts, contests of skills, reaction rolls and a reaction table, and damage (based on your ST).

Characters in Action
This deals with all the crazy things PCs get up to: running, jumping, climbing, lifting and throwing things (more tables), swimming, extra effort, sensing things and Will rolls.

Finally we get a section on Fright Rolls and their effects - a failure requires a further 3d6 roll, adding the amount by which the first roll was failed, then consulting a chart - the worst possible result (22+) will give a new disadvantage (GM discretion) such as a phobia, delusion, white hair etc, as well as some time spent in shock or even catatonic (GM discretion).


Next is Combat
Combat sequence is based on Move Scores and Basic Speed in the case of ties.

Various manoeuvres are chosen: move, change position (standing, crouching, kneeling etc - all oaf which have specific effects), ready, reload, stack, all-out attack, all-out defence, long action and free actions.

Then we get the section on actually making your attack and various modifiers), and defence (which may be active - dodge, block or parry) or passive (something like armour or a shield - they also absorb damage, but there is a chance they will deflect a blow). There are some special case rules, and critical hits have specific effects in combat.

Rules for damage and its effects allow for shock, knockdown and stunning.

Ranged attack rules cover range, multiple shots (including automatic weapons), shotguns, firing with two hands etc

Close and bare handed combat have a separate section, including slamming, flying tackles etc as well as punching, kicking, pinning, trampling etc, along with improvised weapons.

Injury, illness fatigue and crippling injuries are all dealt with along with first aid and recovery.

Explosions, poison, disease and falling - a common feature of the comics - are all there, along with fatigue.

There are no rules for vehicles in this version of the game - not that they feature in much details in the comics

I found this section complete - a bit over complete for my tastes these days as I prefer looser rules. My tastes would be for a lighter system for HB these days, but this set certainly does the job.

A chapter on BPRD next
 
PrivateEye said:
I found this section complete - a bit over complete for my tastes these days as I prefer looser rules. My tastes would be for a lighter system for HB these days, but this set certainly does the job.

A chapter on BPRD next
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gruagach said:
GURPS rules are serviceable. I agree that I'd prefer looser / less complex rules for Hellboy.
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Everywhen, you two:grin:?
 
PrivateEye said:
Chapter Two: Playing The Game

This chapter is 18 pages long.

We start with the standard success roll (which is 3d6 and roll equal to or less than the ability/skill being tested).

Critical success and failure is explained (3 or 4 is always a critical success, 5 is a critical success if you effective skill if 15+ and 6 is if you skill is 16+. 18 is always a critical failure, if you effective skill is 16 or better 17 is an ordinary failure, if it's under 16 it's a critical failure and any roll 10 greater than your effective skill is a critical failure). The effect of critical success/failure is up to the GM. This makes me wince a bit...
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It's much cleaner in play than when it's written out in text, and most of the time come down to "3-4 Great, 17-18 Very Bad".
 
TristramEvans said:
GURPs just needs to switch to a D100 base rather than 3D6.
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And metric.

290px-John_Bauer_1915.jpg
 
I'm a bit behind on my reading because I've been planning the next session of Dracula Dossier...

Chapter Three: The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence

This starts with a description of The British Paranormal Society (founded 1877), where the BPRD's roots lie. As of 1944, its leading members were Professor Bruttenholm, Lady Cynthia Eden-jones and Dr Malcolm Frost.

The Hellboy incident occurred in 1944 when Lady Eden-Jones sensed "something dark building" (the Nazi occult ritual on Tarmagant Island, off the Scottish coast) centred on a ruined church in East Bromwich. Hellboy materialised in a gout of flame....

We then get the formation of BPRD, and a bit about Hellboy's early days, before moving on to the present (that being 2002 of course). The BPRD at this time has its HQ in Fairfield, Connecticut, with no visible sign as to its purpose. We have details of the facilities available, the organisational structure, and its relations with other agencies (CIA, FBI, MI5 and others - generally fairly good with the exception of Russia after the 1964 Baba Yaga incident until the fall of the Soviet Union).

A box tells us about BPRD's attitude to non-hostile "unusual" beings - generally positive, even recruiting some.

Following the comic strip we get write ups of BPRD personnel:

Prof Bruttenholm - lots of knowledge skills, including ancient languages. He's got Ritual Magic 12 and Running 10 - but no combat abilities to speak of and his HT is 12 - hooray! A decent bio follows. The Prof is of course deceased at this point in the BPRD saga.

Dr Thomas Manning - Bureau Director - pretty smart and well-skilled, he is an expert in Criminology (16) and Administration, Diplomacy and Leadership...

Professor Kate Corrigan - currently director of field operations - she's very well-rounded, being skilled in guns, anthropology, archaeology, history, occultism etc.


Hellboy - what can we say? He has a point total of 855! - he has a ST of 30 and HT of 20 (with 35 hit points). He also has a Damage Resistance of 15 (85 for his right hand) and regeneration of 1 HT per 10 minutes. The Right Hand of Doom is a combat hand (see above) and he has Modified Arm ST in the right arm, giving it +10 strength. A consummate brawler (18), HB is a dab hand with a broadsword as well (13) as well as pistols and shotguns (16). He's pretty good with parachute and rocket pack as well... HB is described as "offspring of a liaison between a powerful demon of Hell and a mortal girl" and there is a lengthy bio based on the written material available at the time. A helpful box explains how to use HB's gizmo advantage to produce assorted charms and amulets, a flare or grenade, maps and snacks from his pockets and belt pouches

Abe Sapien - handy with pistol, rifle and karate, Abe of course has the amphibious advantage as well as having a dependency on water immersion.

Liz Sherman - Liz has two varieties of Pyrokinesis - controlled at 5 (skill 14), and unconscious/uncontrolled at 95! As expected there is a decent bio.

Roger - is still "alive" and active in 2002 - built with 550 points he has ST 25, HT 16 and 20 hit points. He has a Damage Resistance of 25 but generally fewer skills than other team members.

Orsen Gaines - introduced in the mini-comic, he is fairly classical ex SAS with various combat and survival skills as well as demolitions and driving.

Johann Kraus - Johann has the Ectoplasmic Projection and Spirit Form advantages, with a discount for "missing powers". He has a reasonable skill set and has the Psychic Skills of Channelling and Projection at 16 (we don't know what that means yet...)

Sidney Leach - sometimes known as the "human metal detector" Sidney has some good technical skills (engineering, electronics etc) but also the Psychic Skill of Metal Sense at 14. Badly burned when Liz accidentally revived Roger (at the same time that Bud Waller was killed), Sidney recovers to return to BPRD

Dr Izar Hoffman - Head of BPRD psychics department he's no psychic himself. His skills are mostly technical and he has a doctorate in psychology

Thereafter we get some simple descriptions (with no stats) of other personnel: Ezra Clark (deceased), Bud Waller (deceased), Lloyd McCay (built the Bureau's jetpacks with Zinco parts...), General Ricker (deceased), Kevin McConville and Bertram Armstrong Redfield (Bureau pilots), Mr Johnson (field agent of unknown real identity)

Next up - Allies and Others
 
Allies and Others

Most of these are bios, rather than fully developed as PCs/NPCs, and like some in the previous section, they dropped out of the saga a while back. I'll canter through them.

Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones - England's top medium and an important member of the British Paranormal Society in the 1940s, she was present at the Hellboy incident. Died in 1962

Professor Malcolm Frost - third member of the BPS present at the Hellboy incident. Advocated that Hellboy should be killed until the United Nations declared HB to be human. This led to a rapid decline and he died shortly after.

Sergeant George Whitman - leader of the US Army Ranger team at the Hellboy incident. Often assisted BPRD in later years, retired in the early 1960s and died of lung cancer in 1970

Dr Anastasia Bransfield - one of England's leading archaeologists, and Hellboy's first and last girlfriend - they remain close friends

Father Mike Nolan - an Irish priest and friend of Hellboy in the 1950s and 1960s - deceased

Father Edward Kelly - friend and occasional partner to Hellboy for over 30 years, killed by the werewolf William Grenier in 1994

Lobster Johnson - say no more. we are promised more on p164 under The Restless Dead

The Osiris Club - A mysterious association. the Osiris Club is apparently dedicated to observing and destroying paranormal menaces. it's not clear whether it still exists or who its members might be


Creating BPRD Agents

These detail features Agents are likely to have (eg First Aid, Guns (Pistol), Curious, Sense of Duty), guidance on low-powered agents (100 points), average agents (150 points), enhanced agents (300 points) and powerful agents (550 points).

We then get a succession of helpful templates to speed character creation: Field Investigator (135 points) (eg Bud Waller, Kate Corrigan, Trevor Bruttenholm), Point Man (150 points) (eg Hellboy and Roger - not on these points though!), Psychic Investigator (130 points) (eg Sidney Leach), Psychokinetic (145 points) (eg Liz Sherman). This is followed by a short section on modifying templates to encompass consultants and staff psychics.

Boxed text suggests magic-users are generally rare in the Bureau, and are more likely to be enemies than allies - but there is guidance for players who want to buck the trend.


We then get templates for Non-BPRD Characters - Academic, Guide, Journalist, Liaison, Priest. The point totals are fairly low, but they are good start for a non-BPRD character, or for an NPC on the fly


Next up is Nazis and Other Human Foes
 
I appreciate the points packages provided in these chapters - could help with those unused to GURPS style character creation.

Also, I found the lore in this book a good read.
 
Chapter Four: Nazis and Other Human Foes

We start with a brief description of the Thule Society, the Nazi Party and Hitler before moving on to Himmler's Special Group (which included Ilsa Haupstein, Professor Doctor Karl Ruprect Kroeber, Leopold Kurtz, Professor Doctor Herman von Klempt, General Klaus Werner von Krupt and others...). The history of the group includes the Hunte Castle incident, the recruitment of Rasputin and the Ragna Rok Engine, Vampir Sturm and Giurescu. A box section comments on what really happened on Tarmagant Island (spoiler! - we don't really know...)

Next is section on The Nazis Today (well in 2002, anyway). Mostly this deals with the Special Group survivors - who are all dead at this stage in the saga (or are they?).

Next we get the stats and bios

Rasputin (745 points!) - he has Magery, Baba Yaga as a Patron, and (now) Spirit Form. He is also bad-tempered, overconfident, and likes to explain his history and plans... he knows a lot of Paths and Rituals, and a number of spells including Breathe Fire, Shapeshifter Other and Strike Blind. The bio is extensive as we might expect.

Ilsa Hauptstein (190 points) - obsessed with resurrecting Giurescu, she has High Technology and Invention (Cybernetic Limbs). Most of her skills are technical (Armoury, Chemistry, Electronics, Engineer etc) though she also has Occultism and Ritual Magic

Leopold Kurtz (120 points) - a mechanical genius devoted to Rasputin, he did most of the construction of the Ragna Rok Engine and built the Kampfer walker. As we expect, most of his skills are technical, though he can drive the Kampfer

Professor Doctor Karl Ruprect Kroenen (140 points) - a brilliant but callous experimental surgeon, never seen without his protective suit (the purpose of which is unknown). Another technical genius he killed Kurtz when he attacked von Klempt, and apparently died in the collapse of the Norway Facility.

Professor Doctor Herman von Klempt (215 points) - A floating glass tank containing the head of a bald Caucasian man wilh a swastika on his forehead... Obviously he has some disadvantages (he's ugly, unlucky(!), has an unnatural feature (head in a tank) and is bad tempered (probably with good reason)). He can also fly, breathe fire and has damage resistance (built into his brain case) and has a wide variety of technical skills - he created the Kriegsaffes (war apes). he survived many catastrophes that killed colleagues (including Hunte Castle) and sometimes used a robot body. His brain tank was shattered in 2001 in his last run-in with Hellboy, and he is presumed dead...

Inger von Klempt (155 points) - Herman's granddaughter. The family name was changed to Karnstein, and she took the name Laura. She acted as a guide and lured Hellboy and Roger into a trap at Hunte Castle. The ghost of Lobster Johnson shot her, apparently killing her. Most of her skills are practical, including guns (pistol) and judo.

Uber and Arnwolf von Braun (295 points) - I don't remember these guys at all - they are conjoined twins (hence the advantage of course) and powerful ritual magicians, knowing many paths and rituals. Looks like they're still alive as of 2002

We have short bios only (no stats) of Werner von Krupt (a member of the Special Group and enraged by the apparent failure of Ragna Rok, he was cursed by Rasputin. At the end of the war he ended up in an asylum where he died 6 months later, his body filled with beetles of an unknown type), Professor Doctor Ernst Oeming (an Einstein level genius who worked on psychic technology, he was assassinated in 1939. His body was given a pseudo-life and launched into space. When it returned 60 years later there was nothing of Oeming left...), Hans Ubler (ran a ghastly nightclub in Berlin that was a combination of horror and freak show, he came into possession of Giurescu's corpse, which was take by Haupstein after murdering him...)

Roderick Zinco (180 points) - multimillionaire and businessman (and slave to Rasputin) who provided huge amounts of material to the Special Group Nazis and sabotaged gear to BPRD who he saw as a threat to his masters. He has the Filthy Rich advantage, and is skilled in administration and diplomacy and (a bit less so) in some technical skills. Rasputin ultimately struck Zinco blind, and in his flailings he triggered the destruction of the Norway sanctuary (and presumably died in the process)

Unmensch (110 points) - I love the description of this guy - "a bald, hulking Caucasian man with a metal arm and a bolt in his forehead. He speaks only in guttural German and usually does not wear a shirt..." He is of course, the guy with the combat hand and the spring-loaded fist... Hellboy ripped it off and beat him with it and shortly afterwards he was killed and eaten by a vampire. His skills were mostly combat-oriented.

Of course we have stats for a "Typical Nazi Stooge" (45 points) - pretty much what you would expect.


Others

We get stats for Igor Weldon Bromhead (110 points) a small-time con man and ritual magician. Captured by Hellboy in 1981 he went to prison for 15 years until he managed to escape. In 1999 he obtained St Dunstan's box and the imprisoned demon Ualac. He ended up transformed into a lizard by Astaroth and trapped in an exitless room, and has not been heard of since...

We get bios of Count and Countess Guarino, an unfortunate pair of satanists repeatedly taken in by hustlers and thieves. They made a deal with Bromhead to obtain St Dunstan's box. Ualac possessed the countess's body and turned the count into a monkey. Hellboy killed the countess's possessed body and the count was killed by a fall in monkey form after attacking Abe...

Finally we get the bio of Professor Edmond Aikman, a friend of Prof Bruttenholm and folklorist who occasionally aided BPRD before devising a scheme to get gold from King Vold. He ended up with a hole burned through his hand and became a beggar. He recovered from this, married and had a daughter but ultimately in 2000, when Hellboy brought him Thor's hammer for analysis, he tried to make a deal with the Frost Giants, was betrayed by them, and died

Comments - an amazing section. A joy to read really - a comprehensive look at so many of the characters from Hellboy's "Golden Years" and absolutely full of flavour and potential plot hooks - I love it.

Paranormal Abilities next...
 
PrivateEye said:
Comments - an amazing section. A joy to read really - a comprehensive look at so many of the characters from Hellboy's "Golden Years" and absolutely full of flavour and potential plot hooks - I love it.
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Me too. The BPRD sections and this section did a great job of sparking story ideas for the small number of times I ran the game. And, it's inspired other potential one-shots for me too in other systems / other settings.
 
gruagach said:
Me too. The BPRD sections and this section did a great job of sparking story ideas for the small number of times I ran the game. And, it's inspired other potential one-shots for me too in other systems / other settings.
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it also reminds me of all the reasons I loved early Hellboy - and why I eventually stopped reading it...
 
It took me a while to adjust to Duncan Felgredo's art, especially as Mike's artwork was one of the defining draws of the series for me, but at that point I was waiting for the trades rather than following the intermittent individual issues, which probably is why I eventually warmed to it. Personally, I really like the subdued philosophical approach of The Island and Mignola's finale. It is a change in tone, certainly, but it mirrored my own transition into adulthood from adventure fiction to a preference for more contemplative and meditative fiction. At the time I started reading Hellboy I was spending $600 a month on comic book subscriptions, by the end the only thing I was reading besides the Mignolaverse was The Goon, and my bookshelves were filling with Joyce and Borges and Calvino.

I will say though that I really appreciate that while Mignola gave us a full ending to the main Hellboy saga, he left enough open spaces in the lore for years of continued one-offs and side stories that tend more towards the whimsy of Pancakes and The Corpse & The Iron Shoes. Even while the main series was dealing with the apocalypse, we got stuff like Hellboy in Mexico. And I'll also say the darker tone of the later sequences of Hellboy's story are present from the start - my introduction to Hellboy was the Wolves of Saint August when it was serialized in Dark Horse Presents - there is no more heart-wrenching saga in the entirety of Hellboy, and it was only like the third or so Hellboy story released.
 
Chapter Five: Paranormal Abilities

We start with a brief description of the the three types of power used in the book - ritual magic, spell-based magic and psychic powers. All three are said to tap the same types of energy but in different ways
  • Ritual magic uses symbols, spirits and established techniques combined with trained willpower and perhaps special tools, slow but accumulating a lot of power. By far the most common form of magic used by humans
  • Spell-based magic (including some innate powers of supernatural creatures) uses ambient and personal energies in specific ways by following "compressed rituals", either learned or known instinctively. Usually quite fast but a bit of a "brute force" technique
  • Psychic powers draw on purely personal energies and most people can't do it at all though a few are born with vast psychic talents. You can't get them by study and most psychics rarely have more than one field of ability. The range of psychic powers is small compared to the other two types
Paranormal abilities are powered - usually from the individuals, and 1 point of energy costs one point of fatigue.

Many rituals, spells and psychic abilities can be resisted, usually resulting in a contest of wills between the user and the target - though some effects are resisted with ST or HT. Many paranormal abilities can be used as defences - either Guards (which resist attacks just like your will) or Screens (which have a power level which is subtracted from the attacker's skill. Both types often provide limited coverage (a screen protecting your mind doesn't help against a telekinetic attack)

Ritual Magic
Anyone with the Ritual Magic skill can perform ritual magic, though some advantages make it easier. Ritual Magic is divided into Paths (areas of interest) - all magicians have some ability in every Path, but most specialise in one or two areas, having only rudimentary knowledge in the rest. Each Path is learned as a separate skill (all defaulting to Ritual Magic -6).

We get a lot of material about ritual elements (which add bonuses), time taken (less time = more penalties) and all sorts of things like sacred spaces, material components, defences, target modifiers etc. As expected, combined effort is helpful as the magicians combining their efforts can divide the skill penalty total between them and combine their success levels to determine effect. Magic items can be produced by ritual magic, and we get a few details of this.

Path of Cunning
This is about trickery, deception, fooling the senses and influencing the mind. Rituals include things like:
  • cloud memory
  • guise (looking and sounding like someone else)
  • hand of glory (creating one of these magical devices, which opens locks and paralyses occupants of the building unless they successfully resist the effect)
  • mist
  • suggestion
Path of Knowledge
- is about gaining knowledge and insight (duh!) and includes things like
  • aura reading
  • locate
  • read memories
  • scry
  • veil
Path of Luck
- is about affecting probabilities and includes things like
  • chaperone (protects the we are against one threat)
  • gremlins (makes machines break down)
  • loyal item (item always returns to he owner)
  • malediciton
  • weapon blessing
Path of Protection
things like:
  • charm against demonic animals
  • curse sanctum (protects against curses)
  • ghost shirt (protects against ranged attacks)
  • ward
Path of Spirit
deals with rituals relating to spirits of all sorts and souls (living or dead). Includes things like
  • banish
  • bind
  • exorcise
  • ghost sword
  • lay to rest
A chart provides all the applicable modifiers, and we then get the character sheet of a sample ritual magician - Eliana Alexio (150 points), a Brazilian skilled in the Paths of Cunning, Protection and Spirit

Spell magic next
 
The ritual magic system presented here was introduced in C.J. Carella's GURPS Voodoo: The Shadow War in 1995, and slightly revised in GURPS Spirits by Steve Kenson in 2001.
 
TristramEvans said:
At the time I started reading Hellboy I was spending $600 a month on comic book subscriptions
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Damn. I think at my most I was dropping around a $100 a month on my pull list, not counting the occasional trade paperback I would pick up. And that was with a 20% subscriber discount.
 
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Tulpa Girl said:
Damn. I think at my most I was dropping around a $100 a month on my pull list, not counting the occasional trade paperback I would puck up. And that was with a 20% subscriber discount.
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I'm prone to obsession with my hobbies. At it's height, my comic book collection consisted of over 150 longboxes (though admittedly part of that was me buying out the stock of a comic shop going out of business).
 
TristramEvans said:
I'm prone to obsession with my hobbies. At it's height, my comic book collection consisted of over 150 longboxes (though admittedly part of that was me buying out the stock of a comic shop going out of business).
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my obsession has been RPGs for... decades. If my wife ever fully realised how much I spend on them...
 
Spell-Based Magic
A bit shorter - as folk might know, in GURPS each spell is learned as a separate skill. A side box tells us that with a few exceptions (usually old sacred spaces, and often guarded) Hellboy's world is low mana, and hence spells great -5 to cast. Yikes!

We then get the obligatory section on casting and maintaining spells before the short list of sample spells - and this really is short compared with GURPS Magic. Here is the full list from this volume:
  • Body of Air
  • Breathe Fire
  • Concussion
  • Fireball
  • Great Hallucination
  • Shapeshifting
  • Shapeshifter Other
  • Strike Blind
and that's your lot. Resonates quite well with the comic, but if you any more, you'll have to buy a supplement...

I hope to tackle Psychic Powers tomorrow
 
PrivateEye said:
Spell-Based Magic
A bit shorter - as folk might know, in GURPS each spell is learned as a separate skill. A side box tells us that with a few exceptions (usually old sacred spaces, and often guarded) Hellboy's world is low mana, and hence spells great -5 to cast. Yikes!
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Of course, it's also quite appropriate to use the additional rules for boosting your spell skill roll that were to be found in GURPS Cabal, which also assumes a low mana world.
 
PrivateEye said:
I didn't like the grimmer tone and the movement away from tight, amusing storylines towards long plot arcs (with very irregular publishing schedules) and the apocalyptic bent of the later work. The earlier stuff, which I could pick up and dip into at whim suited me better.
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A lot of the early Hellboy stories had a grim tone to them, in my opinion. Otherwise, I feel the same as you.
 
Psychic Powers
Each Psychic Ability has two parameters - Power and Skill, Power being the raw force you can exert, and Skill being how well you control your ability. Some skills are active (eg telesend and pyrokinesis) and others are passive (eg mind shield, precognition). There are various limitations you can apply - eg emergencies only, eye contact only, touch only, unreliable - which are fairly common psychic tropes. Some abilities have an energy cost (and using extra effort costs extra energy anyway). We also get rules for concentration, time required and repeated attempts.

The list of Powers and skills includes
  • Electrokinesis (energy sense, metal sense, surge)
  • Ectoplasmic Projection (channeling, projection)
  • ESP (awareness, clairvoyance, clairaudience, detect aura, precognition, psychometry)
  • Psychic Vampirism (drain emotion, steal energy, steal power)
  • Psychokinesis (cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, telekinesis
  • Telepathy (emotion sense, mental blow, mind shield, psychic sense, sleep, telecontrol, telereceive, telesend)
This is a pretty comprehensive suite of abilities. Of course no pc is likely to have enough points to buy all of these at a powerful level, so you're likely to get specialised characters, which does seem to fit the fiction.



Chapter Six: Beasts and Monsters

We start with a general section on building beasts/monsters in the HB Universe.

A helpful sidebar gives details of the cosmology of HB's universe, and the various worlds of the Spirit Realm, some of which are "closer" to our world than others.

We get a lot of material about spirits and their abilities, including materialisation, summoning tokens, spirit travel (to and from their "home" spirit world for example) and possession. Spirit weaknesses are also discussed - for example, most spirits have very short lifespans.

Rather than building spirits from scratch, all their typical powers and weaknesses are rolled into a single advantage called Spirit Form (100 points), which can then be modified by special enhancements and limitations (eg easy materialisation, spectral touch, missing power etc. Obviously not as complex as building them from scratch under the full GURPS rules (I think!) but still allowing you to custom build spirits to some extent.

There's a discussion of which other advantages/disadvantages in the book wouldn't apply to spirits, and which would (and how).

Finally we move onto the Bestiary proper - which I'll look at later
 
PrivateEye said:
  • Electrokinesis (energy sense, metal sense, surge)
  • Ectoplasmic Projection (channeling, projection)
  • ESP (awareness, clairvoyance, clairaudience, detect aura, precognition, psychometry)
  • Psychic Vampirism (drain emotion, steal energy, steal power)
  • Psychokinesis (cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, telekinesis
  • Telepathy (emotion sense, mental blow, mind shield, psychic sense, sleep, telecontrol, telereceive, telesend)
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While most of these abilities had appeared in previous GURPS discussions of psi powers, beginning with the first edition of GURPS Horror by Scott Haring way back in 1987, this was the first (and I believe only) time that the Ectoplasmic Projection powers had appeared in this format.
 
The Bestiary

As far as I recall from the comics, this covers pretty much everything HB had encountered by the time the book was published. I should say that the stats are quite often limited to the absolute basics - ST, DX, IQ, HT/HP, Move/Dodge, Damage, Reach, Size and Weight. We do get quite a bit of description though.
  • Anubis - possibly the Egyptian deity, possibly not. HB met and apparently destroyed him somewhere in the southwestern US
  • Baba Yaga - travelling around in her giant mortar, she was shot through the eye by HB in 1964
  • Cannibal Heads
  • The Daoine Sidh - the powerful "faeries" of Celtic mythology. Quite a lengthy entry, with a sidebar on Changelings. Their nobles "can be treated much like humans. albeit with excellent attributes. spell-like powwers, and odd personalities"... Only the least of them (goblins) are given stats at all
  • Demons - another lengthy entry, and we do get the basic stats, special abilities and limitations of Ualac
  • Djinn - basic stats, special abilities and limitations (including dread of the Seal of Solomon)
  • Dragons and Worms - rare in the modern world, HB still manages to battle one (the Saint Leonard Worm) in 1954
  • Ectoplasmic Monstrosities - quite a bit of description and guidance, but no stats
  • Faerie Monsters - these are related to the Daoine Sidh and include Grom (we get stats for his small and large form), Iron Shoes, Jenny Greenteeth and The Nuckelavee (a side bar deals with King Vold and his pack)
  • Gaki - base stats only, with a brief mention of The Giant Vampire Cat of Kyoto
  • Ghosts - 'nuff said really - we get a useful sidebar on what causes ghosts
  • Gods - a lengthy entry about their place in the HB universe (some may be mischievous demons or potent free-willed spirits), but (necessarily no stats are provided
  • Hecate - the ancient pagan goddess. We get quite a lot about her, as well as basic stats for her Iron Maiden form and for her servants, The Witches of Thessaly.
  • Homunculi (like Roger, though some are miniature human figures)
  • Lake Monsters - we get basic stats for the Plesiosaur
  • Selkies - seal people - description and basic stats
  • The Ogdru Jahad and its minions. Quite a lot of description and basic stats for Sadu-Hem and Frog Monsters
  • Skeletons and Zombies - the old classics. How we love them - basic stats only
  • Svartalves - the "dark elves" of Norse mythology
  • Vampires - another classic of course. We get a lot of description, basic stats and typical advantages and disadvantages, with suggestions for skills (essentially what they had in life). A side bar deals with The Varcolac, and we also get a detailed history and description of Giurescu (plus a few of his skills). A side bar deals with non-European vampires
  • Were-Beasts - we get the basic stats, advantages and disadvantages. We get more details on "Wolfmen", the history of the Grenier family and guidance on Grenier in his "giant wolfman" form
Next up will be Weird Science and Technology
 
Chapter Seven: Weird Science and Advanced Technology

We kick off with a Brief History of Strange Devices, which covers the weird tech developed by the Nazis, the Hunte Castle event and Project Ragna Rok.

A section on BPRD Technology comments on HB's guns, communication and tracking devices, vehicles and rocket packs (haha!). Sidebars comment on GURPS Tech Levels, Zinco and Roderick Zinco.

Ragna Rok gets a section, along with The Kampfer Walking Weapon, The Apocalypse Army (666 mechanical zombies built by Kroenen with basic stats), Kriegsaffes (cybernetically augmented apes with stats), and Von Klempt's Robot Body (with stats).

We have further sidebars/boxed text dealing with the differences between the High Technology and Invention advantages, Biotech in HB (with a shout out for GURPS Bio-Tech), Black Magic Meets Technology (with further material on The Ragna Rok Engine, The Astromagnet (designed to draw an asteroid the size of Cuba into collision with the earth, and destroyed by Orson Gaines in 1996) and other implementations).

A short but helpful section.

Next is Running The Game.
 
PrivateEye said:
Spell-Based Magic
A bit shorter - as folk might know, in GURPS each spell is learned as a separate skill. A side box tells us that with a few exceptions (usually old sacred spaces, and often guarded) Hellboy's world is low mana, and hence spells great -5 to cast. Yikes!
Click to expand...

I am only familiar of with the movie version of Hellboy, having never read the comics. Does the basic GURPS magic system fit Hellboy? GURPS has long been accused of shoehorning their basic magic system into too many settings where it doesn't quite make sense.
 
Voidmoji said:
I am only familiar of with the movie version of Hellboy, having never read the comics. Does the basic GURPS magic system fit Hellboy? GURPS has long been accused of shoehorning their basic magic system into too many settings where it doesn't quite make sense.
Click to expand...

I think the ceremonial magic system from GURPS Cabal fits well. Magic in Hellboy is undefined and based on folktales, theosophy, and narrative conventions though, so it's really just "how much does this game's system feel like "real" magic to me?"
 
TristramEvans said:
I think the ceremonial magic system from GURPS Cabal fits well. Magic in Hellboy is undefined and based on folktales, theosophy, and narrative conventions though, so it's really just "how much does this game's system feel like "real" magic to me?"
Click to expand...
I think the ritual magic feels like a pretty reasonable fit for HB. The spell system not so much - but it is a handy source for non-humans that have some kind of inherent magic of their own
 
Chapter Eight: Running the Game

The Essential Setup
This deals the fundamentals - single session or campaign, time and place (generally "now"), organisation and support (the pros and cons of working for a group like BPRD), and PC power levels. A sidebar goes into some detail on the issue of playing published characters, and a second on the topic of "low resolution, high contrast" (which highlights the simplicity of most HB stories of that era).

Creating and Running Scenarios
After some general advice, we get a fairly lengthy section on "the Hellboy story pattern", including subsections on variations, mythological research, and behind the scenes.

Sidebars deal with the briefing, calling home (reporting in rather than calling for backup), Hellboy and humour, and standardised opponents (detailing a few more mook-type opponents (mindless thugs, trained soldiers and secret agents).

There's a long section on "classic bits". Fans of the comics of that era will not be surprised to see the following covered: darkness, falling from great heights, ruined towers and crumbling houses, dead bodies, ghosts, fisticuffs, big explosions, firestorms, betrayal, wisecracks, Nazis, and returns form the dead)

A section on the art of the GM follows with advice on fudging and fixing, and splitting the group. A lengthy boxed section deals with the possibility of PC failure and how to deal with it - with a significant degree of foresight, the section concludes... "and finally, in the worst case - well, the end of the world needn't quite be total. Some groups may actually enjoy changing the campaign to a post-catastrophe epic of survival and resistance".

A section on death and the pc discusses the issue of the horror genre and the balance between the risk of death and the game reality. A sidebar deals with the question of agents that don't belong to BPRD and have to have some kind of employment.

Running a Campaign
How to link scenarios, character development, major villains and changing the cast.

Finally a sidebar gives an optional rule for what if essentially "reality editing" by the players, by spending earned character points.


The final section is a sample adventure, which I'll try to look at later this week.
 
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