I can find nothing in GURPS on how to run scenarios. There are plenty of guidelines and ideas for types of scenarios, but no clear cut definitions of how to challenge the players and make combat fair and balanced. I've looked and the information is either not in the two books I have or requires higher clearance than that required to read about fnords. Look at me, haven't even played a round of it and I'm already making inside jokes. Hehe hoho.
Also, my GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns book is missing twelve pages. Its only physically missing four, but eight of the ones that are in the spot are a reprint of the eight pages that come before the missing section so it hits page three hundred and seventy-two and then the next page is three hundred and sixty-four, then it goes to seventy-two again and then there is just a missing chunk of pages.
4th Edition has a clearly defined method of providing adequate challenges and rewards based on the party's level and the number of PCs in the group. Its very comforting to know that unless a strange situation crops up, you're not going to totally fuck the players. That's not fun. They don't enjoy getting taken apart by a pair of poor, but strangely competant gnomes (anyone remember that?).
Anyway. I can imagine that fighting a group of enemies that equals the points of the player's points would make for a challenging battle, but I'm not sure about the rest of the scenario. Should the whole scenario have a pile of enemies constructed based on the total of the points of the group? Each fight or encounter isn't a stand alone event and as a scenario progresses resources like Gizmos, Fatigue Points, and Hit Points are expended so that is something to factor in. The final battle may be based on the same number of points as the PCs, but the PCs aren't daisy fresh so that would likely be a punishing battle, rather than challenging.
Back in 2nd Edition AD&D this was a problem as well. You knew that at level one, goblins and orcs were a safe bet, and at like fifteen or higher death knights and dragons were more appropriate. Between those two sections the only real guide you had was the experience point value for killing the monster, and that only told you so much. Mainly it told you how many of a monster you'd have to kill if you fought them for one whole level.
I guess what will have to be done is to buld stuff based off the templates provided in the book and then alter them on the fly as needed. If a warrior with guns hits too often and is just taking chunks of hit points away from the group, reduce his weapon skill and change up his gun. I can handle this, I am a pro.
What should the first scenario of GURPS be though? The party is based out of the runs of Chicago, there are zombies, Nazis, and mobsters dwelling in the ruins in not so close proximity to the group. Should it be the first meeting where the group encounters each other? The Robot and Doctor are on one of their missions and they need a wheelman and go to the mob, the mob hires out the Driver and the Gangster to them. Inconcistencies Continued makes me think that they are beyond that point though. This isn't their first time at the rodeo (and seven hundred and fifty points a piece would seem to indicate that as well).
No, I think the time for starting out has passed. These gentlemen are professionals at their trade (can you be a professional Socialist? What manner of criteria does your resume need for that interview?). I think the first scenario should be the lab being assaulted, I think it would the perfect start to the campaign and would be a way to show off everyone's useful qualities.
Wehrmacht and the ASDF troops storm the building from the entrance aboveground. The Robot forms a one man defense line while the Gangster and Vampire support him. The Driver pops the trunk on the Chevy and unleashes some "surprises" on the Krauts and their Amerikan allies. The Doctor scrambles to get the best bits of his lab into his pockets behind a shield of energy while the others fight to give him time. The Vampire goes apeshit and the Robot must wade into melee and drag him away from the corpses around him while still firing round after round into the foes swarming their lab, their home. They must retreat there location has been found, but they take twenty, thirty, of their enemies down and the Chevy roars to life as the Driver peels out of the lab taking the curves and twists of the secret exit faster than he ever has, leaving a trail of smoking rubber on the pavement behind them.
I like that. Makes a great first scenario. The following scenarios can deal with them interacting with the mob. They need to work to get the resources they need to build a new lab, but they also need to be of enough use to the mob so that the mob won't sell them out to the Germans and ASDF. They also need a new place to hang their head so the mob can't do that in the future. Did the mob sell them out now? Is the Gangster a double agent? Does the Driver have a sister or brother held captive by the ASDF or SS or Wehrmacht? Is the Robot secretly being monitored by his brother? Have the Atlanteans secretly sent their elite Sharkosian shock troops above the waves to find their errant prince and have their investigations stirred the bees nest that is Chicago? What that has to do with the lab being discovered remains to be seen (which means I just wanted to throw "sharkosian" out there).
ASDF stands for American Social Defense Force. America is a socialist state, everyone shares the resources of the country equally. From food, to fuel, to money, it is all distributed relatively equally. But everyone older than 16 and not enrolled in some manner of education organization to further enhance their skillset must work, no exceptions. Those that cannot or refuse to work are drafted into the ASDF. They're like the poor man's SS, but there are enough of them to plug any hole in any front with bodies.
Music: You Know What You Are - Nine Inch Nails
Music: Burn - The Cure
Music: Ringfinger - Nine Inch Nails
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