Besm 3rd Edition Monsters Of Rock
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“Everybody thinks it's always wet at Donington,” promoter Maurice Jones would say several years after the inaugural event. “But that's not true. I can show you the weather details for every year, and more often than not it's sunny!” But on August 16, the date of that debut festival at Castle Donington in the midlands, the mud clung on not just to boots but every part of the anatomy.
Still, nobody cared. The fact was that here was a chance to celebrate what had been a spectacular year for hard rock and metal. Conceived by Jones and Paul Loasby as a way of signalling the end of Rainbow's Down To Earth tour, this wasn't actually supposed to be the birth of a dynasty, just a one-off day out.
But it was so well received, Monsters Of Rock became a tradition that dominated the '80s. The first bill was a superb cross-section of bands from the UK, Europe and North America. Inevitably, Rainbow were the star attraction, but Judas Priest, Scorpions and Saxon gave the day heavyweight depth, while April Wine, Riot and Touch added a transatlantic sheen.
Of course, the day will also be recalled because Doug Howard, bassist with Touch who had the distinction of being the first band ever to play the festival, swallowed a bee straight after their set was finished. “I had to be rushed to hospital,” he said of the incident, “because I had an allergic reaction to the bee sting.
It flew into an open bottle of beer. People now think it's funny, but it could have had serious consequences for me.” In 1981, having decided their one-off experiment was a triumph, Jones and Loasby decided to go for a second event at Donington, which was most renowned as a motor racing circuit. In fact, this was the birth of what was now perceived as an annual festival. Thanks to Jones' relationship with AC/DC, they were persuaded to headline, guaranteeing bigger ticket sales than in the 1980. Held on August 22, the bill also included Whitesnake, Blue Oyster Cult, Slade, Blackfoot and NWOBHM hopefuls More. Reflecting the times, in 1985 both Bon Jovi and Metallica appeared for the first time, thereby bringing glam and thrash to the big stage.
“We always keep an eye on what's happening,” said Maurice Jones at the time. “We know we have to have both the established names and young, exciting artists.” ZZ Top topped the bill, while Marillion brought their progressive bent to the Monsters. A pig's head was hurled onstage during Metallica's set, while drummer Lars Ulrich was later spotted at a hotel bar with a certain part of his anatomy looming close to the prostrate body of Venom's Cronos, who was passed out at a table. There are photos in existence of this incident as well (which we won't put here)! Both 1986 and 87 offered up decent fare. Ozzy headlined the former, with Def Leppard making a notable debut appearance on the bill. This was one of drummer Rick Allen's first live shows since he lost his arm, and he was reduced to tears by the emotional welcome he got.
Bad News also played that year, leading to some criticism from irate fans, who felt their slot opening the festival should have been given to a worthy young band, not to a parody TV act. On a more positive note, Doro Pesch became the first female to play at Monsters Of Rock when she fronted Warlock (Meat Loaf's backing singers notwithstanding). Bon Jovi topped the bill in 1987, with Dio, Metallica and Anthrax all making notable contributions. But there was one gaffe when Bruce Dickinson joined Jovi onstage and told everyone Maiden were headlining in 1988. “Yes, they will be,” an irritated Jones admitted a few days later. “But I wish he hadn't said that. We like to build up to an announcement.
I personally love all rumours which circulate about who will headlining. They're usually so wrong!” So, Maiden headlined the biggest ever Monsters Of Rock in '88, with estimates putting the attendance at over 100,000. Mind you, with Kiss, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, Guns N' Roses and Helloween also appearing, this was perhaps the pinnacle of the Monster years. There was an unscheduled break in 1993, because no band of any stature was available to headline.
And when the festival returned in '94, it was with two stages. The idea was to try and get a younger audience attracted by more contemporary names on the second stage, which was headlined by The Wildhearts, while the established artists controlled the main stage, where Aerosmith were the headliners. It worked to some extent, with Sepultura and Pantera providing a metal cachet below Aerosmith. But the second stage still hadn't broken through to the stage of the art bands. There was still a feeling it was too little too late. In theory, Metallica headlined the Monsters Of Rock in 1995.
In reality, it was their own show. The band agreed to take a break from recording the Load album to do what was dubbed an 'Escape From The Studio' performance.
“I see it as rescuing Monsters Of Rock,” Ulrich claimed bluntly, but accurately when this was announced. There was only one stage, with the headliners joined by Therapy?, Skid Row, Slayer and Machine Head on what was a nine band bill.
The final Monsters Of Rock festival was in 1996. Returning to the two stage format of '94, Ozzy and Kiss co-headlined the main stage, with Korn in pole position on the second stage. Also appearing were Sepultura, Paradise Lost and Fear Factory (main) and Type O Negative (second).
However, Monsters Of Rock had run its course. The ongoing inability to attract the right sort of headliners doomed it to be discontinued. Eventually in 2003, it emerged revamped as the Download festival, But the essence and legend of Monsters Of Rock lives on.
“I used to dream about playing here,” Machine Head's Robert Flynn said in 1995. “To get the chance to do it is the fulfilment of an ambition.” Monsters Of Rock was an '80s phenomenon. It set the template for the myriad festivals which happen every year around the world. But none can match the original. Well, rain, it was the highlight of every year for rock and metal fans.
By Bruce Grubb Permission granted for strictly noncommercial use and distribution. AD&D 1st edition, AD&D 2nd edition and D&D3.5 are trademarks of. Is a registered trademark of. This material is not official and is not endorsed by either Wizards of the Coast or Steve Jackson Games. The GURPS material here is used in accordance with the Steve Jackson Games. When I originally wrote guidelines to convert AD&D1 to GURPS back in 1987 I designed the conversions to as accurately reflect what AD&D1 characters were able to do in GURPS terms while keeping point cost down at the same time. Since then I have updated my conversions to bring them in line with the current versions of both games - D&D3.5 and as well as making extensive use of the Web resources that now exist like and the D&D class and levels vs.
GURPS point levels One of the main challenges in converting D&D3.5 characters and monsters to GURPS 4e is that GURPS provides a incredible degree of flexibility compared to the level and class system used by D&D3.5. The advantages of classes and levels is they provide a good starting point for beginners but at the same time they also set limits on what abilities a character can have ie only a Barbarian can Rage, Clerics and Paladins turn undead, Druids Wild Shape and so on. Also it is understood that certain skills are part of the class and so they get their host abilities outright or get bonuses in those areas (Fighters for instance start out knowing all simple weapons and get bonus feats) In GURPS the only limitations are the point total and what the GM will allow. For these reasons you cannot relate a D&D level to a GURPS point total; the classes on their own simply vary too much in terms of GURPS advantages, disadvantages and skills to do that.
Also GURPS has many tones of play ranging from “realistic” to high fantasy level cinematic. The tone has a large effect on what a character can do; a 150 pt cinematic character will have access to abilities and skills that would allow them to run rings around a 200 pt realistic character. A related problem in conversion is they way the two games handle attributes. In GURPS attributes all start at 10 and can be adjusted by using points; however since IQ and DX determine the baseline of so many skills in GURPS these attributes are worth double what ST and HT are.
But D&D uses a 4d6k3 method for generating stats which has an average of 12.176 compared to 10.5 for GURPS’ 3d6 making bonus level attribute scores more likely. These bonus adjustments are best represented by advantages in addition to modifying skill level. However in D&D class and level determine what abilities or advantages are available and what the cost of extra-class skills are. In GURPS the level of the attribute, any related advantages, and the difficulty of the skill (Easy, Average, Hard, or Very hard) determine the cost of skill. So a INT 16 converts into less for a Fighter than for Wizard. For these reasons I took the approach of giving options for adjusting attributes based on the disadvantages or advantages they grant.
I then went through the classes and listed the abilities and limitations that most readily translated into GURPS terms. Finally I provided a way to translate modifiers into a GURPS skill level.
Since I first first put this out, Steve Jackson Games has put out the series (, and ) as ebooks. The Dungeon Fantasy series is more geared to creating a hack and slash campaign in GURPS from scratch than converting one. This page focuses on the conversion aspect. Note: this page assumes you have at both books of the GURPS 4th edition Basic Set (whose page numbers are preceded by the letter ’B‘), (F), and (M). ATTRIBUTES As stated at the start of this web page one aspect of D&D attributes that makes them hard to convert is that in addition to adjusting skills most of them confer what in GURPS terms would be called advantages (or if they are low enough disadvantages).
ST = STR (derived GURPS attribute HP) While both D&D and GURPS use Strength for encumbrance the formulas are very different. D&D is more generous on light to medium encumbrance while GURPS is more generous on the heavy and extra-heavy side. Another problem is that in GURPS Strength rather than Health (CON or HT) is the basis for hit points. (for Hit Point adjustments given by CON consult the table under CON.) For these reasons is simpler just to use the D&D STR score.
Not only do high Strength characters get better HP at low levels but since (ST^2). 2 = x-heavy encumbrance they can carry more than they could in D&D.
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DX = 10 + Dex modifier + relevant disadvantages and advantages The related disadvantages and advantages DEX provides seem to best equate to the GURPS disadvantages and advantages Combat Paralysis, Basic Speed -/+4, and Combat Reflexes. So a -1 DEX modifier would result in DX 9 and Combat Paralysis/Basic Speed -1 and a +1 DEX modifier would result in DX 11 and Combat Reflexes/Basic Speed +1. Related advantages: Flexibility (including Double Jointed), Enhanced Defenses, Perfect Balance. IQ = 10 + INT modifier (derived GURPS attributes Will, Per) See note on spell casters (Wizards). Here we have another difference in the two systems. In GURPS all spells are IQ based skills with certain advantages providing bonues (or negating penalities) to learning them; by contrast in D&D the attribute that determines spells bonus is set by what class the character is.
In GURPS terms this equates to advantage: Magery, Magery (Ritual), or Power Investiture and this is covered in greater detail in the. Note while learning languages in GURPS is relatively cheap GURPS does have something that is close to the language bonuses of INT - the Language Talent advantage. Will = IQ + Wis bonuses/penalties In GURPS terms Wisdom in D&D does a double duty; it determines what clerical spells a character can casts and it either improves or detracts from Will (an IQ derived attribute). HT = 10 + Con modifier/(Dis)advantage (derived GURPS attribute FP) In GURPS HT is the attribute that determines Fatigue Points (FP).
In an D&D style campaign FP is going to be one of the players’ main concerns; combat costs (1 + encumbrance level) FP for every combat that lasts 10 seconds or longer (So a series of short battles will tire character out faster than one long one). The fun part is in under the default magic system in GURPS FP are also used to power spells so there is a trade off for all FP based spellcasters (called wizards in GURPS) between wearing armor and having FP to cast spells with. I have devoted a to using GURPS magic in D&D which covers this and other issues in greater detail. An interesting trade off one can do with converting CON to HT is the Unfit/Fit (dis)advantages. These (dis)advantages modify the HT roll but do not modify the attribute itself. So instead of CON 12-13 resulting in HT 11 you can have it equating to HT 10 and Fit instead. Some other advantages to look at are: Damage Resistance (tough skin -40%), Rapid Healing, Hard To Kill, Resistant/Immunity and Regeneration.
Remember that each advantage or level counts as +1 (ie Very Fit/Very Rapid Healing count as +2). Also some advantages may not fit with the concept of certain races. D&D Hit points This is the biggest problem in converting from D&D to GURPS; in GURPS terms D&D hit points represent a whole multitude of advantages, skills, techniques, and rules, some ‘realistic’ others most definitely cinematic in nature. Also unlike D&D even low point GURPS characters can if lucky take lots of damage. At 0 HP they make a HT roll each turn to stay conscious but do not have to make survival rolls until at -1.HP and multiples there after (until -5.HP where most characters die regardless and yes there are advantages that change this too).
So an average HT 10 HP 10 GURPS character would have a 50% chance of staying awake each turn at 0 HP or lower but would not be in danger of dying until they reached HP -10. Even if the optional bleeding rules (B420) are being used there is a 25% chance the GURPS character will stabilize on their own and even at -HP they would still have a 50% chance of making their survival roll. The higher the modified HT roll is the better these rolls become; this means that if the HT roll is creeping into the 15+ range than getting something to go down and die becomes increasingly difficult. For example with an effective 14 the base chance a HT roll will succeed all the way down to -5.HP is only (.907^4) 67.7% while at 15 it jumps to (.954^4) 82.8% and at 16 goes up to a staggering (.981.4) 92.6%! (Since 17 and 18 always fail effective HT 17+ only matters if there are penalties to the HT roll). Note that this refers to an effective survival roll. HT 12 + Very Fit, HT 11 + Hard to Kill 3, and HT 14 all have the same HT survival roll though in other respects they are very different.
Of course as D&D classes increase in Hit Points more and more GURPS advantages, skills, techniques, and rules come into play. A good rule of thumb here is that GURPS’ standard ‘realistic’ advantages, skills, techniques, and rules will work reasonable well until roughly about 4 level. At that point the need for cinematic advantages, skills, techniques, and/or rules (B417) starts becoming pressing and at 8th level and above equivalent it is effectively mandatory. Social Traits and Background Here we get into an area where what information D&D does give us is not much help. Charisma While the Charisma attribute in D&D determines physical beauty and natural leadership ability in GURPS these are totally separate. It is quite possible in GURPS to have a Very Handsome/Beautiful appearance and all the leadership ability of a rock or be totally hideous but have an outstanding ability to impress and lead others.
For this reason Appearance and Charisma are separate in GURPS though they can reinforce each other or cancel each other out. Then there can be other things that effect how others see you. Having a Odious Personal Habit will cause reaction penalizes while having the Voice advantage results in a reaction bonus but only to things involving speaking or singing. Reputations can add or subtract from reaction rolls; Rank and Status can also modify reaction rolls. Technology Level Unlike D&D GURPS formally addresses the fact that differences in technology encountered will generally cause difficulty.
Skills that are effected by technological differences are followed by a “/TL” (for example Traps/TL). Being only familiar with a lower TL then the campaign world is a disadvantage (it limits what skills you can learn at the standard TL) while conversely familiarity with a higher TL is an advantage. In a realistic setting TL will not be uniform across the board which is why GUPRS provides four sample categories: Transportation, Weapons & Armor, Power, and Medicine each of which can have its own value. For example much of Christian Western Europe c1000 CE could be roughly called TL3 (Medicine TL1). Also one can have a familiarity with a higher TL than your own but not the ability to properly work on or repair such items; this is represented by TLx/y. Then there is the notation TL(x+y) which denotes a TL that diverged from the path taken on Earth.
This divergance means that while the TL is equivalent to the sum of (x+y) it looks little like that TL and in fact operating on different principles from the ‘standard’ TL. For example, if you really look at them most D&D worlds are at a level similar to but on a totally different path to the Renaissance-Age of Sail and Industrial Revolution periods of our earth diverging in the Middle Ages. This gives us TL(3+1) to TL(3+2) meaning that a character familiar with TL4 or TL5 will be at an additional -2 penality to use his TL based skills. In some case the differences will be so great that realisticly they can’t really use that TL based Skill. For example a TL(6+2) computer repairman familar with vaccum tubes would be totally lost trying to fix a TL7 transister based computer never mind a TL7 one based on the microchip. Since TLs in any catagory grey into one other you can see TL(x+1) inventions side by side with TLy (where y=x+1) inventions though most will quickly become dead ends.
One of the few real world examples of this is seen in comparing Edisons 1898 Kinetophone to Laustes 1910 sound on film method. The Kinetophone (Speaking Mutoscope in GURPS Steampunk) is TL(5+1) in that it uses mechanical means so common to TL5 to sync picture and sound while Lauste used light and electricity that would become so common in TL6.
For a brief time Kinetophone was superior to Laustes method eventually becoming the Videophone used in The Jazz Singer (1927) but as TL6 progressed Laustes method overcame its limitation and had quickly replaced Kinetophone/Videophone by 1935. Another example would be the Physics/TL(5+1) understanding of air dynamics the Wright Brothers and other would be airplane inventors had to deal with; the models were wrong and the Wrights along with everybody else had to invent Physics/TL6 air dynamics. Finally there is superscience, technology that does not fit on the chart because it violates the current accepted cosmology which is marked with a ‘^’. D&D’s Spelljammer setting could be viewed as a TL(3+1)^ as it has some concepts involving a TL4 view of the cosmos but many of them are in TL3 terms. Magic allowing manned interplanetary travel (normally Transportation TL9) is noted by the superscience notation.
Something similar happens with the Space 1889 setting but there you are dealing with an interesting mixture of TL5, TL6, TL(5+1), TL(5+2) and TL(6+1) with some superscience thrown in depending on what you are looking. Verne’s famous submarine actaully uses TL(5+2) primary batteries which in the novel perform as well as TL7 nuclear power and Wells’ TL(6+1) atomic bombs in World Set Free continue exploding for years something the real TL7 bombs do not do. He was right though when he said “to this day the battle-fields and bomb fields of that frantic time in human history are sprinkled with radiant matter, and so centres of inconvenient rays” or what we would call fall out and radiation. But here again we are seeing TL7 expressed in TL(6+1) terms and in the real world the attitude toward the atom bomb by even those in the military (thanks in part to the propaganda of the period) as very TL(6+1)in that it was viewed as just a bigger explosion. Languages In D&D the INT one has determines the number of languages a character can know while GURPS has no such limitation. The default in GURPS is that a character knows how to speak as well as read and write one language natively. The cost of additional languages is based on how well they are known in both spoken and written form.
Wealth Wealth is always a problem - characters either have too little of it or too much. Written for GURPS 3rd edition provides some ideas on how to deal with wealth from a point prospective. Templates and Lenses Because GURPS is so detailed and flexible it is easy to become overwhelmed by the choices. To help deal with this problem GURPS provides an option called Templates (B258-263) and a way to create common variations called lenses (B449). Templates come in three forms: Character/Occupational templates which serve a function similar to character classes in D&D, Racial which a package of advantages, disadvantages, and skills a particular race has, and finally meta-traits (B262-3, F133-4) which denote a particular state. Lenses are simply specialized templates that create an emphasis ie the Paladin and Ranger can be done as lenses of the Fighter template. Racial Templates Between the two of them the Basic Set and Fantasy provide a plethera of race templates ranging from the staple D&D races of Dwarf (B261, F107), Elf (B316, F108), Halfling (F109), and Orc (F110) to more exotic races like Centaur (F105), DevilFish (F105), Djinni (F107), Dragon (B261, F107), Faerie (F108), Felinoid (B261), Ghoul (F108), Imp (109), Myrmidon (F109), Selkie (F110), Troll (110-1), Eastern Vampire (F111), Gothic Vampire (B262), and Werewolf (F112).
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Then there are the undead lenses (F112-3). As this list shows nearly anything can be made into a race template. As long as you deal with concepts rather than game mechanics it is surprisingly easy to sit down with the GURPS Basic Set in one hand and the Monster Manual in the other and make up race templates (GURPS Fantasy just makes the effort a little easier).
The reason for this is simple; the wide range of rules and advantages allow greater flexibility in how to render a race than provided by D&D. However that flexibility can result in information overload if you are not sure on where to go with a race which why references to the already created racal templates are provided. There was a at the GURPS website that was written for GURPS 3rd edition that with GURPS Update (found with other usefull links ) can be brought up to the current edition with little problem. That said usially converting a monster into a racial template or lens from scratch can take the monster into new directions you never thought of before.
I should mention that there is a difference between a racal template and a lens. A racial template decribes a race of beings while a lens is a modifer of a racial or occupational template. For example, nearly all self willed undead are lens of whatever they were in life but they do fall into two groups (corporial and spirital) which are best handled by mega-trait templates. As an example I have provided an updated version of the which is significantly different from the version in GURPS Fantasy. Since nearly anything can become a racal template or lens, the only limitations are what the GM allows the Players to use. A resourceful GURPS GM could even create an “Anti-Dungeon” where the players are playing brave monsters trying to defend their home from evil adventures! Occupational Templates Occupational Templates (also known as character templates) in GURPS generally include everything: Attributes primary and secondary, advantages, disadvantages, and skills.
However in this conversion the Attribute section of such Templates has been taken care of so we are left with advantages, disadvantages, and skills. However unlike D&D GURPS skills can default to other skills, so you do not need to know as many skills as it may first appear. This is especially true of the Melee Weapons skills (B208-209) which come in six main categories three of which have generalized defaults but some weapon skills within these three categories default to weapons in other categories. As a result D&D’s weapon categories of simple, martial, and exotic have no meaning in GURPS.
Also skills the classes logically should have are missing (Clerics for example do not have theology). For these reasons and to simplify the conversion while adding some flexibility I modified the D&D class templates to bring them more in line with their Medieval-Renaissance (TL3-4) inspirations as well as adding advantages and skills better suited to role-playing. The noted exeption is the Monk; the D&D Monk owes more to 1970s Kung Fu movies than Medieval European Monks and IMHO to really due justice to the class the addition of GURPS Martial Arts would be needed. So to keep the book total down I provide an alternative monk more in keeping with the way they were - a person of people of learning whose efforts keep the old knowledge of the great fallen empire alive. If you want a Monk more along the lines of the D&D type there is the Wardancer (F126). As with ‘standard’ GURPS Occupational Templates these class templates are customizable via lenses. To simply things I have used the Cleric, Fighter, Rouge, and Wizard classes as the baseline and made the other classes (except for the Monk and Bard) lenses of them.
Since GURPS allows such a large range of variety there is no need to convert the NPC classes of Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert, and Warrior whose existence IMHO was barely justifiable to begin with. Since attributes are separated from these Occupational Templates the skills only have one point rather then being at a particular skill level.
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Following each skill is the attribute/difficulty for quick reference. Optional abilities are ones the D&D class has but should be looked at before being used (which is why they have page numbers after them). Some Occupational Templates and Lenses also have a page reference if you want to use the totally different made for GURPS version in Fantasy.
( has it own 250 point versions as well.) Cleric 16 (Holy Man F120) Clerical Investment 5, Blessed or Power Investiture 10, True Faith (15) Duty Church/Religion -10, Vow (varies) -10 Crossbow (DX/e), First Aid/TL (IQ/e), Theology (IQ/h), Melee Weapons: Axe/Mace (DX/a), Knife (DX/e), and Spear (DX/a), Occultism (IQ/a), Shield (DX/e), Spells (IQ/h to IQ/v), Throwing (DX/a) Optional Advantage: Legal Immunity (B65) Optional Skills: Esoteric Medicine (B192), Hidden Lore (B199), Physician/TL (B213) Druid lens +6 You are a cleric of nature.