GURPS Dungeon Fantasy adventure module

[Argyle King]

For those of you who are not familiar with what Dungeon Fantasy is, I will just briefly say that it is a GURPS product line which is geared toward... well, Dungeon Fantasy. How this differs from GURPS Fantasy is that Dungeon Fantasy strips away and/or simplifies a lot of things so as to better suit dungeon delving and a more D&D-esque style of play. (Though it is important to note that the line is completely compatible with all other GURPS material.)

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

That being said, I still occasionally hear complaints about prep time for the system. There was just a thread here on Enworld asking for advice on setting up a game a few days ago. With the completion of Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, some steps were taken toward providing more precooked material.

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1


As someone who makes an effort to follow the happenings over at Steve Jackson Games, I am surprised to find that I was unaware of an adventure module being put together for the Dungeon Fantasy line of products. Not only is it being put together, but it is currently going through the editing process. I stumbled across that news here: GURPS: Generic Universal RolePlaying System

"The bottomless pit that is Dungeon Fantasy is nowhere near full yet! Matt Riggsby's Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1: Mirror of the Fire Demon is now in editing, while Peter V. Dell'Orto and I are working on something else that's a little further out."
- quoted from the GURPS website


I'm excited to see how far the product line progresses. The quote I provided seems to indicate that SJ Games intends to do more with Dungeon Fantasy than they already have. Hopefully the adventure is a first of just many more products to come. If the line is steady and strong enough for the company to be interesting in publishing more material, I may try my hand at writing something. It appears to be a good time to be both a GURPS fan and someone who has an interest in writing game material.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Uhm, but to play GURPS Dungeon Fantasy I'd need the 4e core books, throw out 90% of the stuff and replace it by the options of the DF line?

 

[Weregrognard]

Uhm, but to play GURPS Dungeon Fantasy I'd need the 4e core books, throw out 90% of the stuff and replace it by the options of the DF line?

Or...you can get GURPS Lite for free and use that w/ the Dungeon Fantasy books

 

[ExploderWizard]

Its good to see some GURPS adventures getting published.

Dungeon Fantasy is ok I suppose but its really geared toward high powered supercharacter dungeon crawling.

It would be nice to see some more regular fantasy adventures published. Some more adventures in the spirit of Harkwood would be cool to see.

 

[giant.robot]

Uhm, but to play GURPS Dungeon Fantasy I'd need the 4e core books, throw out 90% of the stuff and replace it by the options of the DF line?

Not even close. Dungeon Fantasy uses all the normal GURPS rules but provides worked examples of characters/equipment/etc for the setting. The first book has a bunch of character templates, equipment lists, and lists of skills and advantages appropriate for the setting. No new rules are presented, the books just save you time writing it up yourself. For instance the templates are themed after traditional dungeon fantasy character types/classes but use no special rules. Like any other GURPS template it's just a list of skills and traits that fit a character theme.

 

[Aramax]

I love GURPS but I don't like it for fantasy or supers,however if I play ANYTHING other than those 2,It must be GURPS(I am particularly fond of Traveller and Star Trek Klingons)

I just never got a good vibe from fantasy w/ this system,which is kinda peculiar in that I love the system for almost anything else.

Its not even something I can put my finger on as to why.Its probably I am so tied into the whole character class thing(which is VERY unrealistic).

 

[darjr]

I've advocated for more adventures for GURPS from SJG for a long time. I don't play much GURPS anymore but I might have to think about that.

 

[Argyle King]

Uhm, but to play GURPS Dungeon Fantasy I'd need the 4e core books, throw out 90% of the stuff and replace it by the options of the DF line?

Not even close. Dungeon Fantasy uses all the normal GURPS rules but provides worked examples of characters/equipment/etc for the setting. The first book has a bunch of character templates, equipment lists, and lists of skills and advantages appropriate for the setting. No new rules are presented, the books just save you time writing it up yourself. For instance the templates are themed after traditional dungeon fantasy character types/classes but use no special rules. Like any other GURPS template it's just a list of skills and traits that fit a character theme.

...what robot said...

It has a lot of already put together options. There are templates meant to mimic the ideas of classes; that way you can simply pick a 'class' and get into playing the game faster. The templates also make an effort to cater to some of the tropes of dungeon fantasy style gaming. It's all still compatible with the other GURPS products.

The second book (which is similar to a DM's Guide) talks about encounter balance, has some pre-worked monsters and traps, and also gives advice on how to run a dungeon fantasy style game.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

It has a lot of already put together options. There are templates meant to mimic the ideas of classes; that way you can simply pick a 'class' and get into playing the game faster. The templates also make an effort to cater to some of the tropes of dungeon fantasy style gaming. It's all still compatible with the other GURPS products.

The second book (which is similar to a DM's Guide) talks about encounter balance, has some pre-worked monsters and traps, and also gives advice on how to run a dungeon fantasy style game.

Seems I didn't make myself clear enough, so I'll try with a series of questions:

GURPS DF uses the GURPS rules for task resolution et al, as published in the 4e core book(s)?

Some/many advantages, disadvantages, and skills are packed together in templates, so the players selects one or more templates instead of building the character from scratch?

The rules text for the elements of the templates is still in the core book(s)?

If I run a GUPRS DF game, I'd not use the rules for Psi, SciFi, superpowers, and maybe other stuff from the core book(s)?

By the way, would the DF line work with GURPS 3e rules as well? Maybe I could dust off my old books and give DF a go...

 

[Argyle King]

Seems I didn't make myself clear enough, so I'll try with a series of questions:

GURPS DF uses the GURPS rules for task resolution et al, as published in the 4e core book(s)?

Some/many advantages, disadvantages, and skills are packed together in templates, so the players selects one or more templates instead of building the character from scratch?

The rules text for the elements of the templates is still in the core book(s)?

If I run a GUPRS DF game, I'd not use the rules for Psi, SciFi, superpowers, and maybe other stuff from the core book(s)?

By the way, would the DF line work with GURPS 3e rules as well? Maybe I could dust off my old books and give DF a go...

DF uses the same task resolution system as Basic Set GURPS, yes; you still roll 3d6 and all that jazz.

Yes, many advantages/disadvantages are packaged together. Much of the text for them is still in the Basic Set. However, DF has advice and a list of what 'would be appropriate*' for Dungeon Fantasy style games.

*By appropriate I suppose I mean the DF series assumes that certain elements of play are semi-handwaved or not given as much detail in a DF style game. That being said, there's no reason why you cannot still use those elements; the books are simply written assuming a somewhat specific style of play. You could still (and I have) run a DF game and incorporated elements from other sources. It all still works together.

The DF books also have a few new advantages and disadvantages. There are a few which are unique to the various 'classes' and races. For example, a knight might be able to choose certain options that a wizard cannot; an elf might have racial options which differ from those of an orc. Again though, the books aren't a straight jacket; they're simply written in such a way to kinda mimic the ideas of classes, races, and feats as made popular in some d20 games. There's no reason you cannot change how things work; they're simply already put together for you for ease of play and to make the 'leveling up' process faster.

If you really wanted to, you could still use Sci-Fi books and other things, but DF is not written with the idea that you will. That being said, there are a few sidebars concerning Psionics and the idea that cheesy psionic powers have been an established Dungeon Fantasy trope for years.

...that reminds me, the books are written with something of a sense of humor. The description of half-elves is one of my favorite examples. It's a serious product in that it can be used for a game, but there are a few blurbs within the books which poke some fun at the genre. I think most people who have played D&D and Dungeon Fantasy style games will appreciate the sense of humor.

Could you use it with 3rd Edition? Hmm, that's a good question. Converting from 3rd to 4th is fairly easy; in a past Dungeon Fantasy game, I've used 3rd's Fantasy Beastiary. I'm not nearly as familiar with 3rd as I am 4th, but I imagine it would be possible to perform the conversion steps in the opposite direction if you wanted to convert something from 4th to 3rd. As I've never attempted to do so, I cannot vouch for how much or how little work it would take to do so. All I can say is that I found the conversion process to go from 3rd to 4th easy enough that I bought some of the old 3rd books even though I play 4th.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/resources/4eupdate.pdf

The only DF books you need are the first 2. The first one is akin to a player's handbook; the second is akin to a dungeon master's guide. The third is useful because it has racial templates; those are helpful for both the players and the GM, so I would recommend the third. Beyond that, everything else is optional.