GURPS-Share your thoughts

[Jürgen Hubert]

In some ways, GURPS characters can be tougher than their D&D counterparts. A character in a decent set of plate mail is all but invulnerable to attacks from physically weak fores, for example. Even a set of chain mail can make a character last very long unless the enemy has a high ST score or high tech weapons.

 

[Ethernaut]

Dare I ask, was it the Banestorm "weekend with friends" event? And was it run by a, um, portly gentleman with a Southern (US) accent?

It was, though nobody walked out of our game. We "finnished" two hours early so nobody had to. What a waste. And we didn't even have a single combat.

It was a shame, really. The concept had so much potential. I could have run it so much better.

But I don't want to diss the guy too much. Some people like the "place the players in a situation and let them do whatever the hell the want and never pay any attention to pacing or drama" type of game. That's not my style. I like a cinematic game with lots of action and drama.

 

[Ethernaut]

GURPS is completely unsuited for playing games pitting a group of adventurers against monsters and encounters adapted from D&D, if you use the rules as written. The system is, simply put, deadlier by an order of magnitude.

Well, some might not prefer to use GURPS for such games, but I found that it works just fine. My only Gurps 4e game that I ran was adapted directly from a D&D module and we had a great time. 4e is *not* as deadly everyone says. It's actually hard to die. Easy to go down, but hard to die. With magical healing, a competent party can do just fine against D&D style monsters in a typical dungeon. And with wizards regaining fatigue every 5 or 10 minutes, they don't need to return to the surface as often.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Well, some might not prefer to use GURPS for such games, but I found that it works just fine. My only Gurps 4e game that I ran was adapted directly from a D&D module and we had a great time. 4e is *not* as deadly everyone says. It's actually hard to die. Easy to go down, but hard to die. With magical healing, a competent party can do just fine against D&D style monsters in a typical dungeon. And with wizards regaining fatigue every 5 or 10 minutes, they don't need to return to the surface as often.

Thank you! I make the same mistake as another poster did, I mistook "realistic" for "very deadly."

In D&D you have a huge barrier of hit points between you and death, with a tiny strip of incapacitation.
In GURPS you have a huge barrier of hitpoints between you and death and a very small barrier between you and possible incapacitation.

As long as the dice are with you, a GURPS character with high Health and appropriate ads could keep fighting until -60 * hits.


Damn, that's a REALLY good point, Ethernaut.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Shayd3000
Here here!

You want quick....try Torg on for size

Ethernaut
Ah, nothing beats Risus for quickness.

YOUNGSTERS!

You want quick, try Steve Jackson's old board/RP game Melee/Wizard/In the Labyrinth.

3 stats. Character generation takes 5 minutes. D6s for everything.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

In D&D you have a huge barrier of hit points between you and death, with a tiny strip of incapacitation.
In GURPS you have a huge barrier of hitpoints between you and death and a very small barrier between you and possible incapacitation.

As long as the dice are with you, a GURPS character with high Health and appropriate ads could keep fighting until -60 * hits.

To be precise, a character with 10 base hit points could theorethically stay alive until he has lost 60 hit points - after this, he is irrevocably dead.

However, any fantasy melee fighter is going to have more hit points than that. Hit Points in 4e are now based on ST, which costs 10 point per level. And Extra Hit Points only cost 2/level now - so depending on how many you can talk your GM into allowing you, the character can keep standing for a very long time.

Let's take one of the melee fighters from my GURPS Eberron campaign. He has ST 15, 5 levels of Extra Hit Points, and HT 13.

Once he has lost 20 hit points, he will have to start rolling his HT versus unconsciousness every round to remain standing - a 83.8% chance of succeeding. Once he has reached -20 hit points, he will have to roll versus HT again to see if he dies from his wounds. The same is true at -40, -60, and -80 hit points - and at -100 hit points, he is irrevocably dead. The chance that he will make it that far if he continues to get injured is 49.3% if he keeps on making is rolls versus death.

However, the odds are that he will fall unconscious long before that, and it is rather easy to kill an unconscious foe. Still, in theory he could survive a loss of 119 hit points - not bad for a supposedly "lethal" game...

 

[VirgilCaine]

Once he has lost 20 hit points, he will have to start rolling his HT versus unconsciousness every round to remain standing - a 83.8% chance of succeeding. Once he has reached -20 hit points, he will have to roll versus HT again to see if he dies from his wounds. The same is true at -40, -60, and -80 hit points - and at -100 hit points, he is irrevocably dead. The chance that he will make it that far if he continues to get injured is 49.3% if he keeps on making is rolls versus death.

However, the odds are that he will fall unconscious long before that, and it is rather easy to kill an unconscious foe. Still, in theory he could survive a loss of 119 hit points - not bad for a supposedly "lethal" game...

Exactly my point. I just used an easy example.

 

[Shayd3000]

YOUNGSTERS!

You want quick, try Steve Jackson's old board/RP game Melee/Wizard/In the Labyrinth.

3 stats. Character generation takes 5 minutes. D6s for everything.

Been there, done that

I wish I still had my sets. I thought those were fun games!

George

 

[Shayd3000]

Ghostbusters

You mean more that the d6 incarnation of Ghostbusters wasn't fun to play.

Okay, to be honest, I only ran and played (and still have my copy of) the first edition of the Ghostbusters game, though I'm pretty sure this is an early rendition of D6. Not a game I'd want to do a campaign in, but it was great fun for light one-shots.

George

 

[mmu1]

To be precise, a character with 10 base hit points could theorethically stay alive until he has lost 60 hit points - after this, he is irrevocably dead.

However, any fantasy melee fighter is going to have more hit points than that. Hit Points in 4e are now based on ST, which costs 10 point per level. And Extra Hit Points only cost 2/level now - so depending on how many you can talk your GM into allowing you, the character can keep standing for a very long time.

Let's take one of the melee fighters from my GURPS Eberron campaign. He has ST 15, 5 levels of Extra Hit Points, and HT 13.

Once he has lost 20 hit points, he will have to start rolling his HT versus unconsciousness every round to remain standing - a 83.8% chance of succeeding. Once he has reached -20 hit points, he will have to roll versus HT again to see if he dies from his wounds. The same is true at -40, -60, and -80 hit points - and at -100 hit points, he is irrevocably dead. The chance that he will make it that far if he continues to get injured is 49.3% if he keeps on making is rolls versus death.

However, the odds are that he will fall unconscious long before that, and it is rather easy to kill an unconscious foe. Still, in theory he could survive a loss of 119 hit points - not bad for a supposedly "lethal" game...

Of course, at that point the character is crippled, his active defenses become ineffectual and he can't hit back because of all the penalties either, which leaves him open to being full-attacked by someone swinging for the vitals (or worse).

And that doesn't take into account what happens when someone starts to cripple your limbs one by one, either...

I haven't quite made up my mind whether that ability of high HT characters to be easy to cripple but almost impossible to kill is a bug or a feature.