Recent content by dbm

This is an element where I think Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion strikes a good balance. By RAW a character’s powers (and the level of those powers) is fixed, but the skill with which you use those powers can increase.

I tried to learn Hero a few years back, using it to run a Champions campaign for a few months, and ultimately we decided the learning curve was too high for us. If I had picked up Hero 20 years ago that might have been a different outcome. Hero is a more tightly defined game system than GURPS...

So, drilling into some of the differences in GURPS versus other game systems, one of the things which sets it apart is the available detail* in the combat system. If you are someone who like ‘fighting characters’ and wants them to be mechanically engaging then GURPS is a great system. The...

It’s an interesting through-line as Fudge was written by Steffan O’Sulivan after writing a couple of GURPS books. And Fate started as a variant of Fudge.

It certainly requires an adjustment of perspective, and is probably one of the most different aspects of GURPS. It works best at lower skill levels, where you probably want to spend some rounds on All-Out Defence, or on Evaluate or Feint to improve your chances of hitting. It’s also quite tricky...

So, this was asked in another thread: … and I thought we could have a new thread in that as it is an interesting topic to me. I have been a GURPS player for over 30 years. I actually picked up the 1e box set when it first came out, but it was so thread-bare at the time it didn’t gel with me...

I created a new thread to talk about GURPS and fantasy

It’s a style of campaign with episodic play, a varying cast of characters on each adventure, built around a hub which the characters return to, where adventures are only intended to last one session each. It enables a style of gaming group where you don’t always know which players / characters...

I’m ok with re-rolls costing XP. Makes them a big deal rather than a frequent event.

Full reveal has been made now, it’s a West Marches style campaign with three sub-groups, using 2024 D&D

GURPS 3e took two swings at Supers in the course of that edition. V1 was a train wreck, v2 was a lot more usable. 4e supers is more difficult in some ways, as the interlock of systems is much tighter in 4e. So there are more and stronger undesirable consequences to pushing the GURPS engine to...

The Savage Worlds Horror Companion has a module for ‘playing monsters’ which uses the super powers rules behind the scenes to balance up the abilities of vampires, werewolves and so on. A good effects-based supers system can do pretty much anything within its resolution

In my opinion GURPS 3e Psionics is one of the best psi-focussed games I have ever played. The system of power and skill with things like telekinesis, ESP and so on as separate areas of power gave lots of depth for customising Psionic characters. Scanners is one if the reference works for GURPS...

This is very similar to my feelings, and why Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion is my personal favourite system. For me, it successfully threads the needle between tangible and flexible definition of stuff in a supers context. In my opinion and experience the core rules are solid, and provide...

I have three main options in my library, and which I would use would depend on how I wanted ‘domain play’ to feature. Savage Worlds has a simple ‘base of operations’ system, which has tailored implementations for different genres including fantasy, supers, sci-fi, and horror. The PCs can have...