Can somebody Explain Gurps?

[Ashrum the Black]

Gurps, we've all seen it around and it has a huge following from what I can tell. But can somebody explain to me what the system is like? I've playe DnD through three iterations, shadow run, hero system, earth dawn, vampire, etc. etc. I mention that just so folks can use a common reference point if they need to.

I'm trying to decide if I might be interested in giving the sytem a whirl for a traveller campaign as well, so how do the rules float with that setting as well.

Thank one and all for any information!

-Ashrum

 

[johnsemlak]

Probably better to ask this in the General discussion forum.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

GURPS Lite, which is the basics of the system, can be found here. It's about 32 pages long, and gives you a good idea of how it works. It recently printed its fourth edition, so it might be a little different from what you find elsewhere.

The basic resolution mechanic is 3d6, producing a bell curve from 3-18, with low numbers being desirable (you try to roll below your skill; 3 and 4 are critical successes while 17 and 18 are critical failures, etc.). Character creation is point-pased; certain attribute levels cost certain points, ditto with skills, and there are a wide variety of Advantages (things not covered under skills, like Attractiveness and Allies) and Disadvantages that give you more points to work with (Bloodthirsty makes you want to go for the kill no matter what; Nearsighted is self-explanatory).

The system is meant to be usable for any setting (gurps stands for "generic universal roleplaying system"). I don't know much about Traveller, so I can't comment, but from what I've heard it would work fine.

 

[JoeGKushner]

GURPS Traveller is probably one of the best takes on the game. Lots of support.

If you go that route, get a subscription to Pyramid magazine as well. More support and a great friendly forum. (Might have to renew my own... it's been a while...)

 

[Calico_Jack73]

GURPS Traveller is a really good take on Traveller but you might also want to check out GURPS Space and create your own Sci-Fi setting. GURPS Space covers various means of FTL travel allowing you to select which method best suits your campaign (Dune's Space Fold, Star Trek's Warp Drive, and Star Wars' Hyperspace are just a few of the methods covered). I've played GDW's Traveller, GURPS Traveller, and T20 Traveller and I actually prefer the T20 version to the others. If you've got a group of d20 players it would be an easier import since the basic rules are the same but changed up enough to have the GDW Traveller feel and combat is revamped to reflect a setting with deadlier personal weapons.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

Thanks for the information folks. It is helping quite a bit. I've been bouncing around checking out various scfi settings lately and none of the fit the bill completely. I've slowly been working on a blending of D20 future and t20 with a dash of star frontiers for nostalgia's sack, but I've really been hoping for a system that would not require quite so much work to get all the options I want in it.

Gurps traveller has oodles of supprt from what I can see and has lots of fluff to go with their crunch from what I've seen. That could be a real time saver for me.

How intuitive is the Gurps system, and how is the new addition?

BTW johnsemlak: The reason I asked here is because posted to the wrong forum. Teach me not to look where I'm at when I post right?

-Ashrum

 

[tjoneslo]

I found the GURPS system pretty intutive. There are two rolls; skill rolls (where you want to roll low) and damage rolls (where you want to roll high). If you played hero the point buy system for character creation will be very familiar. The system closest to GURPS is Hero, many of the concepts are the same or very similar.

If you are getting GURPS as new, get the 4th edition books. The rules are much cleaned up and organized. The older 3rd edition rules are suffering under 10 years of accumulated cruft.

I have most of the GURPS Traveller books. The main book has all of the background you will ever need to play Traveller, neatly organized. If you are at all interested in Traveller, get that one first. Even if you are not planning on using GURPS, get the GURPS Traveller book, it will make the T20 book much more useful.

 

[Darkness]

Moved to GD.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

Thanks for moving the thread Darkness.

Does gurps suffer from the problem of the Hero system in that the tool kits allow for the contraction of almost anything, but tend to bog the game down with the tool kits.

What I found when playing hero, was that while the game mechanics of a laser and an eye beam may be structuraly the same, when I have to create hardware items by adding laser emission with the physical object limitation, I sort of lost the feel of scifi. It ultimately turned me off on the system because I was just never able to immerse myself in the world and play, and kept focusing on how everything went together.

I'm hoping Gurps is generic, but when they hand over a scifi setting such as traveller I'm not worrying about adding a life support power to my starship so the crew doesn't suffocate. Instead I can add a life support module purchased at Harries Used Star Parts, that may be a little on the shady side, but hey, we're leaving as soon as it's installed anyway. And things which make scifi intersting, such as ship contruction, have rules that make a little sense to an engineer. Instead of just adding powers until I'm moderatly happy with the result or can't afford any more. :\

If you can follow what I'm trying to say.

-Ashrum

 

[WizarDru]

I found the GURPS system pretty intutive. There are two rolls; skill rolls (where you want to roll low) and damage rolls (where you want to roll high). If you played hero the point buy system for character creation will be very familiar. The system closest to GURPS is Hero, many of the concepts are the same or very similar.

If you are getting GURPS as new, get the 4th edition books. The rules are much cleaned up and organized. The older 3rd edition rules are suffering under 10 years of accumulated cruft.

Actually, that's 16 years, old chum. GURPS 1st edition came out in 1986, 2nd edition in 1987 and 3rd edition in 1988. 3rd Revised Edition, which was basically just errata in print was 1994. GURPS hasn't changed that much in 20 years, in all truth (and its origins go back 10 years previous to that).

GURPS is a skill-based, non-class based system. D20 learned much from GURPS, with the ideas of feats and a more complicated skill tree. GURPS works more with a skill defaults (although reduced in 4th edition, from what I've seen). The idea being that someone with a degree in nuclear physics must have at least some skill in math or a more general, related field, for example.

By and large, GURPS is much less cinematic and much more lethal than the d20 system, and character advancement is much slower. Characters will never make the leaps and bounds of D&D characters, gaining salient abilities very slowly. I used GURPS as my system of choice for about 15 years, post-AD&D and pre-d20. It has a few quirks, but by and large it's a great system.