Do you have a "litmus test" setting for generic rule sets?

[MGibster]

All those things are exactly why I like GURPS, and any other game that focuses on modeling something in the imaginary world as accurately as is practical. Wishy-washy is just what I don't want my game mechanics to be, ideally.

It's certainly true that GURPS has a pretty loyal group of core fans precisely because it provides them with exactly what they're looking for. While I prefer Savage Worlds over GURPS these days, I will readily GURPS is the superior universal game. You can do more with GURPS than you can Savage Worlds.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I absolutely refuse to play an RPG whose name is an all-caps acronym.

Unless it's HOL.

How's that?

 

[hawkeyefan]

Again, I don't think saying "This sort of thing doesn't bother me so there's no need to care about it bothering anyone else" is not perhaps the flex it appears.

Who’s flexing?

 

[aramis erak]

Is there a reason folks have decided to diss GURPS? Plenty of people like it, and simulative games in general. Why is popularity so important?

It's the most widely played, and most widely disliked by firsthand knowledge, of the supposedly universal engines. It's also the most simulationist of the dozen plus I've played; none of the others really go full sim.

It's not at all about you, your tastes in games. No one's setting out to yuck your yum... but it's unfair to expect us to not explain why we don't like it.

 

[Reynard]

It's certainly true that GURPS has a pretty loyal group of core fans precisely because it provides them with exactly what they're looking for. While I prefer Savage Worlds over GURPS these days, I will readily GURPS is the superior universal game. You can do more with GURPS than you can Savage Worlds.

Well, you can do different things with those to games. Both can do any genre if we consider genre only to be trappings, but both are limited if you consider genre to include tone and style. And that's to say nothing of actual gameplay genres.

 

[Laurefindel]

I absolutely refuse to play an RPG whose name is an all-caps acronym.

Unless it's HOL.

How's that?

The fact the RPG is an all-caps acronym makes the irony even more delightful (and intentional, I'm sure)

 

[dragoner]

You can do more with GURPS than you can Savage Worlds.

Even using GURPS I would say bespoke rulebooks are what is in vogue.

 

[MGibster]

Well, you can do different things with those to games. Both can do any genre if we consider genre only to be trappings, but both are limited if you consider genre to include tone and style. And that's to say nothing of actual gameplay genres.

Neither one does high powered supers particularly well. If I'm going to play a game where Spider-Man might swing through the neighborhood it isn't going to be GURPS or SW. If I were to use an analogy, Savage Words is like a thermostat I can set to around 75 degrees. GURPS is a pinpoint accurate themostate I could set to 72.5 or 77.9 degrees if I wanted.

Even using GURPS I would say bespoke rulebooks are what is in vogue.

Yeah. As far as popularity goes, GURPS is a pale shadow of what it once was. As others have pointed out, that type of game just isn't in vogue right now. But who knows? We might see a future where GURPS makes a big comeback. GURPS is the best at what it does.

 

[Reynard]

Neither one does high powered supers particularly well. If I'm going to play a game where Spider-Man might swing through the neighborhood it isn't going to be GURPS or SW. If I were to use an analogy, Savage Words is like a thermostat I can set to around 75 degrees. GURPS is a pinpoint accurate themostate I could set to 72.5 or 77.9 degrees if I wanted.

that you personally wouldn't use either does not in any way mean those games can't do supers. Both have perfectly usable Supers specific books and subsystems -- even if some other games do supers better.

 

[dragoner]

Yeah. As far as popularity goes, GURPS is a pale shadow of what it once was. As others have pointed out, that type of game just isn't in vogue right now. But who knows? We might see a future where GURPS makes a big comeback. GURPS is the best at what it does.

GURPS can be 100% relevant by making a bespoke core for the separate settings, which it is more of a marketing decision, such as in fact they already do in settings having templates. I mean even with a bespoke core for a setting, most GM's are going to buy the full core, I did.