Grade the GURPS System

[jdrakeh]

Oh yeah, the GURPS sourcebooks definitely deserve a mention! Most of them aren't that strictly tied to mechanics, they're just info, so when you want someone else to have done the research for you, you really should give those a look.

Their various licensed IP sourcebooks are some of the best in existence, bar none. For example, their Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game, as well as their various Conan sourcebooks are excellent.

 

[MGibster]

GURPS is very much a thing that was originally designed in the 80s.

It's a point-buy system where there can be vast differences in power between characters built on the same amount of points, requiring GM to check over every character that's made, so, uh, what's the point of it being point-buy again..? Oh yes, busywork for its own sake.

The whole point of the point buy system is for players to be able to create the exact character they wanted. The creators of GURPS were not all that concerned about balance. How could you be when you're creating a "universal" role playing game? What's considered powerful in one setting isn't going to be powerful in another. If the GM just keeps throwing us into fights, the Throg the Barbarian's player is going to be happy while my character, Sammy the Simp, just isn't going to be happy because I designed him for social situations.

 

[J.Quondam]

Rated it "Pretty good." I played a bit in late 90s and more in the late 00s. I enjoyed its flexibility and usually defaulted to it for higher crunch "not fantasy" stuff. BUt I don't think i'd consider it nowadays, as I generally prefer lighter systems.

As other have also suggested, though, the real gems for me are the setting source books. Whenever I've have a non-fantasy campaign concept in mind for any system, I've almost always begun planning by consulting the genre relevant GURPS book/s and their bibliographies.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I rated it poorly, but the worldbooks are well-researched, there are properties that likely would never have gotten an RPG, but they have a GURPS supplement. I own a couple - GURPS: New Sun (based on Gene Wolfe's Urth) and GURPS: Humanx (based on Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth sci-fi universe). Oh, and GURPS: Celtic Myth.

I didn't buy them, they were gifts from That One Guy. Y'know, that one guy in your group who loves a system the rest of you can barely tolerate, and keeps running it in the vain hope y'all will come around?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

The whole point of the point buy system is for players to be able to create the exact character they wanted. The creators of GURPS were not all that concerned about balance.

Yet they gave the different features point costs. If those are not meant to balance anything, why give them different costs?

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yet they gave the different features point costs. If those are not meant to balance anything, why give them different costs?

Were you maybe combining different worldbooks and other supplements?

 

[Committed Hero]

The whole point of the point buy system is for players to be able to create the exact character they wanted. The creators of GURPS were not all that concerned about balance. How could you be when you're creating a "universal" role playing game? What's considered powerful in one setting isn't going to be powerful in another. If the GM just keeps throwing us into fights, the Throg the Barbarian's player is going to be happy while my character, Sammy the Simp, just isn't going to be happy because I designed him for social situations.

I found that the design parameter that makes difficult skills cost more - while realistic - will hurt a PC in a game that doesn't require these skills.

The sourcebooks are extensively playtested and always top notch. I know one book was part of a syllabus for a college course back in the day.

 

[Vael]

Definitely a book that was interesting to flip through and realize I had long passed the limit of crunch I cared for in an RPG system.

 

[ichabod]

I'm another who used to love it but now rates it pretty good. I found simple work arounds for the balance problems, but my desire/tolerance for crunch is lower these day. The source books are awesome though. I bought the latest edition just for GURPS Vorkosigan. And it allows you to do so much. I had an awesome Illuminati campaign, a great Mythic Egypt Campaign, a decent straight Fantasy Campaign, and an over the top incredible Atomic Horror one shot.

 

[Parmandur]

Fun reference books, unfortunately by the time it was on my radar I had the Internet, so said reference was depreciated in value.