GURPS 4e

[Scribble]

Don't misunderstand, though, GURPS is a fantastic game. It's probably my all-time favorite RPG. The sourcebooks are RPG treasure troves of ideas even if you're not using GURPS for your rules set. The game runs smoothly at the table and does, more often than not, produce the desired results - from the very cinematic to the grim-n-gritty.

I have a love/hate relationship with GURPS.

Every now an then I start reading it, and I get a hankering for some good GURPS action. I start playing and have a good time, but then...

My issue is mainly that I think I prefer level based games. With a level based game you get that sort of "YEAH! Level up!" feeling. With GURPS though, things just quietly get better. I start to miss the level up feeling.

Also the dice... I have all these awesome polyhedrons just itching to be used, but GURPS only wants me to use the lowly square. Come on, square gets sooo much attention in other aspects of life, let some other shapes take the stage!


I agree with you about the source books though. I use them even for non GURPS games. They can't be beat for info value alone.

 

[Azgulor]

I hear ya. While I love the customization possible in GURPS, I seem to be able to stat-up characters in level-based games more intuitively since the # of choices are limited.

The real eye-opener for me though was when my players had CP to spend, they had little interest in pouring through the book to figure out how to spend those points. In level-based games, however, the opposite was true - not b/c it was more exciting but because it was easier - there were finite types of options to pick from.

I totally agree on the dice, as well. D6s are utility dice. They aren't sexy compared to d20s, d8s, d10s, and even d12s!

 

[Chris Knapp]

I've been a big fan of GURPS for years and have a few of the supplements (all 3E.) We've tried to run a few games (fantasy genre) but our biggest stumbling block is when it comes to designing appropriate encounters based upon our characters current point value. I know I've looked and can't find any guidelines as to what an appropriate monster(s) is for our party of 4 x 125 point heroes. I guess we were all spoiled by D&D's level/hit die/CR methods of determining creature power. Does 4E help in any way?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I've been a big fan of GURPS for years and have a few of the supplements (all 3E.) We've tried to run a few games (fantasy genre) but our biggest stumbling block is when it comes to designing appropriate encounters based upon our characters current point value. I know I've looked and can't find any guidelines as to what an appropriate monster(s) is for our party of 4 x 125 point heroes. I guess we were all spoiled by D&D's level/hit die/CR methods of determining creature power. Does 4E help in any way?

Generally point buy system lack good methods to determine the difficulty of tasks, at least not based entirely on the point buy values used to generate characters.

Nobody knows where these points where spent on - maybe it's everything invested for maximizing combat skills, maybe it is a versatile character with abilities in- and outside of combat, maybe it is a character focused on social skills, or engineering, or outdoor survival.

Edit: I still think it might be possible to create some guidelines, though. But it requres knowledge of the actual character stats.
For combat, use the combat relevant skills and equipment as guideline. For social challenges,determine the relevant skill modifiers or special abilities.

Of course, there is still a danger of "over-challenging" individual characters. Maybe characters have 10-20 hit points / wounds or something like that. One has damage reduction of 1, the other one of 10. To challenge the second, you probably need to land attacks dealing more than 10 points occassionally, but such attacks would be terrible deadly for the first one. The only way to make this fight not too deadly would require the first character to not be in it in the first place. (Which of course creates other problems..)

 

[Azgulor]

I've been a big fan of GURPS for years and have a few of the supplements (all 3E.) We've tried to run a few games (fantasy genre) but our biggest stumbling block is when it comes to designing appropriate encounters based upon our characters current point value. I know I've looked and can't find any guidelines as to what an appropriate monster(s) is for our party of 4 x 125 point heroes. I guess we were all spoiled by D&D's level/hit die/CR methods of determining creature power. Does 4E help in any way?

This issue resulted in the poster-child example of the elitist issue I referenced earlier. Some time ago, I posted in a thread that guidelines for creating suitable encounters would be very valuable. Would it contain generalizations rather than hard & fast rules? Absolutely, the variable nature of the PCs builds ensures such an outcome.

I got several meaningful replies but I also got a fair share of "that would be pointless" & "you can't do that in GURPS b/c unlike lesser systems, everything isn't balanced against combat". Mind you, the people saying the idea was ridiculous & impossible seemed oblivious to the fact that several posters (1 or 2 were GURPS authors if I remember correctly) had provided guidelines that had worked for them.

For a game that (in 3e) could stat a vehicles performance statistics in gearhead-levels of detail, I was floored at the idea that such guidelines were impossible. As I posted earlier, I believe the Dungeon Fantasy & Action lines have begun to address this.

 

[avin]

Despite of having 4E GURPS for some months I could only run one shots with it... and it looks fantastic.

Saturday I'll start a post apocaliptic campaign and maybe can talk about it in more depth.

 

[pawsplay]

I've been a big fan of GURPS for years and have a few of the supplements (all 3E.) We've tried to run a few games (fantasy genre) but our biggest stumbling block is when it comes to designing appropriate encounters based upon our characters current point value. I know I've looked and can't find any guidelines as to what an appropriate monster(s) is for our party of 4 x 125 point heroes. I guess we were all spoiled by D&D's level/hit die/CR methods of determining creature power. Does 4E help in any way?

Partly. Usually, in GURPS, you can compare combat skills, damage to hit points, and resistance rolls, and get a feel for how things would go in a "standard" combat situation. However, the variables are immense. Overall, GURPS tends to favor fewer, deadlier combats compared to, say, D&D, although you can tweak that. "Swingy" doesn't begin to describe it.

There is sound advice for keeping characters alive, but it tends to be genre-specific.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's an important question: I'm no fan of GURPS as a game, but I have ALWAYS respected their well-written and researched sourcebooks. Do the 4Ed versions stand up to previous editions? And if so, if I have an old version of...say...Martial Arts...is there anything new or more fleshed out in the 4Ed version?

 

[Aurumvorax]

The way I create enemies in GURPS is using an easy/average/hard point set up. Easy creatures are built using 1/4 the points of the PCs, average creatures 1/3 the points, and hard creatures 1/2 the points. Because they're NPCs I only focus on their attack abilities. Some tweaking is necessary but I found this a good rule of thumb to keep monsters from outclassing PCs because they're not singularly focused on combat.

 

[coyote6]

Here's an important question: I'm no fan of GURPS as a game, but I have ALWAYS respected their well-written and researched sourcebooks. Do the 4Ed versions stand up to previous editions? And if so, if I have an old version of...say...Martial Arts...is there anything new or more fleshed out in the 4Ed version?

Pretty much, yeah. However, there aren't as many 4th ed. books, and they thus haven't covered as wide a variety of topics.

Specifically, about MA 4e, it has more stuff. I was a huge fan of MA in 3rd edition, and I think the 4th ed version is an improvement. Heck, one of the authors went out and trained in some styles as part of research for the book (see here).