GURPS - a matter of style and setting.

[JoeGKushner]

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LOL! Actually, I don't have a "favorite" system, I just find that lately I don't have time or inclination to learn new systems. Therefore, anything that can be done d20, I'm all for it. Modular add-ons, like Cthulhu-esque characters, or Ken Hood's Grim-N-Gritty Hit Points system give it the flexibility to cover other genres besides super-heroic fantasy these days with just minor new rules additions.

So, I don't begrudge you your GURPS! Just pointing out the obvious (yet seemingly missed) point that you don't need to change systems to change settings or style.

I've gotta amidt that's where I'm at. I know lots of game systems but TIME is my big thing. My group doesn't have the time to enjoy multiple campaigns and settings and GURPS requires a lot of work due to their lack of campaign support. Easier to run with Scarred Lands or Kalamar these days.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Okay I will give you a chance to prove this, before I send the Inquisition!!!!

Make me a Lensman, medic.
And a Lensman scientis.

Made me a genetically enhanced delphin, capable of piloting a FTL spaceship.

Make me a Nomad Horsearcher, and shepherd.
Make an an Supercharakter, the scale from Wild, X-Men, to four colours.

Heck, I'd like to see that last one done in GURPS! The GURPS system is fairly weak in it's incoproration of Supers, and the game tends to break down at certain points here.

I personally think that right now, GURPS does a lot more than D20, but as more D20 genres are made open, that statement becomes less and less true. I believe that Mutants & Masterminds is coming out soon, a Superhero book.

Most beneficial of the whole D20 thing though, is that there can be multiple books on a setting. The FOundry, while universally hated, was a Supers D20 book. Now we have M&M coming out. Anyone look over Godlike's D20 section? Another Supers setting.

That's the real strength of D20.

 

[Black Omega]

Okay I will give you a chance to prove this, before I send the Inquisition!!!!

Make me a Lensman, medic.
And a Lensman scientis.

Made me a genetically enhanced delphin, capable of piloting a FTL spaceship.

Make me a Nomad Horsearcher, and shepherd.
Make an an Supercharakter, the scale from Wild, X-Men, to four colours.

I can do all that in Hero System, but not d20, sorry.

 

[Desdichado]

Okay I will give you a chance to prove this, before I send the Inquisition!!!!

Make me a Lensman, medic.
And a Lensman scientis.

Made me a genetically enhanced delphin, capable of piloting a FTL spaceship.

Make me a Nomad Horsearcher, and shepherd.
Make an an Supercharakter, the scale from Wild, X-Men, to four colours.

I'm not familiar with lensmen, and I assume delphins are somehow related to dolphins. Overall, though, I don't know why you think these are particularly hard to do in d20. Create a race and class that has the features you want, and off you go.

 

[sword-dancer]

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I'm not familiar with lensmen, and I assume delphins are somehow related to dolphins. Overall, though, I don't know why you think these are particularly hard to do in d20. Create a race and class that has the features you want, and off you go.

Dolphins yes mistypo, I wrote it in german typo.
The point is, it gives no clases in gurps.

 

[bret]

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I'm not familiar with lensmen, and I assume delphins are somehow related to dolphins. Overall, though, I don't know why you think these are particularly hard to do in d20. Create a race and class that has the features you want, and off you go.

Let's just take the example of a genetically engineered dolphin who pilots FTL craft.

In D20, you would have to:

• Create a race (attribute modifiers, abilities, movement types), give it an ECL (for which you have very few guidelines), give it a preferred class.
• Create a skill for FTL pilot
• Determine if this is a class or cross-class skill for each of the classes.

In GURPS, you just have to create the race. You can already find plenty of example FTL vehicles, the basic rules book covers the skills required.

All characters learn skills the same way in GURPS, so no worries about class or cross-class skills and such.



Overall, I think it is much easier to create a new race in GURPS than it is in D20.

 

[Desdichado]

bret:
In D20, you would have to:

Create a race (attribute modifiers, abilities, movement types), give it an ECL (for which you have very few guidelines), give it a preferred class.

Create a skill for FTL pilot

Determine if this is a class or cross-class skill for each of the classes.

No, you wouldn't. You would have to create a race, although you could probably find something in the Monster Manual that was close enough for you, actually. You wouldn't necessarily have to create an ECL unless you purposefully try to make it more powerful than a standard race. If you use something out of the MM, then ECLs already exist via the Dragon Magazine article. Pilot exists not only in Star Wars but also in Dragonstar which is OGL.

I think you're equating d20 with D&D. They're not exactly the same. There's more of this work that's been done than most people give credit. With the release of Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Dragonstar, Spycraft, Godlike, etc. to name just a few, d20 is well equipped to handle a lot of different genres without DMs and players having to create their own rules.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

:snip:

Made me a genetically enhanced delphin, capable of piloting a FTL spaceship.

:snip:

Woo-hoo! One of my favorite sourcebooks!

How about a chen? A Garthling? A Brother of the Night soldier? A Tandu mystic warrior? A Gubru triad? A Jophur?

Heh heh....

[edit]
Just to explain, we're talking about David Brin's Uplift trilogies. Uplift is the process of taking a smart animal and genetically modifying it so that it is sentient, as well as giving it the ability to manipulate objects, and so on. (Whether the Patron race makes the new race a generalist, able to exist on its own, or turns it into a specialist class that requires help from its Patrons depends on the Patron race.)

A chen is a male neochimp. (Females are called chimmies, and the abbreviated name is chims for multiples.) A Garthling is a partially Uplifted gorilla, illegally being modified on the planet Garth. A Brother of the Night is a cross between a praying mantis and a manatee, whose patrons were dedicated to peace in the universe: the peace to be obtained by exterminating every other species. A Tandu is a big insectoid, whose race is dedicated to war; they're so good at it that several of their wars have gone as far as causing the extinction of several races. Gubrus are flightless birds, the majority of which are servile neuters, but whose nobility consists of mating triads (female, male type #1, male type #2), combining caution, propriety and ambition. Jophurs are big piles of sentient vegetation, pretty much stacks of doughnuts that combine to be a thinking being (I forget which of the two races were the ambitious ones...).

 

[hong]

Overall, I think it is much easier to create a new race in GURPS than it is in D20.

Bleh. Inspired by the recent appearance of God on these boards, I will now create you a new race:

"Foobies"
Monstrous humanoid
Str +2, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2
+4 racial bonus to Spot and Listen
Darkvision 60'
+1 racial bonus with projectile weapons
ECL +1

There you go, I just created you a new race in two minutes.

Being the harsh, bitter, twisted person I am, I will now abandon my progeny to the wild. If it can't survive, it wasn't worthy in the first place.

 

[sword-dancer]

Bleh. Inspired by the recent appearance of God on these boards, I will now create you a new race:

"Foobies"
Monstrous humanoid
Str +2, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2
+4 racial bonus to Spot and Listen
Darkvision 60'
+1 racial bonus with projectile weapons
ECL +1

There you go, I just created you a new race in two minutes.

Being the harsh, bitter, twisted person I am, I will now abandon my progeny to the wild. If it can't survive, it wasn't worthy in the first place.

Nope you didn`t create anything, with the exception of throwing a few Numbers together.