GURPS - a matter of style and setting.

[hong]

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

Tell me again how RPGs are anything except throwing a few numbers together.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

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.

Joshua Dyal covered many of the misconceptions here, but there is another matter I thought I'd address.

As you point out, there are rules for just about anything in GURPS - in one or more of the various supplements. SJG has had the better part of 20 years to produce all that material. d20 has been around for what, a couple of years now? So eventually all contingencies will be covered. But, like Joshua points out, there are already books out there covering exactly what is being discussed.

 

[Desdichado]

Good point, Colonel, I believe the timing of d20 relative to GURPS is telling. The fact that you can already do so much with d20 is a great thing: by the time it has the kind of history GURPS has, I believe it will have evolved enough variants to truly be the universal system it was intended to be. In fact, given the rate at which these things are proliferating -- especially recently now that d20 publishers are starting to see beyond the "I can now make D&D products" paradigm, it won't take that much longer at all. For example, in the chat last night with Chris Pramas, Green Ronin is producing a game to be released within about a year or so that features no levels and no hit points as a supers game. Call of Cthulhu already does dark, gritty, lethal, no class games. Dragonstar and Star Wars have space wrapped up pretty nicely with classes, equipment, vehicle combat rules, etc. which cover what you need there. Spycraft and the upcoming d20 Modern cover that angle. By mixing and matching rules from any of these sources, you can create just about any genre of roleplaying game you want within the confines of d20.

BTW, on a side note, have you seen my Middle-earth story hour? Since your original question on the boards months ago was the inspiration for it, I'm interested in what you think of it!

 

[sword-dancer]

Tell me again how RPGs are anything except throwing a few numbers together.

Read GURPS Aliens or Fantasy races.
To a race it needs more than a few numbers it needs background, psychology, society, cultures etc.

This i didn`t ask, i did only ask for standard templates.

 

[hong]

Read GURPS Aliens or Fantasy races.
To a race it needs more than a few numbers it needs background, psychology, society, cultures etc.

I've read Aliens, and I own Fantasy Races.

Tell me again how a given ruleset restricts background, psychology, society, cultures, etc.

This i didn`t ask, i did only ask for standard templates.

You're not making sense.

 

[sword-dancer]

Joshua Dyal covered many of the misconceptions here, but there is another matter I thought I'd address.

As you point out, there are rules for just about anything in GURPS - in one or more of the various supplements. SJG has had the better part of 20 years to produce all that material. d20 has been around for what, a couple of years now? So eventually all contingencies will be covered. But, like Joshua points out, there are already books out there covering exactly what is being discussed.

Sorry Colonel
(A)D&D had been around much longer than Gurps, .
If i found d&D D20 Worlds a bit cliched when i take it on GURPS Uplift, Lensman, Yrth, or Technomancer, Cyberpunk.

you hadn`t rules changing for every setting, like WoT D&D, Starwars.

 

[Desdichado]

sword-dancer:
Sorry Colonel
(A)D&D had been around much longer than Gurps, .
If i found d&D D20 Worlds a bit cliched when i take it on GURPS Uplift, Lensman, Yrth, or Technomancer, Cyberpunk.

you hadn`t rules changing for every setting, like WoT D&D, Starwars.

That's not the point. AD&D was designed for a specific genre. d20 is open to all genres as long as someone wants to jump in and work on it. So making comparisons against the age of D&D in general against GURPS is pointless: it doesn't demonstrate anything. Making comparisons between the age of d20 and the OGL versus GURPS is, because it's not until d20 and the OGL that the D&D game mechanic has been even testing the waters in other genres.

Also, not that I'm a huge GURPS player to back this up with specific examples, but you're also misrepresenting things to say that you don't change rules for every setting like you do in Star Wars, WoT, etc. For one thing, those rules changes are minor, quick to implement, and do not impact that fact that it is still very much a d20 game. Secondly, there are more rules for GURPS floating around out there in so many different books that your point is kinda moot. GURPS does have plenty of rules changes to accomodate different types of settings. Either that, or it doesn't do that genre well. No system is so truly universal that it can do every genre without tweaking the system. That is true for GURPS, and it is true for d20, it is true for the Hero System, the Storyteller System and every other system ever developed. So, again, your comparison proves nothing.

 

[sword-dancer]

[/color]

AD&D was designed for a specific genre. d20 is open to all genres as long as someone wants to jump in and work on it.

Yu´re right i have related apples and oranges.

Secondly, there are more rules for GURPS floating around out there in so many different books that your point is kinda moot. GURPS does have plenty of rules changes to accomodate different types of settings. Either that, or it doesn't do that genre well.

IMPOV Mostly this rules are style of play changes, cinematic vs realistic, hardcore SF against Space Opera.
Or options to finetune the rules to your taste, and enviromental rules.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Well, GURPs is ok but very deadly and character creation takes a while. I'd only use it for things like Black Ops, where the focus is guns and tactics. Or Traveller.

I'm surprised noone suggested it, but for a variety have you considered RIFTs? Theres technology, magic, the wild west, crazy plots by inhuman necromancers, racist governments to fight (who really are humanitys only hope), and more! I ran a game where a psioniscist jumped on a techno-magic train that hovered 200' above ground on a Ley Line chasing a demon. The grappling battle on the balcony at the end of a speeding train 200' up was pretty cool, especially when the demons sunglasses fell off and all the PC saw was two sets of teeth for eyes!

Even better is the fact that even if the group wants something that isnt on earth, like a dungeon crawl, they can fall through a rift to a D&D-like alternate plane. Or haggle a ride from the multi-planar traders on earth, etc.

I really loved this setting when I ran it, mainly cause I could do ANYTHING in the game. PCs came in contact with cowboys, aliens, knights, cyberzombies, and pretty much anything else I could rip off. The system isnt perfect, buy hell what is? Its more like 2nd edition and lends itself more to over-the-top action than GURPs does.

But yeah, Feng Shui is pretty cool too.

 

[Desdichado]

sword-dancer:
IMPOV Mostly this rules are style of play changes, cinematic vs realistic, hardcore SF against Space Opera. Or options to finetune the rules to your taste, and enviromental rules.

IMPOV the same is true for the rules changes you disparaged amongst d20 games. This has to be done to accomodate different genres. To complain about it in d20 and say of course it's done in GURPS isn't exactly kosher. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Whoops! Got carried away there in figures of speech!