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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dbm" data-source="post: 9737480" data-attributes="member: 8014">So, this was asked in another thread:… and I thought we could have a new thread in that as it is an interesting topic to me.I have been a GURPS player for over 30 years. I actually picked up the 1e box set when it first came out, but it was so thread-bare at the time it didn’t gel with me. When 3e was released I picked it up again and this time it clicked. I played GURPS as my primary system for a good decade, including modern, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. I don’t play as much GURPS these days, but it is still in my top 3 systems.When it comes to fantasy, there has been genre books for fantasy in both 3e (several world books and bestiaries) and 4e (focussed solidly on general fantasy concepts, initially). A common challenge presented against GURPS is that it is too difficult to set up common / popular types of games. To address that, SJG started putting out PDF series with pre-mixed ‘recipes’ for different types of campaign, starting with Action! but quickly moving on to Dungeon Fantasy. This is a range of supplements intended for classic dungeon crawling since that is a highly common focus for RPG play. It now has over 40 supplements for it, and covers pretty much every common trope in fantasy action RPGs.So, what makes GURPS stand out for fantasy? A couple of things in my mind.First, GURPS in general is so focussed on verisimilitude that it makes open world games really easy to run. The rules framework allows you (me) to easily work out what some new thing should function like and how the PCs can interact with it in meaningful ways. Yes, there is a learning curve to internalise the system. But once you have done that it becomes easy to use in play. NPCs can be created on the fly once you have it down.Second, GURPS fantasy / Dungeon Fantasy is an excellent answer to the liner fighter / quadratic wizard problem that you can have in D&D and close relatives. In DF, combat focussed characters are far more combat capable than wizards are. Yes, there is combat magic, but a skilled warrior with a sword is far more dangerous in a fight. And the GURPS combat system has so many meaningful options that warriors have more choices each combat round than a typical combat mage. It’s a big head shift from classic D&D.There’s more, if people want to talk about it.</blockquote>

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