GURPS or HERO?

[Avatar_V]

I've run D&D games for a while now. But, I'm thinking about trying out a new system. I enjoy D&D, but could use a change of pace.

I'd like a more general, flexible system because I house rule a lot of stuff. I'm also hoping to find a system that emphasizes roleplaying more and combat less (my group prefers less combat).

I was looking at the GURPs character guide in my game store today and really liked the flexibility I saw. I understand that HERO is a similar system, though, so I was hoping that people here who have experience with these systems could advise me as to the differences and make a recommendation as to which they prefer.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[Teflon Billy]

I've run D&D games for a while now. But, I'm thinking about trying out a new system. I enjoy D&D, but could use a change of pace.

I'd like a more general, flexible system because I house rule a lot of stuff. I'm also hoping to find a system that emphasizes roleplaying more and combat less (my group prefers less combat).

I was looking at the GURPs character guide in my game store today and really liked the flexibility I saw. I understand that HERO is a similar system, though, so I was hoping that people here who have experience with these systems could advise me as to the differences and make a recommendation as to which they prefer.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

They are pretty similar (in fact, if memory serves, Steve Jackson has listed Champions as the inspiration for GURPS).

How they break down in gameplay though is in terms of "granularity". GURPS let's the Low Powered folks have a lot of uniqueness, whereas the higher power level you get, the more everyone looks the same.

HERO is just the opposite, the more high powered you get, the mroe differentiation the characters have, while lowbies are pretty much interchangeable.

Neither is an optimal choice if you are looking for somehting that "Emphasizes Roleplaying" over combat.

I mean, you can roleplay just fine...but both of these systems came into being as Physical Task Resolution Engines.

Hope that helps

 

[Slapzilla]

Hero is great if you want to fine tune any power to the infinite degree. You can create just about anything but it takes two or three lines of arcane text to 'create' a billy club, or a fireball. Lots of accounting. GURPS is great because it has the same vibe as Hero, but ten times less minutia. Pick up and go with GURPS. Massive detail/bog down with Hero.

 

[Andor]

If you love to house rule stuff, HERO is probably more your friend.

Gurps is modular, meaning you plug in new aspects of the system as you want to change your world. So if you wanted a varient magic system you'd have to write it from the ground up and assign costs to everything.

HERO is a single system with different modifiers that can be applied as needed, so if you wanted to make a global change to spell casting you can simply say that all spellcasting powers must be bought with a specific modifier, or set of modifiers. Or you can break it up by school of magic, or line of instruction. For house ruling, it's a much more flexible system, in my opinion.

 

[Xeriar]

If you can get over the Anime part of it, BESM is a much simpler system. It doesn't actually need to be anime, but that can be hard to get across to a group. People often buy GURPS for ideas rather than running anything with it.

None of them specify XP for combat purposes, in fact I don't know of a serious modern RPG that does outside of D&D. In that sense they're all 'more roleplay oriented'

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The biggest differences between GURPS and HERO are philosophical.

HERO is an effects-based system: the cost and effects of an energy blast, for example, are the same whether it's a superhero's burst of cosmic energy, a wizard's fire spell, a ray gun, or a naturally-occuring lightning bolt. If you want to make, say, a fire power also light things on fire, you assign additional features to the power.

GURPS is an exceptions-based system: it comes with lists of pre-packaged powers that do what the designers think they should based on what they are. So a fire power would light things on fire by default, and otherwise operate differently from an ice power that cost the same amount.

Note that GURPS has a book for designing powers in effects-based style, and HERO has books containing pre-packaged powers, so they CAN cross over; I'm just talking about their core books.

HERO is an explicitly Gamist-supporting system. Everything is costed based on a rigorous mathematical formula that makes the tactical aspect of the game as balanced as the creators can get it while leaving it so flexible. That, for example, a human being able to fly under his own power is less realistic than a human being able to fly a plane does not make the former more expensive than the latter; due to vehicle discounts, getting a plane might be cheaper than getting a flight power, but that's because it's easier to deprive a character of a vehicle than of an innate ability.

GURPS is much more of a Simulationist (real world)-supporting system, although less so than it used to be. That is, powers are costed in part on the basis of how much they 'break' the laws of reality.

Personally, I'm 100% a HERO man. I love effects-based systems and the ability to define powers as I like. Character creation does take quite a while though, especially when you're first learning the system. If you go with HERO, consider HERO Sidekick (the light rules), likewise GURPS Lite for GURPS.

EDIT: Rather than BESM, which is, to my mind, a deeply flawed system, you might want to look into Mutants and Masterminds. Although loosely-d20 based and designed for supers (as was HERO, originally), it's a much simpler system than HERO and GURPS and has stronger player narrative mechanics than either (or BESM, at least the last version I played). It strikes something of a midpoint between GURPS and HERO philosophically.

 

[Olive]

How does GURPS handle damage/wounds and healing? Are there rules for infection etc straight out of the box?

 

[jdrakeh]

HERO is much more of a 'tool-kit' for gamers in that it gives you a set of tools that you can use to simulate pretty much anything -- the downside is that you have to use those tools to build pretty much everything prior to play. The core book itself only provides scant examples of pre-calculated powers and equipment.

As somebody else mentioned, statting up something as simple as a handgun is a fairly involved process in HERO with designing alternate applications of powers (such as spells) being even more involved. HERO supplements are largely dedicated to providing rules for building your own milieu-specific powers/equipment/characters.

GURPS is more of a 'pick and choose' affair than a 'build it yourself' approach, with its core books containing a wide array of pre-constructed powers, spells, etc. Things such as equipment are standardized, as they are in most RPGs, rather than being built from scratch using power/effect variants. There is much less prep work involved with GURPS.

GURPS supplements are dedicated largely to presenting 'ready to use' milieu-specific powers/spells/etc, rather than milieu-specific rules that you can use to build these things yourself (there are some exceptions to this, though not a great many). That is, you can pick up the GURPS core books, a setting supplement, and be playing in the space of a few hours.

Ultimately, GURPS gives you material that you can use to play a game and HERO gives you tools that you can use to build a game. If you're short on prep time, I recommend GURPS. If having complete control over your game down to the smallest detail is a big concern of yours as a GM, I recommend HERO.

[Edit: Also worth mentioning are Hero Sidekick (currently available as a commercial PDF-only product) and GURPS Lite (currently available as a free PDF or as printed booklet with the GURPS GM Screen). I've played in and run full-fledged campaigns using both of these introductory rule sets, though Sidekick is slightly more limited in scope than Lite.]

 

[jdrakeh]

Are there rules for infection etc straight out of the box?

Yes and No. GURPS has two combat systems out of the box, one designated as 'basic' and the other as 'advanced'. The latter takes things such things as infection and blood loss into account, while the former does not. That said, the systems are designed in such a way that you can transition from basic combat to advanced combat during the course of actual play by adding rules as you go. This being the case, the learning curve is fairly simple.

 

[Psion]

For my money, HERO is the way to go. The system lets you "behind the scenes", allow you to tweak effects in a way to give you exactly what you are looking for. Unlike suggested above, HERO does in fact have plenty of material statted up for you already. But when something is missing from the books -- and there always is -- you aren't left to your own devices.

Also, I don't know if they've fixed this in GURPS 4, but firearms were bizarrely overpowered compared to melee weapons, and designing vehicles on GURPS Vehicles goes beyond tedious and staight into something you never want to consider doing.