GURPS-Share your thoughts

Well, SJG sold enough books to have begun selling a second print run. And I don't think all of these can be attributed to replacements (my copy is still holding up fine, for example). So I guess it's not doing that badly...
 

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Conaill said:
It *does* bother me in DnD that, even with 6-second rounds, people still say "that one attack really represents a set of feints and half-jabs spread over a 6 second period, with perhaps only one jab in there with an actual chance of connecting". That's right up there with "hitpoints in DnD are not really hits".
But combat in D&D has always been fundamentally built on those two very concepts; that...

1.) During a 6-second (or 10-second, in 2nd Edition) round, a combatant in melee engages in a series of feints, jabs, and parries throughout the combat round, but the attack roll represents an opening in an opponent's defenses and thus a chance to actually inflict damage. (This is the main reason why attacks of opportunity and multiple attacks per round for higher level characters are so prevalent in D&D 3.5, but not so in a system like GURPS where each combat round encapsulates only one second.)

2.) As characters gain in levels, hit points represent less and less actual physical damage.
 

Azlan said:
1.) During a 6-second (or 10-second, in 2nd Edition) round
Technical correction: It was a 60 second round in AD&D 1e and 2e, 10 times longer than the current round.

All but the highest level characters getting only one attack in a full minute of combat was easily seen as an abstraction, when it's only 6 seconds, it's much easier for players to see only getting one or two attacks in that time amidst dodging, parrying, moving and such, thus less people assuming that attacks were more literal and less abstract.
 

wingsandsword said:
Technical correction: It was a 60 second round in AD&D 1e and 2e, 10 times longer than the current round.
Really? I thought they had reduced it to 10 seconds in 2nd Edition.

Oh, well. My statement still upholds.

wingsandsword said:
...when it's only 6 seconds, it's much easier for players to see only getting one or two attacks in that time amidst dodging, parrying, moving and such, thus less people assuming that attacks were more literal and less abstract.
Even so, 6 seconds is a long enough time span. Practically anyone can swing a longsword and hit a stationary target several times within a 6-second time span. But if the target is moving, parrying, blocking, and fighting back, then that's a different matter!
 
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Azlan said:
Really? I thought they had reduced it to 10 seconds in 2nd Edition.
There was an optional rule in Players Option: Combat & Tactics (which included an entire optional expanded combat system designed to use minis) that reduced rounds to "10 to 15 seconds", but the core rules always said 60 seconds.
 

Jürgen Hubert said:
Well, SJG sold enough books to have begun selling a second print run. And I don't think all of these can be attributed to replacements (my copy is still holding up fine, for example). So I guess it's not doing that badly...
How big was the first print run?
 

The_Universe said:
How big was the first print run?

No idea. Most game companies tend not to forward that kind of information. That being said, since it was the rerelease of their flagship product I doubt it was a small one...
 

Dannyalcatraz said:
Amazon has the 2 books bundled for just under $50, Bookamillion has each book at just under $25.

Draw your own conclusions...

This is flawed logic and I will 'splain why.

You can also order all three of the D&D Core Books at Amazon for a grand total of $59.31 and they are $57.99 for all three at Overstock.com. So going by your inference, D&D 3.5 must also be pretty poorly to be going at a third off their cover price (the same as GURPS). Or you might deduce that online retail giants like those above make all their profit on volume of sales and so have a razor thin profit on a per book basis.

As an aside, this is also what hurts your FLGS --- they can't compete with that kind of a mark down on product and by placing preorders you will frequently get your copy as soon as the local small-business brick and mortar does.
 

Azlan said:
Conaill said:
It *does* bother me in DnD that, even with 6-second rounds, people still say "that one attack really represents a set of feints and half-jabs spread over a 6 second period, with perhaps only one jab in there with an actual chance of connecting". That's right up there with "hitpoints in DnD are not really hits".
But combat in D&D has always been fundamentally built on those two very concepts[...]
Exactly. And that's why I like GURPS better...
 


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