GURPS-Share your thoughts

[Jürgen Hubert]

For an RPG that claims to be a Generic Universal Role Playing System, I found it to be lacking in the first 2 categories. Too often, the supplements (which were usually very well thought out) ALTERED the base rules. For example, the Psionics system in the base rules was underpowered to the extent that it was ramped up in almost any supplement that used Psi, like GURPS Supers, etc. After 4 years, I have a small folder of GURPS PCs that are completely incompatible with each other.

Fortunately, this is no longer a problem with the new Psionics rules - they are just a subset of the regular advantages in the GURPS 4e Basic Set. And you can run Supers with the Basic Set alone, too...

Really, it's a vast improvement.

 

[VirgilCaine]

D&D magic is relatively easy in the beginning, but it really gets tedious once you reach higher levels and have to decide every day what your caster is going to prepare...

I guess you don't use Scribe Scroll very much do you?

Too many GMs forget that all those cool new rules are optional, and that it is not a good idea to throw all of them at newbies who haven't even become familiar with the basics. The actual basics, as represented in GURPS Lite, are actually not complicated at all.

GURPS Lite would be a useful tool if it had just a tad more stuff in it.

All I want out of GURPS Basic is some of the advanced combat rules (apparently you need the autofire rules to use the shotguns...), the weapons and equipment charts (especially the club, which IS NOT in GURPS Lite), and the larger lists of ads and disads. GURPS Lite doesn't quite have the breadth in it's ads/disads that I think I would want for a contemporary Horror/CoC campaign.

I have enough material from the Pyramid sample articles and to-be-converted D20M and CoC adventures that I've really got more than I can use in the adventure front. There's a lot of nifty adventures I could do.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

GURPS Lite would be a useful tool if it had just a tad more stuff in it.

All I want out of GURPS Basic is some of the advanced combat rules (apparently you need the autofire rules to use the shotguns...), the weapons and equipment charts (especially the club, which IS NOT in GURPS Lite), and the larger lists of ads and disads. GURPS Lite doesn't quite have the breadth in it's ads/disads that I think I would want for a contemporary Horror/CoC campaign.

I'm basically in agreement here - which is why I looked over my complete Basic Set and wrote up all the stuff I considered to be absolutely essential for the campaign and handed it to my players in addition to GURPS Lite. Took me some time, but not that much - and game play went very smooth indeed - and now some of the players have gotten their own Basic Sets...

This is a bit of a problem with GURPS 4e - you can use it to run pretty much everything, but you will only need a fraction of the stuff for all but the most bizarre campaigns. The GM therefore must pick and choose carefully what he needs for that campaign. Compare that to D&D, which is pretty much optimized for a specific type of fantasy campaign - and can only do other campaigns with a variety of optional books.

So yes, GURPS does require some initial work from the GM, unlike many other RPGs. But ultimately, it is worth it - and once the game starts, it all works pretty smoothly in my experience.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

GURPS3e was my standard system for more than 12 years - and GURPS 4e is even better. I've used GURPS for everything from ultra-dark grim 'n gritty 30 Years War campaigns to 800 pts. Transhuman Space games - and it always worked great.

Wow - so it's not just a myth that there are people out there who actually play Transhuman Space.

What was your campaign about?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I bought the sourcebooks, but rarely cracked the core book. Never got into 4e.

My general sentiment is that it's a neat, gritty system. I'd suggest giving the PCs more starting points and cutting back the number of disadvantages. For example, 125 starting points with 20 points of disads and no quirks. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of alibio irratable lepers in your group.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

My general sentiment is that it's a neat, gritty system. I'd suggest giving the PCs more starting points and cutting back the number of disadvantages. For example, 125 starting points with 20 points of disads and no quirks. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of alibio irratable lepers in your group.

My players seem to be fond of Motion Sickness. Or rather, they used to be.

But they discovered that there are plenty of opportunities for lengthy stays on moving vehicles in Eberron. Lightning rails, sailing ships, and much, much more...

One of the PCs with motion sickness is trying to buy it off. The other one spends much of his time vomiting.

 

[Mercule]

I can't say anything about 4E.

As for 3E, it was the single most painful gaming experience of my life. I've played a lot of really bad systems. I've DMed several really bad systems. I've created a couple of really bad systems. GURPS makes the worst of them look all nice and shiny. I only wish I'd tried Synnibar so I could make a comparison.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I can't say anything about 4E.

As for 3E, it was the single most painful gaming experience of my life. I've played a lot of really bad systems. I've DMed several really bad systems. I've created a couple of really bad systems. GURPS makes the worst of them look all nice and shiny. I only wish I'd tried Synnibar so I could make a comparison.

Seems like a lot of people react very strongly to GURPS - they either hate it or love it.

Kind of like D&D in that regard...

EDIT: But there is hope for you, too - when I first tried to run GURPS, my players probably had a similar reaction.

Now they have started GURPS campaign on their own...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Seems like a lot of people react very strongly to GURPS - they either hate it or love it.

I have to admit my experience with GURPS was entirely my own fault. I wanted to jump in with both feet and do a world-hopping game with all realties connected to each other through a victorian mansion with lots of doorways. I let the players make any kind of character they wanted and set the base TL at 7. One problem, I overlooked how much money sci-fi characters get. Ooops. The powergamers all went sci-fi and the roleplayers (through whatever twist of fate) went fantasy. The result was cumbersome as a geared-up sci-fi character can whip the snot out of most fantasy builds.

Then there was the whole "I come from a future where we all shoot horses" quirk that I just won't go into.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Fortunately, this is no longer a problem with the new Psionics rules - they are just a subset of the regular advantages in the GURPS 4e Basic Set. And you can run Supers with the Basic Set alone, too...

Really, it's a vast improvement.

Well, it would have to be.

I never said that you couldn't run anything with the basic set, just that the supplements were often wildly incompatible with the basic rules. I see that as a severe flaw.

In all honesty, I made several enjoyable PCs in my time playing GURPS. But compared side to side, even at the same point value, they were truly incompatible. This indicated to me that the rules were in a constant state of flux- something that bothers the hell out of me.