GURPS-Share your thoughts

[Jürgen Hubert]

I once tried to make a "regular Joe" whose one ability was telekinesis- in all of its forms and at great power. While my fellow players had nice powerful PCs of their own, my guy could barely lift a bowling ball, and lacked fine control and so forth. Even devoting all of my build points to one area, my PC was as useful as a bag of pasta. I abandoned the design in favor of a nympho nutcase with a bunch of skills.

On the other hand, had we been allowed access to GURPS Supers, my guy could have lifted cars or performed surgery with his telekinetic hand.

So, in my experience, GURPS is no more generic than D20.

Trust me, this is much, much better with GURPS 4e. Everything you need is in a single book, and pretty much every character concept is catered to (and I have a hard time of thinking of any concept that isn't).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Tell you what, Jürgen...you've at least gotten me to consider looking at it in the stores...

It will not be a priorty purchase even if I like it, though...my game group is like a swamp hit by a storm- a bunch of sticks in the mud. If it isn't D&D 3.0 Core + class books, they're not playing it.

But I'll buy any worthy product.

So, you've at least given me reason to examine the system again...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

In GURPS 3e, super powers were an afterthought, and various, often mutually contradictory rules were added in various supplements and finally consolidated in the Compendia.

In GURPS 4e, all those were taken and the bugs worked out so that the rule set finally became one unified whole again...

 

[buzz]

N.B.: I feel compeeled to address this topic whenever it comes up. Apologies in advance for thread drift.

Another point of interest, I can't accept d20 games as "universal" systems because they are class-based.

d20, as a whole, is not a "universal" system and has never been marketed as such. It's simply a house system to which everyone happens to have access. That a wide variety of genres have been adapted for the system is a by-product of this.

And among some of these products are games that are arguably "universal", in that they aim to be multi-genre, e.g., BESMd20 and d20M.

Whether a class-based RPG is inferior/superior for "generic" gaming is a separate argument, one for which I think d20M makes a pretty good case. Like GURPS (especially 3e) it is as generic as its supplements allow.

As Dannyalcatraz accurately points out, HERO is really the only crunchy RPG that is truly "one book does it all." GURPS 4e is coming closer to this, though; it's much more HERO-like than 3e. Some lighter RPGs like FUDGE can also be considered truly "generic", though this is accomplished more through omission, i.e., specifically not trying to cover everything, but providing a basic framework for the GM.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The closest a D20 game comes to being generic is, oddly enough, another game that started off as a superhero game...the extremely well done Mutants and Masterminds.

Technically, its not D20- its got some elements of HERO and Marvel Superheroes- but it still has Feats and Skills, etc... Anyone who plays D20 would find it an easy transition to make.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

The closest a D20 game comes to being generic is, oddly enough, another game that started off as a superhero game...the extremely well done Mutants and Masterminds.

It is rather good, though it does not do gritty games quite as well, and GURPS allows more fine-tuning.

GURPS is also better if you prefer equipment and innate abilities seperate - not really important in super-hero campaigns, but much more so for "classical" adventuring campaigns where the PCs are after wealth and better equipment...

That doesn't mean that M&M isn't a fine game - it is, and I have enjoyed playing it in the past myself - but it does have its limits which you should be aware of when planning campaigns.

 

[philreed]

Anyone in the Austin area interested in GURPS may want to hit the south Lamar Half-Price Books. When I was in there yesterday I saw the 4e basic set (the slipcase, $125 version) for $20. They also had all of the 4e supplements for half-price.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Anyone in the Austin area interested in GURPS may want to hit the south Lamar Half-Price Books. When I was in there yesterday I saw the 4e basic set (the slipcase, $125 version) for $20. They also had all of the 4e supplements for half-price.

Man, that's a great deal. Heck, if I could get someone to pick that up for me, I'd be willing to pay pal them the funds!

 

[jdrakeh]

b) how well does Gurps actually play?

I'm playing in a GURPS Half-Life game on Thursdays. Although character creation can pretty involved, depending upon the power level of a given game, it's usually on par with D&D 3x characetr creation in terms of time spent. As for how it plays, it's really simple from the player side of things (I'm not the GM, so I have no idea how it plays from that side of the screen).

 

[Jim Hague]

Anyone in the Austin area interested in GURPS may want to hit the south Lamar Half-Price Books. When I was in there yesterday I saw the 4e basic set (the slipcase, $125 version) for $20. They also had all of the 4e supplements for half-price.

What's the address on that one, Phil? I've got folks in that general area, and $20 for the set is waytoo good to pass up.