GURPS - What is it?

[Dr_Rictus]

2-Character generation almost certainly requires a concept. In DND you can say "I'll play the mage" but GURPS requires major planning before play.

This is true. The template books (GURPS Warriors, GURPS Wizards) attempt to address this, and tend to succeed in my opinion, but throwing a whole extra book into the mix is not an argument in favor of the game's accessibility. Still, if I were going to suggest one book beyond the Basic Set for a GM planning to run, say, a fantasy campaign, there's a chance that it would be one of those, depending on the GM and his players.

"Templates," for the uninitiated, are basically partially-pregenerated characters based on archetypes, with a number of structured choices to them. E.g., in the "berserker" template, choose one of several possible mental disadvantages that all result in the character flying off the handle and getting into fights, and choose one or more suggested advantages that help keep this from getting him killed.

As good a compromise as you're likely to get between the freeform point-buy rules and the advantages of a class-based system.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Heh... As, for the most part, we didn't have experience with the system, we were relying on the DM to supply the rules

Ha. I remember being at that stage. Yes, for some mysterious reason I don't think the book ever really points out the significance of the fact that you can target the torso at -0. It also tends to speed combats up a fair amount, as it cuts out a lot of rolls for hit location!

 

[Hand of Vecna]

just thought I'd chime in and, instead of reiterating what everyone's said, just agree with em GURPS is a good system (yeah, there're flaws, but what system doesn't have flws?), and the sourcebooks (especially the historical ones) are all well-written, each a treasure trove of ideas for most any game/campaign.

 

[Psionicist]

Where can one read more about the technomancer setting?

 

[BronzeDragon]

On the other hand, I prefer GURPS for low-magic fantasy, historical, near future and far future genres. The detail works in its favor here.
--- John

Let me barge in to say that GURPS Conan is VERY good for this.

It's probably the best fantasy sourcebook for GURPS, and one of the best for any system.

 

[Christian]

I think the 1-second combat turns are what really got to me. Especially in a fantasy setting, with ranged weapon specialists.
GM: Your turn, Archer.
Archer: I draw an arrow.
...
GM: OK, back to you, Archer. What this turn?
Archer: I nock the arrow to my bow.
...
GM: Archer-
Archer: Yeah, yeah. This turn, I aim.

And don't even dream of cocking a heavy crossbow.

It's a reasonable solution to a difficult problem in turn-based combat-trying to simulate a flowing battle situation in discrete increments. It's the same problem that D&D3 tries to solve with the unique Attack of Opportunity mechanic in its six-second combat turns. (I'll leave it to others to decide 'unique' means 'too brilliant for anyone else to have thought of before' or 'there's a reason nobody ever tried it that way.' ) But it can get excessive in a role-playing environment ... the game starts to turn into a tactical wargame instead. (SJ games published [publishes?] a great tactical wargame called Car Wars that uses 1-second combat turns divided into ten 1/10th of a second movement phases. Works great in that environment! Hey, yeah-maybe GURPS needs 1/10th of a second turns! There you go! )

 

[Goodsport]

It does Conan very nicely though

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp

 

[Vaxalon]

The problems with GURPS are, for me, insoluble. Combat is too slow and cumbersome, character generation is too long and involved, and requires too much GM input, and creating adventures requires too much preparation.

 

[Victim]

Torso shots were at -0? No wonder I sucked.

I found the random hit location table very odd. I think that a roll of 11 was a groin hit, which is weird because 11 is one of the more common results on 3d6.

Character creation takes along time, especially in high point games. We spent all day trying to make Supers characters. The actual system seemed to work okay for our covert ops game, even with many of the people not knowing the rules.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

gurps is the system I wish Mmadsen was playing...

So that I wouldn't have to hear his complaints about D&D 3e. Well, him and everyone else who wants more realism, or a different magic system, or whatever. There's nothing to make you appreciate D&D 3e than coming back to create a PC in D&D after having to deal with the tax-preparation-style character creation in GURPS.