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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 7839534" data-attributes="member: 85870">Right ---- EXACTLY. Like, there's soooo much to unpack in just this one little "throwaway" item. It's a fantastic example of the GURPS mindset. The fact that the game's creators took any amount of effort AT ALL to even fabricate this item's mechanical effects speaks volumes about what they see as "important," and by association, what the players should see as important as well.As a player you're being subtly told, over and over again, that to "have fun," you must successfully compartmentalize these details. The very existence of this item as an actual, codified snippet of rules naturally presupposes that the group as a whole has already agreed that these kinds of mechanical effects are relevant, germane, and necessary to have a successful play experience. If you want to have a pince-nez pair of glasses, it's your job as a player to mentally compartmentalize its conditional effects.And then you have to do it for every single rule that may be even remotely applicable.So as I try to answer my own question---"Who is the system actually for?"---the answer actually is starting to become a bit more clear.GURPS represents an RPG experience that is most readily enjoyed by someone who derives satisfaction from the ability to mentally compartmentalize the totality of the system's bits and pieces. Actually creating a roleplaying story or experiencing any sense of drama or stakes in the fiction is secondary to the experience of the mental satisfaction of spinning the wheels and cogs and levers of the GURPS machine, and the emotional satisfaction that the game world has the highest possible levels of "similitude" and "fictional transparency."As I think about this more, GURPS' most vocal proponents have invariably fallen into one of two categories:Group 1 --- People who, if not actually on the autistic spectrum, exhibit similarly obsessive attention to detail and logical construction. Computer programmer types who absolutely revel in this kind of mental gymnastics. They're actually somewhat in heaven when they get to mentally engage in a system like GURPS. And this isn't entirely unrelatable for me; I enjoy board games a great deal, and in some ways my mental state when I'm progamming Javascript/SQL feels much the same as playing an intricate strategy board game.But even I have my limits of complexity when it comes to board games. Terra Mystica is a fantastic board game, but I have to really, really want to spend 2.5-3 hours being mentally taxed at every turn to want to play that game. That's what every GURPS session feels like to me mentally---a 4.5 hour deep dive into an incomprehensible game whose rules span no less than seven or eight thousand printed pages.Group 2 --- The ultimate, far, far extreme end of the power gamer spectrum. They LOVE GURPS, because it so thoroughly rewards system mastery with power. They are abundantly willing to tackle the mental compartmentalization needed, because once their system mastery reaches an overwhelmingly complete and unapproachable level, no one---player or GM---stands a chance against them. It's about being and feeling in control. These are the ones, in my experience, who loudly declare that starting a GURPS character at less than 350 or 400 points is a waste of time, and absolutely insist that every possible optional rule should be allowed.I'm sure there are other reasons people might enjoy playing GURPS, but of the 15 or so people I've met who were absolutely passionate about the system, 100% belonged to one or both of these general categories.EDIT --- It may or may not be noteworthy that the GM of our current GURPS campaign would absolutely, unequivocally fall into the "Group 2 Powergamer" category when he's a player and not the GM. He's not as far-end-of-the-spectrum as some of the other GURPS players I've gamed with, but it is hands-down his default mode of play. 100% this, in every conceivable way. You couldn't have described the way the GM is running our game any better. Especially this: "Rowboat worlds are characterized by complete freedom of choice but no real content to interact with and often very limited ability to carry out a plan even if you had a clue which way to go."I've been feeling this way FOR THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN. There are no meaningful choices to be made, because there's no meaningful way of interpreting the absolutely scarcity of information we've been given.</blockquote>

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