innerdude
Legend
But what if you have a different end point, or starting point? Do you soften up a game group with a light game, with the hopes of conditioning them to play a more difficult/complex game?
In short, no.
To "get to" GURPS from any starting point, you have to convince the group that the end result in play is worth it.
I don't care for GURPS in the least, but if I were trying to get someone to "go there," I'd emphasize things like:
- It's ultra realistic. If you're tired of the "non-realism" of hit points/healing surges, falling of cliffs and not dying, etc., then this will be a step in the right direction.
- You'll have the flexibility to play in any genre without having to completely re-learn the game.
- You'll have extensive combat options if you want them.
- You'll get to emphasize the roleplaying and non-combat portions of the game more, because combat is so deadly (and takes so long to resolve) that you'll actively avoid combat unless you have overwhelming advantage. ("Combat as war" players should feel right at home)
- You'll get to pronounce to all the world that you're now part of the elite group of roleplayers who have "discovered" that GURPS is the greatest RPG of All Time, and anyone who says differently is a hater and clearly doesn't "get it." (I'm not being sarcastic in any way when I say that at least 3 people in one of my past gaming groups repeated this to me essentially verbatim.)