Is a new GURPS version in the works?

[MGibster]

I played GURPS since it came in a box. Right up until mid 4th edition.

I played a lot of 3rd edition back in the day, but not a whole lot of 4th edition. GURPS was a staple of my local gaming stores back in the 80s and 90s, but by the time I bought 4th edition, it wasn't even at my local game store, and I think I got it at Barnes & Noble. While I think GURPS is a good game, I don't really expect it to regain the popularity it once had. It's a great tool-kit game, but I've never been big on creating my own world from scratch.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

One of the complications is that “Dungeon Fantasy Powered by GURPS” is considered a different line from the “Dungeon Fantasy” PDF series.

Can you expand on that?

Although I see that there is almost no crossover or cross promotion between this page:

Dungeon Fantasy Role Playing Game

Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

and this page:
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

 

[dbm]

‘GURPS Dungeon Fantasy’ is a series of PDFs that build on the core books + Magic to implement combat spelunking, while the ‘Dungeon Fantasy RPG Powered by GURPS’ is a fully stand-alone product,

There are some small differences in the rules between the two. IIRC the rules for slam attacks are different in the Powered by GURPS rules and a few more things. The PbG version also misses a chunk of material by simply omitting it, while the Dungeon Fantasy line tells you to ignore it, but you would have it since you have the core books.

So, the two lines have a different set of baseline assumptions (about the material you are likely to have access to) and some differences in rules details.

It’s easy to use them together if you are aware of the specifics, but since the Dungeon Fantasy RPG Powered by GURPS set was intended as an entry product they probably want to minimise confusion by not cross promoting the lines.

 

[Parmandur]

Out of curiosity, are there any GURPS actual plays out there?

 

[Parmandur]

Investigating my own question, found this fun thing:

The Film Reroll Podcast – We play through your favorite movies as RPGs and totally ruin them.

www.filmreroll.com

 

[Panzeh]

Yeah, Film Reroll is probably the best known GURPS AP, and they use GURPS for a fairly particular reason- the unversality makes it work for all the different films they play with. They also don't sweat a lot of the game's detail, which isn't a bad way to play it.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

It just so happens I was thinkin' about this recently. I was reading about how GURPS kinda fell off the charts during past decades, as SJG focused on Munchkin, and the OGL/D&D culture blossomed.

Here's what I would suggest:

1) That GURPS join the ORC Alliance, and release a GURPS SRD on the ORC license. So that new generations become aware of it.

2) The GURPS present itself as a complete one-stop system.

3) Toward that end: Convert literally every Open Game facet which is found on the 3.5 SRD, PF1 d20 archive (including the vast amount of posted 3PP open content), PF2 SRD and archive, and 5.1 SRD, into GURPS. From the start. In one gigantic book. Like major phone-book sized.

4) And also post official conversion documents /charts, and online conversion apps, for converting 5E characters into GURPS.

So that a person can feel that no matter how homebrewing their 5E or PF or OSR campaign is, they can see and trust that that one gigantic GURPS book has it covered. Bam!

For example, as a D&D Refugee DM, I'm running into some hurdles in converting our motley crew of PCs: banshee, half-ogre, frogperson, cowperson, wererat, leprechaun, awakened snake, awakened cat...not to mention all their classes, subclasses, backgrounds, inspirations, and all that. Which results in me wavering between various ORC systesms: A5E, PF2, etc.

This Open GURPS mega-book would have all of that.

 

[Panzeh]

So, the Dungeon Fantasy box set was a bit of a flop, which means, I think, there's not a lot of desire for SJG to go back there. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the idea of a one-stop product for people wanting to play D&D in GURPS, I think the way it was implemented was mostly wrong.

I don't think the 250 point character templates were actually easy to build for newcomers, nor actually reflected what most people played in D&D. Would you learn D&D if you started as a 10th level character? That concept felt strange, like the worst of both worlds, not showing what GURPS could do over other systems(freeform characters!), but also not simple, strong archetypes like D&D. Then they retained the basic GURPS assumptions, which in my experience playing it with people, made a lot of people feel bad. For example, the base level of a bowman being to shoot once every four turns just feels bad- if you are making a bespoke implementation of GURPS just to play D&D style fantasy, you don't have to have room for a modern assault rifle to be better than a bow! It's okay to change the combat mechanics to make people feel better, and then you wouldn't be pressured to make massive pointed templates to make combat more like people want it to be.

That and the included adventure hook being, rats in the tavern cellar is.. I don't think the creators actually had a ton of respect for D&D, honestly.

There's some really good stuff for the DFRPG line from Gaming-Ballistic with the Nordlond world, their bestiary(which cleverly includes everything from Keep on the Borderlands), their low-point templates and building-block structure, but it's just not that heavily exposed these days.