Is a new GURPS version in the works?

[darjr]

This tiktok surfaced and it's very leading. A tiktoker suggests that Steve Jackson games should make a new edition for GURPS and they respond with a question about what folks would like to see in a new edition.



Personally I'd like to see a new version dispense with the defense roll and focus on a basic but complete set, even a boxed set, and build everything else upon that.

 

[Parmandur]

Hmmmm, that would certainly be interesting. GURPS 4E came out a looooomg time ago now, and that sort of universal, one size fits all system is not the current trend in TTRPGs. I loved the core setting of Infinite Worlds.

 

[darjr]

Apparently just asking for input.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I mean, I would start with a coherent base (like they had with 3E's core rulebook). Right now, a brand new person can be confused just what book is the base rulebook because of their naming conventions.

Beyond that, support would be nice. Their publication schedule for GURPS 4E really shows how much of an afterthought the game is now.

 

[Jer]

Hmmmm, that would certainly be interesting. GURPS 4E came out a looooomg time ago now,

That can't possibly be the case. Why I swear it was just a few years ago I was grumbling about the fact that there was really no need for a 4th edition.

/me checks the publication date of 4e GURPS

Huh. 2004. Welp, I'm going to find an ice floe to put myself on and float off into the ocean now...

and that sort of universal, one size fits all system is not the current trend in TTRPGs. I loved the core setting of Infinite Worlds.

I think what's out of favor is the pairing of complexity and toolbox that GURPS has. If you buy the GURPS rules you don't really get a "game" so much as a collection of rules that you can put together to make a game. That was a more popular thing back in the 80s and 90s than now.

I think "universal" systems are still being used, but they're being used by game developers who adjust the rules for you rather than providing a toolbox for you to make your own game. Like all of the Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark games, or the Gumshoe games that Pelgrane puts out. Even Steve Jackson Games does this by putting out games that are "Powered by GURPS" that include the rules and setting together instead of just being setting books. (I would actually love to see them put out Infinite Worlds as a standalone game powered by GURPS personally. Pare the rules down to just the ones you need for the IW setting, include the appropriate character templates to choose from, etc.)

 

[darjr]

I agree, a full toolbox should be the secondary thing and stand alone tighter games should be the primary things.

Especially if it leads to the type of accessory/setting books of GURPS past.

Still the raw mechanics I think need modification. The presentation needs to be simpler yet more full than GUPS “basic”.

Also some streamlining needs to be done. For instance attacks should be much simpler to carry out in game.

 

[Parmandur]

That can't possibly be the case. Why I swear it was just a few years ago I was grumbling about the fact that there was really no need for a 4th edition.

/me checks the publication date of 4e GURPS

Huh. 2004. Welp, I'm going to find an ice floe to put myself on and float off into the ocean now...


I think what's out of favor is the pairing of complexity and toolbox that GURPS has. If you buy the GURPS rules you don't really get a "game" so much as a collection of rules that you can put together to make a game. That was a more popular thing back in the 80s and 90s than now.

I think "universal" systems are still being used, but they're being used by game developers who adjust the rules for you rather than providing a toolbox for you to make your own game. Like all of the Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark games, or the Gumshoe games that Pelgrane puts out. Even Steve Jackson Games does this by putting out games that are "Powered by GURPS" that include the rules and setting together instead of just being setting books. (I would actually love to see them put out Infinite Worlds as a standalone game powered by GURPS personally. Pare the rules down to just the ones you need for the IW setting, include the appropriate character templates to choose from, etc.)

I'm 37 and have 4 kids, 4E GURPS came out before I started College. Dang...

SKG has put out some "complete games" stuff in the past,y sister was pretty pleased with the Discworkd RPG as I recall.

 

[Staffan]

I'd do away with one-second rounds and one swing/shot attacks. I mean, AD&D rounds of one minute are too long, but something in the 5-10 seconds range generally gives enough room to be able to talk, move, and do a thing.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

I'd do away with one-second rounds and one swing/shot attacks. I mean, AD&D rounds of one minute are too long, but something in the 5-10 seconds range generally gives enough room to be able to talk, move, and do a thing.

The one-second rounds also factored into weird mechanics, like snapshots for guns, and the expectation that if you don't spend a full turn aiming before firing you were a total idiot. Which is fine for the hyperrealism heads, but some of us are just trying to play a game (and one where combat doesn't take four hours).

 

[innerdude]

The problem GURPS has is that it's now too much beholden to its own design paradigm (much like D&D) to really go anywhere different without spurning its (miniscule) existing market.

The people who like GURPS are the kind of people who are married to the core system at a near-metaphysical level. Tossing out a new edition that makes broad changes negates the hard-earned system mastery that lives at the heart of GURPS fandom.

I gave away whatever GURPS material I had when I moved recently. Literally walked in to a local FLGS, dropped the books on the counter and said, "I don't want these. Feel free to take them and sell them, I don't even want store credit."

For me to ever consider buying GURPS material of any kind, they'd have to basically redesign it into something very different.

• Ditch the 3 core stats model
• Ditch roll under
• Switch to a flatter two-die bell curve instead of a three-die, or switch to a roll-and-keep system.
• Change to a 5-second combat round.
• Change the attack vs. active+passive defense paradigm.
• Consolidate skill areas

So yeah, I basically want nothing like GURPS at all . . . And to top it off, I despise "Infinite Worlds" style settings, both GURPS' version of it as well as RIFTS.

Bottom line -- People who actually want GURPS will want GURPS, and not something else. As a result, I suspect GURPS 5e when it rolls around will be closer to "GURPS 4e Expanded and Revised" than an actual edition change.