Kickstarter: GURPS Mission X

[Voidmoji]

Tool kit games are definitely for those with some spare time. Or those, like me, who are happy tinkering away at a campaign setting as a hobby in itself.

I gave up on GURPS 25 years ago or so, and have come back to it recently. This is part of the reason why. I, too, am a constant tinkerer. In recent years, a lot of my tinkering has been working on my own game systems. While I have a lot of work into two different games, to the point of being somewhat playable, there is a home stretch that I simply can't manage to get across.

Rediscovering GURPS has been great, as it allows me to tinker, but in a manner that is much more likely to see actual play. It helps that 4e seems very geared towards options for inveterate tinkerers.

 

[chuckdee]

It’s out. GURPS Skill Trees. It’s a good book about reconfiguring the skill system through a skill tree approach. It there’s also some Information about reducing the number of skills without resorting to the Bang! Skills solution.

GURPS Power-Ups 10: Skill Trees

Just a link for anyone that want to check it out.

 

[thullgrim]

Wildcard skills can also address the issue of skill proliferation. I’m currently looking at how I can leverage them for Action! for a Night’s Black Agents style GURPS game.

 

[dbm]

a lack of a decent bestiaries is a rather large hole in the GURPS catalog

There are five Dungeon Fantasy bestiaries, and four Nordheim bestiaries. GURPS is pretty well served these days.

 

[BigZebra]

I have always been curious about GURPS. But the 1-second round has always turned me off.
Something as simple as talking seems impossible in that system.
On one hand I love the idea of all the granularity and simulation, but at the table I think I simply prefer much more abstracted systems.
But it does seem deep, and all the books for it are enticing.

 

[Argyle King]

I have always been curious about GURPS. But the 1-second round has always turned me off.
Something as simple as talking seems impossible in that system.
On one hand I love the idea of all the granularity and simulation, but at the table I think I simply prefer much more abstracted systems.
But it does seem deep, and all the books for it are enticing.

Honestly, I do think that the 1-second round is probably a hurdle for people more accustomed to other games.

However, there are trade-offs, so it depends on what's important to you. Like drawing an arrow or changing the belt on a machine gun might take a whole turn, and that maybe seems like a buzz kill if you're trying to attack, but it also means that you might be able to do a heroic charge when the enemy bunker is reloading. There's a reason for an adventurer to have both a melee and ranged skill rather than just pumping a ranged skill with steroids and outclassing other options.

Personally, there are times when I feel the 1-second round shouldn't be used. And, just like with other games, there are times when you don't necessarily need to play something out exactly round-by-round.

Still, even if it's not your cup of tea, some of the genre books are among the best I've read and contain information that is helpful even when not playing GURPS.

 

[MGibster]

I have always been curious about GURPS. But the 1-second round has always turned me off.
Something as simple as talking seems impossible in that system.

Too much dialogue during an active battle is something of a pet peeve of mine. Shouting "Get to the choppa!" is fine, but I dislike when PCs try to convey complex ideas in paragraph form while dodging fireballs and axes.

 

[TreChriron]

I have always been curious about GURPS. But the 1-second round has always turned me off. ...

Honestly, I do think that the 1-second round is probably a hurdle for people more accustomed to other games.

...

Personally, there are times when I feel the 1-second round shouldn't be used. And, just like with other games, there are times when you don't necessarily need to play something out exactly round-by-round.

...

You don't need to spend a round just to talk. It is suggested you limit the length in "realistic" games. It has never come up at my table. I just let people scream at each other during the frenzy. You don't need to remain in 1-seond rounds for a whole combat. The rules provide advice on how you might "zoom out" when people are repositioning, taking cover, or sneaking away (just like @Argyle King says they are inclined to do). You go back into rounds when you confront one another, or someone takes a shot. It's meant to be a mechanism to order combat, not a precise time-keeping tool.

Frankly, you could just run GURPS combat in speed order and not worry about the time a round takes. The benefit of GURPS combat rounds and active defense rolls is keeping people engaged outside their turn. I want the combat to be frantic. I want things to keep moving so people aren't watching others play for too long. I also feel (if you keep it moving at a brisk pace) that it lends to making combat "stressful". I believe the goal of one-second rounds was to keep play frenetic and precise.

You could easily steal a page from d20, go to two-second combat rounds, limiting the first action to movement-only, and restricting the order of movement actions. Or go the PF2e route, but with two-second rounds, limiting one to a movement action, taken in any order. It will allow those who are faster to likely close and strike first, but I don't see it being so impactful that it would "break the game." (In the any order option, you might want to have a contest of skills to disengage from an enemy you just attacked.)

 

[chuckdee]

Wildcard skills can also address the issue of skill proliferation. I’m currently looking at how I can leverage them for Action! for a Night’s Black Agents style GURPS game.

can you give a summary of them and what they bring? I read the summary on Warehouse 13 and couldn't really grok what it was.

 

[thullgrim]

Essentially Wildcard skills are bundles of related skills priced more expensively than normal. They are definable for any campaign you want but the supplement has guidelines for creating them and a whole slew of worked examples.. They reduce the number of skills on a character sheet but at the cost of granularity. Science! Would be a single skill covering biology, chemistry, physics, geology, and whatever other specific science skills are on the list as well as probably some kind of writing, research, and so on.

I've quoted the Science! Wildcard skill below (from GURPS Basic Set: Characters, 175)

Science! (IQ). Replaces Astronomy, Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry, Engineer, Geology, Mathematics, Metallurgy, Meteorology, Naturalist, Paleontology, Physics, Psychology, etc.

When you need to identify a blood type you could roll Biology or in a game that uses Wildcard skills Science!

They can also coexist in a game with regular skills. For instance you might define a wildcard skill for Barbarian! (and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers has the option to use wildcard skills on page 18) but still use individual weapon skills.

Barbarian! (IQ) encompasses Camouflage, Disguise (animals), Mimicry (animal sounds, bird calls), Naturalist, Navigation (land), Weather Sense all using IQ, and using HT allows Hiking, Running, or Swimming, and Per based Fishing, Survival (any) and Tracking.

The Barbarian character would still need to but his combat skills separately. The core wilderness skills of the Barbarian though are all rolled into the Barbarian! wildcard skill.