Should I upgrade from GURPS 3rd Edition, to 4th?

[WayneLigon]

Really? A 13 or 14 DX in GURPS 4E will cost 60 or 80 points, respectively. That's an awful lot of points to put on one ability score, for a 100-point character.

Also, the 'basic' hero-level character now seems to be 200-250, though they mention the starting character can be 100-200. There's no longer that base assumption of 100 for a starting character; it's whatever the campaign level calls for.

I haven't made a great comparison myself, yet, since it's unlikely the group I play with now would want to try and learn a different game system. A good friend of mine who has been a GURPS fan since it came out is just blown away by the new edition. She can't get enough of it, and I trust her judgement so... for what that's worth, I'd say pick it up.

 

[Ron]

I've used GURPS extensively about 12-15 years ago. It's an excellent game, but relies too much in small details to my taste. Recently, I borrowed GURPS 4 from a friend and read it. It's a great improvement, specially regarding character generation and combat. Still, it's too detailed to my tastes. Regarding your case, I don't see much different to a GM interested in apply it to a fantasy campaign. Combat was simplified but mostly regarding firearms, whereas character generation does a better job with special abilities, which may be handy to create fantasy races or characters with a magical edge.

Considering the ability costs, I believe IQ and DX should cost more than ST and HT, as they indicate the relative skill proficience. GURPS relies too much in skills and thus, those abilities are essential. Another good change was making hit points dependent of ST, as it reduced the chance of the unstopable character with HT 15, which in GURPS 3 not only represented a lot of hit points but an almost sure chance of making all the damage checks.

 

[The Cardinal]

upgrade!