Lanefan
Victoria Rules
What's the difference, if any, between gaslight fantasy and steampunk?
The LONG wait ends - 'Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game - Powered by GURPS' has been released!
MGibster
Legend
I think the biggest difference is that Kaja Foglio prefers the term gaslight fantasy (Wiki link) over steampunk. She preferred the term, in part, because there's no punk in Girl Genius and she wanted to avoid having her work mixed up with another comic that was called Steampunk. And there's more of an emphasis on magic than your typical steampunk setting. Though, honestly, I consider most steampunk settings to be rather fantastical to begin with and most of them don't really have any punks in them either.
Willie the Duck
Hero
That's lovely, but there's no reason to use D&D as the point of comparison. Honestly Fate or Wushu or Powered by the Apocalypse or Dramasystem would be better points of comparison. Girl Genius is a high-flying action-comedy which falls very far into the cinematic tropes of pulp novels and cliffhanger style comics. Trad style games don't always replicate what one might want out of such a world. For example, there is no need to know exact jump distance in feet or a check to see if the hero jumped a chasm -- they will jump the chasm (they're the hero), the roll should be to see if they end up landing on their feet with weapon drawn to engage the enemy or hanging by their fingertips so that the enemy can gloat (which they will do).
I'm one of the people you mention.
Personally, I find that GURPS functions more intuitively than a lot of contemporary D&D.
I can't speak on behalf of Discworld, but I've run/played D&D settings using GURPS and found them to be better. I've also run Supers games, a game based on professional wrestling, and a few other things.
I do think there are things which are tough to do without better knowledge of the system, but I would also say that a lot of negative stereotypes about the system are things I found to be grossly untrue -even when I was brand new to the system.
Mostly Foglio's preference, but it denotes that the world seems to be at the point where electricity has been discovered and is well-known, but simply not at the point of houses being wired with electric lights (of course most of the electricity is used by mad scientists, but not the general public, but that's a whole 'nother knot to untie).
eyeheartawk
#1 Enworld Jerk™
In my experience, basic barebones GURPS is the way to go. Just 3d6 and roll under your skill. GURPS Lite was a thing in 3E. When you start bolting on all the splat and care about generating GURPS statistics correct vehicles (Good lord, GURPS 3E Mecha creation rules) and powers etc it quickly bogs down.
But as a fair point, it's really not well suited to certain genres as would befit a true "universal" game. Doing mecha and supers in it for example is a recipe for nightmares.
But as a fair point, it's really not well suited to certain genres as would befit a true "universal" game. Doing mecha and supers in it for example is a recipe for nightmares.
"Fantasy" is not about "fantastical", and "punk" isn't about "having punks".
Willie the Duck
Hero
You are correct, but I still think steampunk isn't a good fit for Girl Genius anyways. There's nothing related to the juxtaposition of punk attitudes and high (19th century) technology in GG. Nor much specifically urban, raw, ugly, obnoxious, disillusioned, or disenchanted about GG either. I guess there's a bit of 'rejecting the status quo and doing things your own way,' but only in that the protagonist is resisting following her ancestor's evil ways, the Baron's pragmatic despotism, marrying herself to a powerful family and uniting Europa under one of their banners, etc. She's as much punk as Daenerys Targaryen (hopefully with a better swansong).
Girl Genius is absolutely a fantasy, if by no other metric than it is a story of an woman from her timeframe forging her own destiny against some of the most powerful forces in the world, and the setting is the gaslamp era, technologically (with some wild leaps forward and back, as the storyline requires --there are a lot more crossbows and polearms than the real gaslamp era, and certainly more dimensional flux agitators ). It seems to fit.
I'm not arguing with calling the comic gaslight fantasy. I'm disagreeing with the implied bits about fantasy and punk.
That's not a great metric. I mean, unless you want to call all of science fiction to be fantasy. Which some do, but I don't think is a useful categorization.
Argyle King
Legend
I use D&D as a comparison because it's currently the most popular game. It also provides an interesting contrast because contemporary D&D claims to be "streamlined," use "natural language," and support "rulings not rules."
Despite having a lot of possible rules, the core tenets of GURPS are simple and intuitive. The writing and indexing of the books makes it mostly easy to find what you want. (There are a few areas that I think could be arranged differently.) Because there does exist a framework for how to handle most things, I've also found that I have an intuitive idea of how to handle a lot of situations- even when I'm not using a lot of the rules.
I've found that GURPS actually succeeds in being modular (a design goal of a lot of modern games) and works for someone who wants jump distance as well as someone who doesn't care about exact jump distance. The system is built in such a way that either approach works - without breaking other parts of the game. Even if you don't want exact distance, there may be times when it's important to compare how far two different characters made it; that could be done either with precise calculation or with a more narrative use of margin of success.
My belief is that a lot of the negative stereotypes about GURPS stem from using the system in a manner that isn't how it's actually designed to be used.
It's not a perfect game. Even as someone who enjoys it, I recognize that it has strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, a lot of typical claims I see others make about what GURPS can or can't do seem wildly inaccurate compared to my experiences with the game and my experiences in teaching the game to others.
Maybe the games you mentioned might work wonders. I admittedly don't know. Personally, I think Fate is good but sometimes lacks depth or an ability to achieve granularity during situations when it's needed -but it does work relatively well for a group which cares very little for details. I don't think I've heard of the others (except maybe Wushu) until now.
I think a lot of the negative stereotypes about GURPS stem from how it very much has ways it is designed to be used, and that means it isn't as "generic" as it claims to be.
Argyle King
Legend
I think it is accurate to say the default assumptions of GURPS skew a particular way out of the box. Though, that's also true of Hero System and Fate. You have to start writing somewhere.
What I meant by using it differently is that the core components are modular. I believe that a lot of people assume that just because a rule exists, it has to be used. A lot of the niche stuff (i.e. realistic rules for explosions) likely shouldn't be used unless you're somebody who cares about that level of detail.
Trying to use everything at the same time isn't what I would recommend. I'm not sure that's always advertised as well as it should be, but looking at other products like After the End, Dungeon Fantasy, and now Girl Genius show worked examples of how the pieces offered can be used very differently.
If you want a specific style of game like Dungeon Fantasy, After the End, or something else; you'll want to take some time to decide which pieces you're using. It's like the difference between an old Lego set without blueprints versus a Lego set which is meant to build the rocket ship.
Likewise, from a character building perspective, my perception is that a lot of people flip through all options. In GURPS, I think it's better to have a general concept first and then fit options to that concept. That being said, it is possible to build lists of options (much in the same way other games do) by having pre-made templates.
Being that Girl Genius is (as I understand it) a specific genre and setting, I imagine it will have the work of building templates and selecting options already done.
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