What is GURPS?

[jdrakeh]

Just because nobody has mentioned it (or at least nobody who shows up on my screen), you'd do well to start off with GURPS Lite which is 100% free and 90% compatible with most GURPS sourcebooks. It's basically a stripped down version of the full GURPS rules. I've run and played in several enjoyable campaigns that used only the GURPS Lite rules and one or two GURPS sourcebooks.

 

[pawsplay]

GURPS is one of the best RPGs ever written, and the fourth edition is the best edition of GURPS ever written. It's a 3d6 roll under, point based system. The earlier editions had greater strength toward fairly realistic, action-oriented games, but over time, GURPS has covered pretty much everything at this point, including Discworld, real life Cops, and supers.

The fora at sjgames.com are full of really creative, helpful, often opionated people willing to talk about everything from how to price a super power to the real life effectiveness of a downward knife grip.

Given that you can run GURPS with just two core books, and easily run it with just those and one setting sourcebook of your choice, it's also one of the best values in gaming.

EDIT: and how would you compare it to D&D?

It's faster and more intuitive, and about equally deadly at low to middle power levels. It has about the same learning curve. It has less special cases. The main GURPS Fantasy setting is something of a different beast, very high medievally flavored, very much SCA meets mythical Shakespeare. It has elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, lizard men, ogres, minotaurs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc.

There is also a line of products called GURPS Dungeon that helps you optimize the GURPS experience for traditional dungeon crawls.

GURPS can come very close to being D&D, depending on how you adjust the dials. It can also be something quite different.

 

[Center-of-All]

I never thought I'd say this, but pawsplay is right. Completely, utterly, and unabashedly right.

 

[The Cardinal]

GURPS is one of the best RPGs ever written, and the fourth edition is the best edition of GURPS ever written. It's a 3d6 roll under, point based system. The earlier editions had greater strength toward fairly realistic, action-oriented games, but over time, GURPS has covered pretty much everything at this point, including Discworld, real life Cops, and supers.

(....lots of truth.......)

EDIT: and how would you compare it to D&D?

It's faster and more intuitive, and about equally deadly at low to middle power levels. It has about the same learning curve. It has less special cases. The main GURPS Fantasy setting is something of a different beast, very high medievally flavored, very much SCA meets mythical Shakespeare. It has elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, lizard men, ogres, minotaurs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc.

There is also a line of products called GURPS Dungeon that helps you optimize the GURPS experience for traditional dungeon crawls.

GURPS can come very close to being D&D, depending on how you adjust the dials. It can also be something quite different.

QFT

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is a *great* (and cheap) line - I've used GURPS4e before for most of my games, but with Dungeon Fantasy it might soon replace D&D3.5 completely (especially since D&D4e is not really liked around here)

 

[philreed]

QFT

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is a *great* (and cheap) line - I've used GURPS4e before for most of my games, but with Dungeon Fantasy it might soon replace D&D3.5 completely (especially since D&D4e is not really liked around here)

We're still expanding the Dungeon Fantasy line, with a few more releases in the works.

 

[Zinovia]

GURPS is an intriguing idea that didn't work well for me in play. I was in a campaign for a year or so, and while we had some fun in the game, I personally preferred other systems' mechanics. Everything about GURPS *sounds* good in theory, but I found actual play to be disappointing.

3d6 rolls for most everything means that most results will be average. This is less "swingy" than D&D's flat d20 rolls, where you are just as likely to roll a 1, a 20, or a 10. This is good in theory if you want most results to be in the mid-range. Just optimize your character to be really good at their specific skills, and you will practically always succeed even at difficult tasks.

I felt that GURPS had too few stats (I was playing back in 1990, so I'm not referencing whatever the current edition is doing). I played GURPS during my Rolemaster years (and was running a Rolemaster game at the same time). RM had 10 stats, GURPS had 4 (with some derived from those 4). It was too hard for me to get the flavor I wanted for my character. In order to have some stats high, I had to make others (that didn't fit my character concept) high also, because the system was too coarsely grained.

Combat was more deadly, and thus there seemed to be more incentive to finish fights ASAP. My character was so optimized with her rapier skill that I could target a helm's eye slot pretty easily. So it made combat less interesting. Most fights played out the same more or less. I'd get close, jab them in the face, and they'd fall over screaming. There certainly was more to it than that, but overall, less fun than my experiences with D&D or RM.

Some of the issues were due to the GM rather than the game system, as he was in lust with one of the players and hers was the Mary Sue character of the campaign (she got to save the day while the rest of us were her supporting cast). Nonetheless, I believe GURPS was the product that was near the top of the thread that asked the question "What RPG product did you think you'd love and wound up hating?".

So while my memories of GURPS are a bit hazy, I did play it for over a year, and think that it's an interesting concept that just doesn't pan out well in actual play (for some people anyway). The source books however were excellent.

 

[Mercule]

This is true. They don't have near the offerings they once did, but in the day, they had great, well researched books on dozens of topics and game worlds. You can still get many of them.

I am really NOT a fan of the system, but I love some of the books.

That said, HERO is beginning to fill the same need for me these days. Their PULP HERO line has some great titles and is feeding my Spirit of the Century game.

This is all true. GURPS is my least favorite system, ever, and I found playing it a horror. But, that's a matter of taste.

If you want detailed, non-class/level based characters, I'd recommend Hero System. It fills pretty much the same niche, but is a much better system, IMO. One of my favorites, actually.

If you'd prefer something lighter weight and easier to prep for and play, then Savage Worlds fits that bill. It's nowhere near as detailed as GURPS or Hero, but it gets the job done well enough. It just focuses on stuff most people are actually likely[/u] to use in play.

Basically, GURPS and Hero try to cover all the bases they could think of. Meanwhile, Savage Worlds follows the 80/20 rule and defines the 20% of the ruleset that sees use 80% of the time and does it well.

 

[Mercule]

Combat was more deadly, and thus there seemed to be more incentive to finish fights ASAP. My character was so optimized with her rapier skill that I could target a helm's eye slot pretty easily. So it made combat less interesting. Most fights played out the same more or less. I'd get close, jab them in the face, and they'd fall over screaming. There certainly was more to it than that, but overall, less fun than my experiences with D&D or RM.

That was something of my experience, too. Hero has a couple of optional rules that let you swing combat along the spectrum from comic bookish to grim and gritty. The default recommendations for fantasy campaigns tend towards heroic (not "super").

Some of the issues were due to the GM rather than the game system, as he was in lust with one of the players and hers was the Mary Sue character of the campaign (she got to save the day while the rest of us were her supporting cast). Nonetheless, I believe GURPS was the product that was near the top of the thread that asked the question "What RPG product did you think you'd love and wound up hating?".

By all accounts, my GM was one of the best. I really think the system just doesn't do it for some people. IME, people usually like either Hero or GURPS, rarely both. It must be some sort of play style thing.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Collect GURPS Rulebooks? Who would do that? (Eyes shelf full of GURPS books, including his full Transhuman Space collection)

 

[The Cardinal]

We're still expanding the Dungeon Fantasy line, with a few more releases in the works.

And my money is ready and waiting...