What is your Opinion of GURPS?

[VirgilCaine]

What do you think of GURPS?

I have downloaded the GURPS Lite .pdf a while ago, and I think GURPS might be a better fit for my ideas about games than D20M is.

D20 is nice, but I really want something that has a more realistic intent to it than D20M's "cinematic" feel. The way [modern] body armor is done especially seems better.

I would probably only use the GURPS Lite rules and not buy any of the books, but I might consider buying one or two.

Any pitfalls of GURPS? Advantages? Disadvantages? Things to avoid?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

GURPS is a very well designed system, if you want a very detailed system. Combat can sometimes be very tedious, and character creation is a pain in the @$$. That said, I have played in some great GURPS games, and one of my favorite characters of all times is from a GURPS game I played in a few years ago. The sourcebooks are wonderful, well researched, and useful for almost any game system (mechanics aside). If you are thinking of buying any of the core books, wait until the 4th edition is released this August at GenCon.

 

[Coredump]

I have not used GURPS in a long time, so my opinions may be outdated via changes.

But any system that relies overly much on point system and ads/disads can be easily point geeked. I think it could work fine, just be very careful about the players choices.

 

[Vigilance]

GURPs has a lot to offer, and I ran it for almost 10 years.

I like the combat system a lot, however, if you ever want to do something with the slightest cinematic edge (like Indiana Jones) it doesn't work.

So you gain something and lose something. It depends on your tastes. It is a good system though.

Chuck

 

[Lord Rasputin]

I have not used GURPS in a long time, so my opinions may be outdated via changes.

But any system that relies overly much on point system and ads/disads can be easily point geeked. I think it could work fine, just be very careful about the players choices.

Any system can be majorly geeked. I've seen some AD&D 1e characters who were pretty munched out. D&D 3e, with its ever-escalating power scale, is much more power gamer friendly than GURPS.

And, of course, there is the impending release of GURPS 4e this summer, which makes DX and IQ more expensive.

 

[Crothian]

GURPS supliments are excellent. I still pick up a few ever now and then even though I don't play the game.

 

[Planesdragon]

What do you think of GURPS?

I think that GURPS is a game system that gets overburdened with options and relies too much on a sense of fair-play to balance itself.

On the other hand, it's open and honest about it--and if you don't mind the rules, their plethora of sourcebooks are second to none.


OTOH, if you're just looking for a "grittier" game, I have a wound system that needs playtesting.

 

[VirgilCaine]

D&D 3e, with its ever-escalating power scale, is much more power gamer friendly than GURPS.

Good to hear.

I had a thought to go over the Disads and remove or modify the ones that didn't make sense to me...

 

[JPL]

GURPS supliments are excellent. I still pick up a few ever now and then even though I don't play the game.

Ditto.

Virgil, bear in mind that GURPS 4th edition is on the way. Save your nickels. Might be an improvement.

 

[trancejeremy]

Gurps rewards characters who take role-playing disadvantages with power gaming advantages. AD&D never did something like that.

For instance, if you stutter, you can be a better sword fighter. Obviously, this is not a problem with all players, but most will be tempted to twink out their characters a bit.

While Gurps can be realistic, it also does a very poor portrayal of characters. You only get 4 stats, of which 2 are massively important in modern games (IQ and DX). But in any event, thanks to the point buying nature of Gurps, most characters have scores very similar to each other.

Also found the skill system to be unintuitive.

And this is purely subjective, but just about everyone who works at SJG is a jerk.