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What is your Opinion of GURPS?
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<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 1452933" data-attributes="member: 172"><p>Woodelf brings up a good point about running Disads like Hero. In many ways, GURPS still has a very primitive disadvantage system; the "points for disad" thing tends to turn disads into a point farm, and players typically take them because they want the points more than because they really want to play the disad. Further, they then tend to try to avoid situations in which it will be a disadvantage for them. The result, when I played GURPS, was that often the party a bizarre group of dyfunctional misfits.</p><p></p><p>The Unearthed Arcana system isn't really any better (and in some ways, is worse.)</p><p></p><p>I used to think 2e Skills & Powers had a good solution; they compartmentalized the points (i.e., to get advanages in your class, you needed to take disads in your class.) But eventually, it was proven to me that the point farm mentality even takes hold there. The compartmentalization made it less abusive, but you still ended up with dysfunctional misfits.</p><p></p><p>So it is my long considered opinion that the basic "points for disads" model is inherently problematic. I have only encountered two models that I think does a good job:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I actually suggested an idea like this on the RPG-Create mailing list years ago, but eventually saw versions of it in AEG's books like <em>7th Sea</em>, <em>Spycraft</em>, and the d20 supers title <em>Vigilance</em>. It's basically what I call "per incident compensation." Instead of giving the character compensation based on the expected impact of a disad, the character earns bonus points whenever they actually face challenges from the disad.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><em>Kult</em> has an interesting mechanism. Disads tend to be seen as point farms because players conceive them as being worth more mechanically than their actual negative impact. I feel GURPS makes this particularly problematic in part because it seems to give you SO MANY points for relatively minor problems. So reducing the point compensation is one way to address this. Kult has an elegant second way -- it makes the disadvantage an actual disadvantage in the mechanics of the game. Basically, Kult (a horror game) makes it part of the sanity mechanic, which is pretty important to the central focus of the game.</li> </ul><p></p><p>Hopefully, GURPS 4e comes up with a more robust disadvantage system that makes its use worthwhile.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Psion, post: 1452933, member: 172"] Woodelf brings up a good point about running Disads like Hero. In many ways, GURPS still has a very primitive disadvantage system; the "points for disad" thing tends to turn disads into a point farm, and players typically take them because they want the points more than because they really want to play the disad. Further, they then tend to try to avoid situations in which it will be a disadvantage for them. The result, when I played GURPS, was that often the party a bizarre group of dyfunctional misfits. The Unearthed Arcana system isn't really any better (and in some ways, is worse.) I used to think 2e Skills & Powers had a good solution; they compartmentalized the points (i.e., to get advanages in your class, you needed to take disads in your class.) But eventually, it was proven to me that the point farm mentality even takes hold there. The compartmentalization made it less abusive, but you still ended up with dysfunctional misfits. So it is my long considered opinion that the basic "points for disads" model is inherently problematic. I have only encountered two models that I think does a good job: [list] [*]I actually suggested an idea like this on the RPG-Create mailing list years ago, but eventually saw versions of it in AEG's books like [i]7th Sea[/i], [i]Spycraft[/i], and the d20 supers title [i]Vigilance[/i]. It's basically what I call "per incident compensation." Instead of giving the character compensation based on the expected impact of a disad, the character earns bonus points whenever they actually face challenges from the disad. [*][i]Kult[/i] has an interesting mechanism. Disads tend to be seen as point farms because players conceive them as being worth more mechanically than their actual negative impact. I feel GURPS makes this particularly problematic in part because it seems to give you SO MANY points for relatively minor problems. So reducing the point compensation is one way to address this. Kult has an elegant second way -- it makes the disadvantage an actual disadvantage in the mechanics of the game. Basically, Kult (a horror game) makes it part of the sanity mechanic, which is pretty important to the central focus of the game. [/list] Hopefully, GURPS 4e comes up with a more robust disadvantage system that makes its use worthwhile. [/QUOTE]
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