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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KDLadage" data-source="post: 995999" data-attributes="member: 88">GURPS is one of those games that, in all honesty, is a wonderous thing to behold. It is pure genious in its design. It is elegant, simple and straight forward...About 10 years ago, that was a true statement. But after a decade of cruft thrown on it, and a miriad of special cases have been thrown in -- not to even examine the fact that about half of the rules are based on formulae and the other half on 'best guesses' (look through the gun stats sometime) -- the system has truly begun to show its age and has had some of the more rough-edges show through far too prominantly.Back when I left AD&D (1e) I went through phases of playing Traveller, Paladium, Top Secret, and a real host of other systems. I came across GURPS (1e) in the old Box Set. I read it. I liked it. I moved on to 2e and 3e and the 3er. Over that time -- especially after 3e -- a lot of great stuff has been added. The Vehicles System is like a game unto itself for some sorts of gearheads...I like it. I use it. I used to love it. But these days, I cannot find anyone to play the game with. If it is not d20 or WoD, most people around here do not want to play it. So I find myself playing a lot of d20 games. Not that I mind. I think d20 is a fine system. But the topic here is GURPS...Someone here said that GURPS is a min-maxer's dream system. Well, I would say that GURPS comes in second in that arena. HERO/CHAMPIONS would be the dream system. GURPS is the one that CHAMPIONS players look at as "too gritty" for their tastes...Someone else here said that GURPS is a bit "uncomrpomising" in its realism. Well, yes and no. The system can be highly deadly. But not any more so than many, many other systems out there (d20 included!). There are enough options and such for cinematic combat that it can be as deadly, or non-lethal as you like -- without changing fundamental aspects of the system.Others have claimed the system is clunky. It can feel that way if you turn on every single optional detail rule at once. In all honesty, the system for action resulution (and this includes combat) at its simplest never involves more that three rolls. A typical non-opposed skill check = 1 roll. A typical opposed skill check = 2 rolls (one for each side). A typical combat action is an opposed check that may involve a damage roll. This is the combat system in a nutshell. Add in the thousands of additional details and optional rules and yes, you can have a lot more rolls (hit location, critical hit or fumble results, misfire rolls, and so on and so forth). If you play the system at the same degree of detail as d20, for example, the system is about as streamlined as d20 is and without too much trouble you are on your way.The problems that GURPS has are numerous, however. For example, much of the game was originally written with a human scale in mind (wonder why?) and so it does not (these days) scale very well at all -- strength especially. Damage in the system is actually a measure of penetration, and so a lot of additional rules have been introduced over the years to handle this discrepency (blowthrough, limb crits, etc.). Character Point costs are mostly linear, which makes super-heroic proportions a little too cheap for my tastes. The skill system is linked directly to attributes and it is based upon a true bell curve -- thus the range os usable numbers on 3d6 is limited; this creates some interesting problems with the defaulting system. And so on... etc... ad infinitum.Many people (myself included) feel that a 4e of GURPS is overdue. Steve Jackson is reluctant (to say the least) to do this. They have been talking about the possibility for over a year. The Pyramid Message Boards has a 4e forum with over 16000 posts to it in the last 12 months. Many want to see the game cleaned up. If Sean Punch and David Pulver get the go-ahead to do this (they may be working on it now; rumors abound), then GURPS has the potential to be a truly great system and once again live up to the Generic Universal and System portions of its name. Right now, it no longer does.But is GURPS a good system? You bet it is.</blockquote>

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