GURPS Thread!

[Sofly]

Oh hey hi

Lately i've been really interested in TTRPGs, i've been reading about the older versions of DnD, Pathfinder, and such, and in my search for knowledge to keep for myself, i came across a TTRPG that promised a robust system for any and all setting you can think of, and after reading more about it i can say that it delivered

I'm of course talking about the Generic Universal RolePlay System, or GURPS for short

GURPS is meant to be a maleable system depending on the type of campaign you want to make, you can make a classic sword and sorcery fantasy set, a futuristic adventure in deep space, a superhero adventure, or a game where society has been replaced by hyper-intelligent dinosaurs with laser cannons attached to them, any setting you can think of can be played with GURPS

That freedom however comes at the cost of complexity however, one glance at either of the core GURPS books and you'll see that it's quite the hard thing to swallow, including things like different ways of dealing damage, taking into account stuff like how many arms your character has, systems for learning new languages, supernatural abilities, magic, and quite a lot that can tip off quite the majority of people

Under that mountain of words and concepts however, there are a lots of systems and rules that can make the playing experience something unique, and my favorite example of that is the advantage system

At character creation, the GM gives you a set amount of character points depending on how strong your characters are, if they're common adventurers, super-heroes, toddlers, etc; those points can be used to buy your stats (Strenght, Dexterity, Intelligence and Health) or you can buy "Advantages" with them, depending on the campaign and the characters you're making you can have stuff such as being ambidextrous, seeing in 360°, having multiple extremties, knowing when you're about to do something stupid, and so on

However, the catch is that you can also buy "Disadvantages", which give you points back when you take them, not only are they useful to allow you to get more expensive skills, but also they help giving a bit of extra flavor to your character, these disadvantages include stuff like not speaking your native language very well, being unable to pay attention, being an alcoholic, colorblind, so on and so forth

I'm gonna come clean now and say that i don't really have any experience playing GURPS, i don't know any people who are willing to swallow 338 pages telling them how to make a character to the very detail, and that's more than ok don't get me wrong!, but i still wish that one day i get the chance to experience it

Maybe you did experience it and want to share it!, feel free to talk about any campaign you may have participated on, if you're in a situation like me, or if just learned about it today

[BartTheZech]

Oh this is awesome, I've been getting a lot into GURPs (so far I've only really done a solo combat test and did a quick 30 minute fooling around in the system with a friend) and the system fascinates me. I've been using a lot of extra rules I've found in other supplements for combat which adds a more harsh (and imo more realistic) fatigue and stamina system for combat and adventuring. It's quite fun lol, you genuinely can tire your character to such an extent where they'd have to rest for an entire day if you do something horrifically exhausting,

I will say, there is absolutely no reason to have to read 338 pages of the rules to understand the system. If you look into the core books what you'll see is a few pages of core rules, then you'll see optional rules you can add such as tactical combat rules, and then the rest of the book is a bunch of lists. Most of the stuff on the lists are self explainable when you read the name and you'd only need to read it if its something you'd want to add to your character. You'll find GURPs to be very simple once you look at it like that.

Though it's not like player's need to know or read every rule being used. When I ran the very short session I mentioned above I simply gave random stats, created a random encounter, and we went off right at it. The only context I really gave was that its roll under 3d6 and that combat turns are a second but only when I make it clear the encounter is urgent (This is me using the tactical combat rules which are a second per turn, and also being more freeform with it, ie 'cinematic play'.)

Well, to be fair when I said simple that statement is more from the player's POV. If you're a game master you do have a bit more work. You've got the burden that 90% of RPGs have which is to, well, actually know the rules. But in this case you're also choosing what rules your game has. Basically making your own game but with the assistance of GURPS. But ofc that extra burden is the appeal for a lot of GM's for GURPS. 

Edit: I thought I should add this since you only recently discovered GURPs. This youtube video series from Chris Normand covers GURPs pretty well in my opinion, incase you haven't seen it yet. Honestly I love the world of TTRPGs, tons of stuff out there. GURPs I'll probably have a more go at it using a solo system though I'm hopeful of getting a game going on with a friend eventually.