this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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GURPS

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Hello! I'm excited to see there's a new community for GURPS. Currently, I'm running a survival horror mundane-fantasy game stuck in a modern day British town in which the characters have to survive their daily lives. It's my first time GMing and its been fun so far!

My favorite part of GURPS is how simple or complex it can be. I like it's flexibility. I've been using the GURPS lite edition but the fact that I can add or remove rules based on my needs is wonderful! I also like the simulation aspect of it as well, because it lends nicely to a more gritty, realistic and dangerous feeling.

How about you? Why do you use GURPS?

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[–] Cube6392 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I used to use GURPS. What I liked about it was that it was super easy to introduce someone to the base rules. You have your stats, and when you try to do things, you have to roll a check against those stats, and the 3-18 bell curve makes it straightforward to identify "is this a good idea, can I pull this off, is it worth the risk?" Meanwhile, there's also a rule for everything. You can play it by ear a little bit early on, but if you have a long-running campaign, and you realize that something is a consistent concept in your campaign, you can pull some rules into your campaign that can actually make that part of your world seem more unique and interesting. The pitfall is that there is a rule for everything and the game itself doesn't actually do that much to guide improv, and is mostly focused on conflict resolution (the same criticism I have with Dungeons and Dragons). These days, for the things I'd use GURPS for in the past, I use FATE, and for anything else I look for interesting systems, or a PbtA game with the theme I want

But I still love that 3-18 resolution dice bell curve. I even know a Dungeons and Dragons DM who straight up replaced D20s with 3d6. I don't know that I agree since Dungeons and Dragons is much more "chaos simulation" but he truly appreciated that critical rolls were less frequent and felt more exciting with the 3d6

[–] Dee_Imaginarium 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I even know a Dungeons and Dragons DM who straight up replaced D20s with 3d6.

Weird, I get the reasoning but I agree with what you said. Part of the fun of the d20 is the sheer chaos it can cause. I could see that being a welcome change if you're trying to run a more realistic feel though. But then, I probably wouldn't be running it in DnD lol

[–] Cube6392 2 points 2 years ago

If you want reality, play Burning Wheel ;)

But seriously.

People.

Try burning wheel.

[–] jursed 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I mean, fate still has a little bit of that bell curve. But I'd say I have to agree with you on there! It makes it so the roleplay has a little bit more probable that the result makes sense, if that makes sense.

I've always wanted to try FATE, but I've been a bit scared off by the metacurrency. Well, I'm "trying" it in a solo RPG, and it seems fun so far! But my worry is that the results feel a bit madlibbed on my part... I'm now curious, what do you like more about that system? I haven't managed to make an opinion yet, but I do think its very fascinating in it's simplicity!

[–] Cube6392 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I like the madlibbiness of FATE, actually. It's a fun-first system that enables players to get silly, without too much concern for groundedness, which, let's be honest, is the draw of most TTRPG sessions, even when we go in thinking we don't want it to be. The +'s and -'s are also super easy for players to grok what a good roll and a bad roll look like. Overall, what I like, is that it's easy to learn and run, and helps people figure out more of what they'd like for a role-playing experience. Once people know more, we can find a system that does more of what specifically they want

[–] jursed 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah I get that, and I can agree in some way. But, it's all a matter of taste at the end! Thank goodness for all these different generic systems. 😁