d20 GURPS?

[Dr. Roboto]

So I'm planning on running a cyberpunk game for my players, all new to RPGs. I was planning on d20 Modern, but the more I look at GURPS, the more I like it, especially the point buy system and the subsequent more flexible cybernetics system. However, I love me some d20, and for some reason, find it difficult to roll three dice at once for a success roll. Would a house rule replacing the 3d6 success roll with 1d20 unbalance the game too much, even if I used it for all PCs and NPCs?

Some additional questions:

-Psionics in cyberpunk? Yes? No? Why?

-I'm afraid my players will just treat the game like a CRPG, without using creativity or roleplaying. How can I let/force them to use their heads for more than headbutting?

-Any feedback on GURPS v. d20 Modern in general would be helpful.

[Jude_H]

I'm not a huge fan of either system, so I'm going to avoid those two questions.

-Psionics in cyberpunk? Yes? No? Why?
Generally, I'd avoid it unless they're somehow wound into the same concept (cybernetic implants that act as some sort of universal tech interface or something). If there are multiple unrelated gobs of weirdness, a game's concept can just get too muddled to get into.

-I'm afraid my players will just treat the game like a CRPG, without using creativity or roleplaying. How can I let/force them to use their heads for more than headbutting?Sticking to GURPS or d20, moral dilemmas and conflicting motives are two easy ways to inject some RP.

[Prime32]

Read this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/bellCurveRolls.htm)... in reverse.

[The Big Dice]

Just go with GURPS. You get used to, and in fact grow attached to, the ability 3 dice has to let you play the odds. And because you'll be using the same dice type for damage, it's no great strain to use those 3D6.

As for Psiberpunk, it's no bigger a stretch than a Mayan calendar causing modern Western fantasy archetypes to appear at an arbitrary point in time. Come up with a backstory for it and be consistent with how you apply the idea.

[Gahrer]

I would not recommend switching from 3d6 to 1d20 in GURPS:
GURPS balance is heavily dependent on it's bell curve. For example: Getting a score from 10 to 14 means a huge increase to your chances to succeeding (10 means 50% to get equal or below and 14 means 90.7% to get equal or below, an increase of 40.7 percent units) and is thus very expensive/hard to get in most cases.
On a d20 all values are equally likely to come up. This means that increasing from a 10 (50% to get equal or below) to a 14 (70% to get equal or below) nets you only half the gain from your points (an increase in success odds of 20 percent units).

To sum it up: GURPS places great importance on very small numerical alterations (+/- 1 or 2 in many cases) on skilllevels/attribute levels etc because they have a huge impact on "average" levels (8-12). If you want to switch to a d20 you may have to tweak a lot of variables (such as the penalty for subsequent parries in melee, bonuses from smartgun systems and so on).

Edit: Spelling

[Comet]

The D20 part has been touched on, so I'll just elaborate on the cyberpunk and psionics thing.

I'd say no, if you're going for actual cyberpunk and not just near-future sci-fi. Cyberpunk has a big thing going about transhumanism, specifically through man/machine interfaces. Adding psychic phenomena to that seems... counterintuitive, thematically, since psionics are also very much about the notion of humanity becoming something new.

They can be combined, and even combined well since they share the same motivation, but it wouldn't cyberpunk anymore, I feel, but something new.

For some examples about cyberpunk mixing with psionics, System Shock 2 comes to mind. Not strictly cyberpunk, but the first game was much more so and the sequel shares the same universe so the elements are there.
The Sprawl Trilogy, which is pretty much the original cyberpunk story that started it all, also had a twist at the end that implied that the universe is somewhat more complicated than what it appeared on the surface, but that discovery was also made through machinery and data constructs so it all still fits in.

So, sure, go for it if you think the players will have fun with it. Just note that it really won't be 'pure' cyberpunk anymore, if you care about that sort of thing.

[Tael]

Yeah, it's not a good idea to change 3d6 to 1d20. Why would you even want to anyway?

[Yuki Akuma]

Yeah, it's not a good idea to change 3d6 to 1d20. Why would you even want to anyway?

Fear of change?

[Dr. Roboto]

Yeah, it's not a good idea to change 3d6 to 1d20. Why would you even want to anyway?

I like the d20, for whatever reason. I also thought that having one die for success rolls would scare off less new players, but now that I think about it, I think multiple d6 (a la Yahtzee, Risk) would be less intimidating. And yes, part of the reason is fear of change.:smallwink:

So I'm gonna stick with 3d6, thank you all for the advice.

I'll keep the psionics out of the cyberpunk, as well.

One other question; I haven't gone very in-depth into the GURPS rules yet, but how does it handle cybernetics? As far as I could tell, they're just standard Advantages with some weakness- Electrical or Mechanical, I think?

[Lord Vampyre]

To expand upon the D20 vs 3D6 discussion, you have to consider the probability of x event occurring. Generally, with the 3D6 system a critical success occurs on a 3 or 4, this is roughly a probability of 0.02 or a 2 percent chance. If you change this to only occurring on a natural 1 on the roll of a D20 you now have the chance of a critical success occurring 5% of the time, effectively doubling the player's chance of critical successes and failures.

One more point to consider, the point spread, a 3D6 has a range of 3-18. Since players know that they will recieve an auto fail on a roll of a 17 or 18, they generally only increase these skills upto 16 (there are reasons to increase beyond this, but we don't need to go into that at the moment). This means that by going from a 3D6 system where they would only fail on a 17 or 18, they now have to buy their skills up three more points just to close the gap, and they still have a 5% failure rate vs the 2% they had before. If they choose not to close the gap, they instead have a 20% failure vs the 2% they had originally.

Now, I am not saying that using a D20 in place of the 3D6 system is a bad thing, you just need to understand what will happen to the mechanics if you do. Now, I've actually contemplated this wanting a slightly more random environment for my games, I just haven't tried it yet.

[Hades]

One other question; I haven't gone very in-depth into the GURPS rules yet, but how does it handle cybernetics? As far as I could tell, they're just standard Advantages with some weakness- Electrical or Mechanical, I think?

That way works perfectly fine, Ultra-Tech (if you have it) has a chapter of cybernetics statted up both as equipment and as advantages, and Bio-Tech has a few examples as well. It's probably best to choose one approach (cyber as equipment or cyber as Advantages) to prevent player confusion. Check out the Body Modifications part in the basic set (p. 293+), if you haven't already.