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View Full Version : New GURPS ( 4e ) player seeking advice



ra88
2012-01-05, 09:52 PM
Hi everyone,

I have hard of the good things about Gurps and have ordered the Basic set ( characters and campians ) and bought the Gurps for dummies ( whoch I plown theough in three days ) . I am eager to play both as a GM and player after a get the basics of the rules ( by playing it by myself ) are then any suggestions I should know about berfore diving into this system?

dobu
2012-01-06, 04:49 AM
Hey!

I've started a GURPS campaign a month ago, so my piece of advice:

Don't let the options overwhelm you. Sure, you can build almost everything you can think of with thousands of optional rules, but for the first time you should keep it simple. If you're playing some fantasy game you could get GURPS Fantasy and look up the templates. It's really useful to have a starting point instead of trying to build your charakter from scratch.

The rules look more complicated than they really are. The wording is pretty precise and doesn't let much space for interpretation. On the one hand this is good, but on the other hand the wording can be difficult to understand. Most of the stuff doesn't show up in game anyway (especially if you're playing for the first time).

When building a charakter don't forget about skills! I have a player in my campaign that kind of forgot about skills. He was playing DnD before and wasn't used to the importance of skills. He spent almost all his points in advantages. While advantages are good, you NEED skills! Again, look up some pre-made templates and look how it's done there.

The GCA (Gurps charakter assistant) is a good tool. Sure, it has its flaws (I look at you, starting wealth!) but it's a thousand times better than heroforge or pcgen.

And what I found out the hard way: The GURPS writers usually know what they write about. The rules make sense and you shouldn't start to change around the rules too much at first. If you're more expirienced you can start to adjust some rules and alter them, but in the beginning stick to the rules from the book. :)

And the most important advice: Have fun and happy gaming!

warmachine
2012-01-06, 09:56 AM
It's a toolkit system with lots and lots of options. Options are optional. Pick and choose what you want to achieve the style you want. Character points are for PC creation, not NPCs. Create a cheat sheet of traits for the campaign so the players know what's applicable. Templates can tell players what archetypes are expected to be useful. GURPS still has a few bugs. Don't let min-maxers exploit them. Use Talents. GURPS has rules for everything but nothing will break if you forget some and improvise. Go to the SJGames forum.

ra88
2012-01-06, 03:36 PM
Yes I have heard of its create anything abilities.

Gahrer
2012-01-09, 07:14 AM
Allow the PC:s to mix and match enhancements and limitations on their advantages and disadvantages, but keep a close eye on it and be prepared to say no. Some limitations and enhancements are simply way too powerfull in some situations.

ra88
2012-01-09, 09:55 AM
Do the limitations give them points back or reduce the costs of the advantages?

Gahrer
2012-01-09, 09:58 AM
Limitations make things worth less points:
Limitations on advantages reduce their cost.
Limitations on disadvantages make them less... well disadvantageous so they are worth less points too.

ra88
2012-01-09, 10:11 AM
Ah, ok so if you what a milder form of a phobia you would put limitions on it, right?

vegetalss4
2012-01-09, 11:59 AM
Ah, ok so if you what a milder form of a phobia you would put limitions on it, right?

Not so often for that specific disadvantage.
For Phobia you would be more likely to change the control number and/or pick a version which applied to less common situations.
An example of a limitation on a disadvantage, could be taking mitigator on Bad Sight to represent that one has a pair of glasses which removes the penalties from Bad Sight when worn.

Necroticplague
2012-01-09, 01:01 PM
Ah, ok so if you what a milder form of a phobia you would put limitions on it, right?

Nah, the beggining of the Disadvantage section already has rules for making "milder" versions of any mental disadvantage that requires you to roll against it.

LibraryOgre
2012-01-09, 03:12 PM
As with Rifts, one of the big requirements of a GURPS GM is the ability to say "no"... or being willing to put up with some truly broken ideas.

Autolykos
2012-01-09, 04:11 PM
I second the advice to keep a close look on the characters before you start (especially advantages/disadvantages). Just because it's in the book doesn't mean they can have it. Make sure your players know the premise of the game (setting and degree of realism) and ban anything that doesn't fit. It is possible to build absolutely anything as a character (robots, spaceships and even missiles can be designed with character points). You should also veto advantages and disadvantages when they have broken synergies or negate each other. Example (http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0440.html)

ra88
2012-01-10, 10:05 PM
The books arrived! And in fantastic condition! Designing my first character already!

Knaight
2012-01-11, 12:00 AM
Read GURPS Lite. You can play with just that, and it has absolutely no capacity to be overwhelming.

fusilier
2012-01-11, 02:58 AM
I like to put together a few "cheat sheets" tailored to the specific setting I'm running.

I typically have a wounding/healing cheat sheet: giving a condensed version of when someone needs to roll vs HT, to prevent from passing out, when move is halved, etc. Also covers first-aid, healing (with or without an attending doctor), crippling injuries, etc, keeping in mind the particular Tech Level.

I'll also make some notes of weapon/combat rules relevant to game (how long it takes to reload a tommy gun, or how likely a sword is to break). You have to pick and choose which rules you are going to apply -- some of them aren't applicable, others are optional (and *you* as GM get to choose).

(NB: I provide page numbers on my cheat sheets, so I can quickly check up more detail)

Characters:
I have some players who think a limit of 40 points worth of disadvantages, means that every single character they make *must* have 40 points of disadvantages -- regardless of how often I tell them otherwise. ;-) Min-maxing doesn't work in GURPS. You have to reject ads/disads that just won't work with the party. Remember, it's not a disadvantage if it never occurs -- I've sometimes rejected disadvantages, just because as GM I didn't want to have to keep bringing the disadvantage up. Right now, somebody just designed a character for my campaign who is essentially a bi-polar rockstar (medieval bard). I've warned him that this character has some serious flaws, and honestly, he's probably going to end up in jail in the first session.

My approach is to think of the kind of character I want to create, his backstory, his skills, his faults, and his virtues. Then try to build something within the constraints I am given. As GM, if I really like somebody's character, and trust their roleplaying ability, I'll allow them to fudge the numbers a little. But if somebody is min-maxing, I get very strict on the limitations I've put in place.

Finally:
Make sure you read the descriptions of skills, advantages, and disadvantages! Sometimes their names will be misleading --> there's typically a logic behind the name, and they did come up with a lot of skills, ads/disads, that need names, but it can still be misleading. My favorite character building tool is GCS (Gurps Character Sheet), it doesn't do all the calculations for you, but it provides page references for everything!! Makes gaming so much easier.

Good luck.

dobu
2012-01-11, 07:57 AM
My favorite character building tool is GCS (Gurps Character Sheet), it doesn't do all the calculations for you, but it provides page references for everything!! Makes gaming so much easier.


I've lookd into GCS, but sadly I can't find many data-files for it. :(

ra88
2012-01-11, 04:39 PM
Made this character the night the books showed up,still need to fill in history, etc he's basicly an adventurer wannabe:

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=360085

fusilier
2012-01-11, 06:16 PM
I've lookd into GCS, but sadly I can't find many data-files for it. :(

I still use the 3rd edition version of GCS, and I haven't found the need to download data-files for it. Just about everything came with the program. The only exception being TL4+ weapons (Low-Tech weapons are very complete). It's pretty easy to add those, which is another nice think about GCS.

Not so sure about the new version of GCS, but a quick glance would suggest that most of the same information is present.

kyoryu
2012-01-11, 11:06 PM
As with Rifts, one of the big requirements of a GURPS GM is the ability to say "no"... or being willing to put up with some truly broken ideas.

Yes. The attitude of "everything in the books is de facto allowed" is campaign suicide in GURPS.

Captain Six
2012-01-11, 11:49 PM
The first thing I discovered when making my first GURPS characters (coming straight from D&D) was that you need to design them in a completely different mindset. D&D's rules hold you back during character creation, GURPS does not. A common goal for me is steal the dragon's treasure, save the world, woo the princess and become heir to the kingdom and all that hero jazz.

My first few GURPS characters literally consisted of me putting a few points into sword skills and dumping the rest into Wealth, Rank, Status and a few gorgeous Ally chicks (100% occurrence). I stared at my sheet for a while, confused. I had already won, there was no point in the adventure.

The moral of my cautionary tale is that when you make characters focus hard on where you want them to start, not what you want them to be.