Author Topic: GURPS game discussion  (Read 3575 times)

Matti

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GURPS game discussion
« on: 26 July 2014, 14:26:38 »
This topic is for discussion about Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS for short. It is RPG system that can be adapted for wide variety of adventures/scenarios. If RPG setting were Stargate (or equivalent), where modern infantry squad travels to other worlds, those world could have anything from animals and cavemen to superpowered advanced aliens using technology and magic alike, this game delivers rules and everything else to make it all play and fit together. Common comparison is Lego set: GURPS Basic Set is one huge lego set of 576 pages (divided between 2 books) where game master can choose pieces he wants to use. Smaller books deliver more material. This makes detail and complexity scalable and flexible.

I've bought few PDF files, and I'm glad to say those are not copy protected. Therefore I can easily copy-paste my own rule sets and skill & equipment lists. I've encountered problems as well: I can't find statistics for certain equipment. Are there any unofficial fan made equipment lists I could use? Missing piece of equipment is Howa Type 64 battle rifle of JGSDF, and I'm sure to find more.
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guardiandashi

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #1 on: 26 July 2014, 15:21:13 »
from what I found on it it seems to be more or less a modified m16 family weapon

beachhead1985

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #2 on: 26 July 2014, 20:25:32 »
The type 64? Mid-60s-80s 7.62 (de-rated), right? Nothing official that I know of.
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guardiandashi

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #3 on: 26 July 2014, 20:44:20 »
The type 64? Mid-60s-80s 7.62 (de-rated), right? Nothing official that I know of.
from what I read its genesis was japan decided to go from a 7.62 weapon to a 5.56x45mm weapon and approached their company that already had the licenses for local manufacture of the M18 rifle, and they made essentially a m16 sort of clone except it has differences, like magazines that have inspection cutouts, that you can glance in and say its loaded to 20 or 30 rounds (also allows sand and other contaminants into clip....
also the clip well does not have some of the beveling that a m16 has to "guide the clip in" as the receiver opening is essentially the size of the clip with no spare room ...
but it can use many of the same accessories as an m16, and ammo is 100% standard interchangeable.

Tecmes

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #4 on: 31 March 2022, 15:35:10 »
I'm figuring GURPS might have some following in a BT forum, so I'll ask here...

Is anyone playing GURPS, in any form?

Been following the game for 20+ years but never gone into playing. Recently I created a couple characters and ran a test, only to realize that the wound rules seem barely playable, so I'm wondering...

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #5 on: 31 March 2022, 15:49:50 »
I play GURPS.  Character creation can be difficult, but I like the flexibility.
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Nerroth

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #6 on: 31 March 2022, 21:03:29 »
I generally collect the GURPS 4th Edition versions of the Prime Directive RPG books.

One example of how adaptable the GURPS toolkit is how the various Tech Levels can be adjusted to suit one fictional setting over another. In the case of GURPS Prime Directive, a distinct set of TLs have been laid out which account for the evolution of technology over in the Star Fleet Universe. (As a point of comparison, the Constitution-class heavy cruiser is set at GURPS PD Tech Level 12.)

pheonixstorm

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #7 on: 01 April 2022, 08:14:20 »
I've played Space and Fantasy. The rules can be both tedious and A LOT of fun to run. Not sure about the newer rules, haven't played it in awhile... The people I used to game with all moved away. About that time I switched back to AD&D 2E for a few months until spending all my time in BT trying to survive company and battalion sized battles on the weekends. Our eyes would burn from all the smoke lol Didn't help we would play for nearly 20 hours at a stretch either...

nerd

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #8 on: 01 April 2022, 18:47:19 »
I've done some GURPS Traveller 3e character generation. It's a game that really requires focus to use successfully. The specialization available can make things interesting. Here are some characters and other items on my personal blog about GURPS.
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DOC_Agren

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #9 on: 02 April 2022, 09:01:30 »
I have been playing 3rd Ed GURPS off and on since the orginal Autoduel supplement came out.   8)  I got to tell Steve Jackson, that the system failed, as I could grab any weapon from the basic book and 1 shot the autoduel cars, something that should not happen in the Car Wars world setting.

It is a great system, the sourcebooks are wonderful and many are well researched..  Just you can endup with Skill Bloat every easy.

And yes there used to be a big gurps news digest,, with fan stuff regularly done

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idea weenie

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #10 on: 02 April 2022, 11:16:35 »
Wasn't there a GURPS character optimizer program, where it would take in the character you had created, then optimize the character so it was the same results for a lower points cost?

I mainly enjoy reading these books:
GURPS: Alpha Centauri - tv tropes page
GURPS: Blue Planet
GURPS: Lensman - tv tropes page
GURPS: Mecha
GURPS: Reign of Steel - the Robots won, now what
GURPS: War against the Chtorr - tv tropes page
« Last Edit: 02 April 2022, 15:23:28 by idea weenie »

guardiandashi

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #11 on: 02 April 2022, 13:05:38 »
Our group played a bit of GURPS around the time of the transition from 3rd to 4th edition
it has some good features and bad

IMO  the greatest good feature is flexibility it can literally be used to run anything from a captain caveman (or flintstones) game all the way to an OGRE/BOLO's game (hence the Generic Universal Role Playing System) as its title.  with that said sometimes the tech levels feel a bit arbitrary, and some aspects of the game system feel kludged to me, and don't get me started on the designing stuff vs just getting "off the shelf" generic stuff (I mean go ahead and try designing a vehicle like a car/mech/dropship/jumpship) in GURPS unless you are even more attention to detail and OCD than I am (high level attention to detail but not really OCD for me) you are likely at some point to go into detail overload when you start calculating vehicle/module volumes, spaces, armoring and slopes and then trying to design a direwolf primes weapons and .... shudders

Tecmes

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #12 on: 09 April 2022, 08:45:51 »
Hey, interesting, didn't expect so many answers (though I suspected there would be a good crossover interest from BT to GURPS).

Specifically, in actual play, how did you handle wounds? It seems that using the full wound loc system, you can quickly end up with a crippled limb, with little unluck required. The limb then has high chances of being 1d6 MONTHS of no use (assuming one survives a fight with one limb missing)! And that's low-tech with fairly tame non-firearms...

Sure, you can also end up with a pierced skull, but my point is that limbs are easily hit and don't require much damage to be crippled with a solid axe slash.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #13 on: 09 April 2022, 10:26:40 »
Most of the games I play in make crippling injuries pretty rare- you're more likely to outright kill/be killed by an attack that can cripple a limb.  But most of my GURPS games have either been low combat or superhero/sci fi stuff where the characters can either shrug off major trauma or we have high-tech medical facilities that let us recover quickly.
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DOC_Agren

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #14 on: 09 April 2022, 12:58:32 »
in the modern era:  When you have firearms and modern protection you can out right die easy, loose limbs, etc...  once you get to future tech, you can survive small arms fire.

Thankfully most of the game I have played have been either high fantasy or SciFi Games.  I did play a modern Espionage game with the author of the sourcebook Thomas Kane but if we endup to gun play it would have gone sideways
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Tecmes

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #15 on: 12 April 2022, 13:17:38 »
Thankfully most of the game I have played have been either high fantasy or SciFi Games.
Precisely. How do you manage "heroic" high fantasy with hack-and-slash without ending up with hacked-arms and slashed-throats? Not using locs, just generic hp?

Sabelkatten

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #16 on: 12 April 2022, 15:18:31 »
Arguably, if you want to play heroic/cinematic with a generic system you play HERO, if you want a gritty/realistic game you play GURPS.

DOC_Agren

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #17 on: 12 April 2022, 19:49:56 »
Precisely. How do you manage "heroic" high fantasy with hack-and-slash without ending up with hacked-arms and slashed-throats? Not using locs, just generic hp?
Yes and most Low Tech weapons in humanoid on humanoid combat vrs armor you can withstand many blows. 

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GRUD

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Re: GURPS game discussion
« Reply #18 on: 13 April 2022, 00:19:53 »
I mainly enjoy reading these books:
tv tropes page
Thanks for the link!  I bought that GURPS book back when it was a New Release, because I was reading the David Gerrold "Trilogy" that became a series.   :D  Lot of cool information in there, including word the 5th book has actually been written, but is waiting to be printed.  (For some odd reason.)

I had a few other GURPs books, maybe 5 or 6, but can't remember which ones aside from the Basic book.  Even then I don't remember which "Edition" of the Basic Book I had.  :-\  Only played using the system once, about 3 or 4 sessions.  The GM converted my Star Wars (by West End Games) Wookie character, to use in a Fantasy Campaign!   ;D
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