GURPS Character Assistant: Dungeon Fantasy Setup

Some people like GURPS Character Sheet (GCS) for character generation, but my tool of choice is the excellent GURPS Character Assistant (GCA, link in sidebar). The unique thing about GCA is you must set up your library before creating a character (in GCS, you do not). Why do this? It allows you to better focus the application selections on what you want to see.

Want a base Dungeon Fantasy + Companion 3 setup? Just add these books to a library and save them:

You will have no 0.45 automatics and laster pistols cluttering your weapon lists, and every choice will be Dungeon Fantasy classes, powers, magic, equipment, advantages, and other items in the game.

But Steve Jackson Games also supports playing "Dungeon Fantasy within GURPS" - that is, instead of needing Dungeon Fantasy, you use the GURPS Basic Set Characters book and a bunch of supplements (PDFs on the Warehouse 23 site) as the "base game" for playing.

Why do this? Let's say you wanted to add a few GURPS expansion books to your Dungeon Fantasy game, like Low Tech or Horror. With this setup, you could have a lot of interesting books in your library and still have all of the focused Dungeon Fantasy feeling and frameworks. There are a few tricks to doing this:

The first book must be the GURPS Basic Set 4th Edition Characters book. Follow this with all the expansion books you want. Then the Dungeon Fantasy books. I will probably add "GURPS Powers" to my load and open up superpower-type abilities to my characters. There are two things you need to add at the end:

The first are three variants to remove TL 4+ gear, super science TL 4+ gear, and non-TL super science gear. These are highlighted, and one of them is poorly labeled.

If you want to use GURPS Basic Set armor (more like Dungeon Fantasy), do not use GURPS Low-Tech 4e; use the file "GURPS Low-Tech 4e - Everything NOT Armor & Protection" instead.

The final (not shown) is the world book GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Remove Unnecessary Traits. This last file aligns the traits of this library to the Dungeon Fantasy list. Why didn't I include it? I want things like "enemies" and "wings" in my game, and I do not wish the script to remove those traits. Consequently, I will have some "tech traits" on the list, but I can ignore those quickly enough.

Do I like the full GURPS setup or the Dungeon Fantasy setup?

Honestly, I love the clean Dungeon Fantasy setup, but I miss the freedom to pick and choose my books. GCS could do this better, and I can see how managing libraries feels like an unnecessary hassle. I need to check that program out and see. I can always edit in the few things I want as user edits in any case.

Both are excellent programs and highly recommended.

Dungeon Fantasy

Dungeon Fantasy is such a complete and self-contained game. When you get into GURPS Character Assistant and have it set up correctly, you do not need to ignore any option, and no high-tech skills or gear are hanging out.

You are purely in the realm of fantasy with no distractions.

This is incredible in a game like GURPS, where you can have a billion things distracting you from dinosaurs to spaceships. You pull up a weapons list, and there are no laser pistols. You look through a skill list, and skills for repairing electronics won't distract you.

It is just fantasy and only fantasy.

I can port in advantages and other things I need from outside the game, like if I want a character to have enemies or a set of wings. Everything is mostly the same; this is a focused subset of the main GURPS rules. The downside is those advantages I like to use are not in the game, so the types of fantasy I can simulate with this set default to the dungeon-crawling genre. I appreciate the game's focus, but sometimes I want to break free and do anything I can imagine.

The game also designs ready-to-go characters excellently. The guidelines and the guided character choices you are given in Gurps Character Assistant are excellent. I tried creating the same character in GURPS + GURPS Fantasy, and the templates in Dungeon Fantasy are far better. You are guaranteed the skills and abilities necessary to play your "class" and role in the party. With basic GURPS, I found myself referring back to the Dungeon Fantasy character to ensure I had everything I needed.

The 250-point characters are a lot for new characters to handle; you have quite a few abilities and spells at your disposal. I like the "Delvers to Grow" books from Gaming Ballistic that let you start as 63 or 125-point characters, but I see why 250-points were chosen for Dungeon Fantasy.

The combat in GURPS is deadly, and if you throw characters into nonstop dungeon combat encounters, you want that first experience to be kicking down doors and taking names. Yes, these characters are powerful, and designing challenges for them is more complicated, but knowing how brutal GURPS can be, I feel the higher power level is justifiable.

Also, 250 points is an excellent place to start for solo or duo play. 125-point characters feel easier to balance for a party of four. But this is GURPS; you could start at 50 to 500 points and begin the game with the experience you want. Learning the game feels easier at lower point levels since there is less to consider and juggle, but once you are experienced with the system, knock yourself out, start with 500-point epic characters, and fight dragons on the first night.

Why play this over Pathfinder 2E or an OSR game? For me, the realistic and brutal combat is spot-on and allows plenty of tactical choices and maneuver options based on weapon type and fighting style. Shields matter, and weapon selection matters. Fighting stance, readied weapons, strength, and movement speed matter. Most of all, decisions matter, and having skill and luck can make all the difference in the world.

You do not need a room full of a dozen goblins to have challenging combat; just three or four skilled goblin fighters will make for an epic and tense battle where serious consequences may come from a few unlucky rolls or clever tactical decisions.

Also, while Pathfinder 2E allows incredible character customization, nothing comes close to GURPS and the complete freedom you have in building the character of your dreams - especially if you start pulling in the options from the main GURPS rulebooks and make incredibly unique and fun characters with a wide variety of powers and abilities.

Plus, characters from other worlds and settings can play alongside. Want a retro-future robot and an ally or enemy? It works; no robot rules are needed outside the main GURPS game (and possibly a setting book that adds options and flavor).

Dungeon Fantasy is a great set to pick up, a perfect stand-alone and 100% focused version of GURPS that delivers the classic dungeon-crawling experience through the lens of GURPS.

GURPS Traveller

What a great way to play Traveller. I just picked this up, and I was blown away by all the detail and crunch in this book. I get why some people say that when they first played Traveller, the game felt flat and like there wasn't enough to hold their interest. The 2d stats and the abstract nature of the rules make the game feel a step removed from realism. I still love the 2022 Mongoose edition of Traveller, but playing in this universe with GURPS feels much more complex, sci-fi, and authentic.

This is a 3rd Edition book, but that does not matter since converting is pretty simple.

This is excellent stuff in GURPS, with a realistic combat system where you could get stabbed in the leg and lasered in the face, and melee combat matters. The universe feels dangerous. It does feel a little less like Classic Traveller and more like a "realistic Traveller simulator."

The immersion is incredible, and you go from looking at a 2d6 character card with "plus skills" and a few pieces of gear - to feeling you are in the ship's cockpit with your character. Other people have said this, and I have no idea what it is. The streets of cities feel grittier, the starports feel large and ominous, and survival on far-flung worlds feels much more risky and dire. Even the NPCs change feeling, from names with abstract jobs and roles - to real people trying to survive and make a living.

And your character has weaknesses and problems, disadvantages and hangups.

Again, it is hard to put the finger on what this is. GURPS is a much lower-level game, and you get that feeling of standing at the feet of giants, looking up. There is much more investment in building a GURPS character, and I felt this when playing Palladium. Crunchy, detailed, complex characters with a lot put into the design make for a much more low-level and exciting game than games where you roll 2d6 or 3d6, take what you get, and pick a class or roll for skills.

I am picking my skills and abilities in GURPS, or at least my template. I am not at the mercy of charts; I have exactly the character I am imagining. Granted, character creation takes a long time, but what you get out of it immerses you in the universe. I still love Traveller character creation, but when I want to build the starship captain in my head and feel like I am there, I choose GURPS any day.

Video: GURPS SuperLite Combat Example

Another great getting started video today, with a combat example using the GURPS Lite system. This is a pared-down version of the rules and is also "playing GURPS."

It is easier than B/X with all the optional rules stripped off the game, and in many ways, it is far more streamlined and internally consistent. The GURPS skill system back in the 1980s was far better than how B/X did things back then, and it still is today. I love B/X, but the only thing B/X got over those 40 years was nostalgia appeal, better presentation, and "the feels."

It brings back memories.

Back in the 1980s, as kids, we saw GURPS and the unified skill system as a massive improvement over B/X. And B/X could not decide if some skills were 1d6 versus percentage, and you could not raise the skills you wanted when you gained experience. These days in 5E and Pathfinder, skills are a d20 but are tied to classes, and improving skills feels very restricted and limited.

Each version of the game changes the skill system massively, and you just feel d20 struggles with skills and needs volumes of rules to handle the simplest things. In 3.5E, most of the game's rules are hidden in the skill descriptions. Or it swings the other way (4E) and is too simple to the point of, why bother?

It has been 40 years, and they still can't get the skill system right.

In GURPS, do you want to put all your XP into stealth? Go right ahead. You can be a "low-level" thief with the best stealth skill in the world. It is your choice. If you get discovered and can't fight, that is on you, but the freedom to do what you want and improve in any area you like destroys any version of B/X in character design and improvement.

Want your magic user to train in stealth?

Oops. Some games don't allow that. Why? Because it was easier to limit classes in Chainmail to a few standardized abilities, it made characters more like "wargame units" than "real people with a variety of experiences and backgrounds." Nobody at TSR wanted to change this because the game was popular, so they perpetuated a less-than-great skill system.

And we love it today because of nostalgia. And people today, not even alive at that time, love it because of the illusion of nostalgia they see on TV.

GURPS has aged far better since the system is based on the freedom to do what you want.

This corporate-fueled nostalgia was fueled by the OGL, all the D&D adjacent games, and Hollywood. Our eyes were opened when they took that away because of greed. The sad truth is the OGL helped 5E and One D&D more than it hurt by keeping the game relevant. Those D&D-like OSR games fed 5E's popularity and helped perpetuate the appeal of limited-focus class roles.

In 2023, the illusion is shattered.

And if you went back in time with all of today's B/X games to us in the 1980s, as kids, we would laugh and say, "What are you future people doing? There are better games than D&D to play!"

And GURPS would be one of them.

d20 Conversions

For monsters, d20 and B/X conversations are relatively easy and can be done as you play. First, you need a 3.5 or Pathfinder 1e monster manual for the stats, and you can use the ones online, such as Nethys.

The GURPS Repository also has a few good notes on this procedure, which is one way to do it.

I start by setting the ability scores, which transfer directly over from 3.5 or Pathfinder 1e. I use the creature's rolled hit points for hits. Some sources say to use STR as hits, so make a note of that fact and adjust accordingly. 

Make some of the weaker "group" monsters (goblins, kobolds, swarms, etc.) like the D&D 4E "minions" - they take any damage and get taken out of the fight. Reduce the size of encounters and replace a few minion creatures with one specialist.

For armor, use the AC and find a similar set of armor in the GURPS rules, and set the DR (0 to 8 typically).

Attacks? Find the nearest melee weapon and use that. Be careful with multiple attacks unless the creature really needs it.

Also, remember high parries slow down combat, so be careful setting those defensive values too high!

Special attacks with saves are ability score rolls, and the rules in the GURPS repository for modifiers based on DC work well. A lot of the other special abilities work as-is. Some special attacks can be replicated with standard weapons, such as a flamethrower for dragon breath (full or half strength, depending on the dragon's size).

Skills you will need to guess, 10 + HD for primary attack rolls is good, but adjust that for balance.

You do not need to be perfect! Monsters are all different. A lazy cave dragon who sleeps on piles of gold all day will not have excellent combat skills, but a war dragon will.

Video: George R.R. Martin talks about GURPS

What would a GURPS blog be without this video?

It speaks for itself.

The game is as simple or complex as you want. Omit as many rules as you want, and you are still playing GURPS. With other games, such as Pathfinder 1e or 2e, you can't do that without breaking many game systems. In 5E, you will break builds and character options when you ignore rules.

The notion GURPS is complex or math-heavy needs to be corrected. This is like saying putting together a shelf is impossible because there are too many tools in the toolbox. If all you need is a screwdriver, all you need is a screwdriver. Why are you trying to use a ratchet wrench and hammer for this job?

And the parts that seem complex, like character design, are actually the best and most feature-rich parts of the game. Again, you get a lot of tools here, but for most characters, you only need a few. Same with the rules, depending on the game you play, every rule is a tool - to be used or not.

Learning your tools is a challenge, but mastering them opens the doors to infinite possibilities of the things you can create.

Pretty soon, you aren't buying pre-built Ikea shelves to assemble but designing your own and building them out of wood.

And making them your own.

GURPS is a Great System

I just love this game. It gets unfairly dumped on, but I do not care. It is easier than mid and high-level Pathfinder 1e since the complexity of the rules at the low level is the same at the highest. The complexity curve is flat. The options are the same. You don't have all these special case "exceptions" being thrown by actions in combat, where if X happens, then Y happens, and then Z!

Attack options are about the extent of complexity here.

And if all you are doing is rolling 3d6 against a skill level, rolling damage, subtracting DR, and lowering hits to zero - you are playing GURPS.

The core mechanic is it all of the rules are optional.

The game improves as you learn and play, but "playing the full game" is that simple core 3d6 mechanic. You pick and choose the rules you want to play with. No other games do that as well as GURPS since the entire game is a "game design toolkit."

Compared to Pathfinder 2E? GURPS is easier since the mechanics are unified, and you are not worried about special case conditions and tags. I love Pathfinder 2E, but the tags - while spelling things out clearly - can get cumbersome and require reference on what they do and how they interact.

Compared to 5E? It is just as easy to play, roll dice, and compare the total to a number. Character design is complex but infinitely more rewarding than anything 5E, or its 3rd party expansions can dream up. GURPS character design alone is a game in itself, just as fun and way more expressive, and provides options you can only dream of as a 5E player.

And if you can build multiclass-optimized killing machines in 5E, you will be right at home here - and find more to love. No classes mean you are not waiting for Wizards to drop the next power-creep book; you get all the expansions and options in the base game. Nobody is telling you what you can and cannot have and what you can and can't do.

Want a rogue with magic? Build it with character points. Want your Dragonborn to start with wings, a breath weapon, and tough scales that act as armor? Buy them! Want to play a monster? Design it, buy a few of your monster powers, and buy more as you gain experience.

Worried about having to convert things in? Don't! The game has plenty of everything, and you do not need to design NPCs and enemies with the system used to design characters. Pick stats, skills, attacks, defenses, and hits that work and seem right. You could get away with using B/X hit points as your hits range and be fine. 

Red dragon? About 45 hit points (10 HD x average of a d8, 4.5), and give it excellent plate mail armor (DR 8), a flame breath (like a flamethrower), claws that do greatsword damage, and figure strength from its weight. Let's say our dragon weighs 2 tons (4000 pounds) and can lift its own weight, like pulling itself up a cliff. Lift is ST^2, so take 2 tons (4000 pounds) square root to find ST, or 63. Every other ability score is on a human range, so that is easy. If you want to avoid doing the math, find a similar-sized animal in the Basic Set Campaigns book and use those ability scores (elephant is 45 ST, a grizzly bear is ST 20). Immune to fire damage if you want to get fancy.

Using the above guidelines, you can have any B/X monster converted in seconds. The closer to a human it is (like an orc), the easier it is, and just use B/X hp = HT and guess the rest (half the hp for 5E monsters). Skills? Pick them, and higher levels are better. You could even do a skill level of 10+B/X hit dice for primary abilities and be done with it. That 10 HD red dragon? 20- for his melee and breath attack skills, adjust up or down depending on how much battle this dragon has seen. If he is a lazy dragon, lower that skill to a 14- and be done with it.

Whatever feels right is right, and no two monsters are the same.

The game is not difficult.

Even the conversions, if you choose to do them, are fun and require you to use critical thinking and game design skills.

There is a complexity here that is endlessly rewarding once you master the system, and you will find it hard to go back to anything else once it all clicks in your head.

Welcome!

 Hello there!