GURPS: Star Frontiers, Part 2

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

Today, I created my doctor character, and back when my brother and I played the original Star Frontiers, this loose-knit group of the fighter pilot's friends went on to form the crew of his ship.

I know this character well, but GURPS had some disadvantages that fit her personality perfectly. She was never combat-oriented, so a pacifist who only fights in self-defense plus post-combat shakes fit her well. She is a rich girl, the local physician's daughter, who enjoys horse riding and dance music. She went to medical school because her father paid for it, and she has this listless, bored life of just hanging around and not knowing what to do with her life.

For weapons, she uses a needler with sleep drugs. She gets dual use out of that when she needs to sedate a horse and knows a little veterinary medicine. She probably works as a nurse at the local clinic and as a veterinarian assistant. She owns a hoverbike, knows nothing about fixing it, and keeps a backpack with her medical gear in case she needs to make a house call to a ranch. The pack is 50 pounds, so she can carry it in the field on her back, but it encumbers her seriously. She has a small medical kit on her webbing and a few other handy items she can throw on in a pinch.

In GURPS, you need a medical physiology for each race so she can also treat Vrusk. They probably joke she treats them like a horse, but she would laugh. This physiology skill lets her avoid penalties when doing medicine, surgery, or first aid on the Vrusk. She must learn the physiology of other races on which she wants to perform medicine. Like the mechanic and electrician skills, she needs to specialize.

I can see the 5E players rolling their eyes. Healing skill is healing skill! Why does this need to be so specific? This is slowing the game down! Why is this so complicated?

I put her on a damaged space station, and she had to treat a wounded Drasalite with a crushing injury. In that case, her lack of physiology knowledge will be a huge problem and a significant source of tension. She will need to make do or look it up on a medical computer to try and reduce the penalty. If the Drasalite survives, she will definitely want to spend her XP on getting familiar with alien physiology to ensure that it never happens again.

To a doctor, this is an essential upgrade and capability. You make the skills too rules-light, and you lose this moment. But on a more significant level, GURPS is all about these moments when you have the right skill (and equipment) at the right time or frantically trying to make due, roleplay to reduce penalties, and hope for an excellent dice roll.

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

The equipment game is essential, too, especially in sci-fi. You can't just say "healer's kit and a tool proficiency" to perform surgery to stop internal bleeding. She is a doctor, a lifesaver, and while science-fantasy characters would wave their hands and cast a glowing nano-healing spell, she would drag over a surgery kit, wash her hands, and get busy saving a life. She would set up a transfusion with another Drasalite; even though unfamiliar, she would make it work with some research and roleplay. She would stabilize the patient and get them resting in the ruins of the recovery room until a rescue ship could arrive. Her pilot/mechanic friend could repair some of the damage to bring the machines back online and stabilize the rolls with that life-support equipment.

In 5E sci-fi, a medicine skill roll and a repair skill roll are against a challenge rating. Due to the game's science-fantasy genre, there are likely 'special powers' that prevent much of this from being done, with the character's nano-healing power for combat. Wave your hand, top off hit points, and everything is okay.

In GURPS, she puts points into skills, has a healer trait that makes everything easier and has to use specific knowledge - some of which she lacks and needs to make up for. Her friend has to bring computers and medical machines online with his repair skills as time runs low. She needs to make a few skill rolls in different areas to prepare and perform her lifesaving miracles. She needs to find the right gear for the job and possibly have her friend blow open a storage locker. She needs to roleplay, find someone for a blood transfusion, and sit them still next to the patient.

That unique collection of skills and talents is her character class, powers, and abilities.

Very few people will remember that 5E moment since it is either 'cast a spell' or so simplified nobody would care. Very few moments in rules-light games are worth remembering, typically only boss fights, roleplay, or silly mistakes.

In GURPS, that 'saving a life' fight - almost like a mini-game - feels like a combat where life and death hang in the balance. That moment will be remembered for years. Any moment in a more robust game can become an epic battle against the odds.

And saving that life will also prove why she exists.

GURPS: Star Frontiers, Part 1

To learn a system, create some of your favorite characters using GURPS. Granted, this is not as easy being new to the system; there are a million skills to sort through, and just sorting through what books you will use is a considerable challenge.

Even if all you start with are the core books - that is fine!

GURPS is a system with a fractal level of depth; whenever you think you know all you need to know, there is another level to dive into and explore. And understanding that level will make you appreciate everything that came before even more.

Before we get started, here is my library definition as per GCA. I am calling this "Space Plus - TL 10," and there are a few significant changes to the lore assumed by this collection. Since GURPS has so many excellent books, it would be silly to ignore some of the possibilities for expanding the story and campaign.

The first is limiting campaign TL to 10. When you get to blasters at TL 11 in GURPS, a lot of the personal protective gear becomes worthless with that (5) armor divisor and burn damage, and the TL 11 armor becomes immune to many guns. TL 10 still has a good mix of lasers and projectile weapons, capturing that sort of early-1980s sci-fi feeling where projectile weapons are still viable, and high-tech weapons aren't one-shot deadly. TL 10 still has low armor divisors (2 and 3 mainly), and there is a good armor game here with gear.

The next major change is the addition of the Bio-Tech and Psionics books. I am assuming the Frontier is discovering massive 'relic ships' or some other precursor race's million-year-old space travel technology and these will become a focal point of the campaign. This also takes the pressure off Volturnus being the end-all of the campaign and opens up space mysteries to every part of the galaxy. With the discovery of these city ships and ruins, the citizens of the Frontier are finding substances that mutate them or parts of the population (Bio-Tech), and also these ships are unlocking powers of the mind (Psionics). 

I envision parts of the population of some worlds changing into new forms, adopting psi-powers, skin color changes, and other mutations that create new variant species of the major races. A crashed ship in an ocean may have slowly mutated parts of the population slowly until everyone knew something was happening. There may be mutated animal races and others with an expanded selection of races and mutations.

This also allows limited super-science and TL 11+ items to enter the game, but I am limiting (for now) everything in the program to TL 10 or lower just to reduce choices during character creation. I can always modify my library later, but for more, TL 10 is the limit for character creation, and TL 11+ items (and starship equipment) are treasures and unique finds.

TL 11+ space treasures, especially personal equipment, and starship systems, are very cool. A starship captain may find a piece of higher-tech starship equipment and that would be a one-of-a-kind find they can install into their ship. This is the "treasure and magic item" game in traditional fantasy gaming in a sci-fi sense, and keeping the general TL lower increases the amount of cool stuff from TL 11-15 characters can find (and fight over).

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

The character I created is your pilot/mechanic-style archetype. In Star Frontiers, they don't let you be a pilot from character creations (with Knight Hawks) since you need technician 6 and computer 2, along with computer 6 if you want astrogation. In the original game, starship skills are 'high-level play', and beginning characters have no hope of having their own ship or being able to fly it.

My guy is a primary 150-point character (-50 in disadvantages/perks) and uses the astronaut template out of GURPS Space. When converting, watch out for the generalist mindset other games put you in. You will want to make your character just as competent as they are in the rules-light game, and I found myself buying dozens of technical, piloting, and other skills to make him able to do the things he was able to in the old game.

For a starting 150-point character, your character will be 100% better if you design for a very narrow set of specialties - just the core things you need the character to do (not want). My guy needed to be able to fly a starfighter or other high-performance craft in standard space (not hyperspace), fly between planets, fix his starfighter (but not the reactor, computers, or other specialty systems), and shoot a laser pistol. His background hobbies were camping, driving his truck to his favorite para-glider spots, and doing extreme sports with his buddies.

That's it. he can't fix radios, computers, shields, sensors, reactors, fuel cells, robots, or anything else (without a related skill and penalty). He could in the original game, but he is a specialist here and that narrow range of skills helps better define him as a character. If he needs a person to repair (or program) computers he will need to learn a new skill or (better yet) hire someone else to do that. He could replace a star-fighter reactor or other system but not repair it.

He has a military rank of one, and I assume he is one of the thousands of reserve fighter pilots in training for his planet's militia. He holds down a regular job and then reports for training every few weeks to train, study space battles, do shipboard drills and operations, clean and do maintenance chores, fly a starfighter older than he is, study repair manuals, and review training afterward. Otherwise, he is a mechanic who fixes ATVs and shuttles, owns a piece of junk ATV himself, and has an apartment in a nowhere town to slum in.

This is where you realize a fine-grained skill system that forces your character into specialty areas helps roleplaying. If he wants to be the captain of his own starship, he will need to find a crew to cover all these areas. He will need specialists to cover systems he can't repair. He needs a navigator, sensor person, computer specialist, doctor, science crew that can operate sensors, and other crewmembers. He will not be able to 'do it all' or 'cover any station' like sci-fi games based on 5E or Starfinder typically assume since 'they want to skip to the fun.'

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

But let's think about the future. He wants to be a starship captain someday. He wants to own his own ship. Maybe he wants to complete his military service term and move on (the timing of the end of this should be roleplaying and decided between GM and player). He could transfer to the Scout Service and deal with diplomats, scientists, and explorers. He could stay in the militia and be given command of a fast patrol ship. He could stay in reserves and work towards becoming a private merchant or transfer to the merchant marine reserve forces and haul cargo for the military when loads come up.

Yes, you can do all that in a rules-light system, but you need a profound experience in sci-fi to even come up with it. With a deeper skill system that forces specialization, these questions come naturally as a part of character design and improvement.

But there are a billion ways to go. That feeling overwhelms some; they need a class and level system as rails. I love being thrust into the stars and asking, "What is next?"

How I answer that question and what the rules allow me to do reflects my choices and actions.

And he will need to improve his skills too. He will need better personal combat skills. He can defend himself now, but he has a lot of room to specialize and improve in the narrow combat areas he prefers to fight with. He needs hyper-space pilot skills, better gunnery, sensor skills, and some more tricky flying advantages. He will need leadership skills and some skills used to manage money. he needs contacts, and skills needed to deal with planetary governments and bureaucracies, which will involve contracts and negotiation. 

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

But those social spacer skills and dealing with business and 'red tape in space' are another part that rules-light games ignore. This is tremendous flavor and color, and having a specialist legal and customs crewmember will allow him to breeze through customs, docking, legal, and taxes with a breeze. Other captains will be caught up in red tape and able to get in, deliver cargo, load up the next haul, and get out, while other captains sit in a processing queue for weeks and wait for customs to get to them.

Today's rules-light sci-fi gives you a space goblin, puts a laser pistol in your hand, and tells you to 'kill it for some fun' and 'loot credits out of its pockets for a reward.'

Today's sci-fi games miss the point of sci-fi so hard the pain is unbearable. If I want to think, reflect on the human condition, discover the unknown, and feel that deep sense of wonder - I will play sci-fi. I will play fantasy if I want to stab things to death for a few pieces of gold.

My character specialization, dealing with red tape and everything he doesn't know, increases the sense of wonder and amazement when encountering the unknown. He needs to deal with other people if he wants to fly a starship and hire a team of experts. There are the mysteries of the body (Bio-Tech) and the mind (Psionics) to deal with and understand. The universe has mysteries (the ancients and TL 11+ gear) to unravel. And there are terrestrial concerns with races getting along, governments, space pirates, criminals, and other groups to deal with while trying to find your place in the stars.

Rolling 3d6 for six ability scores, picking a class, rolling hit points, writing down special abilities, getting a base attack bonus, and holding a 1d6 damage laser pistol gives me nothing to grab hold of and engage me for science fiction. Classes and preset progression paths hold me back and limit my imagination. Characters that can 'do everything' make me feel like I should be 'doing nothing.'

The more limits I must overcome, the sweeter the victory when I finally reach that goal.

And then there will be the next star to visit...

YouTube...

I am careful about watching YouTube and forming opinions.

Many of the content creators there use GURPS like they use any other "thing they dump on for clicks." If you follow a hobby, musician, music genre, video games, or any other topic - you know the "easy to dump on subjects."

It is unfortunate to wade into an environment like that. They are so negative, some even saying, "Roleplaying is impossible in GURPS."

Well? It is impossible to roleplay in 5E, too.

Did you feel angry? That is money to people who say things like that. I apologize, but it was to make a point. Content creators turn into click-hungry cannibals chasing negativity and anger for a few pennies a view.

There are far too many anger channels, and the pressures to go negative are too high.

I get angry and express frustration; I am human. I express it, but I am not selling hate and anger nor posting "dump videos." I have games that could do better or are crafted to be overly consumerist and wasteful. Some games just don't do it for me. I point out when a game's design pushes you subconsciously in a direction you may not expect.

Sometimes, 5E is the square peg in the round hole, and some genres struggle. Sci-fi and modern, for instance. People are such fans you can't even express otherwise; if it is the best game, then it is best at everything.

GURPS Character Sheet (GCS)

I am glad I learned about GURPS Character Sheet (GCS), the community-supported and free alternative to GURPS Character Assistant (GCA). Before I go any further, consider becoming a backer of GCS if you love and use it! Even a dollar a month helps, and it helps the developer gauge interest and develop new features.

Where GCA forces you to create subsets of books to play with (and you sometimes end up with conflicts), GCS is designed from the perspective that every book is valid simultaneously. You start with a character sheet and apply templates and other selections to that sheet, and it copies them over.

GCA's books and scripts will delete unneeded and unused options; you can put a custom library rule that limits gear to a particular tech level or below.

GCA with templates guides you through selections one at a time. With GCS, it applies everything to your sheet, and you delete the ones you don't want (and combine duplicates). So, where GCA is a bit more user-friendly and guided, GCS makes up for it by allowing you to pull in anything from any GURPS book in your library.

GCA is more new-user-friendly and oriented to picking a subset of books. GCA also gives you an excellent loadout manager and factors shields in a little easier than GCS. If you are the type who manages your weight carefully and drops that backpack to be unencumbered during a fight, GCA does that well.

GCS is for power users and allows you to use your entire library to design characters. This feature is worth a lot if your campaigns extend across multiple books and you pull in random things from any book in your GURPS library.

Both are great programs and currently, GCA feels like it has slightly better support of Traveller: Interstellar Wars than GCS - but you can't go wrong with either. GCA is also stricter on character validation and auditing, ensuring the templates' rules are followed for every selection and point value. GCS feels much looser; you are fine if your points add up.

It took me a while to get used to GCS and how you delete unwanted template options and combine duplicate choices. They don't happen that often, but knowing how to sort through and filter your character to a legal design is a good skill. Also, deleting things on your sheet (not the libraries!) feels strange at first, like how you can go into 'edit mode' and delete the bite from your natural attacks if you never use biting in melee.

With GCS, you enter this "search, apply, delete, combine, and add" mode, which becomes your character editing workflow. GCA uses a lot of dialogs to guide choices, and you pick A, then B, then C, then D, until you finish - sometimes more than a dozen dialogs deep. It ensures all choices are made, but you can't go back into a dialog if you make a mistake.

Both are great, get constant updates, and whichever you choose is your personal preference.

The More I Play 5E...

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

...the more I like GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy.

I see these preset class designs going from level one to twenty, and I constantly tell myself, "I can do better than this!"  The Wizards team has been trying design after 20+ years, over six or seven versions (3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4 Essentials, 5, Tasha's, and One D&D) - plus two Pathfinder editions - and neither company can get it right. And here we are, consumers, waiting for the 2024 books (which they said will last until 2027 anyway). It comes out in a new or 'stealth edition' every three years.

My second thought is, "Every story of every character is different and special; why is everything so predetermined?" Why are our games so strictly railroaded in an age of uniqueness and individuality? The only way people break the mold is to multiclass, and then again, the few exploits and one-level-dips there are well-known and not different from the preset build paths we already have.

GURPS 4 will be 20 years old in 2024. GURPS itself will be 40 years old in 2025. GURPS does not need a new edition anytime soon; it is as close to a perfect game as possible. Is it perfect without exploits? Not really, and no game will ever be. The exploits and cheese are known in GURPS; use if you want, forbid if balance is enforced. No game will ever be without them, but in GURPS, you can choose not to use them (or limit how much X you can buy). In 5E, they happen due to class combos, and you can't escape them.

5E has a problem with 'not supporting the pillars of play' that only versions like Level Up Advanced 5E or Shadowdark are written to support. To get the classic D&D experience, you must play a game other than D&D or an OSR game. Level Up supports social and exploration play - and the game needs to write even more rules to support these activities. Many 5E games feel like they were written with blinders on; they support X, Y, and Z activities in the rules, but not A, B, and C, which this other version of 5E does better.

The number of rules they need to write just to 'support something in the rules' bloats the game to thousands of pages across dozens of books. Look at Pathfinder 1e for an example of a complete D&D game in the Wizards' design theory. Two shelves worth of books just to play a fantasy game. Granted, you can play with a fraction of those, but it is typically a thousand-page minimum for the core three books.

GURPS and pillars of play?

There are a million of them, all built into the skill system.

The pillars can be as broad or as focused as you would like and hone in on specific styles of play and roleplaying. Want to just focus on a traveling theater troupe? You can have stagehands, costume creators, make-up people, actors, singers, musicians, singers, playwriters, comedians, directors, band conductors, lighting people, security, concessions, money people, set designers, magicians, barkers and buskers, leading men and ladies, animal trainers, freight crew, shippers, painters, bards, and so many other specialty skilled people with great character builds the mind spins.

5E's skills and nonsensical 'tool proficiencies' can't even hope to cover that one activity in the depth it would take to make it enjoyable. And if 5E ever did, it would be a sixty to eighty-dollar book of more rules if it ever gets made on Kickstarter.

I can do that entire theater campaign out of the box with Dungeon Fantasy, with hundreds of fewer pages of rules, no level system, characters who organically progress, and character builds that I have complete control over.

A wilderness survival campaign? It's the same story: a new book is needed 5E, whereas GURPS does it out of the box. A political and social diplomacy and spy-intrigue game? I need to buy a 5E book for that (linked to one version of the game), and GURPS handles it with the basic set. A pirate-themed game? Same again. Steve Jackson Games sells PDFs covering these topics in-depth, but you could create any game without them and still have fun.

5E is a consumerist game designed to sell many books with filler. As a 'green game,' 5E fails horribly. Even one-book OSR games are far less wasteful, doing more with less. Many games for a lot with a little, and GURPS is one. But the 'green argument' highlights one thing: inefficient design requires much more 'brain work' and 'page count' to do the same thing a universal system was designed to do quickly and simply.

System lock-in is 5E's fatal flaw, which is the source of their design bloat. They must keep the best 'one to twenty builds' and 'subclasses' locked up in paid-for books and give one or two out per expansion or adventure. You end up with shelves full of filler-packed books, each taking energy to ship, toxic inks to print, and forests to cut down for the paper. Environmental concerns aside, that consumerist model sucks in the amount of rules and books you need to do the simplest things.

And not many of those classes, subclasses, and builds are fun - 10% at best. I am a better 'professional game designer' than the writers that Wizards hires, and everyone can be. This is how the hobby works; everyone is a game designer and should be.

My most recent 5E experience started strong; I was interested in the characters, the builds seemed like what I wanted, and then when I started to progress...

...and the builds were not what I wanted or expected. So what this power and that, I really wanted my bard to get a power that matched the story and did this other thing. This character is stuck doing this one thing. This other one is forever a tank. This one, the class doesn't fit, but it was the best I had.

The whole party seemed like a collection of compromises and lost potential, and the more I leveled, the worse it got. One character was on a 'quest to discover powers', and I constantly had to shoehorn in 'this next class power is actually a part of their story' - instead of giving them the power they invented in the story. The character came up with very cool and imaginative stuff, and the book said, 'No, you don't."

Why am I wasting my time with 5E when I have a game where I can give people the powers and abilities the story says they should have?

That game is GURPS.

At least for me.