Character First? Or Company First?

There are many great versions of 5E, but my two favorites are Level Up Advanced 5E and Tales of the Valiant. Some would throw in 2014 D&D and possibly 2024. Still, Wizards is a terrible company (primarily for the OGL, private security incident, how they treat the original authors and Christmas firings), so they are no longer part of my 5E discussions. I don't like the constant negativity around them; it becomes a drama chase instead of a game of imagination.

When you talk 5E, it mostly comes down to what "flavor" of a class a company gives you. The ToV fighter is better because... The LUA5E fighter is the best because... You can't beat this version's...

Etcetera.

With any version of 5E, to judge if I like a game, I need to put that company's ideas before my own idea of my character. My character will "morph" to fit someone else's idea of a bard, wizard, fighter, ranger, or whatever. This happened to us in 4E, and instead of our characters being themselves with their own identities, powers, and class flavor - it was the company's ideas, not mine.

Every time, every version of 5E, it is the same.

My fighter isn't "my" fighter, but Kobold Press' fighter.

My bard isn't "my" bard; it is Wizards of the Coast's bard.

My druid isn't "my" druid; it is EN World's druid.

While game designers can develop something cool, their ideas come before mine. As a result, my character becomes their character, not mine.

Sure, they have options and ways to customize a character, but ultimately, more is needed. A few hundred or thousand dollars in third-party books doesn't help; it keeps putting a band-aid on the problem. Of all the 5E clones, Level Up is my favorite because it appeals to the old-school play that I love.

It does not fix the issue of my fighter being "some company's" fighter rather than mine. The original idea of my fighter, all the cool character concepts, ideas for how he fights, and the power he could have been subsumed to "my version of choice."

My character isn't mine anymore. He or she may have a personality I can decide, but beyond that, all choice stops. It is a company's idea of my character. As they level, it goes from "my dreams of how things work" to "the level chart's dictates of what the company gives you."

The mirage of infinite possibilities fades away, and we are stuck with the powers they choose to give us.

But for imagining a character, placing them in a world, and allowing them to go in any direction the story takes them? Give me GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy any day. The rules don't force me to be a killer. I can go from a wizard to a fighter with magic in my progression. I don't need the artificial constructs of "class" or "multi-classing." I can develop pure skills and social character. If I want a hero with "superpower-like" abilities, like a cleric with a "heal" superpower-like non-spell magic ability that costs fatigue, I can design the power myself. If I want a realism-based character, the rules are there.

Once you leave the "cave" of classes and subsume your identity to corporate flavors of hero concepts, your eyes open, and you see roleplaying and the world in an entirely new light.

You can be anything.

Your fighter doesn't need to be a corporate-approved "flavor" - he or she can be anything you imagine.

It's more than what a version or edition gives you.

Conversions: Don't Worry About Them

Part of why I have a tough time with conversions is I am too much of a perfectionist, and it gets in my way all the time. The best advice when creating a conversion is "Just Play."

Just play. Don't convert a thing. Just create characters and "say where you are and what is happening." You don't need any notes, a sourcebook, a list of things converted over for the game, or anything else. You are playing:

• GURPS Pathfinder
• GURPS Star Frontiers
• GURPS BattleTech
• or GURPS Whatever...

Sitting down and beginning play will prove to be the most effective "conversion" you can ever have.

Do you need an extra "thing" to simulate a part of the game? Like the BattleTech "mech combat" system? You have two options:

• Play the BattleTech game as-is and covert GURPS Skills to BattleTech skill levels
• Blay the BattleTech game with GURPS as the skill-roll engine.

Either way, once you "hit" a target, use the BattleTech hit location, damage, armor, and internal damage systems - along with movement, heat, and all the other wargame parts. Same with Star Frontiers and the Knight Hawks ship combat system, play it as-is and convert GURPS skills to KH skill levels, or just use GURPS for the skill roll engine and leave everything else as-is. Once you figure out the relative maximum skill levels in each game, a 12- in GURPS is a Level 1 skill, and it goes up by two points for every SF level to a maximum of 24- in GURPS.

And the range table stays the same in all games, just to keep things simple. One "yard" in GURPS is one "hex" in either BattleTech or Star Frontiers, and we use the regular skill rolls without these silly +30 Acc modifiers and -30 range modifiers. The ships and mechs have the "targeting stuff" to keep the to-hits on par with normal GURPS combat ranges; it is just the hexes are bigger.

It works since if you have a 3-foot battle mat with one-inch hexes across the map, the long way is 36 or a -8 to hit, and the short way (24 hexes) is a -7. Standard gunnery skill rolls are used, and the combat scale is normalized with the Basic Game rules.

Still, everything that happens "after a hit is determined" returns to the original rules. Don't try to turn all these into GURPS weapons with damage and penetration numbers—it isn't worth it.

But this is why I wrestle with many conversions: I want them to be perfect. They never will be. Even the original game or setting itself isn't perfect! You can have 1 million interpretations of what one game, movie, or setting is "all about," and that ideal you put up there on that pedestal will never be reachable.

I have had times I suspect I never wanted it to be.

When converting, you can fall into the mental trap of trying to live up to that "perfect image of the game" in your head but never being able to achieve it. It is always better to just "start playing," and I guarantee you that 99% of the work you would have put in will never be needed for your game because it will go off on some tangent, and you will never need a complete list of everything converted into the rules.

If something appears, like a BattleTech machine gun or a Star Frontiers gyro-jet pistol, can you just pull something similar from GURPS and say, "This is that," and move on?

99% of the time, you can.

And you don't need to convert a thing.

It's Just Roll 3d6

Some people play GURPS by just "rolling 3d6." For example, in a d20 game where the group does not care about the rules, they ignore most of them and "just roll a d20." Character creation only exists to generate skill and ability levels, and 90% of the rules are ignored to just "roll 3d6" or less for things that come up during play.

This is the GURPS Lite model of play, where the Lite rules are just a system to generate skill levels, make rolls, and run a simple combat system. Most GURPS groups stay close to the Lite combat system and ignore most of the book's advanced (and optional) rules.

Attack with a sword? Roll 3d6. Did you hit? Damage minus armor, next player goes.

GURPS is as rules-light as you want it to be. You can get in groups and games that make you feel you need to follow every wounding rule, every by-the-book modifier, and every "how to play this right" sort of feeling coming at you - but in practice, you really don't need to live up to a "perfect play" standard in this game. This is an old-school game, and the rules are suggestions.

Is there always a by-the-book way? Yes. But, from the How to Be a GURPS GM book:

Everything in GURPS is optional – we say so all over the place. We specifically say things like “as long as the GM is fair and consistent, he can change any number, any cost, any rule,” “everyone must realize that an epic story is apt to transcend the rules,” “don’t let adherence to a formula spoil the game,” and “if there is only one ‘right’ answer to fit the plot of the adventure– then that’s the answer.” The rules are only there for when you need them to help advance the game. Most of the time, you should be doing that by talking and roleplaying and telling a story.

Make a ruling and move on. You, your group, and your game will be fine.

You will also find GURPS to be much more flexible than your average 5E game due to the above.

GURPS Lite is all about efficiency. It follows the same 'gameplay loop' as a d20 game but without many action types and bonus actions that can bog down a 5E turn and drag out combats. The one-second combat turn in GURPS Lite is a game-changer, allowing a single action to significantly accelerate gameplay. In contrast, games like Pathfinder 2 and DC20, with their three and four actions per turn per player, can lead to a sluggish pace as players strategize and execute combos and multi-attacks.

Consider this: in GURPS Lite, a simple action like 'I draw my sword' or 'quick draw skill roll and attack' can be executed in a single one-second turn. Compare this to the time-consuming process of planning movement, a spell, a few attacks, another action, or any combination of three or four actions during a turn.

The time taken during a turn in tabletop games is directly proportional to the number of actions allowed, squaring the time taken to the number of actions allowed. One action takes one unit of time, two actions take four units of time, three take nine units of time, and four take sixteen units of time. One-action and one-second turns are the peak of efficient game design.

When you determine that each monster has multiple actions during a turn, six goblins now have 18-24 actions for the GM to decide every turn (and roll for!). Where do people find the time to play these games? They sound great on paper, but I doubt these games can be played quickly. They make B/X and GURPS look like rules-light games during play, which, comparatively, they are.

Modern games love to "ignore the referee" regarding ease of play. While character creation is straightforward and fast in many d20 games, the time taken per turn is atrocious and a complete slog. People think GURPS is a slog during turns, but it isn't. Character creation is the slog, but this is why we love the game. No game gives you this much control and customization.

GURPS skill rolls and combat turns are no different than a B/X-style game. In most turns, you decide on an action; often, you don't need to roll for it - just say what you do.

Also, with a one-second turn, there may be long pauses between attacks. If you watch modern battlefield footage, count the seconds between shots soldiers take. In many cases, there is a 1-6 second delay between every shot (or even 2-12). Not every combat will be this "video game alpha attack," where an attack happens every second.

In many cases, "do nothing" is a valid turn action, especially for untrained fighters, and it is also pretty standard in real-life warfare.

If you are doing a "dungeon combat" and have a bunch of goblins, you could roll a d6 for each one of them and delay their actions, or a d3 if they are more skilled at battle. Goblins engaged in combat on the frontlines would attack every second, but the ones in the back would often delay actions randomly. Even an archer supporting the frontline troops will delay firing for the best possible shot and throw in an aim action or two as they wait for an opening.

Those delays also open up opportunities for players to roleplay. What do you do if the battle quiets a few turns while everyone repositions? Demand surrender? Surrender? Propose a truce? Disengage?  Refortify? Intimidate the enemy? Bring up a heavy weapon or call for help? Ask for help against a common enemy? Offer gold to stop fighting? Does the enemy make those offers? Combats may not last "until death," and in many real-world fights, this is true, too.

Also, the best possible action isn't always what happens. A few goblin archers may fire arrows down a hall to deter movement. They may shout insults, bang drums, or hide to wait for a better opportunity. They could throw food, rats, or chamber pots at the party. They could be arguing with each other. These "delays" are great roleplaying moments with a lot of personality. Not every enemy is this "programmed AI bot" that moves towards every enemy and attacks at the first chance like a computer controls them.

This happens with modern d20 games, where multiple actions encourage "micromanaging and optimizing turns." These games are based on card-game design, not reality. GURPS is reality-based, and the dis-optimization of player and enemy actions increases the game's realism. It feels incredibly counter-intuitive, but it makes sense when you step back and consider real-world battles and hand-to-hand fights.

Wake up from this modern d20 gaming "mind lock" of turn optimization and to-the-death battles.

Inspirations: Index Card RPG

Index Card RPG is one of the most impressive rules-light d20 games. It simplifies the complexity of d20, offering a fresh and innovative approach to encounters and challenges. It's like untangling a mess of cords, making d20 gaming more accessible and enjoyable.

The game's mechanics are refreshingly straightforward. The GM sets a single 'target number' for a 'room,' and characters roll a d20 against it. If successful, they apply an effort die towards the room's 'hearts' (1 heart = 10 hits of damage/effort).

If a room has 6 goblins and a pit trap, they are rated the same number (12); you give them hearts and go. Characters have a "defense" number, which can be used to defend against room hazards or as a target number (10 + defense) to serve as an AC for monsters to attack.

This is really rules-light and abstract. You see this high level of abstraction in rules-light games, where the opposition is not fully fleshed out (like in an old-school game) and is instead given a target number to beat. GURPS does simulation well, and "giving it all one number" is not why we like the system.

One of the standout features of the Index Card RPG is its 'plug-in' system on page 88, which allows you to seamlessly integrate its unique systems into other games. These concepts, designed to accelerate play in d20 games, can also be effectively applied in GURPS to streamline gameplay. This adaptability and innovation are what make the game genuinely exceptional.

The goal here is not to abstract away the system we love. The goal is to use abstraction to help us tell our stories while making more time for the things we love, which can vary wildly in GURPS. Some love simulation combat, others like character designs and roleplaying, others non-combat tasks, some treat GURPS as a rules-light game, and others treat it as a unified system where they don't need to keep learning (and buying) the latest "hot thing" on the shelf.

Knowing what you love about GURPS is the key to using abstraction mechanics successfully. We want to condense and standardize the way we handle most of the boring stuff, saving time at our tables for the things everyone came here to play. And what is fun varies depending on the group and game.

The notion of "clean stats" is the same one that GURPS Ultra Lite uses; just apply an "N-minus" to an ability score and use that (modified by a skill, if you need it). If a monster attacks, roll DX, modify by skill and difficulty, and roll the dice. Use the Ultra Lite ability score values for every NPC and monster.

Hearts? They can be used as-is. Rate a monster in hearts, and give them 10 hits per heart. Note that in GURPS, the hits scale is a little slower than hit points in d20 systems, but GURPS weapons are deadly, so it should all work out. Plus, if you are playing a party, throwing 20 hits at a 2-heart enemy to take it down in one turn won't be too tricky, especially if you are playing modern or sci-fi.

Keep GURPS-isms in mind, such as armor values and damage effects. You don't want to veer too hard into rules-light; just mix the best parts into your game, and use it in places you don't want to spend a lot of time. The goal is to streamline play while keeping the parts of GURPS we love.

Abstraction is a time management skill.

ICRPG is a lesson in reducing the time you spend on the parts of the game you enjoy less and saving time for the parts your table wants to see most.

Frankly, you can use "hearts" to convert B/X monsters easily. Assign them a few Ultra-Lite stat levels,  special attacks, and defenses as needed, and you have any B/X monster ready to use. Does a spider have an entangle attack with webs? Give it an Ultra-Lite DX number (12) and a +4 skill in "web attack." Use this for attack rolls in GURPS. Want to break free of the web? Use the quick contest rule, web attack number versus whatever skill you use to break free (weapon attack, escape skill, or brawling/wrestling to tear them off).

Effort is an ICRPG concept using different dice for different effort types. The d6 is used for melee weapons, the d8 is ranged, and so on. The idea of "rolling effort" in GURPS is alien to the system, but the idea of "level of success" is not. You could total up the level of success of rolls and use that to whittle down the "hearts" of the task.

Note that on a 3d6 "N-minus" system, the level of success will be smaller, and you may need to double the level of success before applying it to the "heart level" of the encounter. So, if you get three levels of success, you contribute six "hits" towards solving the room. For long-term tasks, like hacking complex security systems, don't double. If it is a "bust the door open" short-term thing, double or triple since you want the action to flow faster.

Then again, if an action is one-and-done, just make one roll and move on.

Target numbers? Use one difficulty number for everything in the room (0, -2, -4, -6, -8). This room is a "minus two," and everything is rolled against using that modifier. Alternatively, assign the room an ability + skill number (this is a 14-minus room) and just roll quick contests against that. This hallway has dart traps, 14-minus, roll QC's against that, or take 1d6 damage per 2 points you fail the roll by.

Making up custom rules on the spot for a particular room is what every great AD&D module did back in the day. You could design a whole "room" as an Ultra-Lite character and fight to defeat that. A room full of flying bats? Give it a DX and a swarm skill, some low-damage attacks per turn, assign it a heart value to "defeat" it, and you are good to go. Waving a torch around to scare them off works to "damage" the hearts of the encounter and "defeat" it. The situation is solved at zero, and we move to the next room.

All of the above? Nothing in GURPS says you shouldn't do things this way. A lot of it is just using the tools the game gives you in exciting ways. It is an ICRPG and GURPS hybrid, but who doesn't customize their rules?

ICRPG simplifies ranges, which is easy to do with GURPS.

They also use the tables in the book for "loot rolls," which can be converted to GURPS pretty easily.

ICRPG is an excellent, rules-light game that will inspire the next generation of d20 clones. It is also worth playing as-is by itself and is a more flexible and adaptable d20 system than D&D. Simplifying numbers and rating challenges help keep the game moving and avoid getting into too much detail. It is not the "new kid on the block" anymore in the d20-sphere, as the D&D replacement games are attracting many people's attention. It is still an awesome d20 game and worth sticking with or using as a plug-in for other games, as detailed in the ICRPG rules.

As a tool for streamlining GURPS, especially regarding saving time at your table for the "good stuff," ICRPG is an excellent addition to your gamemaster's toolbox.

Video: GURPS simplified space combat (Part 1)

I will be watching this one, part 1 of a simplified space combat system for GURPS, posted on YouTube by EasyGURPS on the last day. In my conversion article, I discuss how many of the default ship combat systems are math-heavy and involve huge modifiers.

Nice!

Community content FTW! And here's a new video to watch. Head over, watch it, and like and subscribe to our community creators.

TL9 Star Frontiers

We loved Star Frontiers; the races, story, and sandbox universe were perfect for us. This game (and Aftermath) killed AD&D for us growing up. The universe here was fun, but we quickly outgrew the rules. Within a year, the game had broken down, many characters had over 100% skills and attributes, and it was clear the game was a short-term-only system.

Our love for this game was so intense that we couldn't resist the urge to push its boundaries. We experimented with various rule systems, trying to find the perfect fit. However, our enthusiasm waned over time, and we eventually lost interest.

My attempt at a GURPS conversion was challenging. I struggled to get the ship combat mechanics right, a crucial game aspect. I aimed for an Interstellar Wars vibe, but the system quickly proved frustrating. GURPS Spaceships, with its lighter-weight design and combat system, including a map-less combat option, is a promising alternative that I am eager to try.

This strange problem in GURPS is that it adopts a starship scale, sticks to huge negative modifiers for range (like -39), and gives weapons huge to-hit bonuses (like +33) on a 3d6 scale. It should all be factored out and simplified. Give me a starship combat system that uses regular 3d6 to hit numbers!

I like the SF universe and GURPS. Converting them is difficult, like any conversion.

One part about GURPS for science fiction is that it goes hard. Really hard. You can play lighter-weight science fantasy in it. Still, if you want the entire, to-the-millimeter starships made out of scaffolding, exposed engines, solar panels unfurled, fuel tanks running low, spaceplane attached, and life-support pods, hard sci-fi experience, it is right here.

This is the good stuff, TL9 hard sci-di, before 1G reactionless engines, where you take weeks and months in space travel. Where your "spaceship" isn't this made for a videogame enclosed hull, but a scaffolding holding habitation pods, engines, fuel tanks, cargo pods, and electronics bays together. You can also have military ships in this configuration with reinforced structures, weapons pods, and armor, and this isn't "movie sci-fi." These ships are floating superstructures that throw missiles, railguns, and lasers downrange.

There are no personal energy weapons in TL9, just high-tech guns. Sometimes, the game's original design overdid the attacks versus defenses, trying to match suits and screens to different attack types.

Doing a Star Frontiers at TL9 would be interesting. It would be set in an early-era frontier setting. I would put the races' home worlds on the map (Prengular, Dramune, Ktsa-Kar, and Araks). There would be UPF once the Sathar showed up and the defense alliance was worked out. No Volturnus, not yet; that is late-stage campaign stuff. This is the pre-First Sathar War era.

At this point, the four races are colonizing worlds and integrating their societies. The principal colony worlds will likely be the "places of adventure," and just exploring and finding the mysteries of those will sustain a game. Places like Truane's Star, Athor, White Light, Timeon, and others will be enough "mystery planets," and rolling the campaign back to an earlier point gives each one of those worlds a creative "reset" and allows me to create places of mystery and other exploration challenges.

Part of this galaxy's original problem is focusing too much on Volturnus and not enough on the core worlds. This is a John Carter of Mars thing, but there should be more detail and mystery to what we already have rather than making the rest of the universe unimportant compared to the new shiny.

The ships in a TL9 game would be slower, and those cool dispersed structure ships instead of the Star Wars-like "boats in space," which are getting tired these days. Give me the realistic starships of Interstellar, Ad Astra, and The Martian any day. Those are my gold standards in the genre.

I don't like the "flying hotels" that most sci-fi starships have become. They are too modern, serve as instant bases and fire support, and turn any sci-fi adventure into "fly up and blast it!" Many Traveller adventures go out of their way to say why "the ship isn't available because..." The same-old Millennium Falcon syndrome "flying space RV" sci-fi ships get stale and boring.

I never liked Traveller's Scout-Courier starship. It was too easy a ship to own, use, and land on planets anywhere players liked. The design was fun, and the look is iconic, but for adventures, it is far too easy and eliminates much of the fun of exploring and getting out of the ship. I am probably in the minority here, but these have never worked out well for our groups. Yes, a VTOL space plane is similar but much more fragile and needs to return to the mother-ship after dropping passengers off. You can't "live inside it," and you must protect it.

I would rather the "ship" be like a space station in orbit, where the best it can do is run communications when it passes by and launch space planes down to the planet's surface. The best you have is a space plane, and that is it. If sticking around is too dangerous (most of the time, leaving is safer), it flies back up to the ship, and you are setting up a camp. The space planes may also serve as the ship's "fighters," so they may have a use being in orbit, more than sitting parked so random space aliens can crawl into it.

Otherwise, hard sci-fi Star Frontiers all the way. I don't want the lasers and "defense game," which was silly. Just the races, universe, and metaplot. I don't wish to see "space RVs" and have easy space travel. Most of the adventures are planet-based. Being in a starship crew is like working in a nuclear sub.

It may split character types between "starship crews" and "away teams," with different skills needed in each area. This is where the lore and expectations of character creation split hugely. I may just want to play the "away teams" for planetary adventures and have the starship crew be GURPS Ultra Lite characters who do things in the background. Being a "generalist" who is expected to fly ships, fix things, have personal combat, be skilled in melee, and 101 other things will reduce your enjoyment of the game and put too much stress on creating a character. It is better to specialize where you can eventually become a "do it all" in Star Frontiers and Traveller in GURPS.

This is also where I went wrong on my first conversion attempt. I built a do-it-all guy, and he did nothing well. Even in the ship combat system I used, he sucked terribly, and he was not fun to play either on the ground or in space. I would rebuild him as a starship guy first and not go hard into combat, exploration, or even mechanical areas.

Exploration and ground skills? Areas for improvement. But he has to be able to fly and fight in space competently over everything else. This is GURPS; your character must do a few things well or become "so what" generalists. The heavy negative modifiers for anything challenging will take your generalist and turn them into a do-nothing and terrible character to play.

Don't fear those 18- skills! The negative modifiers for doing anything cool stack up fast.

Your "ship crew" may never see personal combat or firefights or have the skills. Pilots, technicians, scientists, medical people, sensor operators, communication specialists, weapons system operators, pilots, and robots will be there. You can play the ship crew instead of the away team; that is fine.

The ground crew will look like typical GURPS adventurers and have survival skills. Your ground-based adventures will be very survival, science, and combat-oriented. This allows you to focus on character design better and enjoy the game.

Dark Mode Hexes

I am trying a "dark mode" hex theme for the main background. It is less strain on the eyes and makes the page more readable. Again, the use of this image is licensed, so do not redistribute.

Video: Crypt of Krysuvik Episode 02

Two days ago, another cool GURPS video of a Dungeon Fantasy live play was posted. These GURPS live plays are pretty rare but very interesting to listen to. This is another channel worth subscribing to and listening to. We need more of these, and supporting them ensures we see more.

Again, found this using my sidebar link, and using that to find current videos to shout out (and watch) is a fun activity instead of randomly watching 5E videos (often about Wizards drama, please make it stop) that YouTube force-feeds me.

Video: Big Trouble In Little China - Using GURPS To Create A Roleplaying Game

Hey! I just found this one using my sidebar YouTube link, which is new as of 2 days ago! Head over, watch the video, like and subscribe, comment, and show the YouTube GURPS community some love and support!

Engage with these videos, and this will raise all the GURPS boats on YouTube. Like the 5E community, we need to watch videos that interest us and give them attention and support, and the algorithms will push more GURPS to more people. Otherwise, the world will continue drowning in low-content and click-bait 5E videos.

What you watch will be what gets pushed to others.

As a fellow GURPS enthusiast, I find great joy in watching and supporting videos about our shared interests. Let's continue fostering a positive and supportive environment within our community; this video is a great addition to GURPS video content.

I love my sidebar link. Recent videos are starting to appear on top, and I will instantly jump on those to shout them out.

The Rules-Light Tyranny of Simple Skills

Both Traveller and Star Frontiers have this problem. This one came up in my GURPS Star Frontiers campaign, derailing my game. Here is your typical starting SF character's skills:

• Beam Weapons 1
• Technician 1

Usually, you pick a combat skill plus your specialty- a medic, technician, computer, robotics, or whatever. In Traveller, you get similar skills, but the skill list is more extensive, so you typically start with 4-10 skills in various areas. Still, the levels and specialization focus areas are similar to Star Frontiers. Traveller's skill list was better, by far, but SF was designed for a younger audience. SF did more with the skills, offering actions in each skill that you could attempt at various percentages.

However, trying to convert SF to GURPS poses a problem. I had characters I wanted to recreate, and my first attempts are rebuilding them were these "good at everything generalists," which frankly had no focus and sucked. If you are designing a generalist in GURPS, stop and rethink your design. You won't be happy with it.

The character I was trying to rebuild was a technician, pilot, and beam weapons "action hero" type guy.

He ended up a sci-fi, do-it-all generalist with a two-page skill list, and I was not happy with him. In Traveller, your character can die in character generation; in GURPS, your character can "die" in character generation, too; you can blow it and have the character come out terrible. It is like cooking dinner, failing terribly, tossing it all, and ordering takeout.

You can get through GURPS character creation and have a mess of a character that can't be played. That is a terrible feeling. Sometimes, I would rather play a 50-point know-nothing scrub and earn my character points to learn what comes at me. GURPS takes time to learn. But what takes even more time is re-learning how to roleplay.

You enter the world of GURPS, and your world expands exponentially. Things you would "brush off" in a throw-away rules-light game suddenly become matters of life and death. You can't get the cargo-bay ramp closed. Who cares?

The door will tear off when the ship tries to get enough speed to accelerate into orbit.

All that atmospheric pressure blowing in the ship will cause the lower deck to explode from within.

And the ship will fall back to the ground, tearing itself apart as it loses structural integrity.

In a rules-light game, whatever, the hard technician skill roll, fix it, take a 20, and get flying. Some games don't handle the above situation; like in a Star Wars-type reality, you can fly around with a door open forever since the rules and the genre don't care.

But in hard sci-fi? Close that ramp, or it will be game over.

And if no characters can perform a hard hydraulics skill roll? You are stuck. Or try something else, like shutting the ramp and welding it shut. You lose the ramp, but it is better than losing the ship. All mechanic skills default at a -4 skill level, so a 16- turns into a 12-, and modifiers further lower that.

Does someone on your crew know hydraulic repair?

Not a problem.

That one small situation that would have been a throwaway moment in a rules-light game becomes a critical area of knowledge your character can pick up and become good at. This "world expansion" happened to Traveller players who picked up GURPS Traveller, and all of a sudden, the universe felt incredibly large, and everything felt "real" all of a sudden - like putting on a VR headset and being teleported into the world.

I get it. Rules light players are sitting there, groaning and wondering why "elevator repair" is such a big deal. It is a big deal to a GURPS character, especially a technician dealing with blast doors, hydraulic lifts, ramps, starfighter storage systems, docking clamps, massive cargo lifts, landing-bay doors, and deck-sized lift systems.

You look at Star Wars; every shot inside the Death Star has hydraulic systems in the frame.

Rules light players laugh, but we know this skill is worth its weight in gold. Combine this with knowledge of security systems, computer hacking, and electronics, and my character is now "the door guy."

I can't do that in Traveller or Star Frontiers. The former is more straightforward to accomplish this, but not to the detail and level of GURPS.

Which returns to my character design. Maybe I never knew him to the level of understanding who he really was. The generalist character in GURPS sucks. That character doesn't need anyone else, and they will never be great at a few things.

Even if you design NPCs using GURPS Ultra Lite to help the PC in a few areas, that is preferable to being a generalist. Doing this speeds up play, and since the Ultra Lite rules are legal at my table, it allows me to mock up "party members" and crewmates for PCs quickly and play with one fully designed character and a team of UL NPCs as the ship's crew.

Heck, most aliens and monsters will be UL NPCs, too. If an alien has a power, such as a mind control power, make it a simple N-skill roll and get playing. Throw some ! bang skills in as well, as needed, for NPCs. There is no need to break out the powers book for this. UL handles 99% of NPCs.

However, simple skill systems and rules-light games sell themselves as "easy," but I rarely find them to be worth much. 5E's skill system is like this, too. It does not work well for me, and I can't customize it and buy into areas I want to specialize in after character creation. What's worse, with a simple skill system, I never get to know the character and the world's interactivity is reflected in the game's skill system.

Simple skill system? A simple, less interactive, flat, and unengaging world.

The deeper and more in-depth the skill system, the better the world becomes. One-to-one skills reflect immersion in the world. The better the skill system, the better the world. This is where rules-light falls down hard. The worlds are flat and uninteresting, meant to pretend you can interact with them with a skill system so simple it barely tells you anything.

GURPS: It's Not All Killing

What sets GURPS apart is the unparalleled freedom it offers, allowing me to fully immerse in character development and roleplaying, free from the constant pressure of combat. I can even choose to simplify the combat system with GURPS Lite, opening up a vast realm of possibilities for skill development, character design, and roleplaying, with minimal focus on combat character-building. This system is a true catalyst for creative exploration and empowerment.

5E does not do that. Every one of those classes is designed for killing and violent conflict. Even the "social builds" are still killers, often with mind-altering powers. Mages? Like a squadron of tactical bombers. Rogues? Backstabbing killers. Fighters? The obvious. Rangers? Killers with a bow.

I can do all those in GURPS; yes, that is true.

However, having characters built for social and skill roleplaying in 5E is almost impossible. Every character will get XP, and the system forces them to become combat demigods - whether they want to or not.

It forces every scenario down a violent path, and as my characters level, all I feel they are worth doing is killing things. They don't get more in-depth skills and social abilities, those hit points ratchet up, those combat options unlock, and the fun social and skill-based play fades away as ten damage per turn goes to thirty or more. I don't really see 5E characters as able to do much else than use violence as they grow in levels.

And 5E characters get boring since what I can do with them shrinks as they level. I had a party of 6th-level characters; they had loads of combat and damage options and nothing else. They had no interesting specialty skills, not many social abilities, no excellent technical knowledge, no lore, no charm, and no weaknesses, and they were all the same bland MMO characters who were a "hot bar" of abilities on rotation.

5E is still that tired 4E MMO design wrapped in a "classic D&D" wrapper instead of a card-game one.

But GURPS offers me more. It has a profound skill system for in-depth skill-based role-playing. There is also a Social Engineering PDF that gives you a wealth of social role-playing options and ideas. I can design a 500-point character without one combat skill. I don't need them. I can do a social, lore, or technical campaign without combat and have characters improve in ways meaningful to the plot.

But 5E is easier!

So what? If the characters feel one-dimensional and cardboard to me, easy means nothing. The same can be said of most of the OSR games, too. In those, "you get what you put into them," and a lot is left up to you, but I need something to work with! And they are still the class-based combat-focused killing games that their later descendants continued the legacy of.

I will put more work into a game where I get more out of it.

There is this line in my interests where if a game is too simple or too one-dimensional, I say "so what" and it gets put in a storage box.

GURPS vs. Class Based Designs

I have a few versions of 5E, and they are great for what they are. You know, the "guided options" sort of game where the designers give you an "urban background," and they provide you with street smarts, immunity to surprise, and a history skill. In another 5E game, they provide you with weapon concealment for the same background, plus a streetwise-like skill.

At this point, I am rubbing my face, asking, "Is that all the designers of these games could think of?"

Is this it?

This is all we get?

5E leans heavily into stereotypes. The people who criticize races in past versions of the D&D game as stereotyped turn right around and say, "Well, these here city folk are all the same!" These here cloud folk are all like this one way! These nomads? They are all like each other.

You just can't stop yourselves, 5E designers, can you? You gamify everything to the point where you never ask if you should. They can't stop themselves since the game forces them to think along these "choice stereotypes," which mirror the stereotypes of classes.

When GURPS is pulled off the shelf, I open the book and can imagine a thousand "urban background" template packages. It shames these silly 5E "limited choice of a stereotype" games. Do I want a down-and-out street wanderer? A high-class socialite? A blue-collar tradesperson? A well-to-do person who works in the finance district? A ruffian from the docks? A scholar or student? A sailor or town guard? A tavern-goer?

5E says streetwise, weapon concealment, surprise immunity, and history should cover them all.

What?

I use Tales of the Valiant and Level Up A5E as my baselines since those are the leading 5E alternative games. They are excellent, but the 5E overdesign everything bug bites them both hard.

I can design a million things in GURPS from every one of modern 5E's limited background choices that give you a handful of the same options. Nomad cultures? A world of choices. Sailing cultures? I've got a million choices there, too. Desert cultures? A million choices there.

All my designs respect cultures and backgrounds, including race templates. These problems don't exist in GURPS since stereotypes are not a part of the design. You can also provide options in each template to give them diversity and customization.

I get advantages and disadvantages (or create a choose-from list); the templates are built to give my character background, skills, and a complete package for role-playing. Oh, and that character does not have to be a combat class. I can design a cartographer and explorer who can survey and make the world's finest maps. I still have challenges, and I enjoy playing that character.

Combat? I hire people to do that for me. My maps make enough money to cover it. In 5E? Do I need to be a rogue who stabs people in the back? Some investigator class that gets magic powers I never want or use? A wizard? A ranger with a pet bear? I don't want any of that! That is not how I see my character!

But play 5E, and you are forced down a designer's "choice path." Professional game designers know best!

I end up with a 5E character with powers I don't want and will never use, and afterward, I want to redesign that character in GURPS to see the "real person."

I have outgrown 5E, and in some ways, I outgrew it before I even started.

Learning to Play: GURPS Ultra Lite

Here is the secret to learning GURPS: ignore the entire game and start with the simplest part of the system. Grab a printer and a free copy of the GURPS Ultra Lite rules (link in sidebar), and do a few sample combats. If you don't have a printer, copy the bottom part and paste it into a text file, then the top, and then space out and format this to your liking for a simple text document.

This is the same type of game you would be playing with a B/X system, a d20, and a few level-one characters - so have fun! B/X systems don't typically have character design either, and you will be picking levels in abilities and skills to give you an edge.

This ultra-light system has skills and combat capabilities, and it can even run simple dungeons with task and skill rolls. You can run adventures in this one-page system quickly, and it also has a reaction system that NPCs can use to judge treasure quality.

GURPS Ultra-Lite can also be used with the full GURPS game for NPCs and quick monsters since the to-hit and damage systems are close enough to GURPS to make this the ideal "quick NPC and monster" generator for the complete game. This is probably one of the most valuable and underused tools in a GURPS game master's toolbox to speed up play and create unique and exciting challenges for fully designed GURPS characters.

Again, do not abandon this when you graduate to the full game! GURPS Ultra-Lite is the tool I use most when playing the entire game. You are missing out on one of the best-kept secrets in GURPS gamemastering by ignoring this gem of a quick system.

This system can be used for everything from fantasy to sci-fi, so flavor it however you want. Play a sci-fi laser shootout from a movie. Do a simple dungeon. Do a cops-and-robbers game or a stealthy heist. Play Sherlock Holmes or Cthulhu. Ultra-Lite does it all.

The Ultra-Lite system is not the entire game but teaches you the basics of the 3d6 roll-low system. It teaches you damage and defense. It gets you used to how skill and task rolls work. It can do ability score checks. It has a character design system. All the basics are here, and when you are ready to step up, you can move to another free version of the game and learn a little more.

Your head will begin to "wrap around" the system, which is easier and more flexible than a d20-based game.

GURPS Video: Review: GURPS by Steve Jackson Games

As of this posting, here is a new video review of GURPS, posted 4 days ago. It is super positive and a great video. Check out this channel, subscribe, give it a like, and show appreciation for the GURPS YouTube community!

I found this using my sidebar link for All GURPS Videos (search). I click on this link every week to look for new ones, and this pops up. This is precisely why I made this link: to check out what's new and to give love to new GURPS videos. I love that sidebar; it is my curated list of the best-of-the-best of GURPS on the Internet, along with some quick links to the SJG store if you want to go shopping. They are not affiliate links, just normal ones, and I am just a huge fan.

Don't be Ashamed for Liking GURPS

GURPS is a fantastic game. I've noticed many of us, fellow GURPS players, on YouTube (often during 5E videos) with a hint of 'ashamed to like it' attitude toward the game.

Don't be like that.

Be proud.

GURPS, a game that has stood the test of time, is a true classic. It may have a reputation for being math-heavy and simulation-heavy, but that's part of its charm. It's not about conforming to 5E standards, it's about embracing the unique experience that GURPS offers.

If the game were more like 5E, guess what? People would play 5E instead. This is the number one problem with many 5E clones or games that cut too close to 5E's design. Many will say, "So what, play 5E."

Let's not forget that GURPS is the pinnacle of character-building games. Character creation is a hobby, and it becomes even more enjoyable once you grasp the rules. So, let's take pride in our ability to create unique and intricate characters in this game.

But never apologize for liking something or assume people hate it; or that you must slip it in shamefully. Never feel you have to apologize for enjoying a game. We are different; every game doesn't have to conform to 5E. Unless you are stuck in the YouTube views, chase, then, sorry, you put yourself in a position to be abused by an algorithm and advertiser money, cover 5E.

Me? I like what I like.

Pride is being proud of who you are, what you like, and what games you choose.

Brancalonia

As a 5E setting, the spaghetti Italian fantasy setting of Brancalonia is good. As a GURPS setting, it is a great one. If you limit the 5E rules to the 6th level, the system fails to deliver rules that work for your setting. Wizards of the Coast has never been able to provide a version of D&D that works past the 10th level, and the 6th level is the sweet spot where it begins to go downhill.

We got to the 15th level in D&D 4E, and we laughed at how bad that was and wondered how Wizards ever thought they could ship such garbage high-level rules. Nothing has changed with them, and selling books feels more important than balance. Their answer is to ship a game that only works up to 6th level.

Low-magic and low-power settings using the rules are left in the dust.

Low Fantasy Gaming, a community version of 5E, has found its niche in Conan and pulp-style settings. However, even this team embraces change as they venture into their game, Tales of Argosa. This shift in the gaming community, away from 5E and towards independent game development or 5E versions, is palpable. It's an exciting time, with everyone taking the reins and crafting unique gaming experiences. But the community is getting tired of hacking 5E and moving on.

Me? Why buy a few more niche Kickstarter versions of 5E? Level Up. ToV. MCDM RPG. DC 20. And there are a few others. Everyone is rushing Nu-5E out before the 2024(5) books drop, and that is a good thing since they will get lost in the shuffle next year. Myself? I am tapped out on 5E Kickstarter projects and have the best two implementations with ToV and LU.

I can play 5E here, but it falls short of any low-fantasy setting. Primeval Thule is one of the best examples of a design team coming in with big hopes for 5E and the entire system blowing up. The infinite, free-magic blaster-caster classes outshine the warriors by level six. Conan is standing there with a broken bone sword and no plate mail while the mage is flying around, firing magic missiles like a helicopter in a war movie.

Low magic? Not 5E. Martial classes go from sucking to sucking hard.

GURPS works perfectly. You can have complete control over magic here. The martial classes are excellent in this game. The skills let you design any character, not just a handful of stereotypes. You have complete science and tinkering classes, history, social, alchemy, lore, engineering, art, performance, and any magic system you want. Minor magics only. Something from GURPS Magic or Thaumatology.

Or no magic system at all.

Dungeon Fantasy eats this setting up and opens up a world of possibilities. You don't really need much more, some of the GURPS sourcebooks or PDFs on W23 (the Renaissance ones), and possibly the 3rd Edition Swashbucklers book - though Italy is said to be in shambles, fractured, the remains of a fallen empire, and a frustrating place to do business. This sounds perfect for this setting since that is what it is, but not much more is said in this book besides a sidebar.

But the character-building keeps me coming back. Characters will wander the world and pick up roguish skills. If a mage needs to learn fisticuffs and swordplay, go at it; you can take your character in any direction. This fits in well with the setting of the characters being miscreants and opportunists and dealing with a world filled with the shoddy and second-hand, which reflects the shoddy and second-hand heroes themselves.

You aren't supposed to be "perfect archetypes," so why do your characters cleanly fit into class boxes?

Be different, embrace being different, and break free of the box these games put you in. 5E players are too conformist for this setting, needing a strict hierarchy of classes, subclasses, and powers to hang their identity upon. I get the feeling in 5E, nothing matters more than your class. Who you are means little compared to your power framework and the small number of choices you can make.

In GURPS, I am free to build anything.

That character on the cover of the book? In 5E, fighter or paladin. In GURPS, who knows? Maybe he knows magic. A rouge? A mage blade? A ranger? A bard? Who knows? He's cool and that is all that matters.

Like this setting, "fitting in" is not the entire point of the world.

Flashy Builds and Repetition

Regrettably, many modern game designs have fallen into the pitfall of overdesign. We've all encountered these 'wham bang' classes in 5E and its numerous clones, designed to do a 'few cool things'—and then very little else. This trend of 'cool-powers' design theory, which originated in the D&D 4E era, has persisted, leaving us dissatisfied, like a lingering smell we just can't get rid of.

D&D 4E's powers were all "cool powers" that you could pull out like a card game card and play and say, "Cool power!" Everyone got sick of them on the 20th use against the same boss monster since the design team had no clue how tough it was to make fights, and they tripled the B/X hit point scale to break compatibility with every previous version.

You never had to think or set up an advantageous position with tactics and good play; the 'cool power card' always works in these games. In 4E, they often missed, so YMMV. In 5E and later games, these things hit much more effortlessly.

You don't have to think; just declare you are playing the 'cool power' card.

Contrast this with the older games based on tactical movement and play. The Fantasy Trip is one of them, but a few others in the 1980s did great tactical combat. You never "pulled a power card" and auto-did something. You had to use movement and intelligent play to outthink and outfight your enemies.

And in every 4E fight, it was the same rotation of powers. Some complain this is how it is with 5E and Pathfinder 2, that MMO-style game design has taken over the hobby, overshadowing the importance of roleplaying, story, tactics, and creativity. With an MMO, you go to "a place," do "some numbers to a 3d shape," and "get an item that makes your numbers go up slightly."

And I look at the 5E games, like Tales of the Valiant, D&D, and Level Up 5E, and what strikes me is how "cool" some of the class powers are and how cool they make you feel.

For the first half-dozen times.

And then you are back into the MMO-style repetition and grind. A good referee recognizes this and varies the action, but the characters, in their core design, fall way too quickly into repeating the power X, power Y, and power Z rotations, all too familiar to MMOs.

However, the novelty quickly wears off when you realize this is the extent of your character's abilities. The same 3-6 combos, bonus action attacks, and other character actions become a monotonous routine, akin to a broken record that keeps replaying the same part of a song. Even spellcasters, who should offer diverse abilities, often fall into the 'cantrip blaster' role, repeatedly casting the same spell.

Those "MMO rotations" begin to pop up, and the game gets mechanical.

Give me a simulation game that allows me to fully customize my character any day over these rigidly defined class-based games. The combat in GURPS is a breath of fresh air, the action economy is unparalleled, and every second of a fight holds significance. The game offers so much more than combat, and you can even engage in gameplay that has nothing to do with combat and still have a meaningful character build and experience.

Combat is deadly in GURPS, and it is ideally best avoided. If you walk the combat path in GURPS, you better devote yourself to it to have a good chance of surviving - just like in real life. The idea many of the more escapist games and movies sell you is that "anyone can be good with zero training; all you need is the weapon." This is a dangerous lie throughout the history of warfare and conflict.

The way of the warrior is a serious one. I get that in GURPS. You give up a lot to be good at battle, and you need to commit yourself to that grim task. 5E characters get everything handed to them for free. GURPS characters are forced to give up X for Y and make hard choices during character improvement.

Death isn't a flippant "roulette game" with death saves designed for "fun." There are HT saves to avoid death in GURPS, but character death isn't some silly mobile phone minigame. Many of the mechanics of 5E intentionally hide what is happening and gloss over things like we were back in "safe for kids" AD&D 2nd Edition days.

You get a battle axe swung at your cute houseplant leshy, which should be like getting a weed whacker or machete swung at the undergrowth. Cutesy games hide this with "hit points" and "getting knocked down at zero," which hides the severe consequences of actions. In 5E, as a DM, I can't say a character's arm gets cut off from a battle axe because my players would revolt and say, "That is not in the rules!"

It's in real life.

Yes, there is a place for kids games.

But I am an adult.

GURPS can be played like a kid's game and "get knocked down at zero HT." But it can also reflect real life. This is what I want in a game. And I don't want the game to fight me and tell me I need to "do the death save minigame" or tone it back if my game's settings are highly realistic. At times, 5E doesn't have settings. The community assumes it is a safe cosplay game that doesn't let anyone get hurt.

Using a gun, bow, or blade is severe and grave. A game that hides that is disingenuous and willingly hides the consequences of violence, or it is designed for a juvenile mindset. You see this in story games, too, where "using a rifle" becomes an abstract concept like "rolling your force attribute" to "apply effort to a situation." When in the real world, pulling that trigger or stabbing with a blade ends a life.

Dungeon Fantasy: Treks and Overland Movement

While Dungeon Fantasy's overland movement rules may be lacking, GURPS Basic offers a far more comprehensive system, as outlined in the Basic Campaigns book (B351). In Dungeon Fantasy: Exploits, the referee simply sets all overland travel as "X days and X nights," with supplies and encounters rolled for daily (DFE 17). However, GURPS Basic provides an unmatched depth and realism, including terrain, weather, road, fatigue rules, and a hiking skill for characters.

GURPS Basic, detailed in the Basic Campaigns book (B351), not only provides rules for terrain, weather, road, and fatigue, but also includes the crucial "Hiking skill." This skill is not just a handy tool, but a significant gameplay element for characters like rangers, soldiers, and other outdoorsy classes that frequently travel and march. Its absence in Dungeon Fantasy could significantly impact the gameplay of these classes, making the inclusion of GURPS Basic rules a vital consideration for a traditional overland exploration dungeon game with DF.

One of the key advantages of using GURPS Character Sheet (GCS) over GURPS Character Assistant (GCA) is its flexibility. With GCS, you can easily access any rule or skill from any book, which is particularly advantageous when incorporating the comprehensive overland movement rules from GURPS Basic. This freedom to access and adapt rules to your game's needs is a significant advantage over GCA, which creates libraries that run scripts and eliminate skills and choices, potentially limiting your options and the overall flexibility of your game.

Ask yourself, "How important is overland movement?"

I was planning a traditional hex-crawl adventure with DF, and this came up. I could always "crib" rules using GURPS Basic without needing the Hiking skill and say characters move miles in an "exploration turn" equal to their current Move. Each turn is about an hour. Rough terrain costs anywhere from 2 to 5 per hex, while a road adds a point of Move per turn.

In GURPS Basic, the hiking rate is Move x 10 per day, so these rules come close enough while being "hex friendly" and maintaining a 1-hour travel turn (with 1-mile hexes). You allow characters to travel 10 hours per day, and it works. If you use Fatigue rules for overland travel, the rules in the Basic Set still apply (B426) and are on an hourly rate, so they line up nicely with my system.

Is not having the Hiking skills and the official overland movement rules a big thing? Not really. My custom overland movement rules are "completely official" since GURPS is designed to be hacked and customized. All the "Hiking skill" does in the Basic set allows for a 20% movement bonus on a successful roll, so not having the skill does not break the game and simplifies the movement rates and math.

Simple and straightforward is what you want in a dungeon game, anyway.

Dungeon Fantasy: Size

The one thing I love about Dungeon Fantasy is the size of the books. They are small. There isn't much "game" here, but what we get is incredibly dense, condensed, and straightforward. It feels like an old-school game, where the rules were a tight, concise, dense core of math and procedures - and the world operated by that central node of simulation and rules.

5E and Pathfinder 2 are written like card game rules. The books are endless phases, turns, conditions, exceptional cases, build rules, interactions, and can-and-can't dos. They drone on and on for over a thousand pages of core rules, and they will sit there and waste your time to get to the wording of a rule with a page of fluff text and art. Playing the game feels like you need a search tool. They are not old-school games. These are patched-together messes, built iteratively, and special-cased to death.

Pathfinder 2 demands adherence to the complete set of rules for a comprehensive experience. 5E is more flexible, but GURPS is the epitome of old-school simplicity. If your aim is to roll under skill numbers and roll damage, GURPS caters to that basic play model. Advanced combat rules are optional, as are most of the games. Despite this, there's a misconception that GURPS is overly complex and dense.

Dense it is, but I like that since my time isn't being wasted.

Complexity is not a trait of GURPS. It's a game that respects your time and doesn't burden you with unnecessary intricacies.

The books are far smaller than 5E or Pathfinder 2 and a lot easier to find a rule in.

Are some of the rules complicated and simulation-based? Yes, but this is a sim, not a card game. A sim will have a core set of rules that turn physics into die rolls. Everything in the world works on this model. There isn't some "super special" assumption that some things in the world give you "bonus actions" and "free actions" because a "rule somewhere says so."

The world doesn't work like that.

A card game designer's mind does.

Give me a hardcore physics simulator any day. Once the core "nut" of how the world works is codified, everything else extends from that base model. Difficulties are not defined as "outside the character" as some DC 25 task floats in the nether. A character's skill sets the base chance. Difficulty is applied as a modifier.

You are looking out, not in.

Your character is not a victim of random world DCs. Your character possesses skills that set the base chance for all interactions with it. If you don't have it, you better hope it defaults to something else similar, or you are out of luck. Again, this is the effect of card game designers trying to design a roleplaying game, not old-school game designers. A lock may be tricky with a -4 modifier, but it is never a DC 20 lock. The latter gives everyone in the world a free lockpicking skill.

Dungeon Fantasy is the more straightforward game.

A few small Dungeon Fantasy books do more than a shelf full of 5E or Pathfinder 2 books. And it does so much more than needing book after book of predesigned character options from professional game designers who always seem to have another book to sell you.

Is there a little learning and work involved? Yes, but learning a few small books is easier (and cheaper) than buying an entire library that needs to be constantly searched, sorted, supported, and sifted through. In many cases, subscriptions are paid to have all the options they sold you in an easier-to-use form.

One of the most considerable gifts in roleplaying is companies creating overly complicated rules with thousands of options and forcing you to pay for character creation services to sort through them all. It is a scam, a sham, and a plague upon the hobby of the West Coast "live service" tech company business model.

Roleplaying games were better before the Internet and AAA gaming live service models.

With GURPS, it all comes with the game. I can design any class, subclass, power, monster, special power, spell, magic item, or anything else with the design system in the base game. 5E and Pathfinder 2E will never give you the "secret sauce design system" since they need to keep selling you books. I would rather play a game that allows me to design things and rewards my creativity and input. The base game gives you even more to play with.

GURPS? Batteries are included here.

And creativity is welcome.

The More I Try to Like 5E...

...the more I like GURPS. Specifically, Dungeon Fantasy. 5E these days is tired, and I have the newer. Community 5E games such as Tales of the Valiant and Level Up Advanced 5E, but the character design options are not there. All I see are specific, narrowly designed, "a reaction to 5E" designs for classes and subclasses engineered to be "fun" versus the vanilla experience of D&D.

You only play "alt 5E" because it offers a more fun experience at the table than the alternatives. You still have all the same shortcomings. Even when a game tries to "patch" things, like Level Up and them writing custom rules for exploration and throwing social bonuses at you like candy - it does not replace a game that natively supports exploration, survival, and social encounters from the get-go.

Similarly, they import all of 5E's flaws. The D&D designers invented these silly things called "tool proficiencies" to make up for the fact their skill system sucks. And some classes can "swap tool proficiencies" during a long rest. First, saying a tool proficiency replaces a skill is like going to Home Depot and saying that if you can buy a toolbox, it makes you a skilled carpenter.

And don't get me started on swapping skill proficiencies. This isn't cyberpunk, where you can "slot in" new skills and hot-swap out others.

We don't need a thief; I am proficient with "trap-finding kits, " including chalk dust, a magnifying glass, a 10-foot pole, and a book of traps. I have a "scroll casting kit" with a lamp, a how-to book, and a lectern! Can I attempt a disarm? I am skilled in a "disarming kit" with a special dagger, glue, a net, a lever, and tongs.

Give me a fully fleshed-out skill system, please, and rip all these system dongles out of here and get them off my character sheet. Sometimes, a broken game can get patched so much that it becomes harder to play than a "complete" roleplaying game that does things right in the first place.

The one-second combat turn in GURPS is genius and simplifies play. I am not sorting through a half-dozen actions and options, bonus actions, reactions, and taking 30 minutes to figure out my turn. Oh, your sword isn't drawn? Draw it, or make a fast-draw roll and tell me what else you are doing. Done. Next?

Then, there is the whole part where I have to buy hundreds of dollars of 3rd-party books to get a few character options I need for a specific campaign.

Oh, and 5E does not support low-magic or low-power-level games at all. Specific campaign settings made for 5E (Primeval Thule, Dark Sun, and Brancalonia) were ruined by it being too high-magic or high-powered. The casters are far more potent when characters get past 6th level than the martial characters. The idea of a low-magic anything disappears as the party becomes "Gandalf, Dumbledore, and the All-Magic Avengers."

Conan sits over there with his broken-bone sword, wondering why he had ever rolled a barbarian. The magic-using party members cast the fly spell and simulate the Apocalypse Now chopper attack sequence with infinite-cast cantrips as their rocket pods and machine guns.

Only one version of 5E did low magic right (Low Fantasy Gaming), and they had to practically rewrite the game to pull it off.

GURPS does all those 5E low-magic settings far better. Martial characters define the game; magic can be put on a power level and rarity slider. I recently got the Brancalonia setting book for 5E, and I read through it. I am wondering why I would ever ruin this with the 5E rules? The book puts a level six cap on all characters, and most 5E players I know would never touch a game that limits character power like that. You are breaking my build!

GURPS, Low Tech, a few Venice PDFs, and Swashbucklers would do this setting right. Given that the setting has a theme where most combat is settled by "fisticuffs," martial arts fighting styles will probably be helpful here. Also, this setting has a concept that most gear is low quality, so on all failed attacks, defenses, and skill rolls, you will be rolling X in 6 to see if something falls off or breaks. Or just referee caveat, based on the degree of failure.

I will go into a setting, be excited, design a few 5E characters, and never play because I don't feel the characters will work well in the setting. Or the 5E characters are too much like "generic fantasy" and don't take advantage of the setting's special features and strengths. If in a "spaghetti Italian Renaissance" setting, lore, history, family ties, religion, and heraldry are important - then I will focus on those skills in GURPS.

In 5E, I only have three skills to master, and you can write off specializations. In GURPS, I can have a lore-monkey-type character who knows every family, all the ins and outs, who the local constable is,  can the local guilds be trusted, what the church is up to, and tells me what faction owns what acre in what year. That character in a heavy-roleplay setting will get me much farther than a generic fighter with a short rest action surge power.

Who cares about the 5E characters at this point? I can't do anything with them except kill things when they are not trying to sleep in dungeon closets. The "fakery" of short and long rests in 5E, leading players to "video gaming" the system rather than living in a world and immersing themselves in it.

The 5E game's pen-and-paper ARPG system ruins beautifully crafted and artistic settings like the above. GURPS does this so much better, and it isn't even funny. I can play the XYZ of the ABC faction, which does DEF and knows GHI in GURPS, with a few JLK backgrounds. In 5E? I am a fighter with a subclass, maybe an elf or Dragonborn who comes from the city. I look at a character like that and think, "Yeah, this has nothing to do with the setting. Pass."

Even this book's specialized 5E character options make up for the flavorless and bland system, and the skills and passive systems will kneecap you once you get rolling. The best 5E does for this system is force you to use funny voices to read the text boxes. That is your setting flavor.

It is the difference between the authentic Italian food of GURPS and the Italian-flavored food of 5E.