What Controls Your Actions?

I have always felt a limiting factor in my actions whenever I play D&D. This is especially true with the newer game versions, where I stare at a character sheet and a "list of powers and spells."

What do you do this turn?

I don't know. What powers do I have?

The question would be the same in older game editions; my answer would be either attack, cast a spell, or something else. The older versions were better because your options were more limited, and you had more room to improvise and create crazy strategies. This is also like GURPS, where you have a list of skills, ability scores, maybe some magic, and anything goes.

But between adventures, what drives me when I think about my character? Of course, the story, but there is that XP chart. The next level of powers is coming up, and my gold pieces drive me. What motivates me in any version of D&D is power and attaining it. It is always there, hovering over my choices, driving me forward, and controlling my decisions.

Our party will be in town for a week, what do we do?

Wander around the wilderness and find a dungeon. Hope some scenario comes up in town with combat and treasure. Go somewhere and do violence on some evil humanoids.

You look at almost any mega-dungeon module, and this is the base motivation of most D&D games: clean the map, get the loot, and rack up as many XP as possible to unlock incredible powers. These are easy motivations, so the game is popular.

But I don't really care about killing rooms full of evil humanoids. I keep trying these games and get the "pulp swords and sorcery vibe" (one that the newer editions of the game have abandoned for cosplay), but none last long. That level chart feels like something I will never attain and nothing I really wanted in the first place. Who cares what some Seattle game designer made happen at level three? It is cool compared to the last two levels, but it gets to be the same.

The higher I go in levels, the more limited my choices feel to what the game designers give me. The higher I go, the worse it gets, and the more my actions are limited until choice paralysis sets in at level eight, and the characters become unplayable (in terms of being able to think outside the character sheet).

GURPS feels different. What do we do if we are in that town for a week?

Wow, anything.

Some may look at their skill list and say, "What next?" I look at it and ask myself, "Can I get training?" Could I learn a new skill? Can I earn a wage somewhere? Is there a new skill I want to learn? Are there problems in town my skills can help with? Can I earn money by entertaining, smithing, making maps, leatherworking, skinning, or any other trade I have worked on?

Do I have the social skills and languages to communicate with different factions in town? What can I find out? Is there some history to learn here? If we are into dungeon crawling, do we research local lore and find the place ourselves without having to randomly wander into it? In a mega-dungeon adventure, typically, you wander hexes, and the referee has you "find the hole in the ground" when you walk in the hex, just to keep things moving. In GURPS, my party is hitting the books, reading journals, asking people in town, and putting the clues together to "find the place where the lone tree stands at the meeting of the two rivers and 300 paces from the confluence to the west is the lost crypt."

We are working to find this place. When we are there, we look for clues about other places around here. We take rubbings of etchings, pick up scrolls and books, and look at the artwork carved on the walls. A map made by a lost adventuring party or ancients is a treasure.

We are a group actively seeking information and seeking to gather and decipher it. Our skills unlock those doors. We don't have to be "given" anything by an adventure writer or referee; we earn it through sleuthing and history work.

We found that.

Now let's go there and find out more.

This is my turn-off to most of today's fantasy gaming and a massive part of the OSR. Most adventures are written like a TV show; turn your brain off and let the referee "read the shaded story box" or "make you find the next place to keep things moving." Many games do not even allow you to "find that next place" through investigation, collecting clues, and using skills.

If the dungeon is there, you will find it.

If I fail a roll and don't find the place, so what? It does not automatically mean a "dead end," as many of these writers would have you believe. Might as well throw out your books; the party hit a dead end! The game is broken now! They act like they are hitting a dead end, like someone unplugging the television. What do we do now? We can't be entertained! Can't we just "fail forward?"

No, your options have just changed. You must figure out a way forward or find a new place to go. That route is no longer available. Find another way. Or find a new place to go. Solve another problem; this one is blocked.

Failing forward protects systems with limited options where skill and abilities are your only choices, and players aren't allowed to think outside of them. This is the MMO with "action buttons," and that concept protects the game from free thinking and free actions.

If we do not find the crypt, that is a delay or setback, or we must find another place. Maybe it never existed. We may see a new clue later. Failure changes the direction of the narrative; it doesn't stop it. Failing forward is a gimme, an admission the game you are playing can't handle situations out of the normal, and a "fixed story" is more important than player (and referee) freedom.

How You See the World

GURPS is unique in its approach to character development. It starts with an average zero-point character, a ten in every ability, no skills, and the default chance to do everything. This character is a nobody and an everybody, representing the baseline average person. As the game progresses, this character can pick up skills through education and evolve into something more, reflecting the theme of heroism, sacrifice, and the potential to change the world.

GURPS is a very down-to-earth, holistic, almost traditional view of life. It is a game that models the "base character" around us, something very relatable and familiar, and it can model an average life. This is one reason I love GURPS; the default character is not some marketed, overly fantastical CGI hero with artificial power. There is no "level chart" with a pre-programmed track of "amazing powers." The starting zero-point GURPS character is like you and me.

And then something magical happens.

You can be that fantastical hero, that ultimate warrior, or that circus acrobat rogue. You can unlock the secrets of magic or the power of the divine. Slowly, point-by-point, your character becomes more than average and ordinary; your character becomes fantastic. It is not the same "assumed progression" as a level-based game; your mage could veer off into becoming a stealthy rogue for a while. Your bard could don plate mail and become a front-line fighter. Your nature-loving druid could pick up sailing and pirate skills.

GURPS stands out for its organic character development. It does not rely on multiclassing or layering artificial progression tracks. Instead, it allows you to unlock the secrets of power naturally and delve as deep into each one as you desire.

You unlock the secrets of power naturally and explore each one as deeply as you want. With each point spent, you go further in your chosen direction, and it does not even have to be combat or magic. You could become a skilled alchemist, artist, performer, historian, or another role, and your "adventuring abilities" could support that field of study. A long time ago, in the 1980s, someone said this about GURPS, which is still true today:

In GURPS, you can design a scientist character and have them be as fun to play and essential to the party at the table as a fighter.

The old "d20 Star Wars" game was put out by Wizards, and one of the design goals was to make technician and pilot characters "just as fun to play" as combat characters and space wizards. Part of the complaint against many sci-fi games was that "starship crews and technicians were useless" in ground-based adventures, and they had the "Shadowrun hacker problem" of only being useful in a tiny part of the game that sidelined the rest of the party.

Shadowrun and Cyberpunk have had this issue for decades, but they created the problem with lists of programs, such as magic spells and dungeon maps of computer systems, that hackers had to explore in VR. They made a mini-game inside the game for one player.

In GURPS, you can give your scientist or mechanic a few combat skills if you want, and this is if "combat is seen as fun" at your table. If combat isn't fun, you do not need all these combat abilities that d20 games force on you. That 20-sided die has a bloodthirsty legacy, and while this is a strange way to look at the hobby, I get the feeling that a d20 is mainly rolled out of hate and violence. The die is so synonymous with murder-hobo play-styles that entire games are now being designed to "streamline and gamify combat" better than D&D.

Combat in D&D-style games is getting to be like the worst parts of gun culture, fetishizing "what bullet gives the most stopping power and killing potential." Which d20 game makes violence the most enjoyable and "fun?" MCDM RPG eliminates the to-hit roll! Nimble 5E makes combat fast and fun! Tales of the Valiant gives you "luck points" for missing stabbing someone with a knife! Here is your D&D multiclassing optimization build for maximum damage per turn! Fun-death-fun!

Every argument against video games in the 1990s becoming an orgy of death and violence applies to d20 tabletop gaming today.

And they make it worse by gamified violence with abstract mechanics. Some tabletop games will have a "killing spree" mechanic, and it will go too far.

I love my 5E books, but they go too far with the death and violent focus. They are too focused on power. They try to cover it up with happy, colorful, diverse art, but once you lift the veneer, you will find it is stuck on there with the blood of hundreds of monsters, intelligent humanoids, and animals.

But it comes back to that "average Joe or Jane" character I started with. Violence to them is out of the ordinary, shocking, and deadly. It is a last resort. Combat in GURPS is, by default, deadly, so you look for other ways around the problem. This is old-school play more than B/X does old-school play. In GURPS, you can't have a few hundred hit points and laugh off repeated stabs with a knife like in D&D. In B/X, you can have 80-100 hit points and AC of -2 and laugh off dozens of goblins and kobolds. And in 5E, it gets even worse.

Even if you gain much "combat power" in GURPS, you are still rooted in reality. You are good; you can dodge and block many attacks but are not invincible. You still need to be careful. A pile of hit points, AC so high you can't be hit, and an action economy that stacks the deck in your favor will not save you from a lucky shot. One goblin with a lucky strike can take down your 500-point superhero.

You still need to think and role-play, and you still need to approach conflict intelligently. Your non-combat skills are just as necessary as your combat ones, no matter how much combat power you accumulate. In fact, in GURPS, your non-combat skills are often more critical since adventures typically involve solving a series of problems based on real situations.

If you get a scientist or hacker character in a d20 game, that character is seen as "unfun" and "dragging the party down." The character "monopolizes game time in a single-person minigame" or is "only useful once per adventure for a single skill roll."

GURPS lets me create worlds that aren't bloodthirsty d20 slaughterhouses. Breaking away from that mindset is hard, so I picked up an old-school module like Keep on the Borderlands. This adventure feels like a pen-and-paper ARPG, a killing and grind-fest that I remember fondly, but these days, tossing a fireball into a room full of 40 goblins feels more like a war crime than an adventure. I love this module. It is an essential old-school primer written by Gygax himself, but these days, we have adventures that better fit my idea of roleplaying and what I like in a game.

Trying to play old D&D modules with GURPS feels very strange. I feel as if I am taking people from the real world and dropping them into a peculiar "crazy circus of death and looting." It is almost a "wonderland of madness and infinite power gain," sort of a maniac beyond the looking-glass world where death and killing are entirely justified by the acquisition of power and wealth.

Anything is justified to reach the next level, right?

It sounds like something a blood-soaked Mad Hatter would say.

I would roleplay with the orc and goblin tribes, convincing them to leave the area and find a better way of life—to "leave the maze" and settle the land somewhere else. My GURPS playthroughs are strange, alignment-less negotiation sessions in which my heroes aren't the "kill them all" tropes but sensible, pragmatic, what-are-you-doing realists who try to solve the problem there rather than "go through the keyed rooms and gotta kill & loot them all."

If the temple of evil is keeping you here, then help us destroy it. Then, you can be free of this evil prison and forge a (possibly good) life elsewhere.

Again, my characters aren't the B/X or 5E tropes.

They act like real people would. That 10-point every-person comes to mind.

It tells how a game's design and "content" can lock you into a power-hungry and bloodthirsty mindset and behavior. It is also a story of how these companies can lie with art, flowery words, or comfort-food nostalgia. Players have been "killing their way" through Keep on the Borderlands for 50 years!

Why shouldn't I do the same?

Stop.

Why should you?

Just Play!

GURPS has a lot of theory crafting, which is natural since the game is more of a "game designer's paradise" sort of "box of Legos" that we can use to create anything we want. But this also leads to the perception that "the game is complicated" and lots of discussion on "how to make it easier." I don't think the game will ever get any more accessible, and if it does, a lot of that "box of plastic bricks" feeling will be lost.

The best thing we can do is "just play."

Don't be deterred by the perceived complexity of GURPS. With pre-gen characters, it's actually easier than 5E. Roll-low is simpler math than roll-high, and the skills are just one number plus a modifier. Combat with GURPS Lite is not only easier than 5E combat, but also faster, with better tactical options. Even 'High-level' combat in GURPS is much easier than 5E, and it won't take you 30 minutes to decide what to do. The concepts of damage and armor are straightforward. So, take a deep breath and dive in-it's not as daunting as it seems.

Most of GURPS is the theater of the mind roleplaying, with an occasional skill or self-control dice roll. It isn't much more than what any D&D streaming show does, and most of it is more straightforward without all the complicated and overlaying action types.

Where is GURPS complicated? Character design. World building. Advanced combat. Power design. Character design is the biggest sin here, but in general, new groups should be playing with 50-point characters with a few skills and less than 5 advantages and disadvantages. This is the big flaw of Dungeon Fantasy; pushing a 250-point design on new players will overwhelm them with too many choices. The templates with guided choices are great, but the game feels designed for advanced players rather than new ones.

Delvers to Grow for Dungeon Fantasy is a fantastic product. However, those books don't fix the problem that DF was designed for an experienced audience. The GURPS Basic set is a more accessible game to learn since the 50-point starter characters are more manageable for new players to use.

I love Dungeon Fantasy's tight focus, but I was overwhelmed, and it took me a lot of effort to learn the game with a 250-point starting character.

One thing that B/X does well is roll 3d6 down the line, pick a race, choose a class, get a few pieces of gear, and go. Some B/X games have you start with gear packages, and some (Dungeon Crawl Classics) start you with random gear and don't really have vast lists of equipment.

You could play a DCC-like "0-level" game in GURPS with zero-point characters and a random gear list and give players 4 points for weapon skill to start (one weapon or sword and shield split), any 1-point skill on a random chart, and a 5-point disadvantage rolled from a chart. All other skills will be their terrible defaults, and the game will be fast-paced, deadly, and hilarious, just like DCC. The characters won't be complicated either, just the default 10 in everything, and you can play with a straightforward sheet.

Want a more advanced zero-level start? Give them 15 points for skills or abilities and 15 points for disadvantages. Suddenly, your characters are more capable but a little more complex.

But the answer to making the game more popular is just to play it. This will fix the "can't find a game" problem many players have. Start a group! Stream on YouTube. Spread the word. Show people how much fun you are having. Just play.

And play it in imaginative and exciting ways.

YouTube: GURPS: 5th Edition Changes | What It Needs

Today, a compelling video discusses the potential 5th Edition of GURPS and its needs. Your diverse range of opinions on this potential edition is invaluable, and I'm eagerly looking forward to hearing from each and every one of you.

One comment mentioning SWADE is spot-on. I have always felt SWADE was designed as a rules-light GURPS; the characters are put together similarly, and the point values and picks are greatly simplified. As a model for a simplified GURPS, SWADE is very close.

This is really a great discussion starter. Go and watch, like, and subscribe. As a community, these are good discussions to have and make heard.

Some may feel the 4th Edition is just fine, with a few simplifications and clean-ups. House rules can help solve many problems, such as the archery issue mentioned.

The game's basic rules are refreshingly simple. Compared to the action economy in Pathfinder 2 and the complexity of high-level play in 5E, GURPS is more straightforward in many ways. You don't need a PHD in GURPS to enjoy the game; the GURPS Lite model and theater of the mind is how many groups play.

You need to pay attention during character design, but that is a hobby inside the game. I enjoy character design in GURPS 4E.

The game can need a college degree when you play with every rule, but that is different from how it is played in most cases. Have you ever tried playing high-level Pathfinder 1e by every rule? Arguably, GURPS is easier.

I am sure 4E will continue to be sold and supported for years, even if a 5E comes out.

An excellent video today; check it out.

Monster Movie Monsters

One of the best parts about Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) is the way the company approaches monsters.

They don't.

They provide a few sample creatures, but the real treasure is their advice: make monsters unique. They don't mean unique in the ordinary sense. If you have a monster, make it the only one of its type in the world. If it's an ogre terrorizing a village, this is the only ogre in the world. You can have other ogre-like monsters later on, but this is the only one called 'ogre,' it has its own unique traits. Those are the only ones you will ever meet if you have a race of demonic poodle humanoids living in a crashed asteroid. This approach to monster design empowers you to unleash your creativity, giving you the confidence to create monsters that are indeed your own.

We are done shipping monster manuals filled with creatures with stats and standardized stat blocks like they were slices of processed cheese.

The adventures follow this format; for the most part, you won't see rooms filled with orcs and kobolds in the scenario. They develop monsters unique to the adventure, making them fit in with the theme of the madness happening, and you won't see these monsters again in other adventures. Many types of robots exist in some cases, but one "security robot" won't be the same as another adventure's.

So, what does this have to do with GURPS?

Well, ask yourself: Do I need standardized monster blocks? Do "lagoon creatures" need standardized stat blocks to appear in many villages, or are they specific to one adventure and scenario? Are all monsters the same? Are there "fire orcs" that live in volcanoes, and do they even call themselves orcs? Maybe they are unique enough to call themselves magma-brutes, and they never want to be associated with other humanoids, as calling them an orc would be an insult!

And those magma brutes live in this one volcano, this one place, and if they are vanquished, there are no more in the world. As always, other "brute-like" monsters could be elsewhere, like the kelp-bed living fish-person beasts, but they aren't "orcs" and are nothing like magma brutes.

And the players will never see the same monster twice. In the D&D and Pathfinder model, this is done by choosing one type of low-level monster, another type of mid-level, and another high-level so you get the illusion of not seeing repeats. Still, in other groups and in the next playthrough, everything becomes less unique and more like you are eating at a fast-food restaurant. You know what to expect. You optimize your character build to fight what you know. The mystery and thrill are gone.

And if one thing is true about every monster in a "monster manual," they eventually become gentrified, made cute, and presented as a character option or a pet. Orcs? Kobolds? Mind Flayers? Intellect devourers? Mimics? Dragons? Demons? I can identify multiple first- and third-party books from publishers that have done this time after time.

Also, you run into the danger of nostalgia taking over your game. If you want nostalgia, are aware you are using it, and want that dopamine hit, then great! If you aren't aware you are doing it, you may put the past on a pedestal just "for the feels." You aren't expressing your ideas and feelings through a game; you are repeating someone else's and expecting to feel something that does not come from you.

Once they become standardized in a monster book, they are no longer monsters.

Just like processed cheese isn't cheese.

Besides, aren't monsters supposed to be scary and mysterious? Monster movies in the 1950s often relied on the beast in the "movie of the week" as something nobody had seen before. The Alien movie from the 1970s is the best modern example; the films after that first never lived up to the shock of seeing the original (Aliens was good, but nothing tops the original).

This is practical, old-time, classic Hollywood "crowd pleaser" advice. How can you thrill an audience if the monster in your movie is something the kids just saw a few weeks ago? You can't do giant ants again! What about an enormous killer moth? A killer leech! The subterranean burrow beast! The killer bats! The cactus creeper! The robot from planet X-51! The talking giant spider with the human face on its back!

Or we can use "orcs" again.

So, when discussing conversions to GURPS, understand what you are doing. Do you agree with the "bestiary" model of monster design where there are standardized forms, like video-game or MMO monsters? Or do you believe every monster should be unique and different? And if you are wasting months of effort converting hundreds of monsters into GURPS, you need to ask yourself, is this how I see my fantasy world?

Random monster stat blocks? Who cares? They could be anything since all monsters aren't the same! One cave crawler species could be immune to a fire, while others could be weak. This is true in the real world of animals and insects; depending on where something comes from will influence its abilities, special attacks, and natural immunities.

In a way, "making it all up" as you need them is the right way to go.

And when you are converting an entire setting into GURPS, like Pathfinder, you need to ask yourself, what do I like about the setting? If you convert everything "just to have it," you are likely better off playing the original game. Pathfinder's Golarion is a tricky conversion since this theme park setting is based on the game's rules and constructs. The kingdoms are these "adventure land" zones, which are micro-settings, often designed to host an adventure path from level one to the mid-teens. They are very structured, rely on the progression of challenges, and each adventure path is almost like a "play it once" video game release.

Be careful with "high stuff" games; these are systems lock-in designs. They give you so much to overwhelm you, keep you from playing other games, and make you feel you have a lot of stuff here. This is a classic quality-over-quantity thing; I would rather have a smaller list of high-quality, well-designed, and exciting monsters over lists with many repeats where the only difference between monsters is a special attack and a few hit dice. There are a few B/X games where you could list a half-dozen monsters under one entry and never know the difference.

A setting stronger in characters and stories is more straightforward to convert since your focus is different. With the old Forgotten Realms setting, if all your source material consisted of the TSR novels before Wizards of the Coast took over, that is a vast library of conversion content. Let's say your game begins after that last TSR novel ends. Your focus is different, and you aren't relying on "false content" - adventures and monster stat books. Since your focus is on characters and stories, this will automatically play better in GURPS, where the game shines.

Why are we focusing on numbers and ratings when we could be focused on stories and characters?

Isn't "what we come here for" the characters, conflicts, and stories in those books? Why are we worried about "how many hit dice the owlbear has" when that is secondary and only serves as opposition and conflict. Those owlbear stats could be anything, even "just use a bear's stats, " which would serve the same purpose and be far less work. Plus, you may want to give this owlbear a "stunning screech" attack, which no other owlbear has in any other game, and make it memorable.

Standardized "books of monsters" only kill your imagination and take the fun out of the game. You put that owlbear screech attack in 5E, and I bet half the players will pull out their monster manuals and point to the entry, saying "nuh-uh" and blaming you for being a terrible DM and leading to the deaths of half of their precious characters in that encounter.

How did we get here?

Is this a place we want to be?

Take a step back and ask yourself what the goal of your conversion is. You are on the right track if it is closer to stories and characters. If you are just doing a conversion for "numbers and stat blocks," you must ask yourself, "What am I doing?"

Hexagram 13 Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/hexagram-13-an-old-school-zine-for-the-fantasy-trip-rpg

I like The Fantasy Trip, and the hex tiles are great for GURPS dungeons and battles. If you support their zine releases, the 13th issue Kickstarter dropped today. I added a sidebar gadget to help support the project.

Leveled Fantasy Worlds

Your typical fantasy world from B/X to 5E only makes sense if you treat the world like a videogame. Shouldn't high-level NPCs and monsters dominate the world, controlling kingdoms and exclusive knowledge? Won't groups band together to "level up" all their friends and become the most potent factions?

Otherwise, the world could become imbalanced, like in the 'World of Warcraft' MMO, with zones of levels 1-10, 11-20, and so on. Maintaining balance is crucial in game design, ensuring that all players can contribute to the world regardless of their level.

Most of the time, the world "levels up" around the characters. This is the easiest way to handle it, and it avoids the headaches of leveled areas. However, "world-leveling" is not always compatible with a sandbox-style game.

One challenge I encountered in my Pathfinder 1e conversion was the ingrained levels of the creatures. However, this also sparked a creative process. I reflected on the power of some monsters as 'X times human' and attempted to translate this into my monster conversions for GURPS. This process of adaptation and creativity is one of the most rewarding aspects of role-playing game design.

You can play GURPS that way like giving monsters 50 to 100 character points per B/X hit die and roughly designing them off of that number. You could do a "realism spec" and mirror existing animals of the same size as base GURPS monsters and then tweak from there.

Yes, you can play GURPS in this sort of "leveled world," with monsters getting stronger and stronger for "video game reasons." It differs from the standard way of playing GURPS, but it can be done. The concept of "CR" never meant anything in GURPS, and it will mean even less now as 8-10 HD creatures suddenly become "boss monsters" and single 20+ HD creatures become demi-gods and almost unstoppable like epic-level superheroes.

If you want to convert HD to GURPS character points, you can do so. Your world will be a strange world where high-level creatures become epic challenges. D&D has always had this problem with monsters being "bags of hit points with a funny shape." Many D&D monsters are a little different than similar ones, like one monster being the armored brute at 3-6 HD and another at 14-18 HD being way too similar in attacks and powers; one is just the high-level version of the same archetype.

More is not more.

And I likely made a mistake with that conversion.

Pulling out the "realism ruler" and rating creatures on a flatter "skill-based" scale is always better. This is how GURPS does most everything, basing statistics and abilities on a real-world base rather than giving Naga snake people 8 hit dice just because characters are supposed to fight them around the 8th level. In GURPS, it is better to "size" a creature around something tangible, like a giant turtle based on a rhinoceros stat-block, then modify from there.

When you do a GURPS conversion it is like "X Setting: The Movie" and things look like the things in the books, but nothing is rated on some "game style" power scale. Things are more realistic, and monsters and heroes are on a flatter power curve. You can still have a dragon the size of a building, but nobody is going to be fighting it for four hours of the film's runtime.

In GURPS, take a real-world animal of similar size and ability and create your monster using that base. When in doubt, find a monster like the one you are imagining in GURPS and use that as a base. 80% of the time, you search for a beast already converted in one of the 4th or 3rd Edition books. For the other 15%, you are using something in the same ballpark and using that. The last 5% are actual conversions.

And 70-80% of the creatures in typical B/X games are already given stats in GURPS or Dungeon Fantasy somewhere, so you rarely need to convert much. Dungeon Fantasy has come a long way to defining power levels in the "dungeon crawling" side of GURPS; everything from the spells to the monsters makes sense in a way that D&D and many d20 games just guess at or "throw more hit dice at" to balance a monster.

The "old way" of the hit-die scale to put monsters on a power curve is an artificial construct of D&D.

It has been the same since D&D 3rd Edition when they introduced power and damage scaling. Suddenly, DPS per turn started going up with magic and multiple attacks. Wizards' D&D isn't even D&D, and the high-level math and scaling are all wrong compared to the original game. It is only close in the first three levels.

One of the best things you can do is ignore it all. Just use the pretty pictures of Pathfinder 1e, play in that world with the GURPS rules, and forget all the "fake" 3.75E numbers. They are all wrong anyway. Realism-base your world, ignore the math, and silly leveled this and that.

If you have played Pathfinder 1e as long as I have, it can be challenging to let go of those numbers.

You almost have to go "cold turkey" and let realism and the natural balance of GURPS guide you.

Settings: Pulp Gangsters, Noir, Adventure

The original Gangbusters game was one of our favorites growing up, and we always had a soft spot for the tough-talking, two-fisted, pulp era. These days, the shine has worn off this genre, and it is hard to find anyone interested in pulp and gangster adventures in the era outside of a few old-school and nostalgia groups.

I have always felt the pulp era is the closest you can get to a "fantasy" genre in the modern era since many fantasy genre conventions are here, with some of the best modern additions and features.

These days, the excellent B/X Gangbusters has picked up the torch for this gaming genre, and there is always Savage Worlds in the pulp genre. But for the gangsters, Prohibition-era, tough-talking, rise-and-fall gaming, you need to go to B/X Gangbusters to get the focused package.

Either of the Gangbusters books (original or B/X) is an excellent resource for GURPS and helps "set the tone" of the game you want to play.

It's worth noting the unique era shift in Call of Cthulhu, which has redefined the 'gangsters' genre with its eldritch horror vibe. In this game, you will find many excellent resources for playing in this era.

With the Basic Roleplaying game, you can easily do a gangster game in the same system and leverage the 1920s material in CoC. You need to eliminate the monsters and horror elements, and for such an iconic game, that may be hard to do with player expectations. The players will look around for evil fish monsters in the swamp when they should be looking for bootleggers.

GURPS has one of the best genre books of the period: GURPS: Cliffhangers (a 3E book), which has an excellent history and overview of the era for any 1920s and 1930s game.

One of the genre's weaknesses is its heavy combat focus, and this is endemic to the early 1980s games, which were "bam-pow" sort of tabletop combat games. The original game sometimes felt like a "gangster miniatures wargame," and the adventures existed to "have combat." There was a late shift in the original Gangbusters game towards Noir private-investigator mysteries, especially in the adventure modules. With a combat system as deadly as GURPS and a lack of body armor and defenses, any modern gangster game will be lethal, and characters will tend to be shorter-lived without pulp conventions.

Before beginning a campaign based on nostalgia, it helps to ask, "What does GURPS bring to the table?" GURPS will quickly drill down and do a heavy simulation of any genre, and that "immersion thing" will kick in. This requires you to "ask a few questions" about your character before you begin the game. In 5E, you don't usually need to ask these; just pick a class, race, background, or culture option and go. Motivation comes later; just give me a dungeon.

In a pulp or modern game, you must set goals and create a character directed towards them. Want to be a gang boss like Al Capone? What advantages will help? Powerful allies in government and people you can bribe for favors? Luck? Some inside knowledge? Contacts? An alternate identity? Cultural familiarity with an immigrant group? Legal immunity? Patrons? Go through the GURPS advantages lists and zero in on the social advantages. You will find so many useful ones once you creatively apply them to give you various friends, favors, and immunities in various areas.

As a referee, you must define families, other crime bosses, minor rackets, and other nefarious groups that work in the underworld. I have had a few Gangbusters games fall flat because the game started with nothing and went nowhere besides a "do crimes" simulator. To capture the era, you need a story of families, immigrants, struggles, and the world rapidly changing from farms to industry - and all the small, street-level stories around that struggle.

Movies from that era were also great inspirations for the look, speech, conflicts, and world. Creating a game around them is much easier if you are a fan of these films. If you focus on a story that is not crime-related, things get even better. Let's say your "crime boss wannabe" is looking for a sister he was separated from when they emigrated. That story runs through the "rise to infamy" - then you have a deeper motivation for the character than just a "do crimes" story that can get repetitive and boring.

Do not create a character whose motivation is to "play the game" and "stick to the genre" - you will get bored. This is 95% of 5E characters, and that is why that game now needs to include "random background tables" for character motivation, like "your mentor wronged you and took what you love."

In dungeon adventure games, the motivation "I am an adventurer" is just as boring as the motivation "I am a gangster" in a Noir or mafia game. This is the same for private detectives, G-Men, explorers, bank robbers, reporters, or other characters.

You are not what you do.

You are not your job.

Your motivation is not "my class and race."

Your secondary and tertiary stories will be more important than what you do. Your character will be driven by the story that has nothing to do with their occupation. What you remember about the campaign will be this story, not the genre conventions.

Let's say our gangster has a grandma he cares for in an elderly home, and he needs money for her treatments. Now, he is looking for his sister, and he has someone he needs a significant source of income to care for. His story will be how he gets that and the consequences of that life for him and everyone he loves.

Suddenly, "being a generic gangster who plays wargame battles" fades into the background.

Now, this character has motivation.

This is also one of the most important differences between GURPS and other games. In GURPS, the rules and the genre conventions are not your motivation. The rules are just there to provide a task and conflict resolution system. In 5E, that constant video-game-like chase of power is the primary motivation for many players. This is why the game is popular; you can play the 5E with zero in-character motivation and "go up the level chart." 5E is a pen-and-paper ARPG.

With GURPS, you ignore the rules. This is why some people dislike the system; there is very little "rules motivation." GURPS excels in "designing story into characters" with the advantage and disadvantage system. So, if you start with a story and you bake those into your character designs, you will have a better game.

But you need to have stories that matter to the world.

You also need a referee who creates a layered and detailed enough world or lets players create things in it they can link themselves to. Players creating people, places, and things they want in their story helps players "buy-in," and it saves the referee a little work.

But I will take these story points (grandma, sister, love interest, and a few others) as advantages or disadvantages and find a way to work that into the game. These story points will be "baked in" to my character. This is the best part of GURPS that many other games ignore or miss.

My character will have built-in motivations.

And it won't be "gangster" or "dungeon crawler."

Setting Conversions: Svilland

https://drspublishing.com/pages/svilland

When converting a 5E setting to GURPS, Svilland is a straightforward and fantastic choice. While Nordland from Gaming Ballistic is also a viable option, especially for Dungeon Fantasy and default GURPS settings, Svilland's Norse-themed content makes it an excellent choice for a GURPS game.

But why Svilland? Why not just go Nordlond and ignore this 5E setting book? Well, for one, every 5E setting book can be a GURPS book.

For one, the art of Svilland is not just fantastic; it's also inspirational. It gives you that epic Norse feeling, a feeling that you won't find in other settings. Also, you get a complete world map with locations, cities, NPCs, plot hooks, and different holds and kingdoms. So there is a lot here, from a basic gazetteer level of information. Half of the 200+ page book is setting info, while the other is 5E-specific (that can be used for conversion bases).

One of the key advantages of Svilland is its flexibility. While the book includes 'races,' they can be easily swapped out or supplemented with your favorites. For instance, the setting features blue dwarves as its 'dark elves,' aligning with the Norse themes. However, if you prefer traditional dark elves and light elves, you're free to incorporate them. In Svilland, you have the freedom to shape the game as you see fit.

Regarding GURPS conversions, the rule is simple: make it your own. In Svilland, you can bring in traditional 'Vanir' elves, the 'Aesir' humans, dwarves, giants, and dark elves to create a unique and exciting campaign setting that's entirely yours. You could put warlike Blizzard WoW-style orcs in this world and they would fit well.

They would fit nicely if you wanted the Nordlond races, with the raven-folk, tiefling-like demons, and all the others. Again, if you are talking Norse, you need the Gaming Ballistic Nordlond books in this conversation, too; all of these work so well together. The Monsters book for Nordlond is a natural fit and is a huge time saver.

I like Svilland because it has the epic feeling of towering mountains, deep haunted forests, jagged coasts, towering cliffs, and stormy seas. The setting and art capture a sense of grandeur and make you feel incredibly small in a vast, rugged, and inhospitable world. I don't get this epic feeling from many GURPS products, and the world here is vivid and amazing, along with providing page after page of specifics and locations.

The art here screams epic, and it also feels more GURPS than 5E by far. This stuff just gets me in the mood to play and play now. it is epic, towering, inspirational, moody, evocative Norse eye-candy and it drives me. Also, none of this looks like your typical "planar candy" style 5E setting, this is all very basic in reality, grounded, and serious style art.

All of this begs for GURPS and realism.

There were books and settings early in 5E's life that were more of this realistic style. Wizards undercut these settings by going "full planar" like they did in 4E, and it trashes anything based on realism, low magic, or low fantasy. The game shifted towards zany anime tropes (101 silly species options) and anything-goes planar whacko-verse settings and classes, and the realistic simulation-style settings (like Primeval Thule) were left in the dust. Another aspect of current-year 5E is the low-powered settings (Brancelonia), which are also left in the dust as the power level increases.

GURPS has a flatter power curve, making all these settings magically "work" again.

Nordlond can be a small setting, while Svilland could be the world around it. Or the world could be Nordlond and use Svilland for inspiration. Both of them work so well together that they are like distant cousins. They work apart or together well. You could run all the Nordlond adventures in Svilland and even drop these lands somewhere in this vast world.

Also, you could run this as a dungeon-crawler with Dungeon Fantasy, or a full GURPS setting with the main rulebooks. Note the omissions in Dungeon Fantasy if you do this, as that game is a subset of the full GURPS rules, so just be aware of the differences in skill, advantage, and disadvantage lists so you can run the type of game you want to run.

No, you don't need Svilland to run a Norse game. I could use GURPS Basic for all of this. The Gaming Ballistic books are a great time-saver, if you choose to get those. But the epic feeling, maps, art, and world development improve everything. It feels as grand an epic as a World of Warcraft-style world. You could paint the world in a time of war, with orcs, dark elves, undead kingdoms, and the alliance of light all locked in grand battles.

This place could be cool - if you just make it happen.

This is a setting that does not deserve to slowly fade as the old 5E rules sunset. Using this as a "mega setting" alongside the Gaming Ballistic Norse-themed content makes for a perfect match of a 5E world that is epic and amazing, and books that give you GURPS stats and adventures that perfectly fit the theme.

My Characters are Mine

I once ran a survival hex-crawl game with Pathfinder 1e. This was in the Aquilae setting, but it could have been any Norse-like setting, such as Northlands Saga (Frog God), Nordlond (Gaming Ballistic), or even Orbaal (Harnworld). The 5E setting of Svilland (DRS Publishing) would have worked well, too.

The scenario was waking up on a frozen rocky coast, like surviving a shipwreck and going inland to find a town. This was like starting Skyrim in the northern snow areas and installing one of those survival mods that does not let you walk 50 feet without freezing to death. Playing a Pathfinder cleric in this type of scenario is like cheating since low-level cleric spells can give you warmth and protection from the cold, but those only last so long, and you need to stop to make shelter and rest.

She fought a few giant crabs and wolves and dodged a few bugbear patrols. It was a thrilling game, but it fell short in terms of the survival game. The skills the game used to survive and navigate the wilderness, build shelter, understand weather and temperature, and find civilization were lacking. She stumbled upon ancient ruins without history and lore skills; it was a hollow discovery. She had more pressing problems, but like any D&D character, she felt pigeonholed into the role of the 'party healer.'

When she found a town, the game ended.

Since then, I've been searching for game systems that would allow me to recreate this game in a new light. This was before the birth of this blog and GURPS, of course. I experimented with D&D 5E, but she emerged even more 'dungeon stupid' than my Pathfinder 1e character. She seemed to exist solely to vanquish foes and take short rests. My 'spear and shield' build for her was non-existent in some games, and she was back to the B/X mace and shield build. The search continues for a game system supporting survival and exploration gameplay.

I know! This was all before this blog, and GURPS, we will get there.

I know this character. In her original life (way back in the day), she was a priestess who traveled between a town and far-off farms, fishing villages, forts, and mines in remote areas. She had to travel and survive in the winter and, in a pinch, live off the land. She had to know her religious skills to perform weddings, burials, and blessings for those in the area. She needed to be able to ride, navigate terrible trails and roads, and build a camp. She can fight and defend herself, shield, bash, and toss a spear. I wanted her to have a backup hammer as a weapon. She is a combination survival expert and priestess, which 5E does not allow you to do unless you are a multiclass ranger-cleric.

Knowing who they are is the first step to building a great GURPS character. Once you have their occupation and story, you can create that. This is the opposite of D&D, where you choose race and class first, and those things define you. These days, they are adding more choices like "heritage" and "background," which are equally and painfully too generic and broad.

Nomadic Cleric from the Human Priesthood may describe her in games like Tales of the Valiant or Level Up A5E (or even Cypher), but those four choices do not come close at all to the short story I created for her earlier. It is like picking cards, A+B+C+D, and saying that equals my detailed story. It comes nothing close.

A+B+C+D is just four mix-and-match picks for a board game.

My little story describes a realistic person, like one you would see in fiction. There are skills in my story she needs to be good at to tell that story well.

5E (and many other class-based games) fall harder in character design's "allowed class skills" part. Most of her skills (survival, travel, tracking, navigation) fall outside the "cleric class," she can't buy or improve them all that well. Sorry, but your story needs to fit the game! Sorry, I will put your game on the shelf, and find one that works. My most recent attempt was with Tales of the Valiant, and I was not happy with the results there, either.

She was a ToV cleric, not the one in my story.

One of my projects now is to rebuild her in GURPS.

Now, in GURPS, you need to understand how character designs evolve. You go through "versions" of a character until you find the one that works for you and fits your story. Right now, she is a bit physically fit, and her skills could be better - especially for ceremonies and religion. I made a few changes, knocking off a point of DX and IQ for 40 character points, which let me fill out her religious training a bit more to my liking.

Sometimes, I will design a character for weeks, picking things, testing, tweaking, and thinking about them. One character can be a hobby, especially tweaking weights and load-outs.

What is the use of trekking 40 miles through inhospitable terrain to teach Norse Sunday school to a fishing village's children if you only put one point in theology and teaching? She sucked at her job and could just "kill things well," which is the D&D curse. In this case, those extra skill points mean she can do something when she gets there rather than embarrass herself in front of the village when the local Town Grandma knows more.

That one less point of IQ and DX will hurt her, but that 40 points of skills will turn her into something more than a dumb adventurer with cleric powers. The way she was? She would be assigned as a healer for soldiers on combat missions. The way she is now? She is a starting but skillful cleric who can fight but knows her job well enough that people respect her. I want the IQ point back ASAP, but that comes later.

Part of a great character design is "hurting for something," and she fits the bill in a few areas. I want that IQ point back! Give me 20 character points! Well, earn them.

As a referee, if she makes those skill rolls, she discovers the evil spirit making the cattle sick (occultism and exorcism skill rolls), teaches Sunday School, blesses the new soldiers, and does a few weddings - guess what? I am going to rule she gets free room and board free meals, and she may get an escort of soldiers to take on a mission involving battle. The local Jarl will offer her any information she needs to solve the regional problems she encounters. She will be respected and may even get free armor and weapon repair. Successful skill rolls in tasks D&D players would say, "So what, where is the dungeon?" give huge intangible rewards and favors in GURPS.

This is how I referee GURPS.

Skill rolls mean something, and the world comes alive. The world is not just "combat and killing," but that is there too for story and danger. There are a lot of problems she can solve in the area. They require her skills and knowledge. Some of them require advanced levels of skill. D&D treats skills as unlocks for reading adventure text, such as, "Roll DC 20 to know..." I use skills to change the story, situation, NPCs, and world. And the players are free to make up new things they want to do.

Compared to D&D's railroaded "preprogrammed adventures," this feels like "putting yourself in the world."

Another troubling part of D&D adventures is "if it ain't combat, it isn't fun." Healing those sick cattle from the evil spirit? A combat encounter. Teaching Sunday School? Another combat encounter shoved in somehow. Many D&D adventures assume players are so bored they need constant stimulation and fighting.

The evil spirit in my game? It may take a series of lore, history, and skill rolls to understand what it is and how to attack it. It may follow her and make bad things happen as warnings and omens. It could be like a mini-horror scenario. It could end in combat, or it could end another way, with a banishment ceremony, or it could end peacefully.

She will also want to improve those skills as the game goes on to dive deeper into the mysteries she finds. Ancient knowledge and facts will have hefty penalties for those skill rolls, so she had better be prepared. A critical success at performing a wedding may mean a new ally is gained, or that union will be destined to create a future hero.

These dice rolls have meaning and can change the world.

The more significant point here is that my characters are mine. They are a result of my stories and ideas about who someone is. They are not made out of picks in a game or defined only by a race and class combo. The game designers gave me the tools to turn a story into a fully fleshed-out character.

Also, note how my first character for that first Pathfinder 1e scenario was "just made for combat and casting" and how my GURPS character turned into a story; who could go to an area and tell the story of that place and its people? She went from a simple D&D 3.5 playing piece to a part of a novel pretty quick when GURPS entered the discussion.

It is because she is my character, and I own her idea and can express it—not some game designer's idea of my character, and my expression is limited by "5E game designer choices."

There really is no comparison.

My characters are mine.

Live Play: Crypt of Krysuvik Episode 03

Another video today! A Dungeon Fantasy live play series? This episode went up 12 hours ago?

Sign me up! I am watching from the beginning. Any GURPS live plays are fantastic to see, and let's get out there and support them.

Having It Now vs. Gamification

One of the frustrating things about 5E is designers constantly feel the need to gamify everything. If you have a power, a source of corruption, or some sort of staged transformation, designers need to split it up, put it on a level or progression chart, and make you wait. A good example is a staged lycanthropy system, and in some 5E books, I have seen winged flight split up into a leveled power, with feats needed to make them work like wings. Why can wings be wings? Why do I have to wait for a total transformation?

Isn't it a shared experience? The books often offer a far cry from what we truly desire. They make us wait, tying everything to a level chart. Now, you're left waiting eight levels for anything extraordinary to happen. You buy a dozen books on the same topic to assemble a framework close to your vision. And much of it is split out and gamified.

Compare this to the OSR, where they simply declare 'it is so' and move on. A level one character can transform into a werewolf and wield full powers; there's no assumption of gamification in the OSR beyond what's already written. If the original rules don't cover it, the referee can handle it.

In GURPS, this is closer to the old-school model, and the books even say that if your character gains a new disadvantage during play, give it to them immediately (and don't give the character a pile of points as a reward). Life can be challenging; if you gain enemies, that is the break. This also happens in the reverse; if the referee says you get an advantage as a reward or boon, you just get it; no points need to be spent.

If you design an excellent lycanthropy template, you can immediately give it to any character. If you want to give it a "progression" with the powers and transformations increasing in power, you can design a few templates and then have the player apply the new one when the time comes in the story.

You are not stuck at the 6th level and wondering when you will be able to finish the next three dungeons and gain two levels so you can transform into a complete wolf form.

If my level two lycanthropy template includes the disadvantage where your character can't control their actions during a full moon, guess what? You will never know what that next phase will happen or even what is in that template (if I keep it private in my GM notes). In 5E, these will be laid out in books, and everyone will know them when they happen, as well as all the "cool powers" you want your character to have. often, the best powers in one of these systems are placed well past the level everyone quits.

12th level for wolf form!

Bet you really wanted that in the few months it took you to get here.

Can't wait for the 15th level and "Howl at the Moon!"

If the campaign even lasts that long.

By the time you get it, who cares? Since high-level play in 5E is lacking, you will be begging to start new characters in a few more sessions. Yes, many 5E players "just say it happens," - but that defeats the point of getting the books. If I buy a 5E book, I want to use it.

5E is too concerned with balance and is way overdesigned. Both goals are nearly impossible, and most of the game is balanced against itself. Any framework that adds a layer has to maintain the relative balance. It gets maddening when you realize a book you loved is overpowered junk. What is even more infuriating is realizing later books use that book as the baseline for the challenge level, and you are caught in the splat-book power creep.

5E has a strange microtransaction and corporate bent. Everything is put in expensive books, parsed out bit by bit, and sold like a commodity. You collect thousands of dollars in books to get a few things in each. In turn, designers do the videogame gamification of every concept and divide powers into progression charts.

I sometimes like the "gameiness" of 5E; in others, I groan and roll my eyes at another slow-as-molasses progression system tacked onto that game meant to sell you something else. In GURPS, if I wanted a "low level" version of a transform and 'howl at the moon' power - I could design them to be weak and up their power in later templates.

Done. I have it all now, and it gets better over time.

I am not waiting months to do cool stuff.

I groan; 5E, at times, is this pedantic game designer "fashion show" of designs that are all gamed out but impractical and unfun in actual play. Like a fashion show, the "designs" are often expensive, too, and take up half a closet for things you will use once.

5E encourages over-design and slow rewards. How many hundred times do I need to roll that d20 to get something cool? I sound massively impatient, but the entire system is like this. In GURPS, I can get it all right away, design a 1,000-point character, and go to town. Yes, there is the "start at level 20" thing in 5E, but you endlessly make choices as your character "levels, " which gets tedious.

Yes, GURPS is a design-heavy game, too. But I'm doing the designing, so I'm not complaining.

And I get what I want.

I prefer to design and balance my power frameworks than trust these "professional" game designers who make expensive 5E books. If I mess up, lesson learned, I can rebuild my creation to make it work better. I can't do that with an $80 5E book, and I am $80 poorer with a book I can't use.

Give me the tools to do it myself, and I will be much happier.

YouTube: An Ode to GURPS

Welcome to the vibrant and diverse GURPS community, where our wide and deep reach is a testament to the multitude of play styles and opinions. From the rules-light theater of the mind to full hex-based wargame simulation, there are countless ways to create and play. Our differences of opinion on what works for our games and what doesn't are not a point of contention, but a celebration of our unique characteristics that unite us.

Dungeons & GURPS makes many incredible videos, and I love his honesty. Our community celebrates differences in opinion and approach. This is one part of the GURPS community that I love. We all love the same game; nobody plays it the same way, and discussions and opinions are celebrated as a testament to our individuality and differing play styles. You can't answer "What is GURPS?" since the answer depends on the group playing it. 

It is like asking a family, "What is dinner?" Dinner could mean many things to many families, and it isn't all the same. Some dine out, some do picnics, some get around the table, some do cookouts, some eat quietly together, some do takeout, others laugh and share stories, and others gather around a TV. Some do a set of these things, and others mostly do dinner the same way.

And the GURPS community is one where we never argue about "how to have dinner."

We just sit down and eat, and everyone finds a place to enjoy the game together.

Every group plays GURPS differently, and that way reflects the individuality of the group that comes together. Contrast this with many other games, which assume "the books are the rules we must all follow to the letter" for some fast-food-like reason, like "so we can always find games." The D&D community suffers from this rigid thinking (and I see this from the AD&D to 5E), and I hope they open their minds and realize how play and rules diversity are strengths, not weaknesses.

Don't celebrate a game or edition; celebrate your group and how it likes to play together. GURPS is malleable, like putty, and will morph to fit many play styles.

This fantastic, positive, and fascinating video has many excellent points and deep thoughts. The points on D&D's "race plus class" combos "being the character" are spot-on. GURPS asks you, "Who are you?" before you answer the question, "What am I?"

Check this one out; it is a fantastic video worth listening to!

YouTube: Going Solo: Shadows of the Old Subway

A new GURPS YouTube video is up today; this is a solo play session in Roll20! I love solo play in GURPS; it is one of the most highly rewarding experiences these days, with your characters advancing naturally and along any path you can imagine.

With a leisurely three-hour runtime, this new GURPS YouTube video is perfect for a relaxing afternoon. Treat it like a podcast and let the world of GURPS unfold around you. There's a fascinating discussion of the game's history, and plenty of information for newcomers to absorb.

I love my sidebar link; it gives me daily GURPS content and keeps me out of 5E YouTube and all the negativity over there. You are what you watch; embrace creativity, positivity, the things you love, and the communities you want to participate in. Don't let the algorithm rule your life - be the algorithm and find the good stuff on the less-traveled paths.

And support the GURPS channels on YouTube! Changing the tabletop narrative about GURPS is as easy as enjoying the videos made for our community.

This one has nine views and two likes, so let's go over and enjoy the show!

GURPS on VTTs Section Added

A new link gadget is up, focusing on GURPS on VTTs and where to get everything. I have Fantasy Grounds set up now, with a link to the forums and the module you need to get playing. I am still learning how to use the FG system. I have used Roll 20 before, so I have experience with this type of software.

In all honesty, GURPS is very easy to play on any VTT. You just need a character sheet, 3d6, chat tools, tokens, and a hex map supported in the VTT. Unlike 5E, which uses automated character sheets, I prefer rolling 3d6 and checking the character sheet manually. To give you some context, I've played GURPS in Tabletop Simulator and Roll 20, and it's a smooth experience. You don't need a lot of 'custom game support' to get started anywhere you call your VTT home.

The super-nice thing about Fantasy Grounds is that the GURPS Character Sheet has an exporter that supports it, so if you want your GCS sheets in the VTT, there you go.

YouTube: What is GURPS?

Another video, this one 2 weeks old, introduces the game and gives an overview.

I love these videos, even if they tell me things I already know; they are 100% better than listening to 5E drama or theory crafting. I like to immerse myself in the things I love. I am interested in an 'immersion theory' that can lead to a better, more fulfilling life where you surround yourself with positive influences and reduce the negative ones.

I am much happier watching GURPS videos and thinking, 'How will I create this character or that world?' than hearing, 'What did Wizards do today?'

Reduce negative karma and emotions.

Absorb positive and creative inputs.

YouTube: GURPS - An Introduction - 032723A01

Another new GURPS video, this time with only three views! Let's pump this up, show community love, and boost the message. This will be a series on GURPS Lite and an intro to the game.

I love supporting new GURPS YouTube creators and helping them gain views and engagement. My sidebar link lets me scan YouTube and find gems like this to spotlight. Part of giving people a positive impression of GURPS is supporting our YouTubers, showing support, and spreading the word.

It Is Hard to Escape GURPS

And I mean this in a good way.

Among the new games I've tried, Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant stands out as a solid replacement for 5E. It meets the 5E standards and brings in positive changes, streamlining the rules and offering a fresh take worth exploring. It's a game that will make you feel optimistic about the future of tabletop gaming.

Calling 5E a "game engine" is the proper terminology since it powers many games today and removes any company's assumption of ownership. ToV is a good game, built solid, runs like 5E should, and eliminates exploits and fixes broken rules. It is backward compatible. It is a "premium edition" of the game, far more affordable than the "AAAA game" 2024 version from Wizards. Going forward, it will be my 5E of choice for use with my third-party books.

But here's the rub.

I create characters in ToV, and my next thought is how much better they would be in GURPS. Stop it! You do not get to do this to me, GURPS! But the game does. I can tell far more compelling stories in GURPS or Dungeon Fantasy than in any other game. The combat is better, the skill choices are more meaningful, the character designs are top-notch, and every choice matters.

Advantages and disadvantages put "story hooks" into my character designs. 5E characters feel too detached and sterile when they start out. Again, the rules-light thing is coming into play here; I have to make things up and assume too much to do character backstory in 5E. In GURPS, I can spend or get points for my backstory choices.

I can start the game with enemies in GURPS.

That has to be part of "my backstory" in 5E, and there is no real reason to put your character at a disadvantage like that. Just be a generic "adventurer" and avoid trouble.

Yes, I make choices in ToV, and they offer plenty of different ways to customize characters. However, the choices feel like a few binary choices and have a very shallow depth of customization. I could create two fighters with different decisions, which would still feel the same. In GURPS, once I know how to build a pole-arm fighter, that will look much different than a sword and shield fighter, an archer, or a dual-weapon fighter.

Granted, ToV is a lighter-weight d20 game, and you have to "put more into it" to "get more out of it." All rules-light games are the same; they promise "fast fun for fewer rules" but become "more work for less fun." The number of assumptions and extra "creative input" I have to assume in a rules-light or d20 game just to have detailed characters is that "bridge too far" for many gamers. Going rules-light is too much work, especially when you abstract everything to the point where your brain gives up and ends up in a mush of vague concepts and assumptions.

Also, this is 5E—you are expected to pay money to get more character options. Some third-party creators do some great work, but the game's constant selling of things is a "feature" of 5E.

A game like GURPS?

The two core books provide 95% of the options you need. Every other book is mostly inspiration and suggestions.

Buy once, create for a lifetime.

I don't have any way to make a decent cartographer character in a 5E game. Sure, I can make "a custom skill," but that is it. Give them a "tool proficiency" in a "cartography kit." I can't specialize. I only have a single "history" skill against which to roll. GURPS can tell a far more in-depth story about a Middle Ages cartographer and their band of adventurers than any 5E game.

In 5E, my cartographer has to be a "wizard" or a "rogue" and be distracted by class powers and choices. Or I can "shop around" and find someone who made an "NPC class" for a cartographer, which is guaranteed to play sub-optimally around level five.

To an experienced player and game designer, the difference between 5E and GURPS is like the difference between crayons and notebook paper versus expensive artist paints, canvases, and brushes. The latter do take practice and dedication to use, but they are the only way to create a masterpiece.

ToV is still a good game; it is free from baggage and well-supported. I plan on playing it and reading the books. It just has the same issues 5E does when expressing the stories in my head.

In GURPS, I can have my pure "job class" character, where they specialize in one area, have a dozen supporting skills, and then pay some attention to combat and magic, if needed. If I can imagine a job, I can have a character. Where do I take them? Into a fighter? A wizard? A rogue? Or do I stick with the job and get better at that? Or do a few in a couple areas?

I can create more types of characters in GURPS than I can in 5E. The game does it with a smaller page count and total cost. I would need three shelves full of 3rd party 5E books to cover the flexibility that GURPS gives me in two books. And the price of 5E books keeps going up and up.

And the stories I can tell with my GURPS characters are better.

GURPS is a hard game to walk away from, especially once you gain fluency.