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.
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