The Universal Size, Speed, and Range Table

GURPS Lite, p28

Many games in the GURPS era quantify the physical properties of the real world in one universal chart expressing the natural world through a numeric modifier. Champions, Mayfair's DC Heroes game, and a few others do this (Ascendant, a newer superhero game today, also does this).

You will always stay on this chart when playing GURPS, and you need to become proficient in it to make the game work correctly. Sometimes, it becomes a real pain (space combat), but you don't want to break one part of the game to make another run smoother.

The chart doubles every two points, so a -12/+12 is 200 yards, and -11 is the mid-point.

Speed and range are added together to create the modifier. This can make a pretty tricky modifier, so if your "18-minus" archers get bored because they hit all the time, take another look at this chart.

A 1-yard tall goblin (-2 to hit), moving at a crossing speed of 5 at 10 yards (5 + 10 = 15, a -5 modifier) gives a total of a -7 to hit. This is like a goblin rubbing across a hallway ahead of the characters, and suddenly, that "sure thing" 18-minus shot becomes an 11-minus. It takes a skilled archer to pull off a quick crossing shot of a small goblin that is only visible for a short moment, and your fighter who just has a 12-minus skill is going to be in awe of your 18-minus elf ranger pretty quick if the shot hits.

If the elf sights in on the area and aims for three seconds with a longbow, they get a +5 to-hit, and the possibility of a called shot returns, or a sure thing if the elf wants it.

Moving targets are more challenging to hit! This chart separates the low-skill characters from the high ones and allows the characters with higher skill levels to shine. Also, faithfully applying ranged attack modifiers buffs melee characters and makes them viable. How?

Look at D&D in the above example. The goblin, AC 15, is the same target number for that 10-yard crossing shot as it is versus a fighter in melee combat. Both have to roll a d20, apply a similar +3 to +6 modifier, and have around a 50-50 chance to hit (or better). In GURPS, the character with the ranged attack has a more challenging time hitting at range than the melee character does up close.

Melee characters are at the most risk in GURPS, but since they are close, this is where the hitting and bloodshed happen. This is true in real life and should be in a fantasy game.

It seems strange to point this out, but this is how it is in reality. Look at gunfight statistics in the real world, and you will see most shots are misses. Guns need a lot of rounds because 90% of shots will be missed in a typical firefight. The more ammo you have, the more effective the weapon is in defense.

D&D gives ranged characters the same chance to hit as melee characters, a gross oversimplification that makes both attack types identical. This gives ranged combat a considerable power buff and weakens melee characters to uselessness. D&D needs to "invent" abilities for fighters to provide them with parity when, in GURPS, parity is built into the rules.

But our longbow user is not helpless. Aiming helps. Holding shots for a sure thing is what happens in real life. That goblin may not want to run up a hall with an archer looking down it to engage our fighter, and that could force a morale roll - monsters are not stupid and "run into fire" like they do in D&D. If the goblin tries to advance up the hall using a shield for cover, they won't be able to run, so the archer can have time to aim.

There is a game of tactics here, and the Size/Speed/Range Table plays into that.

Magic spells (DF Spells, p13-14) are subject to these same modifiers when making ranged attacks. There is a roll to "charge" the spell, which does not use the modifiers, and then the roll to make the ranged attack happens as usual (within 3 seconds). What is the moral of the story? You don't "really" have a magic missile spell if you buy it at an 11 or 13-minus since you won't be able to hit anything with it all that well.

Again, what is D&D? Magic missiles consistently hit, which is a massive buff to caster power, which is more than they already need. D&D casters have always felt that they were "too good to be here" and never had to consider tactics, aiming, setting up traps, and firing from cover.

In GURPS, casters need to know ranged combat tactics, and they need to play smart. You are likely more vulnerable to melee and a target of ranged fire (same modifiers as above). You can't just be a mage and ignore tactics like you are above them; you are a combat mage and need to get in the dungeon and play dirty. Playing a mage in GURPS is fun because you can't float above the fray like a superhero and feel immortal. You need to think, and you need to play for keeps.

Oh, and have fighters in the party; you will need them if your ranged attacks suck. In most cases, you just NEED them, and more fighters are always better.

There is a massive difference between GURPS games that use this table faithfully versus those that do not. If you do not apply these modifiers, the game gets too easy, and characters with 24-minus skills will aim at the vitals every shot and do maximum damage. That -7 penalty in the first example lowers our chance to a 17-minus, which is still near-guaranteed. But if we put a vitals shot on it, that becomes a 14-minus roll. A few levels of darkness may take another two points off that roll.

Suddenly, the "I am bored" player with the 21-minus vital shot per turn makes a 12-minus near 50-50 roll for that same vital shot at that goblin. If that shot hits, it is likely a kill shot. But in that situation, an archer as skilled as that can attempt these types of shots, where your average 13-minus "I just got the skill" character is still fumbling around with the arrow in a quiver (and a 4-minus chance to pull off the same shot).

You may feel bad applying heavy modifiers to starting characters, but applying them and sticking to the rules will improve your high-level play. You will realize why you fought so hard to become a specialist when you get there. I feel people soften the rules to make things easier on beginners, and this sabotages the high-level game when the modifiers are not applied faithfully "because we never really used them." Players whose character gets a 20-minus or higher skill get bored and quit.

The Size/Speed/Range Table is the heart of GURPS. It defines melee, ranged, and caster balance. It sets a contrast between high and low skill. This makes "low-level" characters hurt and "high-level" characters shine. Make sure all players have a copy at the table.

These will be the modifiers your characters will live and die by. This is like the "Shadowdark torch timer" that defines that game. How well you can play this chart will determine your character's fate in the game.

Print it out, laminate it, and take it everywhere you go.

Breaking the Mass Market

The unique aspect of GURPS and fantasy settings that I find compelling is the freedom it offers. I can break all my crayons, take a world, and do what I want. It's not about creating 'the standard world' with 'all the monsters ', but about crafting a unique and personal experience.

Oh! Are you playing fantasy? Here is a list of the things you need:

• Gnolls
• Trolls
• Goblins
• Orcs
• Bugbears
• Kobolds
• Dragons
• Centaurs
• Fifty types of Elves
• blah, blah, blah...

Who says? The OSR, 5E, Pathfinder 2, and many other games are guilty. I opened a typical fantasy gaming book, and it was more about packing the supermarket aisle with "fire gnomes" and "pyrite dragons" than giving me a set of rules that let me build a sandbox experience. Even the character options in many of these games are nonsensical, choice paralysis, and funny shapes for the marketing department choices rather than anything that means anything to a world or story.

The games become "who has the bigger lists" than "providing a play experience."

Starfinder 1e was one of the worst offenders. I opened a book, and they listed about 50 new weapons on a half-page chart. "Here is a chart with some more content. Have fun."

The word "content" is like the poop emoji. In the age of AI, where computers can endlessly churn out content like a poop emoji factory, our games suffer with zero thought, more content; here are another 500 poorly thought out options, and we will patch it later; who cares to? Buy another book with mass-market fantasy content.

I miss the days when a designer carefully designed one option to be great. I have been in game design, and we designers sometimes fight with other designers about a single choice. We are passionate about making a single choice meaningful and fun.

I miss a world where artists did the art.

GURPS starts with a "zero-based" world. There is nothing in there but the standard zero-point human. You can create a world with a massive sheet of blank hex paper. No company forces you to put cute kobolds or football-headed goblins in there for their marketing department to own and "brand" your game world. You don't need to include androids as character options or 101 planar races so Wizards can shove its foot in the door and say, "Your world is a part of ours. We own this."

What is happening to fantasy is what happened to the lore, stories, and myths we pass down to the next generation. Disney remade all the classic childhood stories, and they now "own the myth." Of course, our copyrighted cute cartoon animals were always in these stories! They end up owning the childhoods of everyone in the world. You must now pay them for your myths, legends, and stories.

And the price keeps going up.

Mass Market Fantasy does the same thing but for a slightly older audience seeking escapism from a world where everything is bought and sold. These "huge lists" of "content" are supposed to define your ideas of a fantasy world. You don't have mimics in your world? What are you, some sort of anti-fantasy freak? The monster is on the list! Include it!

Yes, your game is yours, and you can include anything you want or exclude an option. But in many cases, you can't. You get on D&D Beyond, and the company gives you the choices you must accept in your game. Any character a player can build is legal and should be accepted. In fact, the system recently eliminated all the data for the 2014 books, and now the spells, items, and other choices only reflect the 2024 versions.

Welcome to the memory hole of live services, everyone.

Those options never existed.

((Update: This decision has been since reversed, but it highlights a disturbing trend of companies "memory holing" their products and treating their legacy as a problem to fix.

Yes, GURPS is a sometimes awkward, confusing, slow, contradictory, messy, complicated game. But everything I build inside is my idea. My world is mine. I don't need vast lists of 500 monsters to have a fantasy world. I don't need lists of 10,000 magic items. Yes, the options are good. But too many options are the tool of an oppressor seeking to crush your imagination. They also force you to use "live service" systems to "manage all your choices." Why wasn't the game designed cleanly with a few meaningful choices? Ones that everyone can use and understand without needing a website to sort through them?

Look up choice paralysis.

It is a real thing, and it can also be used against you. A company can create a confusing and complicated aisle of products with too many choices for our brain to process, so we go to an option that is presented standing on its own (and has a higher price). Hidden in that aisle was what we wanted and right for us. Instead, we took the thing the company wanted us to choose.

Oh, that's why.

The game was designed so that you need the website to play it. Forced dependency is another issue in the corporate world. The choice is good, everyone! Look how many options we have! The truth is, 99% of those character options, monsters, magic items, and other options - you will never use.

In my GURPS Fantasy game, I am figuring out what is out there. I am not sifting through a 500-page book and converting monsters. I don't need to. The "monsters" could very well be other humans in this world. The GURPS books give me a few animals and other standard things to use as a yardstick, but I am free to create everything else.

Ask any optimizer for any 5E class; only very few choices on the list for each class are good. The rest are garbage. This is the "West Coast" design theory; they ship a ton of garbage choices with one or two best options hidden in there. They have been doing this since D&D 3.0, the MtG card printing strategy. 90% of the cards are junk and useless in serious play. Then, they tell you, "Options are good."

I will pick a game that always puts freedom and my ideas first.

Basic Roleplaying vs. GURPS: Disadvantages

One thing Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying could do better, compared to GURPS, is character disadvantages. They have a "character failings" system regarding superpowers to increase the "point budget" to buy superpowers. Still, these need to be integrated into the main game as a system that nets extra character or skill points.

You could make a house rule saying the points in character failings can be applied as ability score points or give 5% per point in skills since a 5% bonus in a sharpness spell would cost a point in an item (times five for always on). Still, this is a hack and invites min-maxing.

Played as-is, BRP does not have a character advantage or disadvantage system, and the characters come off as ability scores and skill lists. If you have a disadvantage, it is roleplaying only, and you note it as a part of your character background.

BRP has a "passion" system that can be a double-sided trait (BRP p214). It forces "self-control" roles and acts as a positive inspiration system in certain situations. This is the best way to handle these in the system, though these are more mental and social traits than physical ones. The passion system in BRP is like a skill and can improve over time (or decrease to 0% and be removed from the character). It can be gained at any time through situations and role-playing.

If a character sees a village destroyed by necromancy and has an extreme reaction, that character could get "Hate: Necromancy" as a passion at 60%, and that will guide the character's actions, improve or weaken, and be a part of that character going forward.

Passions are also how devotion to a deity and a paladin's code of honor work in the game. To go against it, you need to fail the roll (and this may force a check later to lower the passion by 1d6%). But passions can be rolled like a skill to gain temporary inspiration for an action or scene, so they work both ways.

GURPS does a better job with character disadvantages across the board; they cover more situations (social, mental, and physical), and the disadvantages can be added to templates. There is more "English" when creating a minor disadvantage versus a quirk or a full-blown major disadvantage.

One issue that GURPS does not cover is temporary disadvantages that can change during play. The system in BRP is more suited for this since the percentage values constantly change. Passions can go away or become more severe over time. You can always "buy off" a GURPS disadvantage, but the system in BRP is more "gamified" and serves as a roleplaying hook (that can be used for temporary advantages as well).

The passion system in BRP was not built to factor in physical limitations or concepts like corruption. These are more role-playing backgrounds or things for which you need to create new systems.

And I am not house ruling these or creating a system to work them in. These are well-understood and translate to any game without teaching people new rules or explaining lists of house rulings. They can be used in adventures, templates, and character designs without a problem.

One of the annoying parts of the GURPS disadvantage system comes with Dungeon Fantasy characters, where that system forces me to take bucketloads of disadvantages that almost seem like character stereotypes. I will end up with these 250-point characters with 50-75 points of disadvantages (or even 125), and the characters feel heavily weighted down with baggage (I hate to call it that, but it is). Playing a character with five 12-minus self-control roles feels like a chore, and some overlap, like charitable versus compulsive generosity and honorable versus some of the codes of conduct (and even selfless).

I prefer my GURPS characters to have fewer disadvantages, like the one or two defining negative traits, which are no more than 30 points. Players should be worrying about those one or two weaknesses and not something that looks like a skill list packed with disadvantages. This adds to the already complex Dungeon Fantasy character templates, and I get the feeling DF was designed for GURPS experts and not the target audience of "players coming from D&D," as the game would be better suited to serve.

Dungeon Fantasy is a fantastic game, but it misses the target of being a system you can use to convert D&D players to GURPS. The 250-point templates are capable but more meant for experienced players. Ideally, the system should give you class abilities in 50-point increments, and you should start at 50 points, with your first milestone happening after your first adventure and getting you to 100 points. Disadvantages should be limited to 25 points at the start.

A 250-point character with 30 spells is a lot to learn and understand if you are new to GURPS. By contrast, a beginning caster in BRP has 4 or 6 spells (normal and heroic power levels), which come from skill points (starting at INT x 1% and improved by spending points). Also, a BRP character with a collection of 3-18 ability scores and a list of percentage skills is much easier for new players to pick up and learn than a 250-point GURPS character. Players can get into BRP games like Call of Cthulhu much faster than they can GURPS.

GURPS does a better job here, as these rules are built into character design. I like GURPS's freedom in defining a character's "roleplaying characteristics."

BRP is a more straightforward game, with a softer system that is either listed in a character's background (not pointed) or vectored out using the passions system. BRP is also meant to "bolt on" optional rules and modules more than GURPS,

GURPS Compared to...

There are only a few old-school games I compare GURPS to. I would not compare this to 5E since 5E is less of a role-playing game and more of a tabletop MMO. This started with 4E, and you see it today with the lists of "best and worst classes in the 2024 PHB." MMO culture has taken over 5E, and it is in its "peak World of Warcraft" phase where "you play the game because your co-workers do." You don't like it or would stick with it; it is just the "hot thing" to do to be active in social circles. Most of the YouTube content I see for 5E isn't story or lore; it is all MMO theory-crafting.

GURPS doesn't compete with 5E. They're games, but the reasons for playing GURPS differ entirely. GURPS is a platform for creativity, character building, power crafting, and world creation. GURPS's focus on realism and simulation sets it apart, which can truly immerse you in the game. The depth of this game can keep you engaged for years, making the old-school games I compare seem vastly different.

The first would be Old School Essentials, standing in for the game GURPS replaced in the 1980s, which would be D&D and AD&D. OSE is a fantastic game, and I still play it as my B/X game of choice. But given the same characters, a cleric in OSE versus a cleric in Dungeon Fantasy - the GURPS-based game will always win. Level-based games could do better in terms of realistic character simulation.

GURPS will be my primary go-to game if I spend serious time in a fantasy setting with a few characters when playing solo. The characters will be more profound, the combat better, and they will feel real to me. Running a sizeable solo game with 4-6 characters in GURPS is challenging, so this may be when I use OSE instead. I could always create the rest of the parts as GURPS Ultra Lite characters, which I do for most NPCs.

However, most people gave up on AD&D and D&D in the late 1980s because the level-based system with Vancian magic felt old and could not express people's characters well. Contrast that with today, when people have an idea for a fantasy character, they run to D&D Beyond, and that game defines what a fantasy hero is in their minds.

Today, I hold OSE and Shadowdark on equal footing, and they are both classics.

Rolemaster is another game I compare GURPS to, and this game makes GURPS look like a rules-light B/X implementation. We played this (and Rifts) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the universal reaction to it was, "Why are you playing this?" They were excellent, and we enjoyed the depth that Rolemaster gave us. We loved the charts.

Rolemaster takes a lot more time to learn, create characters for, and play than GURPS. I still like the system; it feels like an old "auto repair manual" that diagrams how a transmission is taken apart and rebuilt. The game has that "complexity level" that GURPS has, but the downside is the time needed to invest and play this game.

Rolemaster ended for us in the late 1990s when it was revised to RMSS and RMFRP and bloated to hundreds of skills. The "how to play" parts were all given flowcharts, and the characters became hyper-detailed and unmanageable. Rolemaster is still fun, even if just to read and imagine.

Basic Roleplaying competes with GURPS for my interest and playtime these days. I love the concept of needing to use skills to improve them, and while you can simulate this in GURPS by disallowing improvement on skills you did not use, in BRP, it is a core feature of the system. BRP is generic, it does every genre well, and combat and characters are straightforward and simple.

BRP invites tinkering and adding to the game, and it is very hackable and modifiable. People say this is a "game you build games from," but that isn't all true. The book, as-is, is very playable and runs any genre perfectly. If you mod "after play starts," you save yourself building things no one will use, and you are in and playing without investing too much time in creating a game and pushing people to play it.

Like GURPS, BRP will do anything to make the characters feel complex and realistic. They will learn as they go, forcing them into dangerous situations where they need to rely on skills they aren't good at but want to improve. The "character sim through story" in BRP is one of the best in gaming since you watch those skills level up and risk yourself next time doing something you pray you can improve. That "character sim" is even better than GURPS since it is organic, happens naturally through play, and does not rely on balancing points and builds.

BRP's not using point-builds is a huge plus, and there are times when I just want to create a character, not worry about points, and just play, having the characters learn and grow as they go. BRP is also easier to run 4-6 characters in than GURPS, so I can do a "party sim" here like in OSE.

BRP also drives Runequest (we played 3rd) and Call of Cthulhu (5th). Both games were fantastic in the 1980s and 1990s and opened doors for us that D&D could not. Considering CoC is the 2nd most popular RPG in the world, the rules have staying power and appeal to many.

BRP needs the genre support books and options of GURPS, forcing you to do a lot of work if your conversion is extensive (which is usually a mistake). You can also use the GURPS sourcebooks with BRP. I didn't say that! Well, I did. GURPS works well with many games, even as just sourcebooks.

BRP is one of the games I have that takes away time and attention from GURPS, and that says a lot about it. And yes, it is worth playing independently without needing "game design beforehand."

BRP works as a game and a toolkit, playing very well.

Rifts is another game I compare GURPS to, along with the entire Palladium Megaverse and the Palladium FRPG. This was another game we loved in the 1980s and 1990s. It belongs in this group; even though I am not playing it currently, I have fond memories.

A few other 1980s and 1990s games, from Shadowrun to Vampire, need to be included here. I am going by my feelings of the time and era; if this were a list of games in the modern context, I would have Savage Worlds on this list. 

Sorry, Stranger Things kids. If you want to do a final season right, you will all be dropping D&D in the late 1980s and playing GURPS or one of the other games on this list (or BattleTech). By 1989, D&D wasn't cool anymore, and the sanitized AD&D 2nd Edition was hitting the shelves (just like sanitized 5.5E today). Level-based games were inferior and limiting.

Magic The Gathering took off in the mid-1990s, and I remember local game stores dropping RPGs for MtG space. Roleplaying has never recovered since then, and part of me feels the hobby died then and never really came back—not like it was. You can only live through an era once.

GURPS is still my go-to game for most solo play. It best captures what I love about the hobby.

Everything is Playing

Me? I like playing GURPS. Even character creation is a hobby in itself. There is an excellent solo-play theory book, The Solo Game Master's Guide, that lays out a few key principles of solo play. One of them is, "Everything is playing."

The theory is this: everything you do when engaging with a game is playing. You don't need to be "in the game" and running combat turns on a hex grid to be playing GURPS. Everything you do around playing GURPS is playing GURPS.

When I use the GURPS Character Sheet to create characters, build templates, optimize a build, design powers, or express character ideas, I'm not just playing, I'm deeply engaged with my game and my hobby. It's a journey of fun and discovery.

If I am reading a sourcebook, dreaming about a campaign or adventure? I am playing.

If I pick up a setting guide, how do I turn it into a GURPS conversion? I am playing.

If I am doing a conversion? Well, I am playing.

Should I write blog posts discussing my thoughts on the game and my experiences? I am playing! Welcome to my game! I'm glad to have you along.

This theory aims to eliminate "play bias guilt," where if you can't sit at a hex grid and physically play the game in "turn-by-turn play," then you are NOT playing. What happens after that? You feel guilty, never have enough time to play, and quit.

By making every thought and action about a game "playing," the engagement level you need to feel involved in the game is very low. Thus, you can be constantly playing - even if you are out doing chores and just reading a PDF on your phone and dreaming about your campaign.

The goal is to keep playing and engaged.

GURPS is a perfect game for this mindset since I can sit here and design characters for hours and have fun. Are you having fun? Well, are you playing?

Why yes, I am.

Will I use these characters in a solo game someday? I probably will. In the meantime, let me dream and play a little more until I reach that point.

5E is Easier than GURPS? Not Anymore.

Anyone who says that "5E is easier than GURPS" after the 2024 D&D books is incorrect. I accidentally clicked on a few videos reviewing the books, and here is the root of the problem with the new edition:

• Nearly everyone has spells.
• The rules on how and when these spells are used are confusing.
• The organization of the new books is terrible, and they have horrid accessibility issues.
• Wall of text, no cross-referencing, and rules get redefined and repeated.

The 2024 books are so obfuscated that the only way to play and understand the game correctly is on a VTT. The only DM who can run the game correctly is a computer (likely with an AI DM). Search YouTube for "D&D 2024 Accessibility Issues."

The action system is terribly confusing, and you will not have "new players" react well with the limitations to multi-actions and "leveled spells" and all the other sorts of nerfs, rules clarifications, guidelines, and other patches laid upon an already shaky framework meant to be the "relatively rules light" version of D&D that 5E was supposed to be.

Someone will try to "double-cast" a spell and be told, "You can't do that." The player will then spend the next 45 minutes reading the books and trying to figure out "what they are allowed to do" with a specific action type. GURPS? One turn, one action, and no "invisible extra-special action types" granted by this or that. Pathfinder 2, with its system of action points and different actions costing different amounts, is far easier to understand and teach new players.

I have played with large groups of new players and tried teaching them D&D. The 2024 books are non-starters for new players. If I were recommending or starting a group with a D&D-type game today (d20, AC, hit points, levels), I would easily recommend Shadowdark. And stay with Shadowdark since it does 90% of what you do in D&D easier than the official game. Shadowdark is "the better D&D" these days, capturing the best elements of the genre while avoiding hundreds of pages of character rules.

I would graduate to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy after that (with some extra GURPS thrown in) since character-building is hands down the best part of the hobby, and detailed combat is perfection. Do not apologize for the complexity of character creation; it is a genius system that puts all the "heritage, ancestry, species, archetype, background, whatever" create-a-silly-face systems with a spiral flipbook in modern 5E to shame. GURPS also integrates roleplaying advantages and disadvantages into character creation, something none of the new 5E games do. Starting a new group with Shadowdark will train new players for GURPS much better than starting with D&D.

But D&D 2024 is not an easily playable game; it is more the source code for the VTT.

GURPS, by comparison, is straightforward, with clear rules and a simple action economy.

And the best character creation and combat in the hobby.

GURPS Characters Feel Real

GURPS will always be in my top five games. It is evergreen and a place where I can express my creativity. GURPS will never be a "mobile phone game" where "Fortnite and video game character minifigures will be available for microtransactions."

The game's lower level of popularity and higher learning curve ensures that only the most dedicated players, those truly committed to learning and understanding the game, will be part of this unique community. While I sometimes wish GURPS was as big as 5E, I also appreciate the special bond we share in our smaller, but more connected, community.

But this isn't about 5E. No other game gives me the in-depth character simulation of GURPS. I don't get the same feeling from OSR games as I do in GURPS. While I run an OSR blog that covers Old School Essentials, Shadowdark, and Dungeon Crawl Classics - I like those games for other reasons. They are amazing games that have a strong sense of "design for gameplay" that draws me in. They are simple, like a Monopoly, and do that "dungeon crawl" thing well. They aren't this "superhero railroad" power-accumulation game that 5E has morphed into.

When I design a GURPS character, I feel I know them in real life. This isn't some 7-hit-point fighter with a +1 to hit and chainmail. With my GURPS character, I know their upbringing, their profession, their strengths, their weaknesses, their hopes, and where they want to go in life. I know how they are weak, what they fear, and their strengths. I know how the world sees them.

No other game gives me that.

Many on YouTube will sit there, point at GURPS, and say, "You don't need all that to roleplay!" And they are right. I can do all this with OSE or Shadowdark. I can do all this with a B/X or BECMI character.

But while I certainly don't "need" it all, I appreciate having it all.

And I like having it all.