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.