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,
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