Each Character is a Game

Every character in GURPS is a game.

One of the things that I find most reassuring about this system is its straightforward and consistent rules. When you design a character, it's almost as if you're doing game design. Unlike the D&D-style' interrupt style design', GURPS doesn't endlessly tack on specific case rules that supersede the rule they just told you to handle one way.

If you have this ability, rule X works like special case Y. They keep doing this in the classes and spells, this endless series of short circuits and rule overrides. It is a spaghetti-coding waterfall rule design. But 5E is simple! When you start, yes. But after you buy the book, the first-level character is designed to get you into the game like a mobile game's first few hours.

300 special cases later from a dozen different classes and subclasses, I would rather be playing a game with consistent mechanics. As you level, things rapidly become more complicated.

I remember reading the first ability that gave me a "bonus action" in the 2014 5E rulebook. I flipped to the combat chapter and could not find anything mentioning "bonus actions," so I sat there, confused and wondering what the book was doing or if it was a typo. For a few hours, I sat there wondering, "What type of action is a bonus action, and where can I find it?" Later, we found the rules that said "only one bonus action per turn," we all realized "we were playing it wrong."

Again.

As detailed as GURPS combat is, I never had problems like this learning the system. Like the arcade game Qix, learning GURPS involves blocking off some rules, reading through them, trying them yourself, and then moving on to the next section. Even combat is like this. Learn turn structure. Learn to-hits. Understand the difference between melee and ranged. Learn how damage works. Learn how stunning works. Understand armor. Learn how dying works.

Once the GURPS framework is built in your head, the entire game is simple and straightforward.

As your character grows in power in GURPS, the system doesn't become more complicated. The odds improve, and you can buy more skills and abilities, but the fundamental structure of the rules remains consistent. You're not dealing with rule overrides, special action types, or creating interrupts to rulings.

GURPS actions are straightforward and consistent. You don't constantly change how you handle a situation, which can be a relief compared to other systems.

The math gets better.

The game doesn't get any more complicated.

Special actions open up, like the ones with hefty penalties, and you can do special attacks and defenses easily, where less-skilled opponents can't. You outclass your enemies and aren't gaining special attacks that lower-level characters can't have. All-out defense is not something only level 5 fighters unlock, and no one else can have, and it is designed to break a rule elsewhere.

Where the complexity of GURPS lies in character design. Designing a character creates a "game" that works within the GURPS simulation framework. Yes, you get the standards like attributes and skills, but you also get a set of powers you decide. You also get a set of advantages and disadvantages that define how your character works within the simulation.

And compared to a 5E or Pathfinder character, who can sometimes stretch across eight to twelve character sheets, most GURPS characters fit on a single two-sided piece of paper. I have had Pathfinder 1e characters in Hero Lab that came out to a dozen pages of text, spell descriptions, abilities, and exceptional cases up and down the two-column sheet.

But GURPS characters are a game in that the skills you pick unlock what you can do in the simulation. It sounds like "duh, that is what skills do," but it is more than that. When you build a character, you build the "game" you want to play in GURPS. Is your character more social? Stealth based? A melee combat juggernaut? A DX fighter? Or a mix of a few types? A crafter? A survival character? The character you build will be the "game" you play inside the "sim framework" of the rules.