GURPS: Star Frontiers, Try #2

I am restarting my GURPS: Star Frontiers game, but doing it the right way this time. Well, what is "the right way?" I am creating an equipment and weapon list in the GURPS Character Sheet (support the project, link on the sidebar), sticking with those items, and only supplanting from other gear lists as I need.

This is more like a "GURPS sandbox" conversion, where I make a focused gear and weapons list and just use that. I am not allowing random weapons from GURPS Ultra-Tech or any other source; it is fair game if it is on the "in-game" gear lists. The only change is to add the GURPS power cells from UltraTech as my "power clips" for the game since UT has the smaller A & B style cells that can power some of the smaller devices.

I will make a list of races and build those as templates.

I may create "template packages" for the various primary skill areas and the skill choices, like "robotics skill," a 25-point GURPS template you can pick and add to a character's skills. I may also add the starship skills from Knight Hawks as templates. This will make building characters (and NPCs) as easy as setting a point level and picking packages.

Laser pistols will be capped at a maximum of 5 SEU, rifles at 10, and heavy lasers at 20. We made this house rule back in the day, and it worked well. Smaller weapons can only be turned up so much. If you want big, go big.

A 1d10 damage in Star Frontiers is a 1d6 in GURPS.

Starships? I will stick with the Knight Hawks rules with a few modifications. GURPS will handle all to-hits and skill rules. Turns and movement will be Knight Hawks. Ranges will be handled by GURPS, but 1 hex of starship scale will be one meter of GURPS scale, and the GURPS range modifiers will apply. If Knight Hawks gives a -10% chance to hit, that will be a flat -2 in GURPS per -10%. Otherwise, starship damage, weapon damage, and all other rules will be Knight Hawks.

I could use 1d6 as the "base die" for starship damage and scale hull points down to 60% of KH.

Vehicle combat in Star Frontiers can work as-is, rolling d100 as needed. However, there is a power difference between Star Frontiers' heavy weapons and GURPS' more realistic ones. This needs to be tested or followed closer to GURPS' standards.

I am not messing with any of the GURPS starship combat systems again; those derailed my game last time. I want a GURPS sandbox, a transplant of the starship rules, and a thin emulation layer to make everything work with GURPS. All the character, ground combat, and other rules will be GURPS.

I tried this with a mix of GURPS Space, Ultra Tech, and Starships, and it did not feel the same. It felt like a GURPS: Space game wearing a Star Frontier's skin. There is a certain "toybox" that Star Frontiers needs to work well. When all of GURPS: Ultra Tech is thrown into the mix, even at TL 9 or 10, the game just feels like it derails and goes everywhere. Like huge skill lists, a part of me feels Star Frontiers needs to be a simplified, almost "pulp" science fiction experience.

Curating carefully and making focused lists of options is key to pulling this game off.

GURPS EverQuest: Rules or Setting?

I vote GURPS: EverQuest is more the setting and less the game.

I have enough "rules" in Dungeon Fantasy, and the spells work well. With all the "GURPS Dungeon Fantasy" PDFs for the main rules, you have even more options for evil gods, dark knights, and necromancers.

I can design within the EverQuest class frameworks; I have played this game and know what these classes are supposed to feel like. Realistically, in a "pen-and-paper world," there will be variations among the classes based on the individual. One shadow-knight might be more into raising the undead, and another may be into inflicting pain.

In 5E? Forget it; you have a few subclasses that define everything about your character, and you will never have the freedom to have fun with a base class and tweak it. I could make a necromancer-bard in GURPS that sings to the undead, and I can't think of another 5E or OSR game with a class like that. Sure, I can multiclass, but to have those songs designed to affect the undead only? I can't think of a game that does that.

In EverQuest? You have almost no customization outside of placing a few ability score points at character creation, and those matter very little by the end game.

GURPS gives you the best flexibility, and you should use that to create characters that fit "your idea" of what a class role is for your character. Not everyone in that class will be the same as you; this is GURPS; embrace it.

The only "look and feel" the game should have are the "class frameworks," but even then, you should go outside what the game allows you to create since you have a full pen-and-paper RPG with the best character design system in gaming. The GURPS game enables you to customize and tweak your classes; as long as your necromancer "raises dead" and "does necromancer things," you are fine. Just don't include holy abilities that break the thematic feeling of the class, and you will be good.

Race is also an essential part of "why you play." In the original game, people loved their characters and backgrounds; capturing them is critical. In GURPS, these are straightforward templates, so they will not be hard to build. The unique options, such as tough hides, wings, tails, claws, water breathing, and other body parts and abilities, will need the full GURPS game and not the limited subset of Dungeon Fantasy.

You will need to go "outside the box" a little, depending on how "superhero" you want the races to be in abilities. None of the races in the original game have water breathing, but if that thematically fits with your idea of the froglok race, then you may give them that power.

The setting is the star of the show here—the classic Freeport and Qeynos settings and all the places in the world with charm and history: the moon of Luclin, the savage continents, jungles, swamps, and frozen lands. The world is vibrant, either the original EQ1 or the alt-history EQ2.

But this conversion also highlights how you should approach similar conversions. Dungeon Fantasy "rolls back" some of the GURPS's freedom and limits your design flexibility.

But also, when you are doing conversions, you may not always want a "note for note" exact match of your source material since that may be severely limited. The Dungeon Fantasy spells are far better than the EverQuest ones, and as long as you pick "close enough" or "fits the theme," then you will have a better character design than an "exact recreation" or even a "game conversion."

If a paladin has a few "holy abilities," then OK. This works. If they are powers you want, then go with that. If they aren't perfectly "on spec" and "100% conversion accurate," who cares?

This is GURPS. If all a paladin learns are a few heal spells, forgo buffs, and the other bog-standard paladin powers, it doesn't matter. If another just wants to smite evil all day, that may be how that paladin learned to be a paladin. There is a lot of wiggle room in GURPS compared to 5E. In 5E, if you go up one subclass path, you will be the same exact paladin as someone else.

In GURPS, you could start a paladin and become a bard.

Coming from 5E or even EverQuest, that is strange.

Coming from GURPS, this is normal.