I play BX, and it feels like "a dungeon game." I obey the strict dungeon exploration turn order, mark off the turn record sheet, let the burned torches flicker out and light a new one, and roll diligently for wandering monster checks. This is what 5E wants to forget: the minigame that is dungeon exploration.
This is why we play.
I love counting off turns, the resources ticking down, the creative use of equipment, the problem-solving, the XP for GP, avoiding fights, cheating the monsters, and getting the creatures in the dungeon into no-win fights.
Our lives are on the line here; we are not looking for a fair fight! Where 5E players are playing "king's chess," BX players are "backstabbing mobsters and cutthroats."
And unlike 5E, we can't sit quietly for ten minutes and heal a spear thrust impaling someone's face. The healing game in 5E is beyond stupid, and it is World of Warcraft. If you die, you might as well "respawn at town" to finish the gameplay dynamic.
Just be honest about what your game is. If death is impossible, just write that into the rules.
I am mostly done with mainstream 5E. The game is too heavy, too complicated, a mess of designer good intentions, and it keeps breaking when I try to get the system to do what I want. 5E is a wannabe narrative story game wearing AC, hit points, and a level system that the designers think will excite you, but every level, it ends up disappointing you more and more, with nothing to look forward to, and it's a waiting game to get the next power to make you more invincible and even more powerful.
I tried liking 5E many times. Every time I played, I got bored, and the character sheets ended up a dozen printed pages long. I can't support that, nor play it alone. If I am playing a game that deep, GURPS will win since I get more out of it than I put in. And a thousand-point character in GURPS is only four pages long. I start to get recycling anxiety around printing 5E character sheets on paper.
I am a better "game designer" than 5E designers, especially with a character I know by heart. I know their exact powers. I know the skills they have. I know this character and the design team are not "telling me" who my character is or what they can do.
I am not fitting my character concept and abilities around "what the game tells me my character knows."
In GURPS, I am fitting my character concept and abilities around "what I know."
The 2024 version of D&D removed all the ranger's "soft powers" around exploration and focused on combat abilities, mainly because those are the easiest to support in a (failed) VTT. So, what, now? My ranger is stupid when it comes to survival. Or is that just "flavor text" that the game doesn't supply rules for anymore? In GURPS, I get my ranger abilities back, I can pick exactly what they are, and improve them to super-heroic levels if I want.
My GURPS ranger is so skilled that he can build an igloo McMansion and survive for years on an ice sheet. It is a two-story house with a grand bedroom and an ice piano in the foyer. It even has a heated swimming pool that we have no idea how it doesn't freeze or melt through the ice shelf.
That may seem so over-the-top and stupid that it seems impossible.
But there is a way to do that in GURPS.
That survival skill is going to be loaded up with so many custom modifiers (or the easiest way is a custom Cosmic modifier at +50%) that the skill itself will be prohibitively expensive to level, but hey, where there is an idea, there is a way in GURPS.
In 5E? Forget it, you are stuck with what the book gives you. Or doesn't give you.
Your ranger in 5E is stuck with an overloaded Hunter's Mark and is freezing to death.
My GURPS ranger is sleeping in his ice canopy bed, perfectly warm, and looking forward to a breakfast stored in the refrigerator that never needs power.
GURPS is the better fit. My beat-up softcovers are well-loved and on my play shelf. There is nothing like a dog-eared and shopworn copy of GURPS; every bump, nick, and crease is an adventure had. You know this book lived a great life and provided endless adventures - and it still has a long life ahead! Dinged books aren't imperfect; they have character and are signs of love and use.
And, honestly, GURPS is the better narrative game. We have advantages and disadvantages here that directly impact character actions and the story. 5E has nothing except a very weak inspiration mechanic that is really only useful for combat or avoiding consequences. I can play rules-light GURPS, just "skills and 3d6," and have a far more engaging and immersive narrative experience than 5E. The only thing 5E supplies is a pre-made framework of fantasy superpowers based on class templates. That does not replace strong narrative tools and systems.
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