GURPS at Our Table in the Late 1980s

In the late 1980s, I watched GURPS replace AD&D at our table. All the kids were switching, and it felt like a relief not to fiddle with class and level just to play. Science fiction and modern games never sat right in that frame; in GURPS, they felt natural, and we loved that.

That was the quiet stretch from 1987 to about 1992, before Vampire, Cyberpunk, and Rifts showed up and before Magic: The Gathering landed in the mid-1990s. For a while, GURPS was what we played after we put AD&D down.

I love the OSR, and I love my AD&D, but even we gave it up for Aftermath, GURPS, and a few others. We were part of that crowd looking for something that fit better. It is hard to set the OSR on a pedestal when I lived through the years when people were already hunting for the next game. AD&D will always be my best memories of the hobby.

D&D has always treated the job as the important part. GURPS leaves room for the person as much as the job.

You can run it hard or light, but the default is one-second combat turns, tight actions, short lethal fights, and a character build that has room for the person sitting behind the sheet.

I watch 5.5E hand out Strength because you were a Farmer and Dexterity because you were a Wayfarer. I could haul furniture in a city and want the Strength bump. I could grow up rural and know nothing about farming. D&D still throws a canned life at the table and waits for a nod.

GURPS rejects that. You design the character with your history as a guide and your imagination as fuel.