Returning With GURPS

I have been shuffling the rest of the game library because I feel 5E is moving away from my interests and fantasy; the classic campaign worlds are being remade into lesser versions, and the fantasy art I grew up with in the 1980s is Photoshopped and censored, and I feel the worlds that TSR built are slowly dying off. There is only so much recycling a property can take before it's no longer what it was. Like paper fibers in a bag, recycle them too many times and what holds the bag together breaks apart into dust.

I can come home with GURPS, though. I can play the original Low-Fantasy world we started with in the Forgotten Realms, give it new life, and just play with GURPS. Low-fantasy Forgotten Realms was one of our best AD&D campaigns: gritty, low magic, and full of danger; family and fealty meant something, and it wasn't this overpowered science-fiction setting wearing Ren Faire garb, with mixed European accents and voice actors everywhere.

When a mysterious horse rider rides up in a battle, someone in the group points, recognizes the family crest, and shouts, "I know his family!" - that is a cool moment. I get that in GURPS. In D&D 5E, all I get is people checking their character sheets and piecing together their next turn's action economy. They mentally shuffle powers and actions like a Magic: The Gathering player shuffles through their deck.

And there are players who won't play anything else except 5E. It doesn't give me much hope in the hobby outside of my small corner of it.

But playing GURPS here gives me hope. Harpers aren't immortal gods who can swoop in and solve every problem with a wish and resurrection. Even they can get speared, take an unlucky hit, and bleed out. Melee combat is a serious choice, which opens up the social and house-family games of courtly intrigue. Walking out to handle the bandits yourself is one way to do it; getting the local lord to lend you five soldiers to back your expedition up is another.

Who you know and who you are related to matter. It isn't about entitled power trees that hand you importance. You need to make your own importance in this world that cares little if you live or die.

You have to play a smart and careful game in GURPS, and magic begins with the mundane, almost parlor-trick, acts of manipulation - which can be used to great effect. Magic is about creative use again, tricksterism, and subterfuge. Creating a shadow to make an enemy think someone went down the left hall instead of the right. It isn't about becoming an invincible combat god with maximum damage per turn.

Even being a mage or rogue isn't something you may want to announce, and you could take the secretive route and have a cover while studying magic in secret, or take things on the sly. In D&D, not announcing your class and role is unthinkable. In GURPS, hey, I am an alchemist and crafter of tonics, and I have the skills to back it up. My magic? Very few know about that. Me? Being a rogue? Are you serious? I am a mercenary archer, good sir! The game does not force me to announce my class, or make it so obvious that all my great roleplaying goes out the window.

I don't know; it feels like there is so much wrong with current 5E that I don't even feel it is a relatable game anymore. Sure, I can get into the powers part of it and theory-craft, but that is not why I play a game. Walking into a kingdom with guaranteed godhood and a power tree meant to blow main battle tanks off their tracks isn't my idea of a fantasy game. An OSR game gets me to a better spot with less hassle, but GURPS gives me so much more, plus the skills and roleplaying advantages I need to back up the campaign.

GURPS feels like putting on a special pair of magic glasses that lets you see any world in an entirely new way.

That's why I love this game.