GURPS is the Better Game for Powers (and Combat)

When comparing GURPS and Mythras, I had that typical "is this better?" feeling in the back of my neck. Mythras offers several advantages, including an easy d100 system, 3d6-ranged attributes, and excellent combat special effects applied to either offense or defense. If you're familiar with BRP or Call of Cthulhu, you'll likely be familiar with Mythras. It is as easy to pick up as B/X in complexity, but it has layers of depth that surprise me.

The combats in Mythras are fun, with a level of unpredictability in the results and the combat specials you can stack up, or have used against you. This is dependent on relative skill levels, with lucky hits still possible for unskilled fighters, and everyone having low hit points, so every hit matters.

Mythras is an easy game to use when transitioning away from D&D 5E and the OSR, and it gives you a look into a "whole new world" of tactical possibilities. However, GURPS has greater depth to tactical combats, and marries that with a complete character and power design system.

In GURPS, you are much more "close to the metal" when it comes to combat specials, but you need to declare them before you roll. You need to know what is available, when they apply, how much of an attack penalty they give you, and you need to declare them before your attack. To players who like to control a character "down to every move," this is ideal, since they want to call for a trip and try that, and not have it come up due to a lucky roll with a high result differential.

If I am tripping someone, or someone is trying to trip me, it has to be declared, attempted, and rolled for. No randomness or stacking special effects due to an attack and defense total difference, please.

That said, Mythras is miles better than D&D combat, by far, and this is starting to kill my interest in my B/X games, OSE, AD&D, and Shadowdark. If a game offers a B/X level of simplicity but a far deeper combat system, that is a winner for me.

Mythras is a D&D and OSR killer for me.

If I were migrating recovering players from D&D-style games to Mythras, running them through the System to get them used to combat actions would be helpful and show them another world. If they liked that, we could stay here. Eventually, I would like to bring them into GURPS, where we have the most freedom. But showing them a world where it is more than just d20 vs. AC and roll damage would be an eye-opener. Even Shadowdark suffers from the d20 curse of bland numerical combat.

But what about GURPS?

Well, GURPS is the "everything else" killer.

To be fair, GURPS offers more combat options and a broader range of "combat specials" than Mythras, once you consider all the Martial Arts options and utilize a combat cheat sheet resource. One of the problems with GURPS is that many special combat actions are scattered across different books, making it hard to find them in one place for easy reference.

In Mythras, you get to "choose them from a menu" after a roll, and this is honestly easier for D&D players to start with to "expand their thinking" around combat. In GURPS, you'll need a cheat sheet to fully utilize the combat system's details. It's also a good idea to practice these moves a few times to get the hang of them, as many will change factors (like not being able to defend with all-out attacks). I added a cheat sheet section to the sidebar with a few of these, since they do come in handy.

Combat specials are easier in Mythras.

Combat options are better in GURPS.

It's not GURPS, but it is my MS Paint art. -Hak

Powers are the clear place GURPS wins. Suppose I have a monster with a special attack ability, such as eye beams, charm, confusion, entanglement, push back, blindness, darkness, stun, or any other special attack. In that case, this is far easier in GURPS than in Mythras or D&D. In those games, you just sort of need to "wing it" and "say what it does," but in GURPS, I will design that as a power, and guess what? 

Suppose a character gains an extraordinary power from touching a runestone, becomes corrupted by demons, is sanctified by the holy, acquires a power from an ancient master, passes on the legacy of the king, or experiences any other special campaign event. In that case, this can be just designed and added to the character, just like any other power.

GURPS makes the 5E-style "superpower abilities" almost stupidly easy to create, design, and balance with limitations and disadvantages. That demon corruption? That is a template package that also gives adverse social reactions and a "hunted by demon hunters" disadvantage. It is far easier to do this in GURPS since it has a power design system with full advantage and disadvantage support, and I can balance these powers right down to the last die of damage and special effect.

And, many of these powers come pre-designed with examples in GURPS Powers. Just drop them into a character or monster and go.

And GURPS works for any genre, so my superhero, Gamma World mutant, science fiction adept, fantasy wizard, air elemental, or kung-fu master can all use that "concussive air blast" power (GURPS Powers, p. 137). I can slap on a power source modifier there for magic, mutation, training, superpower, or wherever it comes from, and I am done. Any monster in any GURPS bestiary, or one quickly created using GURPS Ultra Lite, can have these powers tacked onto it.

My MS Paint art strikes again! -Hak

Yeah, this air elemental has super breath and can push all of you off the cliff. I know that is not in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, but hey, this is GURPS, and this air elemental is "The Windlord" and special. Boss monsters in GURPS can have superpowers, use special combat attacks, and have martial arts!

But that isn't fair in 5E! Air elementals only have a double slam attack and a whirlwind that throws in random directions. They don't have a line attack! Or throw an air blast area effect attack! Or blind people with dust! What is this thing? Stupid custom monster not in the Monster Manual and cheating DM! Play the game right and only use things we know!

I go by the Dungeon Crawl Classics theme of "Every monster is unique."

Have fun as I look up the falling rules.

In making a custom power for GURPS, I am not guessing, copying an existing spell, wondering how many times a day it can be used, or worrying if it breaks my game. I have the point cost in GURPS, and that keeps it relatively balanced. If something is overly powerful, I can either add a use limitation or reduce the damage; it's no problem. In B/X, Mythras, or other games, I am left winging it for monster powers. I have to borrow one, and then it is guesswork.

In GURPS, I have tons of powers in my books to use as-is.

Yes, if I am playing "dungeon games" with Mythras, I get those combat specials, but I lose so much character depth with what GURPS gives me for free that I wonder if it is worth it. I get "combat specials" in GURPS, but I have to preannounce and try them, closer to the metal, so I am not losing those, and the ones in GURPS are comparable (and more expansive) once you find a cheat sheet and print that out. It does take more system knowledge in GURPS to get what Mytras gives you for free, but in the end, it is probably a better feeling to have greater control of your combat options than to rely on the dice.

Mythras is still a fantastic game, mind you, and still an easy D&D replacement that drops right in.

However, if I want to tell the types of stories I envision, where the whims of a game designer, class designer, or someone else dictate powers and sources, GURPS offers me more control. With games that go beyond the ordinary, GURPS is far better when it comes to special powers, and lets me be the game designer.

Mythras and GURPS

Mythras is loved by its fans as much as GURPS is loved. I have been reading this lately and am surprised by how similar it is to GURPS.

• Deadly combat
• Skill-based play
• Hit locations
• Combat maneuvers 

The first three points are a given and can be easily seen. Getting into combat is a serious matter, so characters go out of their way to avoid it or take precautions. The skill-based play is fulfilling. Mythras has hits per location, while GURPS does full body hits. GURPS limits damage to the minimum required to cripple the extremity, so it sort of does have "hits per location" in a way.

The last one is combat maneuvers. This is where the games differ significantly.

With Mythras, the difference in success levels gives you several "combat specials" that you can apply to an attack, and these are things like damage armor, trip, choose location, and so on. You get these when there's a significant difference between an attack and a defense roll. With a greater difference in combatant skills, the number and severity of effects will increase.

There is a built-in "surprise factor" to Mythras combat dice rolls where a huge difference happens, someone picks the best combat specials for the situation, and the death spiral begins. This is where Mythras stands far apart from D&D, and provides "pool ball English" to the melee combat that so many enjoy.

With GURPS, you choose what "special attack" you make and roll for it. You decide ahead of time, know what you are doing, and hope your skill is high enough to overcome the negative modifier. You don't get "a number of them" to apply, since the combat round is shorter, and you have to pick the best one to make in the moment and try for it.

With GURPS, you need to know the combat system well to understand your capabilities. While there is a "list of attacks" you can make, you are not getting them as a bonus to a high-difference attack and defense. You pick the one you want, and you try for it.

Both of them have melee combat far better than D&D; they just get to the same place in different ways.

 

Like GURPS, Mythras does not convert the classic "D&D adventures" that well. If we are talking B2 Keep on the Borderlands and 40 Kobolds in one of the first rooms you enter, that is a slog of a fight in either Mythras or GURPS. Adventures in both GURPS and Mythras tend to feature smaller, more tactical combat encounters. D&D has always been a game about "shoving around mass amounts of monsters," and it suffers from over-relying on quantity of enemies and not quality.

Mythras adventures feature highly tailored fights that require you to use combat specials wisely to open up weaknesses and take advantage of them. A greater number of foes than the party begins to shift the action economy in favor of the enemies, and single boss monsters, once overwhelmed, will go down faster than in D&D or GURPS. This is due to the game's action economy driving the impetus of attacks and defenses.

In GURPS, having a low skill means you are not attempting anything special. In Mythras, having two low-skilled opponents, one rolling a crit and the other a fumble, a lot of cool stuff is happening. So there is a high degree of surprise in Mythras when it comes to rolls and the effects that occur in them.

Mythras publishes these mini-game-like "combat modules" featuring a few foes and pre-gen characters, and they highlight features of the combat system that players need to take advantage of to win the fight. These double as combat mini-games and player training, and I wish GURPS had these. Given that Mythras gives away its basic Imperative rules, a GURPS version of a product like this would need to rely on GURPS Lite, which would not have all the options required to train people on the system's finer points.

These are excellent books for Mythras, both serving as training and fun scenarios to use on a VTT as a standalone combat game. I wish GURPS had similar pre-gen characters and interesting combat encounters that featured tactics and strengths of the system.

GURPS is the more simulation-heavy game, with the one-second turn. The action economy is the ticking seconds on the clock. For the most part, everyone does one thing per turn. The action economy versus 40 Kobolds becomes a nightmare, and you need to start holding 75% of that force back just because the entire room would not act like "stupid video-game sprites" and rush the players all at once in the first second of contact.

Watch YouTube videos of firefights in war. Count the seconds soldiers stay under cover. Sometimes it is 1d6 seconds, other times it is more like 2-3d6 seconds of inactivity under cover. This is how most firefights go. In melee combat, nobody will pause that long when faced with a threat, but many will not all charge in on that first second of meeting an enemy, and many who will take cover or try to get into an advantageous position. Some may even stand there confused for a few random seconds before their brain kicks in and they act.

In GURPS, we think second-by-second. This isn't to say "make the kobolds stand there doing nothing," but make allowances for the chaos of combat, the relative skill of combatants, and a confusing melee where everyone may not have perfect information.

Even in Mythras, I will give the Kobolds a "training level" on a d6, and if a combat special comes up, using the "best one" will require them to check that first. Not every Kobold will fight like an elite fighter, always using the best option every chance they get. These special effects in Mythras are deadly when used against the characters. Untrained would be a 6+, and it would go down to elites on a 2+.

I may even do that for GURPS, since we tend to fall into this "videogame mode" when running monsters and optimize every fight to an unrealistic degree. In GURPS, it would be a d6 roll or lower.

But GURPS tends to be the game where you make more of the "combat maneuver" decisions before you commit to the attack. In Mythras, a higher skill difference will create more situations, but these can't be predicted. You will have more of these happen in Mythras since they do not reduce the attack chance, and the dice give them to you for free, depending on the difference in attack and defense rolls.

GURPS is more planned and conscious. A trip does not happen out of nowhere unless it is ruled by the referee or initiated by the player. Mythras has a level of randomness. A trip could happen at any time, as the opportunity arises and the player chooses to seize it.

Both games are very deadly and force players to take a step back before violence becomes the only option. Deadly combat increases the need for smart roleplay! D&D is becoming too much of a "numbers versus numbers" game, and the roleplay is not needed if a bandit stands there pointing a crossbow at someone. I have 40 hit points! What could he do? Even if I get hit, a 10-minute rest will "sleep it off." In Mythras and GURPS, you have a crossbow bolt sticking out of your character's eye.

There is no parlay and roleplay in D&D when it comes down to it. It is all a performative, fake, and pretend way to waste time. Nothing matters when you can kill everything in your path and take a quick nap to heal from a shotgun blast to the face. Look at the game from an MMO player's perspective. Roleplay "wastes time" to "get up the XP and treasure track." It is a brutal way to see it, but it is ultimately true if there are zero consequences to actions.

The GURPS and Mythras games are similar in deadly realism. Still, in combat, they have apparent differences in implementation, where GURPS requires a hard choice to be committed to and made before the attack. Mythras has a softer "chaos factor" where the skill difference creates more opportunities and options for a high-difference roll.