GURPS: Lite Fantasy Characters

One project I have been working on is a set of generic GURPS: Lite characters that cover the archetypal fantasy roles, so I can put them out for free and give people "something" they can use to try GURPS. GURPS Lite is great, but it needs pre-gen characters and a few monsters to have stuff to play with. Otherwise, this is just a design system, skill rules, and a combat engine with no toys to play with.

I got a sample "fighter" done for about 200 points, and I want a ranger, rogue, monk, and maybe a non-magical bard. There is no magic in Lite, so these will be martial characters, but that is fine. I need a few classic OSR monsters, too, like goblins, orcs, a giant spider, and a few other classics.

Keeping magic out of the game will keep it mysterious, and also allow us later to choose our magic system, so that feels like a better way to move forward. I would love to have a pre-gen cleric and mage, but I am sticking to what we have in Lite.

I am only using what they have in GURPS: Lite, which are the project's ground rules! If a skill, piece of gear, or advantage is not in there, I don't use it. People need to be able to download Lite, grab a few pre-gens, and play along for free.

Once I have these, I can use them as examples of play here on the blog and have a standard set of characters for those examples, rather than getting so deep into theory and game planning.

You know, I would love to see a new version of GURPS: Lite called GURPS Fantasy: Lite, more focused on fantasy gaming and including a bunch of OSR standard monsters and magic items, plus a small magic system to try out. Put that out as a free product, and let people have toys in the box to play with, and directly compare the GURPS experience against D&D 5E.

That is, in essence, what I am trying to do here with GURPS: Lite. Partly for others, and partly to have standardized characters to run play examples with.

And I know once people see the difference, they will likely stick with GURPS and have a better game and character experience.

It does not need all that much, just a handful of archetypes and a few spells, a sampling of monsters, and some treasures to grab hold of. It needs a few rules for running a GURPS dungeon. We need rules for light, searching, breaking down doors, torch times, disarming traps, and the dungeon standard tasks. It needs to cover the basics and nothing else. It needs pre-gens to "grab and go" with, and monsters to throw down on the table on night one.

Focus on "factors that ensure a game's success" and the questions that will come up at a table of inexperienced players (think of how Shadowdark addresses these sticking points for players), and you will have a winning product that serves as an entry point to our hobby.

My 1000 Point Character

So, to compare against my "wouldn't it be cool" test build of a 14th-level 5E character that ended up with a character sheet 16 pages long, I decided to make my "ultimate GURPS fantasy hero" to see how complex that character would be.

GCA has a wonderful randomization function, so I took four 250-point templates and applied them randomly to my character (knight, wizard, bard, scout). I then spent my remaining points on whatever I felt like. This is NOT how you design a 1000-point character! Taking four templates and mashing them together is possible, but who does that?

But hey, this isn't just a multiclassed character; he is quadclassed.

I had a few repeat skills, strange choices, conflicting advantages and disadvantages, and a general unoptimized mess of everything. He has 160 points of disadvantages. But this does highlight what the worst-designed 1000-point character may look like, and I was shooting for a huge skill and spell list just so the PDF would grow to an insane length. I can always fix the repeats, choose other skills, or combine them. Some polish is needed. And hey, this guy is a 26-minus poet and public speaker with similarly high axe and pickpocket skills. I can't design that in 5E at all.

What is the more complicated character sheet?

A 14th-level multiclass 5E character, or a 1000-point unoptimized mess of a GURPS character?

My 1000-point GURPS character came out to a 7-page PDF, with 3 pages devoted to spells. So, really, a four-page sheet had all I needed to play. My 5E sheet didn't have spell summaries like this one! So my GURPS sheet is easier to use, and I don't really need to be flipping through the Player's Guide to look up spells.

And my GURPS character did not have "rules short circuits" like "characters within 40 feet reroll failed inspiration checks," or similar stuff, which 5E is notorious for. Every character sheet in 5E is a potential "nuh-uh" to any rule in the game, and that blows up complexity compared to a skill-based system like GURPS, where mostly all you are worrying about is, "What is the negative modifier for that?"

If I went to 2000 points, I would probably hit a 10-page PDF, most of which would be my spell list. Most of page four was empty, with plenty of room for more skills.

The silly part of this whole episode is that running a 4-person party is likely easier in GURPS than in 5E. In 5E, the beginning is very deceptive, with "simple characters" that "feel OSR." Like a frog in a boiling pot, this quickly grows out of control, and character sheet complexity for each hero grows to more than a dozen pages for each, all with special rules changing how the game is played.

I was probably wrong to assume GURPS doesn't support solo play for four-person parties because of its complexity. With 5E, it is arguably worse to solo there than GURPS (outside of a VTT). In any OSR game, it is likely easier than GURPS. With Castles & Crusades, that is by far the easiest. GURPS is sort of middle-of-the-road when it comes to solo/party complexity, but it is not the worst, by far.

With the 1000-point non-casters having 4-page character sheets, and casters having 4-8 sheets due to spell lists, that is very manageable in GURPS for a four or even a six-person party. At 1000-points. Which very few play at that power level. Also, my character is massively unoptimized, as most GURPS characters grow organically in a few key areas and become much tighter, well-thought-out designs. My character is the worst-case by design, just to bloat that character sheet with junk.

At most, for 250-point characters? A two-page, double-sided sheet, and another double-sided sheet for spells. One sheet of paper at most for a 250-point character. One extra sheet per character for casters.

If I start throwing on extra attacks in GURPS, my turns get slightly more complicated, but not to the degree of 5E, where some report taking 30 minutes to decide what to do during a turn. I would, too, if I had to flip through a 16-page character sheet on my turn. It would take me a few minutes to leaf through all that paper to find what I was looking for. Each turn. Per player. Over and over.

A one-second, one-action GURPS combat turn solves a lot of problems. I can look at a player, count, "zero...one" and then ask them, "What does your character do in that amount of time?"

The character sheets in 5E are way out of control. I get that most people play on VTTs, and all this complexity is hidden behind UI buttons and scripting that hide the rules and interactions.

"It is easy, look!" they say. "The turns go by quickly!"

But that comes at a cost in software support and an online-only model that locks you into a paywall. You need to buy "digital goods" to make it work, often doubling the price you paid for the game. You will lose those goods when the website goes away, and they will all go away someday. Wizards have always designed their games with that "software as a service" model, so the characters and rules end up hideously complicated. 3E, 4E, and 5E are all the same "dozen-page-long" character sheet, endless, special rules mixed in, and forcing you to use software to figure it all out.

And GURPS?

It will still be out here, more playable at higher power levels, with the easier character sheets, and supported by an enthusiastic community. While yes, designing a GURPS character with software makes it easy, what comes out of that software is far more straightforward than any modern D&D version. And I can still create GURPS characters by hand.

And GURPS is easier than D&D at higher power levels since there is far less to worry about, and most of your power is reflected in higher skill levels to perform the same basic tasks.

One Great Character Versus Many Simple

First up, I love OSRIC, Old School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, and all my B/X and First Edition games. These are S-Tier games for me; the math is correct, they don't use silly video-game number scaling, and the characters are simple. If I am playing a d20-based fantasy game, these are my go-to games. And I play a lot of solo, so having these "books full of data" makes the game easy for me.

But, in playing solo, why do I want to play simple characters? If I think about this in terms of computer gaming, this is the difference between a Skyrim character and one from an RTS game. I would rather have a fully detailed "CRPG character" in a solo-play tabletop game (with full gear, skills, backpack, magic systems, and ability scores) than a simple "RTS unit" with a few ability scores and no ability to equip or change them (attack, armor, speed).

Granted, playing GURPS solo with six characters begins to overload my will to manage that amount of complexity, as this is like running a six-person party of Skyrim characters and drowning in micromanagement and wishing things were simpler.

But for one to three characters in a "small party" game, GURPS does that fine and gives me a greater level of detail to each, which provides me with a greater level of satisfaction "per hour spent gaming." Running one character in a B/X-style game is a "thing," and I would probably get bored with it pretty quickly. Even four is not that hard, but when it comes down to those "small choices" that I love to make in GURPS, like what eight character points can be spent on, given what my character needs, it's excellent stuff.

In B/X games, so what? My bard has 1,600 XP out of 2,000, and there's nothing I can do with it except wait. What will happen in 400 XP at level two? My combat modifier and saving throws remain unchanged. I gain 1d6 more hit points and a level one spell.

Really?

The character does not get interesting until level five, and most games end around level ten. Even if you accelerate leveling to a rapid pace of one level per session, that is five 4-hour sessions to get to level five, or about 20 hours of solo play, with most of the "small choices" being around treasure and gear. Most of your interactions will not be rules-based ones. By that point, we get our first bonus to-hit, our first second-level spell, better saves, and a few class abilities open up.

An accelerated rate in GURPS is about five character points per session of play, with one to three being normal, but we are going on an accelerated pace to match our "level per session" that we used in B/X. This is a total of 25 character points in GURPS for our theoretical five sessions of play.

GURPS typically "levels up" character power every 50 points, so this is halfway to increasing a tier of power. The wonderful things I could do with 25 character points in GURPS blow my mind. If I engage in more social and performance activities, I can improve those skills; otherwise, I will apply my skills that I learned in combat. I could develop my magic, learn new songs, or improve the ones I have. I could create a new advantage based on my experiences and the story. If I went on a harrowing survival adventure, I could develop new survival skills.

The actions of my character will be reflected in their improvement.

That does not happen in B/X. 5d6+CON hit points, a few spells, some save numbers, and a few class abilities. Gear and treasure will reflect the most significant differences between fifth-level bards.

My bard in GURPS? Specialized in social, combat, magic, survival, or any other area relevant to the campaign I am playing and "what is going on." The character will morph and change to reflect the game I am playing, and be specialized in those areas of campaign interest. If I am doing more of a social campaign, guess what? My bard's skills will improve in social areas, and my character will reflect the campaign. And remember, in GURPS, there are a few areas of social skills, so these can be specialized social interactions (with supporting advantages, and an expansion book focusing on the area).

MS Paint strikes again. -Hak

In B/X? Level five bard, extra hit points, slightly better to-hit, a few class abilities, and spells. No better social skills, magic is a fixed path, and I may get some magic items to help me out? If I need survival skills, I need to find a ranger, and the improvement can't happen inside my character (without houseruling it).

In 5E? Forget it; find a Kickstarter book for $60-100 that improves the social aspect of the game, and add it to the pile of books to fix the system. 5E is notorious for shipping a basic tabletop game that requires a few thousand dollars' worth of add-on books to play the way you want. The grift is so high here that it is off the charts.

GURPS works perfectly, even with just the core books.

And it gives me greater satisfaction with fewer characters.

Power is Earned, Not Given

The best part about GURPS is that there isn't a game designer sitting behind the curtain telling you what your character can and cannot get. I pick a ranger. Well, I have limited choices. I am "allowed" a subclass, which only one of them will be helpful anyway, since I am optimizing my build, and I am not taking 2-weapon fighting if I am a bow specialist.

All the choices are laid out for me.

In a tiny little box.

And then, a few months down the line, you get this strange feeling that you aren't keeping up, and other players are having way more fun than you. Then you go online. And your worst fears are confirmed. Yes, in this edition, the ranger sucks again, and we will be waiting for a book that fixes them, again.

Some 5E variants get the base classes right, like Tales of the Valiant. D&D 2024 features some hilariously overpowered builds and classes, which are intended to sell the game. Even when a game like ToV nails the base classes, I'm still sitting there, getting what the game designer gives me.

Do I want my ranger to do something different? Then I need to multiclass, and I will never reach level 20 in my primary class. There are multiclass builds that are traps and doom your character to never being viable at higher levels of play. Some are horribly broken.

In GURPS, I am the game designer. I have the power. My ranger is precisely who they are. If they want to be a bard for a while, and then a mage, I pay the character point costs and do my best to reflect what my character has learned.

This does come at a cost. I can design a 300-point character who has a few hundred skills, all at 11- and "knows it all," but never really reach the power level of other 300-point characters who spend their points wisely. There is a "design maturity" in play here, not to exploit and have one 24-minus skill, so players are encouraged to spend sensibly and not cheat themselves when handling character improvement. Stick to the skill level guidelines and use those numbers as realistic values for "who is best in the world" in this campaign setting.

Also, GURPS relies on nobody taking advantage of the rules. This is entirely unlike 5E, where designers are often required to prevent players from exploiting the rules. GURPS is a more mature game where the referee and players collaborate to create stories and balanced characters that make sense within them. There are no narrative mechanics or pools; the game does not need them. The character is king in GURPS, and they also define the stories in which they participate.

In GURPS, I earn my power, and if I really want something, it means I do not get the other thing I may wish to have, either. Nobody "gives me powers for free," I pay for them. There isn't a game designer and their magic wand flying around and hitting you every level up to grant wishes.

I want that cool combat reflexes advantage to reflect my years of battlefield experience. In that case, it will come at the expense of my tracking, survival, hunting, wilderness navigation, archery, and other skills I use every day.

I need to make a choice every time. What will be more useful to me? What does my party need? Are we finding ourselves struggling to survive in the wilderness, or do we need me to perform at a higher level in combat?

Every choice is a hard one.

I am not "falling asleep until level three" and grinding XP any way I can. I am not "looking seven levels ahead" and getting bored with my current set of powers. I may have ten character points saved. What am I going to do with them? Do I really need a skill now? Do I wait for that really cool thing? Is there something else I want to learn or do?

And given enough points, my GURPS character can wipe the floor with a similarly epic 5E character any day. The power level in GURPS scales to any level, as long as you can conceptualize it. Refactor your fantasy heroes into superheroes and push them even further. Or start your characters as superheroes in a fantasy setting, just frame the powers as "fantasy superpowers," which is precisely what 5E is doing. Fire blast? That is a magic power. A mage has that. Make it a superpower and call it magic. No spell slots needed, just a FP cost. Want a new superpower? Pay the CP.

You can design your powers any way you want here. Want your ranger to have an "arcane explosive shot?" Design it as a superpower. Buy it with CP. You have it. There is no need to look for a game that does that, or wait for a third-party Kickstarter book, and spend more money.

GURPS is the superior game, especially if you're passionate about game design. You have the tools.

GURPS is also a better narrative game than the overly complex and convoluted systems that are emerging today. They are pretty, but turn out to be bookkeeping nightmares after a few sessions, and you just want your life to be simple again with a character-focused system that puts you in control.

While these "railroad advancement games" can be fun if executed correctly, they are challenging to implement, and we end up with numerous versions and flavors all competing to achieve the same goal. Wizards has been redesigning D&D for the last 25 years and still hasn't gotten it right. People have given up and gone back to the OSR. GURPS has been sitting here all along, and it remains a solid, fun, and compelling game.

With hard choices that force me to think. These are not taken away from me by a game designer who "knows better than I do."

If my ranger wants to go all social skills for the next 50 CP and get involved in kingdom intrigue, that is how the story goes, and how my character develops. In D&D, I gain XP, and my social skills remain the same, yet I somehow improve at killing things? How does that help the story? How does that reflect what my character is actually doing? Am I happier playing this court intrigue storyline with lousy social skills that will never improve, and somehow I can kill the next owlbear easier?

The game forces you to be a better killer with every level, and disincentivizes you to do the things currently happening in the storyline that you enjoy. You are not rewarded with better social skills in any way. You could consider a feat, if the game offers social feats, but that's a weak solution to the problem. And in most cases, you are waiting for the book to come out that has the social feats you want, and it is too late, having spent more money on things the game should have had when you needed them.

Be careful of these games that put your advancement on rails and take personal growth and character development away from you. That does not help the story, make you any better at playing in it, or accurately reflect your character's growth and development.

These games can hurt your storytelling because they refuse to let your characters learn and grow from it.

I want a game that allows my characters to grow in response to the events unfolding in the story, whether through combat, social interactions, exploration, science, survival, repair, medicine, or any other narrative arc in any area a story can go. I want a game that "stays out of my way" and doesn't introduce narrative pools and mechanics that can detract from what we all want to happen. I want a game that forces me to make tough choices as I progress. I like the referee to be freed up to be creative.

GURPS is the superior narrative storyteller game.

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.

The Strengths of GURPS

GURPS is like 5E in that the characters are the strongest part of the game. You could argue that 5E is "GURPS in slow motion" since you are building a character of equal complexity, slowly, over 20 levels. Your choices in 5E are severely limited by the designers, first in class, and second in subclass, and you can only break that cycle through multiclassing. Still, even with multiclassing, you only get 5-10% the design flexibility of GURPS.

And also, in 5E, you pay a lot of money for each option. Playing 5E is expensive, and your design options are sold to you a few per book. If a sixty-dollar book has six new subclass options, and the rest is setting  info and adventures, that is ten dollars per option.

In GURPS, everything comes with the core books. All options. All powers.

In theory. Specialized books for designing powers and magic spells exist, but those give you more. You can theoretically design any power or spell you would need with the core books only, so the expansion books just exist to save you time and provide ideas.

If you are missing a 5E book with options you want, you are out of luck.

In GURPS, it is not really a problem. It may be a little more work and research, but you are not being limited by not having one of the expansions.

You are not slowly paying extra for years. This is the D&D and Pathfinder design model, and it has been costing gamers a ton of money since Wizards took over D&D for nearly 25 years. Yes, you can play with the core books only, but if you want options those books don't give you, you are going to pay a lot of money.

Again, you will eventually get a game with as many options as GURPS, but it will take you 15 years and a few thousand dollars. I have that with Pathfinder 1e, finally.

There is probably a story of someone who has only bought the core two GURPS books in 2020, versus someone who went through D&D 3, 3.5E, D&D 4E, Pathfinder 1e, D&D 5E, Pathfinder 2, and now D&D 5.5E. That person would likely be me (except for 5.5E, which I will never buy into), and I feel stupid for getting strung along so long. Yes, I enjoyed the books and had fun, and that is what matters, but five versions in 25 years means a new library of books every five years. I feel I need to constantly replace my D&D books, and any version of the game breaks quickly.

Versus one library, 2-3 shelves, of GURPS books that keep their value much better.

Another strength of GURPS is its combat. This combat system has held its own since GURPS 1.0, and it really has not changed all that much. Skill has meaning, and fighting a skilled opponent is hard. Your choices matter, and you can use skill to make huge bets - for huge payoffs. You can also take that "arrow to the knee" and start a chain of events where you will never be able to jump that chasm you easily jumped on the way in, and you slowly realize the fact you are not getting out of this dungeon alive.

From a single knee wound. In 5E? Short rest, and it magically heals. And there are no rules for a limb being wounded, so it does not matter anyway, and if a referee pulled this in 5E, the players would accuse the referee of being "unfair" and "breaking the rules." D&D is a videogame. The pen-and-paper mobile game MMO they wanted 4E to be. Death means nothing. Just respawn back at your bastion.

In the OSR, you make a ruling. It takes an imaginative referee to decide a wound that took away 25% of your hit points is that "knee wound" and what that does in regard to jumping that chasm. Maybe you rolled a hit location, in most cases you didn't. There is a lot of "just say" in the OSR, and that requires a bit of skill and experience in refereeing. It also requires a level of maturity from players to accept that ruling and ""go with it." Otherwise, the OSR is like 5E, and many referees just treat characters as a bag of hit points.

In GURPS, it is what it is. It happened. Maybe the hit location was random, and that is where the arrow landed. Maybe your character's legs were lightly armored. These were all choices you made, or things that happened due to the game. There is no "just say" here in regards to combat, but there could be if you play theater-of-the-mind. Still, there is always a way to determine hit location and what happens next.

The immersion in GURPS happens through discovery and realization you may have pushed your luck just a little too far, and now you are fighting a battle of how to get out of there alive. You can still make those OSR "rulings" in GURPS, but a lot of the game makes those for you where you need them. The guesswork and "making stuff up just because" is gone, and the game is easier to run.

Everything in GURPS is "zoomed in" a level, and it is sort of like Rolemaster's level of detail, but more physics-based and logical. When you defeat one foe, you feel a sense of accomplishment. The combat was likely gritty and real-feeling. The threat to your character was real, one lucky hit is all it takes. This is also why most OSR and 5E modules don't convert well into GURPS, there are way too many enemies in those adventures.

Take a module like Keep on the Borderlands, and it is happy to have 20-40 monsters in a room, and many rooms have 6-10 monsters. Some of these combats would take forever in GURPS played in-detail, unless a lot of GM fiat and simplification were used.

Even a game like Savage Worlds will simplify foes into "groups of enemies" and handle them as one. You see a few methods of handling large combats in several games, from D&D 4E's minions, to grouping foes, to keeping hit points low. My B/X mod uses original "hit points as rolled" from B/X, which could lead to goblins having 3 hit points in GURPS. And that is fine! One hit will take the goblin down, which makes the monster like a minion in D&D 4E, and in a dramatic and cinematic sense, that works in the style of game I am running.

For most of these group monsters, I will use GURPS Ultra Lite. Give the monster hit points, an attack skill, an acceptable parry/dodge number, a speed, and an armor value - and you do not need a bestiary or monster manual for any of them. If you want tough orcs, give them a higher STR and more hit points. Roll hit points for every monster, since they may enter the adventure in various states of wounds, health, and recovery, it is not an easy life being a monster.

Most monsters can be converted from B/X sources, once you know GURPS after a few combats. this isn't 5E, where first-level balance is a lot different than tenth-level balance. Numeric balance in GURPS stays relatively similar, which makes conversions a lot easier, and this is also why I really dislike the scaled damages and hit points of D&D 3.0 and beyond. The original White Box, First Edition, B/X, and BECMI hit points and ACs were just fine - and convert easier into GURPS as a result.

Not treating monsters as characters speeds up play, and also keeps the characters as the center focus of the game. The more you focus and play to the strengths of GURPS, the better your game will be. If monsters bog down your game and you find yourself slogging through them and your game feels slow - simplify them!

Focus on the game's strengths: the characters and the combat (if combat is a huge part of your game), and everything else can be simplified to just a few important numbers. You don't need to "port in" everything either, if you are doing a GURPS Car Wars or Star Frontiers, and find the original game's vehicle and ship combat rules work fine, use them! You can always make all skill rolls in GURPS and guesstimate modifiers.

Characters and having the control and design of exactly what you want is the core part of GURPS. This is the part of the game that returns the greatest satisfaction and enjoyment. Seeing how the design interacts with combat and the world is why you put the time into these designs.

Everything else is secondary. If you find something dragging down your game and leading you into endless conversion projects - stop, simplify, toss out, and borrow systems that work better.

Each Character is a Game

Every character in GURPS is a game.

One of the things that I find most reassuring about this system is its straightforward and consistent rules. When you design a character, it's almost as if you're doing game design. Unlike the D&D-style' interrupt style design', GURPS doesn't endlessly tack on specific case rules that supersede the rule they just told you to handle one way.

If you have this ability, rule X works like special case Y. They keep doing this in the classes and spells, this endless series of short circuits and rule overrides. It is a spaghetti-coding waterfall rule design. But 5E is simple! When you start, yes. But after you buy the book, the first-level character is designed to get you into the game like a mobile game's first few hours.

300 special cases later from a dozen different classes and subclasses, I would rather be playing a game with consistent mechanics. As you level, things rapidly become more complicated.

I remember reading the first ability that gave me a "bonus action" in the 2014 5E rulebook. I flipped to the combat chapter and could not find anything mentioning "bonus actions," so I sat there, confused and wondering what the book was doing or if it was a typo. For a few hours, I sat there wondering, "What type of action is a bonus action, and where can I find it?" Later, we found the rules that said "only one bonus action per turn," we all realized "we were playing it wrong."

Again.

As detailed as GURPS combat is, I never had problems like this learning the system. Like the arcade game Qix, learning GURPS involves blocking off some rules, reading through them, trying them yourself, and then moving on to the next section. Even combat is like this. Learn turn structure. Learn to-hits. Understand the difference between melee and ranged. Learn how damage works. Learn how stunning works. Understand armor. Learn how dying works.

Once the GURPS framework is built in your head, the entire game is simple and straightforward.

As your character grows in power in GURPS, the system doesn't become more complicated. The odds improve, and you can buy more skills and abilities, but the fundamental structure of the rules remains consistent. You're not dealing with rule overrides, special action types, or creating interrupts to rulings.

GURPS actions are straightforward and consistent. You don't constantly change how you handle a situation, which can be a relief compared to other systems.

The math gets better.

The game doesn't get any more complicated.

Special actions open up, like the ones with hefty penalties, and you can do special attacks and defenses easily, where less-skilled opponents can't. You outclass your enemies and aren't gaining special attacks that lower-level characters can't have. All-out defense is not something only level 5 fighters unlock, and no one else can have, and it is designed to break a rule elsewhere.

Where the complexity of GURPS lies in character design. Designing a character creates a "game" that works within the GURPS simulation framework. Yes, you get the standards like attributes and skills, but you also get a set of powers you decide. You also get a set of advantages and disadvantages that define how your character works within the simulation.

And compared to a 5E or Pathfinder character, who can sometimes stretch across eight to twelve character sheets, most GURPS characters fit on a single two-sided piece of paper. I have had Pathfinder 1e characters in Hero Lab that came out to a dozen pages of text, spell descriptions, abilities, and exceptional cases up and down the two-column sheet.

But GURPS characters are a game in that the skills you pick unlock what you can do in the simulation. It sounds like "duh, that is what skills do," but it is more than that. When you build a character, you build the "game" you want to play in GURPS. Is your character more social? Stealth based? A melee combat juggernaut? A DX fighter? Or a mix of a few types? A crafter? A survival character? The character you build will be the "game" you play inside the "sim framework" of the rules.

Genre and the Centralization of Character

What is a genre? Does character serve genre? Or is it the other way around?

GURPS takes a unique approach, placing the character at the core of the game. Everything in GURPS, including the genre itself, revolves around the character sheet. The core of GURPS is character creation, which is the game's heart.

But aren't other games centered around character creation? Not really. I like GURPS because of the moment when the movie is blurry and the director focuses the lens on the main character in the film—the character. GURPS gives this "deep focus" where the hero is the most important element of the game. Experience, genre, and even the rules of "life" serve the central character concept.

Some games that use a generic-style character creation system tightly tie themselves to the genre and game world. Examples include Runequest, Traveller, and other games that tightly tie the experience to a setting.

GURPS's design has an almost "old school Hollywood" feel. The player is an actor taking a role, and the character on the sheet is the role being played. It doesn't matter if James Earl Jones is playing an evil sorcerer in Conan or a government official in a Tom Clancy movie; he is the player and brings everything he can to each role he takes on. Those two characters are so different, showing the actor's grasp of the role, character, depth, and range of this actor's profession.

Contrast this with modern games, which assume "you are the character" and the rules never allow you to live beyond yourself. Or they enable you to cosplay an internal identity, but it still is you under that face paint and foam rubber facade.

There is a massive difference between costume and make-up, who the character is on the inside, and their life experiences. Many players will say, "A dwarf is someone with a Scottish accent," and stop there. There isn't a life experience; you aren't acting; it is just a silly voice.

In GURPS, the character sheet is the "actor's notes" on who this person is. A part of the experience is living "outside the genre," and the character and how that character is played define the role and go beyond genre. An actor brings so much more to a role than a face and a voice, but the character the actor plays is also "not the actor."

In GURPS, I give myself a kleptomaniac or greedy disadvantage. I may not have a greedy or thieving bone in my body, but as an actor, I need to figure that out and use my life experiences to make this "role" come alive at the table.

That dwarf in GURPS will have a list of advantages and disadvantages outside of that silly accent. He may feel guilt over a loss in his past life. He may hold a grudge. He may have dreams. He likely has deep flaws.

Another troubling part about today's games is that they "sell a life experience" as the game. Life experiences happen outside the game, and they are what you bring to it to enjoy the game better. You end up playing every game with yourself as a character actor, playing yourself. You don't have range; if someone hands you a character sheet with something outside your life experience, you can't play that character.

Even if a game is about a list or a subsystem experience, you still need to bring your "acting chops" to a table and not let the game - or even your own self - define the character you play. That character sheet is the heart of the game; in GURPS, this focus is built into the game.

It's interesting how some games prioritize different elements over the character, like most generic fantasy games, many sci-fi genres, and even some modern Euro-style fantasy games. In these games, the 'lists' they provide are the core experience, and the collection of things 'is' the experience. D&D has embraced this approach, with licensed IPs taking precedence over generic fantasy elements. Mind flayers, beholders, and copyrighted content are featured as the 'bad guys' rather than generic villains like dragons or evil sorcerers. This caters to the players' preferences, but it's important to note that not all list games' are 'generic fantasy.'

This also covers Star Wars, Star Trek, and other sci-fi games that feel more like the 'list' of licensed IP gets put before the character. You play those games to experience the genre simulation. Understanding this variety of game elements can make you a more knowledgeable RPG player or designer. Many GURPS games fail since referees need to convert everything to have a complete experience.

Some games are such vast lists of stuff that it would take decades to convert them all over. Yes, you do not need to convert for a great experience, but there is still that feeling that a phonebook's content needs to be converted to have "all the options."

A mechanical system is built and placed before the characters in some games. In a game like Forbidden Lands, this fantastic "world generation engine" is mixed with preset encounters in the book, creating a dynamic game experience. The characters are the impetus of action and change, but the character sheet is not the "center of the world." You can still bring your "acting gravitas" to a game like this, but the natural appeal of the game is experiencing the "random systems" inside of it and seeing what world it creates for you.

These games aren't bad or wrong; they are just different. Games like The Walking Dead or Twilight: 2000 are incredibly fun, like a hybrid role-playing wargame and board game. They are the closest we can get to having a video game of the experience, and they give us resource subsystems and abstracted mechanics and deliver a more extensive simulation than "just a character."

You can play Twilight: 2000 with GURPS, sure. But the game delivers so much more than just one character. Again, this is a focus thing. Are we more focused on a character or the entire event around them? For some, playing through the whole event without the "character as focus" delivers the experience they want.

We can also borrow these generation systems and play the game using GURPS rules. This works as long as you can define where one game stops and the other begins. You still lose something, but you gain what you like about GURPS.

But there are times when I want my experience to center on that character and how I bring them alive with my ability to translate what is on that sheet, through my life experiences, to a character in the game who is not me.

Most of what is in GURPS, the advantage and disadvantage lists, are things outside my experience, the "not me" things I need to translate to make a character come alive.

This is why when I play a genre with GURPS, I focus more on the character than a generic list of stuff I need to convert over. I drill down on a character; the world and "junk in it" are secondary. I have books with stuff in them that I can use, and all the GURPS sourcebooks provide 90% of what I need. Most of the other 10% is something reskinned and "flavored" as something else. Converting things becomes an impediment to the fun of the game and also does not play into the strength of the system.

GURPS is a system that puts a character sheet first in an infinite plane of blank hexes. How those hexes appear, what is in them, and how you interact with them is the lens that genre and worldbuilding create.

But the character sheet is the pivot point in which everything else revolves.

GURPS Characters Feel Real

GURPS will always be in my top five games. It is evergreen and a place where I can express my creativity. GURPS will never be a "mobile phone game" where "Fortnite and video game character minifigures will be available for microtransactions."

The game's lower level of popularity and higher learning curve ensures that only the most dedicated players, those truly committed to learning and understanding the game, will be part of this unique community. While I sometimes wish GURPS was as big as 5E, I also appreciate the special bond we share in our smaller, but more connected, community.

But this isn't about 5E. No other game gives me the in-depth character simulation of GURPS. I don't get the same feeling from OSR games as I do in GURPS. While I run an OSR blog that covers Old School Essentials, Shadowdark, and Dungeon Crawl Classics - I like those games for other reasons. They are amazing games that have a strong sense of "design for gameplay" that draws me in. They are simple, like a Monopoly, and do that "dungeon crawl" thing well. They aren't this "superhero railroad" power-accumulation game that 5E has morphed into.

When I design a GURPS character, I feel I know them in real life. This isn't some 7-hit-point fighter with a +1 to hit and chainmail. With my GURPS character, I know their upbringing, their profession, their strengths, their weaknesses, their hopes, and where they want to go in life. I know how they are weak, what they fear, and their strengths. I know how the world sees them.

No other game gives me that.

Many on YouTube will sit there, point at GURPS, and say, "You don't need all that to roleplay!" And they are right. I can do all this with OSE or Shadowdark. I can do all this with a B/X or BECMI character.

But while I certainly don't "need" it all, I appreciate having it all.

And I like having it all.

Just Play!

GURPS has a lot of theory crafting, which is natural since the game is more of a "game designer's paradise" sort of "box of Legos" that we can use to create anything we want. But this also leads to the perception that "the game is complicated" and lots of discussion on "how to make it easier." I don't think the game will ever get any more accessible, and if it does, a lot of that "box of plastic bricks" feeling will be lost.

The best thing we can do is "just play."

Don't be deterred by the perceived complexity of GURPS. With pre-gen characters, it's actually easier than 5E. Roll-low is simpler math than roll-high, and the skills are just one number plus a modifier. Combat with GURPS Lite is not only easier than 5E combat, but also faster, with better tactical options. Even 'High-level' combat in GURPS is much easier than 5E, and it won't take you 30 minutes to decide what to do. The concepts of damage and armor are straightforward. So, take a deep breath and dive in-it's not as daunting as it seems.

Most of GURPS is the theater of the mind roleplaying, with an occasional skill or self-control dice roll. It isn't much more than what any D&D streaming show does, and most of it is more straightforward without all the complicated and overlaying action types.

Where is GURPS complicated? Character design. World building. Advanced combat. Power design. Character design is the biggest sin here, but in general, new groups should be playing with 50-point characters with a few skills and less than 5 advantages and disadvantages. This is the big flaw of Dungeon Fantasy; pushing a 250-point design on new players will overwhelm them with too many choices. The templates with guided choices are great, but the game feels designed for advanced players rather than new ones.

Delvers to Grow for Dungeon Fantasy is a fantastic product. However, those books don't fix the problem that DF was designed for an experienced audience. The GURPS Basic set is a more accessible game to learn since the 50-point starter characters are more manageable for new players to use.

I love Dungeon Fantasy's tight focus, but I was overwhelmed, and it took me a lot of effort to learn the game with a 250-point starting character.

One thing that B/X does well is roll 3d6 down the line, pick a race, choose a class, get a few pieces of gear, and go. Some B/X games have you start with gear packages, and some (Dungeon Crawl Classics) start you with random gear and don't really have vast lists of equipment.

You could play a DCC-like "0-level" game in GURPS with zero-point characters and a random gear list and give players 4 points for weapon skill to start (one weapon or sword and shield split), any 1-point skill on a random chart, and a 5-point disadvantage rolled from a chart. All other skills will be their terrible defaults, and the game will be fast-paced, deadly, and hilarious, just like DCC. The characters won't be complicated either, just the default 10 in everything, and you can play with a straightforward sheet.

Want a more advanced zero-level start? Give them 15 points for skills or abilities and 15 points for disadvantages. Suddenly, your characters are more capable but a little more complex.

But the answer to making the game more popular is just to play it. This will fix the "can't find a game" problem many players have. Start a group! Stream on YouTube. Spread the word. Show people how much fun you are having. Just play.

And play it in imaginative and exciting ways.

Settings: Pulp Gangsters, Noir, Adventure

The original Gangbusters game was one of our favorites growing up, and we always had a soft spot for the tough-talking, two-fisted, pulp era. These days, the shine has worn off this genre, and it is hard to find anyone interested in pulp and gangster adventures in the era outside of a few old-school and nostalgia groups.

I have always felt the pulp era is the closest you can get to a "fantasy" genre in the modern era since many fantasy genre conventions are here, with some of the best modern additions and features.

These days, the excellent B/X Gangbusters has picked up the torch for this gaming genre, and there is always Savage Worlds in the pulp genre. But for the gangsters, Prohibition-era, tough-talking, rise-and-fall gaming, you need to go to B/X Gangbusters to get the focused package.

Either of the Gangbusters books (original or B/X) is an excellent resource for GURPS and helps "set the tone" of the game you want to play.

It's worth noting the unique era shift in Call of Cthulhu, which has redefined the 'gangsters' genre with its eldritch horror vibe. In this game, you will find many excellent resources for playing in this era.

With the Basic Roleplaying game, you can easily do a gangster game in the same system and leverage the 1920s material in CoC. You need to eliminate the monsters and horror elements, and for such an iconic game, that may be hard to do with player expectations. The players will look around for evil fish monsters in the swamp when they should be looking for bootleggers.

GURPS has one of the best genre books of the period: GURPS: Cliffhangers (a 3E book), which has an excellent history and overview of the era for any 1920s and 1930s game.

One of the genre's weaknesses is its heavy combat focus, and this is endemic to the early 1980s games, which were "bam-pow" sort of tabletop combat games. The original game sometimes felt like a "gangster miniatures wargame," and the adventures existed to "have combat." There was a late shift in the original Gangbusters game towards Noir private-investigator mysteries, especially in the adventure modules. With a combat system as deadly as GURPS and a lack of body armor and defenses, any modern gangster game will be lethal, and characters will tend to be shorter-lived without pulp conventions.

Before beginning a campaign based on nostalgia, it helps to ask, "What does GURPS bring to the table?" GURPS will quickly drill down and do a heavy simulation of any genre, and that "immersion thing" will kick in. This requires you to "ask a few questions" about your character before you begin the game. In 5E, you don't usually need to ask these; just pick a class, race, background, or culture option and go. Motivation comes later; just give me a dungeon.

In a pulp or modern game, you must set goals and create a character directed towards them. Want to be a gang boss like Al Capone? What advantages will help? Powerful allies in government and people you can bribe for favors? Luck? Some inside knowledge? Contacts? An alternate identity? Cultural familiarity with an immigrant group? Legal immunity? Patrons? Go through the GURPS advantages lists and zero in on the social advantages. You will find so many useful ones once you creatively apply them to give you various friends, favors, and immunities in various areas.

As a referee, you must define families, other crime bosses, minor rackets, and other nefarious groups that work in the underworld. I have had a few Gangbusters games fall flat because the game started with nothing and went nowhere besides a "do crimes" simulator. To capture the era, you need a story of families, immigrants, struggles, and the world rapidly changing from farms to industry - and all the small, street-level stories around that struggle.

Movies from that era were also great inspirations for the look, speech, conflicts, and world. Creating a game around them is much easier if you are a fan of these films. If you focus on a story that is not crime-related, things get even better. Let's say your "crime boss wannabe" is looking for a sister he was separated from when they emigrated. That story runs through the "rise to infamy" - then you have a deeper motivation for the character than just a "do crimes" story that can get repetitive and boring.

Do not create a character whose motivation is to "play the game" and "stick to the genre" - you will get bored. This is 95% of 5E characters, and that is why that game now needs to include "random background tables" for character motivation, like "your mentor wronged you and took what you love."

In dungeon adventure games, the motivation "I am an adventurer" is just as boring as the motivation "I am a gangster" in a Noir or mafia game. This is the same for private detectives, G-Men, explorers, bank robbers, reporters, or other characters.

You are not what you do.

You are not your job.

Your motivation is not "my class and race."

Your secondary and tertiary stories will be more important than what you do. Your character will be driven by the story that has nothing to do with their occupation. What you remember about the campaign will be this story, not the genre conventions.

Let's say our gangster has a grandma he cares for in an elderly home, and he needs money for her treatments. Now, he is looking for his sister, and he has someone he needs a significant source of income to care for. His story will be how he gets that and the consequences of that life for him and everyone he loves.

Suddenly, "being a generic gangster who plays wargame battles" fades into the background.

Now, this character has motivation.

This is also one of the most important differences between GURPS and other games. In GURPS, the rules and the genre conventions are not your motivation. The rules are just there to provide a task and conflict resolution system. In 5E, that constant video-game-like chase of power is the primary motivation for many players. This is why the game is popular; you can play the 5E with zero in-character motivation and "go up the level chart." 5E is a pen-and-paper ARPG.

With GURPS, you ignore the rules. This is why some people dislike the system; there is very little "rules motivation." GURPS excels in "designing story into characters" with the advantage and disadvantage system. So, if you start with a story and you bake those into your character designs, you will have a better game.

But you need to have stories that matter to the world.

You also need a referee who creates a layered and detailed enough world or lets players create things in it they can link themselves to. Players creating people, places, and things they want in their story helps players "buy-in," and it saves the referee a little work.

But I will take these story points (grandma, sister, love interest, and a few others) as advantages or disadvantages and find a way to work that into the game. These story points will be "baked in" to my character. This is the best part of GURPS that many other games ignore or miss.

My character will have built-in motivations.

And it won't be "gangster" or "dungeon crawler."

My Characters are Mine

I once ran a survival hex-crawl game with Pathfinder 1e. This was in the Aquilae setting, but it could have been any Norse-like setting, such as Northlands Saga (Frog God), Nordlond (Gaming Ballistic), or even Orbaal (Harnworld). The 5E setting of Svilland (DRS Publishing) would have worked well, too.

The scenario was waking up on a frozen rocky coast, like surviving a shipwreck and going inland to find a town. This was like starting Skyrim in the northern snow areas and installing one of those survival mods that does not let you walk 50 feet without freezing to death. Playing a Pathfinder cleric in this type of scenario is like cheating since low-level cleric spells can give you warmth and protection from the cold, but those only last so long, and you need to stop to make shelter and rest.

She fought a few giant crabs and wolves and dodged a few bugbear patrols. It was a thrilling game, but it fell short in terms of the survival game. The skills the game used to survive and navigate the wilderness, build shelter, understand weather and temperature, and find civilization were lacking. She stumbled upon ancient ruins without history and lore skills; it was a hollow discovery. She had more pressing problems, but like any D&D character, she felt pigeonholed into the role of the 'party healer.'

When she found a town, the game ended.

Since then, I've been searching for game systems that would allow me to recreate this game in a new light. This was before the birth of this blog and GURPS, of course. I experimented with D&D 5E, but she emerged even more 'dungeon stupid' than my Pathfinder 1e character. She seemed to exist solely to vanquish foes and take short rests. My 'spear and shield' build for her was non-existent in some games, and she was back to the B/X mace and shield build. The search continues for a game system supporting survival and exploration gameplay.

I know! This was all before this blog, and GURPS, we will get there.

I know this character. In her original life (way back in the day), she was a priestess who traveled between a town and far-off farms, fishing villages, forts, and mines in remote areas. She had to travel and survive in the winter and, in a pinch, live off the land. She had to know her religious skills to perform weddings, burials, and blessings for those in the area. She needed to be able to ride, navigate terrible trails and roads, and build a camp. She can fight and defend herself, shield, bash, and toss a spear. I wanted her to have a backup hammer as a weapon. She is a combination survival expert and priestess, which 5E does not allow you to do unless you are a multiclass ranger-cleric.

Knowing who they are is the first step to building a great GURPS character. Once you have their occupation and story, you can create that. This is the opposite of D&D, where you choose race and class first, and those things define you. These days, they are adding more choices like "heritage" and "background," which are equally and painfully too generic and broad.

Nomadic Cleric from the Human Priesthood may describe her in games like Tales of the Valiant or Level Up A5E (or even Cypher), but those four choices do not come close at all to the short story I created for her earlier. It is like picking cards, A+B+C+D, and saying that equals my detailed story. It comes nothing close.

A+B+C+D is just four mix-and-match picks for a board game.

My little story describes a realistic person, like one you would see in fiction. There are skills in my story she needs to be good at to tell that story well.

5E (and many other class-based games) fall harder in character design's "allowed class skills" part. Most of her skills (survival, travel, tracking, navigation) fall outside the "cleric class," she can't buy or improve them all that well. Sorry, but your story needs to fit the game! Sorry, I will put your game on the shelf, and find one that works. My most recent attempt was with Tales of the Valiant, and I was not happy with the results there, either.

She was a ToV cleric, not the one in my story.

One of my projects now is to rebuild her in GURPS.

Now, in GURPS, you need to understand how character designs evolve. You go through "versions" of a character until you find the one that works for you and fits your story. Right now, she is a bit physically fit, and her skills could be better - especially for ceremonies and religion. I made a few changes, knocking off a point of DX and IQ for 40 character points, which let me fill out her religious training a bit more to my liking.

Sometimes, I will design a character for weeks, picking things, testing, tweaking, and thinking about them. One character can be a hobby, especially tweaking weights and load-outs.

What is the use of trekking 40 miles through inhospitable terrain to teach Norse Sunday school to a fishing village's children if you only put one point in theology and teaching? She sucked at her job and could just "kill things well," which is the D&D curse. In this case, those extra skill points mean she can do something when she gets there rather than embarrass herself in front of the village when the local Town Grandma knows more.

That one less point of IQ and DX will hurt her, but that 40 points of skills will turn her into something more than a dumb adventurer with cleric powers. The way she was? She would be assigned as a healer for soldiers on combat missions. The way she is now? She is a starting but skillful cleric who can fight but knows her job well enough that people respect her. I want the IQ point back ASAP, but that comes later.

Part of a great character design is "hurting for something," and she fits the bill in a few areas. I want that IQ point back! Give me 20 character points! Well, earn them.

As a referee, if she makes those skill rolls, she discovers the evil spirit making the cattle sick (occultism and exorcism skill rolls), teaches Sunday School, blesses the new soldiers, and does a few weddings - guess what? I am going to rule she gets free room and board free meals, and she may get an escort of soldiers to take on a mission involving battle. The local Jarl will offer her any information she needs to solve the regional problems she encounters. She will be respected and may even get free armor and weapon repair. Successful skill rolls in tasks D&D players would say, "So what, where is the dungeon?" give huge intangible rewards and favors in GURPS.

This is how I referee GURPS.

Skill rolls mean something, and the world comes alive. The world is not just "combat and killing," but that is there too for story and danger. There are a lot of problems she can solve in the area. They require her skills and knowledge. Some of them require advanced levels of skill. D&D treats skills as unlocks for reading adventure text, such as, "Roll DC 20 to know..." I use skills to change the story, situation, NPCs, and world. And the players are free to make up new things they want to do.

Compared to D&D's railroaded "preprogrammed adventures," this feels like "putting yourself in the world."

Another troubling part of D&D adventures is "if it ain't combat, it isn't fun." Healing those sick cattle from the evil spirit? A combat encounter. Teaching Sunday School? Another combat encounter shoved in somehow. Many D&D adventures assume players are so bored they need constant stimulation and fighting.

The evil spirit in my game? It may take a series of lore, history, and skill rolls to understand what it is and how to attack it. It may follow her and make bad things happen as warnings and omens. It could be like a mini-horror scenario. It could end in combat, or it could end another way, with a banishment ceremony, or it could end peacefully.

She will also want to improve those skills as the game goes on to dive deeper into the mysteries she finds. Ancient knowledge and facts will have hefty penalties for those skill rolls, so she had better be prepared. A critical success at performing a wedding may mean a new ally is gained, or that union will be destined to create a future hero.

These dice rolls have meaning and can change the world.

The more significant point here is that my characters are mine. They are a result of my stories and ideas about who someone is. They are not made out of picks in a game or defined only by a race and class combo. The game designers gave me the tools to turn a story into a fully fleshed-out character.

Also, note how my first character for that first Pathfinder 1e scenario was "just made for combat and casting" and how my GURPS character turned into a story; who could go to an area and tell the story of that place and its people? She went from a simple D&D 3.5 playing piece to a part of a novel pretty quick when GURPS entered the discussion.

It is because she is my character, and I own her idea and can express it—not some game designer's idea of my character, and my expression is limited by "5E game designer choices."

There really is no comparison.

My characters are mine.

Having It Now vs. Gamification

One of the frustrating things about 5E is designers constantly feel the need to gamify everything. If you have a power, a source of corruption, or some sort of staged transformation, designers need to split it up, put it on a level or progression chart, and make you wait. A good example is a staged lycanthropy system, and in some 5E books, I have seen winged flight split up into a leveled power, with feats needed to make them work like wings. Why can wings be wings? Why do I have to wait for a total transformation?

Isn't it a shared experience? The books often offer a far cry from what we truly desire. They make us wait, tying everything to a level chart. Now, you're left waiting eight levels for anything extraordinary to happen. You buy a dozen books on the same topic to assemble a framework close to your vision. And much of it is split out and gamified.

Compare this to the OSR, where they simply declare 'it is so' and move on. A level one character can transform into a werewolf and wield full powers; there's no assumption of gamification in the OSR beyond what's already written. If the original rules don't cover it, the referee can handle it.

In GURPS, this is closer to the old-school model, and the books even say that if your character gains a new disadvantage during play, give it to them immediately (and don't give the character a pile of points as a reward). Life can be challenging; if you gain enemies, that is the break. This also happens in the reverse; if the referee says you get an advantage as a reward or boon, you just get it; no points need to be spent.

If you design an excellent lycanthropy template, you can immediately give it to any character. If you want to give it a "progression" with the powers and transformations increasing in power, you can design a few templates and then have the player apply the new one when the time comes in the story.

You are not stuck at the 6th level and wondering when you will be able to finish the next three dungeons and gain two levels so you can transform into a complete wolf form.

If my level two lycanthropy template includes the disadvantage where your character can't control their actions during a full moon, guess what? You will never know what that next phase will happen or even what is in that template (if I keep it private in my GM notes). In 5E, these will be laid out in books, and everyone will know them when they happen, as well as all the "cool powers" you want your character to have. often, the best powers in one of these systems are placed well past the level everyone quits.

12th level for wolf form!

Bet you really wanted that in the few months it took you to get here.

Can't wait for the 15th level and "Howl at the Moon!"

If the campaign even lasts that long.

By the time you get it, who cares? Since high-level play in 5E is lacking, you will be begging to start new characters in a few more sessions. Yes, many 5E players "just say it happens," - but that defeats the point of getting the books. If I buy a 5E book, I want to use it.

5E is too concerned with balance and is way overdesigned. Both goals are nearly impossible, and most of the game is balanced against itself. Any framework that adds a layer has to maintain the relative balance. It gets maddening when you realize a book you loved is overpowered junk. What is even more infuriating is realizing later books use that book as the baseline for the challenge level, and you are caught in the splat-book power creep.

5E has a strange microtransaction and corporate bent. Everything is put in expensive books, parsed out bit by bit, and sold like a commodity. You collect thousands of dollars in books to get a few things in each. In turn, designers do the videogame gamification of every concept and divide powers into progression charts.

I sometimes like the "gameiness" of 5E; in others, I groan and roll my eyes at another slow-as-molasses progression system tacked onto that game meant to sell you something else. In GURPS, if I wanted a "low level" version of a transform and 'howl at the moon' power - I could design them to be weak and up their power in later templates.

Done. I have it all now, and it gets better over time.

I am not waiting months to do cool stuff.

I groan; 5E, at times, is this pedantic game designer "fashion show" of designs that are all gamed out but impractical and unfun in actual play. Like a fashion show, the "designs" are often expensive, too, and take up half a closet for things you will use once.

5E encourages over-design and slow rewards. How many hundred times do I need to roll that d20 to get something cool? I sound massively impatient, but the entire system is like this. In GURPS, I can get it all right away, design a 1,000-point character, and go to town. Yes, there is the "start at level 20" thing in 5E, but you endlessly make choices as your character "levels, " which gets tedious.

Yes, GURPS is a design-heavy game, too. But I'm doing the designing, so I'm not complaining.

And I get what I want.

I prefer to design and balance my power frameworks than trust these "professional" game designers who make expensive 5E books. If I mess up, lesson learned, I can rebuild my creation to make it work better. I can't do that with an $80 5E book, and I am $80 poorer with a book I can't use.

Give me the tools to do it myself, and I will be much happier.