this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Making characters in GURPS is so fun. A friend was running a cyberpunk game one time and I brought like 3 characters so I could pick the one that fit the party the best. Sometimes we would just roll up character concepts to see how many points it would take.
I played a lot of GURPS too, but it’s probably my all time favorite character creation system
See, one of the things holding me back is getting overwhelmed by character creation. There's just so much to go through!
What makes me want to try GURPS is that it seems flexible (even light) in play, would adapt to just about any genre, and allows for incremental advancement. But since I'd be the one bringing it to the table, I'd have a heck of a lot to do to make it an easy entry, despite not having played the game yet.
Totally understandable. When I first started playing, the GM made us all premade characters to learn the rules on. Then he made templates for us when we played for real so we just had to pick a “class” and spend a few character points for customization.
GURPS is great for any setting and really shines in settings that involve many tech levels, like time traveling (that’s the default setting, in fact). It can be quite simple and elegant, but there are rules for just about any situation you can think of, and the calculations aren’t always simple because of it. Luckily, all rule blocks are optional. Playing GURPS “Lite” is supported/recommended in the base rulebook and it’s a fully functional system on its own.
Anyway, I just love GURPS. After playing for a while, I started loving the character creation but I agree, it can be quite the barrier to entry. Also, running games and planning sessions is a lot of work for the GM. More than most systems I’ve played. If you’re playing rules-light or don’t mind handwaving a few specifics when building enemies, it’s not as bad. But if you’re going all in and trying to make reusable stat blocks, the joys of character creation will come back to bite you lol
Ah, on the topic of templates, they're also in Dungeon Fantasy, which helps a lot. Though I do wish the "default" settings on DF were a bit lighter.
I know that GURPS Lite is secretly the real core rulebook. :P It's easier to build off of that than go through the Basic Set and sift through everything. How to Be a GURPS GM, IIRC, also helps with things like skill lists.
I think if I ever get a chance to play it, I'd probably start super simple, maybe even with Wildcard skills and some GURPS Action rules to smooth things out, then dial up the complexity until it's at a point I'd like. I appreciate modular systems that let me do that.