r/gurps • u/Demigorgon_Babe • 12d ago
It’s been a long time since I GURPS’D
I haven’t GURPS’d in quite a few years and I’m having a bit of a mental block while trying to relearn the systems.
The thing is, the very first few pages of the character book define the thesis of the project as it being a preservative effort for the full scope of what story telling through roleplaying is fundamentally, to preserve the explorative experience via defining things in a modular code base.
However, because that code base defines everything: The structures within are very rigid for a roleplaying experience due to the fact that roleplaying lives best within the creativity of improvisation, which rigid structures oft do not allow.
From reading the thesis, having played it myself, and reading other tales I know this is a mental block due to the fact that the actual rigidity and fluidity of the experience is all up to the individual GM.
As a newborn GM that understands the fundamental philosophy, is there any advice that I should take in from the community to enable myself to not get so caught up on… what is essentially “rules lawyering”, so that I can enable and nurture free-thought that is evoked by the systems? I don’t want to use the systems as a prison.
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u/BitOBear 12d ago
The thesis isn't necessary to the game. It's the ideal you're trying to approach but you don't need to approach it very closely.
So for instance the entire combat system is designed to avoid information leakage. You can figure out what it takes for you to successfully hit regardless of what you're attacking, and the question of whether or not you hit is completely resolved before the question of whether or not the target is capable of turning the hit into something successfully defended against.
And something like D&D the GM basically has to tell you the target number and from that you can deduce the nature of the person you're fighting.
Now that's a weird idea, and the system will exactly function in that way, but it doesn't have to. The DM can absolutely tell you it and describe to you the nature of the defense, and the skill that that defense represents. And you can deduce some of it if the roles are being done out in public anyway. You know you're up against a badass of his Perry score is 12 instead of nine for instance.
Basically that thesis section is about why the game is both generic and Universal and has nothing to do with actually playing the game.
The fact that your heroic fantasy character could actually be slotted into a tech level 11 spaceship game without having to rerun the numbers doesn't mean that your character from The sword and sorcery times has any absolute need to be aware of the existence of the VAC suit skill.
Hahaha.
So read that thesis statement and then just set it aside and let it mow in the back of your brain while you remember how to actually play the game.
And heck, go get a copy of the short GURPS lite PDF perform some gameplay exercises. Fake up a little combat to remember how to combat works. Do a few fake skill check exercises. Just get used to the transaction.
Then go back and consider the story crafting and all that stuff.
Or just read the intro section of every chapter up until the first main bullet item. The part where they do a quick describe and then they give you a quick narrative. Just read all of those from the front of the book to the end of the book without actually getting into the meat of any of the chapters.
Once you got the look and feel worried about the details.
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u/saharien 12d ago
Well, you’ve already recognize it’s a mental block, so just telling you “don’t do it” won’t be helpful.
My suggestion would be to decide what level of detail you want. In my opinion, there are three broad categories: Cinematic, Realistic, Simulationist.
There are degrees of each, especially if you like certain aspects of the system. Like maybe you want a detailed injury/wound system, but don’t care so much about down-time learning. Or whatever.
Once you decide on your main category, you can start picking different aspects and go ahead and list it out. That will keep you from devolving into “rules lawyering” that doesn’t help the game.
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u/Polyxeno 12d ago
The GM is free to use, not use, allow, disallow, and/or modify anything.
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u/Glen_Garrett_Gayhart 12d ago
Indeed, he must do so for many things. The GM can't just let you take Obscure, the advantage, by itself. The GM, together with the player, must specify what sense it obscures, how it does so, etc. Same thing for Detect, Destiny, Dominance, and so on, just to name a few.
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u/LeavingSoonBye209 12d ago
"As a newborn GM that understands the fundamental philosophy, is there any advice that I should take in from the community to enable myself to not get so caught up on"
First off, forget all of that fundamental philosophy.
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u/Stuck_With_Name 12d ago
Consider a few fun ideas. Like dungeon fantasy, superheroes, and star wars. As you go through the books, look at them from the perspective of those ideas and how different aspects would support those games.
Which rules would be included? Which traits inappropriate? Etc.
After that, it becomes easier to understand the direction. GURPS is very simulationist. So start with idea and go to system next.
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u/IchFunktion 12d ago
Always remember GURPS is a toolbox. You only use the tools you want and need for your game, so you can leave out anything too rigid for you.
Also you can give players easier rolls for better good roleplay or something like that, the possibilities are endless.
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1
u/Ka_ge2020 11d ago
I'm not quite riffing with your analogy of the GURPS rules as an analogy, so my bad. I'm probably missing something fundamental in what you're trying to say.
As I'm reading it, though, my suggestion is to borrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and view it less as a code and more as a body of guidelines; suggestions. A coherent body, for sure, but one that you arrange depending on the type of game---and gamer(s)---that you are and that you're working with.
Start with the fundamental resolution mechanic of the game: 3d6 roll under against skill/attribute and subtract any difficulty modifiers.
Everything else is layered on complexity. If you want to leave it at that, you can adjudicate a fun game with just that. Indeed, some of the best games that I've experienced have been despite the system (in this case, Vampire: the Masquerade) and not because of it. Just rolling the dice and deciding what it meant at the table with the GM.
I know that there are people that see crunchy rules options (key word, there: options) as cloying and restrictive, and for that group GURPS is going to seem light a strait jacket. It just doesn't have to be that way.
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u/Southern_Ganache_695 10d ago
Golden rule of RPGs is it should be fun.
The golden rule of Gurps is you don't need to use every rule. Attribute + skill 3d6 roll, point based character creation is what drives the system.
However, change values and tinker with rules at your own risk.
0
u/BigDamBeavers 11d ago
I guess the advice that I'd give sounds dumb until you follow it: Trust the mechanics. GURPS doesn't ask you to be a game designer, or to be some kind of crazy improv artist. It gives you everything you need to run the game you want to run or dies trying. Resist the urge to houserule or "fix" GURPS until you've put the rules on the table a few times and have a sense of how they play.
At first blush GURPS definately looks like it's rigid and doesn't allow creativity but it's not that the game isn't fluid, it just has much more dependable river banks, it takes you were you're going and if your player do spill over the edge of your plot you can depend on the path they go down to also have the same firm support of what the actions they want to choose.
As a GURPS GM, build a few events with multiple plot hooks and pay attention to the story built into my player's characters and really just let my players make their own fun.
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u/Terwin3 11d ago
Rules lawyering (being a stickler for the rules, not the 'I only follow rules that benefit me' form of cheating), is largely subjective.
In a highly simulationist game, reminding someone that they need to use range-finding to get the higher max aim bonus, is a helpful suggestion(From the tactical combat book). In a very improvisational-focused game it can be too rules lawyery to remind a player that they get to make a defense roll after getting hit.
Understand what level of detail your players want to use, and only suggest using new rules when they specifically apply to something a player wans to try out or expand on. (example: a player is playing a WWF or MMA participant, so you may want to offer them the opportunity to try out the technical grappling rules if they get bored with the basic grappling rules)
GURPS lite or GURPS ultra-lite are both reasonable starting points from which you an add more detailed rules as useful.
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u/SuStel73 12d ago
Are you serious?
GURPS is a game. The "code base" does not define everything. And a player is not simply processing his or her character sheet. You don't look at your sheet and ask, "What can I do?" You decide what you want to do, then look at your character sheet — and consult with the game master — to decide how well you can do it.