More GURPS Planning

I’ve spent a lot of time in the evenings over the last week reading the GURPS core rulebooks, reading some William Gibson cyberpunk, and brainstorming a cyberpunk/bio-tech kind of campaign setting.

It’s actually quite a lot of work, but really enjoyable too.

I ended up buying the GURPS Ultra-Tech and Bio-Tech books as PDFs. They are out of print, and the nice hardback editions are going for over $150 on Amazon for a new copy, or $70 used. They were totally out of them at the local game store, but they did have GURPS Horror. Now, I’m not planning a Horror campaign, but I went ahead and got the book as it is really well done and if history repeats, it will soon cost over $100 to get a nice copy. If I ever see used copies of these hardbacks at Half Price Books I will snag them.

Coming up with a “unique” campaign setting that still makes use of most of the common elements of the whole Tech-Dystopia-Cyberspace-Cyborg-BioTech stuff is challenging. I want to have at least the skeleton of an entire world built. It would be easier to just say “You guys live in MegaCity” and just jump right in, making it all up as I go. Most of my gaming history has involved just that. This time I want to be a bit more creative, even if it turns out kind of hacky. You gotta start somewhere, right? I considered just doing kind of a “real world Plus” game, with the PCs starting in New York City or something like that, just about 20 years in the future.

One thing that the classic CyberPunk literature seems to have missed (though honestly I haven’t read that much) is climate change. Very few people were thinking about it back in the 1980s. So I’m looking at the year being 2065, with the effects of climate change influencing everything. While I’m doing a rough outline of what the United States and the rest of the world look like in that year, the game will be based in the “Texas Corridor” – an enclosed MegaCity that includes the current Dallas area, down IH-35, all the way down to San Antonio, with a branch out to Houston. Action will also take place in the Mexico City Complex (El Complejo Grande). This will allow me to put a little Texas/Southwest flavor and style into the game.

Now I need to come up with some of the major players in this environment. People, corporations, the cops, etc.

More GURPS

OK, I ordered the two GURPS 4th Edition core rulebooks. Was going to buy them at my local came shop, but they didn’t have them both. Ended up ordering them from Amazon.

With regard to running a Cyberpunk game, I am going to get the 3rd Edition books for Cyberpunk, since they have a lot of the “flavor” of the genre, even if they are for the old edition. For technology, I’ll get GURPS Ultra-Tech book. Pyramid Magazine # 3/21 is supposed to be good to also be useful.  I’ll see if I can get by with that for a while.

I have started re-reading some classic Cyberpunk genre novels. Started with the William Gibson stuff.

I have to say, Cyberpunk really didn’t last very long. It seems like a pretty dead genre. Not that I don’t still like it, but it just seems played out. So we’ll see what develops. One challenge of that genre is that the idea of and “adventuring party” doesn’t really exist. Most characters are more like loners, so it will be interesting to weave stories that can involve everyone.

 

Interwebs Treasures #9

GURPSing

I wrote this post before I started my GURPS CyberPunk campaign a couple of years ago. I think it clearly explains why I chose GURPs. Over the last two years, I’ve really grown to appreciate the ability to go “rules-lite” or “rules-heavy” or anywhere in between with GURPS. Honestly, I think the character creation system might be the most daunting thing for new players. It requires some thought, and it isn’t easy when you have never played. Anyway, though our play sessions have been sporadic, I think the campaign has been a big success.

As I have mentioned here before, I’ve always liked GURPS a lot, but seldom used or played in that system. By the time GURPS evolved out of the Fantasy Trip, my friends and I were pretty well entrenched in the Hero System, and rarely played in the fantasy genre. After we got out of college, a friend ran a fantasy genre game or two in the GURPS system for me and one of the other guys. It was great, but adulthood had set in and we simply didn’t have time to play.

Since discovering theMook.net yesterday I’ve been revisiting GURPS and I must admit I’m kind into the idea of running a GURPS campaign in some non-fantasy genre. I read Mook’s game notes on his GURPS Cyberpunk games. It sounds really fun. I also bought a copy of his How to be a GURPS GM, from Steve Jackson Games. It was on sale for less than $10 (it’s a PDF), and after reading his blog I decided it would be a good purchase. It was.

Apparently GURPS can seem overwhelming to a lot gamers. I was going to say “new gamers”, but I get the feeling experienced gamers sometimes feel the same way. It is easy to see why. There are no character classes. Players build their characters using a point system, as in the Hero System. So as soon as you go into character creation there are a lot of decisions to make. You don’t just roll some dice, pic a class and race, and write down what your character can do. Since there are dozens (if not hundreds) of skills to choose from depending on the genre of the game, well, you have a lot to think about.

Mook advises that perhaps a character creation session and test combat are good ways to start a GURPS campaign. I couldn’t agree more. I won’t divulge any more of his advice here — buy his supplement if you are interested.

For the GM, GURPS also requires a bit more work from the outset. The GM has to pick a genre (fantasy, science fiction, modern, or whatever), decide what skills and advantage are available to players, decide on stuff like power level, tech level, etc. In other words, the GM must decide on things that most RPGs include already. Frankly, a lot of people just aren’t up for this. No foul, right? People are busy, and there are some damned good game designers out there.

So, with these “weaknesses”, why would I want to run GURPS?

Because it kicks ass.

For many genres GURPS is ideal. The sourcebooks available for GURPS are fantastically well-written. Steve Jackson Games really has this down. No matter what kind of game you want to run, GURPS will do it. From power levels barely above average person to godlike superhumans, GURPS can do it. It really is quite incredible. And once you have a little experience with the basic system, you can keep it simple or make it as complex as you wish.

In class/level – based games like D&D, I always kind of feel like I’d be cheating if I started characters out above 1st level. I realize there is really no “cheating” in these games, but I still feel that way. To me, part of the point of D&D, part of the fun, is starting out weak and getting stronger.

Character point systems, like Hero and GURPs, allow you to easily get around this if you are weird like me. By selecting the starting power level of the characters, and determining where the campaign will fall on the Realistic vs. Cinematic continuum, you have the option of starting characters where ever you want. You determine the lethality of the campaign too.

GURPS, from what I’ve experienced, is a bit more lethal than some RPGs. Highly developed GURPS characters seem easier to kill than highly developed D&D characters. It’s just the nature of the system. GURPS, I think, tends toward a bit more realism. That’s not bad – just different.

So here’s where I’m going with this.

In my life, I don’t have time to play every week. I’m thinking once a month, or twice, is the most I can manage. I think that for this kind of life, GURPS is ideal. You can determine at the beginning about how long a campaign will last. A 12-month/12-meeting Cyberpunk game? Sure. Just determine the desired power level to start it.  You don’t have to go through the process of building characters up to “levels” at which you can actually have some fun with them.

Anyway, I am working on some campaign ideas. I’m still digging the new D&D system, but I think I might try running GURPS.

Interwebs Treasures #8

Just a couple of items this week.

  • Naked Went the Gamer
  • theMook.net — website of GURPS master and RPG enthusiast. Author of How To Be a GURPS GM, which is worth buying — a downloadable PDF. His campaign info is great and fun to read. I am kind of digging the notion of running a GURPS campaign!

Interwebs Treasures #6

More D&D stuff today, as that is what I’m concentrating no these days.

Just  couple of things today…

Still More About New Player’s Handbook

Friday night I rolled up a character for D&D 5th Edition, just to get more familiar with the game.

True to D&D form, it was pretty simple. I am so used to building a character with points, as in the Hero System, it was kind of nice to have a simpler method.

In a comment on a previous post, my friend Bob mentions that GURPS has a reputation of being very complicated. I can see that. As soon as you start building your character you are faced with a lot of choices — a high level of complexity. Hero System is even worse (or better, depending on what you like). Back in the old days (ughhhh…gotta stop saying stuff like that) it would never have occurred to me that anyone interested in RPGs would avoid complexity. It was all that complexity that made the Hero system so superior to anything else for running a Supers campaign.

But…perhaps that’s not the best way to introduce people to RPGs.

Anyway, I rolled up a Wizard character, which is the equivalent of the original AD&D “Magic User” class, but a little more robust than the original. In the new game, you start with some cantrip spells you can use at-will without using up a spell slot and with no preparation. You also start with the ability to cast 2 “real” spells at 1st level, and have a number of spells prepared for use equal to your level + you intelligence modifier. So a 1st level Wizard with a 17 Int can have 4 spells memorized/prepared, and use them as he/she sees fit with the 2 spell slots. You regain your spell slots with rest. This seems like a much more logical and playable system than the original one, which I always thought was dumb.

The new D&D materials give a lot of background info on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. In my own gaming history, we never really used the published settings. We used a lot of dungeon modules, but always within our own worlds — which were not well thought-out. I feel like in 10th grade we were playing pretty good D&D, but I and our other regular GM didn’t really spend much time on the overall setting. We just tried to design good adventures. Looking back at the 1e books, they were a lot more skeletal. The new PH actually details the characteristics of a number human ethnicities/cultures from Forgotten Realms. The notion of being able to drop players into a preexisting campaign world is pretty nice. It reminds me a bit of the Stormbringer setting that was available for Runequest.

So, I have to admit that 5e is growing on me. The stuff in the Players Handbook is good. I expect the Monster Manual will not disappoint. How could it? It’s just a list of monsters, right? I am really anxious to see what they do with the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

What I’m seeing is that Wizards of the Coast is doing a pretty good game redesign, and providing a lot of material to make it super easy to get into for those who don’t have the time or desire to create their own campaign world. I think that is fine.

More on New Players Handbook

I’ve been reading it more carefully.

There is some nice emphasis on backgrounds. I like that. There was very little in the 1e Players Handbook. 2e introduced more non-weapon proficiency skills, which was good. This new edition seems to give a nice method of using such skills. I like that.

I feel like the Dragonborn and Tiefling PC races are a bit over the top for PCs. In particular, the Dragonborn have a frickin’ breath weapon. I would probably allow a PC to be a Tiefling, but I think I’d not allow the Dragonborn race. It’s just too stupid.

Non-Human PCs have a lot of racial abilities like dark vision, etc., and they get to add points to one or more characteristics. And of course they no longer have limits on either class selection or level achievement. This would seem to make humans really really suck. BUT — Humans get to add a +1 to every one of their ability scores right off the bat. So that is not too bad.

I love the changes to the magic system, and I think the division of magic-users into Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards is good. They are nice and distinct, and it makes sense.

At this point, I think that once you get over the slick and glitzy look of the new book, the game looks like it is pretty good.

This weekend I’m going to use the adventure and pregenerated characters in the starter set to run some practice combats, and see how it works out.