The '''Generic Universal RolePlaying System''', usually shortened to '''GURPS''', is a badly over-rated [[RPG|roleplaying game]] made by [[Steve Jackson Games]]. It has lots of numbers and expansion books, few of them any good to roleplaying but used as textbooks by people with a shaky approach to research. Some consider GURPS is the quintessential universal system; it is so flexible that you can bend it in half and fold it inside itself. It is the paradigm of the simulationist category of games. All simulationist games since GURPS secretly aspire to kill GURPS and wear its skin while drinking the delicious delicious heart's blood. Its detail is surpassed by [[I.C.E.]]'s [[Rolemaster]] series, but GURPS doesn't suffer from the Table Within a Table Within a Table Within a FUCK YOU problem.
The '''Generic Universal RolePlaying System''', usually shortened to '''GURPS''', is a [[RPG|roleplaying game]] made by [[Steve Jackson Games]]. It has lots of numbers and expansion books. GURPS is the quintessential universal system; it is so flexible that you can bend it in half and fold it inside itself. It is the paradigm of the simulationist category of games. All simulationist games since GURPS secretly aspire to kill GURPS and wear its skin while drinking the delicious delicious heart's blood. Its detail is surpassed by [[I.C.E.]]'s [[Rolemaster]] series, but GURPS doesn't suffer from the Table Within a Table Within a Table Within a FUCK YOU problem.
These people are wrong and badly. This is not a system you want to emulate.
The basic premise behind the system is that you create your character and customize all of his abilities using points that you get at creation and as your character progresses. It uses the d6 exclusively and you generally want to roll under your relevant ability score to succeed in a given task. This can be augmented in difficulty by adding or subtracting the amount of dice rolled. A roll of a 3 or 4 is a critical success, while an 18 is always a critical failure. SJG put out a free .pdf synopsis of the rules called "[http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG31-0004 GURPS Lite]", which is enough to play a barebones version of the game.
The basic premise behind the system is that you create your character and customize all of his abilities using points that you get at creation and as your character progresses. It uses the d6 exclusively and you generally want to roll under your relevant ability score to succeed in a given task. This can be augmented in difficulty by adding or subtracting the amount of dice rolled. A roll of a 3 or 4 is a critical success, while an 18 is always a critical failure. SJG put out a free .pdf synopsis of the rules called "[http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG31-0004 GURPS Lite]", which is enough to play a barebones version of the game. Character creation can take three to five hours and you wind up with a mute, leperous, midget who smells like rancid garbage but has high enough skill to cancel anything the GM throws at you in penalties, for example successfully flying a brick through a hurricane.
GURPS' simulationist bent results in it being regarded as excessively complicated by many gamers, earning it the humorous moniker "Generally Unplayable RolePlaying System".
GURPS' simulationist bent results in it being excessively complicated, earning it the humorous moniker "Generally Unplayable RolePlaying System". This is an understatement to an extreme. Where most RPG systems are content to let you fire a bow every other turn, GURPS bogs it down with "realism". You need to spend one turn for each of reaching back for an arrow, taking the arrow, notching the arrow, pulling the string, and eventually after god-knows how many turns of aiming to counteract the negative penalties from the target's distance from you, speed as compared to yours, lighting, condition of your bow, cover, then you might get to spend a turn shooting. Meanwhile the dude you're shoting at has charged 10 yards per turn to hit you with an axe two or three times around. Just like in real life.
This is quick and easy compared to vehicle design, which requires several pages of scrap paper and calculus to perform. Character creation takes hours, vehicle creation takes days and you find that your engine is too small for the armor and your tank has a top speed of 5 kmh, forcing you to scrap it and start completely over.
GURPS is notorious for having one of the worst magic systems conceived. Thought D&D had a hell of a lot of situational spells? Want to throw a fireball? Prepare to learn the spell to set flammible stuff on fire which allows you to learn the spell that lets you just make fire at will, then you need to learn how to shape fire with magic, how to move fire with magic, how to raise temperatures, how to LOWER temperatures, how to make the pure-magical form of fire, and then you may learn fireball. Don't like spell slots and memorization in D&D? In GURPS you may spend 3 turn to do 3 dice of damage, after which your mage is exhausted from the physical effort of magic and can't cast any more spells this battle. There are spells with higher energy costs then a party of wizards have energy. And you can learn fanastic spells like how to season food and color light.
Meanwhile the axe guy from before has killed you four times over and cheaper than the character points you wasted on magic.
But it's universal and the basic campaign setting is a multiverse! Watch as your awesome wizard starts to throw that fireball and then eats 10 seperate 10d6 bullets from an M16.
You can make [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Furry furries] in GURPS and there is even a book encouraging this. You can get
[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Weeaboo weeaboo] in GURPS and there is also a book encouraging this.
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
Revision as of 12:37, 18 November 2008
This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, usually shortened to GURPS, is a roleplaying game made by Steve Jackson Games. It has lots of numbers and expansion books. GURPS is the quintessential universal system; it is so flexible that you can bend it in half and fold it inside itself. It is the paradigm of the simulationist category of games. All simulationist games since GURPS secretly aspire to kill GURPS and wear its skin while drinking the delicious delicious heart's blood. Its detail is surpassed by I.C.E.'s Rolemaster series, but GURPS doesn't suffer from the Table Within a Table Within a Table Within a FUCK YOU problem.
The basic premise behind the system is that you create your character and customize all of his abilities using points that you get at creation and as your character progresses. It uses the d6 exclusively and you generally want to roll under your relevant ability score to succeed in a given task. This can be augmented in difficulty by adding or subtracting the amount of dice rolled. A roll of a 3 or 4 is a critical success, while an 18 is always a critical failure. SJG put out a free .pdf synopsis of the rules called "GURPS Lite", which is enough to play a barebones version of the game.
GURPS' simulationist bent results in it being regarded as excessively complicated by many gamers, earning it the humorous moniker "Generally Unplayable RolePlaying System".
This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it
