Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - "So you want to play..." - A community made resource for GMs and players

Grayscale · 12-02-2017, 04:56 AM

Hey guys,

So, one thing we always hear with GURPS is how it is a tool set and we should take what we want, discarding what's not conductive to the type of game we want to play. That's fair and great advice! It's also suggested that as GMs we make lists of allowed traits - advantages, disadvantages, skills... Which is also fair.

But also tiring and overwhelming - especially if you're starting out on the hobby or the system. Sure, if you have experienced friends you can just say "make a TL4, realistic PC, to play in medieval England" and that may be enough (though I suspect many a times it isn't).

"Paralysis by analysis" is a real thing.

I propose that we as community create a repository, so to speak, of simple "Adventure/Campaign Templates" - lists of advantages, disadvantages, skills, recommend books and combat rules (at the moment that's what I thought), that are suitable for the most "generic" (on our collective wisdom) game type within a specific genre/setting.

So for example, "So you want to play...Wild West!" would have lists for that type of game and so on.

We could name our templates after movies (So you want to play... Aliens!), books (So you want to play... The Three Musketeers!), games, or even GURPS "jargon" (So you want to play... TL2 - Magical Sword and Sandal!); anything that gets the point across of the type of game we're aiming for.

I'd say we keep it fairly simple. I suggest the following:

It should all fit in a single page, front and back AT MOST.
Something along 40 and 60 items for each kind of trait - Not really a hard rule, but then again, that's what most "specific setting" RPG's have in terms of skils, for example. Might not be enough for experienced players, but it's plenty for most, IMO.
A nice design. I provide one below, hopefully you'll like.

I'll start: I partially filled a some options for a Cyberpunk game - I remember I wanted to GM one when I first started reading GURPS and made this list then - It was quite difficulty to me, to be honest. I suspect it would be so even now.

Here it is. in image and pdf format:

https://imgur.com/a/bzqrs

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K1...aY9fJXK72N09fO

What do you think? We could start with something easy, the aforementioned Wild West, for example.

As a group I'm sure when could get lots of these done in no time!

12-02-2017, 04:56 AM	#1
Grayscale Join Date: Jun 2017	"So you want to play..." - A community made resource for GMs and players Hey guys, So, one thing we always hear with GURPS is how it is a tool set and we should take what we want, discarding what's not conductive to the type of game we want to play. That's fair and great advice! It's also suggested that as GMs we make lists of allowed traits - advantages, disadvantages, skills... Which is also fair. But also tiring and overwhelming - especially if you're starting out on the hobby or the system. Sure, if you have experienced friends you can just say "make a TL4, realistic PC, to play in medieval England" and that may be enough (though I suspect many a times it isn't). "Paralysis by analysis" is a real thing. I propose that we as community create a repository, so to speak, of simple "Adventure/Campaign Templates" - lists of advantages, disadvantages, skills, recommend books and combat rules (at the moment that's what I thought), that are suitable for the most "generic" (on our collective wisdom) game type within a specific genre/setting. So for example, "So you want to play...Wild West!" would have lists for that type of game and so on. We could name our templates after movies (So you want to play... Aliens!), books (So you want to play... The Three Musketeers!), games, or even GURPS "jargon" (So you want to play... TL2 - Magical Sword and Sandal!); anything that gets the point across of the type of game we're aiming for. I'd say we keep it fairly simple. I suggest the following: It should all fit in a single page, front and back AT MOST. Something along 40 and 60 items for each kind of trait - Not really a hard rule, but then again, that's what most "specific setting" RPG's have in terms of skils, for example. Might not be enough for experienced players, but it's plenty for most, IMO. A nice design. I provide one below, hopefully you'll like. I'll start: I partially filled a some options for a Cyberpunk game - I remember I wanted to GM one when I first started reading GURPS and made this list then - It was quite difficulty to me, to be honest. I suspect it would be so even now. Here it is. in image and pdf format: https://imgur.com/a/bzqrs https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K1...aY9fJXK72N09fO What do you think? We could start with something easy, the aforementioned Wild West, for example. As a group I'm sure when could get lots of these done in no time!