Quote:
Originally Posted by trooper6
...because the fundamental understanding of realism in GURPS is not shared. I'd also recommend being very careful gaming GURPS with people who are very distant from you idea of realism in GURPS. It can lead to...unpleasant surprises.
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I think there's a pernicious perception that GURPS is realistic. It's not. It doesn't try to be. What it tries for, and I think succeeds at, is verisimilitude: the appearance of truth. In my opinion, it does a very good job of taking a basic, physics-based view of the world and then making plausible, playable assumptions based on that worldview, as well as building in playable rules for fantastic stuff (as in, fantasy) that's as plausible as it needs to be.
Some people look at this very crunchy, detailed,
plausible system, and seem to get caught up in its "realism" to the point of wanting to make it more "realistic." This invariably seems to involve adding more detail, because more rules = more realism or something. I think that's an unproductive way to spend gaming time, but if they're having fun, well... can't argue taste. But it does very much highlight my rule 0 for GURPS:
Make sure that everyone in the play group is sharing the same assumptions about the game, or it'll all end in tears.