Quote:
Originally Posted by tjmiller07
The question I have is why do you want a 5th Edition of GURPS? What do you want changed, from a players, or GM's perspective? What rules don't you like about 4th Edition?
I'm posting this in hopes of the readers of this thread to come up with simple houserules for the so called 'critics' problems, questions, or suggestions.
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Hundreds of little details really. GURPS 4e (or for that matter 3e, it didn't change that much) is already pretty solid. Any of the long surviving systems that have been through a couple evolutionary editions - BRP/RQ/CoC, D&D3.5/Pathfinder, GURPS, Hero - had any really critical problems fixed years ago.
A few that I recall off the top of my head just flipping through:
I'd like to see ST become a secondary attribute, any remaining rolls against it go away, damage be linearized against it, and swing become an even multiple of thrust.
Completely decouple Basic Move and Basic Speed, even if you use the identical formulas to calculate them both.
Appearance needs to be rethought so it works within a species and has cleaner rules for flavors other than sexual attraction .
Numerical TLs, particularly numerical modifiers for them, should go away
Wealth needs its components (starting cash, income, job requirements and expenses) separated.
Status and the various kinds of Rank need costs to depend on both number of subordinates and how much authority you have over them.
Reaction modifiers currently included in advantages and disadvantages should be bought separately. For example a lot of mental disadvantages with them severely overlap - once you are a known dangerous nutcase, having some minor delusions too isn't going to make people worry about you more.
A handful of combined advantages and disadvantages should be broken back apart. Absorption really doesn't mesh with DR, Minions and certainly non-sentient things are something different than Allies, the kinds of Jumper aren't strongly connected (*especially* with Warp separate), Mind Control and Conditioning are different powers...
DR (Can't Wear Armor) wants to be (Does not Stack), use that and don't try to make it realistic, it's not.
Enhanced Move. "Half levels" need to go.
Magery needs to separate the Talent from the modifiers on the conditions under which you can/rituals you require to cast spells.
The Perks section needs a major rework - these have become a lot more important in 4e, and this section is no longer at all representative.
Dependents shouldn't vary with point values. It's really a special kind of (Sense of) Duty. The problems high point dependents can't handle without your help will be *more difficult* anyway, if anything this is a worse problem than a low point dependent. Indeed all of the Social advantages and disadvantages - Allies, Claim to Hospitality, Contacts, Favor, Patrons, Depedents, Enemies - could use some rethinking.
Honesty needs a different name, and cost variation as a function of restrictiveness of rules you apply. Is it a Code of Honor or a Geas?
Indecisive needs to not try to count choices.
Terminally Ill (and things with a related problem concerning net present value like Destiny or Heir or pregnancy or current age) need a more uniform way of figuring time sensitivity.
Weirdness Magnet needs to be rewritten as an actual disadvantage or turned into a Perk.
Most skill defaults should be dropped - they call for all sorts of tricky point redistributions, double default rules.... Sure many tasks can be done with multiple skills, that doesn't mean the two skills that cover them should have a default.
Optional specializations as a shift in skill difficulty is a lousy mechanic - the 3e version as a penalty/bonus was much less strange, -1/+1 gives the same result as -2/shift down one skill difficulty without implying that very broad swaths of complex skills are somehow vastly simpler than the parent field, or generating a problem for Easy skills.
Animal Handling needs some work with specializations - I split it into a general skill (applies to all animals) and a care/use/training part that requires one.
Artist and Craft skills should be harmonized (they're close to the usually IQ and usually DX based forms of the same thing)
History and other pure knowledge skills that ought to have differences in range of coverage - Area Knowledge, Literature, Occultism, Theology - need a uniform mechanic for that.
I use a handful of house skills I think of as serious omissions - Chemical Process/TL, Culture Custom, Machine Operation, Parenting, Signaling, and Stage Magic.
The distinction between Average and Hard techniques has become fairly pointless. Use one progression for them.
Irritating Conditions is a good start, but not taken far enough. It should expand to covered under Afflictions, Stunning, blinding flashes and deafening noises, shock, binding etc., have the rules standardized there, and referenced where the pieces currently are.
The Physician table (and skill) need some harmonization - e.g. for the problem of the skill description claiming it doesn't exist at particular TLs, and putting the functions without equipment breakpoint in the middle of two TLs that do the same thing on the table rather than at a breakpoint....
Law Levels^x Legality Classes need to go.