newbie needs help getting started with Supers

[JoeStrout]

I'm a complete newbie to GURPS, planning to start a campaign for my local gaming group in about a month... and after spending the last month browsing the 1300 pages of the Basic Set, Powers, and Supers, I'm starting to think that's not enough!

I posted about this in a thread about GURPS Lite supplements, but got the advice there that Lite is probably not a good starting point for a Supers game. So as to not hijack that thread, I'm starting this one to ask for more advice on how to reduce the rules complexity for our first campaign. At the moment, I can't even keep all the terminology straight (powers, talents, skills, techniques, etc.), much less explain to anybody how they relate and which they need to understand. (And I'm going to be the GM!)

So: what can I throw out to make it simpler?

The Supers book at one point recommended throwing out Talents, and using only wildcard skills. That sounds like a good start, but still leaves an awfully big cow to swallow.

Anything else? What's the bare minimum I need to go back and study to get a Supers game off the ground? I'm sure I sound like a whiner, but at the moment I'm feeling overwhelmed, and reconsidering whether GURPS is right for us at all. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

[johndallman]

Are you familiar with any other RPG rule systems? Knowing that might help us explain in terms of the differences.

[JoeStrout]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Are you familiar with any other RPG rule systems? Knowing that might help us explain in terms of the differences.

Fair question — mostly AD&D (starting with 1st edition, as a lad!), plus a few home-grown systems you wouldn't have heard of.

It's not that any of the GURPS material, by itself, is incomprehensible... it's just that there's so much of it. And much of it seems to overlap considerably: powers, skills, talents, and advantages all occupy pretty much the same place in my head, for example (and don't even ask me what "techniques" or "maneuvers" are, I have no idea).

I've probably made a mistake trying to jump right into Supers without first playing a few simpler GURPS games... but in our case, Supers is the whole reason we're considering GURPS at all. I've seen lots of advice to the effect of "don't try to swallow the whole cow," but none explaining exactly which parts of the cow you need to swallow first.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by JoeStrout

Fair question — mostly AD&D (starting with 1st edition, as a lad!), plus a few home-grown systems you wouldn't have heard of.

It's not that any of the GURPS material, by itself, is incomprehensible... it's just that there's so much of it.

[snip] I've probably made a mistake trying to jump right into Supers without first playing a few simpler GURPS games... but in our case, Supers is the whole reason we're considering GURPS at all. I've seen lots of advice to the effect of "don't try to swallow the whole cow," but none explaining exactly which parts of the cow you need to swallow first.

Yeah, that's your problem right there - GURPS is kind of a lot to start with all at once. If you're smart and use the forums you can probably handle it, however, but Supers is probably the most challenging thing possible and you should probably expect a few wrinkles if you start with a high-power campaign.

[samd6]

Disable most of the optional stuff. No techniques, much simpler combat. Use wildcard skills. Avoid magic. ('cause then you gotta go buy Thaumatology, which is great book, that adds even more stuff)

Abuse the heck out of the eyeballing modifiers table (somewhere in book 2 of the basic set, I forget exact page)

Let them know ahead of time that this is a bit complex and will be a bit slow at first.

[Edges]

I'd recommend putting the Powers and Supers books back on the shelf for now. The Basic Set has plenty.

Ignore any mention of the word "techniques". Probably best to ignore Talents too.

Get these.

[JoeStrout]

Originally Posted by Edges

I'd recommend putting the Powers and Supers books back on the shelf for now. The Basic Set has plenty.

Ignore any mention of the word "techniques". Probably best to ignore Talents too.

Get these.

Got those, and grateful for the recommendation on techniques and talents... but, can we play a reasonable superheroes campaign with just the Basic Set?

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Edges

I'd recommend putting the Powers and Supers books back on the shelf for now. The Basic Set has plenty.

Indeed. Notably, many Superheroes can be well represented with DR, Innate Attack, Flight / Warp / Super Jump, etc - all of which are in Basic. I'd start by coming up with a character concept and seeing how far you can get building it on your own, then coming to the forums for additional help and clarification.

[whswhs]

The first thing I recommend is that you get out the Basic Set, and read the Psionics chapter very carefully, and make sense of how psionics works. Psi powers are the prototype for all other powers in GURPS. And that chapter is pretty short.

Then come back and ask questions about anything in the psionics rules you don't get.

Really, there are only about three basic ideas in that chapter—a list of advantages, a power modifier (such as "Psionic, -10%"), and a power talent (such as "Telepathy Talent"). You use the modifier to reduce the point cost of the advantage. When you want to use the advantage actively, you roll against some stat (usually IQ or Will, for psi powers); if you have the talent, you add your levels of the talent to the stat, which gives you a better chance of success.

Powers is just working out the implications of that idea. Supers mainly assumes you have the scheme down, and discusses how to apply it to re-creating the supers genre.

Bill Stoddard

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by JoeStrout

It's not that any of the GURPS material, by itself, is incomprehensible... it's just that there's so much of it. And much of it seems to overlap considerably: powers, skills, talents, and advantages all occupy pretty much the same place in my head, for example (and don't even ask me what "techniques" or "maneuvers" are, I have no idea).

OK, let's try explaining a few basics. You've got the hang of ST, DX, IQ and HT, presumably? Those are very much like Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Constitution in D&D.

There's only one basic kind of dice roll in GURPS, which is "Roll 3d6, wanting a low total", which does the same job as "Roll d20, wanting high" in D&D.

Skills are things you learn in a mundane way, from training or experience. Computer Operation, Driving (Automobile), and Guns (Pistol) are skills. GURPS has no direct equivalent of character level or hit dice: how good you are at hitting people depends on how good you are at the skill for the weapon you're using. Techniques are specialised uses of a skill, for being especially good at doing one particular, limited thing. Wildcard skills are "big skills", broad skills that cover a lot of related activities, and take the place of several ordinary skills.

Advantages are useful things you can do that are not skills. Powers are advantages, so are Talents. A Talent is the power at being talented at a set of skills, so you're better at doing them. Powers are, well, "anything you can build out of advantages and their modifiers" so it's a big subject.

Maneuvers are actions you take during combat, like "Attack" or "Move".

These's an example of building a character - Dai Blackthorn - embedded in the Characters book. Working over that - he has a complete character sheet at the end of the book - until you get stuck, or understand why all the numbers on it are there, might be a good exercise.