12-11-2005, 06:51 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
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12-12-2005, 05:28 AM | #22 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Oslo, Norway
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
My female friend did great, hitting her stride instantly. My problem was that I was fairly certain she had significant potential as a role-player, but she was reluctant to believe in role-playing sessions without gamist-style combat. While D&D brings many people to the hobby, I would guess that it repulses many people as well.
One of my friends (and players) back in high school ran a MERP adventure for some girls in class. One of them, a humanist Christian, always regarded as very calm, sensible and kind, cheerily remarked after they captured some orcs: "Let's chop their fingers off, one by one, to make them talk". Quote:
I actively try to get people to play GURPS. Not everyone, of course, but I believe that many people's gaming preferences would be better served by GURPS than the systems the are using - D&D or WoD, mostly. Also, it improves my chances of finding like-minded gamers, and helps SJG, a company that has earned my loyalty with (mostly) great products and (uniformly) excellent customer service. Hm, perhaps it is time to sign up as a Man in Black Quote:
Secondly, suitability. GURPS suits me very well. I am best at running fairly realistic and gritty stuff, and I am hard pressed to find other suitable systems that would appeal to an anti-GURPS crowd, whether they favour D&D-style games or "rules-light" games.
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"I will prove it with string, iodine and a note from my mother" (Eddie Izzard, "Circle" album) |
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12-12-2005, 08:15 AM | #23 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
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Currently I have three different generic engines at hand: GURPS, FUDGE, and Big Eyes Small Mouth. Which one I pick is a matter of desired flavor. For example, I'm using Big Eyes Small Mouth for my current high fantasy campaign, Manse, partly because an opposition between wild magic and ritualized magic is essential to the setting concept, and BESM offers two different attributes, Magic and Dynamic Sorcery, that exactly fit that opposition. I'm not primarily a grittily realistic GM. My favored genres seem to be fairly high fantasy and supers. And my underlying concept of magic is fairly close to, "If it can make a good story, magic can do it." On the other hand, I've used GURPS for more campaigns than anything else, precisely because it *is* a highly serviceable second best engine. I've run interstellar traders trying to deal with alien cultures (based on David Brin's Uplift novels), larger than life heroes rebuilding a post-economic-collapse North America (based on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged), scientists and diplomats negotiating with advanced aliens in the 1930s, modern British teenagers in Faerie, prisoners in a gnostic supernatural analog of The Village, and private investigators solving informational crimes in 2100 A.D. (using the Transhuman Space setting). GURPS has worked well for all of these. And I'm currently playing in one GURPS campaign, as a Hispanic teenage superhero in a world where superpowers are a sexually transmitted disease. That campaign has problems, but they're not the product of the system; they're more a matter of campaign focus and character interaction. |
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12-12-2005, 08:21 AM | #24 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
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12-12-2005, 09:51 AM | #25 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Florida
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
In my opinion the reason GURPS has not been as successful was a conscious choice by SJ for his company. Steve does not want to reliquish either day to day management, nor heed the advice of those he consults with for same. He has generally refused to release products he is not editorially involved in. He has also actively refused to replace or reconfigure some staff positions with more qualified people.
Without delegation SJG will simply never get bigger, and Steve will never have the success I think he deserves. Now it is his company and he can do what he likes, it is his money after all. However had Peter Adkison run Wizards the same way I do8ubt D&D 3e would have ever existed. That being said GURPS is getting better, I think the greatest hurdles in 2005 for SJG are art, layout, and print buying. Areas where the company as a whole falls down regularly. Production problems are 100% of the issues I see at SJG.
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Ross Winn "Some guy from Florida" |
12-12-2005, 10:10 AM | #26 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Chicago
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
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but one thing I've found with roleplaying games is the good GMs can make any game fun to play - even D&D - and the bad ones can even ruin GURPS. I only know one good 'DM' as he calls himself, and he has thrown a bunch of house rules on top of d20 to make fixes in what he doesn't like. What he mainly takes from d20 is the vast array of material out there to inspire him. He has tons of worldbooks and he mines them for really good adventure ideas. Sure some dumb mechanics pop up once in a while, but when the DM is good, then these can be taken care of in ad hoc fashion. And although there's no mental disadvantages, if we had converted our characters to GURPS, we would have known exactly what to pick. It is possible to have a good D&D game, and when you are familiar with it and with your own house rules it can be a lot easier than learning a game system that may match your style of game better. Of course some day I will convert this guy to GUPRS ... someday... |
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12-12-2005, 10:18 AM | #27 |
Experimental Subject
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: saarbrücken, germany
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
I just wanted to mention that the question of how big Gurps actually is, and whether it could be enlarged, and whether this would be a good idea or not, has already been discussed to death and back again here.
Consequently, the most interesting posts here were off-topic, imo... Don't get angry (/smiles nicely/), but don't you think the matter of Gurps market share has already been discussed quite most comprehensively?
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Like a mail order mogwai...but nerdier - Nymdok understanding is a three-edged sword
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12-12-2005, 10:21 AM | #28 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Florida
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
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Ross Winn "Some guy from Florida" |
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12-12-2005, 10:30 AM | #29 | |
Experimental Subject
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: saarbrücken, germany
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
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Seriously. My question was a polite way of saying "Please, read the older discussions on the same topic, if you have anything to add after that, let us hear it..." It's just because I get this pain in my head when another thread "Gurps vs D&D, Part X" (aka "What size is Gurps?", "Why is Gurps so small?" "Gimme more Gurps!" etc) pops up. All this brainpower here discussing the same old topics, over and over... I mostly read this thread for the interesting (but off-topic) things whswhs (not the only one, of course) has to tell, sorting through the old news is somewhat tiresome.
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Like a mail order mogwai...but nerdier - Nymdok understanding is a three-edged sword
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12-12-2005, 03:49 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Columbia, Maryland
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Re: Why isn't GURPS as popular as the D20 system and games
No, Traveller was a couple years after D&D. Traveller was also, as I recall, a couple years after three or four other rpgs.
Why isn't GURPS as popular? I can go to either of the local megabookstores and find at best GURPS Characters, and maybe one of the other GURPS books. I've never seen more than two GURPS 4e books on the shelf at one time. With D&D/d20, the bookseller stocks almost as much of it as they do Eastern philosophy! It's very easy to get a d20 fix. In fact, too easy. I just dropped some dough on the PHB v3.5 (I'm not hopping mad anymore about having the v3.0 carpet yanked from under me) and D&D miniatures!!! Yes, D&D miniatures! Say what you will, but I think their marketing strategy is brilliant. For $12 I get 8 pre-painted minis! With the price of metal these days, $12 buys what? Maybe three unpainted figs? And with two kids, how much time do I have to paint? Or play? So I need things that are going to help me maximize my gaming time. What are those things? Pre-painted very affordable miniatures are one. Canned adventures are another. And... I think I'm rambling at this point, and speaking of time and kids... I must away! |
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opinion, popularity |
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