Raise a Million For GURPS

[David Johansen]

So, just on a silly, throw-away whim, I was wondering how we could raise a million dollars for a GURPS renaissance. My own thought always goes to a big box starter set full of 1/32 scale miniatures of course :D But other visions may prevail. Perhaps an IST Webshow or a huge licence like Star Wars or Hunger Games?

Obviously, it would be a crowd funding effort and Kickstarter verses ransom model is a fair point for debate. SJG has a good enough reputation that they might be able to dispense with Kickstarter and go on their own strength.

My own thought is that the GURPS name is probably a mixed blessing in the gaming industry. People associate it with insane complexity for some crazy reason so we need stuff that people want as much and more than the ultimate GURPS starter set. Keep in mind we're looking at a $100 - 200 slip case.

I think there should be world books and sourcebooks. I'll leave the miniatures alone for now. :(

So, in the starter set I'd like to see at least two Players Books, a GM's book. A Magic, Low Tech, High Tech, and Ultra Tech books, Powers, and Martial Arts books. There'd be no redundancy so, Powers and Martial Arts would not be covered in the Player's Books. I'd also like a world book anthology or two. A generic fantasy one, a supers one, and a space opera one. The second one would be a history book.

I should note these would probably be much shorter and tighter volumes than the current world books. Otherwise the set would simply be too expensive.

Oh well, it's a fun idea to play with. How would you raise a million dollars to make GURPS popular and successful?

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Not to discourage wildly speculative imaginings, but it may be worth remembering history shows that handing SJ Games a million bucks to revive a moribund brand has a tendency to drive staff members to the point of madness and mess with schedules across the company.

[Minuteman37]

Honestly the simplest and easiest (in execution) way to get SJGames metric tons of cash is a juicy licence. I don't think Star Wars or Hunger Games would be good choices. Star wars as demonstrated on this forum lacks the internal consistency gurps needs in a setting. While Hunger Games has the problem of people wanting to play the hunger games which would by design pit players against each other.

A good candidate for a GURPS licensed game would be a setting with a wealth of internally consistent lore and and a tone that embodies the heroic realism that GURPS heavily defaults to, which is why I'm putting my vote in for Lord of the Rings.

[David Johansen]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

Not to discourage wildly speculative imaginings, but it may be worth remembering history shows that handing SJ Games a million bucks to revive a moribund brand has a tendency to drive staff members to the point of madness and mess with schedules across the company.

True, true, but mostly I'm looking for ideas on what it would take to cause GURPS to compete as a retail project. I don't really hope to find a million dollars here.

I often find the question, "What would I do with a million dollars," useful when trying to decide what I actually want to do. It removes the most common limitation and opens the door for wild speculation.

Personally I think accessibility and visibility are the biggest issues facing GURPS in the market place. The Basic Set is just too much for most people to swallow. It's not that I don't love it (though I'd have separated powers and techniques out of the core as they get too fiddly for general use). Visibility is tricky, you can get it with a bigger box or a hot licence or a killer new concept. The last is the cheapest and hardest to achieve but also the most worthwhile in the long run.

While a series of complete game in one book products might work, and would be a cheaper and thus safer way to proceed, it doesn't really sell the universality of GURPS so I suggested a series of sourcebooks containing setting specific material.

Another angle might be a virtual table top or an mmporg. Personally, that defeats the purpose of promoting GURPS but that doesn't mean it's invalid. Maybe we could go after the World of Warcraft refugees who are tired of class and level games. Yes I know games have insane budgets these days. But I'd love a modular, universal rpg with creator tools.

[Ronnke]

It's not going to even remotely happen, but we can still speculate what we would like in a starter boxed set.

My thoughts:

• GURPS Lite
• Six pregenerated fantasy characters (Dungeon Fantasy?) with attached explanation of their respective abilities.
• Six prepainted plastic miniatures to go with those characters
• A basic one or two page, how to GM guide.
• An adventure (or two) with detailed GM hints and notes, such as the rolls to make, etc. The adventure should be of the "read this to the players" variety. This could also be written as a GM-less adventure so everyone plays.
• Colour hex based battle map/s relevant to the adventure
• A number of prepainted plastic monster miniatures
• A dozen d6 dice
• A bunch of cardboard tokens for tracking damage, fatigue, etc. Or...
• ...a simple phone app for tracking damage, fatigue, etc. Add social media links, so you can post game events to your respective social media feeds at the press of a button. eg. "Playing GURPS Deluxe Box, I just killed a Festering Zombie."
• Marketing material which details the whole GURPS line.

As part of the line, you also release expansions which allows the players to take the characters on further adventures. I guess you could also add genre packs which gives you characters, miniatures and adventures for modern, sci-fi or whatever.

That's my 2 copper pieces.

[D10]

I always felt like GURPS and World of Darkness were a match made in heaven, if there was such a thing for 4e (not requiem, the dark ages and masquarade lore that is gonna be utilized in the next vampire games) it would be great because it would give GURPS something it really lacks, which is an extremelly rich premium quality settlement with great future prospects in terms of supplements and etc.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

It's not going to even remotely happen, but we can still speculate what we would like in a starter boxed set.

My thoughts:

• GURPS Lite
• Six pregenerated fantasy characters (Dungeon Fantasy?) with attached explanation of their respective abilities.
• Six prepainted plastic miniatures to go with those characters
• A basic one or two page, how to GM guide.
• An adventure (or two) with detailed GM hints and notes, such as the rolls to make, etc. The adventure should be of the "read this to the players" variety. This could also be written as a GM-less adventure so everyone plays.
• Colour hex based battle map/s relevant to the adventure
• A number of prepainted plastic monster miniatures
• A dozen d6 dice
• A bunch of cardboard tokens for tracking damage, fatigue, etc. Or...
• ...a simple phone app for tracking damage, fatigue, etc. Add social media links, so you can post game events to your respective social media feeds at the press of a button. eg. "Playing GURPS Deluxe Box, I just killed a Festering Zombie."
• Marketing material which details the whole GURPS line.

As part of the line, you also release expansions which allows the players to take the characters on further adventures. I guess you could also add genre packs which gives you characters, miniatures and adventures for modern, sci-fi or whatever.

That's my 2 copper pieces.

I like it! I'd buy this for sure, just to run new players through - and I'd buy copies for all sorts of people who sort-of-want-to-try roleplaying, but would be intimidated by the whole Basic Set, and a bit weirded out by being run through a non-pre-published adventure.

Nice!

[David Johansen]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

• GURPS Lite
• Six pregenerated fantasy characters (Dungeon Fantasy?) with attached explanation of their respective abilities.
• Six prepainted plastic miniatures to go with those characters
• A basic one or two page, how to GM guide.
• An adventure (or two) with detailed GM hints and notes, such as the rolls to make, etc. The adventure should be of the "read this to the players" variety. This could also be written as a GM-less adventure so everyone plays.
• Colour hex based battle map/s relevant to the adventure
• A number of prepainted plastic monster miniatures
• A dozen d6 dice
• A bunch of cardboard tokens for tracking damage, fatigue, etc. Or...
• ...a simple phone app for tracking damage, fatigue, etc. Add social media links, so you can post game events to your respective social media feeds at the press of a button. eg. "Playing GURPS Deluxe Box, I just killed a Festering Zombie."
• Marketing material which details the whole GURPS line.

As part of the line, you also release expansions which allows the players to take the characters on further adventures. I guess you could also add genre packs which gives you characters, miniatures and adventures for modern, sci-fi or whatever.

That's my 2 copper pieces.

I like this one too. Not so fond of prepainted miniatures but what about doing it as a single saddle stitched book with an overleaf of cardboard heroes?

[Ah_Ftagn]

Ronkke, your idea is very similar to my idea for marketing GURPS, which is:

Genre-Specific Kits for several popular types of setting, each including:
*GURPS Lite, in a convenient digest-sized booklet.
*4-8 Genre Specific character booklets, with a point tracking page.
*Pogs for each character.
*Combat Cards for maneuvers and character-specific abilities.
*a single adventure booklet and campaign setting booklet for that genre
*A GM Guide booklet for the genre
*Adventure-specific hex-maps on standard sized paper, with the scale listed
*Enemy Pogs for the adventure
*3d6, Small-Sized, and a small cup to roll them in.
*A marketing pamphlet, entitled "Want More GURPS?", for the Basic Set.

Friendly Marketing Features, Including:
*The MSRP for this starter set is a good value and includes tax (rounded into cost).
*The Art throughout being tasteful and well-done
*The materials within can be used along with the Basic Set for extended play
*Replacement materials being (For a time) available through W23.
*Digital versions of replacement materials being availuable through E23
*Digital Copies of the set being redeemable free with the physical box.

To Keep a relatively low cost, the following is done:
*All booklets are paperback, and black and white where convenient.
*Combat Cards are included in a tear-out page of each appropriate booklet
*The D6s included are of a small size.
*Character Booklets use the smallest reasonable font size possible to pack more information on each page.
*The Pogs are cardboard in protective plastic shell.
*The MSRP allows for a small profit, not a large one.

The General Idea:
*This starter set does not replace the existing basic set, but can augment it, and serves to entice those interested in the system.
*Costs are kept low to reduce the barrier of entry.
*Settings provided are interesting, and can be used with the basic set.
*Several settings and genres exist as GURPS Starter Kits, and have their own starter kit and associated adventure.
*Once a customer has purchased this starter set, the object is to show them the versatility, utility, and strength of GURPS, as well as it's potential for simplicity.
*If/When they want more of the system, they are directed to purchase the Basic Set.
*This is somewhere between Powered by GURPS and GURPS Lite in it's marketing strategy, with influences of Savage Worlds and Fate's strategies (Both wildly successful as far as toolkit systems go) in marketing as well.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by D10

I always felt like GURPS and World of Darkness were a match made in heaven

They did that in 3e; you might want to look at those books and update the stats.