03-23-2023, 12:19 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
Yes. I would note that the fact that the pricing is uniform other than the offset is an excellent argument for just deleting it completely and achieving the same effect with task difficulty modifiers (for example, give weapons a bonus or penalty to hit as part of the weapon stat, instead of as a part of the skill group).
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03-23-2023, 12:26 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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(Populating the inventory at all is homework for some but at that point there's no amount of labor savings that would make them interested I think.)
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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03-23-2023, 12:27 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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03-23-2023, 12:33 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
How many skill rolls don't already come with modifiers? Just change the pre-existing modifiers to work without skill difficulties.
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03-23-2023, 12:39 PM | #15 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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But I agree with you on algebra, and that's partly because education systems tend to teach it right when youths' brains are just developing the ability to manage abstracts to that level, and that means for about half the kids it's going to be witchcraft because their brains just can't handle the concept and at best they just learn it off as a series of steps to take to go from one string of gibberish to another, and in the process they learn to hate maths and maths teachers. Delay the lessons a year or two and a whole lot more kids wouldn't learn to hate it before they understand it. It clicked with me immediately, so I was okay with maths until calculus, which was badly presented and I ever really grasped past basic integration and differentiation (which I can still do - because it's useful when gearheading). I suspect part of the modern dislike for doing even simple maths is also that from not long after people my age (early 50s) went through school pocket calculators because so ubiquitous that education systems started assuming their presence and didn't make kids do basic arithmetic over and over until they could do it easily. That said, it's not just younger folks - my oldest player, around 60 years old (and thus old enough to have been initially taught in the Imperial system and then in metric), really hates non-decimal currency and non-metric measure, because they use increments other than tens.
__________________
Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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03-23-2023, 01:42 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
The GURPS Character Sheet program, and GURPS Game Aid for Foundry VTT automate a lot of the math for skills, encumbrance, and other figures used in GURPS. Unfortunately, using them while gaming requires having a laptop or desktop computer on hand, since neither works on a tablet or phone.
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03-23-2023, 02:06 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
It's odd because almost everyone appreciates that part of ttrpg is managing resources. Many character tropes and archetypes are defined by their access to limited resources, and these often require simple math.
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03-23-2023, 02:12 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
I would dispute 'almost everyone'. In fact, I doubt it's even a majority; my experience with games that have resource management systems is that players go out of their way to make sure that the resource management turns into a nonfactor.
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03-23-2023, 02:12 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
I don't mind the math in theory, but the reality is that I always create characters on my computer and have been doing so since the early '90s when I build a custom database for my GURPS 3e campaigns. I'm so used to GCS now that I forget how tedious it can be to use paper sheets.
When I run my DFRPG camps in the summer for middle-schoolers, I can't count on them having any tech, so we do everything the old-fashioned way. It's ok (kinda sorta) if you do everything in order, step-by-step, but it's a serious hassle if you decide to change an attribute after writing in all your skills. The kids definitely go glassy-eyed over calculating their speed and defenses. For most of them, I just give them "typical case" numbers based on their character archetype and call it a day. (I.e., knights get high DR, low MV, low Dodge, etc.; swashies get high MV and Dodge, low DR, and so on.) |
03-23-2023, 02:24 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
Most games require you to count expendable resources, whether it's throwing stars, arrows, spells, or X feet of rope.
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Tags |
complexity, math |
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