What sort of computer game suits GURPS best?

[(E)]

One thing that I think will suit a GURPS based computer game is a lower frequency of combat. The realism level inherent to GURPS makes combat more deadly and having the ability to be able to largely avoid combat entirely might fit.

How many combat heavy games result in situations where you are button mashing to dispatch a mob of 30 low level opponents. Personally I would think a rarer more detailed combat paradigm where the character is in genuine peril would suit the gurps mechanics better.

[wmervine4]

Originally Posted by (E)

One thing that I think will suit a GURPS based computer game is a lower frequency of combat. The realism level inherent to GURPS makes combat more deadly and having the ability to be able to largely avoid combat entirely might fit.

For a party-based RPG modeled after the numerous D&D games, you would probably use DF as the base. Combat and resource management are two of the big themes with DF that could make for a very successful game. As long as there are plentiful healing potions and magical healing available (don't forget to bring a cleric!), a DF party could chew through a lot of foes, particularly hordes of weak creatures. GURPS can make this feel gritty and like your characters' lives are in real peril, probably better than D&D can.

One thing that always annoyed me about any party-based game is the strict limit on number of party members. I know this was probably done for performance reasons, but it's still annoying that I can't make a party of 8 or 10 characters if I want to. It would feel really epic, in my opinion, to have tactical battles with larger numbers of participants on both sides.

It also always annoyed me with D&D games that the specific characters you can recruit are set in stone and once they die, they die. This has nothing to do with GURPS really, but having a mechanism for hiring randomly generated new recruits (with DF templates) would allow you to keep playing as long as you didn't suffer a TPK. It would be very in-genre to have a defeated party end up back at a tavern trying to Carouse up some new recruits.

Originally Posted by (E)

How many combat heavy games result in situations where you are button mashing to dispatch a mob of 30 low level opponents. Personally I would think a rarer more detailed combat paradigm where the character is in genuine peril would suit the gurps mechanics better.

I agree the button mashing paradigm gets old. Adding some GURPS level detail and tactics to the mix can keep combats exciting. Among the various DF supplements, there are a lot of options for non-combat situations as well if one were inclined to create this type of computer game. All the DF templates have a focus on non-combat skills to varying degrees and it would be interesting to see using skills like Climbing, Exorcism, Naturalist, Navigation, Tracking and many others implemented in a computer game.

I didn't mean to make this all about DF. I was mostly trying to point out that GURPS can do combat heavy games like DF while still having combat be tactically interesting (not button mashing) and potentially deadly. Beyond the combat situations, even if you focus on DF due to the popularity of the genre, there is great potential to be had in leveraging non-combat skills for things like puzzle solving, environmental challenges, information gathering, and social situations to name a few.

[AlexanderHowl]

GURPS is just too deadly for characters to go solo against mobs. A group of five 50 point guards can take out a 250 point combat specialist without that much difficulty.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A group of five 50 point guards can take out a 250 point combat specialist without that much difficulty.

Eh, depends on TL and rules in use. A 250 point DF combat monster is unlikely to lose to 5 50 point guards.

[AlexanderHowl]

Of course, but it is a completely different story at TL8. Five guards with DX 10, Guns (Pistol) 16, OHWT (Pistol), and DWA (Pistol), which costs a total of 26 points, will make lunchmeat out of most 250 point characters.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Of course, but it is a completely different story at TL8. Five guards with DX 10, Guns (Pistol) 16, OHWT (Pistol), and DWA (Pistol), which costs a total of 26 points, will make lunchmeat out of most 250 point characters.

Urr...that's a super weird build. If you want to disintegrate people, just take guns(rifle)-23 [48] and use an assault rifle. If you want to be non-silly, even guns-12 is enough that five will take out a 250 point character.

[AlexanderHowl]

Pistols are easier to hide.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I think Gurps would do tactical turn-based squad tactics best. That's what its been made for from the beginning.

Entirely agreed.

[wmervine4]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

GURPS is just too deadly for characters to go solo against mobs. A group of five 50 point guards can take out a 250 point combat specialist without that much difficulty.

I completely agree. For a DF style game though, it is very in genre to send a team of delvers against hordes of minions on their way to a big boss fight, and that is the scenario I was envisioning. I was not thinking of a single character trying to take on hordes alone. There are probably DF builds that could chew through hordes of minions, but being outnumbered quickly becomes a bad deal in GURPS even if you're a combat monster.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Of course, but it is a completely different story at TL8. Five guards with DX 10, Guns (Pistol) 16, OHWT (Pistol), and DWA (Pistol), which costs a total of 26 points, will make lunchmeat out of most 250 point characters.

Absolutely. TL makes a huge difference, and at higher TLs where firepower outclasses armor, circumstances and equipment have a far greater impact than point totals.

[mhd]

Spread sheets.