Least genre most low powered GURPS game that you have run?

[lachimba]

What's the least genre most low powered GURPS game that you have run?


I've long considered an 'Ordinary f&^#ing people' campaign with 25 point PCs no powers, no magic.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by lachimba

What's the least genre most low powered GURPS game that you have run?

I nearly started a French Resistance game in 3e, but I think it fizzled from lack of interest.

I ran some playtest scenarios for Tactical Shooting that were based on real firefights.

I've long considered an 'Ordinary f&^#ing people' campaign with 25 point PCs no powers, no magic.

I think that mainstream fiction is probably a genre that GURPS is actually very poorly suited for. I think the detail is in all the wrong places, and you'd probably want something much more based in improvisational theater, or maybe something like Fiasco.

[Kalzazz]

62 pt fantasy campaign called Zero Quest or Legend of the Zeroes, to help explore themes such as level 1 wizards getting eaten by housecats. Not DF but somewhat inspired by it

Watching the party get TPKed by a group of beavers was high point

[Anaraxes]

Commonly used 75 points as a starting point for 3e fantasy games. Also ran a few at 50. No "ordinary people", though, or the ever-popular "make yourself as a character".

(Despite a few such suggestions over the years, that's just not something that interests me. I'm already an ordinary person, and me. Why would I do that in a game, instead of just going about my life?)

[whswhs]

For me those aren't the same question.

I think my lowest powered campaign was a modern fantasy one where the PCs were present-day teenagers built on something like 50 points, though this was 3/e. But as modern fantasy that was definitely "genre." For not being "genre," I think my historical campaign Salle d'Armes is closest, but its characters were built on 120 points. Students of fencing in early 1700s Paris could be classed as "genre," but it's not so strongly so as fantasy or sf or supers or horror or even caper films.

[Erling]

A ran a one-shot adventure about Triad members in Deus Ex-themed Hong Kong. Characters were built at 100 pts.

[Seneschal]

My group almost ran a supernatural mystery campaign starring middle-schoolers in Japan. Something between the Goonies and Higurashi. They were built on 50 points since we weren't as familiar with GURPS back then, and didn't realize you can stat most regular people with just Dabbler. The campaign fell through so we don't get to test them.

EDIT: As for "non genre", if I understood that right, we ran a short mystery/horror campaign in the New York jazz club scene of the 1930s. Although that had some mob/noir and occult elements, they were mostly implied and served as atmospheric flavor. It's by far our most "regular" campaign, and most characters were club performers and patrons.

[Joe]

I think the word "genre" is perhaps a bit confusing here*, but putting that aside: the most low-powered session I've run was the opening session of a horror game. I handed out characters built on (roughly) 25 pts, and told everyone that only one of them was going to survive the session, and it was up to them to determine who.

The session began with normal life, and ended with extreme terror and monster-related violence.

The next session, the players all came in with their real 150pt characters, ready to investigate the mysterious deaths....

Now, that's not really an example of a low-powered game, I suppose, since the 25 pointers were just temporary characters...


* I think Iachimba means something like "cinematic" or "over-the-top", whereas I think I would ordinarily use "genre" just to specify the kind of story being told. To me it makes sense to say that there are genres that are "realistic", "mundane," "low-powered," "slice-of-life," or whatever.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Joe

I think Iachimba means something like "cinematic" or "over-the-top", whereas I think I would ordinarily use "genre" just to specify the kind of story being told. To me it makes sense to say that there are genres that are "realistic", "mundane," "low-powered," "slice-of-life," or whatever.

I often see "genre" used to mean distinctive categories of fiction that have some sort of special appeal. Thus for example science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero adventure, but also mystery, Western, spy stories, romance, and even pornography. It doesn't seem to be used for things that bookstores would put on the "general fiction" shelves, which includes such varied categories as historical fiction, naturalistic fiction, and slice of life. I'm perfectly willing to say that those are also genres, and indeed that every work of fiction has a genre (though some are sui generis!); but if someone says "genre" as a distinctive category I assume they mean the special interest classes of fiction.

Of course, to confuse things, there are works with fantastic elements that are not considered to be "genre." Hermann Hesse, William S. Burroughs, and Doris Lessing all wrote such works.

[aesir23]

I did a no-magic Ice Age campaign in 3e, with 100 point characters--that's the least genre I've run. Lowest point total was 50 point modern horror, which is my go-to with new groups.