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Old 10-22-2018, 03:10 AM   #11
dcarson
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Default Re: Conversions

I ran a GURPS Space 1889 campaign. Did racial templates for the Martians and such, profession templates for the professions. Tweaked entries from Animalia for Martian animals and winged a lot of the rest. Ran for a couple of years and my players had a lot of fun. Ended with them having worked their way out of adventuring.
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Old 10-22-2018, 05:23 AM   #12
weby
 
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Default Re: Conversions

I have converted a lot of things to GURPS over the years and have not found many problems.

I have run a Starwars game mostly based on converted things and my current high power fantasy campaign uses a lot of material converted from Pathfinder adventure paths.

Basically in my current campaign I use the maps, the basic adventure ideas, many monsters and magic items directly from the adventure paths, with most of the conversion happening on the fly. I do change many details of things like back story and exact clues the players find to bind the adventures to the overall story line that is very different from the ones in the adventure paths.

As for your conversion problems:
You have to decide what is more important, game balance or exact conversion. I tend to do more conversion of the idea than exact conversion.

There is nothing inherently wrong with some PCs being 400 points while others being 800 points as long as you take it into account in the scenario design. Obviously that troll is more powerful in Shadowrun too if all you do is brawls..
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Old 10-22-2018, 06:15 AM   #13
Maz
 
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Default Re: Conversions

I've done a lot of conversions too. And found some problems in common among them.


Logic and realism.
GURPS is, despite its relative cinematic focus, still much more logical and realistic than most other systems. So if you convert a sci-fi setting were people have powerarmours then normal people with normal weapon is simply not going to be able to wound them - at all. Especially not with conventional musclepowered weapons or natural weapons.
This breaks the game for many setting. Warhammer 40k and SLA industries for instance. This is of course because the original setting is inherently illogical an unrealistic.
So now you have to decide to either keep the feel of the original setting and bend or change rules and stats to make it fit. Or stay true to GURPS and logic and as a consequence change the setting.


Balance and setting assumptions
As others have mentioned, very often racial templates when converted to GURPS becomes vastly imbalanced were they originally where intended to be balanced. This, I have found, is often because certain traits are valued differently in the original setting, and so should probably be repriced in GURPS. For instance Regeneration is very expensive in GURPS, but if magical healing and super healing drugs are abundant and easy to get, innate healing ought to be cheaper.

But it's also very often because most game systems only have rules for hard stats such as attributes, skill and abilities, and lack rules for social and cultural norms and racial personality traits. These are often just roleplaying- and GM-advice. Where in GURPS we do have rules for that, using disadvantage that gives reaction penalties, wealth and status and so on. Very often when I see people convert from one setting to another they omit these factors from the racial templates... which would help bring their template cost down.



Personally I go for a mix. I try to keep feel of the original setting and when that would result in stuff that doesn't work in GURPS, I tend to introduce new traits or equipment that makes sure it still does. (Such as an ork with a chopper still being able to chop through a space marine powerarmour thanks to waaagh-powered Armour Divisor. Or a trolls high racial template being countered by a host of disadvantages - most of which a PC-troll would probably want to buy off, but doesn't have to).



[edit] edit to add that one of my friends goes the opposite route. He changes GURPS stats and rules to fit the original setting. And that works perfectly fine for his group!

So in my game a powerarmour have DR:55 and all weapons simply have a lot of Armour Divisor.
In his game, the same power armour, only has DR:12 but almost no weapons have armour divisor.

In his games a big thug with a big maul can wound you through the armour and so can big beast using natural claws. In my game the thug needs a power-axe to go through the DR and natural beast are only a threat if they are "mutants" and have armour divisor on their teeth an claws.

In my game I use the gun-stats and amrour stats from Ultra-tech. In his a rifle only does about 4d damage, even though its a sci-fi ultra-tech 10mm battlerifle.

There is no one solution.[/edit]

Last edited by Maz; 10-22-2018 at 06:25 AM.
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Old 10-22-2018, 07:25 AM   #14
Gold & Appel Inc
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
Default Re: Conversions

I've been known to do this some.
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Old 10-22-2018, 10:40 AM   #15
Stormcrow
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
Default Re: Conversions

"Conversion" can mean different things. Some people think of it as a formula to "convert" stats from one game into another, while others think of it as a way to express the game reality of one game using the systems of another.

The former type of conversion doesn't usually go well. D&D armor class or hit points, for instance, don't translate into GURPS in any meaningful way. You have to dig down and ask WHY this entity has the armor class or hit points it has, and then you have to find GURPS traits that enable those underlying features. A high-level fighter might get lots of hit points from Luck, Parry, and Hard to Subdue, while a powerful creature might get lots of hit points from actual physical Hit Points and Damage Resistance.

Much better to simply imagine the source system's setting, then use the target system to express that setting natively. Forget the original stats beyond how they help you imagine the setup.
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Old 10-22-2018, 10:52 AM   #16
khorboth
 
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
Default Re: Conversions

I have worked with lots of conversions as well. I'm also of the school of thought that best results come from targeting the mood, tone, and world-feel desired. Then, the GURPS version can be made to accommodate that.

I've done lots of work with shadowrun, Star Wars, Rifts, and a few D&D settings.

My most ambitious project has been Dragonlance. Getting the magic just right has been tricky and I haven't gotten a good playtest yet.
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