Welcome to GURPS

[ericbsmith]

My latest project is an article I've called Welcome to GURPS. I've written this article with a newcomer to the game in mind, and while it touches on gameplay a little bit I focus much more on the question I so often see people new to the game ask "Which books do I need to get?"

http://gurpsland.no-ip.org/articles/WelcomeToGURPS.htm

[Kelly Pedersen]

Looks pretty good to me! I'd like to make a couple of suggestions, though. I'd recommend adding, to the GM Advice and Tools sections, Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons, and Monster Hunters 2: The Mission, for basically the same reasons as you've already got Action 2 there. All of them provide some very useful guidelines for actions that apply, not just to their specific sub-genre, but much more broadly. Dungeon Fantasy 2 covers a lot of physical activities that can come up in many games, fantasy or not, while Monster Hunters 2 has some good guidelines for more simplified, cinematic combat and "stunting", and the excellent investigation rules for doing research and solving mysteries in play.

The other thing I'd suggest is that Steampunk should really be moved - it's not a "campaign framework" the way Dungeon Fantasy, Monster Hunters, etc. are. It should go in the Genre Books section, or you could divide it up, putting Steampunk 1 in Genre Books, and Steampunk Vehicles and Conveyances under "Catalogs".

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Looks pretty good to me! I'd like to make a couple of suggestions, though. I'd recommend adding, to the GM Advice and Tools sections, Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons, and Monster Hunters 2: The Mission, for basically the same reasons as you've already got Action 2 there.

Ditto, but I'd also put in DF 16: Wilderness for it's excellent coverage of wilderness shenanigans.

[Gollum]

Awesome! May I put a link to that great page in my website?

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Gollum

Awesome! May I put a link to that great page in my website?

Of course! I put a link to yours in the Adventures section.

Seriously, though, I wrote this with new players in mind, meaning I want everyone to share a link back to it so that it is easier to find.

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Looks pretty good to me! I'd like to make a couple of suggestions, though. I'd recommend adding, to the GM Advice and Tools sections, Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons, and Monster Hunters 2: The Mission, for basically the same reasons as you've already got Action 2 there.

The other thing I'd suggest is that Steampunk should really be moved - it's not a "campaign framework"

Good thoughts, good thoughts. I've made made these additions & changes.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Of course! I put a link to yours in the Adventures section.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Seriously, though, I wrote this with new players in mind, meaning I want everyone to share a link back to it so that it is easier to find.

Yes. That is exactly what I had in mind too. Helping newcomers to discover GURPS. It is now so dense that it can be very frightening for someone who don't know it (and who didn't have the chance to see it growing slowly).

Edit
It's done. There is now a link to your Welcome to GURPS page in the Frontpage of my website, under the tiltle "Other websites".

[namada]

A great effort, however, there's way too much clicking involved. I'd suggest doing away with much of the nested links.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Gollum

That is exactly what I had in mind too. Helping newcomers to discover GURPS. It is now so dense that it can be very frightening for someone who don't know it (and who didn't have the chance to see it growing slowly).

This is an issue I've been seeing more and more too. I just checked the page info, and my article has 318 image links, every one of them for a unique GURPS product. I know there are 4e books I didn't add to the list, and I only added certain 3e books. That's a lot of material to parse through and try to decide what's worth buying.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by namada

A great effort, however, there's way too much clicking involved. I'd suggest doing away with much of the nested links.

In my humble opinion, there are not too much links in your page.

First, because it's hard to do otherwise. Except splitting the sections, as I did - but I don't really think that it is a better idea.

And second because even without clicking on anything, the newcomer can still read:

• Why choose GURPS?
• Where GURPS fails?
• Where people fail?
• Which edition should I choose?
• Where should I start?
• and Why should I get next?

It's already enough to get a very good idea about GURPS.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

This is an issue I've been seeing more and more too. I just checked the page info, and my article has 318 image links, every one of them for a unique GURPS product. I know there are 4e books I didn't add to the list, and I only added certain 3e books. That's a lot of material to parse through and try to decide what's worth buying.

Yes and what is true for the number of GURPS books is also true for the number of optional rules, as you wrote it.

That is why newcomers really need such pages to rapidly know how to enter in this amazing forest.