Steve Jackson Games' GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

It was honestly not even a thought we had when writing/scheming/planning. That said, I might put some up on my blog. Could be a fun exercise. Or maybe crowdsource them from folks and pick the best ones.

Make that the next Kickstarter. A dozen dozen pregens. Horror, ISWAT, Monster Hunters, DF, Steampunk, . . .

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Make that the next Kickstarter. A dozen dozen pregens. Horror, ISWAT, Monster Hunters, DF, Steampunk, . . .

Huh. That could be fun.

[johndallman]

2,000 backers. $630 to the final stretch goal.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Make that the next Kickstarter. A dozen dozen pregens. Horror, ISWAT, Monster Hunters, DF, Steampunk, . . .

Interesting idea, but pre-generated PCs have an exceedingly poor track record as for-profit products for RPG publishers in general. In the wired world, people kind of expect their heroes for nothing and their stats for free. That's because it's too easy to visit a forum and ask for characters . . . and you'll get them from many different gamers, which means they'll be more diverse than those from one writer.

I'd be open to including more for GURPS Supporting Cast (groups of related NPCs, with story and background) and GURPS Template Toolkit (balanced sets of templates for creating teams of PCs with preexisting links) among the offerings. I wouldn't go so far as to make an entire Kickstarter about that, though . . . plenty of gamers don't have any use for NPCs, templates, or characters in general, so we wouldn't enjoy 2,000+ backers. To get that we have to offer other things as well – a good spread of stuff including adventures, backgrounds and locations, gear, and genre and rules advice.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Interesting idea, but pre-generated PCs have an exceedingly poor track record as for-profit products for RPG publishers in general. In the wired world, people kind of expect their heroes for nothing and their stats for free. That's because it's too easy to visit a forum and ask for characters . . . and you'll get them from many different gamers, which means they'll be more diverse than those from one writer.

I'd be open to including more for GURPS Supporting Cast (groups of related NPCs, with story and background) and GURPS Template Toolkit (balanced sets of templates for creating teams of PCs with preexisting links) among the offerings. I wouldn't go so far as to make an entire Kickstarter about that, though . . . plenty of gamers don't have any use for NPCs, templates, or characters in general, so we wouldn't enjoy 2,000+ backers. To get that we have to offer other things as well – a good spread of stuff including adventures, backgrounds and locations, gear, and genre and rules advice.

What does work[1] is to have "you get to inspire a pre-gen!" as a top-dollar backer level. If you make a large pledge, you get to work with the author/designer to bring the character to live.

[1] For values of "work" that include "so very much work on the part of the author and designer." My experience with this very thing on the HoJ Kickstarter was that it was exceedingly difficult to get folks to not bring in their psychic blueberry muffin ideas into what is otherwise a fairly tightly defined character space: DFRPG with polite, nearly Disney-flavored Vikings. So I got builds based of off Pyramid articles, Dungeon Fantasy rather than the DFRPG, and setting-altering backstory. Plus the point value of the characters was off.

In the future, I'd probably tell prospective folks "You tell me what your character is in as few words as possible, and I'll get my collaboration team to build them for you."

Sounds harsh, but otherwise there were too many mistakes and diversions that crept, walked, and scream-and-leaped in.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

it was exceedingly difficult to get folks to not bring in their psychic blueberry muffin ideas

Which nicely sums up why never would I ever contract to create a GURPS character for someone!

My cards on the table: I don't like the "psychic blueberry muffin" side of GURPS . . . I'm of the view that just because you can doesn't mean you should. I see all the tools and tweaks as things that need winnowing, narrowing, and lots of hard nos for any character you'll actually play in an actual campaign with a specific setting and genre. I'm a big fan of traditional archetypes, which is why I'm such a furious template designer.

Now creating custom templates for well-defined archetypes that fit a setting is another matter. I've done that for free, so I'd do it for a pledge.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Which nicely sums up why never would I ever contract to create a GURPS character for someone!

Seconded. This would be a terrible, frustrating way to handle creating new game content. (So much misery to unlock!)

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by philreed

Seconded. This would be a terrible, frustrating way to handle creating new game content. (So much misery to unlock!)

New stretch goal unlocked! MISERY.

—

Let's unlock these ones instead:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...pdf-challenge/

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Kromm

New stretch goal unlocked! MISERY.

Sounds like a decent name for an all-purpose opponent organisation for Action. Certainly a better name than THRUSH.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Sounds like a decent name for an all-purpose opponent organisation for Action. Certainly a better name than THRUSH.

MISEREE (Military, Intelligence, Security, and Enforcement Risk Elimination Experts) ensures that your private business operates free of pesky agents of state intervention, however well armed.