What is your favorite genre and how well does GURPS handle it?

[Refplace]

I figure the answer is going to be fantasy, but I am curious to see some answers. Feel free to highlight subgenres but please spell them out as not everyone recognizes the same terminology.
Also what kind of rules or supplements work best for you or that you feel are missing for some of your favorite genres.

[nudj]

1. Fantasy (dungeon usually)
2. Space Opera
3. World of Darkness type games
4. 4 color supers
5. Time travel/multiverse
6. Modern action

GURPS does 1, 5, and 6 really well. The Action and DF lines were a good idea, and should be the basis for the way 5e is conceived (if there ever is one).

4 is pretty good with a lot of GM set up and thought. Needs more supplements or a revised Supers book. Probably not enough revenue there, though.

Monster Hunters and Horror can be mined for 3, but needs a lot of GM set up and thought, because WOD is unique. Not sure if GURPS could do a series on this without copyright issues.

GURPS has no generic series of pdfs for 2 in the mold of Action, DF, etc This is a major hole in the game. Not even an updated Alien races book! SPACE 4e was inferior to Space 3e IMO.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by nudj

1. Fantasy (dungeon usually)
2. Space Opera
3. World of Darkness type games
4. 4 color supers
5. Time travel/multiverse
6. Modern action


GURPS has no generic series of pdfs for 2 in the mold of Action, DF, etc This is a major hole in the game. Not even an updated Alien races book! SPACE 4e was inferior to Space 3e IMO.

Space Opera) Mission X hopefully comers out late this year or early next. That is by Gaming Ballistic.
I don't really like the current Space Operas, too pulpy for the modern day IMO.
For a fan work we have Malinka's Psi-Wars.
I wouldn't do a 5E based on Action but certainly it is a good guideline on how to do genre treatments. And yeah it could be great for GURPS Space Opera or Space Action.


Supers) In my opinion GURPS Supers suffered from trying to do too much in one supplement. I think the author could do a better job now, though I would certainly love a crack at it. I think it really should be treated like Action, to your comment above.
Vol 1 Heroes for setting the table and going over a lot of the tropes with some ideas for builds.
Vol 2 Exploits for things like patrolling, investigating, etc.
Future volumes more like the Ultimate Hero series in going over certain roles, probably start with Bricks as most people seem to think they are really hard. And I would include Know Your Own Strength in it.
The new CEO said she liked the genre but early sales were reportedly poor and they have done nothing with the genre except for GURPS Supers and one of the first Pyramid issues.

World of Darkness:) Definitely a copyright issues. We need to use fan works.

[Donny Brook]

GURPS is weakest in its emulation of a certain niche dungeon-crawling genre pioneered by another brand.

Luckily for me, I hate that genre, so my only complaint is the opportunity cost SJ Games had incurred pursuing it.

[johndallman]

My favourite genre is alternate/secret history, which is the thing GURPS does best.

[whswhs]

My personal favorite genre is supers. I wouldn't say that GURPS is best at it. On the other hand, I've run a supers campaign using my own rules, with characters built on 1500 points, and I found the results satisfactory, right up to the final episode, where the heroes and an unexpected ally ascended Mount Olympus, challenged Ares and Athena—and defeated them.

I've run supers campaigns in Champions, DC Heroes, FUDGE, Godlike, and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and I've played in Champions, Mutants and Masterminds, and Villains and Vigilantes. I can't say that any of them was better than GURPS; I thought Godlike and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying were much worse, and I wasn't satisfied with Mutants and Masterminds. So I think I'd say that GURPS Supers is among my preferred choices, even though some of its methods of fitting supers into GURPS are inelegant.

The other genre I run a lot is fantasy. I've run several fantasy campaigns in GURPS, and consistently liked the results.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I've run supers campaigns in Champions, DC Heroes, FUDGE, Godlike, and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and I've played in Champions, Mutants and Masterminds, and Villains and Vigilantes. I can't say that any of them was better than GURPS; I thought Godlike and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying were much worse, and I wasn't satisfied with Mutants and Masterminds. So I think I'd say that GURPS Supers is among my preferred choices, even though some of its methods of fitting supers into GURPS are inelegant.

I have played and run Villains and Vigilantes, Champions, and GURPS Supers 3E.
Played only in GURPS 4E, Marvel, and some indie game I dont recall.
Read DC Heroes and a few indies or sort of attempts at Supers like Rifts.
Of that list Champions and GURPS are my favorites.
I feel GURPS is the most flexible and best at a lot of the Marvel and indie comics; Champions the best at DC.
Champions had the advantage of being simpler to build characters but GURPS gives me more depth.
V&V was fun but hard to take seriously and I don't think it was really intended to. Also serious balance issues.

[mburr0003]

Post-apocalypse is my hands down fav. Followed by Cyberpunk. Then it's a split between generic sci-fi, space opera, and fantasy. I also enjoy basically everything else... and GURPS handles all of it fine as long the GM is relatively skilled.

They higher the point levels go the more skill the GM needs, also the lower the point levels go (I've encounters way too many GMs who think their "25 point PCs struggling to ever feel competent or accomplish a goal without needing GMPCs to rescue them and save the day" games are fun - they are not).

[Fred Brackin]

My favorite genre would probably be Space Opera and Gurps is probably the only contender to run it. SF systems generally are thin on the ground. Gurps is a superior choice (comparatively speaking) for anything with significant gun combat in it.

I don't want a Space Opera supplement that's all about making characters with templates. I find templates to be actively counterproductive.

On the other tentacle if it had a workable psi system that would help a lot. I do not care for what 4e has done with psi so far. I can understand the Powers write-ups/costs in parentheses at the end of each entry in Psi Powers but generally find I _have_ to look at those to determine what the actual rules for the Power are. As things stand now I'd default back to 3e Psionics.

Spaceships is probably usable though sometimes the rather granular scale of its' resolution is problematic yet the attempts to ad more resolution do unpleasant things to the simplicity that's Spaceships main reason for existing.

[Astromancer]

Space Opera, Time Travel, Sci Fi generally, and Fantasy focused on wizards or supers, are clear favorites of mine. But what I love GURPS for is wild fusions. And fusions are were this system shines.