How much have you done with "just the core"?

[Poppyseed45]

Now, we all love sorucebooks, especially GURPS sourcebooks, since they (and always have been in my opinion), the best in the business.

That said, getting into GURPS can still make some high costs; buying the two corebooks ain't exactly cheap. So, a person might find themselves with enough money for the core, but have to gather up some cash to start delving into the juicy supplements and sourcebooks.

In the interest of seeing people's experience, how much have you gotten away with, with just Characters and Campaigns? Meaning, you needed and used nothing else to run the entire campaign/one-shot/whatever? No sourcebooks (obviously), no fan-made whatever online (unless it was only made using the corebooks). What were your experiences doing so? If it went well, great! If not, what was the core missing that got "made up" by a sourcebook/splatbook/supplement?

I'll start. I ran cyberpunk game, supers, historical Middle Ages fantasy and two Traveller-esque games with the core. In fact, for a long time that's all I had. All of them were pretty easy, and the idea of templates was what make those games work really well (though, of course, I had to make my own).

Now, the only thing I'd say that I couldn't wrangle up was mass combat rules. My historical fantasy game could have used SOMETHING to determine the outcome of the players leading their little army. As it was, I kludge something together involving "decision points and character action therein", and it was fast, but terribly unsatisfying. The actual Mass Combat book would obviously have fixed that.

Folks?

[Refplace]

I started with First Edition so as later ones came out I already had other books that could be used.
However I would say fantasy and modern day action/adventure have been used in my groups without any other books.

[khorboth]

I ran an mythic Greece game and a low-powered steampunk game with no RELEVENT sourcebooks. I owned magic, but it was not relevant to either of them.

[trooper6]

I've run low-magic fantasy, espionage, and swashbucklers with just the core. And although I own everything GURPS 4e, the two core books are always the core of whatever I run.

[sjard]

I rarely use anything but the core rules for games. And GURPS is extremely easy to use without anything additional.

I ran games for about 15 years with just the 3rd edition (not revised) basic set and nothing more. 4th edition is even easier to use without extras.

[Joe]

I've run quite a few modern-day horror adventures using nothing but the two core books. They really do give you everything you need, and then some.

[kirbwarrior]

I honestly believe Powers (or a lot of it) is the "third core book", because of how much of it and it's clarifications and definitions of supernaturals effects has on nearly every genre (even mundane and sci-fi; try building a robot or even modern car without it). I bought both core books, Powers, and Low-Tech together as my "core".

However, early on I didn't know enough about 4th to try and chew everything. I did plenty of campaigns without extra supplements fine. And I rarely use extra supplements unless the supplement gave me the new character idea (say, Imbuements or Wealth attribute), helped me align an ability properly (Supers or Psionics), or the fantastic and super important Power-Ups series.

You can absolutely play GURPS with only the core sets. And, say the GM has multiple pdfs just by being a long time GM but the players only want to buy the core sets? You can take your knowledge gained of how the system works from other books while only actually using the core books, using that knowledge for building traits or improvising rules.

[sjard]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

I honestly believe Powers (or a lot of it) is the "third core book",

And I've never used it. I've never even finished reading the first chapter, it keeps putting me to sleep*. And I've never found a need to actually use it.



* Now, this could partially, and maybe even mostly, be due to trying to read it as I'm going to bed, and reading any game rules at bed time puts me to sleep so...

[GM Joe]

Although I own all the GURPS books (hardback and POD reprints!), I generally only use nothing more than the Basic Set.

As for what I've done with it, the most recent ones I've run are (starting from the most recent): modern espionage, low-magic medieval, near future, western, and space opera.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

I honestly believe Powers (or a lot of it) is the "third core book"

Personally, I look at Martial Arts rather than Powers as the "third core book", due to its in-depth look at combat as a whole, which more games have a use for than they do Powers.

That said, early on in GURPS I ran a Rebellion-era Star Wars game using nothing but the Basic Set, although I occasionally tossed in items from Ultra-Tech.

That brings up a question: are gear catalogs such as the -Tech books considered "core"? I can see arguments going either way.