What sort of computer game suits GURPS best?

[(E)]

Spinning this line of discussion off from the recent "How Would GURPS Rules Need To Be Changed For A Computer Game?" thread.
What type of computer game suits GURPS best?
- What features does it do strongly
- What settings and other details would be best to show off what GURPS can do best?

[wmervine4]

I posted some thoughts that might go along with this thread in the other thread, but I'll respond here too.

Originally Posted by (E)

What type of computer game suits GURPS best?

What type of game suits GURPS best? All of them! Any of them! More seriously though, I've thought about how GURPS could be used for a variety of different games. I've considered FPS style RPGs like Fallout or the Elder Scrolls series, tactics based games like Final Fantasy Tactics or XCOM, super hero smash 'em up games like X-men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and even 4X strategy games like Civilization or Stellaris.

Originally Posted by (E)

- What features does it do strongly

I think the fact that virtually any creature you can imagine can be statted out with GURPS fairly simple including those that have strange powers or abilities. There's a bit of work there to map those stats to something tangible in a video game, but the fact that any creature can be statted out similarly makes it easy to create a variety of creatures with definable abilities.

Another feature of the system is the fact that it has rules for almost anything. Want to pay special attention to injuries, exertion, and recovery? You have shock penalties; wounding modifiers; the chance for infection; Diagnosis, First Aid and Surgery skills; FP loss from running, swimming, and hiking; bleeding rules (and the extreme version from Martial Arts); and many others. Do you want rules for crafting? LTC3 (I think) has general guidelines for the cost of raw materials and time to craft a variety of objects. You'd have to bolt on specific materials, skills, and finished products as this doesn't exist natively in the GURPS rules, but you've got guidelines for how to determine $ and time for producing goods. Want a system for handling skills and equipment across TL? GURPS has rules for that too.

Originally Posted by (E)

- What settings and other details would be best to show off what GURPS can do best?

Anything could conceivably work here too, which is great. Like the new DFRPG, it would probably make sense to start with something in the high fantasy RPG genre since this is very popular currently. It could be fun to do something in the sci-fi genre too like the Mass Effect series. 4X strategy games could make extensive use of the invention and gadgeteering rules for research; Mass Combat rules for combat between ships, armies, etc.; and crafting rules for managing the production of cities/towns.

The possibilities here are endless, but I think overall the GURPS rule set is diverse and detailed enough to handle almost any kind of video game. The trick is implementing the GURPS rules in code. That is where things could come to light with the implementation of specific rules that I'm not thinking of in this off the cuff discussion.

[Refplace]

First person shooter types would be the hardest, though several buttons or Macros could help.
So something like click on target, hit A to Attack, D to Defend, etc.
However better would be a serious of popup dialog boxes offering full range of choices.
That UI style would also lend itself to NPC interactions and more complicated skill use.

[David Johansen]

I think a turn based, hex grid rpg would be essential to remaining GURPS, though a text adventure might work.

Ideally the setting would be a randomly generated multiverse where every hop would generate a new paradigm in terms of setting physics and issues.

[AlexanderHowl]

I disagree. I have never bothered with a hex map for any of my games, so I do not see why a video game would need one.

[scc]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I disagree. I have never bothered with a hex map for any of my games, so I do not see why a video game would need one.

Video games, and computers in general, can't really handle free-form positioning, you can't just be in the room with the bad guys, you always have to and exact position, and as GURPS uses hexes, so must the game.

[tshiggins]

(Copied from the other thread.)

Originally Posted by wmervine4

After posting my long reply, I had two other thoughts on this topic I felt were worth sharing.

(SNIP)

Second, I was thinking about survival mode I've seen in some video games lately (e.g., Fallout 4). Some hardcore gamers really want a challenge beyond simply bashing on bad guys, so survival mode typically provides that by forcing players to consider encumbrance, eating/drinking, sleeping, staying protected in extreme temperatures, avoiding disease, and limited save opportunities. From what I have experienced in these modes, they do add interesting elements to the game, but dealing with some is either easily avoid (e.g., extreme cold is avoided by wearing warm enough clothing) or uncontrollably annoying (e.g., randomly catching a disease that is difficult to cure while sleeping). GURPS nicely provides many gradual effects to deal with these situations like FP loss from missed sleep, starvation, dehydration, heat, and cold. GURPS could expand in many areas by using the rules for FP loss for overexertion, running, and swimming; applying effects from acids, irritating and incapacitating conditions, pressure effects, and suffocation to name a few. GURPS also has extensive rules for diseases, poisons, and infections from wounds. If you wanted to get really harsh about it, you could even employ The Last Gasp rules. When it comes to survival mode, I think GURPS has a great framework for applying real consequences to ignoring your character's needs.

I think GURPS would be perfect for a survival game, myself, and those are very popular these days. However, there's a significant schism in the community who call first-person shooters with random loot-drops that allow construction of bases a "survival game," and the more hard-core crowd who want the ability to hunt, gather, craft and farm, and who also want to have to worry about food, water, exposure and wild animals*.

GURPS could do either of those things well, and is (I think) uniquely suited to do a game that could appeal to both. Personally, I like the notion of a Robinson Crusoe type of game, where someone gets marooned on an island, somewhere, and must figure out how to survive.

Make it a TL 5 setting (circa 1850, or so), and a skilled craftsman can make just about any technology routinely available to normal people. My friend Dave points out that one of the unique things about the U.S. Civil War is that it marked pretty much the last time that the soldiers who fought in it could make most of their gear, themselves -- especially the Yankee craftsmen on the Union side of things. Give those guys a workshop and they could pretty much produce just about anything short of a high-pressure steam-engine (and they could repair one of those).

That said, such a setting would need a lot to offer, since people on the FPS side of the schism really like their automatic weapons. Given that SJ Games has a solid core of "After the End" material, a post-apocalyptic setting might be the way to go.

However, if you do that, you're walking into a market that's pretty saturated with exactly that sort of computer game, right now. You'd need a really different take, or you'd need an instantly-recognized and wildly-popular franchise, (Mad Max, or something), which you're not going to get without a seriously loaded and somewhat eccentric angel investor.

*For sufficiently broad definitions of "wild animals" that may include zombies or fantastic creatures.

[AlexanderHowl]

Computers only need angle, distance, and elevation. If you want, you can code that information in hexes, but it is not necessary.

[(E)]

In my opinion one thing that GURPS does well is detailed one on one melee combat. A setting that shows that off might include Arena combat, trial by combat or similar elements.

[Anthony]

An important question to ask is "why GURPS". In the end, GURPS is designed around the strengths and limitations of the tabletop, and the strengths and limitations of computer games are just not the same.