07-16-2019, 08:28 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Character guides
I add it as (6) or whatever the number is for self-control rolls, and FoAs in dis/advantages when the player needs to know. I don't ever toss "or less" onto the sheet, even when making sheets for others; if they have to roll against a number, it's always expected to be "at or under" anyway.
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07-17-2019, 12:50 AM | #12 | ||
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Character guides
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Racial Templates are usually fixed, so they're as easy as any other game's racial mechanics - just pick what you like. Character Templates, on the other hand, are just Character Classes With Choices*. Honestly, character templates were one of the best things introduced to my GURPS 3E games, no qualifications, just - simply - ever. They cut character creation time down by at least half, for folks that had hard times making decisions or weren't as versed in the rules as much as the other folks at the table. It's just too bad it took SJGames another 3 years after I introduced them to my table (the very first time that I ran GURPS, btw), as a house rule, to actually publish their first one... Quote:
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07-17-2019, 11:34 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Los Angeles
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Re: Character guides
I feel like the more the GM is "willing" to take on her own shoulders, the less the players have to concern themselves with and can just enjoy the story and characters (I'm primarily discussing one-shots and intro games).
The default GURPS character sheet works best when everyone will be keeping track of more or less the same amount of data dump. The Phoenix sheet for GCA is a glory to behold, and contains everything! But I wouldn't let a new player anywhere near it for fear they'd get overwhelmed and fall prey to the tired "it's too complicated" silliness (though I should mention, you can make Phoenix a lot, lot simpler in the options). My pre-gen characters for GURPS one-shots these days look like this. Anyone showing up at an RPG table can probably find anything they need, and if they can't, the whole sheet can be explained in like 30 seconds. The caveat is, the GM tracks the lion's share of stuff, but that's hardly a bother. None of this directly ties to templates, since my one-shots all use pre-gens, but tangentially my point being, I agree -- the simpler the presentation for new players, the better.
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07-18-2019, 12:58 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Cowtown, Canada
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Re: Character guides
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07-18-2019, 01:46 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: Character guides
I built templates a lot but not for every game. I like the way template corrals players into the theme more than the ease of character generation but having faster character creation is also good. A big part of what I do is supplying a rich variety of racial and misc templates to help keep characters from being defined by their main template.
My players don't have much trouble understanding templates. Other than a few misunderstandings about having to specialize in some skills or that secondary attributes that are improved in the template can be higher than the main attributes, they're able to make characters without many questions. I give them a copy of the templates to look through in advance and I give a whole session zero to get characters completed. My new players are typically new to Roleplaying games and I pair them with a seasoned GURPS player to help them make characters. I think there's a small hurdle to getting templates and once you're over it, you're over it. |
07-19-2019, 12:20 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
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Re: Character guides
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07-19-2019, 12:25 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
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Re: Character guides
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And I fully do agree with everything else you wrote in your post, of course. |
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07-19-2019, 12:35 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
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Re: Character guides
Of course they are! But reading and using them requires a quite good knowledge of GURPS (or someone who can explain everything, step by step, including all those "esoteric" abbreviations*...).
___ *Which are really useful too, once you are used to them: they save place on the sheet and even reading time, because you immediately recognize them, as if they were ideograms. |
07-19-2019, 12:42 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
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Re: Character guides
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07-19-2019, 01:25 AM | #20 | |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Character guides
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At least much of GURPS' terminology has a real-world correlation, and in my experience, even if people don't know the exact mechanics of what they're looking at, they'll get the gist of what the thing is. When it comes to teaching people GURPS, I have a far easier time teaching it to total Roleplaying Noobs, than trying to teach it to people that have played D&D-based computer games, and trying to get them to unlearn D&D while also teaching them GURPS. That's more of a problem in that 90% of the new folks I do encounter have a history in D&D fiction & computer games, and it's the unlearning bit that's tough for them. |
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