re: Old-School GURPS?

[JMason]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Templates help. Pointless menu systems help even more.

I agree... and I think that this goes a bit into the problem that has been talked around this whole thread: GURPS needs work done before characters are made! And some GMs don't want to have to do that work, on top of the other game prep.

This is why DF, MH, ATE, etc. are so great (still waiting on "GURPS Space Opera"). Because the cases of where I've met folks that had a bad experience with GURPS, is almost always because the GM didn't give them guidelines, and they were overwhelmed by options.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Of course, I was intentionally running a campaign about normal human beings, without powers, magic, or cinematic skills.

Kinda like the third edition rules, which generally assumed you were playing a human or human-like character, and which kept the psionics and magic separated from everything else and the super powers in another book entirely. ;)

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by ColBosch

That might be going a bit too far, even for me. :D How would you handle character advancement? The way GURPS handles PC improvement is absolutely one of its strengths, in my eyes: you can get a little better each session or two, or you can save up for all-new abilities.

And yes, I allow incremental improvements of skills during adventures, as long as the PC used the skill several times and the session didn't end in the middle of combat or another cliffhanger. It doesn't feel unrealistic - everyone has had that moment where, in the middle of doing a task, we've figured out a trick to do it better - and it strengthens player control of their PCs.

The only way you could advance your character was by doing in-game things to increase your worshippers, build templates, etc.

But that's a bit of a sideline. I think that you can still get that incremental improvement by using pointless packages. I've used them three times for campaigns and each time it has been very well received.

[Kalzazz]

Pointless Slaying and Looting seems pretty cool, but I've gotten lost every time I've tried to use it and just gone back to doing it the boring way

I think an example showing the process of a character being made through it would have helped (like the UT armor design article for instance)

[sir_pudding]

Hey it's spring break so I actually have time to blog. I'll see if I can't do that between now and Monday afternoon.

[mhd]

I wouldn't mind a semi-decent, semi-random lifepath system for character generation.

We had a short session of "Beyond the Wall" recently, which is yet another retro-clone, but you play a bunch of kids/YA and thus roll on lots of tables depending on your archetype, with frequent connections to other players ("So you're a wannabe knight, roll 1d8 to see how you first proved your mettle. The player to your right accompanied you on this adventure.")

Or the old Cyberpunk 2020 system, which was mostly about connections and relationship drama. I could easily picture using that to fill in the social parts (ads/disads) with some job and experience templates for the crunchy bits.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Pointless Slaying and Looting seems pretty cool, but I've gotten lost every time I've tried to use it and just gone back to doing it the boring way

I think an example showing the process of a character being made through it would have helped (like the UT armor design article for instance)

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Hey it's spring break so I actually have time to blog. I'll see if I can't do that between now and Monday afternoon.

Excellent idea, Cole! I look forward to it.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Pointless Slaying and Looting seems pretty cool, but I've gotten lost every time I've tried to use it and just gone back to doing it the boring way

I think an example showing the process of a character being made through it would have helped (like the UT armor design article for instance)

Behold! Your wish is granted!