What makes for a good one shot/GURPS Demo?

[phayman53]

I might have the chance in the next few months of running a one shot/demo GURPS game for a friend or two and some of their friends. Most of them will have RPG experience, but it is usually from years ago and of the AD&D variety. I want to introduce them to the awesomeness of GURPS and hopefully form a play group that could run a campaign (possibly, but not necessarily, based off of the one-shot demo). I have never really done this before, so I was wondering what general and specific advice people have for putting together a successful one-shot that shows off GURPS strengths, especially for a group whose experience with RPGs is mostly from a few decades ago.

A few notes about me: I am not an experienced GM, though I have done a little GMing. I also do not have any experience with AD&D and why so many older-school gamers seem to hold it in such particular high regard (other than nostalgia). My own introduction to RPGs was D&D 3.5 (with a little 3.0 before that), and I really have no experience with anything older.

I also do not have any of the Dungeon Fantasy, Monster Hunters, or Action supplements and do not have the budget right now (or in the foreseeable future) to buy them, so I would like recommendations other than these lines. The major GURPS books I have are: Basic, Fantasy, Magic, Banestorm, Low Tech, High Tech, Martial Arts, Tactical Shooting, Social Engineering, and Powers. I also have a smattering of Power-ups, LT supplements, and Pyramid articles, as well as How to Be a GURPS GM. My personal taste runs from the "realistic" to "high-powered realistic" side of things (as opposed to cinematic abilities), even in Fantasy with Magic--though I would not object to including some cinematic things like Weapons Master, etc. I also have never run a modern game and the only modern setting I have played in as a player was a WW Hunters game, though I would not oppose giving it a try.

So, any ideas on what kind of game to run for a demo and what to focus on/avoid would be very appreciated. Thanks!

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by phayman53

I might have the chance in the next few months of running a one shot/demo GURPS game for a friend or two and some of their friends. Most of them will have RPG experience, but it is usually from years ago and of the AD&D variety. I want to introduce them to the awesomeness of GURPS and hopefully form a play group that could run a campaign (possibly, but not necessarily, based off of the one-shot demo). I have never really done this before, so I was wondering what general and specific advice people have for putting together a successful one-shot that shows off GURPS strengths, especially for a group whose experience with RPGs is mostly from a few decades ago.

A few notes about me: I am not an experienced GM, though I have done a little GMing. I also do not have any experience with AD&D and why so many older-school gamers seem to hold it in such particular high regard (other than nostalgia). My own introduction to RPGs was D&D 3.5 (with a little 3.0 before that), and I really have no experience with anything older.

I also do not have any of the Dungeon Fantasy, Monster Hunters, or Action supplements and do not have the budget right now (or in the foreseeable future) to buy them, so I would like recommendations other than these lines. The major GURPS books I have are: Basic, Fantasy, Magic, Banestorm, Low Tech, High Tech, Martial Arts, Tactical Shooting, Social Engineering, and Powers. I also have a smattering of Power-ups, LT supplements, and Pyramid articles, as well as How to Be a GURPS GM. My personal taste runs from the "realistic" to "high-powered realistic" side of things (as opposed to cinematic abilities), even in Fantasy with Magic--though I would not object to including some cinematic things like Weapons Master, etc. I also have never run a modern game and the only modern setting I have played in as a player was a WW Hunters game, though I would not oppose giving it a try.

So, any ideas on what kind of game to run for a demo and what to focus on/avoid would be very appreciated. Thanks!

See if you can get a MIB to demo Mystery in Blanco Verde for you and your group. It's a nice one shot designed to be played at a con 4 hour slot, and it's playable with only Lite. Baring that, take the same concept: the characters are a group of FBI agents charged with investigating strange happenings in a sleepy town in Nevada (IIRC, been a while, and I'm retired anyway, without access to the files). Very original X-Files episodes like, before the went into the whole conspiracy metaplot.

I've run this scenario multiple times and it never failed to please.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by phayman53

So, any ideas on what kind of game to run for a demo and what to focus on/avoid would be very appreciated. Thanks!

GURPS pretty much allows you to pick your genre, so what to focus on is what your players are into. That may be a problem, or at least something to pay attention to, given your interest in realism. The players may want or expect something more cinematic, so be sure everybody is on the same page before you start.

Having said that, if it's agreeable to them, I usually recommend something vaguely modern, or at least industrial era: a Western, a pulpy cliffhanger adventure, or a Bond-style spy adventure. These combine a couple of virtues:

1) They're familiar and accessible. Everyone's seen westerns, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Bond movies. You don't have to explain the genre as well as the game rules.

b) They can use an uncomplicated rule set. You don't need to pile a magic system onto the basic mechanics as you would in fantasy, and you don't have to work out the implications of a particular set of assumptions for a sci-fi setting.

iii) You can do a pretty good introductory game with just the books you've got. Basic can cover those on its own, but High Tech is good at rounding out the gear. Sure, the Action series would be useful, but it's certainly not necessary.

So, then, think about the range of things you'd be willing to run, and talk to your prospective players about what they might be interested in playing.

[trechriron]

https://these-last-days.obsidianportal.com

I put this Zombie Survival horror game together for fun with modern survival horror including pre-gens. It uses fast fungus zombies and has proved to be a terrifying fun time the several times I've run it. :-)

I need to get the GM stuff up on the Google Drive share. I will put some haste on that if you want to use it.

The setup is simple. It's a "sand box" adventure. Start them out with some golf clubs, some kitchen utensils and then let them brave the day-light to find supplies and weapons. Many formulate plans to escape Lawrence, KS as the story starts with them scavenging the last "un-touched" neighborhood.

I have a mean biker gang in there, but the fungus zombies are disturbing enough enemies that they generally make the one shot intense.

[phayman53]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

GURPS pretty much allows you to pick your genre, so what to focus on is what your players are into. That may be a problem, or at least something to pay attention to, given your interest in realism. The players may want or expect something more cinematic, so be sure everybody is on the same page before you start.

Thanks for the warning. I am okay with some degree of cinematic, especially in skill level that are higher than realistic, I'm just not that into Wuxia/impossible gun slinging/etc (nor do I feel competent to do those genres well even though I would be willing, in principle, to run them if the players really wanted to). I also feel like one of GURPS' strengths is that it does the realistic spectrum well, which allows it to differentiate itself from most RPGs.

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

Having said that, if it's agreeable to them, I usually recommend something vaguely modern, or at least industrial era: a Western, a pulpy cliffhanger adventure, or a Bond-style spy adventure. These combine a couple of virtues:

1) They're familiar and accessible. Everyone's seen westerns, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Bond movies. You don't have to explain the genre as well as the game rules.

b) They can use an uncomplicated rule set. You don't need to pile a magic system onto the basic mechanics as you would in fantasy, and you don't have to work out the implications of a particular set of assumptions for a sci-fi setting.

iii) You can do a pretty good introductory game with just the books you've got. Basic can cover those on its own, but High Tech is good at rounding out the gear. Sure, the Action series would be useful, but it's certainly not necessary.

So, then, think about the range of things you'd be willing to run, and talk to your prospective players about what they might be interested in playing.

Hmm, good points and ideas. I am only hesitant to run a Western to Modern game because I have so little experience with doing RPGs which include more modern tech, and I have no experience with it in GURPS. Guns, for instance, can be so deadly in GURPS if the players decide to treat a gunfight like a movie action scene and I am not sure that I would be able to control that well as a GM with no experience in the area (though I would almost certainly use the survivable gun rules from Alternate GURPS II). That said, I know at least one of the perspective players, and probably more, would be really into a modern, realistic combat adventure.

Also, aside from advice on what to run, I would really like advice on what makes a good demo/one-shot in general. Thanks!

[Kalzazz]

Give people sidearms and concealable vests and GURPS lethality trends toward wailing lamentations of 'why, oh why, will my foe never ever die?'

GURPS can be so very hard to kill foes that the natural response is to build toward 'atomizing force' and then wonder why its so lethal

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by phayman53

Also, aside from advice on what to run, I would really like advice on what makes a good demo/one-shot in general. Thanks!

Demo scenarios are time constrained, meaning that you should have the adventure happen in a constrained conceptual scenario (the characters have a clear goal) and in a constrained physical scenario (the characters don't get to travel more, once play starts. The might come from far away, but that happened as part of the backstory).

Also, make the characters, making sure they each have a clear personality (GURPS quirks are your friends here, though disadvantages can be just as good), and provide a paragraph on their backstory. I even recommend that the characters either know one another and have intertwined backstories and/or are members of the same group. This will give the players something to grab and run with, when it comes to roleplaying their characters.

[Tinman]

You said you have Fantasy & Banestorm. Why don't you use the templates from the back of those & make a short dungeon crawl?

That can showcase the flexability of GURPS to AD&D and you are more used to that style of game anyway.

PS: I'd make the characters about 250 pts

[Gef]

Agree with TBC, disagree with Tinman - 250pt characters have a lot they can do, too many options, slows down play and makes things complicated for new players. Use 100pt pregen PCs and reduce opposition accordingly. Remember, if each pregen has a custom talent, +4 to half a dozen skills suited to his niche, that's just 20 points out of the hundred.

For a Western: Cowboy Talent (Animal Handling, Fast-Draw, Guns, Lasso, Riding, Wrestling. Wrestling is mainly for tying a calf, but it works on people too. Guns and Fast-Draw support the movie idea of a cowboy, which you'll probably want to follow for an adventure game.

Some successful one-shots I've used more than once apiece:

PCs are gladiators in imperial Rome, technically slaves but functionally superstars. A rival school has kidnapped one of their team, and they need to find and rescue him before the next games.

AD&D (1st ed) module U2, a haunted house "haunted" by smugglers, and by unnaturally large vermin because the previous owner was an alchemist. For GURPS, I use 50pt PCs from the local orphanage.

[Propjock]

Originally Posted by phayman53

A few notes about me: I am not an experienced GM, though I have done a little GMing. I also do not have any experience with AD&D and why so many older-school gamers seem to hold it in such particular high regard (other than nostalgia).

My opinion is whatever you do, don't try and replicate AD&D with GURPS. I also agree with people in running something that's not your bog standard D&D fantasy unless that's the only thing that your players want. Definitely have pre-gens or at least templates since your players coming from AD&D won't probably do well with a "build anything you want" approach first time out. If you don't have much experience GMing then having pre-gens is definitely the way to go since it reduces the game to just those rules you are comfortable with.

I'd stick with just Basic Set. I'm pretty experienced as a GM (moderately so with GURPS) and still run all my GURPS games with just Basic and some house rules for campaigns. I'd also go with the prior recommendations for something more modern-ish. If you're just going to dungeon crawl you might as well just GM D&D 3.x which you are already familiar with and your players will recognize. I assume you're choosing GURPS with the idea of doing different genres.

I like the Zombie angle. It's familiar and you can stat exactly one type of enemy and be done prep for opponents! Mix that in with different time periods for different flavours (e.g. Walking Dead in 1980s/Pulp/Victorian/Swashbuckling/Space etc.). Figure out if what your players really want is to just fight for most of the game. That's a very old school D&D mentality. If you want to showcase more non-violent skill usage or social skills then a more/less real world setting of more modern era (say 1800+) seems to provide an expectation that violence is more exception than norm. In my book, the Features of a Good Adventure advice in B504 is the most concise playbook for good adventure design I've come across.

I suppose if you're running a strictly military affair (not recommended) then gun usage may get complicated and super deadly, but a TL5-7 PCs armed with handguns game isn't terribly difficult to manage. It's actually NOT that easy to hit things with firearms unless the PCs are incredibly skilled and have time. Running and gunning with the full rules for range, movement, and cover is hardly a guaranteed killfest. I've always liked that guns are actually deadly. One of the central tenants of GURPS combat to me is that there's little in the way of whittling the stack of HP and then you fall over. You survive by being smart and not through leveling.