Low Tech vs Basic Weapon Stats

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

A similar situation is handling situations which deserve more or less detail. Its hard to run a day-long skirmish and track every blow and every shot, and the climactic duel with a main character's Enemy deserves more detail than the brawl in the alley on the way to that enemy. A good GURPS GM will sometimes chose to just pick a skill and a modifier and tell the players to roll once or twice, and sometimes crack open a book of optional rules, but its hard.

What I find helps is if the PC's have few "go to tactics" in their back pocket* that they already know the mods and rules for. I find tend to play up the working together aspect of these as well. That maybe my own foible though I find the image of one person setting up for another to deliver the finisher aesthetically pleasing in combat

But yes to go back to the example of guns, as a GM i tend to have a short list of what'd on hand (setting relevant). If particular players want to go into more detail and get all the extra's that's fine too, but I let them do the work and just tend to check the results at the end for compatibility**.

It goes without saying that that kind of player tends to play that kind of character anyway! And ultimately for some*** it's fun to lovingly work their way through the guns and gun add-ons lists, and as GM I'm in the business of letting people have fun!



*I'm a big believer in running practice combats not only to get players used to the system and aware of the options it gives, but to try out new tactics. (what helps here is IMO GURPS combat is naturally interesting and exciting)

**I'll help someone who want to do this but is unaware of the options as well of course (but I tend to find that doesn't happen that often)

*** I include myself in this group!