Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by Anthony

That probably means you shouldn't be looking for a system at all; you should start by looking for a game whose setting seems interesting, then take a look at the system the game uses and see if it appalls you (it might; 'good at designing settings' and 'good at designing rules' are orthogonal traits at best). If it doesn't, use that system, as using the 'house' system often gets the feel of the setting best (not always; 'fails to emulate its own genre' is a legit rule system criticism). If it does, convert it to a system you like better (and be aware that doing so may significantly change the style of the game; you can convert Shadowrun to GURPS but characters that are nominally equivalent in SR are ridiculously different point value in GURPS).

I would generally discourage using GURPS for games that use powers, because powers in GURPS are priced to discourage people from taking them, whereas most settings that use powers envision most PCs having powers, meaning they should be priced to encourage powers; if you're going to convert a powers-heavy setting to a generic system, I'd use one tuned towards superheroes (includes BESM, Hero, Mutants and Masterminds). My current preference of those three would be M&M, though all of them have flaws.

Those first few sentences are golden to me. You've got an excellent point there. I might be putting the cart before the horse (as it were).

Dealing with powers is definitely something I've struggled with a lot in GURPS, and I'm glad I'm not alone with that conundrum. At the very least, I'll be giving Mutants and Masterminds a solid read to see what wisdom I can glean from it.