What sort of computer game suits GURPS best?

[(E)]

Spinning this line of discussion off from the recent "How Would GURPS Rules Need To Be Changed For A Computer Game?" thread.
What type of computer game suits GURPS best?
- What features does it do strongly
- What settings and other details would be best to show off what GURPS can do best?

[wmervine4]

I posted some thoughts that might go along with this thread in the other thread, but I'll respond here too.

Originally Posted by (E)

What type of computer game suits GURPS best?

What type of game suits GURPS best? All of them! Any of them! More seriously though, I've thought about how GURPS could be used for a variety of different games. I've considered FPS style RPGs like Fallout or the Elder Scrolls series, tactics based games like Final Fantasy Tactics or XCOM, super hero smash 'em up games like X-men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and even 4X strategy games like Civilization or Stellaris.

Originally Posted by (E)

- What features does it do strongly

I think the fact that virtually any creature you can imagine can be statted out with GURPS fairly simple including those that have strange powers or abilities. There's a bit of work there to map those stats to something tangible in a video game, but the fact that any creature can be statted out similarly makes it easy to create a variety of creatures with definable abilities.

Another feature of the system is the fact that it has rules for almost anything. Want to pay special attention to injuries, exertion, and recovery? You have shock penalties; wounding modifiers; the chance for infection; Diagnosis, First Aid and Surgery skills; FP loss from running, swimming, and hiking; bleeding rules (and the extreme version from Martial Arts); and many others. Do you want rules for crafting? LTC3 (I think) has general guidelines for the cost of raw materials and time to craft a variety of objects. You'd have to bolt on specific materials, skills, and finished products as this doesn't exist natively in the GURPS rules, but you've got guidelines for how to determine $ and time for producing goods. Want a system for handling skills and equipment across TL? GURPS has rules for that too.

Originally Posted by (E)

- What settings and other details would be best to show off what GURPS can do best?

Anything could conceivably work here too, which is great. Like the new DFRPG, it would probably make sense to start with something in the high fantasy RPG genre since this is very popular currently. It could be fun to do something in the sci-fi genre too like the Mass Effect series. 4X strategy games could make extensive use of the invention and gadgeteering rules for research; Mass Combat rules for combat between ships, armies, etc.; and crafting rules for managing the production of cities/towns.

The possibilities here are endless, but I think overall the GURPS rule set is diverse and detailed enough to handle almost any kind of video game. The trick is implementing the GURPS rules in code. That is where things could come to light with the implementation of specific rules that I'm not thinking of in this off the cuff discussion.

[Refplace]

First person shooter types would be the hardest, though several buttons or Macros could help.
So something like click on target, hit A to Attack, D to Defend, etc.
However better would be a serious of popup dialog boxes offering full range of choices.
That UI style would also lend itself to NPC interactions and more complicated skill use.

[David Johansen]

I think a turn based, hex grid rpg would be essential to remaining GURPS, though a text adventure might work.

Ideally the setting would be a randomly generated multiverse where every hop would generate a new paradigm in terms of setting physics and issues.

[AlexanderHowl]

I disagree. I have never bothered with a hex map for any of my games, so I do not see why a video game would need one.

[scc]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I disagree. I have never bothered with a hex map for any of my games, so I do not see why a video game would need one.

Video games, and computers in general, can't really handle free-form positioning, you can't just be in the room with the bad guys, you always have to and exact position, and as GURPS uses hexes, so must the game.