New Players, New Rules - Which to Start With?

[VonKatzen]

I'm planning out a TL9 espionage/detective game, and I want to use a lot of the rules/options from Martial Arts and Tactical Shooting as well as the Basic Set. However, all of the players I have committed so far are new to the game (except one who played GURPS Lite 3e with me years ago).

Helping them with character creation using a combination of Templates and one-on-one character modification is not a big deal. Because of how some of the rules can really change how Advantages and other character statistics work I want to make sure that I start out with those rules already on, but introduce the other ones as we go. Some of the rules will actually simplify things (I'm taking advice from Pyramid and reducing Guns to Pistols and Long Arms), but others will add situational rule changes from the core (such as Bleeding, etc.)

Assume I want to use most or all of the optional rules in BS, MA, and TS which focus on gritty realism and tactical depth. Which ones would you guys recommend having on from 'start' and which ones could be introduced more gradually without significantly devaluing character builds?

[Empada]

the How to be a GURPS GM has a topic about it.

if they never played gurps I suggest use only BS for start with.
shock, size and speed range table, all maneuvers, extra effort, all the options off dodge, blunt trauma in flexible armor, shotguns and multiple projectiles, hitting the wrong targed, and all.... are a lot of things for beginners. if you give them a lot of combat options they probably don't know what to do.
I have these problem with some experienced DnD players, and only BS already feels gritty enough for players not used to it

[tshiggins]

Do you plan to use Ultra Tech, at all?

[VonKatzen]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Do you plan to use Ultra Tech, at all?

Yes, I'll be using Ultra-Tech, though with fairly conservative stuff and the Pyramid Thinking Machines Computers.

Also there shouldn't be much combat anyway for the first few sessions. They'll be doing detective work in a non-hostile environment. But as they start sneaking around less friendly places they may mess up and get security after them and have to return fire.

I've got some Cheat Sheets and the Combat Cards printed out, and I picked up GURPS for Dummies.

Some of the optional maneuvers and stuff are situational so they won't really need them one way or the other. But one of the reasons I actually wanted to use Tactical Shooting and MA is because it can actually make the game less deadly, in my experience a Basic Set or Lite firefight can actually be more dangerous due to the propensity of characters to hit each other all the time. Other than that I'm just going for realism.

To start with the only optional rules they'll really be running into is Skill Maintenance and Physical Training, but they work for an organization with facilities so they won't have problems doing that in the off time. And since they'll mostly be dealing with Ultra-Tech there's not going to be much karate fighting (I expect), though maybe some grappling and stuff if someone tries to grab them.

The group's overall experience with RPGs is moderate, and one player has played Basic Role-Playing with Strike Ranks and everything on, so I think he'll be able to deal with the crunch fairly easily. I've used the MA/Tactical Shooting options myself in a Prime Directive game.