Incorporating new rules.

[Themoopanator]

Hi, I literally joined the forums 60 seconds ago, essentially a beginner in GURPS.

But, here is my quest(ion):

Me and my friends have played a few campaigns using the GURPS lite system as a foundation for it (I am the GM). Don't get me wrong, although I would love to use the full system rules I don't reeeally have the time to learn them all. But as it goes, there is enough to base a good game off. Decent and not too confusing combat system (as most of the players don't really fully know the rules yet), enough in the items lists and tables to know what I'm doing when I add my own weapons and items to the game and so on. But I noticed two things:

1: There are like 10 spells in the Gurps lite handbook thingy.

I cured this by incorporating the full version's spell list into the game and adding A LOT more variation on what the player mages can do.

2: Character creation has a lot to be desired.

By this I mean that although in GURPS in general your character is very individual, the lite version does not offer an amazing amount of skills, advantages and disadvantages. Which means that people in my group (of usually 4/5 players) will have a lot of the same skills or advantages and disadvantages. And not to mention the fact that we are playing in a fantasy setting, meaning that a lot of the 'lite' skills aren't even applicable. To cure this I was wondering if I could incorporate the skill, advantages and disadvantages lists from a full version of the game but still using the GURPS lite rules and cutting off any extra full edition blubber we don't need. My question is, would this work and if it would, which edition would work best against the GURPS lite rules ? 3rd ? 4e ? Others ?

I would appreciate any advice on this. Thanks for reading.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Themoopanator

Hi, I literally joined the forums 60 seconds ago

Welcome!

I cured this by incorporating the full version's spell list into the game and adding A LOT more variation on what the player mages can do.

Sounds fine. There are several other magic systems available for GURPS, but of this fits your needs, and it sounds as if it does, that's great.

would this work and if it would, which edition would work best against the GURPS lite rules ? 3rd ? 4e ? Others ?

There have been GURPS Lite editions based on 3e and 4e. Look at the top of the front page of your copy of Lite. If you see "Fourth Edition" as part of the title, you have the 4e version of Lite, and should use the 4e Basic Set as a source of extra advantages, disadvantages, etc. This should work fine, but remember that as GM you should check and approve everything that's used in the characters.

[Humabout]

And if you have the 11.99, I would strongly suggest picking up How to Be a GURPS GM. It will do wonders for helping pick which rules to worry about and how including them affects the game, not to mention a ton of great info on planning and running a gurps game. I just got mine and even having run games for years, I still get a lot of use from it.

[Mr_Sandman]

The quick answer is that GURPS is modular, and you can use just the rules that make the game that works best for you. For the most part, you can incorporate any of the traits from the Basic Set, and still only use the rules found in Lite. There may be a few specific skills, advantages or disadvantages that only make sense if you are using rules that aren't found in Lite. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but they should be obvious from their descriptions. If you do find any, you can either choose to disallow them, or add the rules they use to your game.

There are both 3e and 4e versions of GURPS Lite, if the copy you have has spells, I think it must be the 3e version. But you can download the 4e version for free.

I personally think that 4e is a bit smoother to use, and gives you more options in the Basic Set. However, the presentation of 3e makes it a bit easier to learn. If you are playing in a low-tech fantasy setting, either one will work fine.

[weby]

I would indeed suggest to use the "as few rules as still makes sense" approach to start with and then add more things as you need them. So your approach seems good.