03-23-2023, 02:25 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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(Resource management not being limited to material goods.)
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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03-23-2023, 02:43 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
The way you make resource management a nonfactor for spellcasters in D&D is by taking long rests after any significant encounter (the classic 'five minute workday' problem). The DM can discourage that, but it's a perennial problem with D&D that the game is assuming 4-6 (depending on edition) encounters per day, and very few groups actually play that way.
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03-23-2023, 03:26 PM | #23 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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A lot of people don't try GURPS because "that guy I know who plays lots of roleplaying games says it's complex" (and "that guy" may just have gotten his information from a similar person years ago), so they won't even begin to consider it a factor when looking at what they want to play. They picks are almost certainly going to be limited to the preferred game of "that guy they know", whatever is currently played by their favourite content creators and systems tailored to a specific setting they're interested in. |
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03-23-2023, 03:46 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
Oh, I assure you that if possible you make it a non-issue, assuming the edition you're playing doesn't make it such at some point anyway (high-level 3e, for example).
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
03-23-2023, 06:47 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
Before Fourth Edition, skills could also have half points in them, which I know for a fact confused a lot of players.
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Getting away from that so we can actually get back to the exploring/combat/social triangle of roleplaying quickly is the basis of a lot of my houserules and GM choices (and one of the many, many reasons I don't use Magic and instead use other systems). Actually, no, I don't even know if it's fun in video games. Unless it's a game that's heavily restricted in how you get resources, then it largely becomes busy work to have 'infinite' arrows. |
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03-23-2023, 06:51 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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But that being said, look. Sometimes we're our worst enemy. I would ten times rather a newbie looking for a question about GURPS go to the dedicated subreddit on Reddit than come to this forum. There, they get relatively straightforward, relatively short answers for their questions. Here, there've been just too many instances where posters go for the most insanely complex ways to do anything, choked with jargon and numbers-crunching, and the concept of KISS is met with derision. And fair enough: that's the type of game some people prefer. As long as we understand the predictable result of that.
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My gaming blog: Apotheosis of the Invisible City "Call me old-fashioned, but after you're dead, I don't think you should be entitled to a Dodge any more." - my wife It's not that I don't understand what you're saying. It's that I disagree with what you're saying. |
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03-23-2023, 06:53 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
I'd want to see polling on that. My experience is that most games, as played, do not bother with detailed record keeping (and that includes GURPS; the point you start tracking arrows is the point when the archer decides it's time to get a cornucopia quiver)
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03-23-2023, 08:32 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
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Vancian magic-users running out of spells is a more common problem but the healers run out of spells at least as fast as the fireball-tossers and the fighters run out of HP about then too. The one size fits all solution is then "strategic retreat" which is kind of dull but practical. Resource management is way over-rated.
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Fred Brackin |
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03-24-2023, 01:06 AM | #29 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
Maybe it's because I play war games too. but I'm pretty used to ammo tracking.
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03-24-2023, 02:37 AM | #30 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: Math, GURPS, and its reputation for complexity
"Used to" and "enjoys" are very different things. I'm used to dealing with ammo in all the various systems and games that have it, but so few make it actually enjoyable to do and not just unpaid labor.
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Tags |
complexity, math |
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