The GURPSICLE, and: how you do GURPS "onboarding"?

[weevis]

I am 100% committed to growing the GURPS player base. In my games from one-quarter to half of the players have never played a tabletop RPG before. Over the years I've developed what I think of as my "onboarding" script/procedure.

I even have specific "recruiting pitches" and advice that I cut-and-paste from email to email when I am trying to get a new person to join my group.

It my own experience the stuff I would have expected to use for this (GURPS Lite, GURPS Ultra-Lite, Combat Cards, even the Basic Set -- Characters) don't really work. I'm not sure why. Perhaps they might work for experienced RPG players, but that's not who I am trying to recruit. So I end up cobbling together my own evangelism.

Here is an example of one of my e-mail pitches:

If they've never done ANY tabletop RPG before they usually ask, "Are there any examples that show what it's like to play?" Since 2015, I always answer by emailing:

In case it helps you decide here is a podcast of some people playing a sci-fi tabletop RPG. It's not our game but the gameplay feels close to what happens, except that none of us do voice impressions and we aren't actors. http://www.oneshotpodcast.com/campaign/episode-one/ They start playing after 2:25 in the podcast.

One super-critical part of my "onboarding" is my revision of Eric B. Smith's "one page GURPS" game aid / cheat sheet. I just posted this over at the Resources sub-forum: http://forums.sjgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=85 A direct link is here:

The GURPSICLE (GURPS In a Concise Limited Edition cheat sheet)
https://reqcon.game.blog/2019/06/21/...d-cheat-sheet/

The process of posting it and writing that blog post made me think: How do other GURPS GMs do this?

For example, if there was an appealing, accessible podcast involving GURPS game play (ideally sci-fi, ideally including women, but whatever) I'd send them that URL instead of the One Shot Podcast -- which is Star Wars.

[Refplace]

Thats a nice sheet!

[weevis]

Thanks! Now if only I had a good podcast GURPS example to go with it.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by weevis

Now if only I had a good podcast GURPS example to go with it.

While they aren't too concerned with the rules, Film Reroll is a fun podcast of people playing GURPS combined with material which a lot of people will likely be familiar with.

[weevis]

Originally Posted by Sam Baughn

While they aren't too concerned with the rules, Film Reroll is a fun podcast of people playing GURPS combined with material which a lot of people will likely be familiar with.

Thanks, this is a great find!! I can't believe I didn't know about it before. I really like the podcast.

However, for the reason you mention I'm not sure I would use it for onboarding. I'll listen to more episodes to see how much they vary, but the ones I tried are more like improv comedy. I thought I was rules-light but the style there is lighter than mine.

They do a great job of making GURPS sound fun though, which is important.

[Black Leviathan]

It really depends on where my players are coming from. Generally if it's your first time at the table you get the discussion about 3d6-under stat and little bit about crits and margin of success, and the rest we go over when it comes up.

From now on I think I'm doing Template characters for new players. It's taken me a long time to recognize that 4th Edition is really intimidating in Character Generation if you're not already a GURPS player and even if you are the analysis paralysis of all of those choices is tough.

I've started giving my new players the combat action flashcards, even if you've been doing very complex RPGs they help solidify the "What can I do in combat" idea very effectively.

[weevis]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

From now on I think I'm doing Template characters for new players. It's taken me a long time to recognize that 4th Edition is really intimidating in Character Generation

I completely agree!

As for the combat cards, I do not like them that well. If the players are very new I just ask them to tell me what they want to do in plain language, then I translate that to rules. If they aren't sure what to do, I say "what would you do if someone was attacking you in real life?" This has worked so far.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by weevis

Thanks! Now if only I had a good podcast GURPS example to go with it.

Corpses & Curious uses GURPS. It is a horror game--mostly role playing with occasional rolls. It would be nice to have more examples.

[Gollum]

There is also Sharknado First Bite, a video GMed by Nolinquisitor. Rules used are very light and the main purpose is ... fun.

https://youtu.be/YmDc0zVN9z4

[RogerBW]

Whartson Hall plays GURPS among other systems. Of the recordings you can find there, Flight 13, The South Shall Rise Again, The Pirates of Drinax and Reign of Steel: Sweeter Than Success are run under GURPS.

You may wish to bear in mind that we are not an entirely serious group and we tend to play pretty rules-light whatever system we're using.