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Old 01-17-2021, 02:05 AM   #21
jacobmuller
 
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

Templates make character creation easier - any min-max will have been done for you. Dungeon Fantasy rocks.

I'm a roll-player so, in GURPS:
- Your Stats matter - they have direct effect on game outcome, skill, damage, survival.
- a 1 point Stat increase averages out as a 10% bonus.
- cripplingly unlucky rolls are 1 in 200.
- the better your skill the better your chance is of being ridiculously lucky (Crit Success can be figured as Effective Skill -10).

Compared to D20 games I've tried - 2 points of stat = 5%. Crit Fail 1 in 20.
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Old 01-17-2021, 04:14 AM   #22
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

Quote:
Originally Posted by jacobmuller View Post
Templates make character creation easier - any min-max will have been done for you. Dungeon Fantasy rocks.

I'm a roll-player so, in GURPS:
- Your Stats matter - they have direct effect on game outcome, skill, damage, survival.
- a 1 point Stat increase averages out as a 10% bonus.
- cripplingly unlucky rolls are 1 in 200.
- the better your skill the better your chance is of being ridiculously lucky (Crit Success can be figured as Effective Skill -10).

Compared to D20 games I've tried - 2 points of stat = 5%. Crit Fail 1 in 20.
Another feature is that rolls vs stats or skills is a bell curve so +whatever weapons are not as problematic. If the character already has Sword-15 then a +5 sword is less annoying in terms of skill bonus.
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Old 01-17-2021, 08:02 AM   #23
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

Quote:
Originally Posted by jacobmuller View Post
Templates make character creation easier - any min-max will have been done for you. Dungeon Fantasy rocks.

I'm a roll-player so, in GURPS:
- Your Stats matter - they have direct effect on game outcome, skill, damage, survival.
- a 1 point Stat increase averages out as a 10% bonus.
- cripplingly unlucky rolls are 1 in 200.
- the better your skill the better your chance is of being ridiculously lucky (Crit Success can be figured as Effective Skill -10).

Compared to D20 games I've tried - 2 points of stat = 5%. Crit Fail 1 in 20.
By RAW, critical success caps at 6. And critical failure is 1 in 54 in many cases.
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Old 01-17-2021, 08:33 AM   #24
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

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By RAW, critical success caps at 6. And critical failure is 1 in 54 in many cases.
There are optional cinematic rules for extending the critical success chances.

The Open-Ended Criticals option for wildcard skills is the most generous keeping the Roll-10 option past 6 so a Wildcard!-26 with no modifiers either critical succeeds (2-16), has a normal failure (17) or critically fails (18) for non-spell skills.
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Old 01-17-2021, 09:01 AM   #25
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

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There are optional cinematic rules for extending the critical success chances.

The Open-Ended Criticals option for wildcard skills is the most generous keeping the Roll-10 option past 6 so a Wildcard!-26 with no modifiers either critical succeeds (2-16), has a normal failure (17) or critically fails (18) for non-spell skills.
If making a pitch to non-GURPS players, might not want to depend too much on optional rules in relatively minor supplements (I assume this is in the Power-Ups book on Wildcard skills) that only apply under special circumstances.

Probably sufficient to include this under something like:
GURPS is flexible. Optional rules allow tuning the game for anything from harsh realism to over-the-top cinematic action, without changing the basic core of the system.
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Old 01-17-2021, 09:36 AM   #26
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

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Originally Posted by RyanW View Post
If making a pitch to non-GURPS players, might not want to depend too much on optional rules in relatively minor supplements (I assume this is in the Power-Ups book on Wildcard skills) that only apply under special circumstances.

Probably sufficient to include this under something like:
GURPS is flexible. Optional rules allow tuning the game for anything from harsh realism to over-the-top cinematic action, without changing the basic core of the system.
Good point. I was thinking along those lines because of reference to Dungeon Fantasy which made me think of D&D which is cinematic for 6th level and above characters. AD&D1-2 was particularly insane because fireball had a set volume resulting in 33,000 ft^3 of flaming death.
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Old 01-17-2021, 11:36 AM   #27
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

One thing I was wondering about, is how would you go about simplifying skills for new players? I'm no novice, but even I find the standard method of "Skill Name - Level - Relative Level [point cost]" to be intimidating to a new player.
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Old 01-17-2021, 12:31 PM   #28
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

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One thing I was wondering about, is how would you go about simplifying skills for new players? I'm no novice, but even I find the standard method of "Skill Name - Level - Relative Level [point cost]" to be intimidating to a new player.
If you mean, how do you go about simplifying the presentation of skills on a character sheet, you can just list "Skill Name - Level." Worry about the other information later, once they've gotten used to the system.

If you mean, how do you go about simplifying the skills listed in a template, you need to rewrite the whole thing, printing skills in lists instead of in paragraphs. I find templates to be a feature most unfriendly and restrictive to new players. Simple descriptions in normal language about what traits different character types should have are easier to grasp.

If you mean, how do you go about simplifying which skills are actually available, I wouldn't do that. Just use GURPS Skill Categories to group them, and it becomes fairly easy to find what you're looking for. I know some people favor turning the entire skill list into wildcard skills, but I find this approach to be exactly opposed to what I like about GURPS.
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Old 01-17-2021, 03:02 PM   #29
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

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Originally Posted by Stormcrow View Post
If you mean, how do you go about simplifying the skills listed in a template, you need to rewrite the whole thing, printing skills in lists instead of in paragraphs. I find templates to be a feature most unfriendly and restrictive to new players. Simple descriptions in normal language about what traits different character types should have are easier to grasp.
The templates themselves are very good, but the space-saving format that SJ Games uses to present them definitely puts readability low on the list of priorities. When I'm giving them to my players, I reformat them to be clearer, even though this takes up more space - usually one or two pages per template instead of the single block that they get in a sourcebook.
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Old 01-17-2021, 06:37 PM   #30
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Default Re: GURPS pitch to d20 players

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Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
The templates themselves are very good, but the space-saving format that SJ Games uses to present them definitely puts readability low on the list of priorities. When I'm giving them to my players, I reformat them to be clearer, even though this takes up more space - usually one or two pages per template instead of the single block that they get in a sourcebook.
I agree with that. Because they are webpages the D&D to GURPS page taks a medium route assuming 1 point in the skill (attributes are handled earlier in the piece):

Cleric:

*Advantages: Clerical Investment [5], Blessed or Power Investiture [10], True Faith [15]: [30]

*Disadvantages: Duty (Church/Order 12-) [-10], Vow (varies) [-10]: [-20]

*Skills: Crossbow (E)-DX, First Aid/TL (E)-IQ, Theology (H)-(IQ-2), Melee Weapons (Axe/Mace (A)-(DX-1), Knife (E)-DX, and Spear (A)-(DX-1)), Occultism (A)-(IQ-1), Shield (E)-DX, Throwing (A)-(DX-1), Ritual Magic (skill) (VH)-(IQ-3): [10]

*Optional Advantages: Legal Immunity (w/ Diplomatic pouch); Talents (Close to Heaven; Close to Hell; Devotion; Healer)

*Optional Skills: Diagnosis/TL (H) -(IQ-2), Esoteric Medicine (H)-(Per-2), Hidden Lore (A)-(IQ-1), History (H)-(IQ-2), Literature (H)-(IQ-2), Naturalist (H)-(IQ-2), Physician/TL (H)-(IQ-2), Survival (A)-(IQ-1)

*Optional Wildcard Skills: Cleric!, Theurgy!
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