New to GURPS: Zombie Apocalypse

[Kromey]

Hello all. I've been spending a lot of time in recent weeks eagerly reading everything I can about GURPS, including the Lite rules. I have ordered my own copy of the Basic Set books, which are currently on their way to me. I am for all other purposes a complete GURPS virgin.

I am currently GMing a D&D 4e campaign (using a home brew setting based loosely on the old 3.5e setting and the events of a previous epic-level campaign I played in, with several updates drawn from the 4e setting), however I'm finding myself growing more and more... well, bored with 4e. I just feel limited, pigeon-holed into WotC's ideas of what characters somehow are supposed to be. It's very restricting. And I want to break free.

I've considered Savage Worlds (conveniently I already have that rules book), but it just feels too simple. Now I'm wanting to move to GURPS.

However, as I'm sure most of you have seen, there are a lot of RPGers -- seemingly especially those who've "grown up" on D&D -- who are extremely prejudiced against the perceived over-complexity of GURPS. If I were to simply approach my group and say "Hey guys, let's convert to GURPS, whaddya say?" they'd simply lynch me!

That's a long way to go to say that I'm planning a simple one-shot adventure set in the early days of a zombie apocalypse. I'm also planning on hiding all the mechanics (although my players insist on rolling the dice themselves -- fine) from them, so all they'll see is dice rolls and results. I'm not going to tell them what system we're using -- just "something I found on the internet and wanted to try out". They'll tell me what they want to do, I'll map that to appropriate actions, they'll roll the dice, and I'll tell them what happens as a result of that.

So, this will require pre-gen characters, obviously, since having them create their own will, of course, violate the "hide the mechanics from them" goal. But I'm having trouble coming up with good characters. I'm shooting for 50 points (upper "average"/lower "exceptional", yes?), and trying to avoid things like the police office or trained soldier (everyone else would be left bored while he mops up the zombies), or the asthmatic accountant (who'd be left bored while everyone else mops up the zombies).

Here are the characters I've got so far:
* The high-power business exec who's father was a world-class shotgunner. Low on combat skills, he has his father's 12ga pump-action shotgun and is not without some skill in its use, even though he never took to it like his father really wanted. (Balance note: Just enough skill with this extremely lethal weapon to not accidentally blow his own kneecap off.)
* The taxi driver. Not the safest of professions, she carries a Springfield Armory XD-40 and spends enough time on the range to be competent, but not exceptional.
* The outdoor enthusiast. She spends more time in the wilderness than the city, and was only caught here by the worst of luck. She carries her trusty machete and knows how to use it.
* The fireman. Strong and tough, at some point in this crisis he grabbed a fire axe, and is certainly no slouch with it.
* The martial arts enthusiast. Winner of numerous local competitions, her fists are the only weapons she needs. (Not really sure how this one will stack up against the others at this points level, so I may fudge it some and give her a few more points than the others.)

The two gun-wielding characters will be low-ish on ammo -- each has a full magazine loaded to begin with, but only enough spare ammo for a single reload and a tad more (the taxi driver does have a fully-loaded spare magazine, plus a small handful of loose ammo; the shotgun is equipped with a shell holder on the stock, plus he's got a few more in his pocket) -- to balance their relatively high lethality and ranged-ness against the rest of the characters. Plus I intend to avoid encounters in areas where the two ranged characters can bring down the zombies before they get close enough to threaten everyone.

So, the questions I have for you, oh might GURPS veterans, is:
1) Is this party balanced? By "balance" I'm looking for a group where one character doesn't rule the day while the others sit back and watch, nothing to do. If they're mowing through zombies too easily, I can always through in things to complicate their lives!
2) What other characters could I consider? My goal is around 10 characters, so that when (not if) one gets killed, I can have the party find another survivor around the next corner (a la Left 4 Dead, although the new survivor isn't just the same dude somehow ahead of them and stuck in a closet) and thus keep all the players in the game.

I'd also like to run these stats for a basic zombie by you guys, see if this seems reasonable for this kind of low-power game. I found it on some forum somewhere, maybe even here, but no longer remember where.

ST 12 DX 12 IQ 6-8 HT 12/15, weapon or brawling skill at 12-14, move slow until they get close (Fast leaping towards food), moaning causes some emotional discomfort (Will save), die once their hit points (15) reaches 0.

Beyond this little guy (in large numbers), I do intend to also have a few "special" zombies, like an oversized, over-muscled dude that plows through other zombies and survivors alike, and unusually stealthy, quick ones with an unnerving knack for scaling walls and leaping out of dark corners you thought empty.

[Mateus]

I feel a "little" D&Dish in the characters concepts that you came up. There are several things that you have to have in mind. First you have to accept that in GURPS points DOES NOT converts to "power" or "level". With the same points you can make a killing machine, a very little effective warrior, an schoolar, an animal, a car (yes, I am talking about a vehicle), etc. So dont get locked by points limits (especially if you are making the pcs and want primally to focus on concepts). Dont try to stat out everything that you need, because normally you just need a rought idea of the capabilities of a monster, npc, vehicle, god, etc to make it function as a GM tool. You should take a look on old posts because there are TONS of then that regard zombies.

I willl leave here a full writte up of zombie that I made for an old zombie-apocalypse game of mine:

Zombie Meta-Trait Template [-234]:
Attribute Modifiers: ST +4 [40]; IQ -6 [-120].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per +4 [20].
Cultural Familiarity: None [-1].
Language: None [-6].
Advantages: Dark Vision [25]; Doesn’t Breathe [20]; ‘’ Eat Or Drink [10]; ‘’ Sleep [20]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Injury Tolerance (No Blood, No Vitals, Unliving) [30]; Resistant Metabolic Hazards (Very Common, Immunity) [30]; Single-Minded [5]; Subsonic Hearing [5]; Temperature Tolerance 10 (-32oC to 54oC) [10]; Unaging [15]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Appearance Monstrous (Universal +25%) [-25]; Bad Smell [-10]; Bestial [-15]; Bloodlust (6/-) [-20]; Cannot Learn [-30]; ‘’ Speak [-15]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Easy To Read [-10]; Fragile (Unnatural) [-50]; Frightens Animals [-10]; Hidebound [-5]; Incurious (6/-) [-10]; Infectious Attack (Bite) [-5]; Low Empathy [-20]; No Sense Of Humor [-10]; ‘’ Smell/Taste [-5]; Numb [-20]; Odious Personal Habits (Eats Humans) [-15]; Social Stigma (Dead) [-20]; Uncontrollable Appetite (Human Flesh And Blood, 6/-) [-30]; Unhealing Partial (Need To Eats Human Flesh Or Blood) [-20]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Quirks: Sexless [-1].
Features: Fixed IQ [0]; No FP; Sterile.
Skills: Brawling (E, DX+2) [4].

EDIT: Its only an example and I would make it very diferent now a days. You may want to pick up Horror to have some good tips and creatures to run such a game.

For such a game that you propose I would make quite normal humans, like a priste, a nurse, an police officer, a hunter, a street thug, an mechanic, a teacher...

[Kromey]

Originally Posted by Mateus

I feel a "little" D&Dish in the characters concepts that you came up.

Well, I'm not surprised, given that my entire background in RPGs is D&D. That said, though, can you elaborate on what you mean?

Originally Posted by Mateus

First you have to accept that in GURPS points DOES NOT converts to "power" or "level". With the same points you can make a killing machine, a very little effective warrior, an schoolar, an animal, a car (yes, I am talking about a vehicle), etc.

Right. My goal here is characters that are slightly-above-average in general, realistic folks you might find in a modern city, but with at least some little thing that gives them an edge in the crisis at hand. This is why I'm explicitly avoiding the cop and the soldier -- for 50 points I have no doubt that I could create a zombie-slaying machine that could almost single-handedly take on the entire horde and put an end to the whole crisis.

But I don't want a game like that. I want to try to create realistic modern folks, although hand-picking those that have a moderate edge for survival.

Originally Posted by Mateus

I willl leave here a full writte up of zombie that I made for an old zombie-apocalypse game of mine:

[snip awesomeness]

Thanks for this! I've seen similar write-ups, but also seen the numerous suggestions that such detail isn't really necessary -- as you said, I just need the most basic stats (i.e. what I need to roll to hit the PCs, what they need to roll to hit me, etc.), and everything beyond that can pretty much be whatever flavor the GM feels like adding in.

Originally Posted by Mateus

For such a game that you propose I would make quite normal humans, like a priste, a nurse, an police officer, a hunter, a street thug, an mechanic, a teacher...

Ooh, excellent ideas, thanks!. I think I'll stay away from the cop (I just feel like he's going to be too effective, and leave everyone else feeling side-lined), and perhaps the hunter for similar reasons, but I can see the others being useful, especially the nurse -- someone has to patch up the injuries!

[Mateus]

I said that it seems "D&Dish" because you put then is similar roles as D&D classes. The fireman remember me a "tank" character, the outdoor a ranger, the martial artis a monk... I am not saing that this is wrong, but as you told that want go "break free" from D&D I THINK that you may want to not reproduce the classes on GURPS, especialy because you players will probably try to find then and will talk about the pcs as if they were D&D classes. "Who will play if the guy that looks like a Ranger", "Why my Fighter cannot absorve more damage", "See if the Thief can open doors", etc.

Here an example of a mundane character:

ANA BEATRIZ FERREIRA ALBUQUERQUE
POINTS TOTAL: 30. APPEARANCE: Sex (Female). Age (40). Hg (1,67m). Wg (69kg). Eyes (Blue). Hair (Blonde, Long). Skin (Caucasian). PROFFESION: Biologist. SM: 0. RELIGION: None.

ST: 09 [-10]. DX: 10 [-]. IQ: 11 [20]. HT: 10 [-].
HP: 09 [-]. WILL: 11 [-]. PER: 11 [-]. FP: 10 [-]. BS: 5 [-]. BM: Ground 5 [-] / Water 1 [-].
THRUST: 1d-2. SWING: 1d-1.
DODGE: 8.
CF: Latin America [0].
LANGUAGES: Portuguese (Native / Educated) [0]; English (Accented / Semi-Literacy) [3].
ADVANTAGES: Lightning Calculator [2]; Rapid Healing [5]; Single-Minded [5].
DISADVANTAGES: Combat Paralysis [-15].
SKILLS: Area Knowledge: What you want here [11, IQ/E, 1]; Artist: Drawing [10, IQ/H-1, 2]; Biology [11, IQ/VH, 8]; Boating [09, DX/A, 1]; Current Affairs: Science & Technology [11, IQ/E, 1]; Driving: Automobile [10, DX/A, 2]; Eletronics Operation: Scientific [11, IQ/A, 2]; Research [11, IQ/A, 2]; Survival: Pantanal [10, Per/A-1, 1].

[Kromey]

Hm, good point. I hadn't looked at them from the perspective of archetypes/roles, but I definitely see what you mean now.

On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing? I'm trying to draw a group of "born and bred" D&Ders out of that shell and into a system that lets them break free. That's a daunting change, though, so some familiar surroundings could make them feel more comfortable at first, and then we can work on breaking free entirely later on.

Thanks for the example character. I haven't statted up any of my concepts yet because, well, I don't have the rule books yet. Having examples of good characters will really help when I get to that stage!

[Anders]

There are characters in the Basic Set. I also cannot recommend GURPS Horror enough for this kind of game.

Oh, and Kromm (Sean Punch) will be back on July 5th or thereabouts. I am positive he can add something - he loves zombie games.

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by Kromey

However, as I'm sure most of you have seen, there are a lot of RPGers -- seemingly especially those who've "grown up" on D&D -- who are extremely prejudiced against the perceived over-complexity of GURPS. If I were to simply approach my group and say "Hey guys, let's convert to GURPS, whaddya say?" they'd simply lynch me!

Well, you're not asking them to convert, you're asking them to play a one-shot. It's a small commitment.

I'm not going to tell them what system we're using -- just "something I found on the internet and wanted to try out". They'll tell me what they want to do, I'll map that to appropriate actions, they'll roll the dice, and I'll tell them what happens as a result of that.

How happy will your players be to play a mystery system that you're hiding from them? I mean, some players are perfectly content to never read or even learn the rules and just let the GM handle everything, whereas others (like myself) like to know all the rules.

Also, if you're completely new to GURPS, do you think that running it as a black box is the best idea? Not to disparage your GM skills, but if I were playing a black box game, I'd rather have a GM who's familiar with the assumptions and mechanics of the system than one who's still learning them.

I dunno, I feel like honesty is the best policy here. It's not like you need to ask permission to run a different system; if that's what you want to run then they have to either play in it or find another GM. If your players hate GURPS so much that they have to be tricked into trying it, I can't help thinking that they're still going to hate it after they find out what they're playing. People are irrational like that.

Then again, I don't know your players or your local gaming scene, either, so it's not like I can advise you here; these are just some of the thoughts I had in response to your post.

I'm shooting for 50 points (upper "average"/lower "exceptional", yes?), and trying to avoid things like the police office or trained soldier (everyone else would be left bored while he mops up the zombies), or the asthmatic accountant (who'd be left bored while everyone else mops up the zombies).

A cop or soldier wouldn't be so bad, really. Remember that even well-trained ordinary people are pretty ordinary. A soldier might not be a better shot than a civilian gun enthusiast (Guns 12-13 or so); his main advantages will be good endurance and small unit tactics (which would help the entire group). And many cops only get minimal gun training and are actually lousy shots; they're more likely to be good at aggressive driving or leading in a crisis.

Avoiding anyone with asthma or other obvious physical weaknesses is probably a good idea, though. Figure the zombies got those people first.

The high-power business exec who's father was a world-class shotgunner. Low on combat skills, he has his father's 12ga pump-action shotgun and is not without some skill in its use, even though he never took to it like his father really wanted. (Balance note: Just enough skill with this extremely lethal weapon to not accidentally blow his own kneecap off.)

I guess there's nothing wrong with this, but... you can get shotguns in gun stores, you know. You don't have to inherit them from gun champions. :)

The martial arts enthusiast. Winner of numerous local competitions, her fists are the only weapons she needs. (Not really sure how this one will stack up against the others at this points level, so I may fudge it some and give her a few more points than the others.)

Unless you plan to give her secret kung-fu powers that will let her punch the heads off of zombies, she's going to need a weapon. I might suggest a sword, but if she's winning local competitions with swords, then she's using some fake show weapon, not a real sword that you would actually want to cut people up with.

Actually, pretty much everyone should have or find a gun of some kind, even if they're using them at default, because fighting zombies at melee range is a desperate last act; that's how you get overwhelmed and bitten. If the zombies killed everyone before there was a response then the gun stores, armories, etc. will still be stocked; otherwise people died fighting the zombies and you'll be able to find guns wherever there was fighting (although you'll probably find zombies in the same places). Also some people have guns in their home - albeit locked in a gun safe or something.

Is this party balanced? By "balance" I'm looking for a group where one character doesn't rule the day while the others sit back and watch, nothing to do. If they're mowing through zombies too easily, I can always through in things to complicate their lives!

I don't think balance is an issue with these characters. My concern would be more for finding useful roles for each character. The taxi driver can drive, obviously (well, probably they all can, but the driver might be slightly better at it). The outdoorswoman might know something about wilderness survival and maybe have Area Knowledge of some wild areas. The firefighter is a trained first responder and can perform basic First Aid. But what do the rest do, other than fight badly?

What other characters could I consider? My goal is around 10 characters, so that when (not if) one gets killed, I can have the party find another survivor around the next corner (a la Left 4 Dead, although the new survivor isn't just the same dude somehow ahead of them and stuck in a closet) and thus keep all the players in the game.

Again, think of roles. How about a mechanic? Someone who knows something about physical and electronic security could be handy, for sneaking into buildings - or maybe someone who knows explosives, for blasting into them and setting traps. A better medic (doctor, military medic, or well-trained nurse) might be a good idea - although that leaves the firefighter with less to contribute.

I'd also like to run these stats for a basic zombie by you guys, see if this seems reasonable for this kind of low-power game. I found it on some forum somewhere, maybe even here, but no longer remember where.

It doesn't look too unreasonable, but then, it really depends on what kind of zombies you want. For your standard shambling, mindless, brain-hungry zombie, ST12 DX10 and Brawling 10-12 are probably good; remember that these guys aren't supposed to be dangerous individually, they're supposed to be dangerous in groups of 20. Perception is more important than IQ for this guy; set it where you want but probably not higher than 12. You're going to want Injury Tolerance (Unliving) too. Fragile (Unnatural) handles them dying at 0 HP.

That gives you a fairly easy-to-kill zombie. If you want the terrifying kind that keeps on coming until you blast or chop it to bits, give them Unkillable 1 instead of Fragile...

I'd drop the bit about "moaning that causes emotional distress on a failed will save", since it's vague as hell, and just make everyone roll Fright Checks when zombies attack (which is sort of the same idea, anyway).

Also, if zombies move slowly and in straight lines, PCs should probably get a bonus to hit them with ranged weapons. +2 sounds about right for a shambler, or +4 if the zombie is standing still. Doesn't apply when the zombies are moving at attack speed.

[Kromey]

If I were running a campaign in a zombie apocalypse, Horror would definitely be on my list. However, for a one-shot, and especially in a system that's likely to never be used again by my group, having already spent $50 on books is already really hard to swallow; bringing that up to $70 with the PDF for Horror just isn't in the cards right now.

If, on the other hand, my group likes the system and wants to play a real campaign using GURPS (*crosses fingers*), then I'll definitely be getting more books to accommodate that -- at the least LT, HT, or UT (depending on the TL they want to play in) and a setting book or two.

Knowing my group, we'll probably end up in DF, as it's quite likely that we'll end up converting our current D&D 4e campaign into GURPS, perhaps even to include adapting a form of magic to reproduce/simulate the powers that all D&D 4e characters have (or maybe DF or Fantasy already can account for that?).

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by Kromey

If I were running a campaign in a zombie apocalypse, Horror would definitely be on my list. However, for a one-shot, and especially in a system that's likely to never be used again by my group, having already spent $50 on books is already really hard to swallow; bringing that up to $70 with the PDF for Horror just isn't in the cards right now.

If, on the other hand, my group likes the system and wants to play a real campaign using GURPS (*crosses fingers*), then I'll definitely be getting more books to accommodate that -- at the least LT, HT, or UT (depending on the TL they want to play in) and a setting book or two.

Knowing my group, we'll probably end up in DF, as it's quite likely that we'll end up converting our current D&D 4e campaign into GURPS, perhaps even to include adapting a form of magic to reproduce/simulate the powers that all D&D 4e characters have (or maybe DF or Fantasy already can account for that?).

I was tempting to suggest you exactly this. For D&D players I would run a Fantasy (or DF, or Low-Fantasy, or Historical...) game first. Make simple characters with roles that your players can +- visualize (I think that the templates of DF are a little complicated for a first try). But try to not reproduce an D&D game on GURPS, so they can see that the system is strong in others parts (they may think that the combat in GURPS is worse than in D&D in a first impression, so I would avoid a combat heavy game). Put enfazis on the infinite possibilites of GURPS and in the use of skills (but dont pass the impression that they NEED to have to roll a skill to do mundane things like walk or climb a tree).

EDIT: You have to remember that GURPS is a tool box, you only have to use what you NEED and in the way that you fill is enjoyable and is confortable with.

[Kromey]

Originally Posted by Xplo

Well, you're not asking them to convert, you're asking them to play a one-shot. It's a small commitment.

How happy will your players be to play a mystery system that you're hiding from them? I mean, some players are perfectly content to never read or even learn the rules and just let the GM handle everything, whereas others (like myself) like to know all the rules.

That is certainly a fair point. And if this were anything more than a simple one-shot, my group -- or at least, some of my group -- would most definitely be right up there with you wanting to know all the rules up front.

For this game, though, they'll be happy to just get to RP; in fact, my group is real big on RP, and more than once has complained that D&D 4e feels like it restricts RP because the game focuses almost exclusively on combat (or at least feels that way). Compare this to the older 3.5e, where the rules went well beyond combat to handle all sorts of social interactions...

Originally Posted by Xplo

Also, if you're completely new to GURPS, do you think that running it as a black box is the best idea? Not to disparage your GM skills, but if I were playing a black box game, I'd rather have a GM who's familiar with the assumptions and mechanics of the system than one who's still learning them.

Another fair point. And I'll be honest, I am nervous on this point.

However, I have a set goal here: Demonstrate the freedom of GURPS, and the not-as-complex-as-you've-been-told-ness of the system. If I make some mistakes running the game, oh well. The point isn't a tournament-like, pure RAW session, but just to have fun and experience GURPS and, hopefully, dispel some of the myths they believe about the game.

Think of me like a Mythbuster here: Sure, I'll get some things wrong, but whether I succeed or fail my group will learn something. After all, failure is always an option!

Originally Posted by Xplo

I dunno, I feel like honesty is the best policy here. It's not like you need to ask permission to run a different system; if that's what you want to run then they have to either play in it or find another GM. If your players hate GURPS so much that they have to be tricked into trying it, I can't help thinking that they're still going to hate it after they find out what they're playing. People are irrational like that.

Sure, I like honesty. And if they ask questions about the mechanics, I'll answer them completely and honestly. All I'm doing is keeping the word "GURPS" from passing my lips, and offering them to try a new system without having to learn new rules -- something they've already expressed being averse to.

As for tricking them, well, I feel that it's actually the reverse: They've been tricked into not giving GURPS a chance, and I'm now giving them that opportunity they've been unfairly denied. Maybe they'll appreciate it, maybe they won't, but my players are generally fair-minded individuals, and once they get over any initial "we've been had!" reaction, they'll remember how the game actually played, and use that as their basis for re-evaluating their beliefs about GURPS.

Still, it could indeed backfire...

Originally Posted by Xplo

A cop or soldier wouldn't be so bad, really. Remember that even well-trained ordinary people are pretty ordinary. A soldier might not be a better shot than a civilian gun enthusiast (Guns 12-13 or so); his main advantages will be good endurance and small unit tactics (which would help the entire group). And many cops only get minimal gun training and are actually lousy shots; they're more likely to be good at aggressive driving or leading in a crisis.

Avoiding anyone with asthma or other obvious physical weaknesses is probably a good idea, though. Figure the zombies got those people first.

All fair points. And if the asthmatics haven't been gotten yet, they very well soon will be!

Originally Posted by Xplo

... you can get shotguns in gun stores, you know. ... Actually, pretty much everyone should have or find a gun of some kind, even if they're using them at default, because fighting zombies at melee range is a desperate last act; that's how you get overwhelmed and bitten.

This group consists of the people who were more level-headed when the crisis first struck. They're not the ones who rushed out at the first sign of trouble to loot the gun store. They're not the ones who broke into their gun-owning neighbor's home to steal their guns. They're the ones who listened to the authorities when they were told to lock their doors and stay put while FEMA and the CDC handled the outbreak.

Only later (Day 5 or 6) did the authorities realize (or at least, acknowledge) that things in the city were getting out of hand, and order people to evacuation centers. That's where the party will meet up -- they all arrive at an evacuation center, only to find that it's been overrun and abandoned, and now they have to make their way to the next nearest one. Or not, whatever the players decide to do.

[Edit: Maybe "level-headed" is debatable; some might say they were stupid for listening to the authorities. But regardless of what prompted them to do so, this is how they reacted initially, and why some of them don't have guns -- yet.]

Yes, they'll all have opportunity to find guns early on, but only those who already owned one start with one in this case.

Originally Posted by Xplo

[snip excellent thoughts on the characters]

Pretty clear I'll need to put more thought into this. Good point about the fireman being a first responder -- I stupidly hadn't thought of that!

Originally Posted by Xplo

It doesn't look too unreasonable, but then, it really depends on what kind of zombies you want. For your standard shambling, mindless, brain-hungry zombie, ST12 DX10 and Brawling 10-12 are probably good; remember that these guys aren't supposed to be dangerous individually, they're supposed to be dangerous in groups of 20.

Exactly what this one's supposed to be -- easy to kill, but dangerous because of large numbers. Other varieties will be harder to kill, either just flat out tougher (sounds like that Unkillable 1; I assume it's an Advantage of some sort, but as my books haven't arrived yet I don't actually know what it means) or because they lie in ambush and you don't see them until they're already attacking.

Originally Posted by Mateus

For D&D players I would run a Fantasy (or DF, or Low-Fantasy, or Historical...) game first. ... But try to not reproduce an D&D game on GURPS, so they can see that the system is strong in others parts... Put enfazis on the infinite possibilites of GURPS and in the use of skills (but dont pass the impression that they NEED to have to roll a skill to do mundane things like walk or climb a tree).

This is exactly why I'm avoiding a fantasy setting for this first introduction -- I want to try to divorce them from their pre-conceived notions born from D&D, and let GURPS shine as a system that can do whatever they want to do. And they like zombies. And zombie apocalypses. Every last person in my group (myself included) has given serious thought to what our plan would be should the zombies start to rise. So this seems an ideal introduction to me -- something they'll immediately get into, while simultaneously being something that D&D simply can't do, at least not effectively, and certainly not without introducing so many house rules that it becomes for all intents and purposes a whole new system entirely!

The thoughts about replicating D&D 4e powers are just idle speculation that my players may insist on them as a condition to accepting GURPS. It's a concession I'm willing to make, even if I'd rather see them dive into GURPS itself, as opposed to trying to make GURPS more D&D-like. It goes directly to what you say about GURPS being a toolbox -- if my players feel like they need D&D-esque powers to feel comfortable in the game, then GURPS can give it to them.