Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

It might.

There may be authors who would create new settings and adventures for those GURPS settings, but who don't want to follow the set SJGames format, or who may not want to give up the IP for the new setting.

On the other hand...OGL brought Pathfinder to the world...and that wasn't so great for D&D's bottom line.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

Remember that Pathfinder was built on the back of D&D so I doubt open source gets a lot of credit for its success.
And that bit about not potential authors not willing to follow the SJG format bothers me. I really worry about a damaged brand from poor and inconsistent quality.
To me we have enough product coming out on a regular basis. Pretty much something comes out every single month, with a few exceptions, typically due to other bottlenecks from major projects.
The marketing and getting the word out is the real issue in my mind.

We have LOTs of settings. Maybe we could use more adventures but we do have those as well.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

Pathfinder was built on the back of the D&D 3.5 OGL. If Wizards hadn't made 3rd Ed open source, Pathfinder never could have existed. And Pathfinder overtook Wizards in terms of sales during the 4e era. Wizards going OGL might have been great for Paizo...but it wasn't so great for Wizards.

Because of that I'm not saying OGL is the way for SJGames to go. I'm not one who is pushing for GURPS to go OGL. I'm pushing for SJGames to work out something with a high profile adventure creator and then create a high quality/high prestige adventure/campaign. Because although you say that we have adventures, we have a product coming out but we don't have many adventures...seven 4e adventures since 2004 is not a lot of adventure. And while there are more 3e adventures, a lot of new people...who don't even really know GURPS yet, aren't going to by adventures from an older edition and then do the work to update it. They just want an adventure they can run.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

Yes. And ditto for the BRP system. It is not really an OGL but still. You can now play to the D100 system with the BRP system, OpenD100, Revolution D100, Mythras, and more ... All those system have they little differences which makes them not fully compatible ... and which split the D100 community over different website and forums.

We don't want to see that happening with GURPS. GURPS is one system which brings all of us together and, no matter how differently we play it, our adventures remain fully compatible.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

And quality went into the toilet. I for one, do not want GURPS to go OGL.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

We have a lot of settings, yes. But almost none of them is playable without a great amount of work. Because all of them lack adventures and campaigns specifically designed for them. As it has been said above, once I bought one of them, where do I start and what do I play?

Since we are speaking about Pathfinder, what made it so famous around the world? Its game system? No. It is about the same than D&D3.5 one, with the same qualities and defaults. It has even be patched and corrected several times through rule supplements.

So, what?

Simple: amazing adventures and campaigns in fully developed game worlds. You buy them and you can play during months. And you've got high quality examples to build your own ones if you want.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

To explain better what I want to mean, I will do as if I didn't know GURPS ...

I'm a D&D player. Someone told me that GURPS is a very good game with which I could play everything I can imagine. So I wand want to try. What do I do? I turn my computer on and search for it on the web. I find this page.

GURPS

I read the following sentence.

"More than 1,500,000 copies are in print – not counting foreign editions." (Yes, think I immediately. It is a very well known game, surely supported by a very big staff) "GURPS Lite, a 32-page distillation of the basic GURPS rules, is available for free download" (Amazing! I will have the opportunity to try it freely.). "We also have dozens of GURPS adventures and e-books available on Warehouse 23".

Then I click on "Warehouse 23" and I find this page.

Warehouse 23

Only one adventure ... Where are the promised dozens of ones?

Now, I've also heard of the BRP system from chaosium, and about Cthulhu. I search on the web and find this page.

Chaosium

Wow! the rules but already two big adventures! One for Cthulhu, the other one for Runequest. I click on Call of Cthulhu (a very appealing image), and on 7th edition (I want to try the new edition, of course).

Call of Cthulhu and 7th edition

Two big adventures for Cthulhu, with amazing covers!

And if I go back to Cthulhu / Scenarios, here is what I get.

Call of Cthulhu / Scenarios

To your opinion, what will I try first?

And, about the marketing aspect, did you notice the difference between the two website? I'm not speaking about the layout. It is just a matter of taste. I'm speaking about the easiness with which you can find scenarios for Call of Cthulhu. They are clearly separated from other supplements.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

While there might not be "dozens" of published adventures for 4e there are many more than one.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

Of course. But where are they for a newcomer who visit Steve Jackson Games for the very first time?

Just look at how easy it is to find them in Chaosium site ... And how hard it is to find them on Warehouse 23.

If I type GURPS + adventures on Warehouse 23, here is what I get.

GURPS + adventures

I risk to be very disappointed if I buy some of those books.

Re: What GURPS needs... now
 

I honestly don't see what's wrong with the search results for "GURPS Adventures".