Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Playing GURPS with the help of FoundryVTT

InexplicableVic · 05-05-2021, 08:13 AM

Following up on the above, I don't quite have the time to write a comparison between the three systems, but what I can say is about the GURPS Game Aid on Foundry VTT (in a non-exhaustive list) is:

The importing from either GCA or GCS is pretty great and not very difficult at all. It's got a great character sheet as a result. FGU is good, and Roll20's is serviceable, but this is great.
The "mook generator" is a good way to quickly get monster or NPC stats into the game very easily.
If you keep track of damage in the program itself as opposed to on paper, MAN, this is good--pretty easy drag and drop onto the PC/NPC/Monster receiving the damage, a click or two, and it applies the damage, less DR, multipliers for location and damage type, etc. Really, really great.
The status effects are just great and incredibly useful.
The resolution of skill checks, and the modifier bucket, is pretty amazing. I can't quite think of anything comparable in Roll20, and while there are similarities, if I recall correctly, to how FGU does it, in my opinion, this is implemented better.
The support is really great--I asked a question about whether or not we could have a formula to have Acrobatic Dodge be a single button push using an if/then scenario, and these guys wrote it up and it now works great. That's just one example--there are definitely others.

This is not to say that Roll20 or FGU aren't good--they serve a purpose and are fine. But insofar as GURPS is concerned, I think that the GURPS Game Aid is the best implementation for Virtual Table Tops. I think you can run GURPS on Foundry with just the Game Aid, but there are a few modules that I would say are "essential" (Mook has a lot of them on his blog) and make it really easy and enjoyable to run a game. There is a slight learning curve on transitioning from Rolll20 to Foundry, but there's so many videos on YouTube, it's not that hard. Once you know how, it's great.

There's a whole post that could be written about the price comparisons of the various VTTs, issues with hosted locally or on a server, etc., but Foundry's various modules + GURPS Game Aid means that the group where I am the GM, having used all three of the above VTTs, is happily staying with Foundry. I can't thank the developers of the GURPS Game Aid enough--it made so many things so much better with VTTs. And I really think that when it comes to newcomers and introducing folks to GURPS, this will likely make things so much easier.

05-05-2021, 08:13 AM	#8
InexplicableVic Join Date: Aug 2013	Re: Playing GURPS with the help of FoundryVTT Following up on the above, I don't quite have the time to write a comparison between the three systems, but what I can say is about the GURPS Game Aid on Foundry VTT (in a non-exhaustive list) is: The importing from either GCA or GCS is pretty great and not very difficult at all. It's got a great character sheet as a result. FGU is good, and Roll20's is serviceable, but this is great. The "mook generator" is a good way to quickly get monster or NPC stats into the game very easily. If you keep track of damage in the program itself as opposed to on paper, MAN, this is good--pretty easy drag and drop onto the PC/NPC/Monster receiving the damage, a click or two, and it applies the damage, less DR, multipliers for location and damage type, etc. Really, really great. The status effects are just great and incredibly useful. The resolution of skill checks, and the modifier bucket, is pretty amazing. I can't quite think of anything comparable in Roll20, and while there are similarities, if I recall correctly, to how FGU does it, in my opinion, this is implemented better. The support is really great--I asked a question about whether or not we could have a formula to have Acrobatic Dodge be a single button push using an if/then scenario, and these guys wrote it up and it now works great. That's just one example--there are definitely others. This is not to say that Roll20 or FGU aren't good--they serve a purpose and are fine. But insofar as GURPS is concerned, I think that the GURPS Game Aid is the best implementation for Virtual Table Tops. I think you can run GURPS on Foundry with just the Game Aid, but there are a few modules that I would say are "essential" (Mook has a lot of them on his blog) and make it really easy and enjoyable to run a game. There is a slight learning curve on transitioning from Rolll20 to Foundry, but there's so many videos on YouTube, it's not that hard. Once you know how, it's great. There's a whole post that could be written about the price comparisons of the various VTTs, issues with hosted locally or on a server, etc., but Foundry's various modules + GURPS Game Aid means that the group where I am the GM, having used all three of the above VTTs, is happily staying with Foundry. I can't thank the developers of the GURPS Game Aid enough--it made so many things so much better with VTTs. And I really think that when it comes to newcomers and introducing folks to GURPS, this will likely make things so much easier.