Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

Illusion158 · 03-27-2023, 11:40 AM

There are only 2 reasons my group have never done a Supers game.

Number 1 is that, depending on what you’re allowing, the point totals can get crazy. You basically HAVE to just ignore point totals at a certain point and try and make the characters balanced as far as what they can do is concerned. Otherwise you end up with stuff like one guy that can move water around a bit and another that can punch through walls. They might be the same point total, but one is a LOT more effective in play.

Number 2, and point number 1 definitely contributes to this, but we have a player who prefers playing anything ‘dude with gun’. He HAS played more supernatural things before, but when it comes to super games, other than increasing survivability, he finds everything else just very point inefficient. So, if we do games nearing the style of Supers, then while someone else plays Superman, he can shoot the wings off a fly from miles away and has more money and info sources than God. Leading Action Steve to be able to kill all of the godlike beings around him by shooting them through the eye with their kryptonite before they know he’s on the same continent.

TLDR: GURPS balance starts to breakdown at that level of play if using point total as a metric.

03-27-2023, 11:40 AM	#59
Illusion158 Join Date: Nov 2015	Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre? There are only 2 reasons my group have never done a Supers game. Number 1 is that, depending on what you’re allowing, the point totals can get crazy. You basically HAVE to just ignore point totals at a certain point and try and make the characters balanced as far as what they can do is concerned. Otherwise you end up with stuff like one guy that can move water around a bit and another that can punch through walls. They might be the same point total, but one is a LOT more effective in play. Number 2, and point number 1 definitely contributes to this, but we have a player who prefers playing anything ‘dude with gun’. He HAS played more supernatural things before, but when it comes to super games, other than increasing survivability, he finds everything else just very point inefficient. So, if we do games nearing the style of Supers, then while someone else plays Superman, he can shoot the wings off a fly from miles away and has more money and info sources than God. Leading Action Steve to be able to kill all of the godlike beings around him by shooting them through the eye with their kryptonite before they know he’s on the same continent. TLDR: GURPS balance starts to breakdown at that level of play if using point total as a metric.