Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - How to Be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations

Willy · 05-03-2021, 01:26 PM

Most gamers or most GURPS gamers ? There may be a difference. By the way people who visit conventions are not the majority of players, a lot of gamers I knew have, for different reasons, never visited one. While I agree that the people who shout loud may just be a loud minority, and therefore all the background noise has to be carefully weighted, I totally disagree with the rest of Dr. Kromms statement.

First GURPS is inherently deadly in combat, yes you can tweak it and add optional rules that allow cinematic fights. That flexibility is one of the great advantages of GURPS. But a lot of other RPG systems fill that niche nicely and are much better suited for cinematic or over the top playing.

Second a long time GURPS was nearly alone in the wide field of flexible semirealistic gaming, now there are other systems on the market, even if they are more story driven than GURPS. This means players have now the relistic choice to change the gaming system.

Each system has to fill it´s own market niche to be successful, wandering astray may cause the old player base to wander of if the changes go to far.

SJG still has made several tries to adapt GURPS more cinematic like DFRPG and other, not to mention with the reinvention of TFT to get it´s share from the OSR scene. Showing GURPS now too in this direction is homemade competition.

In fact the try to adapt GURPS for new player groups may end in the fact that the old base leaves GURPS. It is not so that I deny the necessary search to recruit new customers, but this is the wrong way.

If you want new customers, you better should make more languages available for GURPS lite / Ultra lite and add some more free stuff like solo / small group adventures to the program, or rewrite old ones to 4th Ed. GURPS is compared to other systems quite expensive, so you need a good bait if people should start new with it. In my country GURPS nearly died after there was no 4th Ed. version in german available, most play the old 3rd Ed which is still avaible at the net, sometimes to very premium prices.

05-03-2021, 01:26 PM	#43
Willy Join Date: Dec 2020	Re: How to Be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations Most gamers or most GURPS gamers ? There may be a difference. By the way people who visit conventions are not the majority of players, a lot of gamers I knew have, for different reasons, never visited one. While I agree that the people who shout loud may just be a loud minority, and therefore all the background noise has to be carefully weighted, I totally disagree with the rest of Dr. Kromms statement. First GURPS is inherently deadly in combat, yes you can tweak it and add optional rules that allow cinematic fights. That flexibility is one of the great advantages of GURPS. But a lot of other RPG systems fill that niche nicely and are much better suited for cinematic or over the top playing. Second a long time GURPS was nearly alone in the wide field of flexible semirealistic gaming, now there are other systems on the market, even if they are more story driven than GURPS. This means players have now the relistic choice to change the gaming system. Each system has to fill it´s own market niche to be successful, wandering astray may cause the old player base to wander of if the changes go to far. SJG still has made several tries to adapt GURPS more cinematic like DFRPG and other, not to mention with the reinvention of TFT to get it´s share from the OSR scene. Showing GURPS now too in this direction is homemade competition. In fact the try to adapt GURPS for new player groups may end in the fact that the old base leaves GURPS. It is not so that I deny the necessary search to recruit new customers, but this is the wrong way. If you want new customers, you better should make more languages available for GURPS lite / Ultra lite and add some more free stuff like solo / small group adventures to the program, or rewrite old ones to 4th Ed. GURPS is compared to other systems quite expensive, so you need a good bait if people should start new with it. In my country GURPS nearly died after there was no 4th Ed. version in german available, most play the old 3rd Ed which is still avaible at the net, sometimes to very premium prices. Last edited by Willy; 05-03-2021 at 01:32 PM. Reason: spelling error