Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Convertin GURPS CLASSIC ROBOTS for use with 4e

hal · 10-09-2017, 11:16 AM

Having missed A humble Lich's response...

A while back, I got involved in a game that another GM ran based I think, upon ALIENS (I may be remembering the wrong game system). It had the concept that Armor type was rated in Dice, and that when trying to wound someone, you had to roll against that person's Body Stat plus the Armor stat, and if you beat it, the character was damaged, and if you didn't beat it, the armor stopped the damage.

What bothered me about that approach was the fact that a weapon that couldn't penetrate the armor against a given "Body" rating, could easily penetrate the armor against a "body" character. You would think that a bullet of a given mass, and velocity, wouldn't be able to penetrate a given thickness of armor right?

Same thing with a Battlesuit that adds +10 to ST instead of giving its users all the same level of ST regardless of what their real strength might be in the flesh.

This is all about game design philosophy, and players who don't care about such distinctions are perfectly right to ignore that as being worthy of nit-picking about/over. For others, it can be a specific "no brainer" that causes them to say "um, no" and create their own work arounds.

What I don't like as a GM, are the point inflation issues that arise when pricing things REALLY high. Because, a campaign where you have high priced "things" requires a higher point budget. GURPS unfortunately, has the ability to break when using high budgets. In a discussion with another forumite, an actual GURPS author, some of the problems addressed in GURPS 4e Psionics, came about because of GM's allowing a HIGH budget and certain abilities that could be purchased with the higher budget became abusive. Likewise, being told "Hey, build a 500 point character" and then being shocked at unrestricted character builds - is well, *cough*, interesting.

So - GURPS as a Character building vehicle is a good one (or I'd not have stuck with it since 1986 after having used just about every game system out there since 1978). I had 12 years of jumping from one game system to another before I settled with GURPS. I picked up a few other game systems just to try them out, and found that I liked GURPS best. I guess in a way, that's why I try to adapt the older stuff for use with the 4e rules set. I liked the older shield rush rules over what I see in 4e, and now that Dungeon Fantasy as rewritten the Shield Rush rules (which I likely will never see alas), I feel somewhat vindicated in my dislike of the rules as written.

So, have fun, convert what you need, and never be afraid to experiment. All good chefs find that they might like the original recipe - but experiment until they have a flavor they like best. Same with GURPS in a way. Hell, it touts itself as being a toolkit approach for a game system. ;)

10-09-2017, 11:16 AM	#10
hal Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Buffalo, New York	Re: Convertin GURPS CLASSIC ROBOTS for use with 4e Having missed A humble Lich's response... A while back, I got involved in a game that another GM ran based I think, upon ALIENS (I may be remembering the wrong game system). It had the concept that Armor type was rated in Dice, and that when trying to wound someone, you had to roll against that person's Body Stat plus the Armor stat, and if you beat it, the character was damaged, and if you didn't beat it, the armor stopped the damage. What bothered me about that approach was the fact that a weapon that couldn't penetrate the armor against a given "Body" rating, could easily penetrate the armor against a "body" character. You would think that a bullet of a given mass, and velocity, wouldn't be able to penetrate a given thickness of armor right? Same thing with a Battlesuit that adds +10 to ST instead of giving its users all the same level of ST regardless of what their real strength might be in the flesh. This is all about game design philosophy, and players who don't care about such distinctions are perfectly right to ignore that as being worthy of nit-picking about/over. For others, it can be a specific "no brainer" that causes them to say "um, no" and create their own work arounds. What I don't like as a GM, are the point inflation issues that arise when pricing things REALLY high. Because, a campaign where you have high priced "things" requires a higher point budget. GURPS unfortunately, has the ability to break when using high budgets. In a discussion with another forumite, an actual GURPS author, some of the problems addressed in GURPS 4e Psionics, came about because of GM's allowing a HIGH budget and certain abilities that could be purchased with the higher budget became abusive. Likewise, being told "Hey, build a 500 point character" and then being shocked at unrestricted character builds - is well, cough, interesting. So - GURPS as a Character building vehicle is a good one (or I'd not have stuck with it since 1986 after having used just about every game system out there since 1978). I had 12 years of jumping from one game system to another before I settled with GURPS. I picked up a few other game systems just to try them out, and found that I liked GURPS best. I guess in a way, that's why I try to adapt the older stuff for use with the 4e rules set. I liked the older shield rush rules over what I see in 4e, and now that Dungeon Fantasy as rewritten the Shield Rush rules (which I likely will never see alas), I feel somewhat vindicated in my dislike of the rules as written. So, have fun, convert what you need, and never be afraid to experiment. All good chefs find that they might like the original recipe - but experiment until they have a flavor they like best. Same with GURPS in a way. Hell, it touts itself as being a toolkit approach for a game system. ;)