Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - High GM burden

LostWormOnItsWayHome · 01-06-2013, 02:40 PM

Hi there, I'm pretty new to GURPS. I've had the book for years but have never run a game. Since I'm at a point in my life where I don't have enough time to actually RUN games (since they require a semi-regular schedule for both planning and the games themselves) I have taken it upon myself to plan for many mini-campaigns that I will run once I'm done university.

First, my greatest experience in tabletop RPGs has been in Heavy Gear/Silhouette and Dungeons and Dragons 3.5/Pathfinder, with 4th edition DnD being shortly behind those two.

What I'm finding is that there is a lot of burden on the GM when planning for GURPS. I expected this, and I'd like to say it's not a problem, but... it sort of is?

My MAIN problem is actually with NPCs. I've found the character sheet to be insufficient as it lacks the necessary space for all relevant information. I searched for but found no alternatives that lived up to my hopes of what an ideal character sheet would look like, and I in no way have the necessary skills to make my own (both from a system comprehension stand-point and from a technical skill stand-point).

Part of my problem is that there are just so many advantages, disadvantages, skills and techniques that I can't really remember them all, so just writing down 'Single-Minded' on the sheet won't help me much when I'm running a game. As a result, I've been attempting to make my NPCs electronically using Google drive and I'm filling in notes on how each trait works on the actual 'sheet'. This is very time consuming.

I tried out the Character Assistant, but once again I was dismayed that there was no option for displaying trait details on the character sheet.

Do people have a method for generating NPCs at a decent rate that does not require memorization of their relevant traits?

Are NPCs necessarily less complex (mechanically) than their PC counterparts?

When building NPCs do you start with a rough idea of how many points they should be worth, or do you just add traits and ignore point value?

Any time saving tricks that aren't directly related to NPCs?

Thanks for your help.

01-06-2013, 02:40 PM	#1
LostWormOnItsWayHome Join Date: Nov 2012	High GM burden - Time saving tricks? Hi there, I'm pretty new to GURPS. I've had the book for years but have never run a game. Since I'm at a point in my life where I don't have enough time to actually RUN games (since they require a semi-regular schedule for both planning and the games themselves) I have taken it upon myself to plan for many mini-campaigns that I will run once I'm done university. First, my greatest experience in tabletop RPGs has been in Heavy Gear/Silhouette and Dungeons and Dragons 3.5/Pathfinder, with 4th edition DnD being shortly behind those two. What I'm finding is that there is a lot of burden on the GM when planning for GURPS. I expected this, and I'd like to say it's not a problem, but... it sort of is? My MAIN problem is actually with NPCs. I've found the character sheet to be insufficient as it lacks the necessary space for all relevant information. I searched for but found no alternatives that lived up to my hopes of what an ideal character sheet would look like, and I in no way have the necessary skills to make my own (both from a system comprehension stand-point and from a technical skill stand-point). Part of my problem is that there are just so many advantages, disadvantages, skills and techniques that I can't really remember them all, so just writing down 'Single-Minded' on the sheet won't help me much when I'm running a game. As a result, I've been attempting to make my NPCs electronically using Google drive and I'm filling in notes on how each trait works on the actual 'sheet'. This is very time consuming. I tried out the Character Assistant, but once again I was dismayed that there was no option for displaying trait details on the character sheet. Do people have a method for generating NPCs at a decent rate that does not require memorization of their relevant traits? Are NPCs necessarily less complex (mechanically) than their PC counterparts? When building NPCs do you start with a rough idea of how many points they should be worth, or do you just add traits and ignore point value? Any time saving tricks that aren't directly related to NPCs? Thanks for your help. Last edited by LostWormOnItsWayHome; 01-06-2013 at 02:48 PM.