Quote:
Originally Posted by DouglasCole
This is a strategy that I wanted to pursue for my forthcoming Mission X RPG, but I saw an opportunity to do a test-drive and really bring some easy entry to the "hardest" part of Powered by GURPS to get newbies over: point-based character generation and the rules familiarity that it tends to encourage. By sticking with the nice genre-defined niches and providing well-crafted options, you can be playing in as little as five minutes (though it's frequently more like 10-20) from sitting down.
Long-time rules experts can do this sometimes without help. But perusing the newcomers section of (say) the GURPS Discord or some other forums perpetually finds folks who try and eat the whole GURPS Cow at once...and Delvers to Grow really helps this.
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Along those lines, as much as I like the DFRPG (and I do love it), I've always wondered if the product would have brought more new players to GURPS if it took the "Pointless Slaying and Looting" system (from Pyramid #3/72) instead for character generation. In that system, you pick an archetype (e.g., strong, smart, tough), choose abilities for your ability slots, and choose wildcard skills for your skill slots. Then you "level up" and gain additional ability or skill slots. This system should let you make a character fairly quickly, and then you're off playing. Character creation would have become very D&D-like, which, for better or worse, seems to be the acceptable standard.
The main benefits of this character creation system is that it gets rid of the complication of points, enhancement, limitations and all the math of character creation (the only complication left is that major abilities take up two ability slots), and it has a streamlined list of traits you can take wrapped up into the packages called abilities (thus eliminating the decision paralysis at character creation due to all the options available in GURPS). For the DFRPG templates, they could have come with some ability slots and skill slots pre-defined and the remainder from a limited list of options. Only when they "level-up" do players get to access the full list of abilities.
They could also have added a "behind the curtain" chapter (or possibly online annex to not waste pages for those who don't care about it) for experienced GMs explaining how it was all built and how they can, if desired, incorporate regular GURPS into it.
Would that have addressed the "issues" non-GURPS players seem to have with GURPS?
Mind you, this is all speculation and wondering on my part. I have absolutely no clue if that would have sold better or not, and do not in any way claim to have knowledge of the target audience who would pay for it. I agree it would be just as legitimate to say it could have sold worse, as new players would still be scared by the "Powered By GURPS" logo, and old players would have been upset at its lack of flexibility with pre-made abilities rather than letting them build their own with advantages as per the raw GURPS (a key reason those who like GURPS like GURPS). But if the existing player pool is already limited and making GURPS barely sustainable, I wonder if would have been worth the risk just to test it out.