Yeah, the
framework is simple, but the rest of it is very variable leaning toward crunchy. Even
GURPS Lite is crunchy in spite of its small package—there are just so many options and skills and advantages to read through and pick. So, it really depends on which RPG newbies you're trying to sell the game to. More and more,
GURPS as-is doesn't fit my group, which I know is partially my fault for complicating things in my own games.
I mean, okay, if I'm being honest, I think the biggest hang-up is probably skills. Some people really like having all of these skills, but I really have to tweak everything to revolve around Wildcards because there are just so many skills, but I've already talked about that
here.
I think I'm ranting a bit (because I'm tired) and also injecting so many of my personal preferences (and I'm not saying I'm
right, I swear), but what I'm trying to get at is that it really depends on the newbies.
"Yeah, it's kinda like D&D, but it's cool because you can use it to play any genre—it's not just made for fantasy. We can do sci-fi, a Western, something post-apocalyptic, whatever! Most of it comes down to rolling 3d6 versus a target number, which would be something like a skill. Out of the box,
GURPS has a lot of different target numbers and modifiers. To me,
GURPS is all about options, but it can be too many for a lot of people, including myself sometimes. However, the nice thing about
GURPS is that it's very modular, so there are ways to adjust the rules if you want greater or fewer options. Do you want a distinction between skills for Body Language, Current Affairs, Detect Lies, Interrogation, Observation, Research, and Search? Or do you want just one Investigator! skill that covers all of it?"
I just think
GURPS is a bit backwards in that it starts big and there are lots of tweaks to make it simpler. I think it makes the game less newb-friendly, but I also think that also largely depends on the GM. I think I was in 5th or 6th grade when I started playing 3e, and I loved it, but I also had a great GM who was a great teacher.
At the very least, I would very likely
start with "Pointless Slaying and Looting" from
Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons or "Pointless Monster Hunting" from
Pyramid #3/83: Alternate GURPS IV. No matter if the newbs end up wanting more crunch or not, I think it's a very safe place to start. It shows off enough of
GURPS's strengths without brain-blasting someone who says "Oh, cool. So, it's like D&D?"