GURPS is becoming the only game I'll run

[Evil Roy Slade]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

I have sat down to play different systems over the last few years with different GMs. Throughout each session I kept thinking "GURPS does this better". By the end of the day I'm saying to myself "why am I wasting my very limited gaming time trying to learn a different system when GURPS is better anyway?"

I know what you mean. I play GURPS with a motley assortment of players I recruited one at at a time. I have GMed probably 70% of the time and the other two who have done so often talk about their urge to explore other systems, which we do with regularity. Personally, as someone who has been into RPGs since the late seventies, I recall with chagrin the 'golden era' when every single game needed players and GM to learn a new set of poorly-realized mechanics.

Frequently under the other GMs, the group branches off into Top Secret for a week, or All Flesh Must Be Eaten for three or four sessions, or Icons for three games. Inevitably I wonder as a player what exactly we are gaining by doing this, as whatever novelties the games offer seem counterbalanced by the way the clumsing or non-existent handling of many situations and the way they fail reality tests all over the place.

That said, there are occasional perfect matches of non-GURPS mechanics to situations, for which I am more than happy to put aside my loyalties. TOON was mentioned upthread and is a fine example. Call of Cthulhu's SAN mechanism is no less brilliant today than when I started running a game in high school, more than 25 years ago. Car Wars' rudimentary systems for dealing with characters is fine for a game that focuses in vehicle combat.

Still, in practice, I am at one with the OP.

[Kage2020]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

Having said that, I'm perfectly happy to let someone else do the work and run some other kind of game.

This is something that I run into more often than not. When I come across something that inspires me about the setting I normally end up automatically breaking it down to how I would achieve certain things within the GURPS framework. For good or ill, that's just how it works for me, even if I don't have the familiarity with the system that many of the people here evidence. So I'm kind of stuck on GURPS as a GM.

On the other hand when it comes down to playing? As long as the campaign description is intriguing and the GM doesn't automatically expect me to be up to speed (i.e. a little help would be appreciated) on an unfamiliar system, I'm fine with it.

Of course, whether I can actually take a top-down approach to character generation (concept-through mechanics-to-character) rather than a bottom up (mechanics-to concept-to character) is another question entirely.

Kage

[SimonAce]

I was a GURPS only gamers for a long time and if it was a "can only have one" situation it would be my choice. Its probably the best designed multi purpose game on the market with Unisystem running 2nd place

That being said I play and run quite a few other things, Pathfinder , OSR D&D variants, Risus Unisystem -- it really depends on what seems interesting at the time...

[TJA]

I realy love GURPS - that part of why i bought so much stuff around it - but i need to say, that it is too complicated in my parts for me and my players.
We always tend to search around in books and seek this or that rule.
Yes, we could wave such things, but we instead try to find and learn ...
This begins with simple things like Details of Grappling or Area attacks.
The problem for *me* is, that GURPS books are so dense - if you seek a rule, mostly it points you to other rules and other books, who in turn ... yes, points to the next thing.

For me, GURPS would be greatly enhanced, if all books and rules would contain more "fluff" and more redundance - not pointing to other pages at all, but explaining all details *there*.

[pawsplay]

I play a lot of different games. When I want to homebrew a campaign, one of the first thoughts that pops into my head is, "I wonder how this would work in GURPS?" While I would say there are only certain genres GURPS does better than anything else, there are very few things GURPS won't do at all.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by TJA

I realy love GURPS - that part of why i bought so much stuff around it - but i need to say, that it is too complicated in my parts for me and my players.
We always tend to search around in books and seek this or that rule.
Yes, we could wave such things, but we instead try to find and learn ...

Seriously, my advice is to ban books from the table in play. Look the stuff up later, and just rule on it and move on. It even satisfies my rules lawyer types, who love to look up rules:

http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com...s-in-play.html

I actually expanded that to ban books at the table, and no PC-based PDF lookups either.

I know that doesn't solve the "meandering rules lookups" issues, but books do have to be limited in size somehow. At least this doesn't disrupt play.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by TJA

For me, GURPS would be greatly enhanced, if all books and rules would contain more "fluff" and more redundance - not pointing to other pages at all, but explaining all details *there*.

I think the issue with that would be that it would increase costs because it would increase page count. And I imagine there would be a number of customers who would resent having to pay twice for something they already own.

[TJA]

Originally Posted by trooper6

I think the issue with that would be that it would increase costs because it would increase page count. And I imagine there would be a number of customers who would resent having to pay twice for something they already own.

Yep.
Or, it could make GURPS more successfull ... maybe.

Maybe create "GURPS Rules" as PDF on e23!

[TJA]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

Seriously, my advice is to ban books from the table in play. Look the stuff up later, and just rule on it and move on. It even satisfies my rules lawyer types, who love to look up rules:

http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com...s-in-play.html

I actually expanded that to ban books at the table, and no PC-based PDF lookups either.

I know that doesn't solve the "meandering rules lookups" issues, but books do have to be limited in size somehow. At least this doesn't disrupt play.

Thanx for the link!
We just started to use PDFs at the table - that made the lookups faster :)

But i will think about your idea - and read the webpage of yours!

[Anders]

Yeah, if I suggest that to my players they will lynch me. :)