Converting settings - general thoughts

[Anders]

I've been busy converting settings I love to GURPS and I'd like to gather the wise thoughts from wise people on this in one place.

Among the things I've concluded...

a) Don't do more work than you have to. When converting a huge world like, say, Pathfinder, it's tempting to start at one end and continue until you run out of books. While this is fun, it's also a lot of work you won't really have to use. Focus on the area you find interesting and think about what the minimum set of stuff you'd need to run a game in that area.

b) Focus on getting the feeling right. This is also known as "convert the setting, not the mechanic". You could probably convert the Vancian system used for Pathfinder magic fairly accurately if you put some work into it, but again - is it necessary? Does the Vancian system play a huge role in Pathfinder, or could it be replaced by something that already exists in in GURPS. Again, minimize your workload.