System comparison GURPS Dungeon Fantasy vs DnD 5e...?

[lordabdul]

I can't really speak to GURPS DF vs. DnD specifically, but I have experience with GURPS vs. D20. Most points have already been made (active defenses, character creation, HP, etc.), but I want to add, or press on, a few other points.

I don't necessarily find combat to be faster or slower in any system, but then again we generally use a "3 seconds rule", where you kinda have to declare what you do in 3 seconds or otherwise take a "Wait" maneuver (or whatever is the equivalent). It's not a hard rule but you get the idea, and it keeps combat fast.

The main difference however is in the combat options. Most combat in D20 boils down to "roll to hit" in my experience. But inevitably, players come up with extra detail with what they want to do -- disarming, grabbing, targeting a limb, beheading, multiple actions, you name it. You can see disappointment in their eyes when it's really just "roll to hit" in the end. A good GM can add some flavour to the roll in D20 (I never had such a GM though). In GURPS there's not only official rules you can rely on (which are potentially more "balanced" than what you improvised in D20), there's also stuff like Techniques where players can actively improve the specific move for future increased success. Generally speaking, there's just more "player involvement" in GURPS and I think they like that in general. More importantly, you can scale combat options up and down depending on the situation -- you don't have to use the bleeding or fatigue rules unless it's important for a specific scene.

The other point is that there are many "secondary systems" for which multiple options exist. The 2 main examples for me are magic and sanity rules. You can choose from a variety of such systems, with various "feel", and still have some official support from balanced, playtested rules. More importantly, they're not an integral part of the "core" rules so even if you make up your own house rules, you don't clash much with the system (I guess that's what people refer to when they say GURPS is more "modular").

D20 however has much, much, much more support. There are hundreds of modules that give you background, characters, adventures, locales, etc. Of course most of those can easily be converted to GURPS but that's additional work. D20 is more "pick up and play" in that regard -- it's a lot easier to take some pre-gen character and roll with an adventure. DF templates are supposed to make it easier in the same way, but there's almost no adventure/background support. GURPS is supposed to be a toolkit after all -- not an RPG with a specific world to play in. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just for a different crowd. Still, I'd love to see more investment in Banestorm or Infinite Worlds supplements for instance.