What GURPS needs... now

lordabdul · 08-12-2017, 11:09 PM

GURPS *has* templates, and lots of them. They're just scattered in various books like Dungeon Fantasy, Action, After The End, etc. I would argue that this is more scalable and efficient than having one big book of templates for all kinds of genres, which I probably wouldn't like very much.

Some of my "new-to-GURPS" players just went with a template (after all, that's pretty much what you do with class-based games like D&D!) and their characters were ready super quickly -- most of the time was actually spent going over what each stat does, and generally teaching the system.

The problem I think has to do with the "buffet" aspect of GURPS rules (and other point based systems). It's too tempting to just flip through 300 pages of advantages, disadvantages, skills, etc. and pick whichever ones seem interesting. This makes character creation not only dreadfully slow, it also gives you a worse result, a character that's a hodge podge of useful skills and min maxed traits without much to bring it to life.

I usually try to get players to _think_ about the character they want to play, and then I would point them to a template (if it exists) or to the traits they need to model that character... but of course, as soon as the players get the books in their hands the same problem pops up... so the GM needs to watch out for that, and potentially withhold the books as long as possible from the players' hands by making them create their character using plain words and sentences. It's like William said -- what's the character's concept, story, and role in the party.

08-12-2017, 11:09 PM	#11
lordabdul Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada	Re: What GURPS needs... now GURPS has templates, and lots of them. They're just scattered in various books like Dungeon Fantasy, Action, After The End, etc. I would argue that this is more scalable and efficient than having one big book of templates for all kinds of genres, which I probably wouldn't like very much. Some of my "new-to-GURPS" players just went with a template (after all, that's pretty much what you do with class-based games like D&D!) and their characters were ready super quickly -- most of the time was actually spent going over what each stat does, and generally teaching the system. The problem I think has to do with the "buffet" aspect of GURPS rules (and other point based systems). It's too tempting to just flip through 300 pages of advantages, disadvantages, skills, etc. and pick whichever ones seem interesting. This makes character creation not only dreadfully slow, it also gives you a worse result, a character that's a hodge podge of useful skills and min maxed traits without much to bring it to life. I usually try to get players to _think_ about the character they want to play, and then I would point them to a template (if it exists) or to the traits they need to model that character... but of course, as soon as the players get the books in their hands the same problem pops up... so the GM needs to watch out for that, and potentially withhold the books as long as possible from the players' hands by making them create their character using plain words and sentences. It's like William said -- what's the character's concept, story, and role in the party.