Want to build my own game - where do I start?

[SpiroExDeus]

Hi.

I'm wanting to build a game based largely around the "Other Worlds" in the Chronicles of Narnia, namely Charn, the wood between the worlds and the locations on our earth that Immigrants on Narnia came from (the race that Prince Caspian came from, the island of Atlantis etc).

I thought GURPS would be a good system to base it around but it seems difficult to knwo what I would need to build a roleplay / campaigns around.

Would it be just as easy, in terms of getting used to gameplay, to start with a world of your own devising or would it be better to start by familiarising yourself with the system by playing an established GURPS game first.

More importantly EXACTLY what books does one need to start on GURPS?

[ericthered]

All you need is Gurps Lite to try it out, though I'd highly recommend picking up the basic set.



That's all you need. The basic set will let you play in most settings. We will endlessly recommend books that can help you, and they will help, you don't really need them.



I found that I didn't really Gurps Stats until I played with another group, but tinkering with world-building is a great way to explore Gurps. You certainly don't need to start out in an established setting.

[Stormcrow]

Lots of people will recommend lots of books, but I suggest sticking to the Basic Set to start. The two books of the Basic Set are really all you need. (You can even try out GURPS for free using GURPS Lite.)

If you can play in someone else's game first before starting your own, that will certainly help with the experience. Have you any experience with RPGs, or are you just switching to GURPS?

In my opinion, the best way to start with GURPS is to keep it simple. The books detail lots and lots of powers and abilities and options. Don't try to create a kitchen-sink game. Stick to something simple. Maybe player characters should only be human, or only allow a couple of simple racial templates to start. If magic is in use, just use the magic in the Basic Set; don't go running to buy any of the magic supplements right away. Allowed advantages and disadvantages should mostly be limited to mundane. Basically, remember that just because it's in the book doesn't mean it has to be in your game.

One of the things that new GURPS GMs try to do is to stat out everything they create. Don't do this. You don't need a full character sheet for a generic guard. Just design what you need. ST, DX, IQ, HT, HP, Move, weapon skill, defensive scores. Character points are for players, not NPC.

For a good (and free) example of a keep-it-simple adventure, see Caravan to Ein Arris. You can run it for practice, or you can study it to see how an adventure is put together.

As you gain experience in GMing GURPS, you can start adding more sophisticated rules.

As for books, GURPS Fantasy instructs you on how to construct a fantasy setting. GURPS Magic contains the full set of spells. GURPS Thaumatology gives you alternative magic systems, options for modifying the standard system, and ways to create your own. GURPS Fantasy: Portal Realms gives you advice on constructing fantasy worlds reached by portals (like Narnia).

Those are the ones I think are most relevant to what you describe. I wouldn't go wild buying those right away.

[Varyon]

As noted, you can get away with the free GURPS Lite for tinkering around with the system, and can even play full campaigns with just that. Beyond that, GURPS Basic Set will give far more options and some solid advice for campaign-building, and is needed for the "full" GURPS experience.

If you want to delve deeper, a lot is going to depend on what sort of campaign you want to run. For something based on The Chronicles of Narnia, GURPS Fantasy may be worthwhile. There are plenty of other books that could be of use to you, of course, but I'd suggest testing things out a bit with Lite to see if you like the "feel" of the system, then pick up Basic if you decide you like it, and feel free to come to us on the forum if you run into any problems.

[ravenfish]

For someone running GURPS for the first time, How to be a GURPS GM contains a lot of useful, practical advice, on everything from designing encounters to helping players design their characters.

Apart from that, as others have said, Basic Set contains plenty to be getting on with. If you want to use the standard spell system, (laid out in chapter 5 of the Basic Set), I would probably recommend Magic, to have all the spells you could possibly want (and plenty more you couldn't), but, apart from that, I would probably recommend getting some experience under your belt before adding too many additional options.

[Ruien]

Originally Posted by SpiroExDeus

Hi.
I'm wanting to build a game based largely around the "Other Worlds" in the Chronicles of Narnia, namely Charn, the wood between the worlds and the locations on our earth that Immigrants on Narnia came from (the race that Prince Caspian came from, the island of Atlantis etc).

I thought GURPS would be a good system to base it around but it seems difficult to knwo what I would need to build a roleplay / campaigns around.

I happen to also be considering something similar. I'm currently reading Narnia to my kids and they really enjoy this setting. GURPS would be a good fit for this as it gracefully handles transitions between worlds/settings.

GURPS is a toolset - you don't want to use all the rules all the time, so what you need will largely depend on the adventure itself. For instance, are you looking for a survivalist or cinematic feel? Will you focus on exploration, large-scale conflicts, or social interaction?

Originally Posted by SpiroExDeus

Would it be just as easy, in terms of getting used to gameplay, to start with a world of your own devising or would it be better to start by familiarising yourself with the system by playing an established GURPS game first.

GURPS is not heavily tied to any particular setting. That means that it's essentially as easy to start with a homebrew world instead of an established game/setting. However, it may be advisable to participate in a game with an experienced GM first in order to get a feel for how it operates. Do note that the system can support a wide variety of GM styles.

I have about a decade of experience running GURPS. I find it to be among the most beginner-friendly of systems for players -- in particular, most things can be boiled down to a simple success roll, and then additional complexity can be layered on modularly later if needed. It does, however, require a fair bit of system familiarity from the GM in order to be able to pull that off. As others have suggested, start simple with basic stats and only design what you need.

Originally Posted by SpiroExDeus

More importantly EXACTLY what books does one need to start on GURPS?

The Basic Set (Characters and Campaigns) is all you need. You'll be able to get by quite well with this and nothing else. If you then find that you need more system support for any particular area, the members of this forum can suggest appropriate resource material.

One thing that will affect this is exactly how rigorous of a ruleset you need. For instance, if you need detailed rules for enchanting inward and outward rings, or if you want wizardly pursuits to be centrally-featured in Charn, then the Magic book would be a useful supplement. But if the party is just going to stumble on a set of inward rings, not being wizards themselves, then you can (and should) avoid adding supplements that you don't need.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

While I would recommend GURPS Lite as something to look at, it's not something I'd recommend for somebody trying to run a game. In my opinion, it provides a good overview of how to play GURPS, but it's inadequate to running a game, particularly a game with more than minimal identifiable genre elements, like magic. Yes, a sufficiently clever and hard-working GM could use Lite as a basis on which to make up additional skills, abilities, equipment, and so on as necessary, but that requires a lot of time and a particular kind of GM. It's much easier in retrospect, once you really know the system, to go back to Lite and see how one could have used that to build out a game, than to do it without knowing GURPS in the first place.

What I'd recommend, then, is the two-volume Basic Set. You'll still have to do some work, but it'd be more about narrowing down options from existing rules rather than creating them and hoping you're getting them right, as you'd have to do with Lite. You could, if you were so inclined, get other books; there are a couple of different magic systems you might employ and you could present other rules for exceptional abilities (say, psionics) and label them "magic," but that's very much an option, not a necessity. Basic gives you what you need, as a beginner, to build and start running a GURPS campaign. If nothing else, seeing all the options presented in Basic may help you more deeply consider what you really do need for your campaign.

[whswhs]

Of course you should start out with the Basic Set, or even with GURPS Lite. Read them closely, and maybe try a simple one-shot session to get a feel for them, and then come here and ask questions about things that you aren't sure about.

For a Narnian campaign, I apologize for blowing my own horn, but I wrote several of the possibly relevant supplements:

* GURPS Adaptations is a book of recommendations on how to turn a published source (a book, movie, TV show, graphic novel, etc.) into a campaign
* GURPS Fantasy is a survey of the fantasy genre as a whole (probably the least applicable of the three)
* GURPS Fantasy: Portal Realms is a guide to the genre of people from Earth visiting magical realms and to how to use GURPS rules for campaigns in that genre

Other than those, I don't recommend buying GURPS Magic, as the Narnian books don't show people with long spell lists. GURPS Thaumatology surveys a variety of approaches to magic and could be of more use. But if you're going to have Aslan as an active presence, you might want to look at GURPS Powers: Divine Favor.

But don't rush right out to buy a lot of supplements. The great majority of what you want can probably be done with just the Basic Set.

[A Ladder]

The only thing you need to start running GURPS games is the Basic Set. It is surprisingly diverse and comprehensive. I've ran many a game with just the Basic Set.
In fact, a lot of the additional rules books are just more detail on top of what the Basic Set covers.

I'll second the advice that above posters have said. Keep things simple. The basic mechanic you need to know in GURPS is roll three six-sided dice and hope it shows up on your target number or lower. Then roll high for damage.

When building characters (or making bad guys) take a look at p. 14 in the Basic Set to see what a score in an Attribute means. Also take a look at p. 171-172 to see what a score in a Skill means. (I'll also second the advice that you don't need to think about spending points when making bad guys. Just think how competent they are at a Skill and how strong or dexterous they are and assign Attribute and Skill levels to match).
When designing challenges take a look at p. 345-346 to see how difficult you should make a task. (This should also give players an idea on how high their skills should be to overcome said challenges).


If you want to look at some free adventures that showcase how GURPS works take a look at this blog: https://1shotadventures.com/
They have a bunch of complete adventures with pre-generated characters.
This shows you how someone would run a game and also how someone would make a character.

[khorboth]

I will also jump on the "you only need basic set" bandwagon.

The one other thing I always recommend for new players and GMs is skill categories. It's a free PDF which makes it easier to figure out which skills to buy. It doesn't actually add or subtract anything from the system, just organizes the skills differently.

If you want to move into other books, Fantasy would be my first stop. whswhs had other recommendations upthread, but I haven't read them personally. You don't have to have them, though. And particularly if you already have a pretty well-formed world, they only help a bit. GURPS is great at letting you make the thing you want to play.