Suggestions for an introductory GURPS adventure?

[JonnyBoy]

I'm brand new to GURPS (aside from creating a character and playing about a 15 minute session) and want to get a game together with my friends to introduce them to GURPS. These people don't have roleplaying experience, so I'll GM the game. For our first game, I want to do a one shot adventure which gives the players (and the GM for that matter) a nice introduction to the combat system, but that's not so combat-heavy that the players don't have a chance to get a feel for roleplaying. Do you have any ideas for genres or adventures that would be good for this? I'd like this adventure to be relatively simple to introduce GURPS, with the aim of playing something with more depth later.

[Stormcrow]

Caravan to Erin Arris is the classic starter adventure, and it's free.

[Rocket Man]

The one I always use as an introduction is the Horror adventure Flight 13, but alas, it's out of print and not yet up on e23. I'll admit that in my hands, it usually results in a short multi-session adventure rather than a one-night stand. But there's a lot of natural break points, and plenty of opportunities for fighting and roleplaying in a modern setting.

If you can find it reasonably priced elsewhere (or if it comes out on PDF), snag it. It's worth it.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/flight13/

[DangerousThing]

I've made an adventure based on the field The Seven Samurai and its many knockoffs.

The setting can be put into almost any type of campaign. Mine is science fantasy, so the world is a fairly low-tech world, a protectorate of the Confederation. The Office of Special Circumstances (AKA Depatment of Dirty Tricks) has heard that one of the local nobels on the planet Kurosawa is harbor ing a raider group (space pirates). The raiders are repairing their ship and raiding the local villages for supplies and such. The Confederation wants the raiders dealt with but can't act directly because there are delicate negotiations going on. So the OSC calls upon the PCs, who have just finished their terms of service and are now officially civilians).

Kurosawa is a planet where the Japanese descended nobility took charge after the Shattering (a bad event some 500 year before that destroyed most high tech and killed 90% of the people). So the culture is a mixture of feudal Japan with a European peasantry. The Emperor, being a paranoid type is refusing to allow any items past TL 4 because he feels that the nobels will get the weapons and arrange a change of power. So it's mostly just the characters and their skills against raiders with modern weaponry.

The peasants have very little experience with fighting because their Daimyo (lords) are supposed to protect them from bandits. Unfortunately their daimyo is taking money from the raiders and won't do anything.

So the village most hurt is asking for protection from any warriors at all just when the PCs walk in... I've prepared a few locals in case there aren't a full seven PCs. A grizzled fighter, a punk kid, a tavern wench, etc.

[DAT]

First, what are your friends interested in? Are they WOW gamers? Do they all like: Fantasy novels? Zombie movies? Action/adventure movies? Superhero movies? Ninja/martial arts movies? Spy novels?

A common interest in some genre is where you might want to start, then we might be able to focus you on a specific adventure.

Stormcrow's suggestion of Caravan to Erin Arris is good for a generic fantasy game, without magic. Although I generally change the point total/disadvantage limits for new players from 125/62 to 150/40.

Other ideas are to run a simple zombie apocalypse game that you make. Have the players make ordinary 50/25 point characters from the town you and your players live in that are pushed together (e.g., sheltering in the local high school) by the zombie apocalypse, and all need to get some where to find safety (e.g., the National Guard Armory across town, the airport, a place 25 miles east of town where the army has an evacuation shelter, etc.). Watch World War Z, 28 Days, or any other zombie movie for inspiration.
-Dan

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I've made an adventure based on the field The Seven Samurai and its many knockoffs.

The setting can be put into almost any type of campaign.

Indeed. It was even the subject of an article in Roleplayer, the predecessor to Pyramid.

[ClayDowling]

I have several adventure seed ideas over at http://www.obrienscafe.com/adventures.html

These aren't fully developed GURPS adventures, since that would require me being a serious publisher with a serious licensing deal. But they were all written with the intention of being played with GURPS.

If you're willing to invest a bit in a setting, Transhuman Space has really excellent mini adventures under the heading Personnel Files. Totally worth checking out, and designed so that you can run them in about four hours.

[benz72]

Just as an FYI, the Caravan to Erin Arris can be easily reworked as a space adventure, a western or a modern convoy operation. The details all change a bit, but the flow of action can be the same.

Oh, and if you do decide to do the 'zombies in my hometown' thing avoid the temptation to try stating out the players themselves and having them play 'the real them'. It doesn't turn out to be nearly as cool as it might sound. Other than that, it's a good intro setting

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by benz72

Just as an FYI, the Caravan to Erin Arris can be easily reworked as a space adventure, a western or a modern convoy operation. The details all change a bit, but the flow of action can be the same.

I've got most of a conversion to a western here

[JonnyBoy]

Thanks for all the input. In the end I decided to go with a Time Travel/Western adventure I'm creating myself, since friends like sci-fi (especially the Time Travel variety) and I've heard the Western genre isn't complicated and has well-known troupes.

I'm thinking the PCs are a team of historians, scientists, and soldiers (for protection) that go back in time to study Wild West. Before they launch though, the science facility they're in is taken over by an organization of men in black looking agents that aren't afraid to shoot the scientists. The team of PCs has to escape through the time portal to the Wild West and find the exit to the present

I'm starting to work on fleshing out more of the details. I do like the idea in Caravan to Erin Arris where a rival asks the characters if they would spy on the caravan (the research team in this case), and I'll read through the rest of Caravan.