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Old 05-30-2010, 04:39 PM   #1
Agemegos
 
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Default Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

Who here has induced a reluctant or sceptical gaming group to switch substantially from some other game (eg. That Other Game) to GURPS?

What did you do? What setting and genre did you use to tempt them across? What worked, what didn't work, what would have worked better?

How did it go? Are they all keen now? Are they using GURPS for their own games, or promoting it otherwise? Clamouring for GURPS, complaining about other games?

How long did it take to win the players over? What helped? What hindered?
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Old 01-14-2011, 10:02 PM   #2
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

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Originally Posted by Brett View Post
Who here has induced a reluctant or sceptical gaming group to switch substantially from some other game (eg. That Other Game) to GURPS?

What did you do? What setting and genre did you use to tempt them across? What worked, what didn't work, what would have worked better?

How did it go? Are they all keen now? Are they using GURPS for their own games, or promoting it otherwise? Clamouring for GURPS, complaining about other games?

How long did it take to win the players over? What helped? What hindered?
Weird this thread didn't get moving earlier; it's a great question.

I hadn't roleplayed for three years. A friend of mine who'd read but never yet played GURPS told me about the game, and I was less than enthusiastic--until I started reading the books. I had a galaxy I was working on and no gaming system I'd seen was both adaptable and broad enough to run it in; I had essentially given up and was thinking about designing my own system, but GURPS was exactly what I had been looking for.

I knew players who had played, you know, that old-timey fantasy game, and convinced them to try something different; space espionage. It went well. Then they decided to try fantasy in GURPS, and as far as I know only went back once to that old-timey fantasy game, then after that stuck with GURPS for fantasy, SF, Old West, Supers, etc.

The gaming group got too big, so we split it, then split it again. Then I started another group of SCA folk who'd never played GURPS--some had never roleplayed at all. It was weird because for a couple years I only played GURPS with people who had first been reffed by me or people first reffed by people who had first been reffed by me. We were somewhat inbred. I was actually a bit nervous the first time I played GURPS at a gaming convention, but it went well, and I got other people playing GURPS. Which led to some more GURPS groups.

All in all I'd say over a thousand people were introduced to GURPS through that original group and those that followed it. Probably well over a thousand.
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Old 01-15-2011, 03:11 AM   #3
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

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Weird this thread didn't get moving earlier; it's a great question.
I begin to suspect that few of us have shared your success in converting gamers to the GURPS side.
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Old 01-15-2011, 03:26 AM   #4
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Just getting started. I think laziness (and warp 10 ADD) is what kept me from making the transition.

Anyway, I haven't RP'd in years, and the 4th edition of D&D has this garbage-y feeling to it, sooo here I am.


It's a lot to take in, but I think my wife will like it. She likes RP, but wasn't a fan of the dice variety. :)
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Old 01-15-2011, 04:21 AM   #5
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

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I begin to suspect that few of us have shared your success in converting gamers to the GURPS side.
I usually recruit people new to RPGs, so I never have that problem. The gamers I know who are invested in a specific system absolutely refuse to play anything else, so there's no point in me trying to recruit them (and I don't want to play V:tM with them, so...).
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Old 01-15-2011, 05:14 AM   #6
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

My experience has been pretty mundane, and it's usually something like this:

"I'm going to run a game next week. We're going to use GURPS."

"Aww, GURPS? I dunno..."

"If you want to GM something else, go for it."

"Nah, that's cool. Let's try GURPS."
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Old 01-15-2011, 05:18 AM   #7
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

Who here has induced a reluctant or sceptical gaming group to switch substantially from some other game (eg. That Other Game) to GURPS?

What did you do?
'Is anyone sick taking stuff of levelling up?'

What setting and genre did you use to tempt them across?
A homebrew SF game I described as 'part Star Wars, part Dune' (the miniseries of Dune was on cable TV).

What worked, what didn't work, what would have worked better?I answered questions on how different the style of play was as the game went on. Should have found a short and pithy way bforehand, as I lost a player or two who still thought it was going to be the same, although the whole point was to do something different.

How did it go?
Still on-going, with a reboot or two. I reckon it's a success.

Are they all keen now?
Group has shrunk to those really inteested, got enough time, etc...

Are they using GURPS for their own games, or promoting it otherwise?
All of us have been GM's at one time or another: many genres.

Clamouring for GURPS, complaining about other games?
Mostly we play nothing else. Not yet upgraded to 4th edition.

How long did it take to win the players over?
About a character creation session, and two evenings' play.

What helped?
The expense of all those DnD 3rd, then DnD3.5 books turned most off that game. I was running my alternate at that time.

What hindered?
A player or two who found they couldn't bend/Monty Haul the GURPS rules as easily wanted to go back to DnD 3rd ed. Break-away group occurred, so we were a little like poachers-for-players for a while.
Things are settled down now, with a core group of four steady players.

Last edited by sgtcallistan; 01-15-2011 at 05:19 AM. Reason: capitalisation
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Old 01-15-2011, 06:39 AM   #8
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

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Originally Posted by Voren View Post
My experience has been pretty mundane, and it's usually something like this:

"I'm going to run a game next week. We're going to use GURPS."

"Aww, GURPS? I dunno..."

"If you want to GM something else, go for it."

"Nah, that's cool. Let's try GURPS."
This is my experience, too - as long as I am the one to do the hard work (GMing), people will be happy to try whatever system I propose to them.

Long campaigns are another matter, though - when we experiment a system, in most cases we'll just play a couple of sessions, then we'll move back to our "default" system (which happens to be GURPS, of course).
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Old 01-15-2011, 07:17 AM   #9
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brett View Post
Who here has induced a reluctant or sceptical gaming group to switch substantially from some other game (eg. That Other Game) to GURPS?

What did you do? What setting and genre did you use to tempt them across? What worked, what didn't work, what would have worked better?

How did it go? Are they all keen now? Are they using GURPS for their own games, or promoting it otherwise? Clamouring for GURPS, complaining about other games?

How long did it take to win the players over? What helped? What hindered?
It was pretty easy for me. My usual gaming group had been running various D&D for more than a decade, and was way hooked on the fantasy setting. What made it easy, though, was that all of them agreed that roleplaying was much more fun than rollplaying, resulting in lots of gaming sessions with little to no combat and a lot of intrigue. The trick was just making a fantasy setting using just the Basic Set and Magic, and showing them how versatile GURPS was, and how much better it handled non-combat situations. They quickly adapted to the combat system too, and all of them uses GURPS for 90% of their games, the rest being split equally between D&D and WOD.

I might have overdone the preparation, as I spent more than a year setting up the campaign setting with incredible detail and tons of plots etc., but it did the trick. And after getting them hooked on the GURPS system, it was ridiculously easy to move away from just the fantasy genre and do some Spaceships games, robots, WW2, TL8 spy, etc.
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Old 01-15-2011, 08:03 AM   #10
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Default Re: Dragged kicking and screaming from the candy-store

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Originally Posted by sgtcallistan View Post
Who here has induced a reluctant or sceptical gaming group to switch substantially from some other game (eg. That Other Game) to GURPS?
In my case, it's not "convert them to GURPS." It's "get them to accept playing in whatever system I want to use. Now admittedly that's GURPS more often than any other game, but in recent years I think I've only averaged about 50% of my games in GURPS.

The basic argument is just "I run games with interesting and nonstandard ideas, and my players give them good reviews. If you want to play in them, you have to play the system I want to run them in." It seems to work.

On the other hand, I'm not converting gaming groups. I haven't needed to recruit a gaming group as a whole . . . well, in a decade or two, at least. I recruit people as individuals.

I'm not sure if I've ever persuaded someone who was set on playing only in one system to change their mind and play in a variety of systems. It's at least as likely that my approach recruits flexible-minded people and leaves the people who will only play their one system out in the cold.

Bill Stoddard
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