Reaching Out to Potential and New GURPS Gamers

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

Even when I look at myself and ask why I am going with GURPS, it is to do things I can't do easily with other systems. I'm taking my fantasy world someplace else. GURPS is great for adapting a novel setting and it's magic whereas the big boy in the fantasy game is it's own default setting.

For me it's all about flexibility and realism with the characters.

In D&D I had a problem with a GM telling me my DX18 fighter couldn't try to sneak past guards because... or after 3rd level a dozen goblins with crossbows are no threat to a single fighter.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I'm still paying attention to this and trying to find my feet. Thanks everyone for your answers and thoughts. :-)

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

A PDF of free pre-gens? Maybe made using only the rules in GURPS Lite.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Tinman

For me it's all about flexibility and realism with the characters.

In D&D I had a problem with a GM telling me my DX18 fighter couldn't try to sneak past guards because... or after 3rd level a dozen goblins with crossbows are no threat to a single fighter.

I appreciate the part about the dozen goblins too. It is a more flexible game for sure which is good. I’m usually a GM so I value the worldbuilding and systems flexibility more. But I see your points.

[jfowler]

Are there any regular GURPS groups on YouTube/Twitch that folks can recommend? Players showing the range of types of campaigns (eg Dungeon Fantasy, Space, Girl Genius, etc, etc) that can be played, particularly if they emphasized play on the simpler/easy-to-implement side. Or podcasts with something similar…

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I appreciate the part about the dozen goblins too. It is a more flexible game for sure which is good. I’m usually a GM so I value the worldbuilding and systems flexibility more. But I see your points.

I'm usually GM nowadays. I do like that I can easily adapt lots of worlds to GURPS. Sadly, my groups use either a fantasy world (Banestorm for me) or our modern world for Monster Hunters, Action! or Phoenix Project (my current campaign).

That being said, I love the flexibility, versatility utility of creating bad guys, as it's the same as what I like about GURPS as a player.

One example of flexible bad guy creation is the mook template in Action-2.
With minor tweaks in stats & gear their power can be increased or decreased.

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

A PDF of free pre-gens? Maybe made using only the rules in GURPS Lite.

One thing I have to say, is the characters created out of Action-4 Specialists are my favorite. They are good, competent characters but with out unrealistic advantages or crazy high stats by default. (One can get those things too, just as an add on not starting built in.) That means that the characters produced are useable in any/every campaign.

[Cpt_Clyde]

Not entirely sure if this is the kind of thing you're looking for but I have a weekly "GURPS actual play" video and podcast I do called Randos2Heroes here with full hour audio episodes available here

It is old-school fnatasy inspired, deadly "level 0" hex-crawl/dungeon-crawl style of play with lots of PC death. It is currently only solo play still with the COVID and all but group play is starting back up this fall/winter. Currently 17 episodes (~17h of play).

My channel has some other GURPS related stuff like a playlist of some combat examples etc. Mileage may vary.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Cpt_Clyde

My channel has some other GURPS related stuff like a playlist of some combat examples etc. Mileage may vary.

Added it to my resource list.

[DarbyMcD]

I am very new to GURPS myself. It was sort of in the back of my mind for decades (my god has it been that long?) but never got into it. My group has been doing 5e for the last few years and we are getting a bit burned out on it. Mostly because 5e is highly combat focused, but not very interesting in combat dynamics.

So I have been trying to convince them to try GURPS. What I think has worked to make them interested is to do the scenarios they know from 5e but with GURPS to highlight the different experience. Something like what Dell'Orto did when he ran his group though Keep on the Borderlands (by the way, that dude needs to do a live play podcast....). For the older gamers, they remember doing it DnD style, and the tactical options of GURPS really shows up as a value add and attaches to the old time feel of fun and wonder they had when they first played.

For the newer players we have been doing some basic combats with TL 5 characters. I am thinking of trying to run EnWorld's Zeitgeist campaign path with GURPS and I think it would be a fantastic showcase for GURPS' strength in mixing and matching genres. In the 5e version, firearms are basically just like bows, the weapons don't show meaningful differences. Doing the setting with GURPS really makes the interaction of tech and magic pop.

So I guess what I am trying to do is understand why this group might be interested in moving to GURPS (tactical and setting options) and meet them where they are by specifically linking into their experiences with other games or expectations that those systems can't really meet. That is my goal but we shall see how it goes.....