New to GURPS and needs some guidance.

[awarnock]

Hi yall! I'm a Pathfinder player who's recently got the itch to run a sci-fi campaign with mechs, starships, aliens, and mercenaries (No Amorphous blobs of carbo-silicate, though.) I've looked and from what I can see, GURPS is probably going to be the best system for what I want, which is a mashup of cyberpunk, space opera, and real-robots mecha.

That said, I've never played GURPS before and the only place I know of that might even have a group is an hour and a half away. What would be a good way to get my feet wet? I have the Basic Set (both volumes), and I understand the How to be a GURPS GM book is a good place to start as well. Is there anything that I would need, or anything that would make my life easier as a GM, beyond that?

Thanks in advance, and I hope that this isn't too annoying to everyone. :D

[Anders]

Originally Posted by awarnock

Hi yall! I'm a Pathfinder player who's recently got the itch to run a sci-fi campaign with mechs, starships, aliens, and mercenaries (No Amorphous blobs of carbo-silicate, though.) I've looked and from what I can see, GURPS is probably going to be the best system for what I want, which is a mashup of cyberpunk, space opera, and real-robots mecha.

That said, I've never played GURPS before and the only place I know of that might even have a group is an hour and a half away. What would be a good way to get my feet wet? I have the Basic Set (both volumes), and I understand the How to be a GURPS GM book is a good place to start as well. Is there anything that I would need, or anything that would make my life easier as a GM, beyond that?

Thanks in advance, and I hope that this isn't too annoying to everyone. :D

We're a pretty mellow bunch. Get GURPS Lite - it's free! - and read it thoroughly. Ask us questions if necessary. Then the Basic Set and How To Be A GURPS GM book. Then ask us questions if necessary.

[McAllister]

First, generate a 50 point Marine cadet (your starships have marines, yes?) and a 250 point rocket scientist. Make them fight. Run this combat a few times and you'll likely notice that A. nobody gets hurt until someone fails a defense roll and then it's all over, and B. the scientist is the one who gets hurt because nothing about points inherently provides combat prowess.

Other than that, I think all my advice is a little more conditional. What sorts of questions do you have?

[awarnock]

Originally Posted by Anders

We're a pretty mellow bunch. Get GURPS Lite - it's free! - and read it thoroughly. Ask us questions if necessary. Then the Basic Set and How To Be A GURPS GM book. Then ask us questions if necessary.

I have that too, and probably should have started by rereading it, oops. Don't worry, if I have questions that aren't answered by the books, ya'll be the first to know. ;)

Originally Posted by McAllister

First, generate a 50 point Marine cadet (your starships have marines, yes?) and a 250 point rocket scientist. Make them fight. Run this combat a few times and you'll likely notice that A. nobody gets hurt until someone fails a defense roll and then it's all over, and B. the scientist is the one who gets hurt because nothing about points inherently provides combat prowess.

Yes, although I was think of taking an idea I read on the Atomic Rockets site about calling them espatiers.

Originally Posted by McAllister

Other than that, I think all my advice is a little more conditional. What sorts of questions do you have?

I'm reading through the Basic set at the moment, so most of the rules questions I might have are probably going to be answered, so I guess it's really more about how to go about building the setting.

[Anders]

Well, Ultra-Tech will give you more gadgets than you fire a phaser at, and Space will get you information about the Space genre. They might be useful. I've never run a sci-fi campaign though so I probably should keep my mouth shut.

[McAllister]

Originally Posted by awarnock

I'm reading through the Basic set at the moment, so most of the rules questions I might have are probably going to be answered, so I guess it's really more about how to go about building the setting.

Here's one question that, if I were making a sci-fi campaign, I know I'd grapple with: what do PCs pay for with points vs. paying for with cash? If I want a spaceship, do I pay for mega-millionaire levels of cash, or buy it as Signature Gear, or buy it as an Ally, or get it from a Patron (that might have a Duty attached)? Can I start play with cybernetics bought with cash and not points? If I get an implant in play for cash, do I also have to pay points? I don't have the answers, but they're important questions.

In terms of universe-building, GURPS Space might be the best supplement if you want another one. Of it, all I can say is that it helps you deal with things like "are there aliens? how many and what kinds? is there inter-planetary/stellar/galactic travel? how fast and expensive is it? are there other planets to travel to? how many and what kinds?"

[Frost]

Originally Posted by McAllister

First, generate a 50 point Marine cadet (your starships have marines, yes?) and a 250 point rocket scientist. Make them fight.

To be honest I have never really seen any point to this particular demonstration. Any points based system (at least that I am aware of) tends to favour characters with more points in combat skills and advantages rather than simply more points.

I think that the best advice to starting planning a GURPS campaign is to sit back and think about what sort of tone you want and how you want it to work. Ignore the rules, at least at first, and concentrate on more on what you want it to look like. Once you have a clear picture then you start trying to fit the picture to the rules.

GURPS has a not entirely undeserved reputation for being complex mostly because it comes with options for most types of campaign. The trick to making GURPS work is to have a solid idea of which options you want to use.

To give you an example you mention mercenaries, what do you envision them doing? Security work or frontline combat? What sort of strength do they operate in (you mention mechs so I will assume armour) troop, squadron or perhaps something larger?

Your answers to these questions will determine what options you chose.

The last thing that I would point out that while you certainly can using lite and a few supliments (Space, which is about asking the kind of questions that I was discussing, and UT are as Anders says the best starting point) it is probably harder than any other style of game. From experience Space SF plays to the 4e version of lite's major weaknesses. If your campaign takes off with your players you will probably want to step up to the Basic Set fairly quickly.

Your answers to these questions will determine where you go from there.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by awarnock

Is there anything that I would need, or anything that would make my life easier as a GM, beyond that?

Get an application that allows you to make GURPS characters. The official Steve Jackson games one that runs on Windows is GURPS Character Assistant. The unofficial and free one that runs on anything is GURPS Character Sheet.

[McAllister]

Originally Posted by Frost

To be honest I have never really seen any point to this particular demonstration. Any points based system (at least that I am aware of) tends to favour characters with more points in combat skills and advantages rather than simply more points.

That's true of most if not all points-based systems, and OP is a Pathfinder player.

[Gef]

Welcome.

Here's my standard advice:

1. Read the basic books.

2. Make some characters, let me suggest a couple of vikings, one with an axe, and one with a spear, and have 'em fight. Yeah, I know you're gonna run sci-fi, but this is just to master the basics, so keep it simple.

3. Watch an old Western on Netflix, and write a one-shot game based on it, with pregenerated player characters. Yeah, I know you're gonna run scifi, but the Western genre is special: It has a little bit of everything normal (transportation by animal or vehicle, combat with knife or gun) and nothing weird (magic, psi, super powers).

4. Invite some friends to join play it - the key selling point for your Pathfinder friends is, it's just a one-shot, something to try. Make sure they know you're still breaking in the rules, and make sure that you spot-rule as needed if looking up the real rule is gonna take too long.

5. Then, finally, start working on your "real" game, the sci-fi one. Good luck.