How to Be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'm the system's guardian and lead editor, and my last campaign used . . . the Basic Set, plus gear from High-Tech. Yes, there were martial arts and gunfights, organizations and conspiracies, vehicles and chases, complex tactics and social deceptions, etc. I handled just about all of it by saying, "Sounds like skill X, about as difficult as -Y, gimme a roll." I later wrote the Action series to help less-experienced GMs do the same thing, but I didn't have that at the time.

And the game ran just fine.

Yes, but you're not a typical case. You're the guy who wrote the book(s) on this. Literally.

[Emerikol]

I don’t think it requires a Kromm level expert for a GM to make a decision based on the underlying principles of the game.

In fact you have to make such decisions at some point.

I think the greatest risk to a GURPs game is rules paralysis. Not just GURPs of course but to any game with a lot of rules. Don’t get bogged down. I’m not going to go through books constantly to find the exact correct rule. If I know it I will apply it. If not I will make an executive decision and look the rule up later.

Over time I will use the rules more and adjudicate less but it never goes to zero. Also I will still have an ongoing campaign whereas if I’m constantly looking up rules the campaign will die. My players won’t tolerate that.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I don’t think it requires a Kromm level expert for a GM to make a decision based on the underlying principles of the game.

In fact you have to make such decisions at some point.

Oh, absolutely. I'm an "on the fly" guy myself. I prefer making snap decisions to stopping the game for ten minutes to look up a rule. But am I typical? People buy Kromm's books (I've bought Kromm's books). Presumably they do so because they find the content useful.

(Although I like the idea that people by Kromm's books so as not to hurt his feelings.)

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I don’t think it requires a Kromm level expert for a GM to make a decision based on the underlying principles of the game.

I agree – and I don't think my expertise at the gaming table is all that exceptional. Here and when I work on GURPS supplements, I can pause to think, consult a ton of content, and so on. During a game, I guess and throw Hail Marys like anybody else. But for those who think I'm the lucky rabbit's foot of GURPS or whatever, Mook incorporated a ton of my thoughts into How to Be a GURPS GM, and I wrote down a lot more in Managing Expectations and Combat Encounters.

[Anders]

We're going to have to agree to disagree here. I would be very surprised if an intimate knowledge of the system didn't help with improvising new rules.

The Dunning-Kruger effect goes both ways. If you ask people who have taken a test how well they did, most people place themselves in the 70-75th percentile. I suspect the same is true for GMs.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anders

We're going to have to agree to disagree here. I would be very surprised if an intimate knowledge of the system didn't help with improvising new rules.

It helps with some of the perpetual problems like weapon stats. In particular, the system knowledge of a number of the people on this forum means that when another newbie comes along with "What are the stats for this gun?"it can be explained to him that they are very, very similar to a known weapon in the same caliber.

It even helps with melee weapons. I've been ona Forged in Fire binge lately and they keep coming up with Ethnic Kewl Badass weapons like the "Darb Sri Gun Chai" but I know that's identical to a Nagimaki for Gurps purposes and a Nagamaki is mostly the same as a Naginata and so on.

You don't need every book in the catalog to run. When I was running World of D'y'r't the load in my backpack was Characters, Campaigns and Magic. It did help that I had read and abosrbed much of many other books but that was in the area of GM preparation and not active game running.

[Tymathee]

I know this is unconventional logic, but players can aid with crunch processing and pass it along to the GM to approve. There's nothing wrong with collaborating, and if anything it speeds play.

For a lot of my pet project characters, I take a great deal of liberty with design choices. Why not? If there's likely game mechanics baked into the character that are more or less unique to them it'd make sense that they cater to the player's sense of fun. It's also a mutual process though ultimately, as the GM does have the final say. It helps that over the past decade I've been using GURPS as casual reading material... so I at least have some sense of proper GURPS design. It's also important to note that your character is not the main protagonist and therefore it's yours and the GMs responsibility to ensure that your character is a part of a whole, not a large center piece with smaller adjacent pieces. World building can be influenced by character design choices too, and it's not a new fangled idea for the players to help make a world they'd enjoy playing in... it helps to immerse them better because they had a hand in its making too. RPGs are a collaborative experience to some extent no matter what. You're all telling a story together.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I agree – and I don't think my expertise at the gaming table is all that exceptional. Here and when I work on GURPS supplements, I can pause to think, consult a ton of content, and so on. During a game, I guess and throw Hail Marys like anybody else. But for those who think I'm the lucky rabbit's foot of GURPS or whatever, Mook incorporated a ton of my thoughts into How to Be a GURPS GM, and I wrote down a lot more in Managing Expectations and Combat Encounters.

Speaking of which, do we have a release date for Combat Encounters? Is it part of PDF challenge 2021? I see it's a bonus for the sale, but I don't think there are $30 worth of content I don't own that I want.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by corwyn

Speaking of which, do we have a release date for Combat Encounters? Is it part of PDF challenge 2021? I see it's a bonus for the sale, but I don't think there are $30 worth of content I don't own that I want.

It has nothing to do with the PDF challenge 2021 except timing.

Edit: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...88&postcount=9

[DaosusLeghki]

Originally Posted by Tuk the Weekah

I'm not being cute with my "that's not my job" replies above. No one thinks of the combat sequence as a whole when playing; we break it into "attack sequence" stuff and "defence sequence" stuff. The attack sequence is roll three dice and see what happens. Then, if you succeed, you roll your damage. You are done.

Thanks for your comment. I've quoted a little bit, but I'm replying to the whole thing. I think the difference between our points of view is that you're presenting what a player has to know, when guided by a GM familiar with the system. I'm presenting what a new GM has to learn to understand the system.

It is certainly simpler to be the player in this case, and a player can play a system of any complexity if the GM tells him which dice to roll. And, if the game has a unified dice mechanic (as GURPS does) that answer will most likely be the same (3d6). With that degree of hand-holding, no system could be considered complex.

That the player can have their hand held does not make the game easy to learn for GMs, nor does it make the game easy to learn if the player is trying to become proficient in it. Unfortunately, meaningful choice (e.g. which combat maneuver to select) requires some degree of proficiency.