Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

[deanjday]

I hear this a lot, that GURPS as a system does not fit well with the superhero genre. Why is this? whats the reasoning given? and is it true?

Or do you think that it does supers just fine? if so again whats your reasoning?

I ask because I have been asked by my players to start a new supers campaign and i have to choose a system.

[mr beer]

Strenth is overpriced vs. Innate Attack and while 4e has Super STR as a workaround, it feels like a workaround to me. That's the big one IMO.

Next is that its incredibly easy to build game-breaking builds in GURPS given a few 100s of points budget. That might be standard for superheo games though, I don't know.

[Anthony]

The big problem with GURPS and supers is that GURPS tries to default to realism, and supers... isn't. If you build a Batman type character in GURPS, you'll do fine for a while, and then someone will get lucky and you'll be red mist, because that's what happens when someone who can destroy a tank with a single blow hits a technically normal person.

[WingedKagouti]

GURPS doesn't scale well. You can certainly play a Supers game using GURPS, but you'll need to look at various rules (both baseline and optional) and filter out what is appropriate for the tone of the game.

And you need to manually pull the punches whenever a super strong character attacks someone with normal range stats.

There are other systems focused on the genre which play much closer to classic super hero comic books and comic book movies. Though GURPS does do street level stuff like Batman, Daredevil etc. quite well.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by mr beer

Strenth is overpriced vs. Innate Attack

I always figured they assumed there'd be enchanted weapons to use (ie Thor) where Striking ST purchases combine with that equipment in ways Innate Attack can't.

Though 5/level and needing 10 levels per die is like 50 character points per die?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Plane

I always figured they assumed there'd be enchanted weapons to use (ie Thor) where Striking ST purchases combine with that equipment in ways Innate Attack can't.

Though 5/level and needing 10 levels per die is like 50 character points per die?

Its 8 levels per full die so 40 points though I think full ST is a better deal as it adds to Lifting ST and HP which are important to most brick builds.

[Lovewyrm]

Not very fair to GURPS that four color superheroes are complete nonsense plot armor hackery.

It shows how BS these heroes are and how they need some adjustment and actual thought and care.

Otherwise, just invent more cosmic powers that just override everything just like they do, while pretending to live in a normal everyday world to make them "super".

And while that is a bit homebrewy, that's still part of RAW. Says it right there, on B119, new Advantages.

But for real.
$%$#% """""American""""" 'Hollywood' nonsense, eternal apologism required, nerd blood was spilled over it all, Superheroes.

Edit: And if that is either too harsh or too obtuse.

Go and try and accurately stat Popeye even, not a superhero, but also a complete nonsense character whose eyes can smoke pipes because the writers thought its funny.
Or his spit turns into rivets for steel beams.

That's what most of these superheroes are. Nonsense.
Fun, yes, but complete cartoon BS at the core.

So, to accurately play Popeye in GURPS, do the following:
Write "It's Popeye" on the character sheet, in big spinach green lettering, all across the sheet.

And play him like Popeye, outside the rules because Rule 0 "There are no rules" also applies to GURPS.
Now you have accurate Popeye in GURPS.

Either that or you spend six quintrillion to the power of grahams number CP and employ the population of Guam to really stat him out in GURPS RAW blocks.

But be sure to send that char sheet to Segar or the Fleischers once its done so they can instantly one up it and pull a new ability out of the hat for him because he's a cartoon and GURPS isn't a cartoon.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by deanjday

I hear this a lot, that GURPS as a system does not fit well with the superhero genre. Why is this? whats the reasoning given? and is it true?

Or do you think that it does supers just fine? if so again whats your reasoning?

I ask because I have been asked by my players to start a new supers campaign and i have to choose a system.

I'm running four weekly supers games in the same setting *right now.* It does just fine. I have like 20ish PCs of varying strength and abilities in the games. Some of them are classic bricks or controllers, some are weird (like a spatial manipulator that disintegrates things by moving the space between atoms or the guy with energy constructs). I also happen to write for Steve Jackson Games as one of their freelancers and I'm telling you flat out that the "GURPS can't do supers" is crap and a cop out for those not willing to put the work in.

I hear this so much and so often it honestly just annoys me. GURPS super campaigns require the same thing that all GURPS campaigns require: curation. Maybe more than normal because there are a lot of things to consider, but not much more. All GURPS campaigns that are not in one of the official settings or genre lines are harder to construct. It's like assembling furniture from Ikea vs. getting the wood and doing it yourself.

TL;DR Yes. You can. It requires work. That's it.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

I hear this so much and so often it honestly just annoys me. GURPS super campaigns require the same thing that all GURPS campaigns require: curation. Maybe more than normal because there are a lot of things to consider, but not much more.

Maybe said curation is a lot less obvious than some other genres, so most people can't see it.

We're also dealing with a genre that can have a big variance in how realistically people treat it; in some stories "punch you into red mist" is a thing, in others no one ever worries about it, and there can be lots of in-between.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

Maybe said curation is a lot less obvious than some other genres, so most people can't see it.

We're also dealing with a genre that can have a big variance in how realistically people treat it; in some stories "punch you into red mist" is a thing, in others no one ever worries about it, and there can be lots of in-between.

Thus the curation. All GURPS games require a measure of it. It's literally why we have genre lines: it's curated content to jump start you into that genre. We don't have a genre line for supers or the like so the GM is going to have to do it themselves.