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Old 03-25-2023, 02:05 AM   #1
deanjday
 
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Default Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 02:27 AM   #2
mr beer
 
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 02:36 AM   #3
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 04:04 AM   #4
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 04:19 AM   #5
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

Quote:
Originally Posted by deanjday View Post
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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 05:32 AM   #6
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice View Post
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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 05:40 AM   #7
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw View Post
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.
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Old 03-25-2023, 06:23 AM   #8
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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Originally Posted by deanjday View Post
Why is this?
Because GURPS does one thing differently by default than a particular person would like, so they magnify that one thing into a general rule.

It's a myth, just like "GURPS is math-intensive." It becomes self-fulfilling: someone wants to run a superhero game, they hear that GURPS isn't good at superheroes, they read about one person's lack of confidence in the way GURPS handles one aspect of a superhero game, this turns into "GURPS is bad at supers."
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Old 03-25-2023, 06:29 AM   #9
Refplace
 
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

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Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw View Post
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.
Thats the thing though. if you want a comics accurate campaign you need to use comic genre tropes, like pulled punches.
Encourage players to buy Luck and Hard to Kill too.
GURPS Can do any type of comic I ever read, but you may use different options.
We have a poster who has created many of the Marvel characters and another many of the DC characters on these forums.
I have a few posts on this GURPS Bricks and did a Speedsters one last week.
My Supers Tag has a few posts and I can do more if anyone is interested.
I tend to bounce around and blog whatever comes to mind at the time, but happy to work on requested projects that I find interesting.
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Old 03-25-2023, 07:41 AM   #10
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Default Re: Why is GURPS not considered a good fit for the Supers genre?

The ONLY thing GURPS does not do well for a Supers game is absolutes, and that is on purpose.

There is no "immune to fire" or such. You simply buy enough DR or tolerance or such to cover the max and label THAT as your "immune" limit.

Supers is one of those genre, for me, where giving everyone the same character point limit is counter productive. I pick a game level (streets, city, larger than life, world breaking, etc) and have the players tell me what power they want, and work with them to build it.
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