Who else is still using Gurps 3ed rev

[dworldjumper]

I am wondering if anyone else is still using 3ed rev I am. I understand I maybe the last of the mohicans (and I know I dated myself by using that phrase). But I like that version and feel most comfortable running it. I would play and have played Gurps 4e but haven't since that time. So let me know if any of you still do use Gurps 3ed rev please.

[Gef]

I think it's just you, dwj.

[Rocket Man]

Give it time, it's the holidays. I know there's still some regular 3e players who post to these boards -- they're a minority, but certainly not extinct.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Give it time, it's the holidays. I know there's still some regular 3e players who post to these boards -- they're a minority, but certainly not extinct.

Since the third edition has been translated in French, and not the fourth one, some French players also play with the third edition.

I don't. I find the third far much better. But I sometimes talk with them via Internet. Having said that, GURPS is quite rare in France... What a pity.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by dworldjumper

I am wondering if anyone else is still using 3ed rev I am. I understand I maybe the last of the mohicans (and I know I dated myself by using that phrase). But I like that version and feel most comfortable running it. I would play and have played Gurps 4e but haven't since that time. So let me know if any of you still do use Gurps 3ed rev please.

I think Brandon Cope still sticks to 3rd Edition.

[Celjabba]

Myself, I switched to 4e happily and I am not looking back.

But a friend sometime also GM in Gurps, and he still use 3e.

When he do, we have as much fun than when it was current.
3e rules worked well for many years of great games, they still do.

Celjabba

[Blind Mapmaker]

As there are far fewer differences between GURPS editions than say D&D editions there probably won't be that many die-hard 3rd edition fans. It's more evolution than "we have to revamp the system otherwise people won't buy". So, I guess the main reason for sticking with 3rd edition is money. You can run perfectly fine campaigns with only 3rd edition rules.

People who thought 3rd edition a bit cluttered at the end and had some money to spare moved to 4th edition. People who got interested in new supplements over time also migrated, because retrofitting the rules was more of a hassle than buying the core books. People who didn't like pdf supplements probably took longer, because a lot of the newer lines are mostly e23 only at the beginning.

Still, there are a couple of 3rd edition players active on the forums. I think the last thread produced more than half a dozen. Personally, I bought 4th edition books as they came out and switched over completely when Powers came out. The new edition was just more unified. The only 3rd edition rule I use regularly is a modified version of 1/2 points in skills. Not that this has invalidated most of my two metres of 3rd edition books. Except for the crunch-heavy stuff they are still very useful.

[johndallman]

I'm not, but some friends took it up in 2010. They wanted to play Traveller with a reasonably sophisticated game system, and GURPS Traveller is 3e. Their GM reckoned he might as well save the effort of learning both 3e and 4e well enough to do the conversion.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

So, I guess the main reason for sticking with 3rd edition is money.

People with whom I discussed said me it was not the main argument. Their choice to stick with the third edition was a true choice. Here is the arguments they used.

GURPS 4th is most like a lego system. More rules are optional, have some variants, etc. And the advantages/disadvantages system, with its enhancements and limitations, emphasizes even more this lego aspect. Thus, since they prefer a game where you just have to choice you abilities in a list rather than to build them yourself with some calculations which are not always very easy to do (as we can see in some threads of this forum), they prefer playing the third edition than the fourth one.

The other big argument was the fact that they spent a lot of time learning the third edition, designing campaigns and game worlds involving several published books. So, they didn't want to do all the work again from the beginning without the same published book to help them.

Of course, now, a lot of stuff has been released for the fourth edition. But, when we had this discussion, there were very few.

[Blind Mapmaker]

Originally Posted by Gollum

GURPS 4th is most like a lego system. More rules are optional, have some variants, etc. And the advantages/disadvantages system, with its enhancements and limitations, emphasizes even more this lego aspect. Thus, since they prefer a game where you just have to choice you abilities in a list rather than to build them yourself with some calculations which are not always very easy to do (as we can see in some threads of this forum), they prefer playing the third edition than the fourth one.

I see where they're coming from. In my case I've always used modifiers to build new abilities in 3rd edition. I guess if you started with Supers and Compendium I the change is a lot easier to make. My first campaign used Supers and Psi. I liked both building completely new stuff for supers and using pre-designed psi powers. The latter did become a bit unbalanced and munchkinny, though. That's why I liked the unified system of 4th edition better from the get go.

The other big argument was the fact that they spent a lot of time learning the third edition, designing campaigns and game worlds involving several published books. So, they didn't want to do all the work again from the beginning without the same published book to help them.

If you spent a lot of on a campaign world you are still playing it's pretty much a no-brainer not to change until the campaign is finished. Personally, I like to find better ways of doing things and don't mind re-doing my players' character sheet when a relevant supplement comes out, but I guess I'm in the minority there. Not even in GURPS the compulsive rules-tinkerer GM is the standard.