08-17-2015, 07:29 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
It's pretty easy to find entire volumes of advice, but that's often too much to digest for someone uncommitted to the system. How about some one-liners? You're allowed a short paragraph for explanation.
Don't try to do something cool and awesome with your first campaign. One PC per player, 150 points, no exotic abilities. Possibly medieval with no magic (Caravan to Ein Arris), or modern with no powers (Cops?). You know that GURPS can do all that stuff, but you should start with something manageable. You can do cool and awesome next time. |
08-17-2015, 07:38 AM | #2 |
Join Date: May 2009
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
I have two.
Everyone should have fun. Don't get caught up with the rules and the setting, make the time you spend together worthwhile. The rules are guidelines. The rules are there to help make your life easier not to dictate how things work and what happens.
__________________
Maxwell Kensington "Snotkins" Von Smacksalot III |
08-17-2015, 07:39 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Chicagoland
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
If you've never played GURPS before, design your first campaign around GURPS Lite.
GURPS, as a massive toolkit system, is a long-term investment in fun. Unlike with many games, you can't just read the Basic Set and start playing. There are a lot of choices to be made so you can assemble the right set of rules and options for your campaign. And that's just the Basic Set! If you look beyond that, to the thousands of pages published for the system over the last decade, you'll be quickly overwhelmed. So take it slow. I know, GURPS Lite has no magic system, no spaceships, etc. But any number of campaigns can be designed around what is there, and much fun can be had using nothing but the rules in GURPS Lite. Learn that first, have a lot of fun, and then you'll have a much easier time diving into the Basic Set.
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GMing Since 1982. |
08-17-2015, 07:51 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Madrid, Spain
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
As a GM, read the whole list of skills, advantages and disadvantages and use the scissors heavily until you get a manageable number of them. Don't be scared to remove, replace, invent, merge or rename as many as you need.
GURPS, as a general game, defines a huge number of skills. Most of them won't be needed, and will not have sense, in your campaign. The same could be said regarding ads and disads. Moreover, "renaming" advantages is your friend! Give cool names to old advantages such as "Ablative DR" or "Magic Resistance" and explain them in terms of your game!
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"Imagination is more important than knowledge" Albert Einstein |
08-17-2015, 07:53 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
Kitchen sink monsters are your friend.
Any system ever in the annals of history handles 'mundane humans with mundane swords' swimmingly, and your players will rightly ask 'why are we doing this system? I already know and own the books for System X and it works great!'. So kick loose and allow the sentient blueberry muffins and so forth. Perfection isn't necessary. Your first campaign won't be perfect. It will probably be a chaotic, unbalanced mess where you look up rules and misinterpret them every five minutes. This is not a problem, there is a learning curve involved in everything. After 10+ years of doing GURPS I can still misinterpret things with the best of them. |
08-17-2015, 08:00 AM | #6 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
Don't allow what doesn't fit in the setting.
Gurps is notable for the variety of feels you can get with a setting. Pick the feeling you want, and axe any thing that doesn't fit.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
08-17-2015, 08:03 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Behind You
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
Buy "How to be a GURPS GM" and actually read it.
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08-17-2015, 09:16 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
Have a plot (begining middle and end) before you start. Avoid an all out sandbox.
Nymdok |
08-17-2015, 09:43 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
Quote:
If you have a story to tell, write a book. Respect player character agency. Your players are co-creators of the story that emerges from playing; let their characters shape that story, even if it's not the one you expected.
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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08-17-2015, 09:45 AM | #10 | |
☣
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: One-Line Advice for new GURPS GMs
Quote:
Until you really know what you're doing, start with GURPS Lite, and add only what you absolutely need. Another: Just because a character fits the rules doesn't mean it fits the game.
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
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