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#1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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Just in case anyone missed it, we're celebrating the 10th anniversary of GURPS Fourth Edition this month with a series of Daily Illuminators. Countless authors and editors have helped make the system what it is, and we've asked 10 of them to share their thoughts and experiences with us:
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Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ) MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.
#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more! {Watch Video} - {Read Transcript} Last edited by PK; 10-23-2014 at 10:34 AM. |
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#2 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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From Phil Masters: "But the next big product with my name on it is something else again. Sixteen years ago, I had the honor of working on the Discworld Roleplaying Game. I think that worked out okay, but in the time since, I've learned more about creating licensed setting books, the Discworld has evolved, and we've gone to Fourth Edition. So there's a new edition of that game coming up soon, which might help bring GURPS Fourth Edition to more readers."
GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! |
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#3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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#4 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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I remember when GURPS 4e first came out. I was skeptical, because I really enjoyed 3e and I didn't really see where it could be improved. However, around the same time, I was working on a setting (that I still haven't finished) called Resplendent Star Empire. Originally conceived as "So what does a TL 11-12 setting actually look like," it quickly turned into a cross between Dune, Star Wars and Shonen Anime, and I dropped GURPS in favor of BESM 2e, which handled powers better than GURPS 3e did.
When 4e came out, reading the powers section and the new combat rules was like light went on, and I was able to dump BESM to return to GURPS... only, I had to wait, because my setting required Martial Arts, Spaceships, Powers and Ultra-Tech, none of which I had. So I waited and tinkered around. I don't think I seriously started running things until I ran my first G-Verse campaign in 2009, so around the 5-year mark. In part, I think that's the learning curve at work, and in part, it's the fact that I need a huge volume of GURPS work before I hit critical mass. The biggest paradigm shift for me came with the release of GURPS Action. Dungeon Fantasy was an excellent work, but Action inspired me far more, and contrasting and comparing it with Dungeon Fantasy showed me what I had been missing from my designs, and working out "How I want this game to run, and what templates I want" became the base for my Cherry Blossom Rain game, which has served as a stepping stone to all of my recent work. Now I'm bursting with GURPS ideas, more than I can ever reasonably put together. I'm slowly getting them out onto paper, but I'd say this is probably the best point in my GURPS career yet, including some of my highly successful GURPS 3e experiences. In a way, I find 4e frustrating and I'd like to see it pushed even further, into 5e, but at the same time, if SJGames did that, it would destroy the creative high I'm in and throw me back to the point where I'm waiting for releases again. So I say give it another 10 years, and then see where we are.
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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#5 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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I never played/ran any GURPS before 4th, but for all the time I have played and run GURPS 4th. ed. It has always had my back in many tight GMing corners.
So cheers to GURPS 4th Ed. And cheers to the folks that made it and keep making it. "IF you can keep giving answers when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you... ...then my system you'll be GURPS 4th Edition" |
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#6 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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There's a few games, though, where the closer to RAW I run it, the better it generally gets, and if I ever fall into a bad place, I can just turn to the rules, and they'll pull me through. GURPS is one of those games. A friend of mine ran his first GURPS game as a GURPS Action game. He was ill-prepared, the story was somewhat weird, and the group was a random mishmash of players (it was at our local RPG association)... and even so, the game is one I often cite when discussing how action games should be run. It wasn't because of him (He freely admits that) but because GURPS Action was structured in such a way that we were forced invariably down a path of cinematic excitement and action movie awesomeness. The best scene was completely unplanned, and played out exactly like a heist, complete with planning, unique rolls, everything going to hell, total panic among the players, epic action as the characters rev up for victory, followed by explosions and a car chase. I'm a picky man. There's a reason I keep coming back to GURPS.
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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#7 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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But GURPS has been my Goto for 5 years, moreover when I do pick up a new system or setting, I generally tend to find myself musing, yeah, GURPS would do this better, or even GURPSifying it while I read. *that's with 5 seconds thought (it's probably more) Edit, yeah it's more. Last edited by Tomsdad; 08-28-2014 at 02:29 PM. |
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#8 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Seattle, WA
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GURPS 4th Edition is responsible for me getting back into GURPS and I couldn't be happier with it.
I first got into GURPS 3rd Edition in 1999 with GURPS Traveller (also my first edition of Traveller come to think), but by 2003 or 2004, I was burned out on it. I found it very hard to use to build stuff without a degree in engineering (ahem Vehicles 2nd Edition), there was no unified powers system back then, and the costs of templates and basic abilities made designing aliens harder than it is now. In short, the toolkit wasn't as user-friendly as I had wished. (I also had serious misgivings about UT energy weapons--they were hideously overpowered IMO in actual play.) Then, a few years ago now, we were playing Mongoose's new Traveller and the gear book lacked masses for most equipment. This drove me nuts. So I bought Ultra-Tech for 4th Edition and noticed a lot of changes. Weapons lacked SS ratings, their Acc were lower, the Rcl stat was different. The gear provided more systematic-looking bonuses (+1, +2 +TL/2, etc). It was evident that 4th Edition was a pretty substantial change and so I bought Basic Set. Well, that was 3 years ago and now I've been running nothing but GURPS and my library is embarrassingly complete. RE: GURPS Action -- I really need to spend more time with this book, as every time I look at it, I love it, but then I forget about it. I am specifically not trying to run really cinematic action movie type games, but I think the book still has a lot of value.
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-apoc527 My Campaigns Currently Playing: GURPS Banestorm: The Symmetry of Darkness Inactive: Star*Drive: 2525-Hunting for Fun and Profit My THS Campaign-In the Shadows of Venus Yrth--The Legend Begins The XCOM Apocalypse |
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#9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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David's post went up today. So now there are perspectives from both of the writers behind GURPS Fourth Edition, plus quite a bit on David's projects since the Basic Set. Has his Mass Combat done for you what it's done for him (allowing for epic battles)?
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Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ) MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.
#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more! {Watch Video} - {Read Transcript} |
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#10 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Cherry Blossom Rain used a lot of Mass Combat, and it worked very well. I handed players the unit sheets and their stats, let them fuss over where to place the soldiers, where to send the heroes, how to manage the strategy rolls and the logistics rolls. Kept them busy for over an hour. And then, oh the battles. They won two out of three, and then triumphantly held their ground at Sword Mountain itself.
I was able to give the players a sense of what each unit was like, what the enemy armies were like, what the enemy commanders were like. It wasn't quite as Dynasty Warriors as I would have liked, and I would have liked to have given them more of a sense of more generals and more commanders, so I had a few issues with Mass Combat, but by and large, I'd call it an overwhelming success. Incidentally, I'm always surprised when someone reminds me that David Morgan-Marr wrote a GURPS book. Must have been a happy day to see his name on the cover of Bio-Tech. For what it's worth, while I know many people complain about it (rightly so, in many ways), my favorite GURPS book is still Ultra-Tech. I have two copies (the hard cover and the soft cover) and both are worn thin. It has inspired many, many settings and adventures.
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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