GURPS does dungeon crawl?

[Kromm]

If I were starting a campaign right now -- and not running my existing one -- I'd be tempted to run a dungeon-smash game. Between my health and my work hours, I have neither the time nor the energy for complicated plots just now.

[CraigR]

Originally Posted by Kromm

If I were starting a campaign right now -- and not running my existing one -- I'd be tempted to run a dungeon-smash game. Between my health and my work hours, I have neither the time nor the energy for complicated plots just now.

That was the reason we started ours, plus teaching a newbie the combat system. It's a great de-stresser: blow the crap out of things, take their stuff, repeat. While there are plot concerns, they're all character driven and not a high priority.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

If I were starting a campaign right now -- and not running my existing one -- I'd be tempted to run a dungeon-smash game. Between my health and my work hours, I have neither the time nor the energy for complicated plots just now.

I've been running one in That Other Game™ and occasionally running GURPS Hack 'n' Slash as a demo for this very reason.

GURPS Hack 'n' Slash can be quite fun. Since the combat system has quite a bit of detail, you're using tactics other than "I whack him with my greatsword!" The things I most noticed:

• Size matters. Per another thread around here, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Even SM +1 creatures, like ogres, have plenty of ST/HP and some natural DR. Your halfling rogue will have problems with that.
• Powerstones. They rule so badly that it isn't cool. A one-point Signature Item is a fine quarterstaff enchanted with the Staff spell and set with a 4-point powerstone. And woe betide the wizard who didn't drop a point into Recover Energy.
• Lighting. This almost always works against the PCs. Have the party wizard cast continual light on his Signature Item staff (see above) the day before the poundfest. I usually have monsters douse the light as a standard operating procedure when adventurers enter the room.

[AOTA]

I've always wanted to run a GURPS Xcrawl game. Xcrawl is sort of like WWE meets D&D. Big over the top adventures that are planned out by in game Dungeon Masters. Seems like it would be lots of fun.

[rol7805]

I've always included dungeon crawls in my GURPS fantasy campaigns, and they've worked out well. I typically would alternate between some good old fashioned dungeon crawling (monsters, trap, monsters, trap, treasure) and some NPC interaction above ground. Don't just hand the PCs the dungeon, make them have to find it by talking to the right people, etc.

I'm building a new fantasy world now in fact where I plan to "borrow" some adventures from That Other Game system ;-) I intend to have plenty of high fantasy dungeon crawling in it as that's what I've had a hankering for for a while now.

Bobby

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

There really needs to be an official GURPS 240-page hardback on this. I'd pitch it if I had any expectation I'd have the time to write it.

But I don't.

But GURPS really needs it. And it would sell.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

There really needs to be an official GURPS 240-page hardback on this. I'd pitch it if I had any expectation I'd have the time to write it.

Do you think there is enough pertinent material to justify a full-size book? I wouldn't think so, unless you fluffed it out with extraneous stuff like beasties and loot.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Do you think there is enough pertinent material to justify a full-size book? I wouldn't think so, unless you fluffed it out with extraneous stuff like beasties and loot.

Beasties and loot are not extraneous to dungeon-crawling role-playing; they are a central feature. ;)

[Bruno]

I think I own four different books about the theory, design, and execution of dungeon crawls, dating back to AD&D 1e. I own all four because all of them bring something new to the discussion, and yet none of them have some of the totally awesome useful tidbits I found in GURPS Egypt and GURPS Undead, and I don't think any of the above mention that chinese emperors tomb with the lake of mercury and IIRC even loaded-crossbow traps (Which admitedly had rotted away to uselessness).

I would expect a GURPS book on the subject to deal with REAL "dungeons" of the type adventurers are actually likely to explore, from the catacombs of Paris to Egyptian pyramids to the above-ground necropoli of New Orleans (which are just begging to be turned into a location for a modern dungeon crawl). Also actual subteranean living spaces, rather than burying spaces - fortresses and mines are the only common things I can think of, but I think there are at least a few instances of modern humans not only moving into cave systems, but altering them and expanding on them (building houses over the fronts, leveling floors, etc).

ANd of course "dungeons" don't have to be underground. Anywhere you can restrict the players choice of direction of travel (and usually line of sight/line of fire but there are fun things to do with that) is a dungeon. This is probably why DMs traditionally get a little flustered when their players bring mining picks and start breaking through walls.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Beasties and loot are not extraneous to dungeon-crawling role-playing; they are a central feature. ;)

Yes, exactly! The idea that monsters and loot are extraneous would kill the book. They're central. It would really need to deal with:

- monsters (yes, including wandering monsters)
- loot (including random generation)
- traps and tricks (including a big-ole table of modifiers to combine when building traps)
- unlocking and bashing down doors, with examples and lock difficulties.
- dungeon construction, both realistic and modern gaming style. Examples of play running from self-aware dungeon bashing (The Order of the Stick, Another Day Another Dungeon) to more realistic crypt robbing. Historical looks at underground complexes and their uses. Expanding the dungeon to non-fantasy environments, as a one-off (the supers get dumped in a dungeon crawl) to a whole environment (Doom).
- disposing of loot - expand a little on BASIC SET for selling off loot and replacing your own loot.
- templates for dungeon-bashers, scaled up and down from "realistic" to "all the mages have extra pools of mana and Fatigue-only Regeneration and the fighters all start as Weapon Masters."
- heck, even have pre-made equipment packs, with cost and weight, for grab-and-go adventuring. If it worked for Rolemaster Companion I, it'll work here too. Specialist dungeon gear would help, too.

I can see filling 240 pages easy. It's a big topic, and if it is done with a real love of the game type - not "well, if you REALLY want to be racially motivated thugs murdering dungeon-dwelling creatures for their money, I guess we'll help" but "this is why this is fun and cool" - it'll sell widely. It'll get based for trying to "do D&D" but who cares? That's a valid playstyle, and people can and do play this way with GURPS. Help them and sell them a book, maybe get some of the guys who play D&D because it's got all this stuff done for them over to GURPS by giving them the same ready-made tools for play.