GURPS does dungeon crawl?

[Smirg]

Originally Posted by The Whiner Knight

Weren't Masada and other mountain fastnesses backed up by cave systems?

Probably the most famous example is Petra, the ruins of an ancient city mostly carved into the sides of canyon walls.

The only recent and active (almost wholly) underground town I know of is Coober Pedy in the australian outback, where they are mining opals and it's just too damn hot to live above ground (and when they are digging most of the time anyway...).
They even have underground churches, which might be the location for a dungeon crawl. :D

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

I think this is a very good idea for a sourcebook, but I'm more than a bit skeptical of this either deserving or justifying 240 pages. As Sean has said, the rules you'd need are already totally covered in the Basic Set, just split up a bit. So this would be a pure advice/genre book for a "genre" that's about as shallow as they come. I'd expect it to come in closer to 40-60 pages. This sounds like an e23 product to me... and one that I'd readily buy if done well.

There's a reason for a physical book here: this one might actually sell to folks who do not play GURPS right now. e23 is not the place for such a book.

Plus, the crunchy bits will easily fill the book. These would be spells, equipment, magic items, monsters, plus GM aids like generic locations and stock NPCs (see the d20 Star Wars Galactic Campaign Guide for what I mean). One could easily write the one guide that Some Other Company wishes it wrote for Some Other Game.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

One could easily write the one guide that Some Other Company wishes it wrote for Some Other Game.

It has been written; the latest one I own is AEG's Dungeon, for 3.0, but I'm very sure there are others - they seem to get written every 3-5 years.

[Blood Legend]

I'd love Gurps: Dungeon Crawl. I've wanted to try a decent 'classic' hack-em-up, but D&D is still just an MMORPG in homework-form for me to bother with it.

[Extrarius]

If it ever does get made, it should be called "GURPS Dungeoneer"

[CraigR]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Heh, I have an outline for 240 pages on my HD. It's most of 5,000 words, which is a big outline. Looking at it, my worry would be not bloating to 256 pages . . .

Too bad you can't post it online. I'd love to try to build from it.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Heh, I have an outline for 240 pages on my HD. It's most of 5,000 words, which is a big outline. Looking at it, my worry would be not bloating to 256 pages . . .

Another one in the "Indefinite Future" pile *sigh*

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Heh, I have an outline for 240 pages on my HD. It's most of 5,000 words, which is a big outline. Looking at it, my worry would be not bloating to 256 pages . . .

For comparison, the 256-page GURPS Martial Arts final outline was slightly over 2300 words.

Filling 240 pages isn't the problem. Filling only 240 pages while covering the topic in enough detail is.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by ham2anv

So, I've been thinking about dungeon crawls, and I was wondering how well GURPS could handle that particular game style. I personally think it would work out just fine, and I'm putting together notes to that very effect.

I'd be curious to hear what others' experience is with dungeon crawl style gaming with GURPS. Does the system improve on any of the traditional elements, especially combat? Are there any particular pitfalls to avoid when approaching a dungeon crawl in GURPS? What options or abilities make for a better crawling experience?

I've had my best dungeon crawling experiences with GURPS. I did a traditional three level dungeon, town, village, and ran that for about four years. (Most of the 4e combat mechanics were tested in this campaign, such as the new defense rules, actually).

The one thing to avoid is that some of the magic spells can make things a bit too easy in GURPS. We banned invisibility, for example.

Also, you have to think carefully how monsters will convert. D&D is full of critters that do very low damage in GURPS terms and due to GURPS DR stopping hits, you have to either not use them or be creative. For example, my carrion crawlers use grappling to pull off a helm before paralyzing, while my cubes and slimes took some careful thought to figure out how they worked.

We used full tactical combat for some crucial encounters and GURPS really shines in those areas, where all the rules for weapon reach, etc. work nicely in a confined space.

[AmesJainchill]

Originally Posted by Smirg

Probably the most famous example is Petra, the ruins of an ancient city mostly carved into the sides of canyon walls.

The only recent and active (almost wholly) underground town I know of is Coober Pedy in the australian outback, where they are mining opals and it's just too damn hot to live above ground (and when they are digging most of the time anyway...).
They even have underground churches, which might be the location for a dungeon crawl. :D

Sounds like they might be the only people to survive Cobalt Thorium G.