GURPS 3e to 4e Conversion

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

Putting on my "used to edit GURPS" hat for a second . . . I advocated getting rid of half-points in Fourth Edition because they were a pain to track for many players (and many authors, too), especially once defaulting was taken into account. Far easier just to ditch the fractions.

Agreed. That was why I argued for getting rid of them as well.

[pawsplay]

Originally Posted by Panther

Is anyone else noticing that 3e characters cost a few more points when 'updated' to their 4e 'equivalents'?

Yup. When a knight was described in Fantasy 1e as a 100-point character, that was plausible. Now that they have higher costs for DX and IQ, and they have to pay for Legal Enforcement Powers, 150 points is more practical.

On the other hand, building the monstrously strong guy with Gigantism is now a lot cheaper. Not only has ST gone from costing more at higher levels to costing less for the same lifting ability, but he gets a 10% break on the cost because of his Size. Also, the sage with Longevity now radically cheaper; Longevity has only gotten cheaper, and non-adventuring skills are radically cheaper. What would once have been a formidable concept is now just Longevity [2] and Expert (specialty subject) IQ [4].

[Kromm]

Do note that while some costs didn't change between editions, a 3e point is not a 4e point. It's like comparing Sterling to greenbacks: Both can buy things, and you can even find some things that have the same numerical cost if you look, but they aren't the same currency and the exchange rate can vary by time and place. As a really rough rule, a 3e point converts to about 1.5 4e points; I'd expect 100 100-point 3e characters to average around 150 points in 4e. Whatever you do, don't hold points constant if converting . . . just convert and let points fall where they may. I did that with my last campaign, and had characters who were 50 points apart in one direction in 3e end up 75 points apart in the other direction in 4e, but the characters remained faithful to their concepts.*

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* My response to a player who objected to Joe and Frank being 150 and 200 points, respectively, in 3e but 300 and 225 points in 4e would be unprintably rude. It doesn't matter that Frank was ahead by 50 and is now behind by 75; an RPG isn't a contest. What matters is that both get converted true-to-concept and collectively have about 50% more points as a check on the exchange rate. Fortunately, I don't have players who would object!