First GURPS Night as GM (and role-playing fullstop) - Trip Report

[DrDraxium]

Well I had my very first GURPS session last week and I must say it was quite enjoyable.
Bear in mind this was my first time being GM and playing a traditional role-playing game ever.

These forums helped me greatly in my preparation, and I appreciate everyone who has helped me out up until this point. Putting all of that theory into practice was, of course, more difficult than I had anticipated, but rewarding nonetheless.

The setting was a post-nuclear apocalyptic abandoned town ala Fallout 3 (yep, that's a Pip-Boy avatar) set just outside of my home city of Adelaide. I had drafted some maps and scene "cheat-sheets" with dot points and NPC info on them, these seemed to work well, and seem to be weapon of choice for most GMs whom I've read about. I didn't really put a limit on race/character types; we had dwarves, sentient skeletons and ewoks running about the place. However characters were limited to 100/50 disadvantage limit.

A couple of people gave up within the first two hours, which was fair enough in my mind because one was dead tired and felt the level of complexity was a bit too much for her, and the other had a burnt hand which was interfering with his ability to think straight. Apart from that, I had four players stay on till the end of the first "chapter" of gameplay, and they seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly.

We spent an hour or so on character creation and it took us forever to get our head around skills, and how characters "purchased" them during the creation stage. One of my players put forward the question "well why can't I just take the lowest level in all of these DX skills thus having every single DX skill available?" I couldn't answer him because it seemed like you could just take a whole bunch of skills for 0 CP and have them at least equal your DX level (DX10 = Acrobatics 10, Brawling 10 etc.) Then we all worked out that (going by the skill purchase chart in GURPS Lite) that there was a minimum point expenditure for all skills.

One thing that I've noticed that no matter which resource websites or game mastering blogs that I traipse across, none of them seem to contain blow-by-blow session detail. I understand this would be a large undertaking, and a tedious exercise to the more experienced GMs out there, but I think that a resource like this would be essential learning for first time GMs or roleplayers in general, something that showed a "typical role-playing game."

I guess the reason I ask is because my players picked a lot of skills from the GURPS Lite handouts (some perhaps less useful than others) and I'd forget that maybe, judging by what the players wanted to do, that I should be rolling against something. I did it quite a bit, but I wonder if I was doing it against the right skills or frequently/infrequently enough.
Issues like this could be easily highlighted in a GM Session Log of some variety.

e.g.

Game Starts.
PC wants to drink water from a fountain. [Secret]GM rolls against PC Drink level 12. Roll = 14. PC fails "Drink" check [/Secret]. GM announces PC has walked over to the fountain, only to slip and chip his teeth on the stone construction. PC loses 1HP.
PC wants to greet the NPC Bartender. [Secret]The bartender quickly takes a gun out from behind the counter and puts it under his apron. GM rolls against PC Perception level 11. Roll = 3. PC has Critical success. GM announces PC has noticed the gun being hidden and quickly swipes it from the bartender. PC says "Not so fast hotshot"

and so on.

Does such a resource or example exist? I'm aware of TheMook's combat examples which have been a great help, but nothing that encompasses the entire experience.

Of course, as I've read countless times, GM'ing is a very malleable skillset which can change significantly depending on which GM you're talking to, and about what aspect.

Having said all this it was a blast and I've already booked in the players for a second session. I guess I just want to try to have the best experience possible, whilst enjoy the excellent framework which GURPS offers. Once everyone gets used to the system I'll be buying the Basic Set for sure.

[AmesJainchill]

Originally Posted by DrDraxium

One thing that I've noticed that no matter which resource websites or game mastering blogs that I traipse across, none of them seem to contain blow-by-blow session detail. I understand this would be a large undertaking, and a tedious exercise to the more experienced GMs out there, but I think that a resource like this would be essential learning for first time GMs or roleplayers in general, something that showed a "typical role-playing game."

You could try looking at a play-by-post game on a forum. This might help you.

I guess the reason I ask is because my players picked a lot of skills from the GURPS Lite handouts (some perhaps less useful than others) and I'd forget that maybe, judging by what the players wanted to do, that I should be rolling against something. I did it quite a bit, but I wonder if I was doing it against the right skills or frequently/infrequently enough.
Issues like this could be easily highlighted in a GM Session Log of some variety.

This varies a lot, but there's a section in the beginning of Campaigns where
it talks about what to roll for and when. If there's something at stake or at risk--an enemy sneaking up, the danger of falling from a wall while climbing, spotting an ambush, you should roll.
Easier tasks should get task difficulty modifiers, tasks in harder conditions get penalties.

Of course, as I've read countless times, GM'ing is a very malleable skillset which can change significantly depending on which GM you're talking to, and about what aspect.

Yup.

[DrDraxium]

Originally Posted by AmesJainchill

You could try looking at a play-by-post game on a forum. This might help you.

I've had a look at a few, but they don't seem to convey the same sense of tabletop gaming.

Originally Posted by AmesJainchill

This varies a lot, but there's a section in the beginning of Campaigns where
it talks about what to roll for and when. If there's something at stake or at risk--an enemy sneaking up, the danger of falling from a wall while climbing, spotting an ambush, you should roll.
Easier tasks should get task difficulty modifiers, tasks in harder conditions get penalties.
.

Ah Campaigns, one more reason to buy that basic set.

[Azinctus]

Originally Posted by DrDraxium

Ah Campaigns, one more reason to buy that basic set.

When you do buy Characters and Campaigns you might find them a little intimidating. There are a lot of skills. I'm a very experienced roleplayer and it took me a long time to absorb the skill list. I made players rolls against Pickpocket many times before I discovered that Prestidigitation and Palm Object might have been more appropriate.

It takes time to get used to applying a skill set and choosing suitable modifiers. But if your players are learning with you the main thing is to have fun and keep the game moving.

[Christian]

Hint for the next time you play with inexperienced players: prepare one or two dozen premade chars in advance, and let them choose. Don't bother with char creation for the first session, its too complex for the complete newbie. you could also prepare templates/modules, and thus make char creation significantly more easy. Both works fairly well. Just make sure they understand that this is not how its usually done, just a way to "make things easy for the start". You can always go into more detail later.

[DrDraxium]

Originally Posted by Azinctus

When you do buy Characters and Campaigns you might find them a little intimidating. There are a lot of skills. I'm a very experienced roleplayer and it took me a long time to absorb the skill list. I made players rolls against Pickpocket many times before I discovered that Prestidigitation and Palm Object might have been more appropriate.

It takes time to get used to applying a skill set and choosing suitable modifiers. But if your players are learning with you the main thing is to have fun and keep the game moving.

I've seen it in a shop, and weighing in at a combined approx 600 pages seems epic in scope, for sure. But I suppose a large portion of that is pure reference material so if I continue to run my sessions using GURPS Lite (which all the players have copies of) I don't think things will get too out of hand. I can buy the basic set and read it at my own pace, whilst trying to perfect my GM skills.

Originally Posted by Christian

Hint for the next time you play with inexperienced players: prepare one or two dozen premade chars in advance, and let them choose. Don't bother with char creation for the first session, its too complex for the complete newbie. you could also prepare templates/modules, and thus make char creation significantly more easy. Both works fairly well. Just make sure they understand that this is not how its usually done, just a way to "make things easy for the start". You can always go into more detail later.

Now that the characters have been created, I can more or less form a storyline around the abilities that they've chosen, so they don't somehow feel like they've created useless idiots.

I agree with you though, as this would've been a much easier way to get people into the flow of the game, better to just stick with the characters for the next few sessions before starting a new campaign.

[B9anders]

Originally Posted by Azinctus

I made players rolls against Pickpocket many times before I discovered that Prestidigitation and Palm Object might have been more appropriate.

? Those aren't skills.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by DrDraxium

Does such a resource or example exist? I'm aware of TheMook's combat examples which have been a great help, but nothing that encompasses the entire experience.

I run a weekly game online and post all the chat logs here:

http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks

You get to see all the die rolls and actions as well as a lot of the rules questions and rules arguments. It's probably the closest thing to what you're looking for.

[DrDraxium]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

I run a weekly game online and post all the chat logs here:

http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks

You get to see all the die rolls and actions as well as a lot of the rules questions and rules arguments. It's probably the closest thing to what you're looking for.

This is perfect, thankyou :)

[Woodman]

One thing that I've noticed that no matter which resource websites or game mastering blogs that I traipse across, none of them seem to contain blow-by-blow session detail.

You might want to take a look at the Campaign Wiki of Westmarch Saga
http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks
They post the IRC Logs of their Sessions
And there are the Combat Examples, very detailed and explained Example Combats http://www.themook.net/rpg/examples/