Narrativism in GURPS

[nanoboy]

My wife and I are about to have our first baby, and I have little time before a forced hiatus into fatherhood. It looks like I have one more chance to run a game before my life makes a big change, so I decided to do a one-shot. I recently picked up Spirit of the Century by Evil Hat Games, and it looked pretty good, so that's what I'm going with.

Spirit of the Century is a game that uses the Fate system (which is derived from the FUDGE "system--" I say "system," since it's not really a system but a way to make a system.) The game itself is pretty far from GURPS in how it handles things. Most stuff is kind of hand-waved. For instance, you run out of bullets, if the GM thinks it would be interesting or dramatic for you to do so. Or, when you take enough damage, you describe the consequence to your own character, and if the GM likes it, that's what happens. That's one of the things that's neat about it. There are several ways that players can add to the game world. They can make up facts with the Academics skill, put Aspects (descriptive details that have game implications) onto places, make up weird gadgets on the fly, etc.

Spirit of the Century is hardly the only game that does this, but it is the only one I own. As I understand it, games like Houses of the Blooded and Dogs in the Vineyard do it, too. These narrative mechanics get the players more invested in the game, take some work off of the GM's shoulders, and add more flavor to the setting. It's important to know that they are mechanics, too. They're not just fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants stuff. There are rules for how they work.

What I am thinking is that the U in GURPS could be made more accurate, if there was a way to put in some narrative components. (Keep in mind that when I say "narrative," I am not referring to GURPS lacking stories. I'm talking about rules systems that allow players to alter the game world in ways that are outside of their characters' control.) These concepts are apparently in vogue in the indie RPG world right now, and they seem kind of neat. However, most of the indie games lack the level of simulation that GURPS provides for those of us who actually like that sort of thing. Basically, I'm wondering if anyone knows of good ways to elegantly work these ideas into GURPS, because when I am ready to game again, I would love to have my cake and eat it, too.