GURPS Lite Supplements

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Beoferret

For that matter, how about a Transhuman Space Lite or Traveller Lite?

I've done a tweak of GURPS Lite for 4/e specifically for Traveller, mostly for my own use. I offered it gratis to The Powers That Be, but they didn't bite.

[BaHalus]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Sounds like a fun and useful project.

Hawthorne Magic is a big web of spells and prerequisistes. Even the "short form" presented in Basic is a dozen pages. For something that will fit in 4 I'd basically drop the Collges and prereqs (apart from Magery at least), and instead give a simple list of adventure-useful spells. A few utilities, a couple each healing and attack, buffs and afflictions, some information-gathering and movement, etc. Definitely include a note that the full system is more complicated and will introduce special requirements for learning spells.

maybe just a small tweaking making a straight prerequisite chain. You could use the grimorium of the character sheets and list the spells and stats saying that all spells above a spell are prerequisites of the spells below. One with 6 or 9 spells for each college with 6 to 9 colleges. Could be simple enough and without violating rules as only what would be in a character sheet would be there.

And it would be interesting to use only simple spells so you don't have to take the book to remember what the spell does.

[benz72]

I've often though about a bunch of 5ish page GLite 'setting templates' that would provide the extreme basics for common adventuring genera

Old West
Supers
Modern Zombies
Victorian Cabal (Mummy, Vampire, Jekyl & Hyde stuff)
Space Trader (Firefly, Traveller)
Spec-Ops
etc.

All with page references to the real books so when a group is ready to move into full GURPS it easy to translate, and to serve as constant reminders that the good crunch is right around the corner.

[Beoferret]

Originally Posted by thrash

I've done a tweak of GURPS Lite for 4/e specifically for Traveller, mostly for my own use. I offered it gratis to The Powers That Be, but they didn't bite.

Wonder why? Did they give any reason? On the surface, it'd seem like they'd love to have submissions like that, even if they did require some editing (how much would it cost for one of the main writers to spend an hour or two editing a 5 page document?).

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by Beoferret

Wonder why? Did they give any reason? On the surface, it'd seem like they'd love to have submissions like that, even if they did require some editing (how much would it cost for one of the main writers to spend an hour or two editing a 5 page document?).

Enough good free content and no one will buy any longer. I think that might have something to do with it. Whereas Lite + a few pages of homebrew will support a specific game just fine, but won't detract from sales -- many GMs do similar work in handouts for players before introducing new campaigns.

[wellspring]

Another cool result of GURPS Lite is that one fan can propose and GM a game. The other players, who play D&D4 or White Wolf (and are perhaps dissatisfied?) get to play GURPS without buying books to get started. Once they're hooked, they buy the basic set and become GURPS players.

This is pretty much what I'm doing ATM. I have a big library of books, but my players only need Lite to get started in my campaign.

I can't believe we're on page 2 without asking this, but David, where is your new FLGS? I'm sure players in your area will love frequenting a SJGames-friendly store.

[JoeStrout]

I'm brand new to GURPS, and I got into it specifically because my gaming group wants to do superheroes for our next campaign, and one of us had heard that GURPS Supers is the best implementation of that.

So, I did a little research, and bought the minimum set of books for that: Basic Set, Powers, and Supers. That was about a month ago, and I've now waded through most of the 2000 or so pages of material... and criminey, this thing is complicated! Attributes, advantages, skills, powers, talents, techniques, maneuvers... oh, bog!

I've seen numerous suggestions on the net that GURPS is like a cow: you shouldn't try to swallow it all at once. GURPS Supers has one useful suggestion: ignore talents, and replace most of the detailed skills with wildcard skills (like Science!). OK, that's a good start, but it's still too much. Even if I invest long hours in wrapping my head around it, my players are never going to go for it.

So I've just re-read GURPS Lite, and it seems like a very playable system for normals. If there were a "Supers" supplement to this, it would be ideal for my group's first campaign. I'd love something 20 pages or less, that adds super powers to what's in GURPS Lite, without adding any more new concepts than absolutely necessary.

Has anybody tried to extend Lite in the Supers direction? Any suggestions for a newbie on how to approach this?

Thanks,
- Joe

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

Enough good free content and no one will buy any longer.

I wonder, though, if it would benefit SJG to produce genre expansions for GURPS Lite, sort of like what Wellspring seems to be looking for, and just sell them on w23 as pdfs. They wouldn't be free, and they wouldn't have nearly the same options as full GURPS, but they'd let new GMs and players ease into the game before going whole-hog with the full Basic Set and sourcebooks.

[Refplace]

I dont think Supers would do well as a Lite book.
A template series like the DF line would be nice but there is too much content and variety in the Supers genre for a lite version to be very satisfying.

More specifically for you starting a new campaign I recommend the following.

• You do not need to know all the rules just where they are. Get the free utility PDFs off E23 to help speed play.

• Have an introductory game to keep it simple and showcase a few things. And tell the players that GURPS is modular and you can do things simple and easy or more complicated for more choices in combat, play or building characters. Dont worry about doing ti all in the beginning just add to it when your ready.

• Either ask the players what kind of Super they want to play and build them yourself (and feel free to post and ask on this forum) or build a handful of PCs you think they might like and that will fit the game. Then offer them a choice. Later on you may have a radiation accident or something change a PC or just let them make a new one.

[shawnhcorey]

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

Enough good free content and no one will buy any longer.

Yeah, after WotC came out with SRD20, it was all they could do from going bankrupt.

Not.