I'm new to GURPS and have a few questions.

[Tom32123]

Hello, I'm Tom32123. I'm new to GURPS and need some clarification about some stuff in the main books.

Question 1: In page 17 of the Basic Set - Characters book, It says to get A characters Basic Speed, You need to "add your HT and DX together, and then divide the total by 4. Do not round it off. A 5.25 is better than a 5!", When Itry to do this, By adding a normal human's 10 HT and 10 DX together, And then dividing by four, I get 12.5, Where apparently the normal basic speed is 5.
Also: This is what I'm entering into my calculator: 10+10/4. Incase that's incorrect, Let me know.

Question 2: In order to get aquainted to the Combat rules, I wish to set up an arena of sorts. How would I go about doing that? To clarify, I mean "Arena" as in a place to have two or more characters fight eachother so I can get the hang of combat.

Question 3: Is there some sort of list of GURPS games accepting (very very) new members? If so, Could someone redirect me to that list, If it exists?

Thanks a lot, Have a good day.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Tom32123

It says to get A characters Basic Speed, You need to "add your HT and DX together, and then divide the total by 4. Do not round it off. A 5.25 is better than a 5!", When Itry to do this, By adding a normal human's 10 HT and 10 DX together, And then dividing by four, I get 12.5, Where apparently the normal basic speed is 5.

Oh dearie dearie me.

[Tom32123]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Oh dearie dearie me.

Is something wrong? This is a bit of an old book too, It might be outdated.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Tom32123

Question 1: In page 17 of the Basic Set - Characters book, It says to get A characters Basic Speed, You need to "add your HT and DX together, and then divide the total by 4. Do not round it off. A 5.25 is better than a 5!", When Itry to do this, By adding a normal human's 10 HT and 10 DX together, And then dividing by four, I get 12.5, Where apparently the normal basic speed is 5.
Also: This is what I'm entering into my calculator: 10+10/4. Incase that's incorrect, Let me know.

The problem here is order of operations. Your calculator should have ( parenthesis ) on it, so type in (10+10) / 4. 20 divided by 4 is 5. It's important that you understand how to do such operations, by hand or on a calculator, as arithmetic is used frequently throughout the character creation process (though not much more than most RPG systems).

Question 2: In order to get aquainted to the Combat rules, I wish to set up an arena of sorts. How would I go about doing that? To clarify, I mean "Arena" as in a place to have two or more characters fight eachother so I can get the hang of combat.

I'd start with just some simple characters. Don't bother giving them a full write up at first, just the four basic stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Health), the sub-attributes derived from them (Hit Points, Basic Lift, Basic Speed, Move, Will, Perception) and a few combat skills at a modest level (skill level 12 or so). Give each one basic armor and a weapon, plus maybe a shield, and run them through their paces.

For simple character creation, you may want to start with GURPS Lite (available for free from Warehouse 23). The creation process is the same, but it uses a pared down list of skills, advantages and equipment that may be easier to handle at first. It also has somewhat simplified combat rules, which should serve as a fine introduction.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Oh dearie dearie me.

I quite agree, it is both depressing and sad.

Originally Posted by Tom32123

Hello, I'm Tom32123. I'm new to GURPS and need some clarification about some stuff in the main books.

Question 1: In page 17 of the Basic Set - Characters book, It says to get A characters Basic Speed, You need to "add your HT and DX together, and then divide the total by 4. Do not round it off. A 5.25 is better than a 5!", When Itry to do this, By adding a normal human's 10 HT and 10 DX together, And then dividing by four, I get 12.5, Where apparently the normal basic speed is 5.
Also: This is what I'm entering into my calculator: 10+10/4. Incase that's incorrect, Let me know.

'add your HT and DX together' => HT 10 + DX 10 = 20
'and then divide the total by 4' => 20 / 4 = 5

What you have done is divided DX by 4 and then added HT => 10/4 = 2.5 + 10 = 12.5

This is really basic maths, and you're probably going to struggle if you don't understand that.

[Tom32123]

Ah, Thanks! I'll also check out GURPS Lite. Many thanks. :)

[DanHoward]

Get rid of the calculator. Doing what the book says is less likely to lead to errors.

add your HT and DX together
10 + 10 = 20

and then divide the total by 4
20 / 4 = 5

[Figleaf23]

Some of the details of things learned in school may not stick with everyone.

GURPS does involve quite a bit of figuring, so a refresher may be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_arithmetic

[samd6]

Originally Posted by Tom32123

Question 3: Is there some sort of list of GURPS games accepting (very very) new members? If so, Could someone redirect me to that list, If it exists?

Best place for that here would be the PbP sub-forum

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by samd6

Best place for that here would be the PbP sub-forum

...which is over here. Dunno if there's anything on at the moment, but arena-style games do pop up every now and again, so keep an eye on it.