GURPS

Overall score:

When people think of portable game systems, the first thought is generally Palladium. These days one may start to consider the d20 system as well, what with their assimilation of classic game franchises like Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, Call of Cthulu, and the new Wheel of Time game. However, the idea of a multi-setting and multi-genre RPG system is much older. GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System) is one of the older systems out there, and the first well known universal system on the market; sure it owes a lot to the even older Hero system (the whole idea of building a character instead of "rolling" one up, for example), but GURPS has been able to support its franchise better.

It struck me one evening exactly why GURPS is such a worthy system. I was actually quite bored reading through the manual (the rules can get quite dreary at times if you undertake to memorize them all -- a problem that will be addressed later). When reading the rules on grappling I realized that Steve Jackson's claim that GURPS could be used for everything was in no way whatsoever an exaggeration. You can simulate ANY activity using these rules. The system, particularly the combat system, is so well thought out that you could realistically have a miniature battle on your table top to represent the most bizarre things. In fact, the one that came to mind was a football game. Every play could be simulated, to the off sides rule to each tackle and interception. Wow. I was impressed with the potential I had before me.

Most systems force you to get their next big ($30 - $50) book to find out how to port a game to a new genre. It would be difficult to play a Star Wars game with only the Call of Cthulu rule book, and holding only the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles manual makes it difficult to run a Palladium Robotech campaign. But given only a GURPS Basic Set, a familiarity with the target setting, and a mind for logical connection, you could run a campaign in any of these genres. (Of course, you'll also need a few six sided dice, GURPS doesn't come with them, so raid your Monopoly or Risk game first).

However, what makes GURPS such an amazing system also makes it a bit... unwieldy. If you want the full realism that GURPS has to offer, you're going to have to do a lot of dice rolling and rules checking (or at least memorization). This idea almost seems to suit a miniatures battle game rather than an RPG. Almost.

See, GURPS also makes a point of reminding the reader frequently that rules can be simplified (and goes through the trouble of devoting much page space to explaining how to simplify it -- the short is, if you don't like a rule, don't use it and cover up with a more universal principal already explained). In this sense, it reminds me of Reindeer Games classic TWERPS (The World's Easiest Role Playing System -- one roll character generation and a rule book all of 16 pages). You can have a very basic system that even the newest of newbies can learn.

Or!

You can also have a rule system that could give even the toughest rules lawyer a run for his money. And let's face it, you hear a lot about wanting to simplify a game, but in most role players there lurks a need to bend and understand even the most obscure rule for use to your advantage. It's like the dark side calling forth to use the rule book for evil -- and since the average role player is too weak to use it as a weapon, you use it like an attorney. So the biggest disadvantage GURPS has is only an obstacle when getting through the book on your first read. When it comes time to play, you can either disregard or take advantage of the complications such a detail-oriented set of rules proposes.

As I said before, the game is fundamentally based on "building" a character rather than rolling one up. You get a certain amount of points (usually around 100 if you're not playing with superheroes). You use these points to buy skills and abilities. You get more points as you play more. You get yourself even more points by giving the character disadvantages. The concept is very rudimentary. The complication of rules doesn't interfere much with one exception: there is a long list of advantages, skills, and disadvantages a character may have, and it takes time to become familiar with all the possibilities. However, since the system is based on building rather than randomizing, you can quickly find the item that describes what you want for your character and just read the description for that. You don't need to be familiar with all of the above.

There are no classes like most systems. You design a character completely on your own. There are some pre-generated character sets detailing where all the points came from or went to, and in expansions, races like elves, giants, etc, have detailed how to build a member of the race using the points, but if you want a different kind of elf, you just spend the points differently. You can quickly rate the power of any character, no matter what profession or type of abilities he's focused on, by finding out how many points that was spent on the character. This way, it's very easy to maintain balance in the game and to determine what sort of villain the characters need to face.

There is one other aspect to the system that you should be familiar with: expansions. One gets a picture of the complexity of the system when one discovers that there are about 400 pages worth of expansion called "compendiums" that encompass more abilities, skills, combat rules, confrontation guidelines, etc. Again, GURPS is playable without these, but the source books Steve Jackson Games publishes refer to them frequently, so they're nice to have.

There are two types of GURPS expansions. The first is genre oriented. Things like Supers or Traveller. These are mostly oriented toward detailing settings (in case you don't have time to detail your own -- and let's face it, who does?) and giving a few more universal rules that you may not have thought of that pertain only to that genre. The other kind of GURPS expansions are the real treasures: these are subject based. These are so wonderful because you don't even have to like GURPS to get anything from them. They consist of research on common portrayals of the subject (like fairies, or high technology, or what have you). Yes, they provide some rule suggestions, but the vast majority of the pages in a GURPS supplement are dedicated toward ideas that can be used in any RPG or even story writing.

Yes, the system is complicated. Yes, you probably want to get about three or four books to really be happy playing. But to expand to a new genre you generally only need the first three. Or, if you want to simplify the game, just the Basic Set (you can even find the "lite" rulebook online). There are a number of daunting drawbacks to the system, but most of these are easily overcome when the gaming group decides what rules to play with. The advantages to the system are impressive. You can play anything, anywhere, any time, with any set of abilities. You'd have to try awfully hard to have two characters who are exactly identical. The versatility and detail are truly impressive. The system is older, but is worth checking out.

Written by SaintEhlers on April 30th, 2002