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I dug out my Black ops book the other day and started flipping through the pages of campaign notes, i need to post them one day

GURPS is one of those game systems that I've read a lot about but never played.

greyarea wrote:GURPS is one of those game systems that I've read a lot about but never played.

I remember seeing all the ads in Dragon Magazine back in the 80's. The problem was that we all were stuck on D&D that we never really strayed to another game system. My cousin bought Palladium (I know...not Steve Jackson game...just using it as an example) and we never touched it because we already knew how to play D&D and did not want to waste time learning another system just to do a fantasy RPG.

The concept was pretty cool though. If you knew how to play a GURPS fantasy game, you could easily slip into a GURPS sci-fi game because the rules were supposed to be almost the same. It was probably pretty simple to even mix the genres.

I personally like all my pencil & paper RPGs to have similar mechanics. I understand that publishers want to give their new game a unique feel and offer something different from the rest, but that just isn't my cup-o-tea. It is like Solomon Kane using cards for initiative...or Dungeon Crawl Classics using d16 or d13s...whatever.

Even tried to play it. The game is almost impossible to generate characters in once you get past a certain point as the authors genuinely did put a skill for it (whatever "it" is) somewhere in the game. I always preferred Champions/Hero (at least up to 5e). Effects-based systems are easier to get what you want from than rules-based systems. Mind you, the sourcebooks were always worth buying, no matter whether you had GURPS or not.

"I'm a shepherd. There must be a skill for it."

GURPS Referee: <Gets out Compendium 1> "I'm sure there's a skill in here ..."

Champions Referee: "Sure. Call it Professional Skill: Shepherd, 8 + Int/5, 3 points."

Ah GURPS; the second-most system I think I played back in the halcyon days of youth.

All told, I still enjoy the thing. I still think in terms of "advantages," "disadvantages," "quirks," and so on when it comes to describing newer systems to others as well as still having a stack about 2 ft. thick of books.

The original concept it had was perfect. One rulebook, one sourcebook (which would have any setting specific equipment, skills, advantages and so on) some 6 sided dice and you were golden. But, like all game systems, stuff got bloated the further along it got and the "2 book," aspect was lost at some point.

Best advice I ever heard was to get the GURPS quickstart, a sourcebook and then just go with that in order to keep the headache to a minimum.

I still have my Black Ops book around here somewhere

There is some old GURPS stuff on the clearance rack at my local Hobby shop.

Blood axe wrote:There is some old GURPS stuff on the clearance rack at my local Hobby shop.

That stuff is "old" GURPS stuff? I always passed it by because I thought it was a newer game just with the old titles. Next time I am there I will have to look at the published date on the books. I was gonna head that way today but I have to check the snowy weather forecast.

Well...almost made it there today but only made it to Green Bay due to the Packer game I didn't know about (ugh! The traffic!). I don't care about football or want to know anything about football. I just hope their goalie sucks and they can't get any home runs. Anyway, I made it as far as Gnome Games (the good one...not the the one in that mall) and got me a Tunnels & Trolls 5.5 edition! Why? I guess I just want to finally read it. I have seen it in Dragon Magazines years ago and always wondered about it.

Gurps Cliffhangers was one of my favorite resource materials.
Also Gurps Horror and Space supplements. Well worth the price.