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17:58, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

IC GURPS, what edition? for possible paranormal/psychic game.

Posted by gladiusdei
gladiusdei
member, 618 posts
Mon 12 Feb 2018
at 20:43
  • msg #1

IC GURPS, what edition? for possible paranormal/psychic game

I am not afraid of learning a new crunchy system, and I have been considering a game that would focus on psychic and paranormal investigators.  It was suggested that I use GURPS, and looking at the list of sourcebooks like psionics, x-files, cops, etc, it seems like it might have a lot for me to use.

my question is, do a lot of people on RPOL like GURPS?  It seems like a lot of people caution others on it since it is so crunchy.

And if so, what edition is most often used?  is there a big difference between editions?
evileeyore
member, 68 posts
GURPS GM and Player
Mon 12 Feb 2018
at 22:07
  • msg #2

Re: IC GURPS, what edition? for possible paranormal/psychic game

Firstly this will be of us to you should you decide to pick up GURPS:
SJGames GURPS Forum:  http://forums.sjgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13



Now on to your direct questions:

gladiusdei:
I am not afraid of learning a new crunchy system, and I have been considering a game that would focus on psychic and paranormal investigators.  It was suggested that I use GURPS, and looking at the list of sourcebooks like psionics, x-files, cops, etc, it seems like it might have a lot for me to use.

Personally I say start out with GURPS 4e Basic and Campaigns.  If you really want to 'get right into it there are four other books that might be very useful:

Psionic Campaigns - This book pretty much covers putting together and running almost any flavor of Psi campaign.  It's a 'high level view' for GMs.  It's use is dependent on how 'skilled' you are at building your own campaigns as a GM.

Psis - This book focuses on premade Psionic Character templates for Players to more easily make characters.  This books 'usefulness' is variable... some groups find having templates a great boon, some eschew templates entirely.  Personally I like to at least look at them to make sure I'm not overlooking something simple and easy to forget when building a character.

Psionic Powers - This is a lot more 'nitty-gritty', it breaks out building Psi powers and has a lot of premade powers with the 'how they were made' bits left in so you can get ideas for yourself.  This set up is also not the "Everything in one Power" style of psionics, so many Players get cranky having to buy multiple different powers (it get's expensive character point-wise, so Uber Power Munchkins have a harder time 'centralizing and optimizing').  Personally I love this book and it's my go-to when making a Psi powered campaign.  A few of my Players hate it.


quote:
my question is, do a lot of people on RPOL like GURPS?

I don't know about 'a lot'.  Every GURPS game I've seen pop up here fills fast, but that's possibly because the people who like GURPS games find few and far between so jump in as soon as one shows up.

quote:
It seems like a lot of people caution others on it since it is so crunchy.

It's not that it's 'crunchy'.  It's really no worse than D&D 3e.  It can have a far greater granularity, but that's on the GM for dragging in every optional rule from every source book...

My words of caution tend to be:  yes, there is a complexity, but ti's no worse than D&D 3e.  The complexity is greater up front during character generation (and sometimes during 'leveling up') as there are far, far, more options.  But once you get to playing complexity of options drops down.

And the rules trend to being 'intuitive' since they try to emulate reality to some degree.

The biggest change most people have to deal with is Turn Length and what Turns actually are.  If you can wrap your head around that (it's not hard), the rest is simple.

(In brief:  Each 'turn' is one second and every character and NPC's turn is 'simultaneous' (yes even the reactive ones).  The stagger/taking turns is just a 'game effect' to ease play.)

quote:
And if so, what edition is most often used?

These days?  4e.

quote:
is there a big difference between editions?

Far smaller than between editions of D&D, but it's just enough that trying to blend editions can led to occasional oddities (like using old campaign sourcebooks tends to be okay, but old 'crunch' books (like using 3e Martial Arts in a 4e game) tends to not work out well).
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 22:19, Mon 12 Feb 2018.
Bornite
member, 38 posts
Mon 12 Feb 2018
at 22:08
  • msg #3

IC GURPS, what edition? for possible paranormal/psychic game

Well, the most recent Gurps game that started had it's wanted number of players (8) within one day and others on the waiting list.  The level of crunch is totally dependent on how many options that you decide to allow (personal suggestion, not many).

Fourth edition is what practically everyone uses now.  However, a lot of the books are for 3rd.  Conversion is fairly easy.  I would use 4th ed.  It cleared up a lot of things that had crept into 3rd ed.

Edit - evileeyore said things better than me ;-)
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 22:21, Mon 12 Feb 2018.
Faceplant
member, 27 posts
Mon 12 Feb 2018
at 22:12
  • msg #4

IC GURPS, what edition? for possible paranormal/psychic game

I never played 3rd, but from what I've seen in the books the 4th edition simplified and unified a lot of things.

As always I'd suggest playing in a game before trying to run it. :)
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