So I am setting up my gaming table to get back into GURPS after a while away. I know some dislike the system due to its crunchiness and complexity, but I am a sucker for rich, complex systems that give me a lot of freedom to design characters myself and build my own characters the way I want them.
I have a full set of GURPS books, but I am starting with GURPS Lite to get myself into the swing of things. Just something simple to get going, then the basic set to have fun with. We will talk about Dungeon Fantasy another day - but that is coming up.
GURPS to me, is what Aftermath was to us back in the day. A complex, do-everything, toolbox of a game that does everything. You learn one structure and one design system, and any genre and character is open to you.
Choices Made For You
The lack of build freedom is one of the reasons why I can't get too very deep into B/X, D&D, or even Pathfinder. In many of the d20 style games it feels like the designers make the bad choices for you, limit your options, tell you you can't wear this or wield that, and give you prepacked spells, abilities, and skills. In commercial games they splat-book and expand options as they go, ruining balance and the original feel, and then it is time for a new version. I feel B/X is partially a response to the ever-shifting splat-book economy of today's commercial games.
That said, GURPS has its problems. Combat is the traditional slow hex-by-hex model unless you cut out 90% of the options that make it interesting. That said, I feel GURPS combat is still more straightforward than the D&D 3.x interrupt-driven economy of combat and special rules layered everywhere and into every possible place a game can put rules. GURPS combat is still the same sort of Car Wars style "flowchart" model where there are set, established steps, standard modifiers for stuns and other special situations, and every combat follows the same structure.
I know this type of flow from both Car Wars and Aftermath, so the combat does not intimidate me.
Character Design
But the character design gets me. I spent a while in many B/X games looking for the perfect this or that. The best bard class, the best paladin, the best ranger, and so on. I started comparing B/X games based on the strength of their class designs and how mechanically interesting they were. This is how you begin down the road D&D 3.x and later. In these games, the designers do all the game design work for you and hand you "what is good."
In GURPS, my perfect bard or paladin, singy, magicy, smitey, swashbuckling, tanky, thiefy, holy, or whatever - is exactly what I want them to be. And the other bard or paladin across the room? Designed a little different, but their class is built by their idea of what the class is to them, and it conforms to their personality. Not everyone is cookie cutter. Not every build around a class concept is the same.
That bard is a different type of bard than my bard, and not because they had a couple of build choices. They had ALL of the build choices. Learn magic? Tank? Bow? Bow with music magic? Healing music? Buffing music? Combat music? Sonic blasts? Whatever.
And that is cool.
Expectations vs. Design Reality
And while the games usually start great for us, and it was this way in 4th Edition D&D, the designs begin to feel like they limit us more and more as we level up. The designers had one or two ideas on how a class should "play" at higher levels, and those rarely matched the ideas we had for them when we started. We ended up missing how the classes felt at low levels since those were more true to our ideas, and the high level play (when classes fall into their roles) diverged from what we were finding fun about the game.
Sure a ranger could tank at low levels...but as time went on, the ranger started sucking as a tank, the player felt they were being shoved to the back ranks, and the role protection of the tank classes became more and more clear. The player loved being the swashbuckling front line fighter with a bow, and that self-image of their role and powers gradually eroded and they became a ranged DPS back rank (or flanking) support class.
What was fun for him at low levels was gone. The designers wanted the ranger there, and that progression was designed into the game. You were supposed to "learn" your role, but ultimately the game fell flat for us as a couple dozen characters felt more and more constrained into preset roles chosen by a designer who didn't play in our group. And several of our players chose the sucky broken classes that later got changed or revised, so they we stuck with a bad choice that was never play tested all that well by the designers.
Why It Appeals to Me
GURPS? No classes, design your character the way you want to play. Done. You are the game designer. Cheese all you want, or design a balanced and toolbox character that does everything you want them to do. Your game change focus? Pick up those skills. You want to be a ranger-tank? It is possible, just mix and match abilities to your pleasure.
If you enjoy what you like, that is great! If you hate GURPS, I understand, and I haven't always been a huge fan of the game, but I appreciate the options and flexibility it gives me. At this time in my life, with the time I have, it is a great option for me to spend time with, and I find enjoyment here. That is what this hobby is all about, finding your space and what you like, and sharing with others. It is not the best fit for me personally, but it is the best for right now given other options.
Part of me likes seeing what other designers come up with, but another part of me is that part that gets let down by the divergence between my expectations and the designer's late-game concept of the class. Part of the problem is many designers get cute and hide the designs and late-game roles, intending you to discover them, and I want those to be clear up-front due to the time investment put into characters. Especially if your time is limited, I prefer to have the freedom to build character my way than constantly jump to new games looking for the perfect class I could design myself in GURPS.
But by all means, if you love this game, or another, be passionate about it and let people know why. Right now, that character design system in GURPS is very appealing to me, a box of infinite possibilities and options waiting for me to explore it and adventure through all the possible outcomes.
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