Templatized GURPS

There feels like two versions of GURPS out there, the normal 4th Edition rules, and a more "class focused" version of the game (using the same rules) that heavily uses templates for character design. There are rules for templates in the basic 4th Edition rules, but the chapter is very short and the templates are a bit, well, generic.

When you start exploring things like the GURPS-powered Dungeon Fantasy (more on this later), or some of the various web supplements from Warehouse 23, you begin to see more and more templates pop up to guide character design. This is the real value to some of these PDF guide, you get page after page of character templates that flavor your campaign with all sorts of cool character builds to choose from, create NPCs from, and study for ideas.

They aren't "classes" and even in the rulebook they tell you - break these if you want to - but they give you a fast and easy way to build a character through a series of lists and "al a carte" menu choices around a central theme. The lists have enough variety that not every character built from a template will be the same, like you could build a medic soldier or engineer soldier, so you still have room to customize (with well-designed templates).

Guidance, Not Limits

They don't limit you, but give you more options, which is how I like a design system to work. If you really, really want a spell-flinging fighter, save some points from somewhere in your template and buy that magic skill and spells you have your eye on - you are still playing GURPS so the "rule zero" is "buy what you want and what makes sense."

In a way, templates are a good idea, since it gives you a theme to a character as a starting point, and the you take it from there. One of the huge weaknesses of a point-buy character creation system is your designs tend to get "samey" the more you play the game, since if you find something that works well in one playthrough there is nothing stopping you from buying and using that again in another. Even if it doesn't make sense.

But you can't eat chocolate chip cookies all the time. And even I get sick of the same old shtick over and over again. It reminds me of the current build de jour that always seems to be floating out in the pen-and-paper community for whatever game is hot right now. I am sure GURPS has these too, and they are almost unavoidable unless you stick to B/X and just give everyone the same basic thing.

I have to admit that is another reason to like B/X, when I get tired of power gaming and just want to enjoy the on-the-metal version of roleplaying with the options and classics I treasure. But there is a charm to point-buy too, and GURPS is a good system for that and my current choice got that type of game.

I looked into Hero 6th, but I still have my 3rd or 4th Edition big blue book and I have no reason to buy a new one at the moment. And it has also been 10+ years for 6th and I want to see if they will do another run of color printed books instead of the PoD ones currently for sale. If they do a 7th Edition Kickstarter with stitch sewn color hardcover books for Hero, I am all in.

Character Design Flow

I like how the templates read as a "choose your own adventure" book, you go to a section, and you have to pick X points from this list of skills, powers, or abilities. And then you go to the next area and do the same. You get advantage and disadvantage lists. You get magic powers. You get combat skills. Ability score bonuses, and so on.

I wish more games were like this, where the random elements were taken out, and you just designed a character through a class-focused series of lists and choices, and you ended up with a character ready to play by the end and you are good to go. I would even say equipment should be linked to these choices or similarly guided along.

For a GURPS style game it speeds everything up is players are not constantly fighting over the book to choose this or that, and you can instead hand everyone a print-out with the choices they get to make and let them all work on their characters at the same time without book reference (other than Q&A about what a choice does, which the referee can answer).

Also, if a player really wants a power or ability off the list they are working with, they know the cost, and really need it - ask the referee and get a green light for the change. This is something I would do on a per-request basis, since you want to tamp down power gaming and you don't want to break the flavor of the templates and the world that forged them.

Solo Play

Templates are a lot easier for me to solo play, since I have the template, the choices are in front of me, and all I need to do is run down the lists and make choices. I am not sorting through a book and min-maxing based on my default class-design bias. I am being forced out of my safe-space and challenging myself to different builds and abilities.

I can get choice-paralysis in a game like GURPS just given the book and nothing else. There is so much there I have no idea what I want to do or where to start. If someone tells me, "design an archer with this template and play this scenario" - I can do that. If someone says, "here is nothing and design a character to do anything" I am going to sit there with a stupid look on my face and likely go back to videogames.

Templates give me a very strong solo-play starting point, and give me that initial momentum I need to get my imagination flowing and the story going inside my head. With a blank do anything design system, I find it hard to even get started. This is also a problem from software design, having a detailed specification document, goal, and problem you are solving is a lot easier of a task to complete than someone walking up to you and saying, "make me a game or app."

I really like templates and wished more games used them, and even eliminated some of the random elements in the design process for more meaningful and flavorful choices.