This is a challenging game. I like GURPS, and the character design is so good it kills 5E for me. Why am I wasting my time with a preset level one to twenty design done by game designers I don't know and who have a different idea of what fun is than me? Or is the only joy being multiclass exploits found by the community? Why do I need to wait for new versions of games and spend all this money on a patch?
I can design a better character myself.
I don't need levels or classes, even though Dungeon Fantasy tries to do 'classes' as templates - you do not have to follow them or obey the guidelines. If I want to pull powers in from GURPS Superheroes or the main GURPS rulebooks, I can.
But all this comes at a price. Characters are so in-depth an electronic character creation tool is needed. I have been using GURPS Character Sheet (GCS) and learning that, which is pretty handy - consider being a backer if you use this. The nice part about this over GURPS Character Assistant (GCA) is you can access every book without defining a library of books (and worrying about conflicts). You need to know where everything lives, so the learning curve requires a little system knowledge of what is in what book.
GCA is more new-player friendly once you understand libraries.
GCS has features you want if your shelves are full of GURPS books.
Both work fine with Dungeon Fantasy.
Most people also use an electronic character sheet with 5E, so this is not a considerable drawback beyond the learning curve. The more important factors are the rules, combat, 3d6, and the game's learning curve.
Conversion from B/X monsters is trivial:
- Hits = HD x 10
- Attack Skill, Parry = 10 + Attack Bonus
- Dodge = 6 to 10, estimate
- Damage = As listed, plus special effects as needed
- Special Damage = 1d3 or 1d6 per HD (or 5 character points per HD for a power)
- DR = estimate based on armor
You don't need much more than the attack skill. You need special attacks, defenses, and any other skill level - base those on the creature's attack skill. Does it have 3 HD and a special attack? It does either 1d6+3 or 3d6, depending on how frequently it can be used. Not everything should be handled "by the rules" to the letter, and you don't need a complete character sheet for every monster - a rough estimation of a few numbers is really all you need.
Combat can be as straightforward or as in-depth as you desire. One of the big mistakes many make when playing the game is following every combat rule. Download GURPS Lite - this is all you need for combat rules 99% of the time, and most of the time:
- Attack Roll
- Defense Roll
- Roll for Damage
DR and penetrating damage modifiers are the only difference from D&D damage. The attack roll is just like D&D, but a roll under skill. A defense roll is under a target number, depending on the chosen defense. Other combat rules? Shock is a GURPS standby. Major wounds, knockdowns, and stunning are other great rules that add grit to combat. Combat in GURPS is far better than 5E and goes as deep as you can imagine - but it can stay at the default GURPS Lite level if that is not your thing. GURPS has a negative reputation for complex combat, which it shouldn't.
You must understand and reference a fraction of 5E in page count. About 100 pages for all options for all classes. All the spells are about 80 pages of choices. Gamemaster info and rules? 100 pages. And you really only need to read 10% of each to get the hang of it. 3d6 and roll less than a number is 99% of the rules you need to know.
But the character builds are amazing. Whenever I pull GURPS off the shelf, I sit there a little shocked, saying, "Why am I playing 5E? This gives me everything." I am not waiting for powers to be given to my class; if I want something part of another class role for a character, I can have it, and the lame choices a designer being paid by the word isn't going to make my character weak.
Oh, the ranger class sucks.
This class isn't any good unless you dip a level into a warlock.
Why play a rogue?
The 2024 books will fix everything!
Um, why do I trust those designers? I have a book where I can design characters with a point-buy system on my shelf. I don't have to wait for new books or pay for anything more than a single-box game. I am not flipping through a 5E book, taking what the designers give me, and feeling left out because of something I wanted in another class I can't have.
I am 'the' game designer.
I can frankly do a better job than any design team in any version of 5E. Especially with something as simple as a character build. Also, have you ever played a game where a class's limitations made you quit? The class couldn't do everything you wanted it to do, or the mental image in your head was way better than the class the game gave you? The 5E ranger and survival skills come to mind. 5E has terrible exploration and survival rules, and you have to play A5E just to get something halfway decent.
GURPS? Every Minecraft survival skill is there; you can even prospect for ores and minerals. You can fish, set traps, hunt, scout, build shelters, predict the weather, hike, navigate, create maps, and so much more. Creating a map for a trail and prospecting for minerals along the route is an adventure in GURPS, with monster combats and finding lost ruins as icing on the cake. In 5E? We must pay writers by the word to write a module like that. In GURPS, you have skills, baby! Use them.
The adventures in GURPS are 90% using your skill list, and the enemies trying to prevent you from doing that. You may be on an adventure to use a skill at a particular location, and the entire adventure is trying to survive and get there. The best adventures in GURPS are simple tasks with a vast unknown factor that are very difficult. In sci-fi, deliver this mining robot to a remote digging site on a moon in another star system. The adventure is the space pirates, solar storm, micrometeoroid impact, unknown alien contact, engine failure, distress call, and a dozen other things going wrong.
The same goes for fantasy; copy runes from an engraving of this ruin and bring them back here.
If you think you need this giant story to play GURPS, you don't. The game is primarily a sandbox simulator, like Minecraft, and adopting that 'do simple things' mentality where you 'use the skills you are given' gets you a long way in GURPS. Dungeons don't need to be more than a few rooms. You create a lot of the adventure yourself. Your skill list drives the adventure and action. What tries to stop you is the opposition and where your combat fun comes from.
Want more things to do?
Get character points as experience and buy a few more skills. Improve your fishing or prospecting, and sell what you gather. Skin hides and barter them. Sell the maps you make. You could go to a dungeon, take notes on everything rune and tablet in there, use your history skill to figure out when they were made, write a book on it, and sell that to someone interested for a considerable profit. Is this even a thing in 5E? If you paid a module writer by the word to create an adventure like that, maybe - but in GURPS, you have skills, baby! The only limit is imagining how to use them (and make a profit doing so).
GURPS is the game of using your skills to side-hustle the hell out of the campaign world.
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