For those of us wondering how GURPS Dungeon Fantasy plays and trying to grasp what is going on with this game, please take a moment to read the Example of Play in the Dungeon Fantasy Exploits book on pages 103-104. And don't blast through this; slow down and read it action by action - you will learn a lot.
The first interaction with the thief refusing to touch the locked door unless the mage scans it for magic tells us a lot about the game - this is a game about information. The more you have, the better your chances of success. This is the heart of GURPS, and good game masters will use this fact to leverage success in skill rolls to advantage in avoiding danger, getting the advantage in combat, solving problems, and completing the mission.
Dungeon Fantasy spells are fun and much better than the simplistic 5E magic and MMO-like cantrips. You have a lot of magic, all particular and helpful spells, and they can all be used in many ways. Each spell is a skill, and building your mage will shape who you are - a unique and memorable magic system that offers casters infinite creativity when using spells in fun ways. Spells can also be more minor, scoped, and specific, helping out in a single situation like detecting magic on a lock (or anything else).
Environments and situations should be littered with little things that use skills, writings on walls, history, footprints on the floor for tracking, construction features for engineering, and every other skill on the list. If characters don't have it, they will want it when it comes up, and everyone fails the skill roll. Activities like navigation, map making, survival, social interaction, history, dungeon engineering, research, and activities that use every skill on the list are essential!
Every skill roll you make ticks up that invisible victory point total that a GM should keep track of in their mind for the adventure. Every skill roll you make should be reflected as a tangible advantage in the game or contribute to a good outcome overall.
Also, note that disadvantages are roleplayed! GURPS is never a "self-insert" game like D&D or Pathfinder, one where the company encourages you to "put yourself in the game" and "the game is an identity brand." GURPS is more like the Sims, where you create a unique character with flaws and advantages and "sim" the character through a situation. You are always a step removed from the character, and it is never ever "you as the character."
Understand this. This is a clear break between today's corporatist lifestyle-brand games and GURPS. One character in this example of play has a laziness disadvantage. You know what would happen in today's landscape, "Are you calling me - the player - LAZY?!"
Triggered! X card!
No, the character you designed has a disadvantage in the game called laziness. This is not you. This is your "Sims character," and you are responsible for directing them around the dungeon. No one is calling a player lazy. This is a simulation game. Take a step back. Their disadvantages could get them into bad situations like in the Sims. When we picked that disadvantage for character points, we accepted the risks and outcomes and looked forward to seeing it used in-game.
This is the fun of GURPS across any genre and any setting.
This is also why we can never have a GURPS 5th Edition. Everything remotely challenging to our well-being would be removed from the game; it would no longer be the "character simulator" we love. GURPS is not a rose-colored mirror reflecting a fake cartoon fantasy that invites you to self-insert. It is an untouched photograph with warts, wrinkles, stretch marks, scars, bad hair, dumb expressions, out-of-focus pictures, and everything else that Wall Street uses Photoshop, newspeak, and AI to erase. The Sims have a kleptomaniac and lazy disadvantage, as do GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy. This does not say anything negative about this condition or people with it in the real world - but it reflects this trait in reality.
To take that away ruins the game.
We are flawed, beautiful people. I play games that accept that and reflect us. To be perfect or 'play yourself' is tedious and leads to people moving on from the hobby when something else that caters to self-inserting comes along. Corporatist games make every character perfect, happy people - and thus, everyone is miserable.
I accept my flaws; why can't I do the same for my character? My flaws make me beautiful. Those flaws make us who we are, and we love them as a part of ourselves. They make our characters memorable and exciting. The imperfections make the sparkles of the diamond.
And we love GURPS like we love the Sims since watching characters fail because of their shortcomings - and dealing with the aftermath - is a massive part of the fun.
And we love seeing them succeed despite them.
This is what makes us heroes.
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