The Fantasy Trip: GURPS Dual-Use

One of the best things about investing in Fantasy Trip is that the maps, counters, and hex geo-morphs are all 100% compatible with GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy. If you need to throw together a hex dungeon or cave, just pull them out of the box and play with any of the three games. The blank, white hexes could be anything from a dungeon to the interior of a space station.

You can use counters or figures. These are highly useful game pieces by themselves.

The rules are a simplified "origin source" cousin to GURPS, so they are different but familiar - but highly simplified.  There is a companion RPG called Into the Labyrinth, which provides simplified roleplaying, exploration, and expanded talents for combat. So, this game is a full-fledged RPG in its own right. Where GURPS has 5, 10, and 15-point abilities, TFT has 1, 2, and 3-point ones. They are comparable but a subset of the ones you would find in a generic game and more suited for a "hex-based dungeon skirmish" world.

I like this game; it is a skirmish-focused RPG, with card-based character sheets, simple characters, and fast combats, which I feel is underserved in our hobby. The last great one was the tabletop RPG Mordheim by Games Workshop. Like that game, TFT can be deadly and brutal, so you need to be a careful dungeon crawler to survive.

There is also a considerable amount of random tables and solo RPG support, so if you want to randomly generate a campaign or dungeon and stock the place with monsters and loot, nothing stops you.

This is close to being a perfect game for me. I will have something I can randomly create dungeons with, keep characters on simple 3x5 cards, set up on a table, use figures with, and crawl through the halls searching for treasure and glory.

Does it matter there are only two character types, melee and mage? Not really, since the talent system lets you personalize, and in most games, there are mainly those two archetypes. It keeps it simple.

If I want more detailed characters with nuance and maximum customization, I have Dungeon Fantasy.