As she is looking around, she checks out her coworkers' desks. SinSynn's desk is more of a hovel than a desk, covered in slimy ick. Lauby's desk is covered in moving boxes and sternly worded warning letters. Dethtron's desk is cobwebby and barren, his voicemail light blinking steadily implying many messages. Von's desk is mostly neat, but has a large pile of Beards Quarterly stacked about the edge. There's an empty desk, waiting the newest arrival to the nuthouse network.
Loquacious starts to gather her very cute purse and keys when the main phone rings. She looks at the phone crossly, and picks up after apparently debating for a moment or two.
"House of Paincakes, Harrassment Free Workplace since... today, how may I help you?'
Loquacious listens as the voice on the other end prattles on for quite some time. She holds up her finger as if to interject (even though the caller can't see her) and interrupts after a bit.
"You just HAD ONE, and I filled in for you THEN, too. Look, I don't care if we're both wordy roleplaying wackos, why is it always me? Oh. Well, I'll do it for Hark, since she asked, then."
'Lo hangs up and sits back down at her desk, a resigned look plastered on her face. She looks in another drawer for a beer and comes up empty there, too. She opens her purse and fishes out a pen, turns on her computer, and sits down to work.
Welcome to another Games Anatomy. I'm talking about another "sand box" style RPG, very similar in nature to HERO. I'll be looking at GURPS.
GURPS is a sand box RPG developed by Steve Jackson Games. It is a class-less point buy system and runs off of 3D6, with the idea being to roll under the target number- very much like HERO.
It has open scaled point based character generation, with lower levels being "normals" and higher points being the more exotic stuff.
GURPS has pre-built templates for alternate races such as elf, dwarf, robot, etc. In many ways, the GURPS character building experience is like a White Wolf one, where you build your basic premise and then add a template onto whatever you have. The four basic building blocks of GURPS allow for full customization of just about anything you want.
The blocks of Attributes, Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills all allow a person to make a highly involved character, with incredible granularity and detail. They also allow you to "game the system" somewhat through careful understanding of the disadvantages and how to gain points back so you can build something even bigger and badder than your first idea. GMs have to either be smarter than their players or know the system very well in order to avoid overpowered characters.
While GURPS and HERO are similar in style and description, there are some serious differences in execution. GURPS and HERO both have math heavy combat systems, with lots of dice, with HERO using a standard formula for doing and applying damage every time. GURPS is a little different in that it has what I mentally think of as "Stacks" for combat, with each type of damage being figured differently and then combined together. (At least that's how I process it; other people seem to be able to do it seamlessly and I just can't.)
GURPS gives you two "basic books" for making characters and starting play. All the rest of the information you might want or need is contained in supplement and system books such as SPACE or NINJAS (really!). Every supplement includes new templates, new information and equipment, and allows a totally modular experience. A GM can use some Cyber, some Western and some Prehistoric if so desired, and everything can and will work together. (Maybe this is what D&D Next is hoping to do? I don't know.)
There is a definite lack of premade stuff for PCs to face, but none of the GMs I know have ever found this to be an issue. They just make up their own stuff.
GURPS and HERO seem almost identical on the face- same point buy idea, same classless system, same sandbox premise and same flexibility to build whatever you desire. I have to admit that I really don't like GURPS, though. I've tried it several times, with the idea in my head that I --LOVE-- HERO and GURPS should be an easy transition for me. I'm used to the bell curve and the generation concepts, so they shouldn't be too far from each other.
However, in reality, I find that GURPS is just different enough that I don't enjoy it. GURPS was always intended to be a core engine that you plugged other things into to build something else, and it shows. When you take all the supplements away and just do 'plain old normals'; the flexibility the game prides itself on becomes complexity and slows things down. It's a machine that needs a lot of moving pieces to work well, and when you just focus on one or two pieces at a time, it becomes much tougher to see the beauty of the system.
My brother LOVES GURPS and has been playing it since pretty much forever. He finds that it works better for his style of thinking than HERO, and I definitely understand it takes a certain type of person to want to use GURPS. It's heavily complex and offers infinite possibilities, just like HERO- but to me, it seems crunchier and a lot more complicated. It's also generally more technical and less "comic book-y", which can and does lead to a style of play I don't enjoy.
However, all that being said, the game is fundamentally sound and has a lot of strengths as a sandbox. It offers enormous amounts of creativity and is a virtual heaven for math nerds (even more so than HERO!) that like RPGs. The nearly limitless settings and supplements are a huge bonus to GMS, players and groups that want to mix and match, add more stuff, or just get a little inventive with the world they currently have.
One massive advantage many folks find with GURPS is the Lite Rules, which are available free as a PDF- and it's just 32 pages. The Lite Rules are well laid out and easy to understand, and really encourage the openness and exploration the game is known for. They DO skimp quite a bit on how to resolve combat issues- so if you want to run with nothing but the Lite Rules, you may have some concerns.
However, a free giveaway of easy to understand rules with a logical and easy to understand flow of information is one of the main reasons people get hooked- they get to try before they buy.
So there you have it. This game is totally accessible and absolutely worth a try- you may find you enjoy it, and that's always cool with me. Have fun checking this one out!
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