GURPS 4th
Edition finally started shipping last week. My copy is due on Monday
and I'm quite excited. Steve Jackson Games now has a forums section
which is distinct from the Pyramid boards which is distinct from the
Usenet boards. I'm not sure if it's the best idea to fragment your
gaming community, but there are lots of GURPS players so it's probably
not too bad.
GURPS Update for 4th Edition was also released last week. I read it and
gives a few clues as to the changes in 4th ed. Lots of advantages are
changed or streamlined or deleted. Same for disadvantages. Same for
skills. The basic mechanics are still present and for the most part
although there are a lot of changes, it's still GURPS.
There is more emphasis on the Infinite Worlds setting. Not obvious
emphasis. But having your "home" tech level and cultural familiarities
are things that you definitely need in a time travel campaign. I think
most people will just ignore it and it will be easy to ignore.
So once I get the books I have to read them and then do better
conversion notes from MechWarrior 3E. I can already tell that I did
many conversions to 3rd ed skills and attributes that are a bit off in
4th ed. Hopefully I can get the conversions done in the next couple of
months, before we get too into the GURPS BattleTech campaign.
A lot of stuff in 4th ed will be brand new to me because they come from
the Compendiums. Although Compendium I and II are practically required
for GURPS books printed in the last few years, I haven't read either
book. The base GURPS 3E Revised rules were good enough for me.
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But since it
is all new and in effect starting over, it gives me a chance to read
each book as it comes out. Once you have a couple of hundred books it's
hard to start reading them. It's just a daunting mountain to climb.
Hopefully with 4th ed I can read the one 240+ page book that comes out
each month.
Now, I'm not expecting GURPS 4E to be the best and most wonderful
system out there. The 3d6 system is just not exciting to me. I think
the way attributes and skills and advantages and combat are done are
just fine. The biggest problem is that it's a 3d6 mechanic where skills
top out relatively quickly (well, 25 is not quickly but doesn't seem
that hard to me).
I like GURPS for it's scope. It tries to cover everything. It obviously
can't, but it does a good job with realistic settings, and at least
that's a good base to start with. I like GURPS because there is lots
and lots of support for it. Because Steve Jackson Games is commited to
the game and is big enough and stable enough to stick around for a long
time.
I like GURPS because there are a lot of licensed sourcebooks. It makes
the game a good hub to hang all my other collections. Conan and Star
Trek and Hellboy and lots of other fascinating worlds have GURPS
sourcebooks. Steve Jackson loves having sourcebooks for worlds that he
likes, even though many of the sourcebooks are marginally profitable.
It's also nice that there are lots of sourcebooks that convert to other
game systems, like Deadlands and the World of Darkness.
GURPS is not perfect. But deep down I like it and couldn't imagine not
collecting this system.
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