$100 GURPS Recommendation
Feb 02 2023
With $100 what would I recommend for a beginner GURPS campaign? Not necessarily a totally new GM and players, maybe beginner GM (one who has read GURPS and played a few sessions) and new players. With $100 I kind of have to go with PDFs.
Dungeon Fantasy RPG ($40 pdf) - a complete RPG for fantasy dungeon-delving adventuring in the vein of D&D. It takes GURPS, strips out the non-fantasy stuff and presents the remainder in a simpler way while still being full GURPS behind the scenes (e.g. they might present a new advantage that is an existing one modified via GURPS Powers so the point cost is consistent but you don't see the component details). You can buy GURPS Basic Set: Characters and BS: Campaigns for $55 pdf but that's a bit toolkit-y.
Nordlondr Ovinabokin: Bestiary and Enemies Book ($35 pdf) - Gaming Ballistic Viking-flavored setting for Dungeon Fantasy including a few adventures, supplements and monster books. Nordlondr Ovinabokin is the big monster book with almost 200 monsters many of which are patterned after D&D monsters (the author said you can search for D&D monster names to find the equivalent Nordlondr monster).
With the above two you can take many D&D adventures (and there are many free ones online) and mostly convert them to Dungeon Fantasy (one of the hardest parts is converting monsters which is why Ovinabokin is great to have). Older D&D editions are easier because newer ones give monsters their own classes and levels to customize so not simple to convert. Converting free adventures instead of recommending GURPS adventures to buy (there aren't many, a few from Steve Jackson Games, more from Gaming Ballistic, some in old Pyramid magazine issues but none are free) is a bit of a cheat. (Personally I must have literally hundreds of D&D-type adventures from various bundles and sales.)
Delvers to Grow: Core Book ($22.50 pdf) - Dungeon Fantasy sets starting characters at 250 points and provides 11 profession templates which simulate the D&D classes. Pick a template which gives base plus lists to pick from then finish your character. This gives you fairly capable characters, not sure how high but I guess around D&D name level.
Gaming Ballistic's Delvers to Grow: Core is a book for creating beginner characters of 62, 125, and 187 points.
It uses a more modular approach, for example I pick a 62-point strong delver which gives me some base stats. Then 1 pick 2 disadvantage modules (each -25 points), one basic module (25 points, this would be your profession), and one upgrade module (25 points, this is a specialization). So I can end up with a novice holy warrior (basic) who is a demon slayer (upgrade), an arrogant noble (disadvantage) and fortune's fool (disadvantage).
I like this book for a campaign that starts out with beginner heroes and I'm more of a zero-to-hero sort of player.
The three books is $97.50 and I'm surprised I was under budget.
Dungeon Fantasy RPG ($40 pdf) - a complete RPG for fantasy dungeon-delving adventuring in the vein of D&D. It takes GURPS, strips out the non-fantasy stuff and presents the remainder in a simpler way while still being full GURPS behind the scenes (e.g. they might present a new advantage that is an existing one modified via GURPS Powers so the point cost is consistent but you don't see the component details). You can buy GURPS Basic Set: Characters and BS: Campaigns for $55 pdf but that's a bit toolkit-y.
Nordlondr Ovinabokin: Bestiary and Enemies Book ($35 pdf) - Gaming Ballistic Viking-flavored setting for Dungeon Fantasy including a few adventures, supplements and monster books. Nordlondr Ovinabokin is the big monster book with almost 200 monsters many of which are patterned after D&D monsters (the author said you can search for D&D monster names to find the equivalent Nordlondr monster).
With the above two you can take many D&D adventures (and there are many free ones online) and mostly convert them to Dungeon Fantasy (one of the hardest parts is converting monsters which is why Ovinabokin is great to have). Older D&D editions are easier because newer ones give monsters their own classes and levels to customize so not simple to convert. Converting free adventures instead of recommending GURPS adventures to buy (there aren't many, a few from Steve Jackson Games, more from Gaming Ballistic, some in old Pyramid magazine issues but none are free) is a bit of a cheat. (Personally I must have literally hundreds of D&D-type adventures from various bundles and sales.)
Delvers to Grow: Core Book ($22.50 pdf) - Dungeon Fantasy sets starting characters at 250 points and provides 11 profession templates which simulate the D&D classes. Pick a template which gives base plus lists to pick from then finish your character. This gives you fairly capable characters, not sure how high but I guess around D&D name level.
Gaming Ballistic's Delvers to Grow: Core is a book for creating beginner characters of 62, 125, and 187 points.
It uses a more modular approach, for example I pick a 62-point strong delver which gives me some base stats. Then 1 pick 2 disadvantage modules (each -25 points), one basic module (25 points, this would be your profession), and one upgrade module (25 points, this is a specialization). So I can end up with a novice holy warrior (basic) who is a demon slayer (upgrade), an arrogant noble (disadvantage) and fortune's fool (disadvantage).
I like this book for a campaign that starts out with beginner heroes and I'm more of a zero-to-hero sort of player.
The three books is $97.50 and I'm surprised I was under budget.