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Overview
Want a bit more detail in your roleplay games? Want added depth to character creation and development? Well, why not take a look at Gurps 4th Edition?
The Generic Universal Roleplaying System has been around for a long time and when I first starting playing characters using the third edition of Gurps, I was amazed how much depth there was. Years later using the fourth edition, it is still going strong.
I want to explore this system for you and share some of my findings and hopefully, if you’re thinking about options for breaking away from other roleplay games or simply trying something new, then Gurps is a great choice.
What is Gurps?
As the name suggests, Gurps is a generic roleplay system. It isn’t focused on a specific themed setting like fantasy or sci-fi nor is it based around a particular game world or universe like 1890s gaslight Britain or Middle Earth. It is a system that can be used to create a character for any setting and with a great range of addition source books, including for previous editions, there is plenty of support for themed settings be they fantasy, historical and futuristic and more.
Content. So, what’s inside? The Characters book is the essential book for all players and the GM (Games Master). It forms one part of the Basic Set which also comprises the Campaigns book, which I’ll explore in a different article (as is more for the GM to use).
The Characters book contains all you need to create in depth characters. The book is mostly broken down into sections focusing on different aspects of a character. The way you design and build a character is based on character points. You are allocated a set amount (there is flexibility on this and is essentially determined by the GM based on the desired starting power level.
There are four primary stats, Strength, Dexterity, IQ and Health. These in turn influence secondary stats such as movement, willpower and perception. The system is primarily focused on human character building and is therefore ideal for real-world settings and so the standard starting character starts with the primary stats at 10. There is no dice-rolling for stats, Gurps is a points buy system.
With the starting character points, a player buys increases in stats and also buys advantages (similar to feats in other systems) and skills. Players can also gain additional points to spend by taking disadvantages (varying from disabilities to codes of conduct and duties), one-point quirks (like idiosyncrasies and funny behaviours) and even lower starting stats (not usually recommended).
There can be quite a bit of work going into character creation and this could put some people off the system. It is a system that dives into detail and whilst this can put some people off using it, I always found it a refreshing take compared with some systems, which whilst they handle a particular theme like fantasy well, they do not create a system that gives me the level of depth to character creation and development that I find both more rewarding.
There are rules for psionics and magic and additional sourcebooks are available to go into even more detail to support those campaigns with fantasy, horror or psychic power themes.
Skills
At the heart of this system are the skills. There are a lot of potential available skills for players to spend points on. Most skills have a default setting so even if you are untrained, you might still be successful in using the skill (there are exceptions for which there are no defaults such as Computer Hacking or Herb Lore). I do like this aspect and whilst it is not unique in roleplay games, I do like the ease with which it works with Gurps.
I think this is realistic too. Anyone can pick up a sword and be a threat with it, albeit not a very effective threat against someone trained in melee weapons, but nevertheless a threat. Taking another skill such as Law, this is a hard skill to learn and the default is hard to the extent that it is very unlikely someone untrained could answer a legal question except perhaps simply through ‘common knowledge’ levels of understanding, but there is also a chance reflecting the potential for practical learning through life’s experience, even though thematically this may also mean the knowledge that is known is limited eg to the criminal justice system or running a business. But the Gurps system specifically for this level of detail and I like it for this.
Skills are also assigned a level of difficulty ranging through easy, average, hard and very hard and they are based off a stat, mostly dexterity and IQ. Skills do become a little more difficult to develop as this scale of development starts with one point gives you your starting base value, two points will add +1, then four points and each additional four points giving you additional +1 bonuses.
Experience and learning
Another key feature at the heart of Gurps is the way characters development. In many systems, especially level-based ones, players accumulate experience points to then spend. This can often feel as rather abstract as characters grow without necessarily doing anything to merit a particular gain. Of course, arguably this could and should be roleplayed XP spend being more dependant on pre-requisite roleplay to justify the sudden mechanical character development. In other systems, skills are improved based on usage and successful learning from that.
In Gurps, you can still acquire experience points as a player through good roleplay and achieving objectives, but most of the character points that will be gain will be tied into the skills, stat increases or advantages being developed or learned through either practice and use in game sessions or during off-screen downtime.
Each character point is based on 200 hours of learning, study, practice or other development and there are rules as to what constitutes sufficient training time. I really like this system. It means in Gurps you can develop skills, stats and advantages through practice and even though it can be time consuming, except for in session use, it does mean you can see your character grow in a more realistic way and potentially in a more widespread way.
Gurps is not a level-based system, nor does it restrict characters into classes and sub-classes. You build your character as you wish notwithstanding setting and other GM restrictions. There is a distinct section in this Gurps Characters rulebook on character development which details improvement through play and through study.
Disadvantages
I’ll mention disadvantages briefly as these offer a great way to flesh out your character. Other systems may have similar ideas, but Gurps rewards you with additional character points to spend if you take them during character generation. Be warned, as the name implies, these impose a penalty
or other limitation. These include missing limbs and the physical limitations they impose, odious personal habits that can limit success in social and professional encounters, and the restrictions imposed by having a duty eg to one’s commanding officer or patron or a self-imposed sense of duty towards an individual or group.
Combat Lite
Combat and the detailed rules are contained in the second Campaigns rulebook for the Basic set, but the Characters rulebook has a light version looking at the essence of combat. This breaks down the combat turn, attacks, defence, damage and injury, recovery and fatigue. This is only a summary but it is enough to get started with and you could reasonable keep to these simplified rules at least as you get used to playing the Gurps system.
Summary
I’ve always enjoyed using the Gurps system. It usually gives me what I want in terms of character development and flexibility. It arguably does handle fantasy settings as well as other systems in terms of flavour and theme, but often what I actually find more useful and rewarding is using a system that encourages and allows a greater scope of depth and reality. It is more complicated as a result, although I will add that much of the difficulty lies in preparation rather than gameplay. Combat is more complex and yet this delivers a greater satisfaction than any other system I’ve used.
In short, I’d recommend Gurps. Give it a try. I’ve used Gurps for a wide range of games. I’ve played in games set in a post-apocalyptic world and in Norman England and I’ve ran games using Gurps 4th Edition but set in Middle-Earth (yes it can work and you can convert the now out of print original Middle-Earth Roleplaying game into Gurps). Gurps is a system that has the mechanics to allow you great freedom to build a bespoke character that level-based systems with classes can’t match.
