Justin Gooch said:
It's very possible I get beaten to a pulp by the table top community, but I still consider myself fairly new to the table top community(only been playing since 3.5, so around..... pushing five or so years.) but what are GURPS?
GURPS stands for Generic Universal Role-Playing System. And it is just that. You can use it to play Fantasy, Historical, Sci-Fi, Horror, Supers, Westerns, Cyberpunk, Espionage...you name it, you can play it.
The game is point-based, so there are no classes or levels. You make the character that you want to make.
It uses 3d6 rather than a d20, so die rolls have a nice bell curve, so results are less wacky.
It is customizable, so you can play fast and loose, or you can play with lots and lots of detail.
It has a reputation for being complicated, but it isn't any more complicated than D&D.
It supports a lot of non-combat rules, as well as having a really interesting set of combat rules.
I have used GURPS to run Gladiator games were it was only combat as well as campaigns where there was almost no combat at all.
The basic conventional wisdom is that it takes a bit longer to make the characters, but in play everything is very fast.
It has a system of Disadvantages and Advantages, so if you choose to have your player be afraid of heights, it matters.
It has a system of hit locations you can use if you like, so stabbing someone in the eye matters.
PCs get to try and defend incoming attacks.
It can be used to play really realistic gritty games or cinematic over-the-top games.
You can download GURPSLite for free from the Steve Jackson Games website.
Some of the GURPS PCs I've played:
-Gianni Fiori: A single-father ex-cop who is now a private detective in Montreal in 2100. He is big, strong and quite conservative. He is opposed to androids as abominations. (Transhuman Space Campaign)
-Guy Roland: The young son of a plantation owner from Martinique who has come to Paris to study law and improve his station by perhaps marrying a noble. He doesn't have the status of the rest of the party, but he has more money than they do...and that is a source of tension. (Swashbucklers Campaign where we are all students at a Fencing Salle)
-Adaeze Idokuzo: The daughter of a village elder in a post-Apocalyptic Nigeria. She is a very skilled builder, knowing Architecture, Civil Engineering, Masonry, and Carpentry. Of course, she also has some guerilla combat skills...but what very few know about her, is that she also has some psychic powers...specifically Telekenesis. (Post-Apocalypse)
Some of the GURPS PCs in games I've GMed:
-Gunnar Heywood: Lightly alcoholic investigative reporter...well, ex-investigative reporter. Now Gunnar has implanted a camera into his eyes which he streams live to the internet at all times. He is a walking reality show. (Cyberpunk)
-Kai Greywind: Barmaid (with people skills and bouncing skills) who decided to leave home to become an adventurer, instead she get's framed for murder along with her fellow party members! (Fantasy)
-Molly McIntyre: Eccentric sister of gunslinger Seamus McIntyre. She has some gunslinging skills of her own...but it best well known for her fortune telling and mystical powers (Magical Old West).
There are a lot of things you can do with GURPS. It is a great game system.
