Absolutely.  While there is something satisfying about starting so small and growing in power at such regular intervals, I love the freedom of GURPS.  I often tell people that I didn't really role play until I tried GURPS, simply because there was no clearly defined "role" given to me by the rules... I had to define the character myself.

DnD was - and still is to some extent - more for the gambler in me; you know, the excitement of beating the odds or making that one, big roll.  It happens to me in GURPS, but the best games I've been in were those where the GM did the rolls, so I think I missed many of them, which in itself is more realistic, since we often don't know how close were are to making it or not.

Amen

Often I only use the Lite rules. It puts the focus totally on the character rather than the system.

Personally, I follow the words of Matsuo Basho, "Learn the rules well and then forget them." The GURPS rules are full of wonderful detail when you want it, but I tend to go by intuition and simple rules most of the time, in more games. I only get into the gritty rules when they seem especially appropriate. As far as when that time is exactly depends on the particular game I'm running. In some, it might be most of the time. In others, it might be rarely. That's all just my own preference, however.

Oddly, I have noticed I prefer GURPS on RPoL than I do tabletop, for some reason. I'm not sure why, really. Has anyone else felt that way?

Yeah, I have.

Of course, it may be that my group is aging and has moved apart... so we only get together once every few months!  Even then, the others have been on a big DnD kick lately, having only recently discovered the 3.x stuff so this is the only place I get GURPS.

Hello everyone.

     Just call me, 'the new guy' ... at least until another 'new' person shows up.

     I have dozens of 3e books and most of the new 4e books.  Although, pathetically, I've never played a full game.  So hard to find other GURPSers sometimes.

     Anyway, thanks for letting me join in on the discussions!

OK WordSmythe, you are officially off the 'new person' hook...

I have been playing GURPS for several years and have too many books to count.  I am still stuck in the 3e loop however as I have yet to take part in a 4e game.

Thanks for letting me hang out.

I'm in the same boat, Rahn.  I just started a 4th edition game, and the GM takes care of most all the mechanics so I'm not really learning much yet.  I also can't afford to replace all those books in a new edition, so I'm stuck with just the Characters book for now.

In all, it seems very much the same except for a few, well needed updates.

I hate it when they update things. They done it to me more times than I care to count. ;-) Of course, many times it's needed, and a good thing when I finally overcome my hidebound-ness, but then again... Look at D&D... What a mish-mash of crap that's turned into. A non-point system that builds characters kinda like a point system, except you can't do things like with a point system... Honestly, I think it's a minority system now, and GURPS used to have way less followers. I remember when... OK, maybe I shouldn't go there. But let's just say, if you want reality in your game, do one thing, if you want simplicity do another, and don't try to get the best of both in one system. The GMs & players will tweak it how they want it.  IMO, it's easier to get a lot of reality, and take it out, then put in a lot of simplicity, and add in reality. Of course, I'm one of those people who like the ordered structure of having every possible thing defined, so I know how to deal with it. Wouldn't it be grand if life had a rulebook? One that everyone had to follow the rules in? (And of course, that we could read so we knew what they were.)

Oh, but it does:

http://teacherweb.ftl.pinecres...macro/Life/life.html

 :P

ROFLOL
Yea. I wish it were that easy. Where's the rule about letting your wife have another pet...? I don't see the penalty for if she asks for a Wallaby...

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I bet a Wallaby would make less noise than a kid.  Go for it... unless you already have kids, then it's just torture for you and the Wallaby.

Come to think of it, I had a Wombat once; a 125cc Hodaka.  Great bike.

I don't think you understand the rules question; I already said yes to the second Wallaby. ;-)

   HAPPY :)
  <3 HOLIDAYS!
       /\
   __  \/  __
   \_\_/\_/_/       _\/   \/_
      \xx/           _\   /_
    __/xx\__           \_/
   /_/ \/ \_\     ->->->_<-<-<-
       /\             _/ \_
       \/            _/   \_
                     /\   /\

     _\/_    *      .'.
      /\    /.\    >-o-<
           /.,.\    .,.
     o     /,.,\
  o><x><o /..,.,\     _\/_
     o    /.,.,.\      /\
         /.,.,..,\
         ^^^[_]^^^     -Veronica

I think you just blew your cover!

But again, nice work!

She blows her cover every year, though. And I for one, <3 her for it :D

What are your opinions on the Umana system?
This message was last updated by the player at 03:47, Wed 03 Jan 2007.

Like it, but haven't played extensively with it. Note that I don't mind heroic levels of magic, though- I'd even up the thresh & rec and such, maybe. The few times I've used it, it was either as an adjunct to regular magic (like in my game now where no one is brave enough to do it) or had the default values. No real earth-busting spells, as the players were still too used to tactical magic to realize how strategic they could get, and mostly did normal spells.

I was reading 4e Fantasy and got to the bit about Agrarian Magic.  That got me to wondering in what other ways magic, in your average run-of-the-mill fantasy game, might impact normal everyday life.

For those who do not have 4e Fantasy, it basically shows how a few spells at level 15 could affect the crop yield of village of at least 100 people.  The end result is that just about every year would be a bumper year with more yield from a smaller area of land.

Any ideas on what one lone "village wizard" might do to change or impact daily life of the stereo typical fantasy settlement?

Well, just think about how much impact it would be if a village mage could magically help heal people: the child mortality rate would shrink, women dying in child birth would lower and life expectancy would lengthen.

*Waves* Hey, Boston, don't forget to roll to hit for your ice wand.

Actually in my game (3E of course) the PCs are going somewhere the agriculture experts are doing exactly that. Of course, Boston & the rest don't know that yet (& never asked), but it's relatively minor in game terms. The thing that starts to happen when you take this to the extreme, is it gets out of control quickly. I n my D&D campaign, we theoretically let it happen to Nth degree with all of the players throwing in ideas. We had cities that were pretty much impregneable even to Abrams tanks, 'microwave' ovens, teleport toilets, and wands of cleaning . The most used theory was, people are lazy, money would be spent more on mass products, and the first things developed would under these ideas parrellel what we have IRL with technology. It was interesting, but it got ridiculous for a fantasy setting, although I kept a lot of the 'neat' sort of ideas. That's where a lot of the stuff in my current GURPS game is based from, but tamed way down compared to the worst case.

I would like to take a look at some of those if you don't mind 2l8m8.  If that game is on RPOL that is.

Essential Food turns a pound of food into six meals that never spoil, besides the bumper crop from Bless Plant you'd also have a backup food supply.

In a typical fantasy village, the first improvements would be in the crucial areas, such as crops, healing, water, shelter (inc. warmth), hunting and defense. Assuming a single mage per average village, and regular mana levels, I don't see the mage having time for much more than this. The primary efforts would focus on prevention of disaster- precognition to avoid the effects of a bad flood, ensuring the crops were good, the sick were healed, and so forth. After that, they'd see what they could to boost things, boosting crops, fortifying defenses maybe, and so forth. That's how I see it, anyway.

An interesting scenario might be if the village spellcaster died before he could train his or her replacement, and the village wants the PCs to find a replacement- or they want the PC mage to BE the replacement, and resort to some kind of coercion to attempt forcing it.

Yes, all of my assumptions included the fact that there would more than one, or to Nth an unlimited number, of mages.

I don't mind, but the things are mostly in the background and the PCs haven't really dealt with anything out of the ordinary. Like Lawman said, in this game I'm keeping it more down to earth, like where the guy in the agri-colony specializes in plant magic, and does a good job at crop-helping. The PCs are currently on their way there now, and don't really know this info, but it's not unbalancing so I'm revealing it here even though at least one of my players is about. One of the NPCs is an elven mage specializing in animal magic, who helps her grandfather raise animals for a living- not livestock, though, shaved fur, that sort of thing, since she's a beast-kin. They never have a problem with the animals even when they get out. ;-) And their best cash crop is displacer beast fur- makes a nice warm magical cloak. They don't get as much as some, though, because they shave it & won't skin them. But you're wlecome to take a peek, or even see if you might fancy playing. link to "GURPS 3e Free for all"

It might be a good idea for several close villages to join forces, each mage specializing in a few areas then travelling as needed. They can also trade scrolls.

If magery is genetic it also insures a breeding pool.