"How to be a GURPS Player?" or a guide on getting started

"How to be a GURPS Player?" or a guide on getting started

I realized not long ago that GURPS is not unapproachable or unfriendly towards new players contrary to what many people think (personally, I believe that it never was like that). There's enough guides, official or fanmade, for what books you need for certain games and what rules you need or do not need for others. There is a possibility that everything seems obvious to me because I have a lot of experience with GURPS, so I will try to consolidate all my thoughts and try to explain to a hypothetical newbie how to approach GURPS. I'll try to get into the newbie mindset (that's going to be an exercise in roleplaying) and provide guidelines or links for any problems I will encounter along the way. After all, we have the How to be a GURPS GM book, but no How to be a GURPS Player.

    I've never played a roleplaying game before. My friends told me that it's something like a boardgame where you pretend to be an elf or a wizard. Is that true?

    If you haven't played any RPG before, then you're lucky, as your mind will be fresh. You will not have any preconcieved notions of what the game should be like. If you have played any other tabletop RPG before, be it D&D, Hero, Fate, Dungeon World, or anything else, then you will experience something called mental inertia. You will see a concept and anything different from what you've experienced before will seem wrong. It is difficult to overcome, but it should be easier if you understand the existence of mental inertia.

    But what about the question? What is roleplaying? Instead of writing it out here, I will suggest you to take any RPG rulebook you can find and open the first page after contents table - you probably will have an explanation there. All RPGs follow the same basic principles - GM (the "host" of your game who handles the game world) describes the situation, players describe their actions, the GM describes the reaction of the world, and so on. As I said, you can find a more detailed description in the introductory chapter of any RPG rulebook. People often ignore introductions. Don't be like that. Go to warehouse23 - SJGames e-book store - find the GURPS Basic Set, and download the preview. It's free, and it contains the introduction chapter that explains what is roleplaying - it's only a page long, so it won't take a lot of time to read. I'm even going to provide you a link - http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG31-0001.

    But what makes GURPS different from others? What do "generic" and "universal" actually mean? I want a quick rundown.

    I'm not going to give you one. Click the link above and download the preview. In my opinion, it explains everything really well, and I wish people would read the introductory chapters of books, they are important. (However, I would place "What is roleplaying?" at the start of the introduction, not at the end.) This introduction is only two pages long. I used a stopwatch - it took me exactly 4 minutes to read the introduction. I am an ESL speaker, so you probably can do it much quicker. If taking 4 minutes to read a short text that does an excellent job explaining the paradigm of GURPS is too much effort for you, then maybe RPGs are not for you? I'm not trying to be smug or condescending, but if reading is such a chore for you, then you should find a different hobby - if you force yourself to read, you probably will not have any fun and your friends will have less fun playing with you too. You cannot escape reading if you want to play any RPG.

    So, you can adjust GURPS to easily facilitate realistic, cinematic, rules-lite, or crunch-heavy games, right?

    By default, GURPS is "heroically realistic". You can weigh it down with many optional rules to have a very gritty, very detailed and crunch-heavy game. Or you can have a cinematic game with some other optional rules. Making GURPS very cinematic, something like a four-color superhero game, is possible, but requires some experience to pull off properly. At the same time, trimming the game down to a very rules-lite version with many metagame and narrative mechanics is possible too. However, Steve Jackson himself said during FnordCon 2020 (if I'm not mixing up the year) - "if you want to play PbtA, play PbtA". I agree with him, but that's an entirely personal thing.

    I've heard that GURPS has a lot of math, and that you have to play with a calculator and a physics textbook. It's a realism simulator, isn't it? Also, you can easily break the game [posts a link to the MUNCHKIN build]. [Insert any other online meme about GURPS.] Is it true?

    First, are you sure you've read the introduction chapter I told you about? Second, do you believe everything you hear? You have to think for yourself and form your own opinion based on your experiences. After you've played GURPS, you'll see that many people who criticize it or "review" it like that have not played it. But arguing will be pointless, as when people are being disingenuous they will not want to change their opinion. It's not that the system is perfect and there's nothing to be critical of - there's enough of that - it's that you should at least actually understand the game to do that.

    You should also be able to distinguish between problems caused by the system and problems caused by the players/GM. Very often people get upset with the system when the system itself had nothing to do with it. This applies to any system, not only GURPS.

    About breaking the game - well, yeah, that's true, you can. Even though the MUNCHKIN build is not rules-legal, it still is quite easy to break the game. You can break any system, not only GURPS. But what for? Yes, you came up with something broken, but nobody will actually let this into the game. You'll just be asked to tone it down or make another character.

    Then, the math thing. Imagine the following situation. You want take a bus, and the ticket fare is $2. You only have a $10 bill. You pay $10 and how much do you get back? $8. Let's imagine another situation. You and three of your friends bought a lottery ticket and won $100. You want to share the prize evenly. How much money does each person get? $25. If you consider this kind of math difficult or "autistic," then you probably should not be playing RPGs. The "hard math" is a meme that was created due to the GURPS Vehicles book for the previous edition. Yes, there were scary square roots that seem to confuse and enrage the modern player, but nobody is forcing you to sit down with a calculator and design an airplane at the start of each session, especially if the game has no airplanes.

    Is it a realism simulator? No, it's not. The books say so in multiple places. This is another common misconception that you should not believe. It's on par with the "haha, engineering calculators are required" meme.

    If you accuse me of gatekeeping, you will be right. I think the ability to sit down, read, and perform basic mathematical operations are not some extraordinary requirements, and I expect my players to meet them.

    But speaking of misconceptions. There's an excellent GURPS book that is often overlooked - How to be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations. It talks about some of the misconceptions I've mentioned in more detail. Personally, I think that this book should be free. It does an excellent job expanding upon the introduction chapter of GURPS Basic Set, and I think that this is essential reading for new players. I feel that if it were free, it would answer many questions that shouldn't have been asked in the first place.

    Oh, I found this thing called GURPS Lite! It's free and is a good introduction to the system!

    Personally, I believe that GURPS Lite is a bad book. A lot of people recommend disregarding the GURPS Basic Set and starting out with GURPS Lite when learning or teaching the system. In my opinion, this is simply wrong. By using GURPS Lite, you're missing the thing that makes GURPS special - the infinite  potential for customization, for all genres, for all kinds of characters. If I started out with GURPS Lite, I don't think I'd get interested in the system at all. How did I learn the system? I just read the book. And if you're new and want to know how to learn the system - I'm sorry, but I can only tell you to read the darn GURPS Basic Set.

    If I were to draw a comparison with D&D, it would go something like that: "Look! This is an awesome system where you can be a wizard practicing different schools of magic, a priest of any of the plethora of deities, a rogue, or a barbarian. There's all kinds of skills and feats and equipment to use. But let's play a game where we can only be fighters that can only attack in combat and can only use a sword and a shield." Would this be a good introduction to the system? I don't think so.

    Okay, you got me, I bought the GURPS Basic Set. It's 580 pages long! No way in hell I'm reading all that! You just scammed me out of $60!

    Stop it with the kneejerk reactions. This is a generic universal system, of course it's going to be long - it has to encompass all kinds of games. Are you playing all games at once? Do you really have to read and memorize rules for radiation sickness when playing a typical medieval fantasy game? Or various gardening skills when playing a game about space marines fighting aliens? When you want to cook lasagna, do you grab the cookbook and get mad because it also has soup recipes? Do you cause a scene at McDonald's when there's something else on the menu aside from Big Mac, but you wanted to eat a Big Mac?

    If you've read the Quick Start subchapter of the introduction chapter (and you should have read that), you could see that the book itself tells you just to skim the book and only read the parts that are relevant to you. Even if you're th GM.

    I've seen people online saying that they were reading, for example, the skills chapter of the GURPS Basic Set and upon reaching the Accounting skill (which is the first skill in the chapter) they write an angry post mocking GURPS for having a useless Accounting skill. "lol why would I need accounting when I was to swing a sword? what a stupid system." If sometimes exists, it does not mean that you're forced to use it. If something is irrelevant to your game, you don't even have to read it.

    Okay, I understood you. But even if I read only the parts I need, I still have trouble memorizing everything.

    I've played GURPS for many years, and if you ask me how slams work or the posture modifiers for attacks, I won't be able to tell you. GURPS Basic Set has an index at the end. Look up the word you need and you'll find the page where it is explained. It does not take long. If you're using Discord, you can use Pseudobot (invitation link). Type ".lu index [word]" and it will tell you where to find the rules you are looking for in all the books, not only GURPS Basic Set. Alternatively, there's a GURPS wiki (www.gurps.wikia.com) that can point you in the right direction.

    Man up, nobody is going to give you a swirly if you can't remember some combat modifier.

    All right, I got you. But before I make my first character, let me ask you this: what do I actually need to play?

    I could refer you to the introduction chapter of the Basic Set again, because there's a box called Materials Needed for Play, but I won't. GURPS Basic Set Characters is required to create a character. GURPS Basic Set Campaigns is only required for the GM, but I recommend the players to skim it as well. Character sheets can be the "classic" paper ones, or you can have digital ones. I strongly recommend using GCS - GURPS Character Sheet (www.gurpscharactersheet.com). This is a freeware, customizable tool that makes character creation much more simple and quick. There are alternatives, such as the official GURPS Character Assistant and some other, lesser known tools. I've heard that GCA is pretty good, but it isn't free. However, GCS has not the most intuitive interface. You can either mess around with it for thirty minutes or watch Chris Normand's video guide on Youtube (link).

    Since GURPS only uses six-sided dice, you will need at least three of them. Sure, you could actually manage it with just a single die, but that's... suboptimal. Alternatively, there's a plethora of online digital dicerollers (including the aforementioned Pseudobot) - so if you're playing online, you don't even have to have any dice. Even if you're playing in person, you can use them on your phone/laptop/desktop/etc.

    I think I'm ready to make my first character. What do I do?

    First, your GM must provide you all the information about the game's parameters: what rules are being used, what books you should use, what is the game world's Technological Level, etc. Generally speaking, the GM must provide everything that is required, defining what is allowed and what is not. You do not make a character in a vacuum, you make a character for a specific game. Considering how many optional rules (remember that everything in GURPS is optional) exist, your GM may miss some. Work with your GM, he should help you make your character, especially if it's your first one. Your GM is not your adversary, and neither are the other players. Don't be afraid to ask questions and work together - you'll have fewer misunderstandings and more fun this way.

    As for actually statting up your character, you can use the Example of Character Creation boxes in the Basic Set as an example. Or you can watch Chris Normand's character creation video, it's good (link).

    My GM told me to change stuff on my character sheet even though everything was rules-legal!

    Yes, this is normal.

    I'm not very familiar with the combat rules. I haven't played GURPS before, how do I know if my character can handle himself well in combat?

    Just ask your GM to run a test combat for you. Or run one yourself. After you're done, I'm sure the GM will let you adjust things.

    Combat is so slow! I really don't like this.

    Most of the times combat can feel slow because the players only think about their turn when it's their turn. Even when you're using more detailed combat rules, it's generally quick if the players don't go "uh... it's my turn now? what did the others do?" This is not a system-specific issue, this can happen in any other game.

    You mentioned online play above. Where can I play?

    GURPS is somewhat more difficult to play online than other systems, because not all virtual tabletop programs support hex grids. There are many options, but the most common ones are Roll20 and FoundryVTT. Roll20 is free, but quite clunky. FoundryVTT is not free, but only the GM has to buy it. Also, FoundryVTT has excellent GURPS support in the form of the (unofficial) GURPS Game Aid. Chrid Normand is one of the creators, and he has a series of videos on Youtube (link to the playlist). It has many automation systems that can make your life easier. Personally, I've been mostly using Roll20, but not that long ago I switched to FoundryVTT. Even though I do not really use all the fancy features of the GURPS module (really, I only need a hex grid, a ruler, and a dice roller), I found spending those $50 for the license very much worth it. Never going back to Roll20.

    In any case, you can use these programs for combat maps, even if you're playing in person or play-by-post.

    Damn, filling out the character sheets in Roll20/FoundryVTT is so tedious.

    Why are you doing that in the first place? Just open the character sheet in GCS or a pdf reader. Why do you need your sheet there? If you want to use the fancy automation features of FoundryVTT, you can just import the GCS charsheet there, it supports that.

    You know what I hate about GURPS? There's no flavor.

    What do you mean? There's plenty of published settings, including Infinite Worlds that exists in a short version in the Basic Set. There's Banestorm, Transhuman Space, The Madness Dossier, Alchemical Baroque, Roma Arcana, Discworld, Mars Attacks, Nordlond, and many others. The third edition of GURPS had even more worldbooks. And you can still use them in the fourth edition just fine. Or, if you've read the introduction (and you should!), you may remember that you can take literally any book, be it a gamebook for another system or a novel, a video game, a movie, or TV show, and you'll have your flavor. I see this complaint as absolutely irrelevant.

    I have questions. Where can I talk about GURPS on the Internet?

    The main two places are SJGames forums and the unofficial GURPS Discord. There are some other ones, of course. SJGames forums is a place where you probably will have your question answered. What I like about GURPS is that the system's authors are active - if you ask something on the forums, you likely will have your question answered by the author of the book in question. Some of them are on Discord too. However, my personal experience with Discord was not a good one. Honestly, I would recommend discussions and troubleshooting on the forums, not on Discord. However, you may use the latter to find players or GMs. But, as always, keep in mind that it might take a few tries to find a good group. And be wary of people who are trying to join/host many games and for some reason can't seem to stay in them for a long time. Think about who all those games have in common.

    The community is very unfriendly. All my questions are answered with "It depends on the setting/game."

    Because it does. GURPS is a generic universal game, and to get a proper answer you have to properly ask the question. Garbage in, garbage out. I feel like I'm going to be explaining something very basic here bordering on basic social interaction skills and book reading skills, but I really have to do it. And I may sound rude here. When asking a question, consider the following:

    1. Have you actually read the book? "How does combat work in GURPS?" can be answered by reading the combat chapter. "How does the Jumper advantage work?" can be answered by reading the Jumper advantage. There are some cases where wording is a bit ambiguous or unclear, but those are rare. If you've played MtG, this is equivalent to "Reading the card explains the card." Of course, this can be excused if you're a new or potential player who hasn't bought the book. Otherwise, you're just wasting other people's time.

    2. If you can't find something and are about to ask where to find it - have you checked the index? It's as easy as hitting Ctrl-F in a pdf. If you want to ask what book contains something you're looking for, consider at least skimming the list of books (link). GURPS is not a young system, so it's very likely that something you're looking for is already covered. I've seen many questions such as "Where are mass combat rules?" when there is GURPS Mass Combat. Again, this can be excused for questions such as "How does GURPS Martial Arts expand the hit location system? I do not have the book, but I'd like to have a quick rundown."

    3. Ask yourself and try to answer the question. Alternatively, think about what kind of an answer you are expecting, then check if your question has enough information to provide such an answer. Oftentimes, you will actually answer the question yourself and will not need to ask. "How do I make a good combat character?" Did you specify the kind of game you are playing? TL? Is it cinematic? What traits are available? What gear is available? What enemies are you expecting to fight? How many points do you have?

    4. Do you understand what GURPS is? "How do spirits work in GURPS?" They way the GM says they work in his setting. "How do dragons work in GURPS?" The way the GM says they work in his setting. "How does psionic work in GURPS?" The way the GM says it works. It really does depend on the game and setting. People are not being rude to you or memeing on you - they are telling the truth.

    Okay, I think I understand everything now. Are there any other guides on how to get started?

    Chrid Normand has a great series of videos on Youtube (playlist link). Very helpful for beginners, GMs and players alike. There's also Diceyed.

I think I'm done with this for now, but I might expand it in the future.