Rule Zero, RAW, and GURPS
In the past couple of weeks, the online RPG discussion was focused on a contentious topic – Rule Zero and playing RAW. Walls of text were written, videos recorded, feelings hurt, etc. Even Rob Kuntz got involved. From observing it all, I found out that people have very strong opinions about Rule Zero and playing RAW, that many people are incapable of logic reasoning, and that there is a lot of dishonesty and arguing in bad faith. However, the discussion was mostly in the context of D&D, and when it comes to GURPS, things works slightly differently. That’s why I’d like to explore the gamemastering chapter of GURPS Basic Set and some other GURPS books to show you what the books say on this topic, and, of course, provide my own opinion.
First, some of you may not even know what Rule Zero is, so it would be appropriate to explain. Rule Zero means that the GM may overrule anything written in the rulebook, may ignore any rules, and add anything he wants – his word is law. The concept is not new – its origin lies in the Free Kriegsspiel of the XIX century, and it’s been present in all D&D editions and most other roleplaying and wargaming rulebooks. You can read about the origins and evolution of Rule Zero on the Playing at the World and Roguish blogs – the links are at the end of this post.
Nowadays, many TTRPG rulebooks, especially the rules-lite pamphlets, are very reliant on it, in a way telling the GM “thank you for buying my book, chump, now come up with the rules yourself.” Many GMs seem to interpret Rule Zero as that they do not need to learn or use the rules at all, as rules are a barrier between the players and fun. Then, the game falls apart after six sessions. Why? Because the advice you may read or hear online nowadays that, as a GM, you have to bend yourself and the rules into a pretzel to advance the story and make sure your players are having fun is nonsense. A consistent application of rules is required to have a proper game; Rule Zero eliminates player agency, as nothing the players do matters anymore – they become spectators, and the GM becomes a storyteller (or a failed novelist) instead of an impartial arbiter of rules.
In short, Rule Zero is the source of many problems in the modern tabletop RPGs. To be more precise, the misuse of Rule Zero is, and not the rule itself. I will not go into too much detail, but instead link you to other people who are much more eloquent. First, I suggest you watch The Rule Zero Stream by the Joy of Wargaming. Second, the Mother May I? video by the same author. Third, 10 Reasons Rule Zero is Inferior to RAW by the Basic Expert (you should also check out his livestreams around the same time where he elaborated further on some points and responds to comments). If you prefer reading to listening or watching, I also linked The Cult of RAW post from the Primeval Patterns substack – it’s excellent, and you should check out some other posts of his too. Finally, ACKS II Judges Journal also describes this topic in its first chapter, adding some nuances that are often ignored in such discussions, such as fudging dice rolls for verisimilitude when the alternative is inconsistency.
However, it is unreasonable to believe that it is possible to have a ruleset that covers every conceivable situation. Rule Zero exists, for the most part, as a tool for experienced GMs who know the rules well to adjudicate situations not covered by the rules. Even if the GM wants to introduce new rules or change existing ones, he must understand why the rules he’s changing are the way they are. Even D&D 3.0 says that a GM should understand what effects a rule change may cause further downstream before changing the rule. Thus, book knowledge is paramount here – RTFM is as useful advice as it ever was. As the Basic Expert put it in his video – Rule Zero is a scalpel that you use to make a precise cut when you know exactly what you’re doing and why, and not a tool you use to solve every seeming problem you encounter.
But anyway, this was mostly said about D&D and its derivatives. How does GURPS treat Rule Zero? Can you even play GURPS RAW? We all (at least I hope so) know that GURPS isn’t a game, but a toolkit or game engine. However, I looked through the entire GURPS Basic Set and found no direct confirmation of that – the book doesn’t position itself as a toolkit, even though you may notice some indirect implications of that. The first mention of GURPS being a toolkit is in How to be a GURPS GM that was released TEN YEARS AFTER GURPS BASIC SET! Let me quote the book:
“You can’t say it too often: GURPS is a tool kit. It’s a system that requires tons of GM judgment to work. “As is,” it offers dozens if not hundreds of advantages, disadvantages, skills, spells, perks, techniques, etc.; hundreds if not thousands of articles of gear; and many pages of optional rules. The vast majority of all this stuff isn’t appropriate for all campaigns. Setting limits isn’t about being a control freak or an authoritarian; it’s about making the game playable, fun, and true to the campaign’s desired genre and setting.”
While I disagree with Sean Punch, the author of this quote, sometimes, he’s absolutely correct in this quote. GUPRS isn’t a game, it is a toolkit that requires the GM to set limits and pick rules to even be playable. If you just tell your players to make GURPS characters without any limits, you are very unlikely to get anything playable. GURPS is full of optional rules that are not compatible with one another or are inconsistent, so it is impossible to play GURPS RAW, even if you just limit yourself to GURPS Basic Set.
Speaking of GURPS Basic Set, let’s go back to it. On page 486, it has the following: “The GM is the final authority. Rules are guidelines . . . the designers’ opinion about how things ought to go. But as long as the GM is fair and consistent, he can change any number, any cost, any rule. His word is law!” That’s Rule Zero. On the same page it says that the GM should choose the style of his campaign, and one of the categories is “by-the-book” vs. “tweaked” (with many GM rules interpretations). “By-the-book” seems to imply RAW, but it’s more complex than that.
GURPS Basic Set doesn’t actually say much else about setting the limits, surprisingly. How to be a GURPS GM, however, explores this is more depth. Let me use another quote from Sean Punch that is repeated in that book:
“Everything in GURPS is optional – we say so
all over the place. We specifically say things like “as long as the GM is fair and
consistent, he can change any number, any cost, any rule,” “everyone must
realize that an epic story is apt to transcend the rules,” “don’t let adherence
to a formula spoil the game,” and “if there is only one ‘right’ answer to fit
the plot of the adventure – then that’s the answer.” The rules are only there
for when you need them to help advance the game. Most of the time, you should
be doing that by talking and roleplaying and telling a story.
Resource-management and roll-based play is a valid style of gaming, notably for hard-nosed military adventure, dedicated puzzle-solving campaigns, and of course dungeon crawls. But those are only some kinds of gaming, and GURPS aims to support all kinds. Nowhere does it say “if you prefer to make stuff up and not roll dice, this is the wrong game for you.”
This is where the book tells you to ignore the rules in favor of the story, and also implies that if you prefer to just make stuff up instead of using the rules, you can still use GURPS. But what’s the point? Steve Jackson himself said during one of the FnordCons that “If you want to play PbtA, play PbtA, not GURPS.” However, the section on house rules that follows this quote stresses that the players must be aware of all the changes, and that the GM must carefully consider the impact of said changes. This makes sense. As I said before, Rule Zero is a precise tool, a scalpel that you use only when you know how the system works. Otherwise you get something like this forum thread that I spotted today.
It’s obvious that the author hasn’t even read the rules, and I’m not sure why he wants to use GURPS for this in the first place. When several years ago I still was using the GURPS Discord, I noticed that many people who answer questions and give advice there have no idea what they are talking about. They either give answers that are provably incorrect by the book or just tell about how they do something in their game as opposed to answering the question. And if you disagree with them, you’d get accused of one-true-way-ism and possibly get banned. This was one of the main reasons for why I left that place and never looked back. I don’t know if it improved over the years.
There is another book that I’d like to mention – How to be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations. Overall, it’s an excellent book, but there are some parts that seem a bit off, when other books are taken into account. How to be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations stresses that it is crucial for players to have agency, that they are not just spectators of the GM’s story. However, it then says that players merely react to the GM’s plot and that there is such thing as too much agency, so it all may seem a bit dubious. There’s also a part titled “Managing Mini-Games” with a problem that is easily resolved with 1:1 timekeeping that actually is mentioned in GURPS Basic Set, but this book ignores it. Then, we have the very recent How to be a GURPS GM: Improvisation that outright tells you to fudge dice rolls to advance the plot, while that would eliminate player agency. Surprisingly, both of the books were written by the same author.
But anyway, to summarize it all, GURPS is not a game. You can’t play GURPS, you can play a game powered by GURPS, but you’d have to design it or use something that was already designed, such as Dungeon Fantasy RPG, GURPS Girl Genius, or GURPS Discworld. The GM has to be intimately familiar with the rules, and must clearly state what rules are in effect in his game, and strictly abide by this ruleset. When a situation arises that the rules do not cover, the GM makes a ruling that later should be turned into a consistent rule. I believe that this would count as playing RAW in the case of GURPS. Adherence to rules fosters trust between the GM and players, consistency, and longevity of the game.
However, the strict policy of SJGames prevent using GURPS to its full potential. Even if you create your own rulebook from all the optional rules for your game like what I’m doing right now, you are not allowed to share it. If not for this, you’d get dozens of “Powered by GURPS” games on the Internet for people to choose from, but the actual rulebooks would remain useful for all non-game-mechanical information. Thus, GURPS turned into an actually playable game is something that will forever be restricted to your group – for some that’s okay, for some it is not.
In any case, my advice is RTFM and play the game. And yet again, I’d like to shill the people who explain the Rule Zero problem better than I ever would be able to – the links are at the end of this post. I’m merely trying to contextualize it all in the context of GURPS – a toolkit instead of a game. GM using discretion is not the same as throwing away the rules. If you follow this advice, your games will become better. Mine surely did.
Playing at the World – The Origins of Rule Zero
- http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-origins-of-rule-zero.html
Roguish – Rule Zero: A Timeline - https://roguish.wordpress.com/2022/11/09/rule-zero-a-timeline/
The Joy of Wargaming – The Rule Zero Stream - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw7N4dpG0q0
The Joy of Wargaming – You Can Win at RPGs:
Mother May I? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95-sjq9s1M
The Basic Expert – 10 Reasons Rule Zero is
Inferior to RAW - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzasiXveMIs
Primeval Patterns – The Cult of RAW - https://primevalpatterns.substack.com/p/the-cult-of-raw
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