Most Recent GURPS edition and Girl Genius

[Harshax]

I’m a big fan of the Foglio’s Girl Genius. I also played a lot of GURPS 3E back in the day. Any denners have experience with the last GURPS and might I be lost/shocked by this version if I haves used the system since the early 00s?

I’m very aware of many of the issues with the old edition, especially if a GM didn’t put a limit of which reference books were used at the table.

A prerelease of the Girl Genius RPG is for sale at the usual places and purports to be a complete self-contained RPG. People are whining about a 30$ price tag, but considering you don’t need the two GURPS rule books to play, it seems priced about right. Pinnacle did the same for their released that didn’t require the core Savage Worlds books and the IP is very appealing.

[JonSetanta]

30 is a good deal for one book, which holds everything you need to play!

D&D 5e was like.. 50.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The differences between 3 and 4 are significant but not shocking. The adjustment period is pretty short.
From the SJG forums:

Much of what went into 4e officially had been in the category of "widely-adopted houserule" for years. Since I was among those who had adopted them, I liked the changes. Back then, I had a huge collection of house rules, now I only have a few and most of those have to do with my specific campaign setting, not with how I think the rules should work in general. Some of the biggies, in no particular order:

Fixed cost-per-level for attributes

Fatigue based on Health, and Hit Points based on Strength, and new method to make strength affordable for large critters

Exponential increase in carrying capacity with linear increase in strength stat

Same cost for mental and physical skills

Common mechanic for all talents, and raising DX or IQ just to get a skill bonus is now contra-indicated

Deceptive attack

Better treatment of unbalanced weapons

Passive defense is gone

Control rolls for disads, separate from Will

Consolidation of Basic + Compendium

Adjusted costs for some advantages; Cutting Claws cost 40 points in 3e

Clarified difference between maneuver and technique

Altenate Abilities and Modular Abilities are new

Whole concept of Perks is new, and with Martial Art, Magical Styles, and Power Ups 2, they're a big deal now

Expert skill added, Katana skill removed

Some package-deal advantages broken up, then re-assembled into meta-traits

Lots of small things add up to one big thing, namely, accretion from assorted 3e supplements got consistent treatment. For instance, I don't remember how many versions of cryptography skill existed in 3e, but now we have just 2, applied and theoretical (which is still 1 more than I've needed for a game)

The list abobve is by no means exhaustive. Most changes are for the better, although one might argue against compression of TL at the high end, and some of us mourn the vehicle design system. -GEF

[erik]

30 is a good deal for one book, which holds everything you need to play!

D&D 5e was like.. 50.

No joke! TTRPGs as a whole are like one of the least expensive hobbies/games. $30 for the whole kit n kaboodle is a good deal in this industry and an outstanding deal compared to any other industries. It is nothing compared to digital games+gaming systems, CCGs, and just about any sport or hobby equipment. People unwilling to spend $30 are sadly a big chunk of the TTRPG crowd, and a reason why people don't go into the business to become rich.

Hell, I am like to buy it just to enjoy their take on Girl Genius as an RPG, and to see the new GURPS.


[edit: ah, I went shopping and see it is $30 for a pdf only. No physical copies exist yet, and undoubtedly will cost more.]
[more edit: dangit, there's a discworld GURPS too, hardback sold out and $130+ on amazon, $30 for that pdf too. I think once I break the seal and start getting these I may have to eat my words about inexpensive hobby and pucker-assed hobbyists when it comes to $30 tickets.]

[JonSetanta]

With the amount of money I've spent on Magic cards since 1995, I could have bought a new car by now.

Ironically CCGs are like the stock market in some ways, I made 500 USD selling unwanted chase rares and got tattoos with the money.

[erik]

I was pleased that my dnd minis cost me essentially nothing since I was able to sell minis that I didn't want such as duplicates or Drizzt, and they covered my costs. I'd just bring them to dealers the first day of GenCon and unload em and they knew they could turn em around and still get a profit and were willing to offer better prices.

[Harshax]

Warning: the PDF is not optimized and renders awfully slow on a 2 year old gaming PC. So slow, in fact, that the document is rendered unusable. The file contains no inline or TOC hyperlinks.

[erik]

Yikes. Thanks for the warning. I hadn't bought it yet, was still sitting with it in my cart, but am much less inclined to do so now. I prefer paper because I'm old now, and my computer is likewise old.

[angelfromanotherpin]

GURPS pdfs are usually pretty well optimized these days. The lesson is to wait for the release version.

[Harshax]

GURPS pdfs are usually pretty well optimized these days. The lesson is to wait for the release version.

Yeah, SJG was one of the first companies to take digital publishing really seriously. This was a let down for me.