Can anybody give me a rundown on GURPS? How's it work? What

>How's it work
Clunkily
>What makes it good?
It's not, it's shit
>How do I get into it
First develop crippling autism

>>54766376
Why is it bad though?

>>54766811
It's not, he hasn't even read the game, he just sees 500 pages of rules and assume that that means "clunky" because it's not a 2-page rules-lite narrative RPG that focuses on trans rights.

>>54766867
The 5e PHB and DMG put together have over 600 pages, and about 320 each. It's not about making snap judgements based on size

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>>54766346
Alright, you all know me, you know what I'm about. I shill Mythras over GURPS any time GURPS is suggested.

With that said, let's examine GURPS.

GURPS is, in short, Mechanically ideal. The core mechanic, 3d6 roll-under, is simple to grasp, and the magnitude of available material means that you can run virtually ANYTHING once you and your group learn it... which is exactly the problem.

GURPS has a solution for everything, but it loses out in the two traits every group looks for: it's not easy to run, and it's not easy to get players to learn.

Before you go and hang me for repeating the "GURPS is hard meme" I don't mean that's it's difficult in the technical sense, the mechanics are elementary, but rather the practical sense. Every GURPS mechanics are self-contained in order to be able to interact with every other rule that it might encounter. The result of this is that each rule and power tends to have its own column dedicated to it. The problem isn't difficulty, it's brevity. In a hobby where a common complaint is getting players to read the rulebook, GURPS is horrible in that regard.

(Cntd...)

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>>54767222
On top of all of this, you as the GM have to deal with being familiar with all of the mechanics involved in the system, and in addition have to design the set of rules and game balance yourself. A common phrase is that GURPS isn't a system, it's a toolset to create one, and that's mostly tru. It's a lot of work compared to most systems, which have balance and rulesets built in... with the exception of Pathfinder.(Pathfinder says it is, but the devs are hacks who can't into criticism)

So, who is GURPS for? Honestly, people who have become familiar with GURPS. An experienced GM and players running GURPS are likely to have a pretty good time, the problem is getting to that point, running the system long enough that players become familiar enough to have fun with it, and the GM becomes experienced enough to handle it.

So why do I keep on shilling Mythras over GURPS? Because where GURPS is Granular in its rules, Mythras is Modular. Rather than dealing with each rule, the BRP systems tend to give you various rulesets that you can snap together to create a system. Overall it's a lot less hassle for both the GM and the players, and it still maintains enough depth and customization that I can say with confidence that MYTHRAS DOES IT BETTER, if only in terms of delivering a universal system with less trouble than GURPS does.

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It's pretty fun. One thing I like is that the advantages and such actually encourage roleplaying, and the combat is quick while giving you a lot of options and a very good sense of what is actually happening. Download the GURPS Lite PDF (It's free, and you really should start with it before the core book) and give it a try to see if it is for you.

The main downside, as the anon above me pointed out is that it takes real prep time because it isn't really out of the box. However there are out of the box options with Dungeon Fantasy, Monsters Hunters, Action, among others. So if you are playing a game that fits the genre of one of those sets then you shouldn't have any issues with it.

At its core the thing that seperates GURPS from most things is that there is very little abstraction. There's no vagueness over whether HP is meat points or luck, everything is crunchy and blow-by-blow. That makes it super realistic and punchy and really good for shit where you want surgical precision and reliable cause-effect - it's one of, if not the, best systems for modern tactical gunplay shit. It's also damn good for crunchy fantasy, western and basically anything where you want players to have a real chance of dying and have to think before they play.

The injury rules are cool and flexible and let you bleed people out and choke them to death dynamically using the same rules as anywhere else, the combat options are incredibly broad meaning you can slice both a dude's arms off and pull the pin on his grenade before kicking him into a crowd, and the wrestling moves are a thing of beauty.

Weirdly, it also makes for quite a good squad wargame if you heavily limit the character options.