Generic Generic Game System, D6 Vivit Elric November 11, 2018
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G3d6 Generic Generic Game System, d6 Vivit Elric November 11, 2018 Preface In the beginning, there was GURPS. Well, no. In the beginning there was Dungeons & Dragons, and after that, its many imitators. After those, there was The Fantasy Trip, and then there was GURPS. But, as far as we're concerned, GURPS is where we start. GURPS is a roleplaying game system by Steve Jackson Games (God bless them, every one) designed to facilitate as wide a variety of settings and genres as possible. Designed as such, not merely intended{it is, in my opinion, a masterwork of game design accomplishing everything it sets out to do. At the time of the release of the game's first edition in 1986, the notion of a set of roleplaying rules for multiple settings and genres was a novelty. GURPS carved a cosy niche for itself, and there it sat. But time passed (as it's been known to do), and the world of gaming shifted. Many of GURPS' design decisions fell out of fashion, and while other games, like TSR's Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons and White Wolf's Onyx Path's World of Darkness adapted, Steve Jackson's GURPS has re- mained relatively unchanged across its four editions{changed enough to war- rant multiple editions, but not too much to still be considered the same system1. As the world of gaming changed, other systems began to intrude upon GURPS' niche as a generic system for many genres and settings. As early as 1989, the superhero-themed game of Champions, from which the GURPS system itself takes much inspiration, had its system generalized and released as a setting- and genre-agnostic roleplaying toolkit called the HERO system, 1Contrast this with D&D, which has fundamentally reinvented itself as a game with every major edition by Wizards of the Coast. i ii almost certainly in response to GURPS' success. However, the greatest blow to GURPS' status came in the year 2000 in the form of the d20 System, which Wizards of the Coast developed for its new edition of D&D after ac- quiring TSR, Inc. For this system, Wizards of the Coast developed the Open Gaming License, a permissive copyright license for game rules, modeled after open-source software licenses such as the GNU GPL and the MIT License. The license granted independent publishing companies near total freedom to use certain content in any set of rules licensed thereunder. By releasing the d20 system under the Open Game License; Wizards of the Coast, not entirely on purpose, enabled anyone to write, publish, and sell content for and supplements using the system. The d20 System took the world by storm. Its quirks, intricacies, and design principles cemented themselves in the collective consciousness of the gaming community. The system was adapted for a broad variety of settings and genres by many different publishers, taking advantage of people's familiarity with its idioms and conventions from D&D. Wizards of the Coast them- selves released a present-day-fantasy-themed game called d20 Modern{which worked about as well as you would expect the transplantation of the D&D rules into a modern setting to work. Even Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu got an official d20 conversion, and that was even worse. For almost a decade, the d20 system had a near monopoly on roleplaying game design, and to this writing still has a monopoly on the campaigns of many gaming groups. Gamers and publishers alike used the system's perceived flexibility to adapt the system for countless settings. d20 quickly became the square peg for every round hole in tabletop gaming. In the midst of this, the GURPS system began to seem outdated and out- moded. GURPS is not like d20. Its mechanics seemed confusing and coun- terintuitive to a public accustomed to the omnipresence of D&D-isms. It seemed unnecessary to learn a new system rather than converting and refla- voring an already-familiar one. Although the d20 system's stranglehold on the market has long gone slack, to this writing, the perception of GURPS as strange, difficult, and superfluous system remains. Exacerbating this problem are a number of things that make the GURPS system generally less accessible than d20. The closest thing GURPS has to a core rulebook, GURPS Basic Set, has far more information than is needed for any single campaign of GURPS; while the decision to include all this information in the core makes sense based on the design assumptions made by the system, a reader cannot be expected to know these. The organiza- tion of Basic Set has no excuse; it works better as an encyclopedia than a quick reference or an introductory rulebook. Most significant, however, is the fact GURPS has failed to adopt what is perhaps the greatest innovation of modern gaming: the Systems Resource Document. In writing G3d6, I intend to at once rememdy all three problems with GURPS: G3d6 is to provide an accessible, well-organized, comprehensive, and freely-available rules reference for GURPS-style games. I also intend to annotate the text heavily to offer insights into the design assumptions of the game, clear up misconceptions, offer advice, and suggest house rules. My hope is that this work will ease the adoption of GURPS into the system library of many roleplaying groups. GURPS is a wonderful system, and it is a tragedy that, through no fault of its own, it goes untried and unconsidered for many groups that, if given guidance, would enjoy it very much. Thank you for taking the time to read these rules, and if you enjoy them, then I urge you to consider supporting Steve Jackson Games by purchasing GURPS material. This text covers only a tiny fraction of content available in GURPS, most of it from Basic Set, with bits from Powers, Magic, and Martial Arts. While I may or may not write further material for G3d6 in the future, in that material I intend to take more liberties from the source material than in this text. I am not sure how influential this text will be, but my hopes are high. Again, thank you very much for reading G3d6 ! Valedictions, Vivit Elric Chapter 1 Overview of the G3 Character The mechanical information comprising a G3d6 character is as follows: • The character's Point Total, the sum of all Character Points both spent and unspent • Basic Attributes, which include the following: { Strength, abbreviated ST { Dexterity, abbreviated DX { Intelligence, abbreviated IQ { Health, abbreviated HT • Secondary Attributes, which include the following: { Hit Points, abbreviated HP, based on ST { Fatigue Points, abbreviated FP, based on HT { Perception, abbreviated Per, based on IQ { Will, also based on IQ { Basic Lift, abbreviated BL, based on ST { Basic Speed, abbreviated BS, based on DX and HT { Basic Move, abbreviated BM , based on BS • Two Lists of Traits: { a list of Advantages 1 2 CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW OF THE G3 CHARACTER { a list of Disadvantages • A list of Skills • Combat statistics, which include { Swing and Thrust damage, based on ST and on certain advantages { Damage Reduction, abbreviated DR, based on armor and on certain ad- vantages { Dodge, based on BM { Parry, based on certain skills and advantages { Block, based on certain skills and advantages • Miscellaneous other information { Languages known { Cultural Familiarities { Reaction Modifiers We are very sorry for the unfortunate linguistic coincidences in the initialisms of \BM", \BS", and, within the jargon of certain fandoms, \BL". This information may be categorized into three types: numerical information (\stats"), including attributes, skills, and certain other miscellaneous data; categorical informa- tion (\traits"), further divided into advantages, disadvantages, and features; and descriptive information (\details"), including in-universe information without significant mechanical effect, like name, physical appearance, date of birth, etc., which are not listed above; but also other details may be more directly important, like the terms of oaths or codes of honor. These mechanically-relevant details are typically appended to certain advantages and disadvantages, and will be described in full in the descriptions of those traits. Any information on the character with negligible mechanical effect, especially flavor details, we will call \embellishments". 1.1 Character Points and Point Buy A special, very important stat exists called character points, usually abbreviated as \CP" or simply shortened to \points". Points are spent to raise stats and confer beneficial properties, and may be refunded by lowering stats and accepting detrimental properties. The mechanic of exchanging points for benefits is called point buy. 1.2. ATTRIBUTES 3 Note that in G3d6, the word \buy" is used both for spending points on benefits and being granted points for detriments! Spending points to increase a stat is called \buying up"; lowering a stat in exchange for additional points is called \buying down". Any exchange of points for traits is simply called \buying". Synonymous with the latter sense of \to buy" is \to take", especially in the context of disadvantages, but for the sake of consistency, only the word \buy" will be used in this text. 1.1.1 Point Cost The point cost of a stat or property is denoted with a number inside [square brackets]. Positive numbers denote points that must be spent, while negative numbers denote points granted. For convenience, a trait's cost will often be written after its name; for example, Danger Sense [15]. For brevity, instead of always spelling out \n point(s)", this text will wherever possible abbreviate quantities of points using the bracket notation. \[1]" is to be read as \one point". 1.1.2 Point Total The total points available for a character to buy stats and properties with is called the character's point total.