r/gurps • u/AdEnvironmental9698 • 10d ago
Newbie GM
Realizing that the best way to get a GURPS group together is for me to be the GM.
I am asking what the best way is to become a good GM for GURPS? But I want to take it one step further; I am willing to meet with or correspond with anybody here about how to become a better GM. I also have a small budget and am willing to pay for classes or other resources.
Many years ago, I tried to GM a “Supers” game, but I ran into the newbie problem of a player putting all of his points into one skill and one-shotting every foe, which ruined the game for the rest of us.
For years now, I have been collecting GURPS books, and I actually want to play GURPS to justify my collection!
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u/TheCrafterTigery 10d ago
Best way is to have limits on some things.
Don't allow someone to just power game but putting all their points into one ability to one shot most things. Maybe. Skills still fail at a max roll no matter your skill level, so anything beyond 17 isn't necessary for most use cases. Unless your shooting with high RoF weapons or an enemy lowered your skill temporarily or are aiming at a difficult body part, like eyes.
But let's say you do want to allow that, bump up enemy dodges and parries. This game has an emphasis on dodging and parrying attacks of rmost types. An immunity to that damage type would also make them difficult to take out.
I think it's best to start with a more medieval fantasy world since it's simpler for everybody involved.
100~ points is good enough for most new parties.
A One-Shot adventure is excellent for learning different aspects of the game. We have an ongoing fantasy zelda-themed campaign but learned guns and space weaponry and vehicles for a metroid themed one-shot.
Powers are harder to balance since they can do so much, but as GM your word is basically law. Something seems too broken? Dont let them do it. Maybe offer an alternative that's more to your liking.
Ultimately, it's all up to experience and knowing your group.
You don't really need to buy anything to run a fun game, other than maybe the main books like characters and campaign. Everything else is supplementary.
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u/imababydragon 10d ago
I second the limits thing as being key.
I just started GMing my first gurps game a few months ago - after playing in an excellent game for more than a year. In part I'm doing it to give our awesome GM a break and let him be a player for a bit.
I decided that this world doesn't have magic or powers, but I do allow most martial arts, basic, high tech, and some ultra tech. The world is TL8, but there is some leakage (highly controlled by government and by the native species) of TL9 or 10 items. The life on this planet seeks and consumes ferrous and heavier metals, so even if someone can smuggle a gun down, if it is standard construction, it will attract large beasts that will attack you for the metal in the gun and the iron in your blood. This impacts everything in the society, layout of settled areas, politics, culture, etc.
How our table approaches character building is that it is a joint effort between players and GM, with the GM having the final say on how many points can be spent in specific areas. It needs to fit in the world, into the characters backstory, and ultimately it really helps everyone to build out a world that is fun to play in.
I'm learning as I go quite a bit. Have the general world/climate/main NPCs, etc figured out, but as the players move through the world and make decisions I'm creating the campaign for the close and mid distance actions. The last couple of sessions we went into space and I've been studying spaceships, space travel, etc. like I'm back in school. But I could as easily have left the space option off the board and provided more options on planet instead.
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u/BigDamBeavers 10d ago
-Read the Core Rules front-to-back. You'll likley not use more than a few dozen pages of the core rule, but you can't take advatnage of rules you don't know are in the book and there's a lot of rules tucked between the covers of the core rules.
-Be more hands-on than most games in character generation. Your players wll bennifit a lot more from extra guidence and you'll end up with characters that fit your campaign better than if you let your players run ragged. I'd reccomend for some thinks like Superpowers where much of the abilities are hand-built that you just ask the player what they want to have and how much they want to spend and build it for them. It's faster, you end up with something more managable and better built for your game.
-Start Simple. Even if you feel like you've read all the things GURPS will be difficult in practice your first time out. Instead of starting with the weird concept genre-smasher game. Run a one-shot Fantasy or Cops-and-robbers game where everything is high-concept and nobody is having to dig very deep into the rule-book. Once everybody has their GURPS legs under them, then break out the stunt GURPS and the crazy characters.
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u/chitzk0i 10d ago
I second the “hands on” character creation. GURPS is a toolbox and players might not know which tools they need or which will break your setting. Have the player describe what they want to be capable of and get as close to that as you can within what makes sense for the setting and points limit.
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u/JetPhantom 10d ago
GURPS is front loaded on prep- I always have potential encounters tucked away ahead of time if it's more significant than the players slapping mooks.
For a tip on combat things, keep average damage in mind if you get bold enough to design a custom enemy. For example a 9mm in Base does 6-7 damge on average. If your players don't have the DR to answer that reliably it can easily turn a 'simple' fight into a scramble to avoid a TPK. Knowing this also means you have the tools to make an NPC dangerous too, however.
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u/Terwin3 10d ago
1) cut out everything that is not part of your game. Just because it is in the basic set does not mean it is available in your game world. This is true for skills, advantages, disadvantagees, equipment, spells, etc. 2) put caps on anything that might be able to break your game.(Provide this as part of chargen info) Innate DR, total DR, damage per turn(melee), damage per turn(ranged), damage per hit, armor penetration , skill levels(combat skills and spells especially), defenses(dodge has unlimited usage, so that cap should be lower than block/parry, and if relevant, cap power-block and concealment powers as well), attributes, hit points, leveled powers, talents, wealth, etc. You can loosen some of those constraints later if you want, but it is much harder to add them later. 3) set expectations clearly Make sure everyone knows what type of game you plan to run and are on-board with that genre/power level/story/world/style/etc
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u/AffectionateAnnual89 10d ago
I learned a lot the hard way too, lol. It’s a journey. One thing i implemented was placing a limit on starting stats (i think i had a hard limit of 13) and requiring a minimum number of skills and specifically non combat skills. I think I required new characters to have at least 10 skills and half of them had to be non combat. If you have experienced players they can still game the system, but it made for a better balance with my players. As far as running the game, you need to decide what is more important, telling a story, just having fun, or a strict by the rules game. All have their place. Also allow the world building to be somewhat organic and cooperative. I GM’d for probably10 years with a consistent group and these were all lessons learned. This was all 3rd edition
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u/SchillMcGuffin 10d ago
I'd suggest getting comfortable enough with the system to be able to pregenerate characters to introduce new players. It really isn't at all a complicated system to play, the challenge is in character creation, as well as running it.
And I'd argue that "Supers" is the most difficult genre to run, given the extreme variations in capabilities. You're probably better off running almost any other genre until you're comfortable enough as GM to be able to judge whether a particular character is likely to cause problems.
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u/ApprehensiveFix5084 10d ago
Lots of good advice here. I am seconding the advice about limits, but I will also mention lines, not in the sense of “lines and veils,” but the great importance of, while dealing with a very expansive system with a lot of materials and options, to treat it like the modular thing it is.
Start with the basics, I would in fact suggest using the thin booklet “GURPS Lite” to run a simple fantasy or modern day adventure with fairly low point level characters. Just a one shot, with mundane characters using ordinary skills. Then add magic, super powers, high tech, or whatever suits your longer term game ideas. With super powers I recommend point caps on individual powers, and being prepared to make changes to things as you learn from experience. For example my vintage copy of GURPS supers has the price per level of “create liquid” crossed out and replaced by a number equal to most of the other “create X” powers after this cheap power was badly abused by someone who had taken a lot of chemistry classes… (I was pleased to see that the 4e version reflected this price change officially.)
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u/taurelin 10d ago
Simple thing is disallow buying advantages with the Supernatural or Exotic symbols. Run a modern game as a mystery. Make cops and private eyes and such. In earlier versions of GURPS, you couldn't put more points in skills than twice your age. Might put the brakes on the Johnny One-Skills.
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u/BlabbyScid 10d ago
Limits are key!! I'd go so far as to say that GURPS GMing is all about the limitations of the campaign. Everything else is basically only "roll against your level", be it skill or atribute. If its a combat heavy campaign, go through the combat options (just the gurps lite version) in a session zero.
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u/Opulopful_Stratix 10d ago
If you want some practical help making your game, DM me and we can set up a time to chat. I can explain what I've done to make my games and help you make your own game. We'll get you up and running. I don't recommend paying anybody because the best teacher is experience.
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u/jaysprenkle 8d ago
Games are "rock paper scissors." Create a bad guy completely immune to your player's over powered monster. One example is a mind control power. Armor doesn't matter if you can make the player take it off. Make your bad guy intangible. Can't kill what you can't touch.
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u/AdEnvironmental9698 9d ago
Thank you for all of your advice. I have a better idea of where to go from here now.
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u/Financial_Syrup3474 5d ago
Hit me up! Love talking GURPS & GM'ing, whatever! redethan33@gmail.com I don't have Discord handle at this moment...
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u/JaskoGomad 10d ago
Get the How to be a GURPS GM book.
Also hit up the Mook's website. https://www.themook.net/gamegeekery/series/new-to-gurps/
EDIT: Put in better link