Quote from: David Johansen;444453Honestly, the vibe I got from the last few print issues of Pyramid Magazine was that of a company that was pretty tired of roleplaying games.

Another observation it seems to be me that they are VERY comfortable with working with known and trusted authors.  I tried submitting material back in 07, 08 most of the time it seems to go down a black hole. But to be fair I did get some responses to the effect "we are not interested in that type of project."  The last one was me pitching a Points of Light style land designed for GURPS.

I am waiting to see what they do with GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Monsters. I swear if it like 3rd Edition's Fantasy Bestiary where the creatures were mostly all pull from historical mythology, I will disappointed.  I don't mind a few of them but I would like the D&D standard stable of creatures covered as well.  Similar what they did in the Classic Fantasy series for Basic Roleplaying.

The one thing that really ticked me off is when I advocated this over on the SJ Forums I had responses god "well you can't do that because of copyright", "What the standard D&D array of monsters?" and so on. To which all I can do is roll my eyes.

While I am not expecting in-depth knowledge of the Monster Manual, I find people involved as some of the poster at least be familar with a few of the monsters that are used over and over again in D&D games. Give the ones that are essentially public domain GURPS stats and be done with it.

Well, there are the monsters in GURPS Banestorm.  In fact that's one of the things I'd put in a GURPS Lite Fantasy book.

But yeah I'm a bitter rebuffed submission guy myself.  I actually had a very civil e-mail exchange with Mr. Jackson himself at one point where he suggested I submit some things to build a relationship first.  The results I got were complete silence, some very stock rejections and one or two snippy rejections.

So, yeah, I'm hearing a fair bit of interest for this and I think I'll write it.  It probably won't be what everyone's looking for and it won't be 100% GURPS because I'm not interested in getting into legal battles over it.

So I guess it will be what I want GURPS to be as opposed to what it has become.

Here's a link to my notes thus far.

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?p=444508#post444508

I had Gurps 4e (I bought all 3 books) and I read it and I tried to like it, and the system seemed like it was good.

But the books were so poorly written and layed out that the character creation process was hard to understand.   Instead of it being in the order that the character is created it was all over the place

The only real order is that you buy lots of stuff and then spend a lot of time trying to find a way to pay for it all.

I bought the 4e core books then decided I was done.

I've never been a huge GURPS system fan.  The base roll-under 3d6 is probably my least favorite [normal] mechanic in RPGs - it's neither simple nor interesting.

They used to have a lot of interesting supplements.  I have yet to see a single interesting supplement for the 4th edition.  Most of the stuff seems to be long, bland catalogs or else big treatises on how I could build my own rules.  RPGPundit once said something like "it became less of a game and more like a complicated kit to build your own game", a statement I think perfectly illustrates my feelings about GURPS.

Honestly, I prefer the effects-based design of HERO.  At least I generally only have to look in one place.  Games that try to be more simmy but still generic - like GURPS 4 or M&M 2 - mean I have to read through dozens of very similar things (skills, powers, etc) and when I finally do model something I end up realizing there are at least 3 other ways to do it with widely different point costs (as point costs are based on some arbitrary scheme and not on actual usefulness).

Which is why I agree with the sentiments of others here - if GURPS doesn't provide quality game material of its own, it's living on borrowed time because trying to convert anything to it is a freakin' nightmare.

It's a bit of a parable on listening to your fans.  Your fans buy your product already but you need to think about the people who don't buy your product if you want to grow.

GURPS has a very strong culture of building and converting and arguing over what's the best way to build and convert things.  Those guys are largely satisified by 4e.

Quote from: RPGPundit;444302I always liked GURPS more the simpler I could run it.(...)

GURPS was actually the first system I played and thus eventually became the first system I ran. I did remove a lot of unnecessary detail and crunch, probably to the point of maiming it.

Quote from: RPGPundit;444302Great sourcebooks, though. At least back in the 3e period; I haven't checked out many of the 4e GURPS books.

Mostly yes. Though I don't play GURPS anymore I did pick up some of the (3rd edition) sourcebooks just for the great info.

Quote from: David Johansen;444387(...)My complaint about GURPS Vehicles has more to do with the nitpicky stuff  like buying seat belts, I still like the spreadsheet and calculator  approach, I just think it shouldn't take so many pages and redesigns.(...)

I'm not familiar with GURPS Vehicles but have you experienced GURPS Robots? OMFG! :jaw-dropping:

GURPS Robots was a simplified subset of Vehicles.

What I really disliked about it was the use of points and money.  I understand why it worked out that way but man was it a pain.

Quote from: RPGPundit;444302I always liked GURPS more the simpler I could run it.   As time went by, that seemed to become harder and harder to do.  I think that what's to blame is in part the creators of the game trying to push more and more towards satisfying the interests of a very particular demographic of fan, that wanted that kind of ultra-technical shit, rather than sticking more toward the mainstream.

Great sourcebooks, though. At least back in the 3e period; I haven't checked out many of the 4e GURPS books.

RPGPundit

That was almost precisely my experience.

When the Compendia became core books the line became too heavy for easy use. It was trending that way for a while, but that was the tipping point for me.