Quote from: Weru;825429I'm no GURPS Guru, but I do love 3e for low mana fantasy.

It's probably what GURPS is most good at.

Cosmetically, I love the look and feel and layout of 3rd Edition Basic. It feels warm and cozy and makes you want to delve in and discover its secrets. 4th edition lacks this appeal, reflecting the labcoat scientist that permeates Sean's being - but it's obviously more comprehensive. He and the team did a super job with the huge task they had to accomplish. The hardcover books in the series I must say, look amazing on the shelf and are still all fun to read.

Without the solo and Caravan adventure built in, 4e becomes anathema to a new convert. Like...how does this all fit?? GURPs is magic in its simplicity of mechanics. Once people see it, they seldom find anything else satisfactory.

One thing I also liked about 3e was the Random Character generator (but I'm a super fan of playing random everything, thank you EasyGurps). Make a human character for any genre and GO. Sometimes, this is the best way for a GM to get a GURPS group going. Roll 'em up and do a one-shot. Once they LIKE playing, they'll want and enjoy putting the time into a character. But, GURPS can be deadly sometimes esp for beginners - so random allows for generation without too much investment should it all go south.
Also, solo gaming is really taking off as a hobby of its own now.

So 4e lost a lot of "ease of entry".
I love DF but don't love it.

WHY CALL IT DUNGEON FANTASY IF THAT LINE ALREADY EXISTS??
You just created a good degree of confusion.

Why the 250 point character start? Starting off as super warriors without earning it isn't fun. I guess Sean wanted to show off the capabilities of the system. His sarcastic or irreverent tone talking down to the genre makes it an annoying read. If reaching newer D& D players was the goal with this box, why act as if it's all dumb but hey here you go? They haven't been around since the 80's.

But I'll take the presentation and distillation.



I was wondering if it is possible for GURPS  to do a universal "basic box" with a solo.
4E is "complete", but just needs a better point of entry, and less clinical approach and layout. Go back to warm and fuzzy 3e style.

Maybe TFT could be repacked as a basic fantasy start for GURPS (which it is, really) It's a much faster entry and start up.

I think the reasoning behind the 250 point characters is that people won't be playing long campaigns.  Also, 100 point GURPS characters spend a lot of time healing up after just a couple combats.

D&D's had this weird thing where dungeons were safer than the wilderness and player characters engaged with dungeon crawls because they were structured to be challenging relative to the character's level.

Personally, Dungeon Fantasy isn't what I'd have done, a GURPS Lite Fantasy Supplement would be my way of attracting new players, but then I don't own SJG.  Of course, Dungeon Fantasy isn't really aimed at new players, its aimed at the existing fanbase which is, I imagine, good business sense.  Something I have none of.

I have 3rd ed myself and a friend has 4th. I prefer easy solutions rather than tons of options, and I always thought 4th edition was a bloated mess that I wouldn't want. 3rd edition was really straightforward to get into.

That impression, whether it's true or not (and I believe it mostly is) is 4th edition's greatest weakness.