Fruition

I am going to run a GURPS one-shot adventure. For a variety of reasons, I've decided to give the system a try in preparation for the future. I've selected an elite cadre of gamers to come along with me on this ride so I am optimistic that it will be a productive and entertaining adventure. I'm going to stat out a few characters, some mages and warriors and gunmen and such, and let players pick and choose who they want to play. Once everyone has a character I'll run them through a relatively quick scenario that will involve some skill use, combat, and dialogue. The goal is to get a little bit of everything done in the scenario so we kind of get a picture of how GURPS works. I plan to make it short and play it as a learn-as-you-go type thing, which should make even a short scenario take a ridiculous amount of time to complete.

The main thing I hope to get is an idea about how to construct scenarios and battles and how to make the transition from d20 to GURPS an easier process down the road. I also want to get an idea as to what sort of information needs to be kept on hand for quick reference during sessions. I guess this thing basically amounts to an investigative report on GURPS and whether or not we can figure out the intricacies of the system and find them delicious.

I have to say, I'm really rather excited to try this out and see how it goes, even if it is just a little one-shot thing. It's a chance to see my campaign world through the GURPS lens rather than the somewhat foggy and misshapen d20 lens. There is however a danger associated with that, I may get too excited or spend too much time on this one shot idea and I may end up too focused on GURPS and end up not putting the effort I should into my current d20 campaign. I have to restrain myself. The GURPS test run will come, but not at the expense of other stuff I am working on.

This leads me to another thought. Is GURPS going to be the right system for the group? I mean, there are dozens of generic systems out there and a fair few are just as neat as GURPS. Should we take a break from campaigns when we finish this current one and try out a few different systems before committing to one? There are lots of pre-made adventures to go along with all those systems I imagine, so it would certainly be easy enough for me, or any of us really, to run stuff. Hell, it might even be a time to explore the possibility of someone else becoming a GM when they had no idea they'd like the role.

I've just used d20 rulesets too faithfully for so long that I missed out on something great like GURPS. I think a little exploratory gaming might be in the group's best interests, but who knows. I guess I'll just see what the groups has to say about it when the time comes.

I dunno, we'll see I guess.