Learning GURPS 1: One Simple Fight

GURPS is a game I’ve owned for many years. It’s a game I’ve managed to play but a couple of times, and always abortively. In short, my problem has been that I don’t really know how to play.

I understand the basic mechanic – roll 3d6 and get equal to or lower than a skill value – and I also understand how to points-buy the characters. We’ve made lots of characters over the years.

The problem is that I really never got my head around how to use the system to my advantage as a Games Master. In other words, how to run a good game using GURPS.

Barriers in the past include how to create useful NPCs (especially for combat) and how to effectively run the game.

First Steps

GURPS is not a system that you can just read and “get” straightaway. Folk generally bitch about how unfriendly the Basic Set rules are for new players of the system. This is probably not made easier by the layout of the game which, basically, is one big reference text. It’s probably great for experienced GURPS players but it is harder to penetrate for the neophyte.

As a neophyte, I’ve decided to find my own way into the game and see what I can learn through some solo excursions with the rules. I’m going to start small and simple. I’ll add stuff as I grasp the basics more firmly.

To begin, I’m going to strip the game back to really simple terms. I’m going to create some very low-power characters and learn the basic combat rules. That means only looking up stuff in Basic Set Characters and using just the Combat Lite rules at the back. From there, we’ll see what we can add as we go.

The only additional thing I am going to keep in mind is that I want to try to put together a short adventure using GURPS set in the modern day. Thus, long-term, I am aiming towards being able to create modern-day characters and run them in a game (with the possibility of some weird shit like magic, psi, and monsters).

The Least Points Spent

The first character will be Peter. I’m going to put him in a fighting pit with Mark. These two are going to have a knife fight.

Keeping things simple, I am going to just build them using Attributes and Skills at this stage. I’m also going to do the whole thing “by hand”, shunning the very useful GURPS Character Assistant, so that I can learn how things work. Fighting-type characters require high ST (Strength), DX (Dexterity), and HT (Health). They also need combat skills. That’s my starting point… but I want to have a first stab using the only a few character points.

All characters start with ST 10, DX 10, IQ 10, and HT 10. As I want to give these guys some combat skills, I decide to buy the skills first. Skills the guys don’t know will use default levels which means I don’t need to worry about what I don’t buy at this stage. Looking through the Skill chapter, everything is listed alphabetically and it’s hard to see what I might need. I decide to download the free GURPS Skill Categories file and look up “Combat Skills”.

Starting with a Knife fight, I realise I don’t need to do very much more than give them the Knife skill. This is a DX-based skill as is Easy to learn. As skills are relative to the Attribute, I buy Peter the Knife skill at DX+2 for 4 points; with DX-10 that gives him Knife-12. For my first outing, I’m going to make Mark identical – just 4 points spent.

The Knife Fight

From here, it’s time to turn to B324 and look up Combat Lite – the basic fighting rules at the back of Basic Set Characters. I’ve also nabbed two Lego figures and my hexed battle map, sketching a rough fighting fit onto it. Let’s play!

Because characters usually act in order of Basic Speed and my guys are identical, I roll d6 to see who goes first – 1-3 Peter, 4-6 Mark – and roll 3.

The second-by-second combat turn sequence is highly granular, so each guy gets to do one thing on their turn. I’m assuming that one hex is one yard; I am aware that Tactical Combat on hexed maps is covered in Basic Set Campaigns, but I am trying to ignore that and just learn the basics right now.

Both men have a knife and just the clothes they are wearing. Peter begins the fight by taking the Move maneuver and going 5 hexes towards the centre of the ring (he has Basic Move 5). Mark is going to move in, but only move 4 of his 5 yards so that he isn’t within arm’s reach of Peter yet. That leaves a 1-yard gap between them.

Peter decides to Wait – he’ll attack if Mark moves in range for a stab with the knife. Mark is impatient (well, actually that’s me being impatient but hey) and performs the Move and Attack maneuver: he moves 1 yard and makes a “poorly aimed” melee attack at -4 to skill, capped at 9. The first question is whether Peter gets to stab before Mark. Not wanting to look that up, I decide that a Wait goes before the Attack part of the Move and Attack.

Peter stabs at Mark: rolls 8 against his Knife-12, making it a good attack; Mark gets to defend and opts to Dodge, rolling 8 to succeed (he has Dodge-8).

Now Mark makes that attack against Peter: rolls 9 (Knife-12) to succeed; Peter can opt to Parry, which is at a total of 8, and he rolls 11 to fail. I decide that Mark is trying to stab Peter, so it’s a damage roll of 1d-2; rolls 1. I am going to assume that you always do 1 point of damage. As it’s cutting damage and neither guy has armour, I apply the x1.5 modifier but that rounds down anyway = 1 point of damage. Peter takes 1 point off his Hit Points and suffers a -1 shock penalty to his next DX- or IQ-based action. Ouch!

Pretty simple so far. This will go down to whoever hurts the other the most quickly.

Into Round 3…

Peter stabs at Mark because the impale will do x2 damage if it gets through his non-existent armour. Attack roll scores 11, which just about hits (remember: -1 to Knife-12 because of shock last turn); Mark rolls to Parry, scores 13 to fail. Damage is 2, doubled to 4 for impaling strike. Mark doubles over as the blade sinks into his belly, and will be at -4 to act.

Mark tries to strike out with a slash, rolls 7 to hit (-4 penalty from shock to Knife-12); Peter fails to parry, rolling 17. Damage is 3 points, x1.5 to make it 4. Both men are injured and Peter is in shock at -4 (the max penalty, by the way). They are both below 1/3 of their starting Hit Points (HP), which means they both halve their Move and Dodge.
As the famed “Death Spiral” has begun and I have learned the basics of fighting, I decide to stop the fight and have both men get some medical attention.

What’s the practical upshot of all of that?

Firstly, it’s fair to say that GURPS is as simple as the fans claim. Skill checks are 3d6 roll-low and the basic combat rules are easy to pick up. On top of that, you don’t need to do a lot of complex maths to make a simple character.

I realise that I have stripped the game right down to almost nothing – just 4 character points spent and a simple knife fight in a tiny fighting pit. That said, the basic concepts are simple and that’s an inescapable reality.

Now I want to build these two into something slightly more interesting. I’m going to spend just 50 Character Points on each hero and see how that works out.

Game on!