Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online.
Continue reading Weekend Update: 2/15/2025Tag Archives: GURPS
Weekend Update: 3/2/2024
Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online.
Continue reading Weekend Update: 3/2/2024
System Hack: GURPS Disadvantages
Welcome back to System Hack! For our second installment of hacking GURPS, we’re going to take a look at the banes of the system’s existence; they’re listed in a separate chapter from the boons. That’s right, we’re looking at disadvantages. GURPS character creation has each player build their character from a set number of character points, which are used to buy attributes, skills, and advantages. There’s also the ability to get points back by reducing attribute values or taking disadvantages. In the case of GURPS, where the quantity and scope of disadvantages is so broad, it takes an eagle eyed GM to make sure that each disadvantage is ‘worth’ the point cost (for advantages players tend to do that themselves, isn’t that weird?). This is generally done by enforcing the disadvantage at the table, making disadvantages in play a lesson in negative reinforcement. To make things even more complicated, some disadvantages aren’t really disadvantages at all. Things like dark secrets and enemies swing the spotlight directly at a character, producing a positive value to the player that isn’t reflected by the negative point value.
While limiting the number and point value of disadvantages in your GURPS game is always prudent, there are other methods out there to make them work without giving any players unfair advantages or feeling like you’re punishing them every time they need to make a self-control roll. After talking a bit about one of the inherent flaws of advantage/disadvantage type systems, I’m going to discuss little hacks to improve the utilization of two common disadvantage mechanics in GURPS: frequency of appearance and self-control rolls.
Continue reading System Hack: GURPS DisadvantagesSystem Hack: Advancement for GURPS
As longtime readers of this site may be aware, I have a long history with GURPS. GURPS was the first game I GMed for what is still my primary gaming group, and I GMed GURPS for the majority of all games that I ran from 2006 until 2014. In the intervening decade I moved away from the system because my own interests changed; I began seeking out specific experiences and different approaches to game design. Some of my favorite games and game systems from the last decade, systems as diverse as Twilight:2000, Electric Bastionland, and Apocalypse World, all share the common property of being designed for a specific circumstance. In other words, all of these games could be considered the antithesis of GURPS at least as far as design goals are concerned.
That said, my affection for GURPS and generic game systems in general has never completely waned. Beyond that, when it comes to a more simulative approach to gaming, to times when you want to know how to make a very wide range of situations relevant, GURPS is still king. I cannot think of a better game for bringing verisimilitude and consistency to a very wide set of characters and circumstances. However, as much as I hold a lot of affection for GURPS, there are still some things I’d want to change if I were to return to the system. For this System Hack or two (or three?) I’m going to look at GURPS and look at things which haven’t gotten as much revision and research as the tech level system, or the frightening number of weapons, or the comprehensive and extremely math-heavy solar creation templates of GURPS Space. No, I’m going to be talking about things that have received a lot of attention since GURPS Fourth Edition was released in 2005. Spotlight management. Player-driven goals. And today, advancement.
Continue reading System Hack: Advancement for GURPS
Generic RPGs: What’s Out There
There’s a world of games out there, but they still just scratch the surface. Maybe your favorite book series or movie hasn’t caught the eye of anyone making RPG adaptations. Maybe you have your own spin on a popular genre that you just can’t pull off with an existing game. Or maybe you just want to run something wild and straight from your own head. No matter the reason, if a game off the shelf doesn’t quite do it for you, you’re looking for a generic RPG.
We’ve talked a bit about generic RPGs before, reviewing Cortex Prime and Everywhen, discussing Fate, and even using GURPS as an example text for looking at how to use generic games. This article is less about what to do with generic games, though, and more about how to find the right one for you. We’re going to discuss three broad types of generic games: Engines which are designed to model as many situations with as few rules as possible, Codexes which use a simple base ruleset and then expand it with a wide library of additional mechanics, and Chassis which take more traditional setting-driven RPGs, strip out the specific parts, and then (hopefully) build back up to something useful. The ‘Chassis’ generic RPG is the most common and popular, but the other two design modes may very well have more to offer the prospective game master.
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Cannibal Halfling Radio Episode 4: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Lunar Exalt
If you’re looking for a holiday tabletop roleplaying one-shot we have some ideas for you in the latest round of Pitch Me, from Jewish knights to Christmas changelings to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Lunar Exalt! Then we get a little more serious, talking about corporate commercialization making its way into the hobby, in this episode of Cannibal Halfling Radio!
Continue reading Cannibal Halfling Radio Episode 4: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Lunar Exalt
How To Be A GURPS GM Review
Ah, GURPS. One of the most comprehensive toolkits on the RPG market, GURPS and its plethora of supplements offer the ability to play in almost any genre at almost any complexity level. The tradeoff here is that when you open the GURPS Basic Set for the first time, you are dazzled and overwhelmed by a vast range of options to select, dials to adjust, and levers to pull. Coming from a game like D&D, a GM starting with GURPS isn’t going to know where to, ahem, start. Steve Jackson Games realized that, and recruited two GURPS veterans to write How To Be A GURPS GM. While this slim volume is thin on generalizable GMing advice (with admittedly good reason), it does exactly what it says on the tin, and provides some guidance on how to actually make GURPS do what you want it to do.
Level One Wonk: Universal Gaming with GURPS
Are you a Butt-Kicker, a Specialist, or a Story-Teller? There is a huge world of games out there to satisfy every player’s and group’s style. And while there are academic discussions in every corner of the internet, sometimes it’s best to start at level one. Join the Level One Wonk in exploring the possibilities that RPGs have to offer, from Aberrant to Zorcerer of Zo. Today we talk about the potent flexibility of universal systems, using the oddly named but otherwise excellent GURPS as our prime example!
Continue reading Level One Wonk: Universal Gaming with GURPS
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