Decision Made

Okay.

Having returned to Canada and having spoken with my core gaming group, I’ve made up my mind.

The Volara campaign will be in D&D 3.5e.

I’ve weighed the options for a while now, and I think that’s the best course to take for now.

While I still feel that GURPS would be a better system for what I want to do with the world in the long run, I also think that character creation would be a much more involved process than if we went 3.5.  By extension, there would be a lot more overall rules explanations that may get tiresome in the potentially short time we have (we may only have six weeks or so).

If Amanda and I do stay here past June, then the whole thing may become GURPS.

That said, I will be running a small Infinite Worlds side-game with GURPS, just to (re)familiarize myself (and any of the players who want to try it) with the system.  A and M said they’re in, so if we can find a workable day and time, others can join too.

One more note, partly in response to R’s last comment on the previous post, it’s unlikely that Volara will be 4e at any point in the next year or so.  This is not due to any particular dislike for that system, but rather because I feel that the available material will be too limited to support what I want to do with Volara.  I suspect this may change when PHB 2 comes out.

Finally, I hope to have the full character creation rules up by tomorrow evening, so keep your eyes peeled.  I will be sending an e-mail out to the group when that page has the information up.

Decisions

Here’s the thing.

I’ve lately been seriously considering making the Volara campaign GURPS-based, instead of the D&D 3.5 I have previously stated.

As you may (or may not) be aware, many of Volara’s NPCs have been adopted from previous games.  This means that there are Vampire: The Masquerade characters, GURPS characters, Marvel Super Heroes characters, AD&D characters, Shadowrun characters, and D&D 3.5 characters running around in the background (Okay, I may be lying about one of those systems, but maybe not).

Obviously, these characters have been/will be modified (sometimes heavily) to fit into this new world.  You need have no fear of Spider-man or Lestat clones popping up.

But, from a GM perspective, it would be a heck of a lot easier to adapt these characters to the GURPS setting than to 3.5, as the previous is a universal system specifically designed to accept and work with numerous settings, while 3.5… is not.

Beyond that, I like the idea that GURPS is a role-playing system designed around skills which are used sometimes for combat, while 3.5 is a combat system with a bit of role-playing tacked on.

What do I mean?

Well, GURPS 4th Edition, chapter one deals with character concept and what role-playing is before it describes stats, skills, or other aspects of play.  From there it delves into character types, as there are no set character classes in the system.  The D&D 3.5 Player’s Handbook, by comparison, doesn’t delve into the same questions until chapter 6, as the last thing to do before you play.

In any case, I am toying with using GURPS, but I haven’t made a decision yet.  Technically, if all my players don’t react vehemently to the idea, I might choose it,even though it would mean a lot more effort on my part (there seems to be a lack of generic monsters to throw at the party, and I would need to specifically design the PC races).

Technically, character creation is more complex in GURPS, as the players do have to completely design their characters from the ground up (though there are templates as guidelines).   Past that, however, the game mechanics are fairly simple.

Yes, you will have to forgo all but your cube-shaped dice.

In GURPS, there are no class levels.  Your character never ‘levels up,’ it simply develops over the course of the game.

Since, to my knowledge, none of my players are familiar with the GURPS system, here is a link to GURPS Lite (just add to cart, then check out without registering) which is designed as an introductory guide to the game.  The .pdf is free, and it’s complete enough that you can make characters and run a simple game with nothing but the information in it.

All I ask is that you give the rules a fair once-over before you give me your yea or nay.