From: dseal@armltd.co.uk (David Seal)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: HERO vs. GURPS
Date: 30 Jul 92 13:19:16 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: A.R.M. Ltd, Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambs, UK

In article <1992Jul28.211729.9521@news.unomaha.edu> PCHEM14@Zeus.unomaha.edu
(FALL88) writes:

>However, what I like about Hero is the fact that it can be more easily 
>modified to whatever end you want.  If all you need to feel that you are
>being 'realistic' is higher damage, simply increase damage in the game.
>No problem.  I like this, because Hero allows you to enforce your own
>view of realism, whereas GURPS has a tendancy to force SJG's view of
>realism on you.  Honestly, the system (GURPS) is not as mallaeble as it
>could be.

I'm probably biased - I've played a lot of GURPS and like it, and haven't
played Hero at all. I liked GURPS as soon as I read the rulebook, and cannot
say the same thing about Hero at all... This may be at least partly the
different styles in which the rulebooks are written.

However, to try to be reasonably objective: as you say, Hero can be easily
modified - probably more easily than GURPS. The flip side of this seems to
me to be that Hero *has* to be modified. For instance, GURPS provides you
with lists of spells, etc.; Hero tells you how to design a spell. The latter
is better if you *want* to design your own spells - it's just a waste of
time if you don't want to put in that much effort.

A lot depends on the extent to which the GM wants to hand-craft his
campaign. If you really just want to get a campaign going without much
system design work (as opposed to world design work), GURPS is almost
certainly the better system. Enough of the details have been worked out in
the published rules that you can simply say something like "we're using
GURPS Basic, the GURPS Magic spell system and the GURPS Martial Arts
non-cinematic rules", design characters and a world and start playing.

You will of course find yourself having to make system rulings from time to
time - no set of published rules can cover everything. If you want to modify
part of the system, it can be done: generally you work by analogy with other
parts of the system. A consequence of this is that it's a good idea to play
the unmodified system a bit, to see how the system works, before trying to
customise it. Another consequence is that customising it is more difficult
than for Hero, since you do have to work out how the system should be
modified rather than being able to look up explicit rules for the purpose.
At some level of hand-crafting, Hero presumably becomes less overall work.

So I suspect Hero wins out when the GM wants to extensively hand-craft his
campaign, or if he wants to hand-craft it much at all while starting to play
a new system.

>If you buy into SGJ's version of 'realism' then GURPS may seem to be a nice
>game.  However, I don't buy some of the times it takes to do certian things.
>Yes, Hero would be no more realistic in such things, but Hero never claimed
>to be based on realism.

I've never seen any real problem about house rules for individual things you
don't like - i.e. overriding the published rules when they don't make sense
to you. I'm not certain which "times it takes to do certain things" you're
talking about, but they're certainly easy to modify. E.g. if you want GURPS
spell-casting to involve a comparatively long casting time, it's perfectly
possible to achieve that. The simplest way would be to rule that all spells
have to be cast "ceremonially", taking 10 times the listed times; you could
also go through the spell lists and decide on a new casting time for each of
them, or even design your own magic system...

>And, contrary to GURPS belief, realism hardly makes a system 'universal.'

I don't think this is "GURPS belief". GURPS frequently abandons realism for
the sake of universality - simple examples being magic and psionics. The
main emphasis on realism in GURPS is not really on being realistic all the
time, but on knowing when you are being realistic and when you're not (e.g.
consider the emphasis in GURPS Martial Arts and some others on telling you
when a skill/advantage/whatever is "cinematic"). Knowing this is useful: it
helps tell both the GM and the players when they can rely on their common
sense, and when they may have to think out exactly how the world works.

David Seal
dseal@armltd.co.uk

All opinions are mine only...
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy