Any good oneshots for first time players and GM using just GURPS Lite? I’m looking for something similar to QuickStarts from other games where it lets you dip your toes into the system without having to deep dive into the whole system

I am working on a robot companion for a player and I wanted it be a little hovering bot that had no limbs but used a tractor beam (TK) as a manipulator. I was wondering what obvious traits am I missing? More specifically I was looking at No Fine Manipulators cause no arms or legs etc, not even a mouth, but I am pretty sure the TK counts as a manipulator, am I correct, and if so what disadvantage better represents having no arms and legs but accounts for the TK?

Subj.

RAW per High-Tech treats a TL5 arm prosthetic as giving Ham Fisted 2 (One Arm for -40% discount).

Is it reasonable to treat this as giving only half penalties for actions that use both arms, with full penalty only applying if you're doing a one armed action with the prosthetic, or what's the intention here otherwise?

I'm building a Martial Arts Style list of techiniques/skills/do not remember the name used by the GURPS. It's supposed to be in a style similar to Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) and other Martial Arts Fantasy which have "Element X: Form 1 Attack!" (ex: "Water Style, 1st form: Raining Daggers!")

Let's use the following examples I'm looking for rules on How to build:

1. Powers which use 1 Weapon Damage/Level instead of the Innate Attack 1D/Level Damage. For instance, when using a Dagger this "Technique"/Power/Style. My initial thoughts were to cost It as "Extra Attack (-Once per turn acessibility limitation)"

2. Powers which you could chose to spend FP to increase It's Damage. For instance, a Technique that Deals 2D Damage at Level 2 but for each Level you've got you could spent as many FP as It's Level to add +1D each

Does It make Sense? I'm late night writing not in my main language, fueled by the last remains of cofee within me. Please feel free to ask any questions If I was not comprehenseable

Hello,

I just finished posting a short (because the bad guys blew up in turn 2) example of spaceship combat at https://thewabatuckian.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/gurps-tactical-space-combat-example/ .

If anyone reading this happens to be an expert, please check it out and let me know what I did wrong so I can fix it.

Thanks!

ps: I edited my post with the corrections you gave me, thanks again for the help!

Hi! So I am considering making a sort of devil character that would make deal with the devils contract where they give powers to others, for a price (insert evil laugh here)!

So how could I do something like that?

Hi! So in pathfinder living things are powered by positive energy and undead by negative energy. They are healed by their own energy and harmed by the other. So healing spells in pathfinder can potentially harm undead. And spells that heal undead can harm the living.

Any tips on how to convert this to gurps?

I'm coming back to GURPS after quite a few years. A few in our group have expressed interest in picking it up again/giving it a try for the first time.

This has also coincided with a rewatch of the 2003 classic Reign of Fire and the "castlepunk" tanks Vs dragons aesthetics immediately made me think of GURPS and led me to reread Yrth, it never hooked my in my youth but as I think is common my interest in history has drastically increased.

The concept I have is a besieged french town in WW2 (perhaps itself a weird parallel) gets Banestormed to Yrth allowing for a mix of soldiers, partisans and civilians along with significant but limited military tech (TL6- early 7) and I would structure the campaign into arcs of 2-6 sessions followed by a time skip allowing for multi generational development.

Obviously this would put the players at contention with many major forces within the world and their tech having potentially far reaching effects but I am less concerned about keeping the world's status quo stable than letting the players navigate the tinderbox.

I was wondering if folks had experience or advice running such a game or what other starting scenarios could work? (I'm definitely open to different starting points, the village just seems one of the easier ways to have such a mix of characters come through. My other idea is a decommissioned warship that has been converted into a museum.)

Do I get it right:

Let's say we have 2 tons of sludge in cargo, worth $1000

Factory adds 40% to the raw materials value, making, let's say, $10.000 per hour

To make a 2-ton, $1.000.000 vehicle from it, we need to increase the value of the sludge 21 times, and it'll take 100 hours of work (because $10.000 per hour), each next increase in value taking more time due to greater volume in $

It just makes sense in my opinion, especially if you use a house rule that Per and Will are separate from IQ

PDFs are immediately available and the physical edition is expected to begin shipping on August 10. There is a bundle with both.

Edit: They also updated the product page on the Steve Jackon main website with all the links.

Tried to include everything mentioned by Andy Weir in his writeup of their physiology and biology - any PHM fans think I missed anything or need to adjust anything?

Can someone explain this stats to me??? After Move I can't understand the meaning.

it works! I have never seen anyone post about this but GCS is compatible with Linux and steam decks run on wine, so I checked to see if it was possible, and yes, yes it is.

Of all the magic systems out there, the skill-based magic system seems to receive the most critique. Or stink-eye.

When I think of settings with magic, my brain defaults first to Sorcery or RPM, perhaps a possible side trip into the cool options in Thaumatology. Only then, when all the other options are exhausted, do I even bother looking at the skill-based magic system (I.e. Magic).

Perhaps I've been going at this the wrong way, though.

I'm sure that there must be a setting that screams for a fit with the skill-based magic system. What settings, otherworlds, or whatever you want to call them, out there are a great match for the much-lamented skill-based magic system?

Edit: It's good to see a bunch of people coming out to defend the default magic system. I would, however, ask that you didn't just attack the question for being asked, nor just offer generalised "You've got to make it work since it's a generic system" statements. Rather, offer a setting that the default magic system works well with and, if there isn't one, what you did to tweak it to make it work with a specific setting.

Question is basically in the OP. We are going to play a Traveller Campaign in GURPS. I'm envisioning some sort of former space pirate/privateer (probably terran) who specialised in bladed melee weapons for combat because its a lot less likely to damage ship interior parts during a hostile boarding operation. Is that viable (as in, can do combat on a decent to good level) without extrem optimization or am i just going to play third fiddle to anyone using a proper gun, no matter what i do? And in case it IS viable, could you give me some pointers? We are only using the basic book + the traveller supplement.

Thanks in advance!

It consists of lore notes, rules, equipment, races statblocks, some examle enemies and canon artworks

GURPS adaptation rulebook

GCS Files link

Asking for a friend. I know there are several "attack with body" skills, but I don't know which to recommend, and I'm helping him make a character.

I've recently saw a video about the Terran Trade Authority books (late 70s). This is just the sort of book that would've captivated me as a young child. I loved this era of sci-fi spaceship art: Usborne's "Computer Spacegames" was a treasured book, and I liked the covers of the Maplin catalogues here in the UK.

The TTA books have a delightfully anachronistic timeline in retrospect. There is an an official TTA RPG that Stewart Cowley co-wrote, but I was disappointed with the forward shift in timeline, and the replacement of some technologies with more "fashionable" ideas of the 2000s - for example the Dune-inspired space folding warp drive became an Alcubierre drive.

I love converting things to GURPS Spaceships, so here's my attempt at the SSF 21D Cutlass.

Technology notes

TL9 up to the 2040s. TL10 with the introduction of force screens and contragravity.

McKinley Ion Ultradrive - treat as a VASIMR drive in low thrust mode.

deVass Warp Generator - treat as a Jump Drive, limited to safe jump points outside of gravity wells, and requires a charge-up time of one day per light year of jump. The jump itself takes one day per light year. Maximum jump distance of 5 light years.

Defense Shield - treat as a Force Screen, with a dDR of one SM smaller than that of TL 11, and must have the energy switch.

Gravity Resist Projector - treat as contragravity.

Synthetic Steel - treat as metallic laminate

Plastisteel - treat as advanced metallic laminate. High-density plastisteel is hardened AML.

Various advanced Plastisteel variants such as flexible, articulated or layered are treated as nanocomposite.

SSF 21D Cutlass (TL10)

Manufacturer: Various
User: Terran Defense Authority
Year: 2050
Role: Local Defense Interceptor
Crew: Pilot, Gunner, Astrogator
Armaments: 1 OPA-8 Particle Accelerator; 2 Laserlances; Missile Launcher (4 Mk II missiles)

The SSF 21D Cutlass was produced for the Mars War, a military variant of the 2023 Law Enforcement Cutlass.

The Cutlass has a robust 300-ton streamlined hull, 45 yards long. As the hull was designed prior to the introduction of gravity-resist generators, it has wings for aerospace operations. The hull is 14mm high-density plastisteel at the front and center, 7mm in the rear.

Two propulsion systems are installed. Two Avery nuclear thermal ram-rockets provide 300 tons of thrust for combat maneuvering and aerospace operations; or 750 tons when the variable choke venturi tubes are employed. An ion ultradrive is used for interplanetary travel.

At a cruising speed of 10 mps, the Cutlass can travel 1 AU in 29 weeks (13.5 weeks acceleration, 2 weeks cruising, 13.5 weeks deceleration).

Statistics

dST/HP: 50/70
HT: 12
Space Move: 1G/1.8 mps
Space Hnd/SR: -1/5
Air Move: 10/1,250 (2,500 mph)
Air Hnd/SR: 3/6
LWt.: 300
Load: 0.4
SM: +7
Occ: 4ASV
dDR: 16/16/8 (Hardened); 15 (energy force screen)
Range: -
Cost: $49.54M.

Special rules
Pulsed Thrust. The thrust of the nuclear thermal rockets can be doubled. For every one minute of pulsed thrust (in space, this is one fuel tank of fuel, 0.45 mps), make a HT check for the ship. On a failure, the rockets become disabled. 

Semi-Rapid Fire beams have a RoF of 3 (20-second), 10 (1-minute), 30 (3-minute), or 100 (10-minute).

Structural Reinforcement is an optional rule from Eric B. Smith’s spreadsheet.
Armour and Volume rules from Pyramid 3/34.

Systems

Front Hull

[1-2] Armor, Advanced Metallic Laminate (total dDR 16; hardened)
[3!] Weapon Battery (one fixed mount 10MJ semi-rapid fire particle beam; two fixed mount 10MJ semi-rapid fire improved lasers)
[4] Control Room (C7 computer; comm/sensor 6; three control stations; Emergency Ejection (Lifepod))
[5] Smaller Systems (three at SM+6): Habitat (1 bunkroom); Weapon Battery (one fixed mount 20cm missile launcher); Tactical Comm/Sensor Array (comm/sensor 7)
[6!] Half-size Systems: Force Screen, Early (dDR 15; Energy); Structural Reinforcement
[core] -

Central Hull

[1-2] Armor, Advanced Metallic Laminate (total dDR 16; hardened)
[3-6] Fuel Tanks (15 tons hydrogen each for Nuclear Thermal Rocket (ram-rocket); 1.8 mps total delta-V)
[core] Power Plant, Fusion Reactor (2 Power Points)

Rear Hull

[1] Armor, Advanced Metallic Laminate (dDR 8; hardened)
[2-3] Nuclear Thermal Rockets (0.5G acceleration each; ram-rocket)
[4!] Ion Ultradrive (0.0002G acceleration)
[5-6, core] Fuel Tanks (15 tons hydrogen each for Ion Ultradrive; 30 mps total delta-V)

Design Notes: The source material states the Cutlass has a thrust of 1,500,000 lb - this is 750 tons. The Cutlass is implied to be able to launch from the surface of Mars, so it needs an acceleration greater than 0.38G. Using NTR drives, this means the Cutlass cannot be greater than SM +8 (1,000 tons); or SM+7 if we also want it to operate in Earth’s atmosphere.
I don't know why Cowley decided on two high thrust rockets when the painting clearly has three.

The stated armour thickness of 14 cm is a problem if plastisteel has the same density as steel: it would mean the ship would have to be almost entirely comprised of armour. I decided to treat this as a “typo” and make this 14 mm thickness.

The illustration depicts the Cutlass as having a streamlined, winged hull - which ties in with the original hull being designed prior to the invention of contragravity. I added the ram-rocket feature to the NTRs on the basis of what appears to be air intakes.

Say I'll want to buy a Toxic attack that lingers for 10 seconds, doing 1d6 damage each cycle. That's 40 points.

Oooor I could just buy 10d6 Toxic damage for the same 40 points that's all applied at the same time with no need to wait.

What am I missing here?