G.U.R.P.S. use of stats for a series.

[Caseyguy101]

Hi everyone, been thinking a lot on using the GURPS of a series set  in a specific world. What I have been thinking so far is something like:


If (stat <= 10) {Math.random(1-20) -5 else { if (....


Then it follows at 50 you just get Math.random(1-20), and at 100 Math.random(1-20) +5.


I love the GURPS universe and would be so happy to find ways to work it in and want to here any stories you have of using table top rules in your projects.

 

[Titanhex]

I've considered using the GURPS system myself. It's used, with heavy modification (And if you put it into a videogame, you really should be modifying it anyways), in series like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Bard's Tale.


It is mostly for people who are into tabletop gaming, or want to try a new system outside the JRPG route. Which is fine, it's just important to know that this is your audience, and this is what you should be marketing your game towards.

 

[Pine Towers]

I enjoy GURPS as a system, but as a system. To make it truly enjoyable as a game the setting must be quite good. Fallout was originally GURPS before switching to SPECIAL. Would love to see it being used on a RPG Maker.

 

[Caseyguy101]

I was actually playing Fallout 4 last night and wondering how it would feel in RPG Maker. Could really play with perks and stats.

 

[Titanhex]

Yea, a lot of the Elder Scrolls series and Fallout Series has been GURPS.
It's very western-fantasy oriented, and it's important to remember that, because that's what your audience will be looking for.

It's an easy system to adapt to a game in a 2D environment. A lot of tabletop games are played with place mats that represent levels, and those are 2D grid based systems.


It'd be incredibly easy to turn it into a game. But it's better as a tactical style game. You can make the battle system work for you anyways.


To be honest, you'd be just as well off if you made it using another engine as you would the RPG Maker engine.

 

[Caseyguy101]

I have played around with Game Maker a little bit but I am still learning the ins and outs of MV and have been toying around with a system somewhat around Gurps.


The setting is really weird, right now the series would cover around 6000 years or so where you play certain parts in each age. Where I am starting kind of a intro is at the end of a clockwork age where the culture uses organic steal springs ( I have spiders that produce webbing stronger then anything they are capple of making in that time.) and leads in to a very early steampower age.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

baldur's gate and NWN were actually running on D&D rules.


while it does make sense to use a p&p system, I don't think GURPS rules are free to use for a game. Even if non commercial.


you should design your own stats system, or use creatively the RM native system. There are many plugins that would do the trick.

 

[Baerthe]

Steve jackson games would bring a large sue hammer. It is the whole reason fallout has SPECIAL.

 

[Titanhex]

You actually cannot patent game rules or a game's design.

Therefore, he can use the GURPS system in his game. He cannot plagiarize the text explaining the rules or system though, as the text itself is copyrighted.


As for BG and NWN, you're right. I thought GURPS was a different system. I'm vaguely familiar with GURPS, and would suggest using the D&D 5E system over the GURPS 4th system.

The GURPS system is way too open ended, if I remember correctly.
Open-ended systems are best left for Table-Top gaming where a GM can respond to a player's open-ended decisions.

Regardless, Niten is right. Even if you do pick up one of these systems, you should consider modifications, or perhaps how to make your own system that feels similar.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

indeed You cannot patent game design (though it's us laws, not sure for Europe, but that's a rather gray area that might still ends up to court.


basically what that means is, you can have stats, rolls and dice results. But If you start using the exact same terms in the exact same conditions, you might border on plagiarism or copyright infringement.


There might be also issues with license of exploitation.


If you say the game is "made with GURPS"(which is copyrighted), you need to have usage rights from SJG. same way bioware had license from WOTC fot the Neverwinter Nights series.


but if you use the GURPS system without calling it as is, what's the point? this would be basic uninspired plagiarism.


If you were to take inspiration from D&D rules, do not go the road of the 5th edition, which is licensed, but look into the SRD, which is Open GL.

 

[Baerthe]

Your logic is actually flawed there bud. Wizards has a open gaming licenses for the D20 system that essentially says they own the game mechanics.


In video games it can actually get worse, you can file patents for things like loading screens or GUI positions.


But yeah, you could base it on GURPS, but at the end of the day you'd have to do enough changes to get it working digitally that it would just be easier to make an inspired system.

 

[Pine Towers]

@Baerthe, just 2 cents: WotC released on the D20 Era the OGL that allowed royalty-free usage of rules, but that only allowed pen-and-paper books, and did not permitted electronic versions.


Sure, SJG wouldn't allow a GURPS game, but how derivative can it go to pay homage to a ruleset you enjoy, without infringing any laws?

 

[Titanhex]

Here's where patent laws get tricky, and we can discuss circles around them.
Being aware of what an OGL covers tells you what you can use and what you can't.



You obviously can't use the D20 system as-is, but you can make enough modification to it to make it your own. Case-in-point, the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series which operates in a very similar way to the D20 rules.

Patents, licenses, and copyrights tend to be very specific towards the end result. A bit of creativity and ingenuity will allow you to build your own work inspired by someone else's, which is the whole point anyways.

 

[Baerthe]

Exactly. At the end of the day, you just end up with your own thing. After making changes so it works in a video game and changes for copyrights/patents; it becomes a new original thing. Thus it is more reasonable to spend time drawing inspiration from a variety of systems, either digital or table-top, and devise your own creation.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

Also, people are already called lazy (by dikheads) for using RM, so they would also call you out as thief, fraud, lazy if you were blatantly using a system easily recognizable as GURPS. Not in the community though, people would maybe praise you for implementing this.


And also GURPS or any other system actually is way much more than a custom formula for a dice roll. You would have to redesign the whole RM native engine.


We talk a lot about rules and system, but OP was also talking about the GURPS universe setting, and that is copyrighted.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Also, people are already called lazy (by dikheads) for using RM, so they would also call you out as thief, fraud, lazy if you were blatantly using a system easily recognizable as GURPS. Not in the community though, people would maybe praise you for implementing this.


And also GURPS or any other system actually is way much more than a custom formula for a dice roll. You would have to redesign the whole RM native engine.


We talk a lot about rules and system, but OP was also talking about the GURPS universe setting, and that is copyrighted.

I personally dont believe you would have to go as far as re-writting the RM engine in its entirety to implament a system such as GURPS (for example). If you have the knowledge and stuff then that will be the least time consumming and probably most time efficient method but I wouldnt be quick to jump the gun on saying that it is impossible to do otherwise. With enough knowledge of the system you could theoretically make a conveluted work-around that takes 3x as long as re-writting the native system itself (which iirc is against the ToS, you would actually have to create a plugin that diverts what the system does rather than re-wright the system since iirc the ToS state you cant modify or make changes to the core engine, I could be extreamly wrong though xD).

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

which is why I wrote redesign and note rewrite...


indeed the native engine works with its own set of parameters, but creative use of params, states, formulas and common events backed up by a good plugin selection will do the trick.


Yet you will still have to rethink the whole native RM system as it is very different from GURPS or other stats based system.


I wasn't saying it's impossible, more highlighting that it will be a lot of work and a thought challenging creative process.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Sorry, my bad for misreading redesign as rewrite.

 

[Marquise*]

I do hope to see that game one day. GURPS is a very good PnP concept.

 

[Kes]

[necro]Marquise*[/necro]