{"id":1069,"date":"2014-09-11T19:15:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T19:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/gamegeekery\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2020-10-15T05:48:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T12:48:05","slug":"gurps-and-fate-two-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/gamegeekery\/gurps-and-fate-two-sides\/","title":{"rendered":"GURPS and Fate: Two Sides of the Same Coin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, I have had the great fortune to play in many, many convention games of Fate<\/a>, run by some of the best GMs involved with it. It is, in a nutshell, a fantastic<\/em>\u00a0RPG. I often note\u00a0that, on the Infinite World where GURPS<\/a> doesn’t exist, I am surely a Fate gamer.<\/p>\n

Most of my admiration is for the philosophy behind the rules, things like “make everyone around you look awesome,” the ubiquitous understanding that every part of the game can be collaborative and creative, and the firm belief that every aspect of creating and playing the game be done in the service of fun<\/strong>. These are things I have fully embraced, and have tried to bring into my GURPS campaigns.<\/p>\n

As for the mechanics of Fate, they are fast, streamlined, even ground-breaking, especially things like the “Fate point economy,” which empowers players to help shape the narrative of the story as it unfolds around the table. For the last year or two I have been using a GURPS version of “Story Points,” with\u00a0excellent results. But, overall, the Fate mechanics are not really\u00a0my cup of tea. I much prefer the more traditional rules approach of GURPS.<\/p>\n

These two systems\u00a0have very similar goals, they just take different paths to get there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are a few ways gamers talk about RPGs and their approaches. Fate might be called “narrativist,” “a story game,” or “indie”; by comparison, GURPS would be “simulationist,” “old school,” or “traditional.” In my own muddled mind, I categorize games by a rigorously-defined quality called “fuzziness.” Not fuzzy as in soft and furry, but fuzzy as in “that military\u00a0game was in sharp focus, but the bunny game was a lot fuzzier.”<\/p>\n

It’s all about the details, I suppose. Some games cry out for exacting detail, like a\u00a0special forces game<\/a> where every round of ammunition is accounted for, and things like infected wounds or fatigue could be of critical importance. A “Bunnies & Burrows” game about PC bunnies<\/a> probably wants\u00a0the lens set to soft focus,<\/em> so we can just enjoy a good romp through the woods with some heroic talking rabbits and not worry about getting\u00a0fatigued or being hungry.<\/p>\n

I am finding that ways to focus the GURPS rules for a “softer” kind of game, similar to the Fate games I’ve played in, are of great interest to me lately. If you find yourself in a similar position, below are some of the resources I’ve used to make my games a little more fuzzy and “Fate-like” (or Apocalypse World-like, or Sprawl-like, or…).<\/p>\n

“How to Be a GURPS GM<\/a>” obviously touches on some of this, on how to shape\u00a0the rules to get the kind of story you\u00a0want, but specific to this “Fate-style”:<\/p>\n

Action 2: Exploits<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Though I was a little late to the party on this one, it has quickly become one of my favorite books. It’s explicit goal is exactly the kinds of things I’ve mentioned — ways to customize and tweak the rules so the game flows like an action movie. The whole book is great, but of particular note to this topic (and applicable to almost all genres, not just modern action):<\/p>\n