GURPS
The Generic Universal Role-Playing System (usually abbreviated GURPS) is a pencil-and-paper role-playing game first published by Steve Jackson Games in 1986. GURPS is a modular game system applicable to any genre and gaming style.
The game, unlike many older (and some more recent) games such as Dungeons & Dragons, does not have a character class system; instead, there is a large selection of skills. A point-based character creation system (not the first in history, but one of the first in a major RPG) allows the player to build any character he likes (a popular sport among GURPS players is to build oneself as a GURPS character). The available professions and races are a matter of the game background, not of the game system. The drawback of this flexibility is that setting up the game and ensuring a fair play requires more work from the game master.
GURPS offers a very rich selection of optional rules and is capable of very detailed simulation; however, the core rules are quite simple and also allow for a rules-light and narrative game. A compact, summary form of the game is GURPS Lite, available as a 32-page PDF from Steve Jackson Games for free.
History
GURPS was developed by Steve Jackson and published by his own company, Steve Jackson Games. The first edition was published in 1986, the second edition later the same year. The third edition followed in 1988; it was supported by a large number of supplements. The fourth and current edition appeared in 2004.
System
A GURPS character is not created randomly, but by assigning character points to character traits, such as attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Health), advantages, disadvantages and skills. There are no character classes or levels. The playable races depend on the setting, and are defined as packages of character traits. In most campaigns, player characters start with 100 points, but that can be varied according to the setting.
The main game mechanic is the success roll, which is done on three six-sided dice. An action succeeds if the roll (according to situation, modified by difficulty) does not exceed the relevant skill value.
Settings
GURPS, in accordance to its purpose as a universal RPG system, is probably the game for which the largest number of settings have been published. There are several dozen official settings of many different genres published by Steve Jackson Games, and probably thousands of settings produced by fans as GURPS is the most popular game system among those roleplayers who play in their own worlds. Steve Jackson Games also released several genre toolkits (such as GURPS Fantasy, GURPS Cyberpunk and GURPS Space) which contain material for building one's own settings of a particular genre.
