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Introduction[]
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is arguably the most popular of the pen and paper RPGs and there many ways to do something similar in GURPS. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game emulate the early days of D&D where "A typical campaign used to involve a dungeon full of horrible monsters and traps, and a nearby castle or town where supplies and rumors were readily available for those with the gold to buy them. Even players with cleric characters did not usually know the name or nature of the god they worshiped; they knew only that through prayer their PCs could obtain various spells to aid the party. The motivations of kings and churches were unimportant, unless they were offering bounties for the heads of particular monsters. War and politics were unknown; adventuring in dungeons was the major activity of the strong and bold, and all else revolved around adventuring."[1]
The downside to such an emulation is that it doesn't show GURPS' major asset - flexibility. It also emulates a version of D&D that for the most part time has passed by. This conversion page tries to bridge the gap between D&D and GURPS and make having adventures outside of the standard pseudo medieval-early Renaissance setting (such as "City Beyond the Gate" or "Masque of the Red Death") far easier.
Understanding GURPS[]
GURPS is as much a toolkit as it is a game system. This means that in many cases the GM has more control over what goes into the setting. If the GM wants the game to be grittier, over the top totally cinematic, or something in-between there is an guideline for it. Similarly, if the base Magic system isn't to the GM's liking there are alternatives including one, if they want to put in the time, where they can build their own system or simulate one from a show or novel.
3d6 System[]
GURPS uses d6s for everything and 3d6 for attribute and skill checks. The Hypertext d20 SDR goes over the implications of changing from a d20 to a 3d6. However the main difference between GURPS' 3d6 System and that of the D&D 3d6 variant is one rolls low to succeed in GURPS. Thankfully there is a simple way to convert between the two.
Another difference is GURPS has a sliding scale where critical successes and failures for the Success roll are based on effective skill. A roll of 17 and 18 always fails and only defense rolls can be tried on with an effectively skill below 3 (spells that can be dodged or blocked) Since D&D is a highly cinematic it is suggested that you extend the Critical Success section with this wildcard method:
- Open-Ended Criticals: The standard progression doesn’t stop. Success by 10+ is always a critical success: 3-7 at effective skill 17, 3-8 at skill 18, and so on. Barring special modifiers this hits the point of demising returns at 25.
Combat[]
Combat in GURPS is fast in terms of game time (a turn is a second). A D&D 3.0+ combat round is 6 seconds long (6 GURPS turns) and an AD&D 1-2 combat round is about a minute (60 GURPS turns) with D&D Basic Set (mostly an introduction to OD&D), D&D 1981/1983, and D&D Rules Cyclopedia having 10 second combat rounds. Also a lot of things in GURPS that are separate actions (Dodge, Parry, and Block) or Maneuver are built-in to D&D combat.
For example, human with 10s in everything has a Dodge 9 which, barring a critical success with an attack, succeeds 37.5% of the time. An adjusted weapon 16 can ''potentially'' hit 98.1% of the time with a 9.3% chance of a critical hit. Ignoring the critical hit part this works out to 61.3% (.981*(1-.375)) which given GURPS faster combat turn works out to be far better than D&D.
GURPS Combat Systems[]
- Very Basic Melee Combat: A very fast system from Roleplayer #23 (May 1991) that is in many respects is very similar to most of D&D's system (D&D 4e is the exception)
- Combat Lite: The simplest version of the GURPS combat system provided in the Basic Set.[2]
- Combat (Core Rules): The default combat system of GURPS.[3] It is basically Combat Lite with more details.
- Tactical Combat: Combat using counters or figures on a hexagonal grid. It assumes you have already mastered the default combat system.[4]
- Special Combat Situations: Effectively the Advanced Combat options for Tactical Combat[5][note 1]
Related material[]
- Rough GURPS Book Equivalents to D&D
- D&D Attributes in GURPS
- GURPS magic systems in D&D
- D&D Classes in GURPS
- D&D Skills and Feats in GURPS
- The D&D World, Universe, and Everything Else in GURPS
Supplemental Material[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Despite all the detail it is a thousand times faster than D&D 4e combat.