This post is a table of contents covering what I want to produce for a project to make onboarding new GURPS Players easier.
I’ll come back to this page to link other pages as I finish them, and I’ll add this page to the menubar as it represents a big effort lately comparable to my other campaigns.
The main effort here twofold: First, revising Mook’s one-page character sheet so that it is even simpler, and then printing it so that the GURPSICLE (one-page GURPS rules) is on the back.
Second, create a set of pregen characters suitable for a near-present-day setting that can employ published adventures for one-shot games with new players.
The point is also to showcase the strengths of GURPS in my view: It handles present-day (or near-present day) settings, it handles simulation well and simulation is easier for new players because they can intuit what will happen using common sense. It handles non-combat interactions well, so many of the characters are pacifists or not combat-ready.
I’d also just like to make GURPS easier for everyone, including the GM. So we’ll have: Pregen characters. One-page rules. One-shot adventures. Pre-published adventures. You get the idea. Should be fairly grab-and-go when I finish.
The way I’ve set this up you can run it as a campaign with no continuity between stories (the PCs are the same but the adventures are different), or as a campaign with no continuity at all (players drop in and out, the story is different each time), or as one-shot adventures.
On the blog I’ve filed this under “campaigns” becuase that’s the closest term but this could also be called a list of “how to quickly set up one-shot adventures.”
INTRO PROMPT: You are part of a group who would be consulted to investigate an unusual or even supernatural occurrence.
The Characters
Characters are all built with 125 points and a -60 disadvantage limit that does not include attribute modifications. The characters are found in the 1980s USA. All characters are TL 7-8. A small number of non-mundane and cinematic traits were allowed that fit GURPS Horror.
Pregen Player Characters
These should work with any of the adventures below, although you may have to find a reason for them to be present. If you want to read about the finer points of the notation, check out some notes on the overall set of characters.
- Antonio Marino, Ex-Priest (135 points) – This handsome seminary dropout thought religion would solve a truly terrible temper.
- Jennifer Bernard, Nail Tech (125 points) – Fitness and beauty nut by day, wanna-be Ghost Hunter after hours.
- Luc Cardeñas, Self-Published Researcher (135 points) – A giant conspiracy theorist… and a giant.
- Brenda Smalls, After-School Piano Teacher (125 points) – The eccentric cat lady can (sort of) see the future.
- Cody Mendel, CEO (125 points) – Chemist with daddy issues strikes it rich in the oil game.
- Nicole Schweikert, Stage Magician (125 points) – Kind of a dirtbag, but wins you over with a smile.
- Hector Bruna, TV Engineer (125 points) – The gifted Univision tinkerer and outdoorsman that no one ever talks to.
- Lord Swami, Cult Leader (125 points) – This robed mystic wants to improve the world… by any means necessary.
Suitable Adventures
I’ve moved the suitable adventure suggestions to a separate posting, as there are now a lot of them. Basically it is anything Horror-ish set in the 1980s, or that can be changed to be set in the 1980s.
Important Sourcebooks
These are not essential to GM the above adventures, but they are useful books that shaped my thinking here.
Shortcut Links:
(These are other ways of organizing the items listed above, not new items.)
- List All Posts About This Setting (in reverse-chronological order)
Show all posts about ____ restricted to this setting only.
- Pregen Characters for players
- Characters in general and character creation
- Equipment
- Adventure seeds or adventures
- NPCs
Some of these searches may not return any results yet.
IMAGE CREDIT:
Image generated by OpenArt Creative model from OpenAI (PROMPT: 4k detailed dark spooky 18th Century mansion at night photorealistic studio lighting trending on deviantart halloween with one full moon and foggy mist)
Requires Concentrate 
Funny you post this, as I have recently started a horror one-shot, it is indeed set in the year 1980 exactly. Player Characters are 100-points, with -50 Disadvantage limit. Scenario is my own creation, set in the West Virginia countryside during the summer solstice.
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