Which is fine... but I remember the fractions and how tediously time consuming it all was but then in play it's quite straightforward gets-out-the-way Sim stuff and the time required to build characters felt just wildly disproportionate?

In hindsight, I suspect learning how to use GURPS might have saved me from years of weird BRP kit-bashes but I have never found making characters all that interesting in-and-of-itself and everything in GURPS feels like one form or another of character creation.

@Taskerland I played lots of GURPS and it never saved me from years of RPG Kit Bashes. I just learnt from it and Hero how much I despise points based systems and their "fairness"

@Taskerland the one time I played GURPS was on Roll20 VTT that handled all of the complicated stuff in the background - I can’t imagine playing it with pencil and paper.

@Taskerland the idea of character "builds" are blamed on D&D 3rd ed, but I think GURPS/Hero started it. They both play ok (I've tried one session of each), but character generation really doesn't work when getting a character "just like you want it" isn't what you want.

I still dreasm of TFT as a neat little game, because the good parts, actual play, is there but chracter generation is so much slimmer than GURPS.

"Builds" really isn't my thing. I do own dozens of GURPS 3rd ed books, though!

@satsuma @Taskerland your tolerance of complexity might differ, but I found play quite pleasant comparen to making characters.

What makes my stop for a second is the insight we used to be able to play GURPS, Rolemaster and Phoenix Command when younger. VTT tools are amazing, but where we smarter when we where kids?

@AndreasDavour @Taskerland maybe we just had more tolerance for complicated calculations and better eyesight- I really struggle with A4 paper character sheets that have a lot of information in small fonts.

@Taskerland I've started to connect the dots a bit, related to this insight about myself and what I like.

I have never managed to have fun with Ars Magica, and the building and managing a covenant never seemed to click for me.

Considering your feelings about "builds", what's your relationship with Ars Magica?

@satsuma @Taskerland you might be onto something. Eyesight issues are definitely a thing as you age...

@Taskerland @AndreasDavour we were playing a post apocalyptic mega game set on Tenerife with lots of different guns and modifiers - just being able to click a button to make the shooting roll was a big help.

White Hounds Holocaust: Aftermath style roleplaying in Tenerife

This page pulls together background posts and session write ups (including music numbers, poems & radio news reports) for my 2021-22 roleplaying project. A GURPS powered series of campaigns set in Tenerife in 2051 thirty one years after solar flares, meteor strikes, limited nuclear strikes and Covid have destroyed civilisation. i have to say i…

Kehaar's Blog (clarkythecruel.wordpress.com)

@AndreasDavour @Taskerland the last time I played Dragonbane at a con the GM had printed the character sheets on an A3 colour printer which made a huge difference!

@Taskerland huh, an all grog group sounds intriguing!

It sounds like our tolerances for the complexities of the game are quite similar. I kind of wish I could play in a game where the GM takes care of everything.

I did recently buy the 2nd ed, which was the one I first encountered. I skimmed it, and it did look more tolerable. Is it the TFT to my Ars Magica? Maybe one day.

@satsuma @Taskerland in that kind of setting I can see a VTT as quite useful, indeed.