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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

The Reddit Effect / GURPS doesn't do that

Periodically, I get a sudden influx of hits on my blog sourced to Reddit. It's not always Reddit - sometimes it's RPG.net or another forum, but mostly it's Reddit.

Pretty much, this is how it goes:

- I see an influx of hits, so I follow it back to check who is linking to me about what.

- I find some discussion about fantasy gaming / dungeon fantasy gaming / GURPS where someone says, basically, "Hey, this guy has run like a hundred sessions of GURPS playing a megadungeon!"

- I check the rest of the thread, which is full of "GURPS doesn't do that" or "GURPS isn't suited for that" posts. Because, you know, actual evidence that it does do that doesn't actually comprise evidence that it does do that.

- I sigh and move on.

Today I added this step of blogging about it. But it's so typical of Internet discussions. It's nice to get exposure, but it's hard not to be a little disappointed that me playing GURPS-based dungeon fantasy games doesn't actually even convince people to consider that it might be possible to do what I'm doing.

20 comments:

  1. It convinced me that Mega Dungeons work.

    I believe I'm up to something like 14 sessions in the megadungeon.

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  2. I always wonder why some people's reaction to things is, "that can't be," instead of, "how cool!"

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    Replies
    1. Even if not "how cool" it really shouldn't be flat out denial. It's usually denial without checking the facts.

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  3. they don't no man to man, orc slayer or fantasy trip?

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  4. That's what reddit is for, arguing your opinions that contradict all evidence to the contrary.

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    Replies
    1. Game forums in general have a lot of that, IME.

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  5. Ah, come on, we all know you’re just painting miniatures in your basement and inventing these session reports! Or maybe you’re actually playing D&D and doctoring the war stories so it looks like you’re using GURPS. Anyone who’s read the GURPS books could ave come up with the insight of your many Magic fixes.

    I, myself, came up with elaborate imaginary friends to justify my miniatures photo-stories.

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    Replies
    1. Heck, maybe I buy painted minis on the net!

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  6. If it makes you feel any better, your blog inspired me to create and run a megadungeon in 5e last summer, and I'm looking to learn GURPS now (assuming I can find players.)

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    Replies
    1. Wow, that's great. I am really curious how a megadungeon will work in 5e.

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    2. It was definitely an interesting challenge to balance, especially trying to use loot value = XP, since there are no hard-and-fast prices to magic items beyond a rarity value. Plus, low-level characters are quite vulnerable before they get their hands on some better armor and more than a fistful of hit points.

      We had a lot of fun with what we played, but it's definitely something I'd need more practice to get feeling "right".

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  7. I've also just started my own GURPS DF-game very much thanks to your inspiring blog, and also made my own blog with a similar setup as yours as a way to collect relevant information for the players somewhere. I've been wanting to learn GURPS for at least the last ten years but have had few opportunities to really dig in and learn the rules properly. GURPS DF is a great way to start I think.

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  8. Peter, your posts have inspired me to dust off my 3rd Edition GURPS books and run a dungeon with them! Staying in topic, do you think "Veins of the Earth" would be adequate to run with DF?

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  9. Your blog not only got me back into gaming after a ten year histus, but into running a megadungeon using DF

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  10. The reason that actual proof you can do something in GURPS doesn't convince anyone is because it is not addressing their actual thoughts. When these people say "GURPS can't do that!" what they are really thinking is "*I* can't do that!" and proof that you can do it with GURPS is not proof *they* can do it. The real disconnect is that people are conflating "*I* can't do that!" with "GURPS can't do that!" and not saying what they really think because admitting the failure is theirs damages their egos more than placing the blame on the game. I see it all the time with other games. Heck I even see it a lot in a forum with a dedicated sub-forum to Megadungeons that people endlessly post stating unequivocally that "Megadungeons don't work" and "You can't have fun doing that."

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    Replies
    1. Seems like a fair point. Often, "it's not good" means "I don't like it that way," so why not here as well?

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  11. I started my megadungeon campaign because of your blog, we have 18 sessions on it. Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. De nada. Thanks for letting me know! If you blog about it, please post a link I can share.

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