Gaming Ballistic Interview: GURPS Line Editor Sean Punch
This is my first video interview ever – not just for this blog. I will be attempting to add useful content to this post over time, including (eventually) a text transcript of the entire thing, since I find it entirely annoying when I have to play a video to get good content. So stay tuned.
Oh, and at the end, Sean throws down a bit of a challenge, which I will gleefully take up when I’m better at this: a panel discussion featuring more than one key player in the GURPS space. As was said about the Six Million Dollar Man, “we have the technology,” and there’s no reason such a good idea should go to waste.
I provided Sean a list of questions ahead of time, but other than a few moments where I forgot that the interview is not about what I have to say, I mostly let him talk. Here are some notable moments, messages, and themes:
- Introduction
- What is GURPS, in brief?
- Sean eats his own dogfood – Leveraging GURPS strengths into successful
campaigns - Secret to a long-running campaign (not GURPS specific)
- Sean offers his thoughts on GURPS’ weaknesses
- Generic systems can handle anything, right? (Hint: no.)
- Mechanical quirks with the system (3d6, Modifiers, system
comfort, point build) - A few things with “no fair value” in GURPS or any point
build system - Doug tells a short story and forgets the interview isn’t
about him; Sean makes lemonade out of lemons - Strengths and weaknesses of other game systems and where
GURPS does well and not-so-well (Doug mentions Pathfinder, GUMSHOE/Trail ofCthulhu, and FATE Core) - FATE has more embedded complexity than some might think
- FATE is strong in the force (excels for dramatic play)
- Other game systems and drama/mechanics focus
- Doug pimps Impulse Buys and forgets he’s not being
interviewed again; Sean comments on GURPS ability to do dramatic play - Sean talks about the importance of “realism” in today’s gaming industry and Doug butchers “plausible verisimilitude”
- What about that line in Basic about “the most realistic”game?“
- Sean talks about the rule of awesome and how this relates to
realism, good game design - Why does Dungeon Fantasy, with soon-to-be 16 volumes, workso well? Rules, borders, and an end zone! (hat tip to Xander Harris, BtVS)
- Sean talks about the cleric of the god of love, and Doug’s
brain hurts as a result: - Blending hack-and-slash with less combative types
- What other genres does Sean think will have the potential
for the same success as DF? - What are the characteristics of future product lines that
might succeed given the “genre reduction” treatment? - Sean talks about Space Opera
- Boiling it down: which genres work well, and which do not?
- Given the opening of the GURPS pipeline, what message does
Sean have for prospective creators and contributors? - First-timers should follow the wish list:
- Read the style guide, and ensure you stick to it. Not fun,
but helps your product make a profit. Bad writing/english is easier to fix than
sloppy style! Style might even be more important than deadlines! (style guide links from wish list appended below) - Write for your audience’s interests, not just for your own
- What kind of Zombie stories does Sean like? But what appears in GURPS Zombies?
- Why is this important for writing in a generic system,
especially in writing adventures? How can you make an adventure more generic?
Mirror of the Fire Demon is used as an example of a how-to. - Parting shots?
- Sean closes with thanks, and throws down the gauntlet: a GURPS creator panel
discussion!
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Sean for giving me so much of his time to conduct this interview!
Again: in case you missed the embedded link, here’s a full-text transcript and an MP3 file of this same interview.
- Authors’ Guidelines: Editorial Style
- Writing for e23
- WYSIWYG Template for Microsoft Word (a Word template file)
- Formatting Guide: GURPS Fourth Edition (a Word document file)
- Steve Jackson Games Writers’ Guidelines: Libel and Obscenity
This is extremely interesting. I think it's obvious why GURPS is as good as it is–its authors are highly experienced, intelligent, thoughtful individuals!
The mic sounded a bit off, Doug's voice is fine, but Sean's is very echoy/reverby.
I assume that's because Doug is doing the recording from his computer, and Sean is elsewhere.
Teh shelf!
Teh shelf, teh shelf, teh shelf needs more fiber!
No?
Carry on, then.
I don't actually hear him saying anything about a panel discussion at the end. Cut off early?
About 53:30-40 or so, he says "like to have other writers form a bit of a panel." We did discuss it more afterwards, and I have started reaching out to people.
Anyway, Matt, you get mentioned by name early on, so there. 😉
Finally got a chance to watch this (it's not always easy to set aside an hour for something to which I want to pay attention!), and found it quite enjoyable. I do have a question, possibly tangential, but it was mentioned so I suppose that it is at least nominally on-topic: I have seen and heard several references to the "Ritual Path Magic" system. I don't know anything about this, other than hearing about it being neat or cool or whatever. I already like the Path/Book Magic system outlined in GURPS Thaumatology (originating in GURPS Voodoo, and refined in GURPS Old West and GURPS Spirits and such) quite a lot. In fact, I think that it is one of the two or three best magic systems in any game (the others would be RuneQuest with its spirits and such and Unknown Armies). Why might I want to get the "Ritual Path Magic" system?
Then you already know it.
It's the same system, it just went through a couple of name iterations as it was refined or adapted to other settings.
OK, but why is it then going to be published separately, since it is already in GURPS Thaumatology?
It's a greatly expanded book, covering and listing many pregenerated spells at the very least. I played a test-game using the system and it's very interesting.
GURPS Thaumatology describes a tool kit – a recipe – with no worked example. The RPM system is such an example. Moreover, it isn't an example of just one thing; Jason "PK" Levine cherry-picked the best parts of several rules sets in GURPS Thaumatology to come up with something cool.
I can't wait till home! I am close to watch this video on my work. Thanks for a great job!