Fighting the Learning CurveDon't you hate it when you're learning a new system and you totally miss all the most useful skills and quirks? I do. Here's what I've seen that's important in GURPS.
StatsDX and IQ are your skill stats. The higher these scores, the easier it will be to learn various skills. A very small set of skills go off of HT.ST is good for two things: weapons damage and Fatigue. While Fatigue is important to everyone, it is critical to spellcasters. The higher your ST, the more spells you can cast. HT determines your hit points. You lose consciousness at 0 HT, and various bad things happen as you go through the negatives.
The Lost StatsST is the same as Str, DX is like Dex, and HT is like Con. IQ and Int line up fairly well. What happened to the rest?Wisdom is considered the same as IQ. If you want a higher or lower Wis to your Int, you can take the Strong-Willed Advantage or the Weak-Willed Disadvantage. GURPS has Will rolls for things like Fear Checks and rolls to avoid Mental Disadvantages, so you do want a decent Will. Charisma is now an Advantage you can buy for +5 points/level. It gives you reaction bonuses and bonuses to certain skills. Comliness is the Attractive Appearance Advantage or Unattractive Appearance Disadvantage. Again, reaction rolls are affected. Perception. Ah, Perception. GURPS has various sensing rolls, usually Vision and Hearing (although Smell and Taste are possible). If you do nothing else, your Sense rolls are equal to your IQ. You can buy Acute Vision (or Hearing, or Smell and Taste) for +2 points/level, and each level gives you a +1 bonus to the particular roll. Alertness is a general Advantage that gives a +1 bonus to any of these rolls, and it costs +5 points/level. (Alertness is cumulative with the Acute Senses; so if you have Alertness +1 and Acute Vision +1, you get +2 to all Vision Checks and +1 to other Sense checks.) Past experience ought to tell you: good sense rolls are typically important in my games.
Combat Rules ChangesI'm doing away with Stun rules; these say that you get penalties for combat the round after you've been hit. Correspondingly, the High Pain Threshold Advantage is reduced to +5 points, since its major use is to ignore Stun. (I have to look into Low Pain Threshold).
Social Advantages and Character PointsThis has been one of the hardest things for me to get my brain around. In AD&D, you gain your social perks (friends, allies, patrons, enemies) through play, and no other way. In GURPS, you pay for them. This is no problem at character creation, but quickly raises its ugly head as game play goes on.Example: You rescue a princess. She's happy about that. She could become a Patron, an Ally, a Contact, or maybe just owe the party a Favor. In AD&D, I'd use character information about the princess and PC behavior to determine her overall disposition towards them, and let it go at that. In GURPS, it's a little more complicated. First, I decide that she can't be a Patron or Ally because of politics, but she's grateful enough to serve as an important Contact or to owe the party a substantial Favor. Now the PCs have to pay the point cost of her friendship! Essentially, you're spending your own Character Points on this. This doesn't sit too well with me. They're giving up XP because they role-played well? The compromise position of the moment is: At the end of the game, the players will each be offered a choice. Standard Character Points (2 or 3) for the session, to be used however they like, or the princess as a 5-point Contact. It's like getting bonus CP (5 instead of 2 or 3) since you're taking the reward that fits better with the game. If some PCs take it and others don't, well, then the princess just remembers them better when next they meet.
A Few Notes on Select AdvantagesAnything that involves "Trained by a Master" is Right Out. That means most of the "Esoteric" Advantages in Compendium I. On the other hand, Saromatians believe in reincarnation. So the Dis/Advantage of Karmic Tie works quite well. Past Lives is also possible.
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