When comparing GURPS 4th Edition vs Warrior, Rogue, & Mage, the Slant community recommends GURPS 4th Edition for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” GURPS 4th Edition is ranked 10th while Warrior, Rogue, & Mage is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose GURPS 4th Edition is:
GURPS can be as crunchy as you like, with rules available to cover any situation, but at its core, there are only about three rules you need.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Modular rules
GURPS can be as crunchy as you like, with rules available to cover any situation, but at its core, there are only about three rules you need.
Pro Great sourcebooks
GURPS sourcebooks are famous for being comprehensive guides to the settings/genres they describe, to the degree that even people who don't play GURPS find them useful.
Pro Option for Cinematic Rules
There is an option to make combat far less deadly.
Pro Long character creation creates a bond with your character
Spending a lot of time creating your character also helps with creating a bond with them. This way you will be more encouraged to keep them alive than going around doing dangerous things which would most likely end up killing them. Moreover, In depth character creation flushes out the back stories that enrich the role playing experience. Vampire also has a lengthy character building process for this reason.
Pro Character mortality
In GURPS, characters can be killed by a single blow to the head with a wood plank. For gamers seeking a more "realistic" level of mortality, GURPS is your game.
Pro Light ruleset
Pro Easily expanded and adapted
Pro Beginner-friendly
Pro WR&M derivatives can be shared and even sold freely
Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, which means you can create WR&M derivatives and share them freely or even sell them. It’s the same open license Fate Core uses.
Pro Good if you like Simulationist RPGs
If you like RPGs putout by the big publishers, you will probably like this game.
Cons
Con Extremely Simulationist
Con Requires too much GM babysitting
Too many options with no setting structure and the freedom to do whatever is a liability, not a perk.
Con Boring rule system
Con Boring rule system
Con Core rules need two books
Con Long character creation
The lion's share of the work in GURPS is front-loaded: characters are built on points, pieced together with attributes, advantages, disadvantages, quirks, skills, powers, spells, cybernetics, and whatever else your game requires. Expect to spend easily an hour or more creating your character.
Con Option paralysis
Sometimes having so many dials to turn is not a good thing. It can be hard to create a game with so many options available.
Con Simulationist
GM-based
Unequal distribution of authority
If you like Story Games (i.e. GMless, Collaborative RPGs) this is not for you.