The Question said: GM Mu said: Whisper said: I learned about GURPS a while back and became excited about the possibility of GMing a sci-fi game. However once I actually took a moment to see what I'd need, the sheer number of books overwhelmed me. I'm not that great of a GM and honestly I'd probably need to play first before jumping into the GM seat. Basic set, 2 books. Runs everything. Most of the rest is unnecessary except as guides and research. I will agree that the statblock presentation of the 4e books is terrible for new players. Isn't there a GURPS LITE for new people with theoretically less crunch so new players can jump in? GURPS Lite 4e is free yes. It's more limited than GURPS Lite 3e IMO. You can always get GURPS Lite and the free download Caravan to Ein Arris and play it, I think. In 3e Caravan was specifically designed to run with Lite rules; not sure if that's different in 4e. The amount of crunch is entirely up to the play group. I GM with the idea of "let's start out crunch-free, and then if you want we can add more stuff." I'm playing with a small subset of the Basic set, a fair amount from Martial Arts and literally one sentence from Powers. Most of the time, it goes I attack normally, roll 3d6, I defend normally, roll 3d6, I run in this direction in a straight line, and so on. Very fast. When a player says, I want to jump off my horse and attempt to grapple the guy around the neck with one hand while drawing a knife, we can add that bit of crunch if we want. The nice thing is the people who know the crunchy bits can use them if they want, and the players who are more novice don't have to and it doesn't impact their enjoyment. After a while a player might ask, "Can I stab him in the liver?" or, "What if I just push all these giant bugs into that pool of water and play whackamole with my staff?" you can add that little bit of crunch. Side note: The crunchiest moment so far was when one player said, I'm charging directly at this guy here to try and trample him, yes I know my horse isn't war-trained, and try to lance the guy to my right with my broadsword, yes I know it's not a lance, and yes I know those two guys are deliberately trying to trip me with that length of rope. That one second called for 10 rolls (horse control, horse trample, sword attack, stay in the saddle, trip the horse, two defenses, and three rolls to figure out how enemies would react to this ridiculous maneuver). The upshot was one enemy with a sword through his chest, one guy diving for cover, one guy freezing in panic and getting dragged along the ground by a length of rope tangled up in a horse's legs, and the triumphant player character desperately hanging on to the reins with one hand, one foot in a stirrup, flailing around off one side of his bucking horse as it started trotting away from the fight. Amazing moments like that are products of player decisions and randomness and lots of optional crunch, which is why I love GURPS. (It also took less than a minute to resolve.)