GM running new campagin, need advice

I got... sort of blind-sided into running a GURPS campaign I was actually looking to participate in.  While I'm thrilled at the proposition, I realize I'm in a bit of a bind and could use some advice. For anyone who has run GURPS before, especially modern or crime, are there any tips for keeping myself from getting bogged down with data?  I know GURPS is designed to be rules-thick, but I want to find a way to tone down my all-or-nothing approach and keep the game running at a less-than-murky-sludge pace. Non-specific to a system, does anyone have some tips for a neophyte GM to keep sessions interesting and flowing?  It's looking to be a bit of a sandbox campaign, with modern crime elements. Specific to Roll20, what can I do to ensure players are involved and active, so that the game doesn't sputter and stall for lack of involvement?  Are there any networking tips you all might have? Any other thoughts would always be appreciated.

Never ran GURPs so can't offer any help on the first one. Sandbox is good, but maybe let the players know that the first session will be a little bit more guided just to get the ball rolling.  Communicate with your players about playstyles and stuff like this. Use the forums for out of session content.  Make a fake newspaper/letter that might have some hints or clues aboutthings happening or going to happen.  (Just the front page, don't waste too much effort making a giant newspaper).  Stuff like that maybe? 

Jake, I love your input.  That definitely gives me a nudge in the right direction! I'm also curious about assets.  Not that I can afford them, but the store doesn't seem to have much in the way of urban or modern assets, especially tilepacks.  And when it comes down to it, I'm not sure a tileset could keep up with the kind of variety I may want to do. What kind of experience do and of you have in regards to play assets?  I was thinking about slimming it down, using hand-drawn rough drafts, perhaps scrubbing together some player portrait tokens to give it a little more personalization.

Urban/modern is DEFINITELY lacking, due to the fact that its fairly niche.  Fantasy is the only place making money on the market place (well not ONLY, but its definitely the largest) If you describe scenes well, a hand drawn sketch will usually suffice for your players.   Maybe do portraits and music to convey scenes.  Blueprints if you need buildings with specific locations.

The best thing to do is to front-load as much of the work as possible.  Setting up a rollable table for hit locations will turn "/r 3d6; grab the book...; find the page with the hit location table...; find the row...; groin!" into "/r 1t[hitlocation]; groin!" (yes, the GURPS hit location table does come up "groin" more often than any other result).  Similarly, adding macros with dropdowns for many relevant modifiers (e.g. range) removes table lookups for commonly used rolls.

I'll scramble to learn how to properly macro and create roll tables, then.  This is good stuff. I'm going to have to go back over my Gurps: Campaigns book. Just trying to get myself into the GM mindset is oftentimes the hardest hurdle I face.  A lot of DW40 on those rusty gears.

Weiland said: I got... sort of blind-sided into running a GURPS campaign I was actually looking to participate in.  While I'm thrilled at the proposition, I realize I'm in a bit of a bind and could use some advice. For anyone who has run GURPS before, especially modern or crime, are there any tips for keeping myself from getting bogged down with data?  I know GURPS is designed to be rules-thick, but I want to find a way to tone down my all-or-nothing approach and keep the game running at a less-than-murky-sludge pace. Non-specific to a system, does anyone have some tips for a neophyte GM to keep sessions interesting and flowing?  It's looking to be a bit of a sandbox campaign, with modern crime elements. Any other thoughts would always be appreciated. Weiland, due to time constraints in keeping Roll20 going, we only allow discussion directly related to the interface here on the forums. You might try Gurps G+ communities ,  Gurps forums , or the Gurps subreddit for your two questions. Weiland said: Specific to Roll20, what can I do to ensure players are involved and active, so that the game doesn't sputter and stall for lack of involvement?  Are there any networking tips you all might have? Manveti hit it on the head with what he said. Gurps takes lots of prep work to run properly, especially if you are not familiar with it. Do all the macros, rollable tables, and other setup prior to starting the game. If you need specific help with setting up macros or rollable tables please feel free to ask your questions or request help in the  specific use forum . I will be closing this thread but any specific roll20 question you might have, please post it and there are many people that would love to help you.