GURPS Actual Combat Time?

So it has been about 4 years since we played, GURPS in our group and I was thinking to launch another GURPS game. But I remembered somewhat vaugly combat in GURPS took longer than in HERO. Does anyone here have recent experience in GURPS and rememebr how long a battle between say 5 150 point mage heroes and 1 200 point boss and 10 mobs should take? Understanding all hte variables could make this question impossible to answer, so for general principles consider the players to be an average spread of skills and stuff.

How experienced are you and your players in using the GURPS rules? What level of detail are you using in combat (basic, advanced, advanced + Martial Arts etc.)?

I am very familiar with the rules. But the players are of the standard to lazy to read type. So we will use basic options. Special or advanced rules will only be allows ifa player actually reads the rules. But like i said it has been a

Keep modifiers to a minimum and combat should flow smoothly. By "to a minimum" I mean: the more random modifiers someone can think up, the longer it will be to calculate in game. Also - ensure players have mapped out standard attacks in advance so all they have to do is roll. Go much quicker.

I keep trying to come up with an objective answer, but it's so subjective based on tactics and environment and then player skill as well. By way of example, one game had a 2 vs. 2 gunfight in a small apartment take darn near 90 minutes to complete. However, those 90 minutes were full of gripping tension where it turned into chess with guns. The tactics and one second turn increments continually ramped up the drama until only the PCs were standing. An earlier session in the game was a 3 vs. 6 shootout that was resolved in around half an hour and just flowed seamlessly from interaction to interaction until finished. In any case, if you build up to the big encounter via smaller skirmishes and use them as teaching sessions and give your players bite sized chunks of info, getting them used to the differences between an attack and an all-out attack (determined) your big set piece will go a lot more smoothly. Once sufficiently prepped, you should be able to knock out the big combat in a decent sized session for sure. As a GM make sure you handle pacing and speed things up when you can. There's no need to stay in one second turns unless the situation demands it - when it's not important to be precise move in larger chunks of time and then drop back as needed.

Hi Robert. I've been running a small GURPS campaign in Roll20. We've played about 6 or 7 sessions and in my experience it's been running very quickly. The key is the same as it is on tabletop: know the combat rules really well yourself, keep options as simple as you need to, and if something oddball happens that you know there's a fiddly rule for in one of your books but you have to go look it up, just wing it. Magery makes things more annoying. I recommend making cheat sheets for yourself and your players so you don't have the same questions pop up every time someone wants to take an action. This also works for normal combat maneuvers. I'd played around with making combat cards for maneuvers and customizing them for each character, but it hasn't been necessary. If your players are too lazy to read about how spells work and you're okay with that as a GM, then they need cheat sheets. If they're too lazy to read a cheat sheet you've written up and given them, then implement the 10 second rule and watch them stand around doing nothing for a few turns. Timewise, I do remember I had a combat on a similar scale in MapTool: 3 player characters, 2 allied NPCs, 10 enemies, at night (which slows things down), including melee combat, bows, muskets, martial arts, and psi powers, without using any mook rules (NPCs used intelligent maneuvers and defended). 41 turns took about 4 hours; I'd guesstimate based on my experience in Roll20 it might take under 3 hours here, but 41 turns is almost unthinkably long for a GURPS fight. It's usually more like 10. More recent combat encounters have been around 40 minutes or so for about 15 turns with 3 players and around 6-10 total NPCs. It might take you a little bit longer with a boss and with a bunch of spells to keep track of, but since you can get just as fiddly with maneuvers and techniques I wouldn't think it would take much longer. Presumably your guys will be concentrating and casting spells without switching to defensive grips and grappling at the same time.

Cool thanks for the answers. Looks like a consistent 2 to 4 hours for boss fights is what I should be expecting.

Might be faster. It doesn't take long for a guy to say, "I'm still using Concentrate" and move on. :)

my favorite is cyberpunk 2020 mass combat rules, for NPCs roll a d6 per NPC shooting. if he rolls a 6 he kills a guy on the other side. Star Warriors large ship combat for Star Wars d6 was a lot like that too. Same story results, just not gotten there via the Crunchy Highway.