This is a simplified way to make a GURPS character. In general, it greatly reduces the number of skills, advantages, and disadvantages to choose from. It assumes the characters are mostly-realistic humans and eliminates things that might be used for superheroes, mutants, or wizards. This page is not intended to teach you how to play; for that read the excellent GURPS Lite which is free for distribution thanks to Steve Jackson Games, and also easy reading at 32 pages. Beyond that, the full GURPS Basic Set is highly recommended for groups looking for more detailed rules on equipment, magic, expanded skills and advantages, and advice for running a variety of genres.

Update: You can find an example of running through this character generator here.

---

Table of Contents

---

Getting started

Your GM will determine the number of Character Points (CP) you have available. Character Points are the "currency" of character creation. You deduct from your available CP when you improve an attribute, buy an advantage, or improve a skill. The number of starting CP available will determine how capable characters are, essentially setting the "power level" of the campaign. Power levels are highly subjective, but some guidelines for a "realistic" setting are below.

Disadvantage limit

Anything that reduces your capabilities has a negative cost — it adds to your available CP, allowing you to gain CP for other uses. CP gained in this way count against your Disadvantage Limit. The disadvantage limit is set by the GM alongside the starting CP. It serves to prevent characters from accumulating an absurd number of disadvantages just so they can buy extremely high capabilities. A good rule of thumb is to set the disadvantage limit to 25-50% of the starting character points. For instance, -75 points in a 150-point game.

Progression

GMs are free to provide character points as rewards for completing adventures, attending sessions, or particularly good role-playing. 3-5 points per session is generous, but more may be excessive. Newly-acquired CP can be spent to improve abilities at the GM's discretion. Some campaign genres may not need to bother with CP progression at all.

---

Base Attributes

Your base attributes determine how strong, dextrous, intelligent, and healthy you are. They also determine your basic effectiveness with Skills. A score of 10 in any base attribute is free, and represents the human average. Most characters have attributes in the 8-12 range. Scores above 20 are typically reserved for godlike beings - ask your GM before buying skills at that level. Attributes can also be purchased down at the negative of their cost, which gives you the points back to spend on something else. Points refunded in this manner count against the disadvantage limit mentioned above.

Secondary Attributes

These secondary attributes can have their values calculated from your Base Attributes above. You can also increase or decrease them with CP, which adjusts them from the calculated Base Value.

Losing HP and dying

The following chart describes the effects of lost HP. Injuries can cause HP to go negative, with further injuries increasing the risk of unconsciousness and death. Effects are cumulative.

Mortal wounds

Mortal wounds require immediate medical attention. Failure of further HT rolls against death will kill you. Additionally, you must roll HT every half-hour to avoid death. You can recover from a mortal wound if medical treatment or source of healing restores HP, and you pass an HT roll.

---

Advantages

Advantages are useful traits that give you a mental, physical or social edge. Each advantage has a cost in character points. Some advantages have a fixed cost, while others are "levelled" and can be purchased multiple times. Advantages with a "variable" cost are more complicated, read the description of the advantage for more detail.

Only a small selection of advantages compatible with the skills in this document are presented here. Consult GURPS Lite for an expanded set.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages are much like advantages, except they have negative effects, but give you more CP to spend on other traits. Note that CP earned in this fashion count against your disadvantage limit. Again, consult GURPS Lite for more disadvantages.

Some disadvantages have a self-control roll. In circumstances that trigger the disadvantage, roll 3d against a target number of 12. If you roll 12 or less, you succeed and shrug off your disadvantage. Roll 13 or higher and you suffer its effects. You are never required to roll, if you wish to give in willingly.

---

Skills

A skill is a particular kind of knowledge or training. When you use a skill in the game, you roll 3d6 against your effective skill level, modified with penalties or bonuses for that situation. Your effective skill level is determined by the attribute it is based upon, and the number of Character Points you have invested in that skill. Skill cost is determined by the table shown below. If you don't have any points invested in a skill, you use it at a -6 penalty. You can't get negative points from lowering skills, unlike attributes.

Specialization

If you pick a specialization for a skill, the cost is reduced as indicated above, but skill checks made outside of your specialization are made at a -4 penalty. You may learn multiple specializations of the same skill; simply treat them as separate skills when marking the point cost.

At the DM's discretion, it is acceptable to use other base attributes for specializations. For example, Expression (Dance) might use DX rather than IQ as the base attribute, Athletics (Powerlifting) might use ST instead of HT.

Note that this skill list is substantially different from GURPS or GURPS lite; these skills are broader and built off of a tweaked version "wildcard" skills. "Specialized" skills here are equivalent to Average difficulty skills in the full ruleset, while non-specialized skills are equivalent in cost to Very Hard skills. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. It's only important if you make the switch to the full rules later

Combat Skills

Choose appropriately based on the setting and time period used in your game. Some combat skills are specialized by default - for example, you would use the specialized cost for determing skill increases for Archery, but not for Firearms (unless you pick a firearms specialization, like Pistols).

Dealing Damage

Muscle-based attacks, such as punching, wrestling, swinging a sword, or throwing a spear deal damaged based upon your ST. There are two categories of damage: + Thrusting (thr) — Damage with a punch, kick, bite, or attack with a thrusting weapon like a spear. + Swinging (sw) — Damage with a swung weapon like an axe, club, or sword — anything that acts like a lever.

Consult the following table to determine your basic damage these two categories. Weapons further modify this basic damage. Note that GURPS only uses d6 dice (no D20's here!), so 1d is simply shorthand for 1d6.