GURPS vs Ishanekon: World Shapers
Compare GURPS and Ishanekon: World Shapers side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| GURPS | Ishanekon: World Shapers | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Universal |
| Tags | Crunchy, Simulation, Character Building, Classless, Skill-Based, Modular, Toolkit, Tactical, Grid-Based, Strong GM Support | Character Building, Crunchy, Tactical, Toolkit, Hackable, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 3d6 at or below a modified attribute or skill to succeed. Quick contests compare margins of success or failure. | Skill Check: roll d10, add your level in the relevant Skill plus half the matching Stat Bonus (a stat's value minus 10), and meet or beat a difficulty from 1 (Very Easy) to 19 (Nearly Impossible). Attacks instead roll d20 plus a weapon's hit bonus against the target's Evasion. Combat runs in rounds where each character spends three Action Points per turn, with an attack costing two and a natural 20 adding bonus damage. The GM awards Narrative Momentum for inventive roleplay, which players spend together with Action Points on Cinematic Actions: freeform stunts resolved at the GM's discretion. |
| Dice | 3d6 | d4–d20 |
| Complexity | Very High | High |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | SJ Games Online Policy | CC BY 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — SJ Games Online Policy | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Steve Jackson Games | Blaze Reason |
| Year | 2004 | 2022 |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese | English |
| Best For | Groups who want detailed character customization and consistent simulation across different genres. | Groups who want maximal character customization in a free, setting-agnostic system: players who enjoy assembling a bespoke concept from a huge option pool and a GM willing to supply the world the rules deliberately leave blank. |
| Highlights | Point budgets let players build characters around chosen strengths and limitations. Optional rules let the GM tune the level of detail for a campaign. Maneuver choices give combatants trade-offs between attacking, moving and defending. | Characters are assembled from ten Archetypes, more than 210 Sub-Archetypes, over a thousand Abilities, plus Paths, Talents, and Traits, giving a single concept many independent axes of mechanical customization. Abilities draw on a Willpower pool, and spending extra Willpower upcasts them on the fly (scaling effects like damage, area, targets, or duration up to a per-tier limit), so one ability flexes to the moment instead of being a fixed effect. Every feature carries a complexity rating from 1 to 4, and Beginner Traits, a Cinematic Rules mode, and thirteen alternative-rule modules let a group run the same engine as a rules-light game or a dense tactical one. |
| Considerations | Selecting and modifying character traits takes time during character creation. Detailed combat can require several rolls to resolve one attack. The GM must establish which abilities and optional rules fit the campaign. | Character creation draws from over a thousand abilities plus hundreds of talents and traits, so building a character means selecting from a very large catalogue rather than a curated short list. The system is setting-agnostic and ships with no default world, so a group must supply or adapt a setting before the customization options mean anything in play. Skill checks and attacks resolve on separate scales (d10 plus half a Stat Bonus for skills, d20 plus full bonuses against Evasion for attacks), so the two halves of the system use different math players must keep straight. |