You can do a lot with GURPS. As the name implies, it truly is an universal system that can be used in RPG simulations of any genre. The system is fairly simple at its heart: you just roll 3d6 under a target number.
GURPS can be played light and fast, or detailed and slow. If you like to balance out points and stimulate your imagination as you build characters, then this is the system for you. If you want to create a character quickly that has some metrics backing up their actions, this is the system for you. If you want to pick up a quick one shot - this is the system for you.
Once you get started, GURPS provides a richly detailed character experience with the kind of mechanical nuances that can be leveraged for a great deal of fun. Plus, there are a lot of community resources to help you. I will list some of those below.
Character Creation
Now the fun part comes with the character customization. As you'll see below, you can create a quick and dirty character ala the free distillation of the system, GURPS Lite - http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite
I'm expanding a bit on a previous post, but will still leave most of the detailed work to the late, great Mook who sadly passed away recently. Check out the Game Geekery website. His efforts for GURPS are the kind of contribution that help the system adapt and stay relevant for changing audiences interested in narrative approaches to role-playing games.
Taken from Mook's site, he borrowed a bit from the Fate Aspects, a Seven Minute GURPS Character. This is a more of a conversation between the GM and the player as to what type of character he wants. That's a standard conversation - but in a far shorter time frame. Jump into the game, create your character, start playing.
Start here: Quick Start Character Creation
As with any RPG, the onus is on the GM to be familiar enough with the rule set to resolve the various tests requiring rolls - including combat - and to have the basics of the world fleshed out, to some degree. I like doing things on the fly at times but some sort of preparation pre-session is better.
Combat
Combat, when using the full scope of available options in GURPS, can be a slog. A quicker rules resolution is good. A few thoughts:
- At the very least, have a list of common combat modifiers in front of you when playing, either in print or on your screen;
- As a player, figure out how to use your combat skills, enhancements and advantages before the session.
- As a GM, you could dial down the realism a bit, by dropping Hit Location bonuses or restricting characters to the use of Basic Set Advantages that affect combat;
- Going even further, read over Chapter 2: Being Awesome in the GURPS Monster Hunters 2: The Mission. These might not speed up combat, but could make it quite a bit more fun.
- Finally, it's a game. Mooks are designed to challenge but die, quickly, in combat. There are some games where this goes against the design, so the GM needs to determine what constitutes a viable opponent in any encounter.
Suggestions, taken from another source online:
- Mooks die if they receive 1+ injury; they use only the most basic maneuvers; no extra effort.
- Worthies die when they reach 0 HP; they use all the combat maneuvers; they don't use extra effort.
- Bosses fight till they drop under normal GURPS rules, they use all combat maneuvers and make extensive use of extra efforts.
- Use the simplified Range Modifiers as found in Action 2 or Monster Hunters 1.
There are a lot more tips and thoughts regarding GURPS. Feel free to send me a message with questions, but for real GURPS goodness check out the Steve Jackson forums or the r/GURPS reddit, or the GURPS Discord channel.