No, I believe this means if you are sent to any jail or prison you can be strip-searched on your way in. You couldn't be strip-searched for a non-prison offense. At least I hope not.

I was thinking more V for Vendetta.

That sounds pretty cool. I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

Oh, I agree that playing demigods is a viable path, but I like not having it be an inevitable path. d20 will generally follow the farmboy to deity route pretty faithfully. That's fine, but I was aiming for something different. I like that in my game each piece of good equipment is pretty special and people tend to hold onto them more... adds more of a storybook vibe. In my experience, by the time someone hits level 10 or so in a d20 game, they are leaving +1 swords as tips at restaurants.

Yes, it is more work for the GM up front, but I find it more rewarding. I've found creating my own 'player's guide' to the campaign is very helpful for the players to design their characters. GURPS does so much with allies, dependents, contacts, etc., and without some knowledge of the setting, the PC's can't do much there. I also put together cheat sheets for players who took skills like area knowledge or history, giving them some tidbits that the other players don't. I started out making maps, which were either more or less detailed depending on what you'd know.. so one character knew that the big capital city was 100 miles to the southwest beyond the Storm Hills.. where the less enlightened character maybe knew the name of the capital city but that was it.

That is definitely something that takes some getting used to. The d20 monster manuals with challenge ratings does make it easier to set up that sort of thing. GURPS doesn't have a hard and fast rule for encounters. You can build a 500 point character/creature that is a total pushover in combat or a 100 point foe that is just a death machine. I normally focus on the enemy's primary attack, figuring out how frequently it will likely hit and how much damage it will do, depending on how much armor the PC is wearing. Then I look at what kind of defenses it has and how frequently it will dodge/block/parry, plus if the party can punch through its damage resistance easily. Honestly, it takes a lot of winging it. An unexpected benefit (for me at least) is that the party is always weary of any foe and never takes combat lightly. d20 systems run into the metagaming of 'oh, a troll, get out the fire', where GURPS creatures are largely made by the GM, so it adds an element of mystery. There is a general assumption with players in most RPG's that any foe that is put before them is designed for them to be able to defeat and as a result they tend to attack nearly anything that isn't just blatantly beyond them. I've been enjoying that in my current game, they've learned that not everything that exists is fodder for their bloodlust. ;)

Oh, yeah, I love the 4th edition rules. My current GURPS game is hitting 3 years, very much enjoying it. In a d20 system all the players would be demigods by now.

SJ Games will have a special place in my heart because of GURPS. A great roleplaying system that really helps bring about the roleplaying aspect, instead of just the tabletop wargame aspect. Plus you gotta love an RPG that sticks with a version for 15+ years, vs. other systems that try to get you to replace all your books every 3 years.

Yes, and let us not forget that whole 'squirting' songs to other Zunes. That was just poetry.

I vastly prefer single player games. I'm most fond of RPG's and it is a compelling narrative that draws me into a game. I want well-developed, believable characters. I want to be the protagonist that the story centers on. I want to be the big hero that shapes the world around him. That isn't really something that can be done well with multiplayer games. I have no interest in playing games against nameless 14 year olds who practice 21 hours a day. Give me Dragon Age or Mass Effect any day of the week.

I'm still clinging to the hopes that Peter Jackson's lawsuit will be settled in time for him to take the helm. My wife's idea for how to address the different tones of the two movies (the LOTR being dark and adult and the Hobbit being more for kids) by having the entire movie be the tale as told by Bilbo. He would dismiss the dwarves as bumbling dolts that he constantly had to rescue without it conflicting with everyone seeing dwarves as solid combatants in the trilogy.

and George Lucas??? for real? if he had directed the LOTR trilogy we'd have a goofy and annoying Gollum/Jar-Jar character accidentally kick the One Ring into the volcano to save the day.