Sure, that makes it possible to have some rather unique and/or fine-tuned stuff. Whereas in GURPs you've got Magic as Powers, the legacy spell system and half a dozen variations and orthogonal subsystems in Thaumatology or independent products. You can have a dozen magic system that all break down into the same constituent parts. Yes, it probably takes you more time to learn some details of powers construction, but in the end that's all you need to know, everything is derived from that. Then again, I can actually run HERO MA with a printed character sheet and without referencing menial details about stop hits and aggressive parries.Īlso, as much as it's possible in a relatively complex, generic system, HERO is turtles all the way down. I'd regard GURPS Martial Arts as more realistic than HERO. This isn't really all that negative if that's what you're going for. As was mentioned, GURPS has lots of specific rules. Personally, I'm definitely regarding HERO as conceptually simpler. So regarding complexity, it seems to converge a bit nowadays. Nowadays, you've got less figured statistics in HERO on one hand, and more stuff built on Powers in GURPS (and most of it is in the basic books). That certainly was the case when you compared previous editions.
And, well, a metric bajillion of source books. Whereas if you're aiming for a non-superhero game, it's more likely that GURPS already provides you with the fiddly bits (spells and/or equipment). both GMs and PCs probably have to spend a bit more time creating their special abilities. More attributes, more abbreviations and the fact that it's more a building block system, i.e.