Let's start with some background - I have a few GURPS books, but I've never actually played any GURPS. And a while back, I bought the Martial Arts book. To my great surprise, that book even had rules for the (in the Western world) obscure martial art called Shorinji Kempo, which I practice myself in real life. And what's even more surprising was the fact that book's description of it was 99% accurate.
This seeded the idea that I could try to create a version of myself in GURPS, but where I try to stay true to reality. In other words, the character would be a software developer with the skills to match, and a Shorinji Kempo black belt.
Well, then the next logical step would be to solo play with that character (I'm an active solo RPG player, just not with GURPS yet). And since the PC is based on me, the game world could be based on the real world too. I'd live in the same town, have the same family and friends, etc. That way I wouldn't have to do much in the way of world building.
But then I could divert from reality and make up stories about conspiracies (or whatever) happening in my local area that I could come across and get drawn into. Perhaps there's a secret underground network of tunnels under the city center, connecting various buildings. Who built them, and why? And who's using them now? Why the secrecy?
I think this could be an interesting exercise. If I wanted to, I could do real life research about the history of my town for inspiration, even visiting locations to take photos, and so on.
Am I crazy for finding this idea interesting? Has anyone done anything similar?
I don’t think this is crazy at all! I’ve thought about this in different ways for years, I think it’s a really fun idea. Roleplaying anyone in a real town just seems so interesting to me. The concept of roleplaying is “playing the role of someone else,” after all.
It sounds like a fun way to learn about your surroundings and local history. I did this for New Orleans a couple years ago for a horror RPG I was thinking about! I learned so much about the city, it was a lot of fun.
As a related example in fiction, author Dan Simmons wrote a horror series set in a town that was essentially his childhood hometown in the Midwestern U.S., featuring him and his friends. I read it specifically because it was about that! I love adding a layer of fiction on top of reality.
I think if you start believing the conspiracies, you might want to go see someone. But making fictional versions of real life things is absolutely fascinating to me, and I’ve always felt like gurps has the breadth of tools to make it happen.
Interesting! Do you remember how much time you ended up spending on this?
A decent amount! But that could have just been my own interest.
When I was making the New Orleans stuff I researched multiple neighborhoods, made maps from Google Earth, edited them in image editors, and put them in something the players could see. As well as writing backstory for different places or how I would think of them.