Using GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Rules to Play in a Dungeon Fantasy RPG Game

I wanted the Whiterock campaign to be new-player friendly, so one goal was to ensure that players only needed the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game box set, not a huge collection of GURPS books.  But we found an interested player who has a bunch of GURPS books, but not the DFRPG box set.  How much of a problem is this?

Well, DFRPG is pretty much GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, streamlined and condensed.  For the most part, it's a subset of existing GURPS rules (Basic Set, Magic, Low Tech, Dungeon Fantasy 1-3, Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1-2), repackaged in a slimmer, cheaper, prettier, less intimidating way.  (And there's new material too, but most of the new material is not needed for a player making a character.)  So, if you have the unabridged version, things are mostly compatible.  You'll just have access to a lot of material that this game isn't using, that you have to read around.

So the trick becomes describing exactly which options from the giant toolbox that he has are in play in the smaller toolbox we're using.

I think one helpful tool here is GCS because it has good data files for DFRPG, that show what traits are allowed in DFRPG by default.  Of course that doesn't include full descriptions, but for the ones that are the same as in GURPS Basic Set or Dungeon Fantasy, they're mostly pretty close.  If the trait is new in DFRPG then the player is going to need to ask the GM what it does, and then the GM can explain it.

The Whiterock game isn't using strict templates (partly because they're 250 points, and partly because I thought giving players more options would be fun), so we don't really have to worry about the exact composition of those.  The Dungeon Fantasy 1 templates are pretty close to the DFRPG templates, so good enough for inspiration.

So, I think we'll be okay, but I'm curious to see how much back and forth it will take to get a rules-legal DFRPG PC using only the previous GURPS DF rules.  If we can do it in a couple of passes, that's a good sign that the compatibility is strong.  I'll try to remember to add an edit or comment later, to say how it went.

Update: We have six interested players so far.  I've said we need at least three PCs to start, preferably four.  We have one PC I consider done and approved (though the player can still tweak if desired), three I consider almost done, one that the player seems to be almost finished with but hasn't submitted for approval, and one not done yet.  A couple of the players have GURPS books but not the DFRPG box set, and they seem to be doing okay making valid DFRPG characters with help from GCS and the other players.  So, I think the theory that GURPS DF and DFRPG are close enough that players can bridge the gap is working out.

Also, having a Discord server for your game is great, as it serves as kind of a constant asynchronous Session Zero in the background, assuming you have players who hang out on Discord at least some of the time.  Highly recommended for any kind of online game.  (Of course any other kind of persistent chat channel works too; Discord just seems like a good choice right now, as it's free and cross-platform and popular among gamers and doesn't require much technical skill to use.)