Historical Problem

First Champions/Hero then GURPS share a problem.

They are point based systems with near-zero guidance for where you should put your points.

"The good news is that nothing is decided for you. The bad news is that nothing is decided for you." - FuzzyGeff.

In OG AD&D, the RPG I cut my teeth on, you got to make two decisions in character generation:  Race and class.  Even so, your choices could be limited by shitty die rolls.

Traveller, even more so.  Bad stats rolls could force you into the "Other" career path.

This problem was less obvious in Champions because most people had a comic book character they were trying to recreate and a clear vision of your character concept steers you through the process.

Providing you do some reading.

Which made me realize that I'd seen this kind of break before.

A player who makes a fighter in AD&D makes a few rolls and buy some gear and they're done making their character.  It's a bit more complex in later editions and Pathfinder, but the player doesn't need to do much reading to get their character done and be effective.

But a player who makes a spell caster needs to select their spells.  That means they need to open the Player's Handbook and learn how the spells they've chosen work.  It takes a lot more effort.

People naturally gravitate towards either position.

GURPS rewards the player who cracks open the book and spends the time reading about all the skills, advantages and disadvantages.  It punishes the person that doesn't.  In effect, it's a game made for the person who naturally gravitates towards being a spell caster.

It's exasperating trying to get someone who just wants to play the game through the character generation process because you're constantly poking them for decisions that they don't feel, thanks to playing other games, they shouldn't have to be making.

It leads to some resentment, during play, when they cannot do something that they feel is obvious that their character should be able to do.

It's because they're unfamiliar with the choices and ended up not seeing the skill or advantage that would provide them with the ability to do the things they clearly should be able to do.  Since the GM cannot read their mind, we can't help realize their vision.

GURPS introduced templates to help with this, but they only take it so far and, too often, a player will make the template to the letter with little to no individualization.

All of this is a tall, thick wall barring entry into the hobby for a lot of people.  Especially people who're not interested in the fantasy genre.