Let´s Think in Gurps shall we?
"You are the most succeful doctor in your town, you saved tons of lives in the last 20 years, your skills are legendary, your actions alone led to the foundation of a medical council in your town, where you are in charge, surgery is a child´s play to you.
however, everything is about to change.
one day, a rainy day, a young girl is waiting for you at the clinic, her diagnosis? Hiccups. yes. hiccups.
you are about to give her some medicine, all is well.
but, somewhere, in another space, another time... some dice roll..... and mark a 18...
you take your scapel, and in a furious blind rage, you STAB THE GIRL IN THE EYE with the scalpel, killing her and getting you to jail, you are arrested ,your brilliant medical career is destroyed because you had a critical failure."
sounds creepy? sounds ridiculous?
that happens a lot, in the entire world.
EVIL, EVIL GMS FROM HELL that cant let a character open a drawer without a dexterity check.
The skill check idea that comes from the primordial era of RPGs has latched on our minds, we cant get rid of it. when designing RPGs, most people just Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v ideas from other sources.
THIS. HAS. TO. END. LOL.
thats it guys, thats what i think about the current skills in GURPS, and to some extent, in other systems too.
EDIT >
Thanks for reading and spreading the word.
i will let this guide here because too much people still dont get it.
Flawed analogy
Malpractice happens in the real world. Critical failure happens in the real world. Trying to reflect that in an RPG is apt. If a GM abuses that, they are a bad GM, period. Can't blame the entire genre for that.
Still, I will agree with your overall assessment that GURPS isn't that great. I gave that system a try quite a few years back, and always found it very lacking. It has a ton of sourcebooks, but the core system is so-so, and not very accurate as far as odds go. For instance, such a critical failure as you noted (which was confusing due to the 'blind rage' part, which suggests deliberate failure rather than accidental failure), should be at 1% or less. With a system based on rolling three six-sided dice at a time like GURPS, you cannot accurately represent 1% or less.
The best way to prove your point is to lead by example. Put forth a reasonable RPG that is free of the standard RPG cliches you are sick of. Rather than criticize GURPS, which is easy to do, make a game that blows GURPS out of the water, or thoroughly ignores GURPS and is quite cool on it's own. That's not-so-easy to do.
Peace, Errin : )
http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm
Adventuria Online RPG