The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Hype (from the back cover)

"You're dead -- so now what?
Time to check the book of the dead . . .

GURPS Undead is a complete guide to adventures beyond the grave, covering everything from subtle hauntings to undead necromancers, from Gothic vampires to the brain-eating zombies. . . .

Undead also covers related topics, like tombs, death gods, embalming, funerary rites, grave robbery, necromancy, pathology, souls, the afterlife, symbolism . . . in other words, everything you need to inject new life into your undead.

So what are you waiting for? Life is short!"

The Inside Scoop (mini-interview with author Sean Punch)

{BP}Any behind-the-scenes tidbits to share with the web audience?

{SP} Let's see . . .

The book was a slot-filler in our hole-ridden publication schedule, so I was on a tight schedule and the research had to be done in two weeks. This meant I could not use primary sources (you know -- moldy Rumanian manuscripts, interviews with the local houngan, etc.) as extensively as I would have liked to. Bah. Instead, I spent those two weeks reading secondary sources and corroborating every single point with at least one other secondary source. That, and watching two videos a night on
zombies, vampires, ghosts, etc.

Was it spooky writing this?

Sort of. Owing to the time constraints, I used "total immersion" to get into the right "head space" to complete the book on deadline without compromising quality. This meant bringing the undead into my day-to-day life. When my friends wanted to go see a movie, I always suggested that we see a zombie or vampire movie. When I went to a party, I sought out anthropologists and asked about beliefs associated with death. And so on. I started to dream about the undead all the time and ended up with
bad insomnia, so did a lot of the writing at night . . .

Is your brain really as tasty as the hype suggests?

Buy the book and find out!

The Book

I've commented, along with most of the rest of the industry, about the quality of GURPS sourcebooks. This book is no exception to that rule. The first two chapters deal with the myth, lore and history of death and undeath. The third chapter provides a logical extension from the character/race creation rules to include the effects common among the undead. Chapter four, "The Mortuary," applies these rules to create standard models of the most common types of undead, from "ghost" to "zombie," along with undead nonhumans, undead beast, and the "weird" undead -- I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what THEY are.

Chapter 5 features characters, both living and undead, with templates for assorted undead folks. And chapter 6, my personal favorite, brings sense to how undead are used in a campaign, from developing your rationale for using undead (rather than "Aaah, I'll just throw in some zombies here") to undead heroes and the inevitable hints for crossing-over into other GURPS books.

All of this is presented in a respectful manner, without needlessly treading on beliefs or gratuitously playing up the more gruesome aspects of death (though such facts ARE presented). And I'm always pleased when Sean Punch gets to do more than answer magical-area-effect questions for the umpteen-zillionth time. His writing is clear, concise and often witty. It is supported by a wide selection of art from the SJ Games collection. The layout is standard GURPS, but good-looking.

The Scenario

But I wasn't given the book to wax rhapsodic about the author. The Powers That Be provided me the book so that I could playtest it and tell you how it went. So . . .

My first premise was that I wanted to do this with my players . . . that is, my players as GURPS characters. This is something we've actually never done in the nigh-twenty years I've been gaming, so I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I wanted to do it larger than life, though, with more "idealized" versions of us. (For example, in this fiction I'm a deputy librarian for the state of Nevada.) Then I'd slide in the creepy undead elements and completely foil my players' expectations.

Given that my setting is western Nevada, circa 1999, I was rather at a loss for how to justify the presence of undead. And I rejected the notion of the rogue necromancer, raising the army of the undead for no better reason than he got his car booted on Main Street. Being out west, you'd think I'd be quick to jump to the Native American angle, spiritual people that they are. But it turns out that relations between Natives and the white settlers here has been largely peaceful. Except for one time . . .

Once I had my angle, and a large reserve of unsatisfactorily buried Native warriors, it was only a minor jump to create an activist with an axe to grind and in possession of Lost Ancient Knowledge. My final twist was that the undead he was summoning weren't interested in causing trouble; all they wanted was to be buried with proper respect and honors. And so, when the budding sorcerer wasn't directly controlling them, they would make manifestations to those who they thought might help them . . .

The Results

Undead was terrifically helpful to me in finding the logic that made all the scenario work. Unfortunately, I made a mistake I've made time and again, and will probably make in the future: I neglected my players. My players' tastes run to fast and frenzied. They don't have a lot of patience with mysteries and clues. Having rushed the adventure, I also neglected some clues and encounters . . . but on the whole, it went well enough. "Weird but good," was the concise opinion.

The primary drawback is one I see across the GURPS line. To quote the back cover again, "GURPS Basic Set . . . and Compendium I are required . . . GURPS Magic, Grimoire, Religion and Voodoo are all recommended" to use the book in a GURPS campaign. That's a few dozen dollars of investment there. I leave the pros and cons as an exercise for the reader.

The Bottom Line

If you do horror and want to do it with sensibility and reason, buy it. If you want to do with undead characters, buy it. And you should probably also attend to the other books in this loose "series:" Horror, Magic, Grimoire, Religion, Blood Types, Voodoo . . . Bestiary has the were-creature rules . . . and watch for GURPS Spirits, coming soon as somebody writes it.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

*GURPS Undead*
Author: Sean Punch Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Inc. Cost: $19.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-55634-352-3 Playtest Review by Bob Portnell on 03/07/99. Genre tags: Horror Generic	The Hype (from the back cover) "You're dead -- so now what? Time to check the book of the dead . . . *GURPS Undead* is a complete guide to adventures beyond the grave, covering everything from subtle hauntings to undead necromancers, from Gothic vampires to the brain-eating zombies. . . . Undead also covers related topics, like tombs, death gods, embalming, funerary rites, grave robbery, necromancy, pathology, souls, the afterlife, symbolism . . . in other words, everything you need to inject new life into your undead. So what are you waiting for? Life is short!" The Inside Scoop (mini-interview with author Sean Punch) {BP}Any behind-the-scenes tidbits to share with the web audience? {SP} Let's see . . . The book was a slot-filler in our hole-ridden publication schedule, so I was on a tight schedule and the research had to be done in two weeks. This meant I could not use primary sources (you know -- moldy Rumanian manuscripts, interviews with the local houngan, etc.) as extensively as I would have liked to. Bah. Instead, I spent those two weeks reading secondary sources and corroborating every single point with at least one other secondary source. That, and watching two videos a night on zombies, vampires, ghosts, etc. Was it spooky writing this? Sort of. Owing to the time constraints, I used "total immersion" to get into the right "head space" to complete the book on deadline without compromising quality. This meant bringing the undead into my day-to-day life. When my friends wanted to go see a movie, I always suggested that we see a zombie or vampire movie. When I went to a party, I sought out anthropologists and asked about beliefs associated with death. And so on. I started to dream about the undead all the time and ended up with bad insomnia, so did a lot of the writing at night . . . Is your brain really as tasty as the hype suggests? Buy the book and find out! The Book I've commented, along with most of the rest of the industry, about the quality of GURPS sourcebooks. This book is no exception to that rule. The first two chapters deal with the myth, lore and history of death and undeath. The third chapter provides a logical extension from the character/race creation rules to include the effects common among the undead. Chapter four, "The Mortuary," applies these rules to create standard models of the most common types of undead, from "ghost" to "zombie," along with undead nonhumans, undead beast, and the "weird" undead -- I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what THEY are. Chapter 5 features characters, both living and undead, with templates for assorted undead folks. And chapter 6, my personal favorite, brings sense to how undead are used in a campaign, from developing your rationale for using undead (rather than "Aaah, I'll just throw in some zombies here") to undead heroes and the inevitable hints for crossing-over into other GURPS books. All of this is presented in a respectful manner, without needlessly treading on beliefs or gratuitously playing up the more gruesome aspects of death (though such facts ARE presented). And I'm always pleased when Sean Punch gets to do more than answer magical-area-effect questions for the umpteen-zillionth time. His writing is clear, concise and often witty. It is supported by a wide selection of art from the SJ Games collection. The layout is standard *GURPS, but good-looking. The Scenario But I wasn't given the book to wax rhapsodic about the author. The Powers That Be provided me the book so that I could playtest it and tell you how it went. So . . . My first premise was that I wanted to do this with my players . . . that is, my players as GURPS* characters. This is something we've actually never done in the nigh-twenty years I've been gaming, so I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I wanted to do it larger than life, though, with more "idealized" versions of us. (For example, in this fiction I'm a deputy librarian for the state of Nevada.) Then I'd slide in the creepy undead elements and completely foil my players' expectations. Given that my setting is western Nevada, circa 1999, I was rather at a loss for how to justify the presence of undead. And I rejected the notion of the rogue necromancer, raising the army of the undead for no better reason than he got his car booted on Main Street. Being out west, you'd think I'd be quick to jump to the Native American angle, spiritual people that they are. But it turns out that relations between Natives and the white settlers here has been largely peaceful. Except for one time . . . Once I had my angle, and a large reserve of unsatisfactorily buried Native warriors, it was only a minor jump to create an activist with an axe to grind and in possession of Lost Ancient Knowledge. My final twist was that the undead he was summoning weren't interested in causing trouble; all they wanted was to be buried with proper respect and honors. And so, when the budding sorcerer wasn't directly controlling them, they would make manifestations to those who they thought might help them . . . The Results *Undead* was terrifically helpful to me in finding the logic that made all the scenario work. Unfortunately, I made a mistake I've made time and again, and will probably make in the future: I neglected my players. My players' tastes run to fast and frenzied. They don't have a lot of patience with mysteries and clues. Having rushed the adventure, I also neglected some clues and encounters . . . but on the whole, it went well enough. "Weird but good," was the concise opinion. The primary drawback is one I see across the GURPS line. To quote the back cover again, "*GURPS Basic Set* . . . and Compendium I are required . . . GURPS Magic, Grimoire, Religion and Voodoo are all recommended" to use the book in a GURPS campaign. That's a few dozen dollars of investment there. I leave the pros and cons as an exercise for the reader. The Bottom Line If you do horror and want to do it with sensibility and reason, buy it. If you want to do with undead characters, buy it. And you should probably also attend to the other books in this loose "series:" Horror, Magic, Grimoire, Religion, Blood Types, Voodoo . . . Bestiary has the were-creature rules . . . and watch for GURPS Spirits, coming soon as somebody writes it. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)