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I like this book's thoroughness, and its presentation of Japan's juxtaposition of savagery and beauty. Like all S.J.G. products it enjoys excellent lay-out, table of contents, index, and glossary. This last combines with a pronunciation guide to give clumsy gaijin tongues a chance to correctly say Japanese words.

As usual, GURPS books provide plenty of material for other genres and settings. GURPS Japan has expected strengths like martial arts and weaponry, but also provides a surprisingly good magic system. I haven't seen spells for producing masterworks of art before, much less a spell for infusing the crafter's soul into their handiwork. Fantasy Dwarves would reasonably produce artifacts that reproduce these spells' effects. GURPS Japan provides a mechanic for this.

I dislike its narrow focus--not just Japan, but Japan from 1467-1600 (Warring Provinces Era and subsequent Era of Unification). GURPS historic sourcebooks do focus on particular eras over others, but this choice drops out two very dynamic periods of Japanese history. Japan's opening to Western nations gets short shrift with only five paragraphs. Early-twentieth-century imperialism gets nothing. This reduces the book's value. Pulp games in the Orient during the 1930s or WW2 could reasonably use Japanese as characters, but GURPS Japan does nothing for this. Such concentration also reduces its value to time travel campaigns.

GURPS Japan doesn't match other historical worldbooks produced by S.J.G. A worldbook covering the French & Indian War and pre-Revolutionary America wouldn't deserve the title "GURPS USA." This book fails to live up to its title. Think carefully before you buy a copy.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/japan/

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

GURPS Japan
Author: Lee Gold & Hunter Johnson Category: game Company/Publisher: GURPS Japan, Second Edition Line: GURPS Cost: $19.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-55634-388-4 SKU: SJG01995 6006 Capsule Review by Til_Eulenspiegel on 02/05/00. Genre tags: Historical Asian/Far_East	I like this book's thoroughness, and its presentation of Japan's juxtaposition of savagery and beauty. Like all S.J.G. products it enjoys excellent lay-out, table of contents, index, and glossary. This last combines with a pronunciation guide to give clumsy gaijin tongues a chance to correctly say Japanese words. As usual, GURPS books provide plenty of material for other genres and settings. GURPS Japan has expected strengths like martial arts and weaponry, but also provides a surprisingly good magic system. I haven't seen spells for producing masterworks of art before, much less a spell for infusing the crafter's soul into their handiwork. Fantasy Dwarves would reasonably produce artifacts that reproduce these spells' effects. GURPS Japan provides a mechanic for this. I dislike its narrow focus--not just Japan, but Japan from 1467-1600 (Warring Provinces Era and subsequent Era of Unification). GURPS historic sourcebooks do focus on particular eras over others, but this choice drops out two very dynamic periods of Japanese history. Japan's opening to Western nations gets short shrift with only five paragraphs. Early-twentieth-century imperialism gets nothing. This reduces the book's value. Pulp games in the Orient during the 1930s or WW2 could reasonably use Japanese as characters, but GURPS Japan does nothing for this. Such concentration also reduces its value to time travel campaigns. GURPS Japan doesn't match other historical worldbooks produced by S.J.G. A worldbook covering the French & Indian War and pre-Revolutionary America wouldn't deserve the title "GURPS USA." This book fails to live up to its title. Think carefully before you buy a copy. http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/japan/ Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 2 (Sparse)