Lots of old-time roleplayers have a shelf full of GURPS books even if they don't actually play it: they've discovered that many GURPS worldbooks are great resources whatever your game system. GURPS Old West is a good example -- it's solid, well researched, and full of ideas and tidbits to make your game richer and more realistic.
GURPS Old West covers the American west in the 19th century, and it covers it in some detail. The chapter on Indians, for example, is 27 pages of information covering many tribes, languages, customs, reservation life and magic. There's even some example names, arranged by language. Another example is the handy timeline, giving a good overview of the west in the 19th century in several pages -- and it is supplemented by maps: GURPS Old West contains a variety useful maps -- including several political maps detailing the changes to state and national boundaries over the time period (though the decision to place one of these with the chapter on the relevant time period instead of with all the political maps for the other periods seemed a strange choice to me), and a couple detailing the location of various Indian tribes -- both their original home and where they were located in the Indian territory. There are maps of overland trails and major rail routes. There are also some small but handy hex maps -- for example, there are hex maps of several different kinds of rail car (hold up a train? Murder on the San Francisco Express?). Including more of these - more maps in place of one or two pieces of art -- one of a paddle steamer, for example -- would have been great. There's even a map of the OK Corral.
You can find lots of information on animals, plants, terrain, food, medicine, transport, society, money (and prices), entertainment and what people did for a crust. There's lots of detail on weapons, but this will be much more useful if you're familiar with GURPS, since it's relatively more stat-heavy than the rest of the book.
There's a danger in any roleplaying supplement with so much information -- that the detail will overshadow the roleplaying, giving you pages of dull fact that you can't see how to use. GURPS Old West never loses sight of its primary purpose, affecting what information is included, and coloring the way it is presented - railways, for example, could have easily been a lot of dull lists. Instead there's information that could help you play a rail baron, someone working on the lines, or a passenger -- there's even a section entitled "How to rob a train"! There's a whole chapter on running a campaign -- including lots of suggestions on one of GURPS' biggest strengths -- the crossover campaign.
It's not all realism, though. Cliches are not forgotten -- a number of western cliches are covered, along with discussion about the reality the cliches misrepresent. If you want to use all the cliches of a 50's B grade western, you will find most of them here.
Many characters make their appearance in GURPS Old West -- there's a chapter on legends of the old west, but others appear throughout the book. There's enough detail that likely many of them will make their appearance in games.
The black and white artwork is mostly good. I found a few pieces, especially some of the line art, tickled my imagination, suggesting a scene for a game session. Some of the art is less inspiring.
Layout, like writing, is generally something you only notice when it's bad. Old West's layout is good. Clean, fairly easy to navigate,
nothing distracting.
GURPS Old West, like all GURPS books, has that most essential of items for a roleplaying supplement: a decent index (though you can generally find what you need straight from the Table of Contents). It has a pretty extensive bibliography (and filmography, and so on).
Overall, this book is good value for money (note that the descriptive ratings are too fine grained here - Style and Substance are both almost halfway toward the next higher rating). GURPS Old West probably won't adorn your coffee table impressing your visitors -- this is a book you'll use.
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