The Inside Scoop on Gaming

It must have been 1987 or 1988 when a friend of mine handed me a book called Pyramids by someone named Terry Pratchett. I read it, expecting to be amused--after all the guy handing it to me was one of the funniest people I knew, and he said it was funny .... I was floored. This was the funniest thing I'd ever read. In the decade and some-odd years since then I've read every Discworld book I could get my hands on, and have been trying to get my hands on the rest.

I've been salivating at the prospect of owning GURPS Discworld since I first heard about it. Once I finally got a copy, I read it in a single night.

GURPS Discworld covers all of the important parts of life on the Discworld, including the geography of the disc, major bits of the city of Ankh-Morpork (where the river Ankh is so polluted that even an atheist could walk on it), how magic works, why Dwarfs are so cautious about dating, and why you really don't want a barbarian hero moving in next door.

The artwork by Paul Kidby is beautiful. When I showed the book to my girlfriend (who loves Discworld but is not a gamer) she repeatedly commented that the characters looked exactly as she'd imagined them. This is both a credit to Paul Kidby for his skill and to Terry Pratchett for creating characters so well-realized that we all know exactly what they look like. Speaking of Mr. Pratchett ....

Terry Pratchett gets his name above Phil Masters, although I'm not sure how much he really put into the book itself. He's credited with creating Discworld, but the GURPS adaptation is credited to Phil Masters. Some jokes are rehashed from the Discworld books (as is my comment above about the river Ankh), but just as many aren't. The way most of the jokes are delivered in footnotes also comes straight from the Discworld books (and is one of the things I loved about the books in the first place).

One of the things that worried me most about a game set on Discworld is that running a comedy game is hard. Having the manic energy to keep a game of Toon or TFOS consistently hilarious is completely beyond me. GURPS Discworld takes care to explain at several stages what makes Discworld books funny. It's a comedy of ideas. Characters can be funny, but they're not written as just jokes. They're real, three-dimensional people. Plots aren't just made to hang slapstick on. They're the result of the clash of personalities and the result of progress in a world that doesn't much want any, with a heaping helping of parody and satire.

I'd recommend this to just about everyone who's ever told a joke while gaming. That's pretty much everyone, I think. Like all GURPS books, even people who don't like GURPS can convert this pretty easily to their own favorite system, as it's mostly background. For people who don't know GURPS from a hole in the ground, the complete GURPS Lite rules are included after the index. You'll probably also find various things like GURPS Magic and GURPS Compedium I handy, but hardly essential.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

GURPS Discworld
Author: Terry Pratchett & Phil Masters Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Cost: $26.95 US Page count: 240 ISBN: 1-55634-261-6 Capsule Review by Kevin Mowery on 09/01/98. Genre tags: none	It must have been 1987 or 1988 when a friend of mine handed me a book called Pyramids by someone named Terry Pratchett. I read it, expecting to be amused--after all the guy handing it to me was one of the funniest people I knew, and he said it was funny .... I was floored. This was the funniest thing I'd ever read. In the decade and some-odd years since then I've read every Discworld book I could get my hands on, and have been trying to get my hands on the rest. I've been salivating at the prospect of owning GURPS Discworld since I first heard about it. Once I finally got a copy, I read it in a single night. GURPS Discworld covers all of the important parts of life on the Discworld, including the geography of the disc, major bits of the city of Ankh-Morpork (where the river Ankh is so polluted that even an atheist could walk on it), how magic works, why Dwarfs are so cautious about dating, and why you really don't want a barbarian hero moving in next door. The artwork by Paul Kidby is beautiful. When I showed the book to my girlfriend (who loves Discworld but is not a gamer) she repeatedly commented that the characters looked exactly as she'd imagined them. This is both a credit to Paul Kidby for his skill and to Terry Pratchett for creating characters so well-realized that we all know exactly what they look like. Speaking of Mr. Pratchett .... Terry Pratchett gets his name above Phil Masters, although I'm not sure how much he really put into the book itself. He's credited with creating Discworld, but the GURPS adaptation is credited to Phil Masters. Some jokes are rehashed from the Discworld books (as is my comment above about the river Ankh), but just as many aren't. The way most of the jokes are delivered in footnotes also comes straight from the Discworld books (and is one of the things I loved about the books in the first place). One of the things that worried me most about a game set on Discworld is that running a comedy game is hard. Having the manic energy to keep a game of Toon or TFOS consistently hilarious is completely beyond me. GURPS Discworld takes care to explain at several stages what makes Discworld books funny. It's a comedy of ideas. Characters can be funny, but they're not written as just jokes. They're real, three-dimensional people. Plots aren't just made to hang slapstick on. They're the result of the clash of personalities and the result of progress in a world that doesn't much want any, with a heaping helping of parody and satire. I'd recommend this to just about everyone who's ever told a joke while gaming. That's pretty much everyone, I think. Like all GURPS books, even people who don't like GURPS can convert this pretty easily to their own favorite system, as it's mostly background. For people who don't know GURPS from a hole in the ground, the complete GURPS Lite rules are included after the index. You'll probably also find various things like GURPS Magic and GURPS Compedium I handy, but hardly essential. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)