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So why do I mention this in my Dragons review? Because Dragons is sort of a halfway mark between Third and Fourth Editions. (Insert standard "GURPS 3.5" joke here.) It uses Third Edition rules and weighs in at 160 pages (rather thick for a Third Edition book, but nowhere near the 256+ pages of Things To Come), true, but this book is a hardcover, its glossy pages teeming with full-color art. To further cement its fractional status, GURPS Dragons includes a full Third-to-Fourth Edition Conversion at the back. This is the first preview the world has seen of Fourth Edition, and I'm sure it'll be at least partially responsible for many of its sales. Fortunately, it's priced comparably to recent GURPS books, which usually go for $26.95 for 144 black and white (softcover) pages.
But enough about what this book means to the overall line... what's the book like?
THE LOOK
First off, this is a simply beautiful book. The medieval-style cover is expressive and attention-grabbing. Flipping through the pages, the paper used is glossy and durable, and shows the coloring to its full advantage. That brings me to the artwork. Alex Fernandez does all the art in this book, including the cover. His style is powerful, rough, and tribal, but also very detailed and intricate in places. I haven't seen a lot of his work, but I was quite impressed.
The artwork is (obviously) primarily dragons, though there are a few dragon slayers and a (very) few scenes of both interacting. Alex doesn't do backgrounds -- all of his illustrations are against the whiteness of the page itself, or against the pattern on the splash page. It makes the artwork that much bolder and prominent, which I found attractive.
THE CONTENT
Dragons is really a 144-page book plus a 16-page conversion appendix. I'll take it chapter by chapter and try not to get too wordy...
1. The Nature of the Beast
A very thorough discourse on dragons, starting with the definition of dragon (which is actually up for a great deal of debate), then contrasing Western Dragons with Eastern Dragons, with detailed descriptions for each. For example, the Western part covers everything from a Crawling Wyrm to a Lindorm and a classic Firedrake, while the Eastern section has over half a dozen Chinese dragons alone, along with an explanation of the dragon heirachy and the domain of each species. The book explores several interesting tangents, even going into the role of the dragon in alchemy! Nothing glossed over here.
2. Playing With Fire
How do you make dragons work in a game world? For Fantasy, it seems simple at first, but there are a lot of ways to use dragons, from ravenous monsters to cruel schemers to the gods incarnate upon the earth! We get great details about dragon's lairs, life cycles, societies, and how dragons relate to lesser beings.
3. Hatching a Dragon
Crunchy bits! All the rules advice (and a few new, minor rules) for building a dragon in GURPS, including every dragon mentioned in Chapter One. Also, the stats for all of those dragons are broken down into a simple table, for times when the GM is just using the dragon as a monster and not as a PC or NPC with a full character sheet.
4. Tooth and Claw and Fiery Maw
An in-depth look at dragons' abilities. This is a distinct chapter because there are so many ways to mix and match (e.g., "Western Dragon with Poison Breath", "Lung Wang with Many Heads".) More crunchy bits, mixed in with much discussion, make it clear how one would adapt each template given, along with providing some food for thought when it comes to designing a dragon.
5. Dragons and Magic
Er, what it says. A look at dragons as either creatures of magic or as wielders of magic (or both,) the relationship between dragons and mages, and the advice on adapting the magic systems found in GURPS to dragons, both as casters and as targets. Several "Lenses" are provided, allowing a GM to quickly slap a selection of spells on a dragon, based on how potent the reptilian mage should be.
6. Slayers and Servitors
The human side. First, a detailed look at why people would interact with dragons, how they'd do it, and what kind of people they are. Then, templates for everyone from slayers to dragon-friends. We also get discussions of what to do with a dead dragon, citing examples of mythology (e.g., plant dragons' teeth to grow a field of warriors,) and several suggestions on just how to kill them.
7. The Dragons Return
8. The World, with Dragons
9. Dragons Today
Three (short) chapters on the detailed gameworld presented in this book. In short, dragons come back to the world after either being away or never existing in the first place. Chapter Seven outlays the basic premise, setup, and rules (the dragon templates all change to make them intelligent and able to shift into human form, for example,) including some interesting sorcery rules in which the Draconic language is the key to powerful magicks, but only for humans who learn it. Chapter Eight sets the story in Edwardian times, where humanity is rather suspicious that dragons have returned, but no one speaks about it openly. Chapter Nine takes the setting to the modern day, where the rules are similar but the dragons are further entrenched in our society.
I approve of splitting this into three chapters, wasted splash pages aside. This way, you only need two chapters for either time period, and it's actually faster to reference key information. The setting itself is well thought-out, with several factions (human and dragon) and several dragon NPCs.
10: Other Times, Other Dragons
Four shorter campaign seeds and five capsule campaign ideas, ranging from a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by dragons to a sci-fi setting where only dragons can travel through space. Most are interesting and novel ideas, and I could see running any of them as a campaign.
Appendix: Fourth Edition Conversions
Obviously this chapter is strictly utilitarian, but that's a good thing. Every template and lens is converted over to Fourth Edition rules, along with advice on certain crunchy sections that might otherwise hit a snag when upgrading versions. The insight into what GURPS is about to become was definitely enlightening... I'm more excited than ever to see the full Fourth Edition.
THE GOOD
Pretty much everything. No, really. With the exception of a specific complaint (see below), I could only find good things to say about this book. Phil Masters does a wonderful job of thoroughly exploring the might, majesty, and mythology of dragons. The artwork and physical quality are top notch. I was consistently more and more impressed the more I read. Even if you're not a huge fan of fantasy or dragons, I believe this book will spark an interest within you.
THE BAD
Though the editing was good on a large scale (chapter layout, page design), there were far too many grammatical errors to ignore. Dropped words and mid-sentence tense changes were not common, but were frequent enough to irritate me, and there were a few instances of unclosed parentheses or brackets. It wasn't nearly bad enough to confuse what the author was trying to say, but it was enough of an issue that I had to knock the Substance from a 5 to a 4. With one more good editorial pass, this book would rate a 5/5 easily.
THE FINAL THOUGHT
If GURPS Dragons is a preview of what we can expect in GURPS Fourth Edition books, I'm thrilled. Dragons combines the solid, well-presented information that we're used to in a GURPS supplement with wonderful production values that only enhance its worth.
This is a good book, and worthy of your money.
