Before my review, a bit of a soapbox. When I was 12, I was getting jaded with gaming. We had just moved away from my old group, nobody in the new area played anything but Vampire, and books seemed to move (once more) out of my price range. I was ready to quit gaming.
Enter GURPS. Starting with Space and Cyberpunk, I was hooked, and bought everything I could when I had allowance saved up. GURPS was my favorite game, and it's the reason I'm still in gaming now. Even though I've gone on to other games, it's still the yardstick by which I measure all my purchases.
That's quite a legacy to live up to.
I've never reviewed an entire line of books as a single system before, but the system I use for my reviews is the same: a description of the book, followed by comments on the good, the bad, and the ugly of each chapter. Whenever possible, quotes are included from the book.
Finally, this is a playtest review (my first, so be gentle). Anything of note from the playtest will be put with the appropriate section. The setting was RIFTS. The PCs were Professor Hadley, a CoC investigator (a pregen played by a player experienced with GURPS Third Edition and the setting), Haelyn, a 'psiberknight (whose player was experienced with GURPS Third and the setting, but had left them years ago for 'greener pastures'), and Red, a vulpine starfighter jock (whose player never even seen GURPS before and never heard of the setting).
(Extra-special thanks to Clash Bowley for editing my review.)
GURPS Lite
The first book in the series is GURPS Lite, the 32-page distillation of the core GURPS rules. It's really quite complete. This book is available for free at the Steve Jackson Games website. (Here.)
However, there are some notable gaps in the rules. For example, one part of character creation is the self-control roll, which is added to mental disadvantages to determine just how bad they are. The self-control roll is nowhere in the book. And, for no real reason, these gaps are replaced by things like Jumper, which is a superpower that lets you travel across worlds.
It used to be that, after character creation, I could go for sessions without having to look into the core rulebook -- the GURPS Lite rules were concise enough to run the full game. That's not so true anymore; it seems like, I will need to bring the full rulebooks in with me to my games from here on out. Not a good note to start the new edition on.
I did need to have the books for the playtest. However, the pilot's player only had a copy of GURPS Lite at his disposal, and he was able to create a competent 250-point character to his satisfaction with only a bit of help from me.
Book One: Characters
As the game did in its first and second editions, the core rules of GURPS is divided into two books: Characters and Campaigns (although it was once called Adventuring, the division is the same).
Introduction
As well as giving us the prerequisite 'What is Roleplaying', game history, and author bios, this section covers the core mechanics of GURPS. The core mechanics, ancient by RPG terms, haven't changed; roll 3d6 equal to or under stat or skill for tests, and roll Xd6 and hope to roll high for damage. There's not too many frills, but it's fast in play.
"When GURPS was launched, we dreamed of its becoming the "standard" roleplaying system. The hobby has grown hugely since then! There will never be a single stndard . . . but GURPS is one of the standards, and that's fine. We have never tried to drive others out of the market, or even to force them to conform to us. Instead, we are conforming to them -- by producing a system that will work with any cleanly written adventure."
And to put that to the test, I used an adventure from Palladium books -- namely, the sample adventure from Ninjas & Superspies. I had no problems of any sort converting it.
Chapter One: Creating A Character
The system is still point-based, although the bias in characters is towards 150 points. The new edition takes more time out at the beginning to create a characters's personality.
The four attributes GURPS uses are no-nonsense: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Health. All stats start at 10 for free; the physical stats are plus or minus 10 points per level, and the mental stats are plus or minus 20 points per level. In addition, stats can now have modifiers added to them -- for example, allowing large creatures to buy Strength at a discount.
The secondary characteristics are Damage (both swinging and thrusting), Basic Lift, Hit Points, Will, Perception, Fatigue Points, Basic Speed, and Basic Move. Exactly half of these stats use a formula, while the other stats start out equal to one of the primary attributes. All of these stats can be individually modified up or down; for example, if you wanted someone who could lift and throw 30 tons around, you would buy 190 points of Lifting ST, for 570 points.
The system now uses a 'Size Modifier' for odd-sized creatures. It's a clean way of making characters of odd sizes work; now, making (and playing) with titans and halflings is as easy as making characters of any other size.
Appearance is slightly modified in this edition; it still gives you a bonus to reaction rolls, but as well as broadening the levels of what may be purchased (to Horrific and Transcendant). Also, you may add other appearance-related like Fashion Sense, Pitiable, or Unusual Features, to further customize your character.
Social Background incudes things like your base Technology Level, your Culture and Language (or Languages), and the Wealth and Influence rules of the following section. These are also expanded; Languages are now either-or, not skills, and can consider literacy and spoken ability seperately; Wealth can include such advantages as trust funds (money without work) and Debt (like the innumerable space-opera smugglers who 'can pay you back next week'). And, with a few sidebars' worth of commentary and a section or two not worth mentioning, the chapter closes.
The Good: Dai Blackthorn is back... as a psychic!
The 'character types' section is back from GURPS Third, with the suggested character types being more broadly based than the old system.
The 'unofficial' characterization bonus is back, now in a more official position -- you can now get up to 5 extra character points by writing a good biography and life history.
Size in GURPS is easier to work with than size in absolutely every other RPG I've ever tried. (Particularly, I'm looking at you two, d20 and HERO.)
The new language and cultural familiarity rules are nifty. And this is 'nifty' in the eyes of a linguist, which is rather nifty indeed.
The rules for bishounen characters (originally from GURPS Mecha) are now in the core rules. Oh, they changed the name, but it's bishounen, all right.
The Bad: Hit points now cost 2 points/level, not 5. That is amazingly cheap, considering how many combat effects in the system are based on multiples of HP. Have you ever had a PC with more hit points than a fighter jet (outside of HERO and Rifts)? You will now!
Some of the language rules for character creation are in GURPS Lite... I can't find them anywhere in this book.
The Ugly: Sora, one of the iconic characters, opens the chapter. She has to be the worst-dressed character I have ever seen in any roleplaying game. 'Sleeveless power ranger in a corset' comes to mind.
The disadvantage limit is now equal to half of the character points you receive.
There were three characters, two of 250 points and one of 200 points. There was a little point-juggling at the end for the cyberknight and the pilot, but they were both satisfied with their characters.
"Character design in GURPS is intended to give a balanced hero, someone whose strengths and weaknesses more or less cancel each other out."
Chapter Two: Advantages
Advantages come in three 'axes': the source, and the function. The 'source' of an advantage (Exotic, Mundane, or Supernatural) describes where the power came from; the 'function' of the advantage (Mental, Physical, or Social) describes how it is used.
The Advantage section includes the remnants of the GURPS Super system and the powers from the old racial creation rules. This is handy for attracting the 'all-in-one-book' crowd (but read below). There are literally dozens of pages here. Any alien race you could want to build could be made with these advantages.
A new addition to the system are Perks. These are like Quirks in reverse: for 1 point, you get a minor benefit -- a shtick, a minor racial advantage (like the ability to howl, or fur), signature gear, and the like. It's been seen in other systems, and it suits GURPS well.
Finally, the chapter closes out on Modifiers. Modifiers are percentile, and tack right onto a power. It's a clean way to do it, and this edition adds new modifiers, like Cosmic (your ability is just 'cooler' than normal, and cannot normally be resisted). In addition, some powers have their own modifiers.
The Good: Perks are great. Between Perks and Quirks, your character sheet won't just look like a list of skills, but your character will show through with your P's and Q's. (Forgive me. I have the "Can't resist a straight line" quirk.)
Fur doesn't grant PD or DR anymore. The days when sheepdogs could be used to deflect bullets (don't ask) are over!
The limit for modifiers is 80%, not 75% as it used to be. In a system where 90% of abilities have a cost divisible by 5, this makes things simpler. In addition
Modular Abilities. Wanna build a chip-slot with skills in it? Easy! (20 points Chip Slots, 65 points.) Want to build Green Lantern's ring? No problem! (50 points Cosmic Modular Abilities, Physical +100%, 1000 even). Wanna convert D&D magic? Go to town (well, maybe after you sober up). It's a great way to use the system.
The rules for 'powers as gadgets' are much cleaner now. Heck, if you wanted to, you could build a mecha or a battlesuit as a set of powers with gadget limitations.
Some powers that were unique to games like GURPS Deadlands and GURPS World of Darkness are now back in forms that will be useable to games of other genres.
The Bad: No Passive Defense. One of my favorite GURPS Supers PCs ever, Lady Serendipity, managed to survive in combat not by being skilled, or by being strong, but by being lucky: she'd manage to fit exactly behind a telephone pole when an explosion hit, bullets would just nick her, and so on. This power was represented by taking PD 6. I couldn't build Lady Serendipity in GURPS Fourth Edition.
The Ugly: Schrödinger's Advantage. This ability lets you, "at some critical juncture in an adventure, just when all seems lost, [suddenly] discover a new ability -- worth twice the points you have set aside." This is the ugliest 'didn't know my own strength'-type rule I have seen in any RPG. I almost took a point of Style off just for this paragraph.
This section mixes mundane and wonderous abilities in together. What this means is that when you want to build a normal character, you have to skip over dozens of pages of things like Cybernetics, Digital Mind, Extra Head, Flight, Gizmos, and Innate Attack; when you want to build a super, you have to go through pages of things like G-Experience, Night Vision, Rapier Wit, Security Clearance, and Tenure. This took off a point of Style.
The Awesome: Affliction is a great way to build powers that harm another's abilities, not his HP. For example, in 30 seconds, I was able to build this power: Booze Ray (13): Affliction 1 (resist on a HT roll, 10), Drunk 20%, Vomiting (if the HT roll fails by 5 or more), +10%. In about two minutes, I had this ability: Voodoo Doll (93): Affliction 3 (resist on a Will-2 roll, 30), Based On Will +20%, Malediction (Very Long Range) +200%, Trigger (must make a proper voodoo doll, very common, -10%. It's a really a nice, flexible, elegant power.
The Psyberknight is virtually seeped in weird powers. I was able to create his psi-sword, his TK armor, and a few ESP-like abilities without any problems, all in the space of about five minutes.
Chapter Three: Disadvantages
Exactly as the heading says, this covers disadvantages.
There is one major change from the previous edition: Mental disadvantages are based on self-control, not Will. A problem you can rarely control is worth double; a problem you can usually control is worth half; and there's steps in between that. This prevents someone from buying a Will of 15-17 and then paying for it by taking dozens of mental disads, as well as helping characters sheets describe the character.
The Good: Quirk coverage. There are more ready-to-go quirks and more guidelinesfor what is (and more importantly, what isn't) a legal quirk. For being one of my major draws to the GURPS engine, I'm glad it finally got more respect.
The Bad: Like the previous chapter, mundane, racial, paranormal, and superheroic disadvantages were mixed together.
Chapter Four: Skills
Skills are described by their base stat (usually DX or IQ; sometimes HT, Per, or Will) and a Difficulty (Easy, Average, Hard, and Very Hard). Skills are the only part of character creation that requires a chart, and skills of different difficulties use the same progression shifted up or down yeah rows, so I'll give the chart here:
For example, if your IQ was 9 and you wanted to know Farming (an IQ/Average skill) at 12, it would cost 12 points.
Skills often require a specialty -- for example, Biology (genetics) and Guns (pistol) -- and there are rules for adding specialies to skills that do not require them. Skills that in previous editions need a lot of GM intervention (like Engineer) now have specific specializations -- rather like how d20 Modern clarified D&D skills, in fact.
After normal skills come Techniques. Techniques are cheap (1 or 2 points for a base ability, then +1 for +1 to the roll) refinements of a normal skill; for example, you can buy the Work By Touch technique for Lockpicking to negate the -5 penalty for not being able to see the lock, or buy the Whirlwind Attack technique to make an attack on everyone around you using a particular skill.
Also, GURPS now includes Wildcard Skills (also known as Bang skills) in the core rules. These skills -- like Detective!, Gun!, and Science!, make you the best at what you do -- and with a Wildcard skill, you do a lot. They cost triple and usually require an Unusual Background, but they're usually worth it if you have an appropriate concept.
The Good: Physical skills now max out at 4 points a level. It's possible to make a talented fencer on a reasonable point budget. (Yes, I consider it both a good thing and a minmaxer's dream. Yes, I know point budgets are larger in this edition.)
Optional specialties are now much cleaner. A 'specialized' skill is treated as a seperate skill that is one step easier than the 'normal' skill and defaults at -2 to the normal skill. So, if you wanted to take Physician (Klingon), you would buy Physician (Klingon) as a IQ/Average skill, and be at -2 to use the Physician skill on anyone other than Klingons.
The Enthrallment skills from Bunnies & Burrows (don't laugh) are in here. In fact, there's a lot of new skills here that are going to be handy: Current Affairs, Esoteric Medicine, Exorcism, Flying Leap, Ritual Magic, Weird Science...
The Bad: Mental skills now max out at 4 points per level. It's more expensive to become really talented with a mental skill, an ability I liked.
Chapter Five: Magic
Magic is similar to how it used to be; however, the abilities of magic now scale with how powerful you are. (Yes, it's possible to have a Fireball large enough to blow a pickup truck to smithereens.) You buy spells in order; one point in one spell lets you buy the next spell in the line.
There are more spells in the basic set now. Paralysis; 'planar summoning'; zombie-making... More of the classic fantasy tropes are covered.
The Good: There's a sidebar that offers changes to the standard GURPS magic system: Ritual magic (which simplifies the entire system down to a few skills, with one skill covering an entire magical college), and Clerical magic (which is not as well fleshed-out).
Magery costs 5 points + 10 points per level. Now, you can buy 'Magery 0' and Magery 12 using the same set of rules.
There were only two times in the adventure where magic was used. Most notably, when the Professor needed to open a gate to quickly vacate a nuclear bomb. The 'freeform' magic system worked well enough.
"Anyone can learn most spells -- although in some worlds, you must be a mage to use the spells you know."
Chapter Six: Psionics
SJ Games could have accurately named this chapter "Chapter Six: Where we replace industry-leader rules with the dirtiest copout in the business."
This chapter is only four pages long, and there's no actual powers in it. Instead, we get suggestions to add a -10% limitation to a power to make it psionic. And they use four pages to tell you to add a -10% limitation to a power.
That's the entire chapter. No, I'm not kidding.
This entire chapter is a shame and a waste of space. I almost took a point from Substance for it.
Chapter Seven: Templates
This six-page chapter gives players rules for using templates. Templates are used for a number of things in the GURPS system: quickie character creation, racial templates, and 'meta-traits'. Given the size of the chapter, there's not a lot.
However, the templates provided are useful. The three character templates are Investigator, Mage, and Soldier of Fortune, and are each 100 points. The racial templates are Dragons, Dwarves, Felinoids (yes, David Pulver manages to get cat-people into almost everything he writes), and Vampires. 'Meta-Traits' include Artificial Intelligence, Automaton, "Body Of X" powers (six total), Domestic Animal, Ground Vehicle (yes, you can build KITT), Ichthyoid (fish form), Machine (Optimus Prime too), Quadruped, Vermiform (snake body), Wild Animal. As well as being handy for showing you how it's done, they let you do things right out of the box.
"If you encounter conflicting advantages and disadvantages, they do not simply cancel out! This is a sign that the templates are incompatible, and that you should not take both. For instantce, in most settings, it would be illogical to combine a Status -3 beggar template and a Status 2 knight template to create a Status 2 beggar-knight."
Chapter Eight: Equipment
"There's a lot of statues in Europe you haven't bought yet."
"You can't blame me. They've been making statures for some two thousand years, and I've only been collecting for five."
-- Bernstein and Kane, Citizen Kane
This chapter has rules for gaining and losing money. It's rather large, because there's a lot of things money can buy in the present, past, and near future.
Melee weapons are generally the same as they have been in GURPS, but there are some changes. For example, Parry modifiers are now included on the weapons table, not with the skill, and whether it counts as fencing or unbalanced is also listed.
Ranged weapons have changed as well. 'Range' combines the 1/2D and Max lines into a single entry, and the Weight now includes the weight per shot (but not cost). Instead of Snap Shot, 'Bulk' is used, and 'Recoil' is used for when you fire bursts. The firearms listed range from TL 3 to TL 11 (the old TL 10).
After this are two dense pages of 'miscellaneous equipment'.
The Good: Shotguns and the like now use burst rules, instead of 'reducing damage by distance'; i.e., a shotgun shell is a one-shot burst cartridge, not a field effect weapon as many RPGs make them.
The weapon list screams 'Fallout'. You have a Bozar, gauss pistols and rifles, automatic shotguns, 'alien weapons', lasers, ... all they need is a BB gun with a built-in bonus that negates up to -9 of to-hit-location penalties.
The Bad: The system still measures things in Imperial/Roman units.
The Ugly: Armor is now DR with a price beside it. d20 and Palladium do armor better than GURPS now. They also take the armor notes a bit to far -- for example, the line for 'shoes' has the 'concealable as clothing' note. Finally, shields now have DR and HP, and PD (now renamed DB), but armor does not -- what's going on here?
Every piece of equipment the PCs asked for was in the listing. I think that's worth mention.
Chapter Nine: Character Development
The experience system in GURPS is seven pages long. However, it doesn't say anything about earning experience in this chapter -- it just tells you how to spend it.
There are guidelines for just about everything an experience point can be used for: Buying off disads, buying skills, improving attributes, taking new templates, occult or supertech transformations, learning secret martial arts techniques...
Iconic Characters
This section is actually in between two indices, and is not technically a chapter, but I think it deserves note. They are all members of a single I-SWAT team in the Infinite Worlds setting.
C31R07 (1,665 points): (Chariot in l33t?) C-31 is a transforming battle tank. Its AI was a bit too advanced, and it deserted in the middle of a battle. A Transformer seeped in buddhism and meditation is alright by me. Out of his over-1600 points, almost 600 come from various weapon systems (twin chainguns and twin plasma cannons), ~250 represent his centaur form, ~160 are his hexpod form, and ~210 is his DR 53 armor.
Dai Blackthorn (250 points): Dai is a thief on Yrth, and the 'iconic character' of GURPS Third edition. Now, he's back... as a psychic! He was a 100-point character then; most of the difference has come from the increased stat costs, although he does have 54 points of psionics (40 points of teleportation, and a version of Danger Sense fueled by ESP).
Haut-Cornet Louis d'Antares (250 points): Haut-Cornet is a force swordsman from a world in which the Han empires rule Earth and Christianity has fled to the other planets, with France taking over Mars. HIs 'native TL' is described as 5+4, so we know scientific romance is going to be supported later.
Professor William Headley (200 points): Prof. Headly is a character from a world in which WWII is being fought, and the Mythos are in full swing. You just can't go wrong fighting Nazi cultists. This character uses the alternate 'ritual magic' rules, and was used as a pregen in the playtest.
Iotha (325 points): This character, for lack of a better term, seems like a twelve-year-old's first RIFTS character made by using Palladium Fantasy. As well as a legendary-level skill with Bows, she has a few supernatural powers. Iotha uses the Elf template (70 points, provided).
Sora (335 points): Sora is from a world in which the Triads control South America. She has more skills than anyone else in the listing, and many of which are 1 point only, so it's not clear why she doesn't just take a wildcard skill. She is also a cinematic martial artist.
Baron Janos Telkozep (535 points): Baron Telkozep is a vampire -- not a WoD vampire, although you might think it given his background as a 500-year-old banker. As well as being a vampire (150 points), he has Mind Control, and many points put into social advantages like Filthy Rich.
Xing La (225 points): Xing La comes from a postapocalypse world, in which Communism was well-received, the CCCP controls America, and communism has caused ecological disasters the world over. For some reason, she has "Striking ST +10 (Bite Only, -60%), which about a tenth of her character points are invested in; she also has 72 (!) points invested in the Drive! skill.
Combat Lite
Before the final index in Book One, there is a small section covering combat in GURPS. I have the feeling that these 'lite' rules are going to be all that are used in at least half of GURPS games.
Book Two: Campaigns
In an unusual move, the pagination of the two books continues; that is, Book One ends on page 336, and Book Two starts on page 337. This is neither a selling point nor a deal-breaker for me.
Chapter Ten: Success Rolls
This chapter is misnamed. Instead of just covering success rolls, it covers many sorts of tasks that a person might have to deal with... digging, running, swimming, throwing, and so on.
The rules for skill and stat rolls are the same as in Book One, but with more explanation on exactly what modifier means what. For example, there's a full page on exactly what modifier should be given to a certain task
In an interesting change, jump distance is now based on Move, not ST. No longer will cats be unable to jump while elephants clear small canyons.
The Good: There's a lot more exposition here on the basics than any other edition I've seen.
The new 'extra time' and 'haste' rules are excellent. ("In a cinematic game, the GM might allow one attempt at -10 to complete a task instantly; e.g, a Mechanic roll at -10 to fix a machine by kicking it!)
The Awesome: Thanks to BL, the system really handles characters of superstrength well. I think GURPS GULLIVER would be proud.
The chapter has a few sidebars describing how to change the physical feat rules for 'four-color' games. In the same vein, the rules for different gravities are now in the core rules, and the rules for Fright Checks give more detailed guidelines. (On the other hand, a fantasy character might have to make a Fright Check if transported to the 21st century and given a ride down the interstate...) This is exactly the sort of thing we needed, and if I gave out bonus points, I'd give out bonus points for this.
Chapter Eleven: Combat
Combat is split up over three chapters; this first chapter gives the basic combat rules. Combat in GURPS is rather... generic. Initaitive, movement, maneuvers, attack rolls, defense rolls, damage, armor subtracts from damage; it's all familiar territory to most of us. The major difference GURPS makes in combat is that it gives you more options with those maneuvers. For example, an All-Out Attack (one that scrifices defenses) could be Strong (for extra damage), Double (making two strikes at once), Determined (gaining a rather large bonus to hit), Supression Fire...
The single largest change to Combat is that PD is no longer used, using (Basic Speed or Skill/2)+3 instead.
The Good: The illustration for Move Through on page 368 is a good homage to Star Wars.
The rules for movement account for superfast characters.
We ran an unusual combat -- the PCs were in a gunfight while trapped in a van. The combat system handled it without a hitch.
Chapter Twelve: Tactical Combat
This short chapter (9 pages) covers the use of miniatures in GURPS combat. The rules seem similar to Battletech, actually; instead of a Move score, you get 'movement points', and the reach of attacks is taken into account. I'm not a minis person myself, so I didn't read these rules very long.
It's hard to use miniatures on IRC, so I didn't test out these rules.
Chapter Thirteen: Special Combat Situations
This chapter covers all the weird things that might happen in combat. Attacks against (and from) mounted characters, extremely heavily armored characters, knocking a character's weapon out of his hand, what happens to a dragon that swallows a grenade, shooting through objects, and so on.
The Awesome: Cinematic options in the core rules! Bulletproof Nudity, Cannon Fodder, Dual-Weapon Attacks, Melee Etiquette...
I used this section twice, first when the cyberknight attempted to disarm one of the terrorists, and second when the starfighter jock wrestled with a terrorist over control over a blaster pistol. Nothing notable.
Chapter Fourteen: Injuries, Illness and Fatigue
"It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead."
-- Miracle Max, The Princess Bride
This chapter covers the rules for damage after you have taken it.
In a perhaps nonintuitive twist, you do not die automatically when you hit 0 hit points, or even when you hit negative hit points. Rather, every so often, you must make HT rolls to survive. Wounds over your HP/2 are 'major' wounds, and require a HT roll to resist knockdown and (possibly) knockout.
The Good: The role of Low Pain Threshold in the Knockdown section makes it easy to build characters with 'glass jaws'.
Falling now uses velocity, not arbitarary distance rules.
The Bad: There's still some 'magic numbers' in this chapter, rather than character-based. For example, the optional rules for bleeding: "At the end of every minute after being wounded, make a HT roll, at -1 per 5 HP lost." Every 5 HP? Really? Even if I'm a battleship with 600 HP and 150 DR, or a cat with 4 HP?
There are rules for getting drunk. The first player in my games to say 'roll to see if I get drunk' will see me making rolls for an all-out attack to punch them in the face.
The Awesome: Throughout the book, there have been 'callouts' quoting some part of the rules in double-size font. Usually, these quotes are ineffective, boring, and not of something useful. However, now the book changes from mediocre callouts to interesting quotes from common media. In addition to the Princess Bride line above, there is the infamous "'Tis but a scratch" conversation from Monty Python And The Holly Grail and this line from Buffy The Vampire Slayer: "I laugh in the face of danger, and then I hide until it goes away." If more of these lines had been included before this point, the book would have been a much better read.
Radiation rules in the core rules!
I only needed to use this section twice in my adventure. Nothing notable, just an index reference, double-checking the rule, and closing the book.
Chapter Fifteen: Creating Templates
Another short chapter (10 pages) describing character templates. Five pages describe creating 'role'-type templates (like in GURPS Steampunk and Technomancer), and five pages describe creating racial templates.
The Bad: The largest change in the rules for templates -- and one I didn't see in the Characters book -- is the concept of 'lenses', things that may be added to a template to alter its cost. Why a word normally used to describe a piece of optics was used to describe a portion of character creation was not explained.
Chapter Sixteen: Animals And Monsters
Just eight pages, the animal chapter covers most of what it did in third edition, although now the are more stats for real-world animals. After a few pages of stat blocks, there are some barebones rules for animal behavior in combat. (No more Rule of 12, alas.)
In an interesting change, animal stats now use what looks like a shorthand PC stat block, instead of the old D&D-style blocks. If you wanted to build a talking horse or an uplifted police dog, this chapter would make it easier.
Chapter Seventeen: Technology And Artifacts
"Are you telling me that you bilt a time machine . . . out of a DeLorean?"
"The way I see it, if you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"
-- Marty McFly and Doc Brown, Back to the Future
Like its equivalent in Book One (the equipment chapter), this is a rather large chapter, that covers a number of related small topics.
The vehicle rules are significantly smaller and easier to read than the
There are rules for scaling damage and DR. Anything in D-scale (Decade) measures damage, HP, and DR in multiples of 10, and is suitable for mecha combat or modern military games. Anything in C-scale (Century) measures damage, HP, and DR in multiples of 100, and is used for when you decide to take on a Star Destroyer or a Robotech SDF. I suppose M-Scale would be used for small 'moons' blowing up planets. (Yes, the temptation to use D-scale damage as MDC was great.)
The rules for electronics and computers are fairly small, and the computer rules still have a heavy space-opera bent. (Does my C64 count as complexity 1 or 2? Is Kazaa a complexity 2 or 3 program?)
Following this are the rules for new weird inventions, gadgeteering, and investigating alien artifacts, complete with some very fun critical failure tables. ("They laughed at me at the university, the fools! But I'll show them! I'll show them all!")
After this are the rules for creating magical items, and the Enchantment spell college. It provides the only way to get DB without using a shield. Finally, the chapter closes on rules for breaking stuff (important rules indeed).
The Awesome: Vehicle stat blocks are now very small -- they're like in Star Wars d6. To show you just how small, here's the full vehicle statblock:
Grav Bike
TL: N/A
ST/HP: 30
Handling: +4
Stability: 2
HT: 11
Acceleration/Top Speed: 20/80
Loaded Weight: 0.4 tons
Load: 0.2 tons
Size Modifier: +0
Occupants: 1 crew, 1 passanger
DR: 3
Range: 1,000 miles
Locations: Exposed rider
Cost: $25,000
The rules for investigating alien devices seems to be ripped straight from Gamma World.
I set up a vehicle combat to try the new rules out, but we ran out of time. Otherwise, this chapter was useful.
Chapter Eighteen: Game Mastering
"Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction."
"We live on a spaceship, dear."
-- Wash and Zoe, Firefly
This chapter has advice for running a game, most of which is not system-specific, although there are sections on the limitations of the game. Since most of it is familiar territory to anyone who has read more than one well-written RPG, I glossed over it.
The Good: The quotes in this chapter are also excellent.
Chapter Nineteen: Game Worlds
"Somebody's going to emergency,
Somebody's going to jail."
-- Don Henley, "New York Minute"
This chapter's advice for running a game centers system-specific stuff.
It starts with the Control Ratings and Legality Class rules, which lets you decide what is legal and what is not in different types of governments, as well as how to run trials in different cultures.
Next, are the Tech Level rules. In an interesting change, the 'modern' tech level (TL 7 in the previous edition of GURPS) has been split into two eras, the Post-WWII Era and the Computer Age -- apparently, 1980 was a significant year in our technological advancement.
Following the Tech Level rules are the rules for money, including wealth, hiring people (and possibly enslaving them). There are few differences from the way GURPS works.
Finally, there are suggested rules for 'plane-hopping' and other such world-travelling games, with some discussion on the implications of each.
The Good: The system-specific advice and the 'generic' advice where divided into different chapters, which was a handy touch.
The game references Paranoia in this chapter. That was a nice touch.
The Bad: Although the system references 'job tables', none are actually proved. No real-world, no fantasy, no sci-fi.
The Ugly: The TL scale only extends to 11 (the old TL 10) -- anything after that point is declared to be unrealistic, and thus, not supported by GURPS. This means that if you want your games to be more advanced than RIFTS or Traveller, you'll need to play another game. I took a point off of Substance for it.
Chapter Twenty: Infinite Worlds
It's the default setting for GURPS. It has the writing style of David Pulver, so it's a fun read. It wastes 24 pages instead of being something that could have been generic and universal. What else can I say?
Appendix: Tables
Any good game is going to have at least a few tables. Before the glossary and index, it gives many important rules one more review (reaction rolls, speed/range modifiers on attacks, how to find the HP and DR of objects, and so on).
This section was a lifesaver for me as a GM. It covered many important points I needed to know, and it did so quickly. If I gave bonus points, I'd give them for this section.
Notes: Suitable Genres For GURPS
Since a generic system is measured by how well it can do what you want, here's a list of genres and specific gamelines, and whether or not GURPS can handle it.
Animé: Maybe.
Atomic Horror: Yes.
Boy Bands: Possible. Take lots of Charisma, Appearance (with bishounen/universal modifiers), maybe Wealth and Status, and different abilities with Trigger (while wailing on guitar, -10%).
Conspiracy/Modern-Day Espionage: Yes.
Cyberpunk: Maybe. As long as you don't need hacking rules, you'd be fine.
Fantasy, Dungeon-Crawling/Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk: Maybe.
Fantasy, Epic-Powered: Maybe.
Fantasy, Fairy-Tale: Yes.
Fantasy, Modern/Technomancer/Urban Arcana: Yes.
Fantasy, Planescape: Maybe.
IOU: Definately. (GURPS 4e seems like it'd do IOU better than 3e.)
James Bond: Definately.
Martial Arts / Chambara / Wuxia: Yes, up until the level of Hero and Kung-Fu Soccer.
Men In Black: Probably.
Modern Military: Possibly.
Monster Hunting: Easily.
Pirates: Maybe. There are no stats provided for junks, galleons, or skiffs, but the combat rules could handle good pirate ship fights, realistic or cinematic.
RIFTS: Barely possible. RIFTS is pretty solidly a TL 10 world, and it handles D-Bees, baby dragons, mecha, magic, psi and the like alright.
Scientific Romance: Yes. (In fact, there's a Girl Genius RPG in the works.)
Shadowrun: Definately.
Space Opera: No.
Star Trek: No.
Stargate: Easily.
Superheroes, DC level: Probably.
Superheroes, Marvel level: Yes.
Supermegatopia: Yes.
Transformers: Yes.
Transhuman Space: Absolutely.
Traveller: Probably.
World of Darkness: Possible. You'd need a lot of converting, but the rules would support it. (And in fact, with the Fright Check table, maybe enhance it...)
XXVc: Mostly.
Zombie Horror: Absolutely.
Notes: Sample Character
The following is one of the characters used in my playtest.
Haelyn
Quickie Description: Man-At-Arms D-Bee Psiberknight
Stats
ST 13 -- HP 13, BL 34, Swing 2d-1, Thrust 1d
DX 12 -- Speed 6.5, Basic Move 6, Dodge 10
IQ 13 -- Per 13, Will 13
HT 14 -- FP 14
Advantages
Attractive (4)
Charisma +1 (5)
Combat Reflexes (5)
Danger Sense (15)
Repuation +1 (general) (5)
Disadvantages
Code Of Honor: Chivalry (-10)
Honesty (-10)
Reluctant Killer (-5)
Sense Of Duty: "Innocents" (-15)
Vow (Own No More Than Horse Can Carry), -5
Quirks
Does Not Flirt
Enjoys Nature
Likes To Be Immaculate
Wears distinctive navy-and-argent outfits
Skills
Animal Handling @13 (2)
Armory/TL10 @13 (2)
Criminology/TL3 @13 (2)
Diplomacy @14 (4)
First Aid/TL3 @14 (4)
Force Sword/Innate @13 (4)
Guns/TL10 (Pistol) @14 (4)
Karate @13 (8) -- base Karate damage 1d-1 crushing (punch), 1d crushing at -2 to hit (kick)
Law @13 (4)
Leadership @15 (8)
Riding @13 (4)
Shield @13 (2) -- Block 9
Survival (Forest) @13 (2)
Tracking @13 (2)
Powers
Force Sword (10) -- Damage 4d burning (20), Pact (retain Code Of Honor and Honesty, -20%), Melee Attack (reach 1,2, -20%), Psychokinetic (-10%)
TK Armor (23) -- DR 5 (25), Psychokinetic (-10%)
Gear
Laser Pistol: Dmg 3d(2) burn, Acc 6, Range 250/750, Weight 3.3, ROF 10, Shots 400, Min ST 6, Bulk -2, Recoil -1, LC 3, loses 1 point of damage in fog per point of visibility damage.
Synthsteel Medium Shield: DB +2, DR 7, HP 40
Thrusting Bastard Sword: Damage 2d cut, 1d+2 imp
Notes: Miscellany
The stats to the right are as follows: Characters Book, Campaign Book, GURPS Lite.
GURPS is still entirely d6-based. Using only one kind of die is always a nice bonus in a game system.
It's going to be hard to run the game with only Book One. With Book One and GURPS Lite... maybe. Maybe.
The system has given some major bonuses for minmaxers and combat monsters. Dirt-cheap HP, +3 to all defenses, insane damage bonuses from karate, Schrödinger's Advantage, halving the cost of combat skills, martial arts powers and maneuvers in the core rules... For this, I took off -1 from style (from the Campaigns book).
The copy I received was the Deluxe edition, so I can't comment on how sturdy (or flimsy) the normal books may be. However, my book was damaged in transit; there were scuff marks on the covers, their dust box had a slighly crushed corner, the gold 'illuminated eye in pyramid' on my Campaigns book wasn't fully there, and there was what looked like an inky fingerprint on page 63. The moral here? When ordering a $125 set of books, don't skimp on shipping.
The art in the books is... meh. I mean, as game decoration, it's good: a unified art style, good mix of genres (realistic, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and supers), and the subject is always appropriate to the section. However, as pieces of art, they're bad. The motion blurs used are one-click-and-drag copouts, for example. Occasionally, the color of a picture is just a little bit to the side of the lines for the picture. Also, the faces are expressionless, and rarely look in the same direction as they're supposed to. (To quote someone I was talking with as I wrote this review, about a piece of art that has a French force-swordsman looking at the ground while he chops off a thug's limb: "No, the violence! I must avert my manly gaze!".) A point was taken from Style (the Characters book) for this one.
There are indexes for both core rulebooks in both corebooks. However, it would have been nice to have had coloring in the index indicate whether the page was in the first book or the second book...
The Final Verdict
The Characters book needs better organization. Much, much better organization -- this book reads like a full-color Palladium book. Also, the book doesn't read as well as the old core sets. However, considering this book is only supposed to handle character creation, it does what it sets out to do well. Characters book: Style 3, Substance 5.
The Campaigns book is better organized, but has lost ground compared to the third edition. As in the previous book, they did not use all the design tricks they could have, making this book look cheaper than it actually is. Campaigns book: Style 4, Substance 4.
It's hard to phrase exactly how I am disappointed by this new edition -- don't get me wrong, it's a great game, and better than most of the games now out there. So, let me put it this way. GURPS Third Edition captured my 11-year-old heart with its completeness, cheap price tag, style, and easy accessability. None of these factors quite carried over to the fourth edition. If this edition had been the game I found way back in 1995, I don't think I would be in gaming now.
