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Ok, so getting a review of this game, with rules for a less-than-new edition, is roughly akin to me giving you a review of “The Wizard of Oz”, but let me explain: 1. I am hideously addicted to reviewing games 2. I am broke, so I cannot buy more games. Hence, 3. I will review game books I already own. (Ha ha! And they said I’d never use Logic 101!)
Besides, GURPS books, I’ve found, tend to just hang out in game stores. They’re just around…laying in wait, until one day, you decide you need to know everything you can find about aliens, Atlantis, or a world where Victorian England is being played out by goblins. It’s like Steve Jackson Games has tapped into destiny…
Before I get into it, the disclaimer—I don’t play GURPS. But I do buy their books—they’re like gamer encyclopedias, full of that information that’s a pain to Google for or look through those books. Hence, I review for a system I’ve never played, and don’t plan on…
Layout and Basics Layout is very familiar for GURPS—well defined chapters, nominally a few on game world or background, and a few crunchy mechanic setups. It’s clean and straightforward, mostly, layout wise. Art is standard GURPS fair—action poses, weird monsters, etc., with a few microbiology shots that seem more like abstract art, but that’s the problem with drawing microscopic scale…
Chapter I: Biotechnology, AKA “Crap! I’ve got a bio test in half an hour!”. The introduction to what Biotechnology is and how it works, starting all the way from using bacteria to make cheese. It covers genetic basics, cellular models, DNA—all the basics, in startling detail for a game book. Want to know how DNA works? It’s in there. Want to understand gene therapy or Biomimetics? Oh yeah, we got pages…in fact, I will place my bet that this is the first game supplement to ever use the term “radioisotope-labeled monoclonal antibodies”. Running a game about genetics is easy when they give you enough information to breeze through those high school biology lessons. For such a complex field of research, it’s nice to see them cover the basics of it.
It also includes examples of how you might, say, clone a person—from modern methods to sci-fi “Chrono-wombs” (sci-fi you say?) that can get you a new you in mere hours. Each item is given a GURPS tech level, an idea of when it might be developed, which is vital in this game—more on that below…
Chapter II: Human Genetic Engineering: Now we get to the good stuff—messing with your genes! This section deals with what you might be able to do to a person—everything from slave races to Ubermenschen to tails, wings, etc. This has basically just about everything you might think about tweaking, genetically, for your characters. Not just the basics of Strength and Dexterity and Intelligence—they’ve got a page and a half of sexual modifications you could have, dealing with pregnancy, sex changes, even your sexual leanings…
The section deals in depth with a great many mods, and gives sidebars with examples of “makes” of human. By the end of this chapter, it’s easy enough to make a space-faring hermaphrodite that can’t get drunk, has horns and a prehensile tail, and produces aspirin from his urine. Finally, I can play my dream character!
Chapter III: Biomods Ahh, the crunchy cookie center of my book. 20 pages of cyberpunk gene-mod heaven, from hair weaves and body sculpting to battle jaws and wet ware sub-personalities. It’s a cyber ware section, with a gene bend instead of chrome. It goes beyond the normal, though—dealing with viruses that change you into something else and a great concept of transmitting information directly between cell contact. They go from mostly modern to strange worlds that I don’t know if I want to live in, giving a good description of what they’re selling, and by doing so, how you can use it in your games. Each mod is given a tech level and game mechanics for it, making it easy to figure out what they do. If I knew what the heck any of these rules meant, I’m sure I’d be loving how easy it is to implement them.
Chapter IV: Man’s Best Friend deals with the obvious and more. Animals. Plants. Bugs. Viruses. Giving examples of goats that produce a medicine or product (already around!) to one of my favorites, the Jagrilla hound—a jaguar/gorilla that shoots guns. Yes, they have a space-cat, so you can bring fur ball into zero-g.
This section also has a section on Bioships—which, while good, feels slightly tacked on, and living buildings, which terrifies me beyond all hope of sanity. Both are brief—you can tell they were thinking more cyberpunk than Babylon 5 here, but it’s enough so that if you do want to live in Mr. Hernandez, apartment 3309, you can.
Chapter V: Immortality Incorporated I read a great quote in a book about a man asking how nanotechnology might affect communications. The scientist looked back and said “the first thing we get with nanotech is immortality”. This section is all about the quest to kick death in the **Expletive Deleted**. Starting with cryonics—freezing yourself and hoping someone wants you healed later—and moving on to Brain taping—recording your personality ala “Sixth Day”, it deals with how people might try to live forever, and the fantastic problems with all of them. Favorite thing? The Soul Collector. Muhahaha…
The chapter’s short but dense, and really gets into the topic.
VI: Characters and Corporations is a short, ten page section on making your character. Templates, advantages, disadvantages, etc. Pretty normal stuff, with a brief list of how and who might have biotechnology.
We finish with the Appendix, with some new or modified advantages from other game books, a few rules and rolls, and (EVERY GAME COMPANY TAKE HEED) a glossary that will once again work for any bio papers you have to write soon, a bibliography that’s categorized, and THREE PAGES OF INDEX! That’s an index page per every 70 pages, well organized and listed. This is what every core book should look like at the end. I’d say this is the best part of the book, but that seems to detract from it. Regardless, it’s really nice.
The Best Part of the Book What is, to me, the best part of the book? They bring all this alive. This could have been a dull, dry book. Instead, ala Shadowrun, they have chatroom conversations, quotes from people who live in these worlds, see these things work. Each quote is witty and inspiring for game ideas, and make you want to see what all this stuff can do, and how your players will react to some of it. They bring the material to life, and make this a fun read. Example; they called something a Nanoclysm, and now I’m trying to figure out what that means, and how to involve it in a game.
Add to this that they’ve thrown out ideas for just about every mod and science they have, and you can play with this as much as you want. This game info can be added to any modern or sci-fi game, from hard-boiled action to horror, and the writing shows it off.
The Worst Part of the Book Well, truthfully, nothing really stands out. There are a few sections at the high end of the tech spectrum that feel vague and tacked on, like the bioships. But they’re not bad, just…not really fleshed out. It feels like you could do a chapter on it, but didn’t. Not bad, but it just brings to light that it’s not the focus of this book.
The art is so-so. Standard GURPS, but some of it’s just not my cuppa tea. It doesn’t really get your game-blood pumping. There’s a few pictures that are pointless as well—for example, an elk. It’s an elk. Not a gene-mod elk, not an elk with a gun or five arms, just an elk. It’s in the animal chapter, so that’s ok, but when compared to, say, the raccoon firing a laser gun and breaking out of the vet’s, it’s a bit bland.
These are both, mind you, not big deals. I’ve read worse sections, and seen MUCH worse art. And while the art does detract from the Style, the quotes and writing bring it right back up.
Summary Like most GURPS books, I feel educated after reading them. They cover their specific topics in-depth and with a fantastic eye to how you could use this for your games. It’s aimed at a cyberpunk, near future market (heck, it mocks “silicon and steel” on the back cover), but could be used for any modern-plus setting. It’s full of ideas and is, believe it or not, a fun read.
Now, if I could just like GURPS…
