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In late 2010, Steve Jackson Games completed their series of core tech books for 4th edition GURPS with the new, second edition of GURPS Low-Tech. Written by some of the same folks who contributed to Low-Tech first incarnation, particularly William Stoddard, it represents a sizeable achievement, especially when considered together with its three PDF-only companion volumes. While Low-Tech clearly draws on its preceding version, it is clearly its own animal. In its scope, Low-Tech includes everything from tech level 0 through tech level 4 (approximately 1730 CE), so a wide-range of equipment and material is presented for the reader’s edification. And not only do the authors detail gear, but also social technologies, i.e. ways that people organize their societies, methods for producing and disseminating knowledge, methods of making war, professions, work and play, etc.
Taken together, GURPS Low-Tech and its companions represent 288 pages of crunchy goodness (160 of which are in the core book) for GURPS fans along with some material that could be easily lifted for other systems with no or slight modification. As with other GURPS books, players and GMs are not expected to pick up and use everything that’s detailed in the new Low-Tech. The core book is, in many ways, a heavily annotated equipment list that is accompanied by some new optional rules, including a system for customized armor, and some suggestions for playing low-tech characters (including some new perks, skills, and techniques). The companion volumes offer some further equipment, but focus more on presenting new rules related to their respective subjects. This review seeks to evaluate the core book.
Content Overview
GURPS Low-Tech is broken down into nine chapters, each focused on different categories of technologies, unlike the previous edition which was organized according to tech level. The first chapter provides basic information on the various tech levels covered in the book, along with a discussion of various paths of technological progress (both real and imagined). So, while the material here is based solidly on historical reality (informed primarily by the European and East Asian experiences), the authors show how differing paths of development can be imagined (and provide some actual historically-based examples to boot). This chapter also briefly discusses sizing equipment for non-humans in fantasy settings and presents rules for customizing equipment, whether by quality, ruggedizing, making things easy to hide, or making things all fancy. Rules are also provided for determining hit points, damage resistance, etc., for any given piece of equipment, along with rules on repairing and maintaining said equipment (if the GM and players want to reach for this level of specificity). The second chapter, entitled “Core Technologies,” describes just that, looking at the primary materials that low-tech equipment was made from (wood, bone, various metals, etc.) as well as going into various types of rope, cloth (including natural asbestos), early chemicals, fuels, power sources, and more. It ends with a couple of pages on basic tools for craftsmen, much of which is devoted to rather specific items. Luckily, for less detail-oriented folks, a list of basic tool kits for several craft skills (including fletching) is also provided, thus furnishing an easy way of accounting for the tools of a character’s potential trade.
The third chapter is dedicated to “General Equipment” and lists forms of shelter, light sources, containers, entertainment, and a good deal more (much of which, however, will not be of direct importance to the average player, but could easily be brought into a game by a clever GM). One interesting feature of this chapter is that it offers a table listing types of containers cross-referenced with a prospective holding capacity to produce an average weight and cost for a particular item. A GM could simply come up with a basic set of containers available in the campaign setting or players could ask for very specific items. Chapter four contains material on “Information Technologies,” ranging from eyeglasses to various means of measurement to items for writing and record-keeping to signaling equipment to navigational tools. This chapter is of possible use for the bookish character, though the navigational equipment will be fun for those in charge of getting the party where they want to go in the wilderness or, especially, by sea.
Chapter five is the meatiest of the book, some 44 pages (out of 160!) devoted to weapons ranging from clubs to cannons. This substantial section provides descriptions and stats for each of the many weapons listed (so many that there’s a special index for weapons in the back of the book). It is much more than a catalog of weapons, though and includes more detailed rules for weapon quality, rules for making slashing attacks with the tip of a spear, optional rules for sheaths, alternate arrows, optional rules for making the use of muscle-powered ranged weapons more realistic, making gunpowder, alternate ammunition for both mechanical and gunpowder artillery, etc. Following this comes a chapter on “Defenses,” which spends 21 pages on clothing (as protection from the environment), armor, helmets, shields, and barding. As with the other chapters, some new optional rules are included, related to targeting gaps in armor, fitting armor to the individual, trying to sneak around in armor, and a new “edge protection” rule that seeks to model the difficulty of chopping through armor with a sword (and thus makes it harder to inflict cutting damage, though crushing damage might still be inflicted). A new version of the hit location table is also provided, which is, as one would suspect, directly tied to how armor itself is presented. Rather than provide a list of armor pieces however, the authors have provided a unique approach to creating armor. They detail various types of armor and armor-making materials and then provide a table for interested players and GMs to create their own armor pieces for use in their game world. The armor table on page 110 provides basic stats for various armors as applied to the torso. The cost and weight of other pieces are derived from this. Armor for the forearms are, for example, 25% of the cost and weight of any particular armor for the torso. This leads to some differences with the armors listed in the Basic Set. For those who’d rather not deal with this, don’t worry; the Basic Set is not being officially superseded here. But this new approach to armor does open up a host of possibilities, from the grittily realistic to the ridiculous. Want your character to wear nothing but a heavy plate codpiece? Now you can. Along with these rules, this chapter also provides a set of options for customizing the quality and functionality of both body armor and helmets. Shields also receive a more detailed treatment than in the Basic Set – your options are no longer limited to small, medium, and large. One of my favorite aspects of chapter 6? Rules for improvising armor and shields!
Stepping away from the concerns of front-line fighters, chapter 7 (“Security and Covert Ops”) details equipment of use for everyone interested in breaking and entering, poisoning their opponents, climbing things, hiding stuff, disguising themselves, sending coded messages, or defending against any of these things. And, as one might suspect in a section entitled “Mobility and Transportation,” chapter 8 covers equipment for traveling by foot, by mount, or by vehicle. Stats are provided for a small number of land and water-going vehicles. The core book’s final chapter, “Medicine and Surgery,” details first aid, low-tech surgery, drugs, and other healing therapies. New rules are provided for tying tight tourniquets (optional) and for early forms of prosthetics. While there is a fair amount here that will probably not be of immediate use to a standard adventuring party (e.g. a specialized technique for bladder stone surgery), the material here could easily make healing as detailed a part of an adventure as combat and as important for providing some drama in the game. Any character with any healing ability, e.g. a trapper with basic first aid skills, could really shine in certain moments, rather than simply act as “heal-bots.”
Evaluation
The back cover blurb on the core book argues that it is “useful for any campaign set prior to 1730, as well as historical fantasy.” Furthermore, it is said to be a “guide to TL0-4 equipment for historical adventurers, modern survivalists, post-apocalypse survivors, and time-traveler.” Do the authors accomplish these goals? Yes, most definitely. Furthermore, meat of this book is presented in an accessible and well-organized manner. The artwork is fine consisting primarily of original pieces that do a good job complementing the associated text and range from the decently rendered to the well-done. I was quite happy Low-Tech avoided the recycling of artwork that some recent GURPS products fall prey to (due to budgetary constraints). The cover is pretty eye-catching, in my opinion, and is both a good indicator of what you’ll find inside and a welcome respite from much of the standard imagery the gaming industry relies on. Still, as much as I like this addition to the GURPS line, I do have some criticisms to make. I really wish that they’d included a brief “shopping list” of equipment that most adventurers would use, especially if it including the gear listed in the Basic Set, as an appendix. I also would have appreciated an appendix that summarized all the various quality and customization options. An armor table with examples of the most popular armor options would also have been nice, but I understand why this wasn’t included (as discussed on the SJG forums at the time of Low-Tech’s release, this would have added quite a bit to the page count requiring the cutting of other material). Luckily, another companion volume to Low-Tech, entitled Low-Tech: Instant Armor, dedicated to pregenerated armor options is slated for publication as a PDF within the next few months (as of the writing of this review).
In the final analysis, I heartily recommend this book and its companions to anyone involved in any GURPS historical or fantasy campaign that goes beyond hack-n-slash (though hack-n-slashers will find plenty to enjoy, as well). Even in regard to equipment that adventurers probably won’t need, GURPS Low-Tech gives the GM materials that can be thrown into the mix on occasion for setting detail, to flesh out NPCs, or to make life difficult for the players. Likewise, the listings have potential value as inspiration for any number of GM-introduced gadgets or materials that could be introduced into a number of fantasy settings. If nothing else, Low-Tech encourages one to conclude that people in the past were pretty dang smart.
