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I've never read a Discworld novel, though I have enjoyed reading Good Omens, and thus feel at somewhat of a disadvantage in critiquing this book. Yet I came away from reading this book wanting to read other Discworld books. Not only does this book work as a role playing resource for GURPS, but its fun to read in its own right...belly laughs and all!

I don't know that much about Discworld, but they've managed to shoe-horn in a bunch of stuff in the 208 pages devoted to Discworld. You've got characters from the novels, information on races, beasts, locations, and how to create your own unique Discworld characters. There's some wonderful stuff in the book, and a lot of other information, which was cut from the book, is available at Steve Jackson Games' website (www.sjgames.com).

My only problem is the blurb on the back cover which says that this is a complete role-playing game in one book. There are 32 pages devoted to GURPS Lite, and while this is a nice summary of the GURPS rules there is a lot of information within the pages of the Discworld book, which isn't mentioned in GURPS lite! There are a number of advantages and disadvantages which are listed in GURPS Compendium I, not in GURPS Lite. GURPS Lite is useful for the beginning players, but a GM will need more than the Discworld book in order to take full advantage of this voluminous material.

This is a wonderful book that is fun to read in its own right. Sometimes I wish that the type had been smaller, and they had managed to squeeze in all of the extra material, which is at the web-site...but these are minor things that don't detract from the overall quality of this book. This book gets an "A."

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)