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GURPS Aztecs (GAZ) more closely approaches perfection than any other historical sourcebook. It covers folkways and mores, religion and cosmology, calendar, daily life.The author provides a history from 1500 B.C. through Spanish Conquest. Unlike GURPS Japan, you can choose when to play, instead of being trapped by the author's judgement. Drawing from history gives it superior internal consistency. For example, the Aztec calendars not only work, but also significantly differ from the thinly-veiled renamings used by most fantasy games. Better still, the author captures Aztec beliefs about each day's luck in game mechanics. A character knows a given day is good for Ehecatl's priests because it is the god's feast day, but players know it because they get a +1 to all rolls.

Besides a good calendar, GAZ offers plenty of ideas for gamers. Obviously the book serves horror or time-travel games well. World-builders learn to build sophisticated stone-age economies. Fantasy game-masters take advantage of the stark contrasts of Aztec culture to refresh old standards. Elves certainly appreciate beauty, but one hardly thinks of their wealth coming as tribute. The generic Evil Empire has human sacrifice, but rarely for an altruistic reason like preventing cataclyscm. GAZ makes no judgements about Aztec civilization. It describes religous sacrifice with the same tone it uses to describe when Aztec culture deemed public weeping appropriate. Spanish conquistadors and colonists have smallpox and deceit mentioned in the same even prose as Catholic opposition to slavery. Apologists (Bernal Diaz) and hagiographers (Gary Jennings) have their place in the bibliography.

GAZ follows standard GURPS layout and posseses the first-rate index, glossary, and bibliography typical of the line. Equally typical is the below-average interior art. Only one piece shows any authentic Aztec art. GAZ certainly could have set a new artistic standard for SJG. It failed there. I give only it average Style for this. Its only other serious failing is a weak pronunciation guide, a thing more important than usual.

Like the culture it presents, GAZ is rich. It does what historical sourcebooks should do: save time by summarizing material and translating it into game mechanics. Like the culture it presents, GAZ is gone. It does what historical sourcebooks actually do: go out of print from under-appreciation. I hate to mention throwing pearls before swine, but it applies to GURPS Aztecs.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Aztecs/

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)