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GURPS IOU is a worldbook set in at a university where anything can happen. It is a comedy book, where anything can happen and humorous allusions abound. It's designed around 100-150 point characters, where anything goes. (An advertising blurb: "where Unusual Background isn't just an Advantage, it's a way of life.")

Does this work? It is definitely an excellent read. The world is very interesting and well defined, with humor and weirdness abounding. And unlike many other roleplaying books, the art actually adds to the book, instead of adding nothing or actually detracting from the book (Smif (Dan Smith) has done this. I love Phil & Kaja Foglio as the artists on this; they went along with the humor excellently.) However, don't let a mundane get a hold of the book - if they don't get the College of Temporal Happenstance, Ultimate Lies & Historical Undertakings (C.T.H.U.L.H.U), they won't get anything.

As for playablity, that's more questionable. The book only offers 5 pages of adventure notes, and a GURPS IOU Adventures seems unlikely. Some practice in running a humorous campaign would help. They offer a 'Dark' campaign style in a discussion on playing IOU, but that isn't really supported by most of the book, which tends to the 'Silly' campaign style.

This book is hard to steal from for other campaigns unless you need a weird university around. The few generic rules found in here are found in Compendium I or II. For running it, you'll need GURPS Basic, 3rd edition revised. You can use just about any GURPS book ever printed with it, though Ultra-tech, Magic, and Compendium I will be most useful. This is also a book easily converted to other systems - it would probably work well with FUDGE.

Overall - a great book. If you regularly buy books without expecting to use them, like me, grab it. If you are a GURPS game-master looking for a setting to use Ultra-Tech, Martial Arts, Magic, Psionics, and any other book you have around, grab it. If you're familar with GURPS and want a comedy setting, grab it. Otherwise ...

(Cover art by Phil Foglio; courtesy of SJ Games)

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