GURPS Cliffhangers (GCL) recently appeared on eBay, and it fetched a ridiculously high price. Intrigued, I hunted around game shops until an affordable copy presented itself. I found GCL a competent sourcebook whose only claim to great price is its age.
GCL saw print in 1989. This was long before GURPS spread to every conceivable gaming niche and had a rulebook for every day of the week. Because few other books existed in the product line you only need Basic Set to use this product with GURPS. Of course, GCL is sufficiently generic to be used as a sourcebook for cinematic role-playing in the 1930s for any game system. GCL also has good cover and decent interior art, overcoming a typical criticism of GURPS books.
GCL has to cover a great deal of ground between its covers because few other sourcebooks existed when it appeared. This requires concise writing, which it has, but also limits its content. Popular culture of the 1930s received short shrift. No mention of popular culture or period slang exists. Because it stood alone then, some information in it now appears in many other books. Of course, the text is long out of print. It is rare, and resellers generally overprice it.
GCL's strongest and most useful section covers Earth of the 1930s. The decade's dynamic character is shown to best gaming advantage. Politics, technology, communication, regions, events and nations all have tightly written descriptions. Sidebars contain adventure seeds and rules related to the main text appearing alongside.
The next two parts, Hero and Gadgeteering, haven't aged at all well. Modern templates make most of the first part irrelevant, and the equipment list is quite short. An excellent sample character doesn't compensate for a useful but not comprehensive overview. Gadgeetering presents rules now easily found elsewhere. Examples given well fit the genre, coming from pulp fiction itself in most cases. Still, the section no longer helps gamers.
Adventure Design takes advantage of pulp's nature as formula fiction to present the formula. Finding inspiration, converting stories, and making props all have their instructions. More usefully, genre conventions such as villains, hideouts, and various stereotypes also have instructions. Finally, the proper use of deus ex machina rounds out the book's second strongest chapter.
Campaigns are covered by the book's last chapter. The wide range covered by the pulps and limited space of the text makes most of this section a mere catalog of genres. Still, the variety gives some strength and high quality sidebars serve the reader. A "Serial HOW-TO" and a good sample adventure accurately capture the feel of the pulps.
The final two sections, the bibliography and the index, are up to SJG's usual standards. The former focuses too much on texts from the 1930s, and ignores more modern books like Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage and Tarzan tales.
I do not generally recommend GCL. While a good and useful book, it is much too ordinary to command the high prices its rarity suggests. Assuming you've some interest in the style, GCL only helps you if you pay cover price for it. Otherwise, you can better spend your cash by investing in a half-dozen other books. It's value as a collectible lies outside the scope of this review.
Official website: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Cliffhangers
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)
