Gurps Basic Set

Rating:
Summary: Still the best after all these years!
Review: I've played them all. I've been involved since the "little brown books" of D&D. Even after many other game systems have come and gone, GURPS remains one of the few games usable with any genre. With the release of GURPS: Compendium 1 and GURPS: Compendium 2, GURPS becomes one of the very best systems available from any company. The simplicity of the system is unique with ony a few six sided dice necessary to play in any time or era. No character classes. No restriction on what (or who!) you want to play. The "Worldbooks" and "Sourcebooks" allow you to expand your horizons to any place or time. There are even adaptations of other games into GURPS. My very highest recommendation. Period.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not the greatest
Review: If you're out and about, lookin for the basic rules and standards of the Role-Playing Game 'GURPS', then this is what you should get. That is, if you have the cash to spend on it. Amazingly enough, this covers more than just the basics, it also allows the player and GM's to go deeper into the game development and rules, the rabbit hole is only as deep as you want to explore in this case.

However, the biggest problem I see is that if you download GURPS Lite from Steve Jackson Games Website, and then simply buy the expansion guides (i.e. GURPS Martial Arts, GURPS Japan, GURPS High Tech) you'll get about the same volume of information for a lot less and posibbly have a better gaming experience.

If you want to go exploring into the world of GURPS, and really want to know your stuff, then this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Bogged down in number crunching
Review: It may well be a function of the MTV attention spans and the faster lives we all live, however, I have roleplayed for 20 years now and used and created many systems. Gurps is just too cumbersome to use efficiently and making a character can take several hours if you're particular. The backround info is good though and most people I know buy the Gurps stuff just a source info or background material rather than to actually use them as rulebooks in a GURPS campaign.

Rating:
Summary: The 4th Edition is coming !
Review: My playing group has been using GURPS 3rd edtion for nearly 10 years now, and the only little grudge we have with the system is the need to peruse through several books during character generation. Although it has its advantages, like when a player is looking at the Basic set, another one can use the Compendium and so one.

But I disgress. I wanted to inform you that Steve Jacson Games is finally releasing the fourth edition of GURPS, debuting with a two volumes Basic Set. Here's an excerpt from Steve Jackson Games :
"Volume 1 combines information from the Third Edition GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Compendium I, plus hundreds of new and updated rules! This 320-page, full-color hardcover contains everything you need to create and play a GURPS Fourth Edition character.
GURPS Basic Set, Volume 2 combines information from the Third Edition GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Compendium II -- plus our new core setting, with infinite possibilities for timeline-hopping adventure! (You don't have to play in the core setting -- there isn't some game-altering metaplot -- but it's there if you want it.) This 256-page, full-color hardcover contains everything a GM needs to create and run a GURPS Fourth Edition campaign."

So all GURPS fans, rejoice now !

Rating:
Summary: the center of the book universe
Review: One thing stands out in mind when reading this book, Centere. because(trying not to sound predujiced) if you take ANY role-playing game and say it's better than gurps, it's not because it can be used in the gurps system. it comes down to the simple fact that if you buy this, any other book you see in the store you can just say "wow, that would be fun in GURPS", not "oh, i wish i could but that". the rules are easy to follow with there being a "easy" and "realistic" mode for combat and more, it has one of the most important things ever in a rule book, lots of exaamples, and is packed full of amazing pitchures. If you only buy one book in your lifetime, this is it since everything can be melded into it.

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite System
Review: Some of you might remember a game called "The Fantasy Trip". This fantasy game was my first introduction to what would evolve into Gurps. I loved TFT, and I love Gurps even more so. I've been playing Gurps so long, I've had to replace my rule book twice from use. My current copy's spine is being held together by duct tape and is due to be replaced (here's a tip, if you buy this book, buy the hardcover. It will last longer than the soft) I love it for what it is meant to be: at its best, a flexible engine that can be applied to any genre. At its worst, it can be heavily munchkinized.

Gurps has a point based character creation system. Players assign points to basic attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity and Health)which have a base line of 10. The lower the score, the worse the attribute and vice versa. These four "building blocks" serve as the basis for all skills. Skills are neatly arranged in an easy to use format. Aside from skills and attributes, points are assigned for advantages. Advantages are just what they sound like, those things which give a character an edge. Disadvantages and quirks can be taken to give the player more points to spend on attributes, skills and advantages. It is disadvantages and quirks which give personality to the characters. The list of skills, advantages and disadvantages in the basic book isn't exhaustive, but comes close. Quirks are left to the player's imagination.

Skill resolution is easy. Roll three d6. Matching the skill level or lower indicates a success. Going over will result in a failure. Rolling exceptionaly well (low) or exceptionaly bad (high) could result in either a critical success or critical failure. Crits add to the enjoyment of the game.

Rules for combat are easy in their simplest format; however, there is an advanced combat system to supplement the basic combat system. If the advanced combat system is used, expect long, drawn out battles. Steve Jackson has a rule for just about anything, and if used, they will slow down play. Another word of caution. Munchkins will take forever making a character as they min/max everything and tweak their points to get every last possible advantage.

Gurps offers a workable system for psionics (Gurps: Psionics is a worthy expansion to the "basic" system in the main rulebook) but magic is one of the game's weak points. Magic is built on the concept that easier spells must be learned before harder spells (with this I agree) and that casting spells is physically exhaustive. Spells cost fatigue points and this score is derived from the character's strength. Now this I have a problem with. I realize that there must be a controlling factor, but unless your mage is Arnold or has a butt load of mana stones (mana is the energy for spells)she isn't going to last long in a battle. Gurps: Magic and Gurps: Grimoire do not offer much to fix this problem. Most players of Gurps end up tweaking the magic system to suite their taste.

There isn't too much genre information in the main rulebook; however, the self-sufficient geek with plenty of time on his hands could get by with just the main rulebook. I'd recommend purchasing at least Compendium I & II along with Vehicles and Martial Arts (just because MA kicks butt).

Gurps is well supported. There are rules expansion books (Compendiums I & II, Vehicles, Psionics, Martial Arts, Magic). Gurps does offer world books ranging from Space, Horror, Supers and Fantasy. Some of these I like (Space is good, Horror isn't bad) some I do not (I've never been an IST or Yrrth fan) but all of them give enough information that the GM can adapt his or her favorite genre settings for play (most DnD worlds convert easily). In some cases this has been done for the GM. Gurps: Discworld for instance is based upon Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Gurps also has a number of their own world's (such as Cabal). Steve Jackson games have put out a number of "period" books such as Greece, Aztecs and Russia. Overall, there is a wealth of supplementary material offered.

The Skinny: The rules are usuable in any genre. There is very little genre information in the main rulebook. That is left to the creativity of the GM, or can be obtained by purchasing some of the vast supplementary books offered. Gurps offers a highly detailed character generation system. This can be bad, if you do not like long character creation. Skills resolution is simple. Combat comes in two forms: quick and dirty with no attention paid to realism, and long and detailed with lots of realism. The Magic system bites and is the only reason I won't give Gurps 5 stars. Overall, something for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: This is a review of the 4th edition Campaign book
Review: Steve Jackson Games split the 4th edition Basic manual into two books, the Characters book and the Campaign book. Characters provides everything you need to know about creating a character while Campaigns provides the information needed to run a campaign. I didn't like splitting the book when I first heard about the concept but I have to admit that it makes sense now that I've read both books. This book is an extremely ambitious undertaking, even bigger than Characters, and putting the two together would have made the system too big, expensive, and difficult to easily digest.

The Campaigns book is probably the single best rules editing job I've ever seen. The best example is probably the evolution of the combat system. GURPS 3rd edition combat *sprawled*, the GM had to pick and choose which of the two sets of combat rules and which of the optional rules he wanted to use. Then he'd frequently regret his choices when he wanted something to happen that required rules he hadn't chosen to use. As a result, when I GM'd I used a fairly simple hybrid of GURPS, D&D, and Rolemaster rules (simpler than they sound) that got to the intent of the rules but was adaptable enough to do what I wanted. I tried using the GURPS combat rules several times but just couldn't quite make them work.

Combat now works beautifully. Somebody over at SJ Games took that massive mishmash of rules and beat it into a rules set that is breath-takingly simple but does everything required. I recommend buying the book for the combat system alone but that's not all! Believe it or not, everything is like the combat system!

Folks, this is the most streamlines set of rules I've seen since AD&D 1.0 and it covers everything in greater detail and realism than AD&D ever did. There are frequent examples that clarify the fine points. The artwork is frequent, interesting, and in color. The book is extremely well organized and has a good (but not great) index and the production quality is WAY higher than you get in all those d20 books.

In short, this is a remarkable evolution in the GURPS system and I STRONGLY recommend this book for frustrated GM's of all varieties. There's sure to be a little something here for everybody if you only look for it.

Rating:
Summary: Good, versatile system
Review: The GURPS system's big selling point, of course, is its flexibility; it's very easy to tailor it to any type of campaign world. It's also quick and easy to learn. The advantage/disadvantage system works quite well and allows the creation of all kinds of interesting characters, without limiting players to a fixed set of character classes. The basic 3d6 mechanic means no fumbling with huge handfuls of dice. Finally, the whole system is balanced to a nicety--I don't think I've ever found a GURPS game mechanic that I thought was seriously "broken."

There are a few drawbacks to GURPS, however. The biggest, in my view, is that it doesn't cope very well with high-powered campaigns. Combat runs fairly smoothly at normal levels, but when people start getting active defense ratings of 14+, the battles degenerate into turn after turn of waiting for someone to roll a critical success on the attack, because otherwise everything gets dodged/blocked/parried. Combat involving large numbers of opponents is apt to drag on endlessly. Magic, while extremely versatile and useful, offers few options for spectacle and drama; all magic is on a "skirmish" level. You'll never see a GURPS mage laying waste to armies or blotting out the light of the sun.

The other problem I've found with GURPS is that it's generic and therefore rather bland; it's up to the GM and the players to provide the "personality" of a campaign. This is particularly evident in the sourcebooks, which offer plenty of tools for world-building, but not much in the way of actual worlds.

If you prefer a lower-powered game with lots of subtleties, and are willing to put in the work to design the game world yourself (or to convert it from another system), I don't think you can do better than GURPS. If you want heroic high fantasy, stick with D&D or similar systems. I usually use D&D when running fantasy and GURPS for modern or futuristic settings.

Rating:
Summary: Good, versatile system
Review: The GURPS system's big selling point, of course, is its flexibility; it's very easy to tailor it to any type of campaign world. It's also quick and easy to learn. The advantage/disadvantage system works quite well and allows the creation of all kinds of interesting characters, without limiting players to a fixed set of character classes. The basic 3d6 mechanic means no fumbling with huge handfuls of dice. Finally, the whole system is balanced to a nicety--I don't think I've ever found a GURPS game mechanic that I thought was seriously "broken."

There are a few drawbacks to GURPS, however. The biggest, in my view, is that it doesn't cope very well with high-powered campaigns. Combat runs fairly smoothly at normal levels, but when people start getting active defense ratings of 14+, the battles degenerate into turn after turn of waiting for someone to roll a critical success on the attack, because otherwise everything gets dodged/blocked/parried. Combat involving large numbers of opponents is apt to drag on endlessly. Magic, while extremely versatile and useful, offers few options for spectacle and drama; all magic is on a "skirmish" level. You'll never see a GURPS mage laying waste to armies or blotting out the light of the sun.

The other problem I've found with GURPS is that it's generic and therefore rather bland; it's up to the GM and the players to provide the "personality" of a campaign. This is particularly evident in the sourcebooks, which offer plenty of tools for world-building, but not much in the way of actual worlds.

If you prefer a lower-powered game with lots of subtleties, and are willing to put in the work to design the game world yourself (or to convert it from another system), I don't think you can do better than GURPS. If you want heroic high fantasy, stick with D&D or similar systems. I usually use D&D when running fantasy and GURPS for modern or futuristic settings.

Rating:
Summary: Flexible system for any genre you can thik of
Review: The only downside is that it means you have to do all the background research yourself. For me that's no problem but some people don't have the time, imagination, or ability. Otherwise very good system.