GURPS Villains

Rating:
Summary: Not a book for the creative....
Review: If you're the typical GM who creates and populates his own world, then this book is not for you. It does a wonderful job of listing pre-made villians, but presents very little to help you make your own. So, if you're only interested in cut-and-paste villians, this is perfectly fine, but if you like to create and flesh out your own villians, don't even bother with this one.

Rating:
Summary: I really love this book! Yet it's still lacking...
Review: When I got this book, I was expecting an average "use this in your campaign and shut up" resource book. But what I got was an extremely flexible campaign saver. Are your villains more stupid than evil? Are the suspense parts not really suspense, but boredom? Use these great examples in this book. They can be adjusted perfectly for your camapaign and setting (some seamlessly, some... eh... not quite) Every villain has an "alternate-setting" version, and a couple of adventures that could spawn off him. This book includes everything, since the "low-key" thug that appears in every adventure to "evil syndicates" that span all over the globe. Very handy.

The illustrations in this book are one of the greatest in any RPG book you'll ever find. There are many variations, and it has to be seen to be believed. Every chapter has it's own mini-covers with various photographs in it. They really add to the theme of the book. Great job. I look forward to seeing this style in more Gurps books.

However, the only flaw I could find here is that there aren't enough tips on how to make your OWN villain. Sure, there are two pages or so every chapter, but quite honestly, that's not enough. And there are some worlds that aren't covered either by the "alternate-setting" section or the main settings. Sure, some of the more "obscure" settings are covered (Bunnies and burrows, etc...) but many rather interesting books aren't (Russia, Aztecs, etc...)

So all that I want to say is that if there is one thing would radically improve this book, is increasing it's size, putting more villains and more details into making your very own.

Highly reccomended. If you like rpgs, or you're the kind that always roots for the bad guys, get this book. It's definately worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Not a book for the creative....
Review: When I got this book, I was expecting an average "use this in your campaign and shut up" resource book. But what I got was an extremely flexible campaign saver. Are your villains more stupid than evil? Are the suspense parts not really suspense, but boredom? Use these great examples in this book. They can be adjusted perfectly for your camapaign and setting (some seamlessly, some... eh... not quite) Every villain has an "alternate-setting" version, and a couple of adventures that could spawn off him. This book includes everything, since the "low-key" thug that appears in every adventure to "evil syndicates" that span all over the globe. Very handy.

The illustrations in this book are one of the greatest in any RPG book you'll ever find. There are many variations, and it has to be seen to be believed. Every chapter has it's own mini-covers with various photographs in it. They really add to the theme of the book. Great job. I look forward to seeing this style in more Gurps books.

However, the only flaw I could find here is that there aren't enough tips on how to make your OWN villain. Sure, there are two pages or so every chapter, but quite honestly, that's not enough. And there are some worlds that aren't covered either by the "alternate-setting" section or the main settings. Sure, some of the more "obscure" settings are covered (Bunnies and burrows, etc...) but many rather interesting books aren't (Russia, Aztecs, etc...)

So all that I want to say is that if there is one thing would radically improve this book, is increasing it's size, putting more villains and more details into making your very own.

Highly reccomended. If you like rpgs, or you're the kind that always roots for the bad guys, get this book. It's definately worth it.