Gurps world books

***Thag13*** · Feb 27th, '03, 06:12 AM

I have the HorseClans book. I think its a great book and could very easily be converted to Hero.

I have not read the HorseClans books, but the informations seems complete and well presented. The artwork is a little stiff but not enough to ruin the book.

Check Ebay as the book comes up a lot and usually not too expensive.

I have not read the New Sun book, although its on my "to get" list.

**MisterVimes** · Feb 27th, '03, 07:18 AM

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
GURPS Illuminati would probably be on my list of the top 5 RPG books ever.

Let's not forget GURPS Cyberpunk... a book so good it was seized by the Government (you can't PAY for press like that)

**MisterVimes** · Feb 27th, '03, 07:24 AM

If you are running a 'Period' piece and you don't want to go buy so big text-books and wade through them, GURPS China, Japan, Aztecs, Greece, Rome, India and Russia all have great footnote resources and plot hooks for any campaign.

GURPS Bio-Tech and Ultra-Tech have some great ideas for devices that can easily be created in HERO.

**Celt** · Feb 28th, '03, 04:58 AM

I've usually found the GURPS sourcebooks worthwhile just on the basis of the amount of information they provide. The game system material can be inspirational for how to use other systems in a genre or milieu even if you're not playing GURPS itself.

**Koshka** · Feb 28th, '03, 10:43 AM

I don't own a copy of the core GURPS rulebook, but I've got several of their sourcebooks as idea-mines. I really liked Time Travel, the Alternate Earths books (2 is slightly better than 1, IMHO), Steampunk and Atomic Horror, but I don't think I've ever picked up one that was a total stinker.

**AlHazred** · Feb 28th, '03, 11:54 AM

My favorite GURPS books are Illuminati and Discworld. I've been looking for Fantasy II so that I can get the Madlands stuff, but that's a tough one to find.

**Aroooo** · Feb 28th, '03, 12:18 PM

GURPS Cliffhangers is a great pulp era sourcebook. They did a very credible job on their recent 2nd edition release.

Aroooo

**Space Cadet** · Mar 3rd, '03, 08:26 AM

I too have used the GURPS books for ideas to use with HERO,
but I don't use the setting-specific books as much as I do with
the '-Tech'-type books (Bio-Tech, High-Tech, Ultra-Tech 1 & 2,
Psionics (originally referred to as Psi-Tech)). In fact, the only
setting-specific GURPS books that I'm currently focussing on
right now are the GURPS: Traveller sourcebooks.

I use the following books for reference purposes:

Atomic Horror
Bestiary
Black Ops
Blood Types
Cops
Horror
Mars
Monsters
Ogre
Space
Special Ops
Technomancer
Undead
Warehouse 23
Y2K

Space Cadet

**Doug McCrae** · Mar 3rd, '03, 08:34 AM

Originally posted by Darren Watts
Fantasy II (Madlands, by Robin Laws- I can't recommend this setting enough to fans looking for alternative types of fantasy storytelling)

I've heard that's really good from a number of sources. Been looking for it for ages.

**Doug McCrae** · Mar 3rd, '03, 08:36 AM

Originally posted by allen
I had heard/read that GURPS had sourcebooks for Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun and Rober Adams' Horseclans. Does anyone have these, and if so, any thoughts/impressions?

I thought the GURPS Book of the New Sun sourcebook was pretty good. Not wonderful or anything, but a decent product.

**Doug McCrae** · Mar 3rd, '03, 08:42 AM

GURPS books I rate include, in order:

Suppressed Transmission 1&2 (dunno if these count)
Illuminati
Time Travel
Reign of Steel
Warehouse 23
Middle Ages
Ultra-Tech 1

Bio-tech wasn't so good, kinda dull. Lots of stuff about catmen, birdmen, fishmen, etc. I can easily imagine catmen myself - I'm loking for something a bit more unusual. Alternate Earths disappointed me too. What if the Romans conquered the world? The Japanese? The Russians? Their just empires with different hats.

Illuminati University was one of my least favourite things ever. I spit upon it.

**Old Man** · Mar 3rd, '03, 10:25 AM

GURPS Conan is excellent. Not sure if it's still in print though. I got mine used.

**MisterVimes** · Mar 3rd, '03, 10:55 AM

Originally posted by Old Man
GURPS Conan is excellent. Not sure if it's still in print though. I got mine used.

For those that love low fantasy and Conan in specific, that IS a great resource... I see them on E-bay occassionally.

**Fitz** · Mar 3rd, '03, 03:08 PM

Originally posted by allen
I had heard/read that GURPS had sourcebooks for Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun and Rober Adams' Horseclans. Does anyone have these, and if so, any thoughts/impressions?

I have a copy of GURPS New Sun that I was given it by a friend who was on the playtesting panel.

I have read the books a long time ago, but I'm not familiar enough with the series to be able to tell how accurate it is. It looks pretty good from the little I remember.

The main chapter headings are:
(1) The Posthistory of Urth
* the Age of Myth
* the Age of the Monarch
* the Age of the Autarch

(2) The New Sun
* Precis of the books

(3) Urth in the Age of the Autarch
* The Commonwealth
* Commonwealth Geography
* Ascia

(4) Nessus, the Eternal City

(5) Urth religion
* The Church of the Conciliator
* Yesod, the Higher Universe

(6) Space and Time
* The Universe
* The Starship Tzadkiel
* Local Stars
* Time Dilation
* Time

(7) Commonwealth Characters
* Tech levels etc.
* Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills
* Character and Racial templates

(8) The Arsenal of the Autarch
* Weapons and Equipment

(9) Thaumaturgy

(10) Urth Bestiary

(11) Campaigns
* Balancing the Epic Setting
* Exploring Urth
* Campaigning in Different Eras
* Mass Combat

(12) Appendices
* The Urth Cycle
* The Incas
* Onomastics: the Study of Names
* Commonwealth Glossary
* English/Commonwealth Glossary

(13) Index

The layout and graphics are adequate to the task, though not particularly inspiring (features which seems to be common to most GURPS sourcebooks). In places graphics appear to be used for no purpose except to fill up space, and some graphics are repeated elesewhere through the book. Maps, where they are used, appear to be Campaign Cartographer generated.

If I were interested in running a game in the New Sun setting, I'd say the book would be very useful. There's enough information given about the milieu that it's not strictly necessary to have read the original books to be able run an effective campaign, though of course it would be a good idea to do so if only to get some of the ambience which tends to be lacking from sourcebooks like this.

**MPT** · Mar 4th, '03, 12:43 AM

I find that the Historical GURPS books are extremely useful. GURPS Japan and Arabian Knights are the two that I have used most but I have also used Rome, Russia etc.

What I like most about these is that they present a lot of detail in a form that naturally leads to adventure ideas. The sidebars are especially useful in this respect.