1 comments about GURPS Cyberworld: High-Tech Low-Life in the One-And-Twenty.

1. Steve Jackson Games has done it again. Yet another excellent roleplaying supplement has come off their press. Cyberpunk has all sorts of things to spice up your GURPS game. There is one problem though: There is not enough room in a 128 page book to cover the breadth of the cyberpunk genre. While providing an excellent introduction to cyberpunk roleplaying, it does not have the depth of other supplements. If one really wants good cyberpunk in GURPS, buy Cyberworld with this one.

2 comments about GURPS Special Ops.

1. HT is a superb sourcebook on special ops, for military campaigns ranging from the high-power cinematic to the dark and dirty real world Spec ops. It is mainly adressed to the last fifty years of history, but has an insight of spec ops through the history, as well as the usual crossover recommendations. It's divided in five parts. Creation of spec ops characters, with templates mainly for modern genre, with new skills (very specialized skills), advantages and disadvantages, very well crafted, because you got a rather nice quantity of points to spent but the characters don't end being like superbeigns but spec ops soldiers with a list of skills as impressive as necessary. A chapter devoted to spec ops through the history and late spec ops units, organizations and terrorist or revolutionary groups. The sidebars illustrates the main text with a handful of famous operations and topics related to the groups presented, not only the big successes but more gritty aspects of the business too. Another chapter, the shorter and poorer, here is where GURPS High-Tech can make the difference, is devoted to equipment and weapons. Another chapter goes to spec ops procedures, common terms, tactics, management of mercenary groups and the like. The last chapter is a short introduction to Spec Ops Campaigns and serves as a fast intro to Spec Ops gaming, not the best I have seen but not the worst.



2. Packed to the gills with both essential information and military minutae, GURPS Special Ops would make a useful resource book for newcomers to military roleplaying. However, there are better books on the market. Although SJGames has taken a good stab at the field, the genre already has a surplus of good sourcebooks. Older roleplayers will remember Twilight: 2000 and its exhaustive cataloguing of military detail. Like T2K, GURPS Special Ops suffers from a problem endemic to roleplaying in general: Americano-centrism. While this book gives us exhaustive detail on the various shapes and forms of US Special Forces (and the various confusing duplications of capabilites), information on non-US forces (the UK, Russia, Israel, France etc ...) is sparse and, in parts, incorrect. While GURPS may be generic in terms of rules, it fails to be generic in terms of nationality.

1 comments about GURPS Blood Types: Dark Predators and Deadly Prey: Vampires and Vampire Hunters (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. I am a fan of Vampire the Masquerade and the GURPS books. The background info in this single book is far more interesting and the Vampires more versatile than in V:tM. If you haven't read it, I'd suggest you at least pick it up and give it a try. Highly valuable for GURPS GM's.

No comments about Gurps Swat.

No comments about GURPS WWII: Motor Pool.

2 comments about GURPS Supers: Super-Powered Roleplaying Meets the Real World.

1. If you're watching those "Superman" cartoons on a daily basis, you may enjoy this greatly. But if you're recording them, like me, this is a must have. "Supers" is an indespensible book to have at your side during any Gurps campaign, PERIOD. But if you're into superhero rpg's of any kind, i.e. "Champions" or anything based on an existing comic book company's universe, you may very well hear yourself let out a sigh of relief. This game allows thorough freedom/creativity/POWERS!!! you name it, it's got it. Including a great deal of oddly appealing pre-made super powered characters. Ever wish that "Captain Laser" could battle Cthulu in space? Me neither, but it certainly is something to think about. I give this book all the stars in the world. 5, I suppose. See also other GURPS titles.



2. A 'realistic' style of Supers gaming - read, pretty deadly. Fits well with Wild Cards, wihch they did a supplement for.

1 comments about GURPS Cops.

1. This isn't a review, per se; it is a description. Take the stars with that grain of salt.
   
   Cops is about portraying a police officer, detective, or federal agent in a role-playing game setting. The tone is dramatic (think NYPD Blue or Alien Nation), but cinematic play (Lethal Weapon, Supercop) is possible too.
   
   Chapters include:
   
   A short history of policing and police duties
   
   Campaign set-up, departments, sample police agencies (US, UK, Japan, Soviet model), types of officers and agents, and adventure ideas.
   
   Character templates, equipment, and notes on adapting GURPS to a police adventure or campaign.
   
   Typical adversaries, crimes, and other adventure ideas.
   
   A guide to solving crimes including basic crime scene investigation, interviews, and interrogations.
   
   A guide to trials in an RPG context, also a quick guide to doing time, jailbreaks, and extradition.
   
   Four densely packed pages of sources and recommended reading/viewing.
   
   Cops was published in December, 2001. It was in final editing on 9/11 and does not address the significant changes in policing caused by the war on terror, the Patriot Act, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
   
   The book is designed as an RPG supplement, but may also be useful to writers and those interested in police and crimes.

3 comments about GURPS Grimoire: Tech Magic, Gate Magic, and Hundreds of Spells for All Colleges (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. Used with GURPS Magic and the GURPS Basic Set it provides a complete, varied and well integrated set of spells for roleplaying. Without being tied to specific genres it still manages to offer a wide range of dramatic possibilies from which many a plot could be spawned.



2. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: This book is a companion volume to GURPS Magic. In order to fully appreciate (and make the best use of) this book, you need GURPS Magic as well. Now that that is out of the way, on to the praises. This is where you will find the odder and more esoteric spells (as well as some of the more powerful ones) that Magic just didn't have room for, or that handn't been thought of yet. Some of these spells are exceptionally powerful, others are just plain sneaky, but all are useful. As I said before, the odder corners and more advanced levels of magic are more fully represented in this book, along with optional rules. Here you will find things like techno-magic, radiation spells, acid spells, spells to literally rain fire down upon your foes, a spells to create an imprisoning circle around your foes, spells to fascinate and control your enemy, shapeshifting spells, elaborate illusions, divination spells, and even a spell to plunge a target into a morass of incapacitating pleasure.

   That little list only scratches the surface, my friends. A few new schools of magic are added, and almost every one of the schools of magic presented in GURPS Magic has additions in this book, and all of them are worth looking at. If you want to be the best magic-user that you can be, this book will help you on your way.




3. This is basically GURPS Magic, book 2. It provides great additional material in the way of new spells for the current colleges of magic such as the Elementals or Necromancy. In addition, the new schools of magic (Gate and Tech magic) are interesting new additions. This gives your characters the advantage of not only having the right spell for the right occasion, but also having a selection of tricks up their sleeves.

1 comments about GURPS Magic Items 1 (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. This GURPS supplement has new ideas for magic items broken down by categories and varying from low powered items that would be generically available in a fantasy setting to high powered unique artifacts. There are sections on the economics of magic selling and various types of magic sellers. There are great descriptions and useful ideas. This is gurps so it can be applicable directly to the gurps system or easily converted into others such as D&D.

1 comments about GURPS Magic Items 2: More Sorcerous Shops and Mystical Magics (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. Definitely one of the best compendia of magic items ever published, by Steve Jackson Games or any company, it sets a high standard for similar works. An absolute must-have for any GURPS collection. I'm only a little surprised that an author search for "Drew Bittner" hasn't turned up anything else.