2 comments about GURPS In Nomine.

1. "GURPS: In Nomine", the game that proclaims: "Earth is the battleground for Heaven and Hell", allows players of GURPS to make characters that are Angels and Devils.

   The plot is very simple - Angels are real, and so are Devils. God created the Universe with the aid of a Symphony - sort of like music that then controls things that go on in the world. Thus by using their own music, Angels, Demons, and even some people, can control parts of the Symphony and turn it to the cause of good - or evil. I must say, as a music fan, the idea of using music to create and manipulate the world appeals to me. This music is then used to influence events - from simple events like whether or not you go to the store today, to much more complex events such as a war. And =both= can cause a ripple effect that can influence the future.

   With their almost magical powers and miraculous songs, both Angels and Devils can attempt to manipulate the events on Earth - possibly bringing about Armageddon. But such manipulation can cause a wrong note in the Symphony that can be detected by higher powers. It is only the efforts of other ArchAngels and ArchDemons that keep Ragnarok from occurring today. But there's always tomorrow.

   It's yours to decide - do you want to play a fanatic Angel following the cause of light and good by attempting to keep the Symphony in balance, or do you want to play a fallen angel that is trying to regain their position in Heaven, or do you want to try a Demon that creates havoc wherever they go, or something in between? There are rules for creating several types of Celestials or Angels, and Infernals or Devils. You can even play a Corporeal or human, although they have a smaller part to play in this world.

   It's loads of fun for players - they can try to use their powers and abilities to influence current events in the game world while trying not to cause dissonance - which would attract the attention of their bosses. And it's a lot of fun for the Game Master - they can look at current events and try to see how those events might have been caused by Angels and Demons fighting on Earth over humans and territory and then try to put that into campaigns.

   If you want to try this game, be prepared. Some of the subject matter is very controversial. Some religious people may find the idea of pretending to be an Angel unusual, and the idea of pretending to be a Demon disturbing. However, having said this, I'd like to give this game four out of a possible five stars. I would have given it five had they included more material from the original sources, but interested game masters and players can purchase standard "In Nomine" books and easily convert that information to GURPS. I'd recommend the "Angelic Players Guide", the "Infernals Players Guide", the "Corporeal Players Guide", the "Game Master Guide", and the "Ethereals Players Guide" at least.

   "GURPS: In Nomine" is based on the regular version of "In Nomine", which is also published in the US by Steve Jackson Games. "In Nomine" is, in turn, based on an earlier French RPG called "In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas" published by Siroz Productions. Try those if your appetite isn't quenched by "GURPS: In Nomine".




2. In the world of In Nomine, two great forces struggle for control of the world: Heaven, the great hierarchy of angels that serve God, and Hell, the chaotic mass of demons that only serve themselves. Players can create characters from either side and battle for control of the hearts and minds of humanity -- those battles more often being spiritual or social in nature than physical.
   
   Superiors 3 gives complete descriptions of some of the big movers in Heaven: Blandine, the Archangel of Dreams; Gabriel, the Archangel of Fire and Prophecy; Khalid, the Archangel of Faith; and Yves, the Archangel of Destiny.
   
   Khalid's writeup in particular is interesting, since he is the patron Archangel of Islam. In his previous appearance in The Final Trumpet, he was portrayed as paying lip service to Heaven but unknowingly serving Hell ... it was blatantly racist and anti-Muslim. Superiors 3 fixes this, presenting both the original material and a revised writeup that more accurately portrays the Muslim idea of an Archangel (or, at least, as close as one can get without tons of research).
   
   The remaining writeups are excellent. Blandine's is a bit, well, bland, as well as kind of pointless since you absolutely need the previous book she appeared in, The Marches, to get much use out of her. Still, there are a lot of good ideas, and the Menunim, her own private choir of angels, have strong story potential.
   
   Gabriel's and Yves's writeups explore the major mysteries surrounding both characters as well as the connections between them. Yves, in particular, is one of the characters around whom the entire setting pivots, and a good understanding of him is absolutely vital for an In Nomine GM.
   
   The whole book is very easy to read and clearly presents all four Archangels as three-dimensional characters, making it easy for the GM to run them. Normally, I'd say that the book is still only necessary if you're going to use these characters -- but you can't run In Nomine without at least having Yves in the background, so this book is pretty much necessary, period.

3 comments about GURPS Black Ops (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. My feelings on this title are mixed. It is well written and organized. The idea is interesting (basically an rpg version of the Men in Black movie). It has very limited usefulness in any other type of campaign. The characters are very powerful (700 points). They do not cross well and are sort of hard to handle for a GM. Buy this is you loved Men in Black, but otherwise I would reccomend gurps illuminati.



2. This world book is a combination of diverse elements; it's part Illuminati, part Men in Black, part X-Files, part Call of Cthulhu, and part Paranoia-- all at the 700 point level! The book details The Company that works behind the scenes, and The Conspiracy that keeps it hidden. Players have the opportunity to become operatives working behind the scenes and handling situations that civillians just couldn't deal with. I feel somewhat Illuminated just from reading this book. I'm just itching to start a Black Ops campaign in my group!



3. This book is a wonderful collection of rules for playing high-powered characters combined with a nightmarish conspiracy theory that makes just a little too much sense for my comfort.
   
   Although gamers may not want to play in the world presented by the book (it's HARD playing a character with that many skills and advantages), GM's can dredge the well-constructed world for inspiration in other settings and use the many short-cut rules for keeping their own high-point campaigns running smoothly.

2 comments about GURPS Compendium II: Campaigns and Combat (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. I find this volume much less required than Vol. I. It's good stuff for a GM to have around ("The PCs have really done it this time. Let's see how long it takes them to freeze to death...Oh, here's a rule for that!), but really, really not important for players. There's a list of poisons and what they do in game terms, which might be handy, but it's largely ways for GMs to tweak their roleplaying environment toward greater/lesser realism, make up random societies (that's a table I hope to never use.)

   It's still worth its 4 stars, but only as a GM. There are no ads, disads, or skills, nor are there background systems or anything else like that. It's all about environment hacking via rules.




2. If you are looking for ideas for a game, this is the book for you. Looking for advice, this is the book for you. Trying to find one of the many optional rules of GURPS, this is the book for your. Trying to find some obscure advantage or skill, sorry but that is Compendium I. This is the book for the Game Masters out thier. It is full of detailed rules from everything from poisonous gas to characters getting drunk (a necessity when the party includes dwarves). I would consider it a core book for the game, not necessary to play but very useful.

4 comments about GURPS Compendium I : Character Creation.

1. Steve Jackson Games have managed to do for GURPS 3rd edition what the D&D Rules Cyclopedia did for D&D. A literally breath taking book that expands and supplements the GURPS 3rd edition Basic Set beyond it's comparatively humble origins. Almost a decade of GURP character generation material and advice have been lovingly compiled. I recommend this book. Guy Robinson



2. It's the nature of RPG publishing to generate more books for the games published. If all you need is 1 book and every potential customer has that book, you're out of business.

   The drawback to this is new material tends to duplicate and even contradict older material unless the game maker keeps a tight reign over it.

   GURPS generally has had such supervision but even so you have rules in one book that are useful in another but not found there.

   In ten years of existence, a good list of new rules, character skills, advantages and disadvantages have cropped up. GURPS line Editor Sean Punch took ahold of this and compiled the newer rules into one book, making it far easier for players and game masters to generate characters.

   Reconciling some contradictory material took some effort but not too much and Punch does invite his readers to note similar advantages, such as Universal digestion and Cast Iron stomach.

   The first lets you eat anything non-poisonous, the second makes you resistant to an upset stomach and fights off poisons.

   Overall a must for any serious GURPS player.




3. This book has all, or at least the vast majority of the things you need for character creation all under one cover. It has all the disadvantages, all the advantages, and a good number of skills.

   If you are one of those people who buys GURPS books to read for entertainment, you might not want to bother, but this book is very helpful (almost a must have)if you are actually playing the game.




4. With the dozens of books on the market for GURPS, it gets really tiresome to have to look through all of them to find the skill, advantage, or disadvantage you want. This book makes that worry a thing of the past. I can not imagine making a character without it anymore.

No comments about GURPS Horseclans: Roleplaying in Robert Adam's Barbarian Future.

2 comments about GURPS Religion: Gods, Priestly Powers and Cosmic Truths.

1. GURPS Religion provides a thorough (almost too thorough!) framework for roleplayers to create religions for their campaigns. Although it is very complete, it needs to have more direction for the novice campaign creator. I felt lost trying to determine the best place to start. I still recommend it for game masters creating campaigns.



2. This book is the one that convinced me that SJGames had things really, thoroughly on the ball. Like most of their other sourcebooks, this book is the product of thorougly researching a subject and distilling out the information which is needed to write immersive scenarios and stories in that context.

   The GURPS Religion book takes this task seriously enough that it is usable not just as a role-playing supplement but more generally as a handbook of comparative religion for storytellers. It has everything from roles of clergy to creation myths to the meaning of religious symbols, told from the perspective of how religions perceive themselves.

   The one caveat is that this book will not walk you through the process of designing a religion for a campaign. While the chapters are essentially a checklist for any religion's design, each chapter contains a large reservoir of ideas rather than a step-by-step instruction list. For the experienced GM who wants a steady fount of inspiration, or for anyone who wants a good introduction to the varieties of religious symbolism, this book is a valuable tool.

   Definitely one of the most useful items on my GM's workbench.

2 comments about GURPS Goblins (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. Summary: GURPS Goblins is an excellent, original, highly amusing but VERY 'off the wall' RPG. Firstly, it necessary to explain that Goblins is not a stand alone fiction or non-fiction book (although Goblins makes a good read even if you don't get a chance to play it). Goblins is a supplement to the GURPS role-playing game (RPG), so to play it you will first need to but the GURPS basic set (GURPS stand for Generic Universal Role Playing System). In RPG's, players create a character, and go on an adventure created for them by the 'Games Master'. Mostly, these would involve fighting mythical monsters, and finding treasures, in some mystical universe. However, in GURPS Goblins the universe is Georgian London. It's a hard unforgiving place; a world of grinding poverty, harsh laws, disease, superstition and snobbery. The monsters are other Goblins. Lies, trickery, violence and theft are the norm. Social climbing is the pre-occupation of every Goblin. Sadly, much of this world is a true reflection of the social conditions of the time. Goblins is extremely funny, in a very nasty sort of way, along the same lines as the RPG 'Paranoia'. But where Paranioa pokes fun at the evils of totalitarianism, the target of is the Dickensian class system. It is refreshingly rare for an RPG, to concentrate so much on the character's social context. You design your character, work out his deformities (due to mistreatment in childhood, school and apprenticeship), then bravely set out to climb up the social ladder, armed with only a half-eaten pork-pie and a sixpence between you and the workhouse. If you like 'quirky' role-playing games, then GURPS Goblins is a masterpiece. This is the most orginal, funny and evocative RPG I have bought for a very long time, but, if you like your RPG character to be a tough, dashing, honourable hero type; then but a more traditional RPG would be much more appropriate.



2. Personally, I've never been able to get into the GURPS rules, but I have a pretty big GURPS collection for someone who doesn't use GURPS! "Goblins" is one of the jewels of that collection, and I'm already planning out a fantasy campaign (using a modified old GURPS Fantasy setting and the rules from Godlike), with the goblins from this supplement playing a big role.

   GURPS Goblins is surprisingly inexpensive for a book printed throughout on slick paper with (hilarious) full-color illustrations. The society and biology of the goblins (which are seamlessly tied together) are fascinating as well as funny--these may vaguely resemble the standard fantasy RPG goblins, but they stand out as one of the most unique races to be developed for any setting, fantasy or science fiction. The style of writing is less that of a game supplement and more of a travel guide to 1830s London--except there are no humans, just goblins! It's a very entertaining commentary on human nature, using the goblins to soften the blow a bit. And it's a game-within-a-game, as the whole point of goblin existence is to climb socially (due to their biology, virtually all goblins start in the gutter, no matter who their parents were), so there are very full setting-specific rules for social climbing that can be applied to other settings.

4 comments about GURPS Magic: A Tome of Mystic Secrets for Fantasy Roleplaying (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. This magic system seems, at first, to be extremely weak and limiting. If you are used to AD&D (as is likely the case) it IS; however, upon closer examination you discover that it ISN'T. Sure, for a 100-point campaign a mage is very costly and, unless specialized, will be limited. That's how it would be in real life, if there were magic. Keep at it, though, and soon a mage will be the most powerful member of your party. Apply GURPS Magic to a 250 or (wow) 500 point campaign and your power will surpass even that of your meta-human cohorts. As with all GURPS products, the "real-world" rules make Magic truly enjoyable and playable. If *you* are creative then nothing is impossible (just save up the character points). GURPS is a system where you have to *think*--that's what sets it apart from all the rest. In summary, an extremeley useful sourcebook!



2. GURPS Magic is a RPG magic system designed to fit seamlessly into the Generic Universal Role Playing System, and as such it is extremely successful. Magic allows you to add magic using characters to any GURPS campaign easily. The system emphasizes a skill-based approach where more difficult spells can be learned only after basic spells have been learned. A character's skill with a spell determines his ability to successfully use that spell, and he can always improve his skill through study and practice. A character can cast any spell he knows, providing that he has the strength to cast that spell (the effect is tied into a "realistic" measure of fatigue), so even a beginning magician can be flexible, if not powerful. Yet also built into this system are some useful game restraints that prevent a magician from becoming overwhelmingly powerful. A useful comparison is AD&D, where a beginning magic user is absurdly weak and can cast one weak spell a day, yet at the high levels can control spells that rival a modern armored division in effect. Magic allows beginning characters to be more playable and fun to play, while prevents experienced characters from taking over the show. As in real life, this skill based approach tends to channel a character into specializing in a particular "field" of magic without the use of artificial restrictions such as "class" found in other games.

   If the system has any problems, it is that it literally is to generic. While it can be used "as is", it requires a lot of work on the part of the players and game master if they want a system that closely models "historical" or fictional magic systems. If you want a game that portrays the setting of the Arabian Knights, for instance, it is not simply a matter of deleting those spells that don't fit the genre since more advanced spells that do fit might require those spells as learning prerequisites.




3. There are a lot of quirky things about this magic system, and I would have done much of it differently. For example, I think a lot of the spell durations are just too short. For example, if you want to disguise yourself with an illusion, you have to pay fatigue every minute to keep it going. A fairly simple and not too powerful effect, but only the mightiest of mages are mages can disguise themselves for more than 5-10 minutes.
   
   Magic in combat is kind of weird; it's slow, which is a dangerous combination with the large distance penatlies to skill (-1 per yard), because it means for many spells you have to stand close to your target and hope they don't whack you when your concentrating. In practice, I find that magic is most useful for setting up defense and augmenting offense before battle, but once battle is joined it is less useful. Some of the spells are awesomely powerful. Some of them cost so much fatigue that it is difficult to see how you would ever use them.
   
   Overall, I would say that the system works though. It is kind of fun learning to work the system to be able to do what you want. Despite the limitations mentioned above, magic in this system is a valuable and powerful force.



4. This book contains a large number of the spells in the GURPS gaming system, and plenty of rules and ideas for creative magic use. The sheer number and variety of spells explained in this book is mind-boggling. As some others have said, the GURPS magic system is not as overwhelmingly powerful as the magic of some other gaming lines, but it is well thought out. The spells are quite versitile, and almost every spell can be cast at varying levels of power, for varying cost. This enables you some control the range of damage/effects produced, and enables the tailoring of spells to certain situations. Some of the more powerful spells are tools of amazing power, if you can cast them. Don't ignore the "lesser" spells either. Just keep in mind that with enough creativity any spell can be magnificently effective, especially if your campaign involves a high level of realism. This book is a must for anybody who wants to use GURPS magic.

4 comments about GURPS Warehouse 23 (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. There's some great stuff for your campaign in here. I've already used it in mine (a government conspiracy / Bigfoot sort of thing). Some of the artifacts could have had a better basis in history (but then again, maybe they do :-)



2. You only thought you knew conspiracies. But in this book, it all comes to light! WAREHOUSE 13 is a light-hearted look at the paranoid that lurks inside all of us. The premise is that somewhere, hidden away in a secluded mountainside, is a darkened storage facility that contains a myriad of things that THEY don't want you to know exist!

   And what a collection!

   Clones of current and past presidents, androids, mind-control devices, the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Logenes, even up-to-date files on YOU! It's all in here! If you have ever imagined that our beloved and benign government might be hiding something from us, this book will put you onto cloud nine!

   A wonderfully delightful addition to any conspiracy-based game, or just a rollicking good read!




3. Do you believe? Whether you are a fringe researcher or you subscribe to Conspiracies Monthly, this book is for you! It is chock full of conspiracies and artifacts from history. More than a simple game product, the book is also a fantastic read.

   Packed with gaming information in the GURPS style, Warehouse 23 is also full of behind-the-scenes conspiracy information. S. John Ross is obviously a man-in-black and knows far too much for his own good. From the legendary Ark of the Covenant to clones of world leaders, the warehouse has it all.




4. This book is awesome, I am a huge conspiracy nut and this book showed me just some of the stuff that our government might be hiding from us. Even if you are not a fan of roleplaying games, I sincerely recommend this book if you are a fan of conspiracies, or are just too damned paranoid for your own good.

No comments about Traveller Hero Book One: Adventurers in Charted Space: Character Creation, Psionics, Combat and Races.