Customer Reviews

GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (4th Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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 breathtakingly 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 streamlined 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.

GURPS is one of the most, truly, generic systems around... and that's no suprise since it's the first. In this fourth edition, SJ games brings to bear their 20+ years of experience with this system and delivers an excellent addition to the GURPS line. The system is fully able to be employed in any genre from fantasy, science-fiction or horror and it flexible enough for even the most creative of gamers. If it has any weaknesses they would be:
1. too many options: some gamers might be overwhelmed by the number of options available. Keep in mind that the game can be as simple or as complex as you like.
2. all of the "flavor" is on you: GURPS (since it is generic...duh) is not set up to convey flavor through the design of its character sheets, the naming of abilities or the graphics in the books. Flavor is ALL up to the game-mast

... on the otherhand, perhaps those are strengths.

This book 2 of the GURPS basic set (4TH EDITION) The last edition was a single book of 256 pages plus instant characters section, but so much material was add to the new edition it would have weighed in at a total of 576 pages, while suitable for stoping bullets, a but unwieldy for gameplay, so Steve Jackson games have divided everything a player has to have is in book one, basic system rules and everything for character creation, just enough combat to get a player into the game. The rest of combat is this book. This book goes into detail for what a GameMaster needs to know about physical feats and combat (in greater detail). It covers vehicles and technology. It includes stats for animals and some monsters, along with a guide for world design and Game Mastering itself. "Tool kit chapters let the GM make artifacts, character abilities, and entire game worlds (in fact an infinity of worlds, alternate, parallel, cross-genre, etc.) Don't get me wrong this is just for GMs. Players who enjoy detail and the creative side of the game will find this book inspiration for beginning their own campaigns. My point is it's not required, but Basic Set GURPS: Characters and Campaigns are designed to work together, pages and chapters are consecutively numbered and the index covers both books and repeated in both. SJ games has made the system easy to play, easy to learn and easy to get hooked. They have also made the new Basic Set easier to carry around. GURPS stands for Generic Universal Role Playing System and it is just that, it is the perfect for linking already existing d20 systems, creating cross-genre campaigns or making campaigns based on any book, movie, TV series or concept you or SJ Games can brainstorm (before the Wizards of the Coast edition we used GURPS to run Star Wars and Dr. Who campaigns).

www.sjgames.com/e23/ is an excellent resource for pre-generated PDS ranging from short adventures to whole sourcebooks. Like D&D, there is a considerable amount of GURPS material out there, either new and updated or old and out-of-print, anything you can imagine (Fantasy, the Prisoner, Horror, Swashbuckler, and loads of other supplements). The GURPS main web site is good too, www.sjgames.com/gurps/ most books and supplements hotlink from Amazon.

First off, my experience with it:
I was a fan of 3d edition and initially felt a bit betrayed by the move to 4th ed. However, I bought it, read it, then began to play it. At first, it took some getting used to -- although much of the basic mechanics remain the same, there are enough differences to cause some occasional confusion. But there has been a lot of original support for the new edition, all of it expanding tremendously what the game can do.

Second, my recommendation for new players:
I'm assuming that anyone reading this has played another tabletop RPG at some point, most likely D&D. I started with the first edition of AD&D. But I came across GURPS at some point (3d edition) and found that it offered the ability to do pretty much everything I wanted to. I wish that 4th ed. had been around then -- it's actually much more "universal" than 3d ed. You can do pretty much anything with it. The basic set gives you the tools. Add some of SJ Games fine supplements and you have a tremendous amount of genre-specific support. It's not 100% necessary, but it helps.

Buy it. You'll enjoy it.

I've been contemplating the purchase of this book for a couple of years now, and finally broke down to make the purchase. The physical object itself is a thing of beauty. It has the lovely full color design and quality printing and binding that past purchasers have come to expect from GURPS products.

This isn't a product for somebody who wants to buy it and run a game the next weekend. GURPS itself is less a game than a toolkit for making your own game. Once you have the rules, you need to either create your own setting and character archetypes (what GURPS calls templates), or you need to purchase one of the many game world books published for use with the game. Fortunately the book provides a lot of good guidance and examples. The published material that describes game worlds is also excellent. The high quality of this supporting material is what helped me decide to purchase GURPS Basic Set: Characters, Fourth Edition and GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (4th Edition).

Given that caveat, I recommend this product for any gamer who wants to expand their gaming into new directions. There's nothing revolutionary here, but this toolkit gives you what you need to produce any other kind of game that you want to play. You might want to play ghost hunters right now, but in six months you can switch to a space opera, and six months after that to cape-wearing super heroes. And for any of those options, you can purchase additional supporting material, or just wing it on your own. The number of games you get by purchasing this one set of books makes it an excellent bargain for the serious role player.

I have been a gamer for over 30 years. I am not about the numbers or the rules as much as the story and the role playing. I have played most RPGs in my time, D&D (every edition), White Wolf (All of it), Shadowrun, Torg, Dresden, Star Wars (D6, D20, Saga), and a ton of other stuff. I have avoided GURPS for a long time, mainly because of the 'sound' of the system. I am here now to eat some crow. This game is hands down one of the, if not the best game I have ever played. In a word it is amazing. The core mechanic is simple and at first you might think that it is limited by that mechanic but that couldn't be further from the truth. It is a deep and immersive system filled with complexity. It caters to both Role Players and "roll" players. It is a power gamers dream but gives the ability of a story teller to do anything with it. You can play free style or with a battle mat. You can add cards or just use dice. You can play anything from cyberpunk to Tolken. You want Zombie Ninja Rabbits? There is a rule for that. The game is only limited by your imagination and still remains balanced. If you are a gamer and love good RPGs, this is a game you really need to try. You do however, need the Character and Campaign books to play effectively.

Bottom Line: I love this game.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (or should I say in the eyes???), lot of people are so used to other systems or are so strict about following rules that may find GURPS a hard to handle system, however GURPS is an excelent system for Role-playing. It has tons of rules and information (which some people may find overwhelming), but the beauty of GURPS is that you don't need all of them in order to play! The system is developed in such a way that you can bypass entire chapters without a problem. It is completely customizable, and adapts to any kind of campaign. If you are looking for a role-play system that allows you to play in different kind of campaigns with the same set of rules or if you are looking for a role-play system you can customize, modify, or adapt to the needs of a certain campaign, GURPS is the way to go!

The GURPS system is perhaps my favorite in all RPGs since its so comprehensive and versatile, yet everything comes fairly intuitively. With GURPS, you can adapt the rules in such a way to fit any setting, be it hack and slash fantasy or superhero mayhem or cyberpunk thriller. It isn't as innovative as systems such as Fate, but regardless, it is comprehensive enough to satisfy any roleplayer who wants a realistic experience. Also, characters are made from points not levels, so unlike DnD where higher level == higher combat prowess, a higher point total means you can spend the points on whatever you want. This unfortunately makes it a little more difficult for the GM, but not overly much.
The one bad thing about the product physically is the binding, the first copy that I ordered had fallen entirely out of its binding and I've heard reports of editions falling apart within a few weeks, so maybe pick up the PDF from [...]

you can start and end with just this book. Along with the wealth of free community and online support for GURPS, this is the most economic, broadest, and the most consolidated RPG system out there.

What I mean by consolidated, it is a game where it is easy to incorporate real life elements (instead of just arbitrary fantasy) into the game topic and genre. Less separate compartmentalization between your gaming life, studies, work, other hobbies, social skills and humanistic observation. You can just take the world as you see it and throw into this Game System as an RPG.

No other systems can do it this way, as well. You can work with a telescopic level of detail: shifting from high granularity to abstract the way your story telling forma dictates.

Most of it support is in PDF, another forward thinking asset in the age of electronic paper. no more 30-50lbs of books, when ebook reader prices are going down.

Been a long time GURPS fan and I think the 4th edition is absolutely great.