Customer Reviews

GURPS Basic Set

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have played nearly every major role-playing game there is, from D&D to Rolemaster. One of the things that I find so frustrating about other games is their ridgidity. You must adhere to defined character classes. You must use these occupations and skill groups. Not so with GURPS. You can create any character, with any set of abilities and skills, from any setting or time period. If you want to make a concert pianist from Germany in the 18th century, or if a techno-soldier from the future is more to your liking, this is the system for you. The game also excels in its simplicity. Gone are the cryptic dice-rolls like 2d4 and 5d8, or the strange systems found in Shadowrun and Star Wars. All your rolls are done with 3d6. Combat is simple and realistic, but can easily be altered to a much more involved format if that is your taste. Skills are realistic, easy to use, and interesting. You can play with just the basic set, or you can purchase any one of the many! excellent supplements for more detailed play. If that wasn't good enough, you can also get a computer program for character creation that makes it even easier. Stop reading this review and BUY THE BOOK!

GURPS is an unbelievably adaptable set of role-playing game rules. "GURPS: Basic" is a book of the core rules which are used by a massive number of other GURPS books. Whether you want to play modern day intensely realistic spy adventures, wild futuristic space opera, heroic sword and sorcery fantasy, four-color super heroes, tales from the Wild West, or anything in between, GURPS will let you do it. GURPS features one of the most flexible, open ended character generation systems ever developed.

Yet despite its universal adaptability, it's still easy to learn to play and run. The basics of GURPS can be explained in about 15 minutes. There's even a "GURPS: Lite" available =free= online that has an even simpler version of the basic system. The entire system lets you design and build whatever and whenever and whomever you want. There are no classes or levels - you create exactly the type of character you want. You use character points to decide what you want to build. The only limitation is in how many points you want to spend.

GURPS uses only standard six-sided dice that anyone can get almost anywhere. What's even better, you only need three to play. You roll three dice to hit - if you roll low, you generally hit, and if you roll high, you generally miss. What could be simpler?

Then, to add to your enjoyment of your new RPG system, GURPS Worldbooks are something that describes a specific universe to adventure in, such as "GURPS: Discworld" or "GURPS: Lensmen". GURPS Sourcebooks are something that helps you build a specific genre, such as "GURPS: Old West", "GURPS: Fantasy", or "GURPS: Space". There are enough Worldbooks and Sourcebooks for GURPS for anyone to build just about any universe their hearts desire, and, what's even better, you only buy what you need. Not planning a fantasy adventure? Then you won't need "GURPS: Fantasy". Not adventuring in the Final Frontier? Don't buy a copy of "GURPS: Space". Hate Super Hero campaigns? Forget the "GURPS: Supers" book. But if you do need additional background material, it's there. Many of the Sourcebooks have a related Worldbook. For example, the recently released "GURPS: Castle Falkenstein" already has a world building supplement - "GURPS: Castle Falkenstein: The Ottoman Empire". Even more player and game master support is available online thru the "Pyramid" newsletter - which also covers other gaming systems besides GURPS.

Steve Jackson Games continues to licence popular games and worlds for use in their system, including the currently available "GURPS: Traveller", (based on Marc Miller's original game) which already has many supplements, "GURPS: Myth" (based on the popular computer game), "GURPS: Alpha Centauri" (another computer game to RPG conversion), GURPS: Planet Krishna (based on some of L Sprague DeCamp's SF books), "GURPS: New Sun" (based on Gene Wolfe's SF series), and others are coming. Older books have covered such diverse material as Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld", and White Wolf's very popular "Vampire", "Werewolf", and "Mage".

Other companies are jumping on the bandwagon. The "Powered By GURPS" line started with a new game from Steve Jackson Games called "Transhuman Space". Eden Studios released a GURPS version of their popular "Conspiracy X" game. Amarillo Design Bureau has satisfied one of my dreams by using GURPS for RPG's set in their "Star Fleet Battles" universe (which basically gives us "GURPS: Star Trek") and is promising more role-playing supplements for the Final Frontier.

Steve Jackson Games currently makes over 150 different supplements for GURPS, and over 70 of those are currently in print, making it one of the most comprehensive sets of rules for role-playing available. GURPS has my highest recommendation for anyone interested in trying a system that has the flexibility of the new "D20" rules, and yet has been out longer and has a wider range of possibilities. I've been playing RPG's and game mastering for over 20 years and there's no system I've ever been more fond of, and I've used virtually all of them. Try it. You will not be disappointed. GURPS is truly the "Generic Universal Role Playing System".

Some of you might remember a game called "The Fantasy Trip". This fantasy game was my first introduction to what would evolve into Gurps. I loved TFT, and I love Gurps even more so. I've been playing Gurps so long, I've had to replace my rule book twice from use. My current copy's spine is being held together by duct tape and is due to be replaced (here's a tip, if you buy this book, buy the hardcover. It will last longer than the soft) I love it for what it is meant to be: at its best, a flexible engine that can be applied to any genre. At its worst, it can be heavily munchkinized.

Gurps has a point based character creation system. Players assign points to basic attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity and Health)which have a base line of 10. The lower the score, the worse the attribute and vice versa. These four "building blocks" serve as the basis for all skills. Skills are neatly arranged in an easy to use format. Aside from skills and attributes, points are assigned for advantages. Advantages are just what they sound like, those things which give a character an edge. Disadvantages and quirks can be taken to give the player more points to spend on attributes, skills and advantages. It is disadvantages and quirks which give personality to the characters. The list of skills, advantages and disadvantages in the basic book isn't exhaustive, but comes close. Quirks are left to the player's imagination.

Skill resolution is easy. Roll three d6. Matching the skill level or lower indicates a success. Going over will result in a failure. Rolling exceptionaly well (low) or exceptionaly bad (high) could result in either a critical success or critical failure. Crits add to the enjoyment of the game.

Rules for combat are easy in their simplest format; however, there is an advanced combat system to supplement the basic combat system. If the advanced combat system is used, expect long, drawn out battles. Steve Jackson has a rule for just about anything, and if used, they will slow down play. Another word of caution. Munchkins will take forever making a character as they min/max everything and tweak their points to get every last possible advantage.

Gurps offers a workable system for psionics (Gurps: Psionics is a worthy expansion to the "basic" system in the main rulebook) but magic is one of the game's weak points. Magic is built on the concept that easier spells must be learned before harder spells (with this I agree) and that casting spells is physically exhaustive. Spells cost fatigue points and this score is derived from the character's strength. Now this I have a problem with. I realize that there must be a controlling factor, but unless your mage is Arnold or has a butt load of mana stones (mana is the energy for spells)she isn't going to last long in a battle. Gurps: Magic and Gurps: Grimoire do not offer much to fix this problem. Most players of Gurps end up tweaking the magic system to suite their taste.

There isn't too much genre information in the main rulebook; however, the self-sufficient geek with plenty of time on his hands could get by with just the main rulebook. I'd recommend purchasing at least Compendium I & II along with Vehicles and Martial Arts (just because MA kicks butt).

Gurps is well supported. There are rules expansion books (Compendiums I & II, Vehicles, Psionics, Martial Arts, Magic). Gurps does offer world books ranging from Space, Horror, Supers and Fantasy. Some of these I like (Space is good, Horror isn't bad) some I do not (I've never been an IST or Yrrth fan) but all of them give enough information that the GM can adapt his or her favorite genre settings for play (most DnD worlds convert easily). In some cases this has been done for the GM. Gurps: Discworld for instance is based upon Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Gurps also has a number of their own world's (such as Cabal). Steve Jackson games have put out a number of "period" books such as Greece, Aztecs and Russia. Overall, there is a wealth of supplementary material offered.

The Skinny: The rules are usuable in any genre. There is very little genre information in the main rulebook. That is left to the creativity of the GM, or can be obtained by purchasing some of the vast supplementary books offered. Gurps offers a highly detailed character generation system. This can be bad, if you do not like long character creation. Skills resolution is simple. Combat comes in two forms: quick and dirty with no attention paid to realism, and long and detailed with lots of realism. The Magic system bites and is the only reason I won't give Gurps 5 stars. Overall, something for everyone.

GURPS is a very good system for those who want to maximize what they can do with their games. There are no built in artificial restrictions and the players ultimately decide the limits. This is really a system where a character can be created for Ancient Rome and be picked up by a star ship without pause (though the character may need to learn some new skills, just as in real life). There are two drawbacks that detract from the Basic Set being better than it is. First, it is simply to big. Whole sections are wasted if you are not, for example, using Magic or Psionics or Grenades, and the odd mix of ancient and science fiction skills in the same list distract rather than clarify. The other is that the hand to hand combat system simply does not work very well for skilled and well equipped characters.

The GURPS system's big selling point, of course, is its flexibility; it's very easy to tailor it to any type of campaign world. It's also quick and easy to learn. The advantage/disadvantage system works quite well and allows the creation of all kinds of interesting characters, without limiting players to a fixed set of character classes. The basic 3d6 mechanic means no fumbling with huge handfuls of dice. Finally, the whole system is balanced to a nicety--I don't think I've ever found a GURPS game mechanic that I thought was seriously "broken."

There are a few drawbacks to GURPS, however. The biggest, in my view, is that it doesn't cope very well with high-powered campaigns. Combat runs fairly smoothly at normal levels, but when people start getting active defense ratings of 14+, the battles degenerate into turn after turn of waiting for someone to roll a critical success on the attack, because otherwise everything gets dodged/blocked/parried. Combat involving large numbers of opponents is apt to drag on endlessly. Magic, while extremely versatile and useful, offers few options for spectacle and drama; all magic is on a "skirmish" level. You'll never see a GURPS mage laying waste to armies or blotting out the light of the sun.

The other problem I've found with GURPS is that it's generic and therefore rather bland; it's up to the GM and the players to provide the "personality" of a campaign. This is particularly evident in the sourcebooks, which offer plenty of tools for world-building, but not much in the way of actual worlds.

If you prefer a lower-powered game with lots of subtleties, and are willing to put in the work to design the game world yourself (or to convert it from another system), I don't think you can do better than GURPS. If you want heroic high fantasy, stick with D&D or similar systems. I usually use D&D when running fantasy and GURPS for modern or futuristic settings.

I agree with other reviewers that GURPS is probably the best system on the market. It lacks both the restrictiveness of D&D et al. and the clunkiness of Storyteller. The character creation rules are extremely flexible. True, it can take a while to get the hang of creating GURPS characters, but I found it to be worth it. The most common complaint about the system is that combat is too complicated, but most of the rules are really optional. When I started playing, I used a sort of "pidgin GURPS" until I figured out the more advanced stuff. You can play GURPS with the Basic Set only, but the other books can be very useful depending on what kind of a game you're running. Compendia I and II are always useful, but the others can vary:

Fantasy: GURPS Magic is _vital_ for any fantasy campaign. Grimoire is OK, but not as useful. Compendium I is necessary for designing nonhuman races. The currently released "GURPS Fantasy" is for a specific world that I never found too interesting, but watch for the upcoming GURPS Fantasy Campaigns.

Science Fiction: Ultra-Tech is good, as is Compendium I for the reasons described above. Space is very useful, but not as necessary as you might think. I've heard that Aliens is great, but haven't been able to find a copy.

Other/General: High-Tech is a useful reference. Religion is one of my favorites; it's useful for any world-builiding efforts. As for GURPS Illuminati, I really can't say anything about it except that I liked it. They could be watching me...

GURPS is one of the finest role playing systems i have yet used. It wins my selection as best roleplaying system for low-fantasy, historic, and modern genre stories. GURPS lets a player design a character that really resembles what they want. The core rules elegantly describe most things a person would think to do. An excelent balance is struck between realism and simplicity. On the downside, GURPS begins to break down when humanity is not the norm within the stories you wish to tell. In the copious library of GURPs suppliments, designers seem to have wildly different ideas of how to deal with super-human and alien abilities in a character. For such settings, Champions/the Hero System often works better, in my experiece. GURPs, by virtue of its richly detailed character creation system, is also a poor choice of systems for genres where Life Is Cheap. Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu and R.Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 pull off that genre element with much more panache.

One thing stands out in mind when reading this book, Centere. because(trying not to sound predujiced) if you take ANY role-playing game and say it's better than gurps, it's not because it can be used in the gurps system. it comes down to the simple fact that if you buy this, any other book you see in the store you can just say "wow, that would be fun in GURPS", not "oh, i wish i could but that". the rules are easy to follow with there being a "easy" and "realistic" mode for combat and more, it has one of the most important things ever in a rule book, lots of exaamples, and is packed full of amazing pitchures. If you only buy one book in your lifetime, this is it since everything can be melded into it.

I must confess that I am fairly new to GURPS, but I am an enthusiastic convert. I have played, or experimented with, numerous RPG systems over the years, such as Dungeons and Dragons, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Chivalry and Sorcery, and others. While all these systems have their strengths, and certainly their weaknesses, I must say that I think GURPS is the best overall RPG (Role Playing Game) system that I have ever seen. What makes it so great is the brilliant way in which it manages to combine simplicity with great depth, realism and flexibility. Once a character is created almost everything you will need to play that character is on the character sheet. There is not much need for constant reference to dozens of different tables and charts, as in some other systems. GURPS also allows you to simulate any gaming environment you can imagine, from traditional medieval fantasy to futuristic sci-fi or space opera. The book is well organized, and the material is presented in a clear readable format. I find that I can quickly and easily find most of the information I am looking for. The artwork is consistently decent; apparently almost all of it comes from the same artist. Also, unlike many RPG books, the typos are refreshingly kept at a minimum. As are all of the GURPS books I have seen, this is a professionally put together product.

The basic game mechanics are not complex, and once understood allow you fairly easily simulate almost every conceivable situation. For example, there are straightforward rules on determining whether or not an archer's bowstring has snapped when an arrow is loosed, or for determining if a sword breaks on a parry, or how much damage a shield can take before it is no longer any good. Indeed, the combat system can be as simple or as complex as you want it. In the advanced combat system the body is divided up into at least six areas where one must designate what kind of armor is being worn. A character may have on a helmet and a breastplate, but if he has not armored his arms and hands or legs and feet, those areas, while relatively harder to hit, will be more vulnerable to taking serious or critical damage, if they are struck. This combat system can be used to create a more sophisticated tactical environment than any of the other systems I have played, which more often than naught reduce combat to a series of dice rolls where opponents merely stand toe-to-toe with each other swinging back and forth until one is no longer standing. In GURPS different weapons have different advantages and disadvantages depending upon an adversary's armor. Thus in combat you must consider how an opponent is armored and what weapon they are using vs. your armor and weapons, and act accordingly. Also, in each turn you must also decide how best to move. For example, should you try a feint maneuver to fake your opponent out, stand back in an all out defense, or do you make an all out berserker charge heedless of your own defense? The rules also let you decide whether you want to try and merely wound or disarm your opponent, rather than kill them. While my examples above focus on primitive or hand-to-hand combat, the rules for advanced weapons, such as automatic rifles, futuristic beam weapons, and explosive devises are equally detailed, realistic, and playable.

So far, in my admittedly limited experience with GURPS, one of the only areas I can offer any genuine criticism is with the limited number of attributes. To achieve simplicity GURPS uses only four attributes, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Health. In my mind, the Intelligence attribute is entirely too generic, and tries to cover too many different character traits. In addition to representing raw IQ, the Intelligence attribute also represents such divergent character qualities as willpower, discipline, wisdom, and education. On this one point I think GURPS sacrifices realism for simplicity. Certainly a character's raw IQ is not identical to his or her willpower or mental discipline. Also, intelligence is not identical to wisdom or even education. All is not lost, however, for supplemental rules in "Compendium I" do allow for the addition of a Willpower attribute. Also an individual game master can easily insert additional attributes, as they deem appropriate. This criticism being noted, I should state that it will not stop me from using the system, and tweaking it as I see fit. This is one of the strengths of GURPS in that the rules and basic mechanics are given in such a way that they can be fairly easily adapted to any style or system of play; thus the "G" for "Generic" in GURPS.

Everything you need to play GURPS, with the exception of dice, is contained in this one basic book. The supplements are excellent and add additional rules and details for various types of campaign environments such as futuristic space, fantasy, supers, Feudal Japan, horror, Ancient Rome, or you name it. Whatever your gaming preference, GURPS can accommodate you. I highly recommend this system for anyone interested in RPG adventuring. Steve Jackson Games definitely has their act together!

Generic Universal Role Playing System truly is what the title says. It covers everything and still is manageable, clear and easy to learn. This system fits to most of the peaple as you can adjust the complexity of the rules. It can be very realistic, or very easy, or both.

The heart of the GURPS is it's character creation system, which is most flexible of the ones I have seen. It encourages good roleplaying as it is easy to create characters that have their unique features - not just cathegorized achitypes as in some other games.

As you probably have some favourite game-system already, you do not necessarily believe me. If so, download mini-version of the GURPS, read it and then you believe me. And buy the book. Mini version of GURPS and more information about it can be found in