4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Maimonides to Cleopatra..., March 24, 2001
This review is from: GURPS Who's Who 2 (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) (Paperback)
As in Who's Who 1, note that these are 66 of the 'most intriguing', not necessarily 'most influential', although many of them were pivotal historical figures. These are characters that might be fun and interesting in games - not just 'remove this person and the world would change forever'.
The book lists them in chronological order. In alphabetical order, they are: Archimedes, Attila the Hun, Augustine, Barton-Wright, Aphra Behn, Bernadotte, Byrd, Charles I of England, Cheng Shih (pirate queen of the Kwangtung Confederacy), Columbus, Dante, Roger de Flor, de Champlain, Churchill, Captain James Cook, Custer, Ninon de Lanclos (courtesan), El Cid, Cleopatra, Goddard, Goethe, Grant, Grace the Gambler (pirate queen of Connaught), Hannibal, Hardin, Hemingway, Hitler, Houdini, Robert E. Howard (as in Conan), Genghis Khan, Li Po, "Lucky" Luciano, Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), Maria Sibylla Merian (female 17th century naturalist), Napoleon, Nebuchadrezzar II, Admiral Nelson, Isaac Newton, Nzinga, Pinkerton, Marco Polo, Oda Nobunaga, Pythagoras, Matteo Ricci, Richard III of England, Rommel, Theodore Roosevelt, Saint-Germain (non-vampire version), Sargon II of Assyria, Shield Jaguar Lord, Stalin, Suleiman the Magnificent, Sid Vicious, von Neumann, von Richthofen (the Red Baron), William Walker.
On the front cover of this edition are shown (clockwise from upper left, starting below the title): Hannibal, Suleiman the Magnificent, Goethe, Pythagoras, Newton, and Sid Vicious.
Each character is profiled at a specific point in his or her life, with character generation information as well as a brief (usually 2-page) biography. (Custer, for example, is profiled as he was on the day of Little Big Horn, Pinkerton at the height of his powers as spymaster of the Army of the Potomac.) The authors are careful to note which statistics need to be modified if the character is to be younger or older, or if you choose to use a different spin than GURPS did. A sidebar is generally included as well, speculating on how tampering with this character would change history.
For instance, the basic profile of Hemingway is set for his Parisian days, about 1926 (age 27). For his later life, gradually phase in Bad Sight; after 1928, add Area Knowledge of Ketcham (Idaho), Key West, and Cuba, as well as Bullfighting and Powerboat; during WWII, add Contacts in the French Resistance, Intelligence Analysis, Leadership, Strategy (Land), and Tactics; in 1953 - 1954, increase Reputation +1 for winning the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, but remove Fit and add Hard of Hearing.
Maimonides' skills, to take a different example, do not ramp up so much over time. Instead, he is a great candidate for the Common Sense advantage, and has the Skeptic quirk. He is profiled as he was at age 50, in 1185 when Alfadhel became Saladin's vizier in Egypt. Maimonides' job as Alfadhel's (extremely good) court physician was less influential, though, than his work in Jewish law, theology, and philosophy. At this point, he had written the _Mishneh Torah_ (1180), but not _Guide for the Perplexed_ (1187). Removing him might not affect Saladin, but would alter Judaism drastically, with a ripple effect on other great thinkers affected directly or indirectly by his work (e.g. Muslim philosophy, Thomas Aquinas).
The GURPS basic profiles here are fairly neutral and objective (for instance, while they'll tell you how to put an Illuminated conspiracy-theory spin on a character, the base profile statistics don't make that kind of assumption). St-Germain, for one, is a perfect character for an Illuminated campaign. The profile treats him as a con artist. (He was also a gifted composer - Bach kept a copy of one of St.-Germain's compositions in his notes - but the big con was his true calling). GURPS notes his quirks of always dressing in black and white, eating/drinking little or nothing in public, and speaking of history in the first person. The sidebar notes Yarbro's portrayal of him as a vampire, but GURPS doesn't attempt to set up the statistics that way. Instead, they note how to weight the statistics to the Illuminated view of him as a Freemason (not proven) and to add even more languages, as well as an eidetic memory (which he probably did have). He appeared in several countries during very troubled times, and had many aliases - in addition to which, Casanova, among others, borrowed his identity on occasion and added even more color to it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
52 more history making people, November 12, 2002
This review is from: GURPS Who's Who 2 (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) (Paperback)
GURPS: Who's Who 2 - the second volume of a (currently) two volume set of some of history's greatest and worst characters, make 52 more people from history come to life for your GURPS and gaming campaigns.
Although another reviewer has listed all the characters that are covered by this book, it should be noted that they are not in alphabetical order in the book. Rather, they are in time period order, making it slightly harder to find a specific character unless you already have a good idea of when that character lived. Admittedly, there is a good Table of Contents and a good Index should you wish to find specific people who were written up using the GURPS RPG system for this book.
The book covers people who lived in the Ancient World and Dark Ages, The Middle Ages and Renaissance, Enlightenment and Industry, and the Twentieth Century. There is a small appendix in the back that covers a few other characters.
The strength of this book is that these people were more real people from history. It is very illuminating to see how real people are seen when measuring up to GURPS standards. Most people, when making themselves as a PC or NPC, or when creating historical NPC's for campaigns, tend to overestimate the amount of points that would be necessary to create that character.
There are also adventure seeds for each character, as well as a small group of people who never were that changed the history of their worlds. These "alternate earths" make a wonderful addition to this book, showing how history could be changed in strange ways by only one person.
I'd highly recommend this book to GURPS GM's that have historically based campaigns, and recommend this book to any student of history that might want to try to recreate a historical figure for another campaign. Non-GURPS GM's wil find the character stats fairly easy to convert to their favorite systems.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
