GURPS Y2K: The Countdown to Armageddon (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) [Paperback]

John Ford (Author), Scott Haring (Contributor), Kenneth Hite (Contributor), Steve Jackson (Contributor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Steve Jackson Games (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556344066
• ISBN-13: 978-1556344060
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,089,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert M. Schroeck (1962-present) is a life-long New Jersey resident. Although he majored in Creative Writing at Princeton University, he has made his living as a computer programmer since the middle 1980s. His secondary career as an author and editor came about mostly by happy accident, when a stray post in an early online forum earned him an invitation to write a chapter for an upcoming book from Steve Jackson Games. Although he has worked almost entirely in roleplaying games, he still hopes to break into fiction writing, just as soon as his life calms down a little. Although he has won no formal awards for his work, he is unconcerned; he considers Peggy, his wife of twenty years, prize enough.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, April 5, 2000

By 

Blake (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GURPS Y2K: The Countdown to Armageddon (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) (Paperback)

Well, overall the book was pretty well made. It touched upon many of the common topics and settings for a post holocaust envirnoment including everything from minor computer glitches to the Biblical apacalypse and "Mad Max" and "The Postman" type situations. Even alien invasion was discussed in the essays. All seven authors of the book provided well written source matterial. Y2k also gives information on realistic rioting and anarchy.

There was one point I did not like about the book though. It would make many references to other GURPS source books, some of which were out of print, for more material on a subject. I feel that some of the writing was judt put in a advertisements and "plug" for other books.

Personally, I wish they had touched more on the "Mad Max," "Postman," and "Fallout" (a post-apacalyptic computer game) scenarios, but I do realize that the book was created for post Y2K campaigns and that everyone does not like what I like.

Overall, though, the book provides good post distaster material.

4.0 out of 5 stars Post-Apocalypse Role-Playing, November 12, 2002

By 

Bruce Gray "gurpsgm" (Shenandoah Valley, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GURPS Y2K: The Countdown to Armageddon (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) (Paperback)

GURPS Y2K seems poised to be a good sourcebook for post-apocalyptic role-playing. Don't be put off by the name - this book contains much more than just the millennium bug.

Starting with a chapter on Y2K (which we know on 20-20 hindsight never became the calamity that some were predicting), there are ideas in this book for everything from a complete world-wide computer shutdown, to "Mad Max" type worlds, and even the biblical "Judgement Day", along with several others. There's also a section on a super-hero world suffering from post-apocalypse blues.

The "sidebars" (sections of the book along the sides of each page) contain even more material that can be used to put your game world in a state of chaos. Some of these sidebars beg to be put into whole worlds of their own.

But the book suffers slightly when it reads a little like a collection of articles about post-apocalypse scenarios in gaming, rather than a single world presented in RPG terms. The =nine= authors each contributed a section or two to this book, and only the excellent effort by Sean Punch to put it all together under one roof keeps this book from being merely a collection of unrelated after Armageddon articles.

I'd still recommend this book for people wanting to see what their campaign world would look like after a major catastrophe, or for people wanting to explore what happens after.