Gurps Bio-Tech [Hardcover]

David Morgan-Mar (Author), David Pulver (Author), Abrar Ajmal (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2006

The Future is Alive
"Who needs chrome, pal? Meat is where it's at now. Mother Nature always did it best - she just needed a little help. Get down to the black clinic, old-timer, and you can be 15 again. That is, if you still want to be human at all."
It's the technology of the posthuman age: biotech! Upgrade your old body with steroids and smart drugs, transplants, and viral nano . . . or just get a new one. Maybe you don't think being human is so great? Then improve on nature with eugenics and gene-fixing. Or just go parahuman: if you love cats, become one! The technology's changing fast, but you'll have lots of time to get used to it - death is a temporary inconvenience with cryonics and immortality drugs. And who needs silicon and steel? Vatbrain biocomputers are where it's really at!
But it's not just about the future. GURPS Bio-Tech includes a full range of 19th, 20th, and 21st-century medical equipment, from early vaccines to surgical robots, along with game stats for the world's most deadly diseases.
GURPS Bio-Tech also includes a complete set of character templates for biotech professions, rules for biotech magic, and two original campaign settings: an alternate Earth ruled by a clone of Alexander the Great, and a a living starship on its way to colonize an alien world!
Say goodbye to your old body. Have you upgraded your genetics this year?
This is the second edition of GURPS Bio-Tech. It has been revised to the GURPS Fourth Edition rules and expanded to cover medicine, drugs, magic, and new technologies. Some entries were introduced in GURPS Space, GURPS Robots, and the Transhuman Space series.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Steve Jackson Games; 4th edition (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556347529
• ISBN-13: 978-1556347528
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, Useful, Fun, November 28, 2006

By 

Quentin Stark (Las Cruces, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gurps Bio-Tech (Hardcover)

Bio-Tech has been re-written and expanded for GURPS 4th Edition, and is physically impressive -- full colour, some reasonable art, twice as many pages. The text divides between theory and game-specific material.

The theory part is a fairly detailed and, so far as I know, up to date discussion of medical technology, selective breeding, genetic modifications to animals and plants, genetics, and cellular biology, with interesting speculations on gene therapies, genetic engineering and gross surgical alteration. Although interesting and instructive, the theory part is, from a game point of view, mostly fluff which explains the origin of some of the exotic advantages that characters can have in a hard-SF background.

Bio-Tech also touches on, then skirts around nanotechnology, presumably because this will be covered in more detail in the forth-coming Ultra-Tech, which is referenced throughout the volume.

The game-specific part lists genetic alterations to the human genome by tech level, surgical and therapeutic procedures to upgrade characters during play, provides new spells for magically based backgrounds, and provides rules for and examples of current and futuristic drugs and medical nanotech. It also features geneered animals and plants. The best and most immediately useful part is a chapter devoted to templates, human and para-human, that has been updated from the previous Bio-Tech book, and from Transhuman Space.

All the foregoing material is excellent stuff. Sadly, the final part of the book, which features two capsule backgrounds, is less good. One has clones of Alexander the Great ruling the world, the other is a short account of a slower-than-light colonisation fleet on its way to Lambda Serpentis. Neither of these parts is particularly well detailed, and I'd have preferred more information on bio-vehicles and bio-buildings. It is a minor gripe, though -- the meat of the book is more than worth the cover price.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Supplement!!, August 31, 2007

By 

P. Mandrekar (Oregon, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gurps Bio-Tech (Hardcover)

Hi There,

I have been reading RPG supplements for a long time. This one is a very handy supplement, even if you're not playing GURPS. This book is well researched, and seems to add a lot along the lines of Genetic Engineering, and Medicine to the game, while distilling materials into SJ Games Excellent 4th Edition.

I am not an author, but in the interests of disclosing my affiliation with the product, I was a Playtester of the product, prior to release.
I was very impressed with how this product turned out.

5.0 out of 5 stars A glimpse of the future ..., February 15, 2011

By 

Th.Leite - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gurps Bio-Tech (Hardcover)

Besides giving him a condition to enter this science in any scenario, it comes with a fantastic scenario. Very good, but use with care, it is easy to unbalance the scenario.