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GURPS Third Edition
GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition, Revised
Adventure in any world you can think of, with GURPS , the Generic Universal RolePlaying System â€� the most flexible roleplaying system you can use. If you haven't yet upgraded to the Fourth Edition . Ìý.Ìý. you're a completist .Ìý.Ìý. or you're looking for a dose of nostalgia, here's the previous edition! It's easy to learn â€� you can jump right in with the included quick-start rules, pre-designed characters, and an easy-to-play solo adventure. The Basic Set is designed to be "Game Master-friendly," with Table of Contents, Glossary, Appendix, and Index, as well as lots of examples.
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Steve Jackson
204Ìýbooks70ÌýfollowersAmerican game designer, often confused with the British game designer of the same name.
Author of games/systems such as GURPS, Illuminati, CarWars, and Munchkins.
See also:
Steve Jackson, co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series (NB the US game designer also wrote 3 titles in this series)
Steve Jackson, author of works on crime
Steve Jackson, Scottish thriller writer
Author of games/systems such as GURPS, Illuminati, CarWars, and Munchkins.
See also:
Steve Jackson, co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series (NB the US game designer also wrote 3 titles in this series)
Steve Jackson, author of works on crime
Steve Jackson, Scottish thriller writer
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 21, 2021
12/16/2012: GURPS was an interesting concept, and in some ways a logical development of trends in gaming at the time, but it never really worked that well for me. The realization had come about that gamers liked to be able to play in a variety of world-contexts, but that it was a real hassle learning a whole new giant set of rules each time you started a new campaign. Steve Jackson games had the bright idea of codifying rpgs in general into a single volume, then releasing supplemental "Worldbooks" providing the specifics for playing in different settings (medieval-fantasy, cyberpunk, space opera, post-apocalypse, spy thriller, or whatever). From the point of view of Steve Jackson Games, this meant that the more people got hooked on GURPS, the more they would buy Steve Jackson products (which were compatible) over other companies' products (which were not). The result, from the player's perspective, was rather like buying a Macintosh computer: great, as long as you like the operating system, but very limited if you want easy compatibility with non-users. What it really came down to is that GURPS might provide the best Worldbooks for certain types of campaigns (I'd say the Cyberpunk, Autoduel, and 50s Sci Fi Worldbooks were standouts), but certainly not for every possible campaign (they couldn't compete with D&D or Call of Cthulhu).
For me as a player, there were two problems, although some people would see either or both of these as advantages, to GURPS. First was the reliance on six-sided dice. For some reason, around this time, there was a kind of revolt within the gaming community against all those fascinating polyhedrons that had drawn me into gaming in the first place. Suddenly it was seen as unnecessarily complicated to have to use an 8-sided die for hit dice, a 20-sided die for combat, and percentile dice for other skill resolution. Steve Jackson's solution was to make every die roll rely on three six-sided dice. Now, perhaps I'm unusual, but I have a harder time finding three matching six-siders than I do tracking down two ten-siders to use as percentile dice. Furthermore, although I understand the principle of the bell-curve, I find it harder to calculate on the fly what chance someone has of rolling a 7 or less on 3 six-sided dice, than figuring out what 35% looks like. Finally, this makes modifiers to the roll wildly inconsistent; taking -1 from a roll for 8 or less has a much larger impact than taking -1 from a roll for 17 or less. -5% is always -5%.
The other concern I have was with the way health was handled. A character started with a certain health level, which was unlikely to change across game play. Of course, that's realistic, but not necessarily good for game mechanics. As unrealistic as it may be for a character to gain "hit points" as they increase in level, it means that they can take on increasingly difficult challenges without worrying about the increased threat as they progress. It makes the game work, even if it is a little silly.
In terms of this book, it works well as an introduction, both to the system and to gaming in general. It includes a rather interesting "solo adventure" in the back, which is more or less like a choose-your-own-adventure gamebook, but oddly set up to simulate a burglar breaking into a house and plundering goodies - rather an odd scenario for an introduction, but at least no one could claim it was too violent. There's also a standard intro adventure, some starter PCs, and the general rules. Sidebars give specifics, charts, and examples, and also serve in the character creation section to provide a narrative for designing a sample character. One minor nit-pick is that there are more references than necessary to "autoduelling" in the basic rules, reflecting the popularity of the Car Wars games by Steve Jackson.
GURPS was a fairly good game overall, and one of the cool things it did was to offer extensive lists of possible skills, attributes, and character quirks that could easily be integrated into other game systems. There are definitely reasons it gained many loyal followers, I simply never was entirely converted myself.
Added 8/20/2021: As is often the case, having exhaustively read the entire book, I think for the first time all the way through, years later, I find that the substance of the above review still stands. Here are a few additional observations:
1. Poverty as disadvantage. The solo adventure is quite playable, as I suggested above, and does have the benefit of helping one realizer that the seemingly complex rules one has just waded through really are easily applied in most situations. But it has another problem. A reasonably smart or lucky player, running the “Dai Blackthorn� pre-gen that it was evidently designed for, is going to come out of it with about $2000 in loot. Why is this a problem? Because Dai has been designed with the disadvantage of “Poor.� This should mean that he only has about $200 total worth in possessions � gaining more wealth means he no longer has this disadvantage, and becomes unbalanced. In theory, one could “buy off� this disadvantage using Character Points (the equivalent of xp), but the adventure is only worth three or four at most (more likely 1 or 2), and it would take 15 points to “buy off� this disadvantage. This leaves the GM with a quandary, and I can only think of a few creative ways to address it: One would be to allow the character to run a deficit in points, and insist that all cp from the next 4-6 adventures go into paying off this deficit, but this doesn’t work because if Dai becomes still richer through further success as a thief, he will spend the rest of his career just “buying wealth� with points, not improving skills or developing. A second option would be to force Dai to “buy off� this disadvantage by giving up an advantage of equal worth. This is expedient, but there is no logical in-world narrative to explain why a thief suddenly loses his innate sense of danger or his night vision when he gains some spoils. The final way to play it that I can think of would be to rule that so long as the disadvantage remains, he is more or less “unlucky with money.� He can have $2000, but he will never spend it � it will be lost, stolen from his squalid quarters, or frittered away on bad investments/drugs/alcohol/gambling, until he earns the points to buy off the disadvantage. No doubt all of these have been used by GMs at some time, but GURPS offers no suggestions how to proceed.
2. Lameness of the intro adventure: I referred to the second adventure, the one written for group play as “standard� in my initial review, and it is certainly more complete than many “sample dungeons� included in other games, but…reading through it carefully, I can’t imagine subjecting it to a group of my friends. Set in a vaguely Middle-Eastern Medieval world, it has the adventurers become caravan guards, navigating bandits, tax collectors, forced weddings and kidnapped damsels. The structure is loose to the point of being aimless at times, and the story is just not terribly compelling. Most of the NPCs are caricatures, which would be less problematic if not for the cultural stereotypes that thus slip through. And, despite being Medieval, it is in no way a fantasy campaign. No magic, monsters, or even real swashbuckling in sight. Even a genii in a bottle would be a welcome sight, but apparently it was decided either that they wanted to avoid stepping on D&D territory, or that the magic system was simply too complex for beginning players
3. Complexity and rigidity of the magic system: And that brings me to my final point. This is the first time I’ve made a systematic attempt to decipher the magic system of GURPS, which, given its claim to be “Universal� to a wide number of different possible worlds, is remarkably limiting. Any world in the multiverse draws its magic from “Mana,� which may be strong in one world or weak in another, but it is always the same, as, apparently, are the spells and magic items one may craft from it. Use of magic drains the magic user of either strength or health, meaning that they cannot use physical ability scores as “dump stats� and indeed may need good strength more than warriors. The system for progressing as a magician is to develop new skills related by their connection (primarily) to the four elements � so a magician who can raise a wall of fire is unlikely to be skilled in breathing water or walking on air � and the system seems quite complex. That said, I thought the skill system was complex, until I had the chance to try it out in the solo adventure, so the problem may just be that they didn’t give us a chance to practice magic in the basic rule set.
None of which is to say that GURPS is a terrible game; it’s far from the worst system I’ve seen and I have had some fun sessions of play in my time. I just think it will never really be “my� game. An interesting attempt to universalize role playing rules, but not a ringing success.
For me as a player, there were two problems, although some people would see either or both of these as advantages, to GURPS. First was the reliance on six-sided dice. For some reason, around this time, there was a kind of revolt within the gaming community against all those fascinating polyhedrons that had drawn me into gaming in the first place. Suddenly it was seen as unnecessarily complicated to have to use an 8-sided die for hit dice, a 20-sided die for combat, and percentile dice for other skill resolution. Steve Jackson's solution was to make every die roll rely on three six-sided dice. Now, perhaps I'm unusual, but I have a harder time finding three matching six-siders than I do tracking down two ten-siders to use as percentile dice. Furthermore, although I understand the principle of the bell-curve, I find it harder to calculate on the fly what chance someone has of rolling a 7 or less on 3 six-sided dice, than figuring out what 35% looks like. Finally, this makes modifiers to the roll wildly inconsistent; taking -1 from a roll for 8 or less has a much larger impact than taking -1 from a roll for 17 or less. -5% is always -5%.
The other concern I have was with the way health was handled. A character started with a certain health level, which was unlikely to change across game play. Of course, that's realistic, but not necessarily good for game mechanics. As unrealistic as it may be for a character to gain "hit points" as they increase in level, it means that they can take on increasingly difficult challenges without worrying about the increased threat as they progress. It makes the game work, even if it is a little silly.
In terms of this book, it works well as an introduction, both to the system and to gaming in general. It includes a rather interesting "solo adventure" in the back, which is more or less like a choose-your-own-adventure gamebook, but oddly set up to simulate a burglar breaking into a house and plundering goodies - rather an odd scenario for an introduction, but at least no one could claim it was too violent. There's also a standard intro adventure, some starter PCs, and the general rules. Sidebars give specifics, charts, and examples, and also serve in the character creation section to provide a narrative for designing a sample character. One minor nit-pick is that there are more references than necessary to "autoduelling" in the basic rules, reflecting the popularity of the Car Wars games by Steve Jackson.
GURPS was a fairly good game overall, and one of the cool things it did was to offer extensive lists of possible skills, attributes, and character quirks that could easily be integrated into other game systems. There are definitely reasons it gained many loyal followers, I simply never was entirely converted myself.
Added 8/20/2021: As is often the case, having exhaustively read the entire book, I think for the first time all the way through, years later, I find that the substance of the above review still stands. Here are a few additional observations:
1. Poverty as disadvantage. The solo adventure is quite playable, as I suggested above, and does have the benefit of helping one realizer that the seemingly complex rules one has just waded through really are easily applied in most situations. But it has another problem. A reasonably smart or lucky player, running the “Dai Blackthorn� pre-gen that it was evidently designed for, is going to come out of it with about $2000 in loot. Why is this a problem? Because Dai has been designed with the disadvantage of “Poor.� This should mean that he only has about $200 total worth in possessions � gaining more wealth means he no longer has this disadvantage, and becomes unbalanced. In theory, one could “buy off� this disadvantage using Character Points (the equivalent of xp), but the adventure is only worth three or four at most (more likely 1 or 2), and it would take 15 points to “buy off� this disadvantage. This leaves the GM with a quandary, and I can only think of a few creative ways to address it: One would be to allow the character to run a deficit in points, and insist that all cp from the next 4-6 adventures go into paying off this deficit, but this doesn’t work because if Dai becomes still richer through further success as a thief, he will spend the rest of his career just “buying wealth� with points, not improving skills or developing. A second option would be to force Dai to “buy off� this disadvantage by giving up an advantage of equal worth. This is expedient, but there is no logical in-world narrative to explain why a thief suddenly loses his innate sense of danger or his night vision when he gains some spoils. The final way to play it that I can think of would be to rule that so long as the disadvantage remains, he is more or less “unlucky with money.� He can have $2000, but he will never spend it � it will be lost, stolen from his squalid quarters, or frittered away on bad investments/drugs/alcohol/gambling, until he earns the points to buy off the disadvantage. No doubt all of these have been used by GMs at some time, but GURPS offers no suggestions how to proceed.
2. Lameness of the intro adventure: I referred to the second adventure, the one written for group play as “standard� in my initial review, and it is certainly more complete than many “sample dungeons� included in other games, but…reading through it carefully, I can’t imagine subjecting it to a group of my friends. Set in a vaguely Middle-Eastern Medieval world, it has the adventurers become caravan guards, navigating bandits, tax collectors, forced weddings and kidnapped damsels. The structure is loose to the point of being aimless at times, and the story is just not terribly compelling. Most of the NPCs are caricatures, which would be less problematic if not for the cultural stereotypes that thus slip through. And, despite being Medieval, it is in no way a fantasy campaign. No magic, monsters, or even real swashbuckling in sight. Even a genii in a bottle would be a welcome sight, but apparently it was decided either that they wanted to avoid stepping on D&D territory, or that the magic system was simply too complex for beginning players
3. Complexity and rigidity of the magic system: And that brings me to my final point. This is the first time I’ve made a systematic attempt to decipher the magic system of GURPS, which, given its claim to be “Universal� to a wide number of different possible worlds, is remarkably limiting. Any world in the multiverse draws its magic from “Mana,� which may be strong in one world or weak in another, but it is always the same, as, apparently, are the spells and magic items one may craft from it. Use of magic drains the magic user of either strength or health, meaning that they cannot use physical ability scores as “dump stats� and indeed may need good strength more than warriors. The system for progressing as a magician is to develop new skills related by their connection (primarily) to the four elements � so a magician who can raise a wall of fire is unlikely to be skilled in breathing water or walking on air � and the system seems quite complex. That said, I thought the skill system was complex, until I had the chance to try it out in the solo adventure, so the problem may just be that they didn’t give us a chance to practice magic in the basic rule set.
None of which is to say that GURPS is a terrible game; it’s far from the worst system I’ve seen and I have had some fun sessions of play in my time. I just think it will never really be “my� game. An interesting attempt to universalize role playing rules, but not a ringing success.
February 28, 2018
This book has not aged well. Also, reading it made it very clear to me that the success of GURPS is down to the supplements, not this book.
The writing is dense, and the tone often rather arrogant towards other roleplaying games. Also, it makes some rather peculiar assertions about realism in particular.
GURPS certainly has its place in the canon of roleplaying, but it's no reading pleasure.
(Note: I'm rating this as a book, not as a roleplaying game)
The writing is dense, and the tone often rather arrogant towards other roleplaying games. Also, it makes some rather peculiar assertions about realism in particular.
GURPS certainly has its place in the canon of roleplaying, but it's no reading pleasure.
(Note: I'm rating this as a book, not as a roleplaying game)
September 11, 2019
Creo que el mejor libro de reglas genéricas para rol.
¿Por qué es el mejor? Pues porque hay ambientaciones para dar y regalar: Roma, Grecia, Egipto, Cyberpunk, Cthulhu-Punk, Conejitos, Ulluminati... Casi cualquier época histórica, presente, pasada o futura tiene un libro de Steve Jackson. Incluso hay adaptaciones de reglas para Mundo de Tinieblas, CoC, D&D, D20...
¿Cómo funciona GURPS? Fácil: Tienes un personaje y repartes puntos en habilidades, caracterÃsticas, trasfondo, ventajas, y si te faltan, en desventajas, que dan puntos al pool inicial. Las habilidades están basadas en las caracterÃsticas principales del personaje, y suben cuando suben las caracterÃsticas, las ventajas dan bonus y las desventajas malus, y se usan 3D6 para los checks.
El combate tiene mucha chicha. Hay dos formas de combatir (realmente miles), una sencilla y otra complicada. La sencilla es más que suficiente para jugadores que busquen dinamismo. La complicada incluye localizaciones, movimientos, golpes de artes marciales, etc... Lo suficiente para que haya suplementos completos de combate para darle vida a los más frikis del Twilight 2000. Y se pueden tomar partes del modo difÃcil para ir dando vida a los combates si nos gustan los tiros y nos da miedo enfrentarnos a tomos de reglas.
¿Magia? Hay suplementos para dar asco. Funcionan como las habilidades y pueden generar o no fatiga... vamos, un sistema más. Sólo que puedes adaptar hasta la sigaldrÃa, la magia de palabra, etc... de cualquier mundo o novela que te tropieces. Por adaptar está adaptado Mundodisco, no digo más. Yo adapté el sistema de magia del AD&D sin mucho problema y sin perder el espÃrito del sistema de magia original.
Psiónica, naves, coches, armas... todo.
La gran ventaja... bueno, yo adapté en su tiempo Marines Espaciales Vs Predator, Vs Alien, mundos de fantasÃa, mundos steampunk y muchas chorradas más. Es fácil y sencillo.
Ahora mismo están por una edición mayor que no han traducido. Pero la tercera se puede conseguir por según que cÃrculos. Y si sabes algo de inglés ya ni hablamos. Ultrarrecomendable, pero no es para neófitos. Hay que ser rolero de pro para caerte en GURPS y poderle sacar provecho.
Aún asÃ, el resto de ambientaciones merecen muchÃsimo la pena. La de Roma es genial por méritos propios. Quizás con este libro se entiendan mejor los términos de las ambientaciones, pero lo mismo ni hace falta.
¿Por qué es el mejor? Pues porque hay ambientaciones para dar y regalar: Roma, Grecia, Egipto, Cyberpunk, Cthulhu-Punk, Conejitos, Ulluminati... Casi cualquier época histórica, presente, pasada o futura tiene un libro de Steve Jackson. Incluso hay adaptaciones de reglas para Mundo de Tinieblas, CoC, D&D, D20...
¿Cómo funciona GURPS? Fácil: Tienes un personaje y repartes puntos en habilidades, caracterÃsticas, trasfondo, ventajas, y si te faltan, en desventajas, que dan puntos al pool inicial. Las habilidades están basadas en las caracterÃsticas principales del personaje, y suben cuando suben las caracterÃsticas, las ventajas dan bonus y las desventajas malus, y se usan 3D6 para los checks.
El combate tiene mucha chicha. Hay dos formas de combatir (realmente miles), una sencilla y otra complicada. La sencilla es más que suficiente para jugadores que busquen dinamismo. La complicada incluye localizaciones, movimientos, golpes de artes marciales, etc... Lo suficiente para que haya suplementos completos de combate para darle vida a los más frikis del Twilight 2000. Y se pueden tomar partes del modo difÃcil para ir dando vida a los combates si nos gustan los tiros y nos da miedo enfrentarnos a tomos de reglas.
¿Magia? Hay suplementos para dar asco. Funcionan como las habilidades y pueden generar o no fatiga... vamos, un sistema más. Sólo que puedes adaptar hasta la sigaldrÃa, la magia de palabra, etc... de cualquier mundo o novela que te tropieces. Por adaptar está adaptado Mundodisco, no digo más. Yo adapté el sistema de magia del AD&D sin mucho problema y sin perder el espÃrito del sistema de magia original.
Psiónica, naves, coches, armas... todo.
La gran ventaja... bueno, yo adapté en su tiempo Marines Espaciales Vs Predator, Vs Alien, mundos de fantasÃa, mundos steampunk y muchas chorradas más. Es fácil y sencillo.
Ahora mismo están por una edición mayor que no han traducido. Pero la tercera se puede conseguir por según que cÃrculos. Y si sabes algo de inglés ya ni hablamos. Ultrarrecomendable, pero no es para neófitos. Hay que ser rolero de pro para caerte en GURPS y poderle sacar provecho.
Aún asÃ, el resto de ambientaciones merecen muchÃsimo la pena. La de Roma es genial por méritos propios. Quizás con este libro se entiendan mejor los términos de las ambientaciones, pero lo mismo ni hace falta.
March 3, 2022
Minha porta de entrada para o mundo do RPG de mesa. Muitas regras (incluindo a infame "regra de cavar buraco"), mas tendo paciência para selecionar o que é relevante para o tipo de campanha e o estilo de mestrar de cada um, é uma excelente base. Eu, por exemplo, não usaria tantas regras para atirar flechas e deixaria o contexto e o roleplay valerem como prioridade aÃ, usando rolagens simples de dados conforme necessário para definir se acertou, qual o dano etc.
December 2, 2022
Represents the sweet spot for GURPS core books as far as I am concerned - 4th folds too much into core, whereas the revised 3rd Edition Basic Set gives you enough tools for the job without becoming daunting in the number of options it gives you. Full review:
March 19, 2022
I read this way back when I still played rpgs in the 90s. In fact this was my introduction to rpgs, and I enjoyed reading its intricate rules and humorous text. Even if you don't play anything, it's well worth reading.
September 16, 2018
Canonical & classical omni purposes RPG system! I bought it only because I knew there is the "War against the Chtorran" from David Gerrold itself!
October 12, 2020
I've been playing - and collecting - GURPS materials for *way* too long. This isn't really the sort of book you read through, although you can if you want. Instead, it's a system for running a game, and one that's easily modifiable to pretty much whatever you want to play.
I switch between this and White Wolf's 2nd edition World of Darkness materials mostly. But I come back to this specifically for the quote about ice cream.
I switch between this and White Wolf's 2nd edition World of Darkness materials mostly. But I come back to this specifically for the quote about ice cream.
January 25, 2008
The very first pencil and paper roleplaying game I ever played. Extensive character specifications and development. Not your D&D basic set with your experience and item assignment dungeon master's guide or specific monsters like in the monster manual. Infact, there's no rules for experience at all. It's completely up to the GM on how well he/she thinks you played your character.
August 16, 2011
My favorite RPG. While there are some flaws to the system, they are usually easily overcome by laying out some house rules. Since the system is so open, house rules are easy to implement as are custom skills, items, powers, etc.
September 11, 2015
I love how this system says, "Hi, here is a one page summary of our rules! Simple, right? Now here's 250 pages of INSANELY COMPLICATED GIBBERISH."
But hey, it's the foundation for Bunnies & Burrows, so it is what it is.
But hey, it's the foundation for Bunnies & Burrows, so it is what it is.
September 29, 2012
Favorite RPG system.
September 21, 2020
Very flexible framework for different settings. More for pick up and go type of games
August 23, 2016
Good old times!
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