INTRODUCTION Aren’t Generic Systems

Inherently Dull and

GURPS stands for Generic Universal Roleplaying System. The name was originally a Lacking in Flavor?
joke, used as a placeholder while the writers tried to think of something to call it. To some extent, that is
Somehow they never came up with anything better and decades later, they are still using true. GURPS mitigates this
it. inherent weakness by
having optional rules which
Why Should I Try GURPS? change the way the game
feels. While the default
Because it’s a generic system, you can run almost any game in it and there is really, rules set is roughly intended
really good support for a lot of genres. The books are written by people who know what to simulate realism with a
they are talking about and have some of the highest editorial standards in the industry. slight bias towards heroic
The rules are comprehensive, with detailed systems for not just combat and magic, action, you can easily add
but social engineering, chases, inventing strange devices, crafting, managing an army and ‘cinematic’ rules to make
things more dramatic or
even farming. However, they mostly use a few simple mechanics and almost all of them
meta-game options to give
are optional. You can pick the rules you want to use in order to give detail to things you
players more control over
care about and gloss over other stuff with simple generic mechanics. the narrative.

Where Do I Start?
A good first step is to try the free version of the rules GURPS Lite. That should give
you a basic understanding of most of the important rules. Note that the games you can
really run in GURPS Lite are kind of limited to medieval historical or low fantasy, which
is only a fraction of what GURPS can do.
Once you’ve looked at that, you can move on to the two books of the Basic Set. These
have most of the rules material for the system.
If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, there are a couple of books just to help
people understand the system better: GURPS for Dummies and How to Be a GURPS
GM.

What Other books do I need?

You don’t really need any more than the Basic Set, but the following are some of the
best of the system:
• Powers is the basis for a lot of exotic abilities written up elsewhere and adds
considerable detail to the Advantages from the Basic Set as well as some new
rules and loads of examples.
• Action 2: Exploits adds a lot of rules for making GURPS less realistic and more
abstract, which speeds the system up a lot. It also includes excellent chase rules and a Any Books to Avoid?
bunch of good advice.
Magic and Ultra-Tech
• Power-Ups 3: Talents compiles all the various Talent advantages published in a both suffered badly from
bunch of different books and adds interesting new rules which make them more than being some of the first
just a way of getting skills cheaper. books published for fourth
edition and rushed editing.
• Low-Tech is the gear catalog for ancient, medieval and fantasy settings, but also has a Although most of the
load of stuff which will be useful in any game since almost every PC eventually finds content is usable, there are
themselves having to survive with primitive technology. It also re-balances some of a few balance issues and
the weapons from the Basic Set. screwed-up tables. Be sure
to check the errata.
I Heard There Was I Don’t Like the Default Magic System, What are my Options?
Ridiculously Alternative magic systems are generally found in the Thaumatology line. The main
Complicated Math Thaumatology book has a couple of complete systems (notably Path / Book Magic, which
Involved… gives a great low-fantasy feel) and options for customizing the default system a lot plus
guidelines for writing a new one.
GURPS reputation for
mathematical complexity is Or you can pick up one of the supplements which add new magic systems:
a bit overstated and mostly • Sorcery is an Advantage-based system which gives casters some flexibility. The
a hold-over from the 3rd downside is that it has an incomplete spell list, so you will have to do some work,
edition Vehicles or use unofficial sources.
supplement. However there • Chinese Elemental Powers is also advantage based, but considerably less flexible.
are quite a few points It is however a complete ready-to-go system and has a very interesting feel.
during character creation
• Ritual Path Magic is probably the most popular of the alternative magic systems.
where you will have to
multiply or divide some It allows casters to come up with spells in play, defining their effects based on a
numbers, so you may want flexible set of rules.
a calculator when doing There are also systems which are similar to Ritual Path Magic in the Discworld
that. Some optional rules do Roleplaying Game and Dungeon Fantasy 19: Incantation Magic.
have a fair bit of difficult
stuff, but you never need to
use them.
The Skill List is Huge!
Yes, but don’t be alarmed.
Most skills can be used at
default and there are
Advantages like Wild Talent
and Jack of All Trades
(from Power-Ups 3) which
make that easier if you
forgot to get something you
need.
But if you want a much What Settings Are Available?
shorter skill list, check out
Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Pretty much any setting you like can be run in GURPS, but the official, published
Skills. Wildcard skills are ones include:
much broader than normal • The Madness Dossier, a horror world where the heroes are trying to defend
skills and allow you to reality against monstrous beings who want to return it to the original timeline
bypass a lot of fiddly detail. where they ruled the Earth.
Where Can I Find • Banestorm, a fantasy setting populated by people snatched from across the
More Detailed Combat multiverse. Notable for having real world religions alongside elves, etc.
Rules? • Lands Out of Time, where dinosaurs and cavemen live alongside each other.
Mostly in the Martial Arts • Alchemical Baroque, a fantasy world more based on fairy tales than Tolkien.
line (in GURPS the term • Tales of the Solar Patrol, retro space opera.
‘martial arts’ includes There are also a number of adaptations of existing franchises, such as Mars Attacks,
basically all forms of Discworld and the Vorkosigan Saga plus some sourcebooks which don’t exactly have a
combat training, including setting as such, but provide detailed guidance for running games is a particular genre,
Western weapon forms and such as Dungeon Fantasy (old-school dungeon crawling), Monster Hunters (modern-
even firearms). For gun day urban fantasy where you hunt vampires, demons, and other horrors) and After the
rules, check out Tactical
End (post-apocalyptic).
Shooting (realistic) or Gun-
Fu (cinematic).
 LINKS Official Sources
The GURPSgen MEGA archive contains many GURPS books. In order to avoid bots If you illegally download
taking down the archive, the link is presented in a human-legible format which is difficult GURPS products and find
for machines to read. Manually type the following into your browser’s address bar (note them entertaining or useful,
that it is CASE SENSITIVE): consider paying for legal
copies from
www.warehouse23.com

If you want to add material to the archive, the logon details are:

GURPS Character Sheet

This useful app manages your character traits:
www.gurpscharactersheet.com
Simple user guide:
• Create a character sheet using 'file – new character sheet'.
• Open a trait library by clicking in the menu on the left.
• Select a trait you want to add to the character from the menu on the right.
• Copy it to the character sheet by using 'item – copy to character sheet'.
• Edit it by double clicking on the character sheet.
• Traits and items can be placed in 'containers', to group them.
• Create a new container by using the item menu.
• Existing traits and items can be dragged and dropped into containers

Wikis
gurps.wikia.com
gurpswiki.wikidot.com