GURPS at 50%

[Tiew]

Hey everybody, a local gaming store is selling all of its non D&D rpg books at 50% off. I went ahead and got the GURPS 3rd edition main book and the sci-fi and the wildwest supplements. Never played GURPS before but I still remember a guy describing it to me long before I got into D&D and really wanting to play. I'm really enjoying reading the Wild West book since its lots of interesting bite sized history pieces. Not sure how well I could make a game in it though.

Anyway, after that longish preamble, are there any other particularly good GURPS supplements I should try to get while they are so cheap? Any other comments on GURPS for someone who has never played but is intrueged.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Magic and Space are well done. I also reccomend Biotech.

 

[haiiro]

I'm not much of a GURPS player, but Transhuman Space, Illuminati and Warehouse 23 are all great reads -- and full of neat ideas.

 

[Henry]

are there any other particularly good GURPS supplements I should try to get while they are so cheap?

Every. Damned. Thing. They. Have.

The good thing about GURPS supplements (regardless of edition) is that they are so full of facts, figures, adventure hooks, characterizations, and other information is that they would almost each be considered DEFINITIVE gaming books of the era they are in. I have yet to be disappointed with a GURPS supplement - I own or have owned about 12 of them (Fantasy, Fantasy II, Alternate Earths, Time Travel, Wild West, Space, Supers, IST, High Tech, Ultra Tech, Rome, and Egypt) and they are good idea books for any DM.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I would use GURPS for any modern era game I run. Well, maybe not CoC D20, but just about anything else.
I like the realism in the system and if I ever get any kind of demands for a modern game, I'll probably grab the 4th edition books.

As for using it for fantasy, I have D&D for that.

Low-tech, High-Tech, Ultra-Tech. Pre-Contemporary, Contemporary, Futuristic. That's the way those books flow.

 

[WayneLigon]

I would get any of the world books. In case you want to move on to 4rth Ed later on, I'd stay away from the rules-heavy books (Vehicles, the various template books like Wizards and Warriors, Rules Compendium 1 & 2, and a couple others). Get any and all of the world books since they are generally so rules-light as to be useful in any game.

If for some reason you decide to run a 3rd ed game, then by all means get Rules Compendium 1. 2 you could hold off on - I did - because thet has all the combat rules. 1 is all the character-based stuff.

 

[Dextolen]

GURPS suffers from good game-itis. All you really need is the core rules and if you have a little bit of time and creativity, you don't need any other books. Vampire and d6 Star Wars also 'suffered' from this. Good for gamers, bad for game companies.

That being said, I want to check out the GURPS WWII series of books.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I really like the Transhuman Space line, but since I wrote for it, I am biased.

Really, you can't go wrong with the books - though if you are either planning to use GURPS 4E or plunder the books for other games (lots of people do that), you should thumb through it and see if the rule parts are longer than the non-rules parts (as it is the case with GURPS Vehicles, for example).

Personally, one of the few books I wouldn't recommend is GURPS Fantasy II, but then again, having Winnie the Pooh and friends as cthonic deities terrorizing agnostic Native Americans is an acquired taste...

 

[Wombat]

Ah, the wonder that is a GURPS supplement!

At one time I owned the core rules -- I sold them off because I loathed the system, but I gleefully own something like a dozen different setting books. Cabal, Goblins, Transhuman Space, New Sun, Steamtech, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Religion, Swashbucklers, it's all good! I just ignore the crunchy bits and then mine these puppies for all they are worth!

 

[Treebore]

I love the Traveller books, mostly because it also has the stats compatible for Classic Traveller. The material is great for campaign development too.