Question about GURPS

[Jürgen Hubert]

I find Americans in general tend to make things up and hope for the best when dealing with translations.

Maybe that's true for RPG books published for other game companies... but in general, I find that GURPS books are extremely well researched, which isn't surprising considering all the playtesting they go through (and the playtesters are from all over the world - like myself. Go and read my name on the "Credits" page of Transhuman Space ).

In fact, many of the authors of GURPS books are not American - there are Canadians, Brits, and at least one German (who wrote GURPS Modern Firepower).

If you find some spelling mistakes, go and report them so that they can be included in the errata and corrected in the next printing. Same goes for factual errors - but these are rather rare...

 

[Knight Otu]

Well, my personal impression is that they say "Let's see if we can stuff in something related to WWII/Hitler/the germans into the book, no matter how far-fetched it is, or at least put in some german words because that is cool!" As much as I love Gurps books on other counts, that is a thing that I don't like.

Jürgen: Thanks for the link! I don't have the book with me, so I'm not sure if this is the described weapon, but it seems close.

And I mentioned the Umlaut because it could get confused with the actual Schlager. Just for clarity.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Well, my personal impression is that they say "Let's see if we can stuff in something related to WWII/Hitler/the germans into the book, no matter how far-fetched it is, or at least put in some german words because that is cool!" As much as I love Gurps books on other counts, that is a thing that I don't like.

You must really hate the Suppressed Transmissions series, then...

 

[Knight Otu]

I find Americans in general tend to make things up and hope for the best when dealing with translations.

While we're at it... I SO MUCH hate the pseudogerman creature names used in Denizens of Darkness, the Ravenloft monster book. Ermordenung?? Please!

But I guess everyone thinks the same when seeing pseudotranslations into his native tongue.

 

[Knight Otu]

You must really hate the Suppressed Transmissions series, then...

Never read them.... and now I think I won't do so in the future.

 

[drnuncheon]

Never read them.... and now I think I won't do so in the future.

You're missing out - if, that is, you have any enjoyment for the sort of blend of mysticism, conspiracy theory, literature, and the like that the column is about. It's "how to game like Tim Powers writes", and they are simply incredible idea mines.

The fact that Hitler shows up in a few of them is not just because they wanted to "stick Hitler in somewhere" but because he's a major, important historical figure who is often associated with various conspiracy theories.

J

Then again, I thought the Hitler-Earth in Alternate Earths was there because "what if the other side won the war" was a classic alternate-world setting, so what do I know?

 

[Tonguez]

Then there was this url=http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Egypt/excerpts.html#lk4]sidebar in Gurps Egypt[/url] about a possible link between the name Hitler and the Hittites - who are called Hethiter in german. Now that is likely bad research.

Actually no this is standard 'Hitler occultism'. It is well established (in 'conspiracy' literature anyway) that Hitler and the Reich were interested in Occultism and the supposed 'Aryan' connection - hence his adoption of the Swastika. The whole Hitler-Occultism thing was well exploited in Raiders of the Lost Ark and provides great fodder for adventures in that era. That GURPS includes this as a side bar is a sign of its breadth of scholarship and its purpose as a gaming supplement.

Overall I reccomend the GURPS books to anyone interested in good historically accurate material that can be used in an adventure regardless of the rules set used...

 

[Knight Otu]

Just to clarify: I don't mind the inclusion of Germans or Hitler if it is done in a logical way, such as the Alternate Earths way.

The inclusion in Technomancer is a bit of a stretch, though, and the Egypt sidebar is nothing short of nonsense.

If I can see the rationale, it is ok. I would be rather surprised to see nothing about Germany in the WWII books, for example.

I may or may not look at the Suppressed Transmissions at some time, and decide upon the issue when I do so.

 

[Knight Otu]

Tonguez: My point was the proposed link between the name Hit-tites and Hit-ler, which is nonsense since the german name for Hittites is Het-hiter.

But other than that, I agree with you.

 

[johnsemlak]

Wow, this thread sure exploded into directions I didn't predict. Interesting though.

It sounds like GURPS has an excellent reputation for doing well researched historical-based RPG products. Does anybody have any thoughts on the GURPS Russia?

Myself, I hope to buy the product this christmas and post my own thoughts here.