Question about GURPS

[Sammael99]

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.

Not to veer this thread even further away, but a decade ago, I GMed a Vampire campaign set in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg. It was great fun ! I hadn't done near enough historical research but since my players knew even less about it than I did...

I went to StP last may and seeing it for real completely changed my perception of things

If I ever move to Russia, I'll let you know

 

[Kamard]

Wellp, I only briefly perused GURPS: Russia, but it seemed solid. It was written by S. John Ross, who, among other things, is the man.

This is his Designers Notes on the project.

Another useful thing he wrote:


Medieval Demographics Made Easy

In any case, I would trust his writing. Hes a smart designer.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Does anybody have any thoughts on the GURPS Russia?

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

GURPS: Russia is great! Buy it, read it, love it, use it.

As for accuracy, it "jibes" quite well with my slight knowledge of things Russian. In other words, I took three Russian history courses, and three semesters of Russian language in college, and nothing jumped out at me as glaring errors. But that was a long time ago, and I wasn't exactly a model student.

The book covers everything from Baba Yaga to Stenka Razin. You can see the table of contents at the SJ Games website.


edit: The one bad thing, is the letters. To make the book look Russian, the designers mis-use letters from the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet in some headings. You know what I mean - printing a capital 'R' backward so it looks Russian. Never mind that the "backward R" is really a vowel called "ya" in Russian, not the consonant "r" as we know it. A minor quibble, I know, but it bugs me just as it did 20 years ago on SCTV's "CCCP1" episode where they pronounced that acronym "3--C--P--1" even though it's really should have been "3--S--R--1"....

 

[jujutsunerd]

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.

Oh, it's nonsense allright. It's just that it's nonsense that some loonies believe. See the following link:

http://www.angelfire.com/nc/HUMMINGBIRD1/women.html

Or, if you don't trust me, read the book that page quotes from:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...tagemedi/104-3082393-7309520?v=glance&s=books

But, really, please don't. It's sanity-blastingly bad.

/Jonas

 

[johnsemlak]

edit: The one bad thing, is the letters. To make the book look Russian, the designers mis-use letters from the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet in some headings. You know what I mean - printing a capital 'R' backward so it looks Russian. Never mind that the "backward R" is really a vowel called "ya" in Russian, not the consonant "r" as we know it. A minor quibble, I know, but it bugs me just as it did 20 years ago on SCTV's "CCCP1" episode where they pronounced that acronym "3--C--P--1" even though it's really should have been "3--S--R--1".... [/B]

Yeah, The Russian backwards "R" is often misrepresented. Remember the beginning of the Hunt for Red October?

Plus, Sean Connery's and Sam Neill's Russian in that film was absolutely terrible, I watched it with two Russians and neither of them could understand it when those actors were speaking 'Russian'. Oh well, thats Hollywood.

 

[Knight Otu]

Oh, it's nonsense allright. It's just that it's nonsense that some loonies believe. See the following link:

Actually, I trust you even without any proof. I know what some people want to believe. (and I won't follow that link... too afraid for my last crumbs of sanity )

 

[La Bete]

slight thread hijack...

Go and read my name on the "Credits" page of Transhuman Space

most excellent! Transhuman space has to be my fave gurps setting material. I bought gurps bio-tech years ago in paris, and its great to see a setting use it!

On more thread related notes, gups lite is perfectly adequate for the basics - but as has been mentioned, if you start using magic etc, you'll need the relevant books.

Plus, gurps can be great for translations of games that didnt quite work, or for a different spin on them (gurps mage for example)

 

[Jeph]

On a completely unrelated note, anyone ever looked at Steve Jackson's free pirate wargame, Evil Stevie's Pirate Game? It's pretty darn cool.

www.io.com/~sj/PirateGame.html

You can usually find a game at Lego Cons.

 

[drakhe]

Having read some GURPS material, and knowing the reputation of some of the people involved (as well as my general impresion of a certain 'style' of writing by British writers) I believe the suposed mis-use of words (like the "schlager" thing) is nothing more than a very tongue-in-cheek way of sneaking humor into their publications. I know SJ likes this kind of stuff (think abhout the Munchkin book and card game) and if you've ever read a warhammer fantasy RPG book, you'll have noticed the very free play on names they aply. I guess it's simply their way of making something seem more related to the setting/story/material and at the same time inject some hidden fun. I know that my Warhammer DM is constantly trying to trip us up with this kind of stuff. There's always one or other player winking to the DM meaning "gotcha". Mind you, some of these suposed mistakes might very well be incredibly well researched items, some of these guys will go the extra mile and then some, just to make it more real or realistic. (btw: that's one of the reasons I have so much respect for the people that have created LOTR!!!!)

Another GREAT read is HACKMASTER: It's very playable (if you can get people together with the right frame of mind) but it definatly is also a very funy read !

 

[Kamard]

Having read some GURPS material, and knowing the reputation of some of the people involved (as well as my general impresion of a certain 'style' of writing by British writers)

Steve Jackson and S. John Ross are both Texans, which is about as far from being British as you can possibly get while still speaking a variant of English.