Suppressed Transmissions vs. GURPS Illuminati

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm looking at these sourcebooks -- online, no FLGS around me carries anything other than CCGs, as though it was still 1993 -- for use in non-GURPS games, either World of Darkness or using Buffy/Angel to play an ass-kicking take on the World of Darkness' subject matter. So the GURPS rules stuff doesn't matter to me.

That said, which of these two books would be most useful to me? I'm looking to introduce conspiracy elements and general corner-of-your-vision weirdness to modern gaming. I'm looking to blend the flavors of Supernatural, the X-Files, From Dusk til Dawn and so on.

 

[WayneLigon]

Suppressed Transmissions (both of them) probably would be better because of the sheer amount of material in them. Ken Hite throws in every conspiracy and weirdness thing he can think of, making connections, creating bridges between theories and strange happenings. There is enough inspiration for dozens of campaigns, not just adventures, in each volume.

There is a table of contents online.

 

[fnork de sporg]

Gurps Illuminati is relatively generic. It has lots of advice about how to run a conspiracy game, how to insert the illuminati in to a pre-existing game, howto run the game for conspiracy agents versus running it for conspiracy theorists, etc. The more specific setting elements (Bavarians, Discordians, Gnomes of Zurich, etc) are presented more as examples than anything else.

Suppressed Transmissions is more like a conspiracy monster manual containing many discrete ideas for cospiracies and conspiratorial what-not. They were originally a seres of magazine articles so they're all pretty much self contained. They're very well written and quite interesting, containing a mix of original ideas and real world conspiratorial facts and concepts.

Few gurps books are very rules heavy, but ST is almost rules-free and the bulk of that being mere page references.

 

[Professor Phobos]

Neither.

For the cost of just one Suppressed Transmission, you can get a Pyramid subscription and have access to *every* Suppressed Transmission via their archives.

Plus some other stuff, much of it decent.

As for GURPS Illuminati, while it is fairly good, Ken Hite is writing GURPS Conspiracies for 4th edition as we speak, and, well, that'll be bigger and badder.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Have they ever said why there's no third or fourth or fifth Suppressed Transmission compilation? Did they not sell that well, or was it a decision to throw more support behind the Pyramid site?

 

[Professor Phobos]

Have they ever said why there's no third or fourth or fifth Suppressed Transmission compilation? Did they not sell that well, or was it a decision to throw more support behind the Pyramid site?

The 2nd one didn't sell very well. I also figure that the first convinced many people to get a Pyramid subscription to have regular access to ST, and, well, that decreases the utility of a second book.

Personally, I'd love to see a 3rd and 4th collection, or one really huge, uber-collection.

 

[Stormborn]

I recently let my Pyramid subscription lapse due to a relative lack of Supressed Transmissions and other materials I found useful. However, it is a great value for the archives alone. I wish all the STs were collected - I have one and have never been able to find the 2nd.

So back to your question: Pyramid Subscription and Supressed Transmissions. You might want GURPs Cabal for a consipriacy and reality twisting setting too.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Personally, I'd love to see a 3rd and 4th collection, or one really huge, uber-collection.

Me, too. The decreasing frequency of ST columns meant that I was paying relatively more for the actively useless crud that is the rest of the content, so I dropped my subscription.

I still get the table of contents, for some bizarre reason, and have yet to regret dropping my subscription.

Brad

 

[Professor Phobos]

Me, too. The decreasing frequency of ST columns meant that I was paying relatively more for the actively useless crud that is the rest of the content, so I dropped my subscription.

I still get the table of contents, for some bizarre reason, and have yet to regret dropping my subscription.

Brad

Indeed, I felt the same way. I intend to wait until Ken Hite stops doing them, subscribe one last time, and get all of them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You might want GURPs Cabal for a consipriacy and reality twisting setting too.

I haven't been able to find out much detailed about this -- is it a single world-spanning uber-conspiracy, multiple competing groups (my preference) or what?