Runo Knows...GURPS All-Star Jam 2004
I've got a stack of GURPS books to get through reviewing. The last one is Transhuman Space: Under Pressure, and I thought, hey, I'll save that until I re-read Transhuman Space, THS: In the Well, and THS: Deep Beyond (I don't own, yet, Fifth Wave or Spaceships of the Solar System, and I'll probably start looking soon to buy them). That still leaves this Runo Knows... plus GURPS Undead and GURPS Mecha.
And tomorrow I should be getting a box from Amazon with a new Armageddon: 2089 book (Earth 2089), a new Charles Stross novel, the new Richard K. Morgan Black Widow graphic novel, and some other stuff I'd put in there and forgotten about. Geez. Not to mention I'm still reading The World is Flat (updated & revised) by Thomas L. Friedman, given to me in the same present with Confessions of an Economic Hitman and much, much, MUCH better so far.
Sigh. Oh, and I've got a "What if?" history book still sitting in my car, almost done, that I've been reading for months.
Enough digression.
GASJ2K4 (heh...I don't know if that's better than writing out "GURPS All-Star Jam 2004" or not) has 9 authors writing about whatever they wanted to. So, basically, you have 9 different ideas for campaigns. Honestly, I mostly picked it up because I saw Ken Hite was in there - I haven't read anything of his so far that I haven't enjoyed (take that double negatives) and so I try to buy whatever I can of the author in that situation. So let's go over the 9 essays and see what I think. Remember, as always - your mileage may vary, and I may not care what you think (even if you're the author).
Essay 1: Ghost Breaking by Ken Hite. A fun description of, basically, playing Ghostbusters in GURPS...a bit more GURPS mechanic-y than I expected from Ken Hite, but still a good article. It's not my cup of tea, but it's got the esoteric knowledge that I enjoy reading.
2: Alchemical Baroque by Phil Masters. This is kind of a low-power magic late-midevil (I know I misspelled that shut up) time frame game. It actually interested me much more than I expected, though I would've preferred if it was set a bit more historical than was given (note: you will RARELY hear me say that). Almost like a 7 Seas game set a bit earlier in time, and gosh knows I had a heck of a lot of fun playing in
dan_oz's 7 Seas games.
(Does anyone else lose their cursor when adding a LJ user link? Grrr.)
3: Mythic Babysitting by Elizabeth McCoy and Walter Milliken. Basically, if you've read GURPS IOU, you know the basics behind this kind of game. It's not necessarily bad, and there was a time when I would've really, really enjoyed this style campaign a lot more than I do now. I don't want to say anything obnoxious like "I've grown up" I think it's more just that my tastes have changed. Still, it's silly, it's a change of pace, and it was a fun read.
4: Meridian by David Pulver. When it comes to sci-fi, David Pulver is usually an "I win" button for my tastes. See, when I'm done with it, my reviews of Transhuman Space and GURPS Mecha. The idea of an interstellar train system I think is exceptionally neat, and the whole background - I get the impression - needs just a few more pages, but perhaps not a whole GURPS book. If I wasn't so damned lazy, I'd google it and see if there's any follow ups to it.
5: The Last Spartan by Gene Seabolt. Let's play GURPS Greece. To be honest, it just ain't my cup of tea.
6: Underground by William H. Stoddard. Not as much a campaign setting as, like Ken Hite's Ghost-Breaking, a treatment of an aspect of a campaign, and in good GURPS fashion, made generic(-ish). It's interesting to read, and I could definitely see me using it if I ever ran a horror game (and what are the odds of me running ANYTHING lately?).
7: Airships by Brian J. Underhill. In a continuing attempt to discount my initial statement about campaign settings in this book, this is a treatise on airships in history and what they can be used for. Given my current(-ish) pulp fascination, and the obvious tie-ins with Crimson Skies, I had a hoot reading this one. As with a lot of the GURPS vehicular things though I think I'd rather throw the math out the window and just wing it. But that's how I roll, baby, yeah.
8: Precursors by Jonathan Woodward. If I wasn't so goshdamned lazy (see #4) I'd go back and edit. Oh well. Talk and descriptions about "The Progenitors" or "Precursors" or "Ancients" or whatever ancient missing ultratech race you have in your sci-fi campaign. It's a requirement, isn't it? Nothing hugely unique, though the ideas for the two Precursor races (especially the Ourobornians) is pretty neat.
9: The Chariot Age by Jon F. Zeigler. In the same vein as #5 - yay. Yawn. I learned something. Huzzah.
So it was fun and all. Like I usually say about GURPS books - they tend to be fairly high quality in terms of writing. You can look at the title, thumb through the book, and you're going to know if it's worth the cost or not. In this case, the cost was $5 (thank you Adventure Retail!) and so, of course, it was.
And tomorrow I should be getting a box from Amazon with a new Armageddon: 2089 book (Earth 2089), a new Charles Stross novel, the new Richard K. Morgan Black Widow graphic novel, and some other stuff I'd put in there and forgotten about. Geez. Not to mention I'm still reading The World is Flat (updated & revised) by Thomas L. Friedman, given to me in the same present with Confessions of an Economic Hitman and much, much, MUCH better so far.
Sigh. Oh, and I've got a "What if?" history book still sitting in my car, almost done, that I've been reading for months.
Enough digression.
GASJ2K4 (heh...I don't know if that's better than writing out "GURPS All-Star Jam 2004" or not) has 9 authors writing about whatever they wanted to. So, basically, you have 9 different ideas for campaigns. Honestly, I mostly picked it up because I saw Ken Hite was in there - I haven't read anything of his so far that I haven't enjoyed (take that double negatives) and so I try to buy whatever I can of the author in that situation. So let's go over the 9 essays and see what I think. Remember, as always - your mileage may vary, and I may not care what you think (even if you're the author).
Essay 1: Ghost Breaking by Ken Hite. A fun description of, basically, playing Ghostbusters in GURPS...a bit more GURPS mechanic-y than I expected from Ken Hite, but still a good article. It's not my cup of tea, but it's got the esoteric knowledge that I enjoy reading.
2: Alchemical Baroque by Phil Masters. This is kind of a low-power magic late-midevil (I know I misspelled that shut up) time frame game. It actually interested me much more than I expected, though I would've preferred if it was set a bit more historical than was given (note: you will RARELY hear me say that). Almost like a 7 Seas game set a bit earlier in time, and gosh knows I had a heck of a lot of fun playing in
dan_oz's 7 Seas games.
(Does anyone else lose their cursor when adding a LJ user link? Grrr.)
3: Mythic Babysitting by Elizabeth McCoy and Walter Milliken. Basically, if you've read GURPS IOU, you know the basics behind this kind of game. It's not necessarily bad, and there was a time when I would've really, really enjoyed this style campaign a lot more than I do now. I don't want to say anything obnoxious like "I've grown up" I think it's more just that my tastes have changed. Still, it's silly, it's a change of pace, and it was a fun read.
4: Meridian by David Pulver. When it comes to sci-fi, David Pulver is usually an "I win" button for my tastes. See, when I'm done with it, my reviews of Transhuman Space and GURPS Mecha. The idea of an interstellar train system I think is exceptionally neat, and the whole background - I get the impression - needs just a few more pages, but perhaps not a whole GURPS book. If I wasn't so damned lazy, I'd google it and see if there's any follow ups to it.
5: The Last Spartan by Gene Seabolt. Let's play GURPS Greece. To be honest, it just ain't my cup of tea.
6: Underground by William H. Stoddard. Not as much a campaign setting as, like Ken Hite's Ghost-Breaking, a treatment of an aspect of a campaign, and in good GURPS fashion, made generic(-ish). It's interesting to read, and I could definitely see me using it if I ever ran a horror game (and what are the odds of me running ANYTHING lately?).
7: Airships by Brian J. Underhill. In a continuing attempt to discount my initial statement about campaign settings in this book, this is a treatise on airships in history and what they can be used for. Given my current(-ish) pulp fascination, and the obvious tie-ins with Crimson Skies, I had a hoot reading this one. As with a lot of the GURPS vehicular things though I think I'd rather throw the math out the window and just wing it. But that's how I roll, baby, yeah.
8: Precursors by Jonathan Woodward. If I wasn't so goshdamned lazy (see #4) I'd go back and edit. Oh well. Talk and descriptions about "The Progenitors" or "Precursors" or "Ancients" or whatever ancient missing ultratech race you have in your sci-fi campaign. It's a requirement, isn't it? Nothing hugely unique, though the ideas for the two Precursor races (especially the Ourobornians) is pretty neat.
9: The Chariot Age by Jon F. Zeigler. In the same vein as #5 - yay. Yawn. I learned something. Huzzah.
So it was fun and all. Like I usually say about GURPS books - they tend to be fairly high quality in terms of writing. You can look at the title, thumb through the book, and you're going to know if it's worth the cost or not. In this case, the cost was $5 (thank you Adventure Retail!) and so, of course, it was.