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Old 03-11-2018, 11:30 PM   #1
Boge
 
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Default What books do you use?

For the most part, my group sticks with the Basic Book with a sprinkle of some martial arts, and some low tech and high tech for equipment.

I'm interested in some other books, like Dungeon Fantasy, but I don't really understand them that well. I'm concerned on how well these books mesh together. I've noticed in the High Tech and Low Tech books, many of the item stats are different from the Basic Books. Seeing as how it's all 4th edition, it seems things should be pretty consistent.


So what books do you use for your campaigns, and have you found any incompatibilities or inconsistencies with any books?
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Old 03-11-2018, 11:41 PM   #2
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Default Re: What books do you use?

I describe some of what your asking for here.
http://refplace.blogspot.com/p/gurps...lable-for.html

As for inconsistency GURPS Fourth Edition, its been around what almost 20 years?
And has had some serious researchers and field experts so supplements get to explore a lot more detail.

EDIT
As for books? Basic, Powers, Thaumatology, and much of the Power Ups line get the most use for me.
But of course it varies by campaign and if I am running or playing.
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Last edited by Refplace; 03-11-2018 at 11:55 PM.
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Old 03-11-2018, 11:44 PM   #3
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Default Re: What books do you use?

I don't think of things as being "Incompatible"--just different flavors.
There is a flavor where you just use the Basic.
There is a flavor where you want something a bit more realistic in terms of Tech, and so you go with Low-Tech. Sometimes you want something a bit more in keeping with a more fantastic feel...so you go with Dungeon Fantasy.

Sometimes you want technical grappling...sometimes you don't want that. Sometimes you want basic Magic. Sometimes you want more detail and go for the magic book. Sometimes you want something else and go for Thaumatology.

Dungeon Fantasy, if you want to know what it is, is a line of PDFs that aims to reproduce the feeling of D&D dungeon crawling. You get templates that are like classes, it has some shortcuts and simplifications. It isn't going for super realism. If you are interested in it, pick up the first 2-3 PDFs and see if you like it.

What I personally use depends on the campaign I'm running.

I always use the Basic Books. I often use Martial Arts. Other than that? Depends.
Sometimes Thaumatology. Sometimes Tech-Books. Sometimes Transhuman Space Books. Sometimes Interstellar Wars. Sometimes Mysteries.

Just depends on what I'm putting together.
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Old 03-12-2018, 12:42 AM   #4
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Default Re: What books do you use?

Well, for example, my current GURPS campaign is alternate world fantasy, set on a world that I built from the plate tectonics up. It has seven humanoid races that are slightly interfertile—the probability of pairing up is low, the probability of offspring is low, and the probability of the offspring being fertile is low. Its most advanced cultures are overall at the Bronze Age level; its magic is animistic, based on negotiating with the spirits that are all over the place.

I use the Basic Set, of course. I used a few bits from Space in working out the races. I use Low-Tech for technology. I use Social Engineering for social interaction, which is important, as the PCs are traders rather than looters. I use Thaumatology for Path and Book Magic. I don't use Fantasy, but of course many of the ideas in Fantasy got into this, because I wrote Fantasy and I didn't have my brain erased in between.
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Old 03-12-2018, 01:25 AM   #5
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Default Re: What books do you use?

I'm just finishing a long running C11th-C12th historical with low fantasy elements

That's been pretty much Campaigns, Characters, MA, LT, MA: Technical Grappling + some stuff from Pyramid (last Gasp, Set up attacks, Armour design).

But what books I use depends on what I'm running
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Old 03-12-2018, 01:37 AM   #6
johndallman
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Default Re: What books do you use?

For my current campaign, Basic, Infinite Worlds, Thaumatology, Cabal, and Magic are the books that see the most use.
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Old 03-12-2018, 03:46 AM   #7
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: What books do you use?

For the last many years, I tend to run games that are low on combat, heavy on dialogue, and where plots and outcomes hinge a lot on details that don't lend themselves to all-or-nothing dice rolls most of the time.
Aside from Basic Set, I'm using Ultra-Tech, Spaceships series, Bio-Tech and High-Tech for the hardware (and am highly annoyed by places where the four don't line up); I'm using Social Engineering for much of the social stuff. I allow taking stuff from Power-Ups: Perks, Talents, Wildcards, Quirks, and from Martial Arts (though it rarely comes up).

For worldbuilding purposes, I use Space, City Stats etc.
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Old 03-12-2018, 04:13 AM   #8
VonKatzen
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Default Re: What books do you use?

Basic Set (obviously)
If Fighting: Martial Arts
Anything with guns: Tactical Shooting, High Tech
Space: Ultra-Tech, Space, Spaceships
Low-Tech/Fantasy: Use stuff from about 20 different books.

I've been looking into using more of the stuff in Social Engineering and Mysteries for my hard-sci fi local space game.

Obviously not everything in all those books, but I have had them forever so I will use stuff out of a lot of them tooled for the game in question.

Last game I ran of any length was Prime Directive with all the weapons replaced with full TL11 powered Ultra-Tech weapons, Tactical Shooting and Space/Spaceships rules instead of the native stuff. Made it a whole different game. Kill 'em all and let Q sort 'em out!

Last edited by VonKatzen; 03-12-2018 at 04:18 AM.
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Old 03-12-2018, 09:27 AM   #9
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Default Re: What books do you use?

Until recently my 'Traveller' campaign used:

Basic Set
Spaceships 1-7 plus relevant Pyramid articles
Ultra-Tech
High-Tech
Low-Tech (occasionally)
Bio-Tech (mostly the medical chapters)
Psionic Powers
Space
Martial Arts (for a few techniques and perks)
Power Ups 2 & 6 (Perks & Quirks)
Social Engineering (once, for more detail in a particular scene)

Low-Tech, Martial Arts, and Social Engineering could've been done without, but were still useful.

Recently the PCs have, due to fiddling round with things best left alone, found themselves in a whole different universe with rules of nature different from what they're used to. I've thus added books to the 'in use' list:

Dungeon Fantasy RPG (I'm using the armour and weapon lists, plus modifiers, plus equipement lists because they're all in one place, and suit the tone better than LT's)
Magic
Thaumatology (Calamity Checks, here we come!)
Thaumatology - Magical Styles
Powers
Other potential books: Any book with an interesting monster in it that I spot when I need one.
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Old 03-12-2018, 10:42 AM   #10
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Default Re: What books do you use?

For my super hero campaign I used the following
Basic Set, Power, Action 1 (for gear), Action 2 (for cinematic rules).


For my DF games I use the DFRPG, Basic Set, Powers, the following DF titles: 1, 2, Monsters, and Wilderness Adventures.
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