Best GURPS 4e books for a newbie?

[WanderingMonster1]

I know that buying the Basic books and Powers are essential to running a 4e campaign. However, what other books would a noob looking to RP need?

I plan to RP in various settings if I ever get a group together.

Modern Military Setting:

How would I roleplay in a setting similar to the Arma video games? Combat is extremely lethal from what I've played and there is an emphasis on realism and simulationist action.


Various Science Fiction Settings:

I would like to roleplay in the worlds of Stephen Baxter's books, as well as create a campaign in the world of the show Dark Matter.

Stephen Baxter's Coalition in the Xeelee Sequence have soldiers who wield handguns which are implied to have the force of the Big Bang and take out weak Xeelee drones, which are possibly 11-dimensional beings infinitely more durable than an entire universe. How can GURPS handle a high-powered campaign like that?

Dark Matter is a relatively low-powered, human-centric, setting from what I've seen. Mega-corporations rule the galaxy and fighters use swords, normal guns, as well more futuristic weaponry like sonic bazookas. I can't remember if laser pistols are in use. Aliens are incredibly rare.


InterWorld:

The InterWorld book series is about an interdimensional police force made up of differing incarnations of the same person from different universes. It is made up of various species and uses the power of magic and technology. A member of InterWorld, called a Walker, can transport between universes only if they could find a portal nearby. These portals are invisible and cannot be interacted with by anything else but Walkers. Walkers can sense each other's presence, as well as any portals nearby.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by WanderingMonster1

I know that buying the Basic books and Powers are essential to running a 4e campaign.

Welcome! How to be a GURPS GM will be useful for all of these settings.

Modern Military Setting:

How would I roleplay in a setting similar to the Arma video games? Combat is extremely lethal from what I've played and there is an emphasis on realism and simulationist action.

I don't know those video games, but you clearly need High-Tech and Tactical Shooting for this. Martial Arts may be useful too, as it has lots of advanced combat rules in general.

InterWorld is about an interdimensional police force made up of differing incarnations of the same person from different universes. It is made up of various species and uses the power of magic and technology. A member of InterWorld, called a Walker, can transport between universes only if they could find a portal nearby. These portals are invisible and cannot be interacted with by anything else but Walkers. Walkers can sense each other's presence, as well as any portals nearby.

Infinite Worlds, which has a very similar premise. Maybe Ultra-Tech, too.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by WanderingMonster1

I know that buying the Basic books and Powers are essential to running a 4e campaign.

Only the Basic Set is essential to play GURPS. Some people will often proclaim the books they never do without as essential as well, but don't believe them: you only need the Basic Set. I've never used Powers to run a game.

Powers is really nice to have if you are playing a game that focuses on powers built into your character, but otherwise you don't need it. Your first proposed setting, for instance, probably has no need for Powers.

I second johndallman's recommendations to you, with the caveat that where he says "need," I say "may find useful."

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by WanderingMonster1

I know that buying the Basic books and Powers are essential to running a 4e campaign. However, what other books would a noob looking to RP need?

...

I would like to roleplay in the worlds of Stephen Baxter's books, as well as create a campaign in the world of the show Dark Matter.

I second the recommendation that you don't need Powers unless you're running a campaign with a lot of supernatural powers.

Tactical Shooting is the reference for gritty firearms combat. High-Tech is a catalog book of modern items, including a lot of guns. Both would be useful for the ARMA game.

Dark Matter is only intermittently a sci-fi show: there are a lot of technobabble plot points like the Warp drive, androids, hibernation tech, or the clone transfer units, but most of the day to day action uses fairly conventional weapons. I would recommend grabbing Adaptions, as it's the book about adapting other stories to GURPS, and Ultra-Tech, which is the catalog of sci-fi items. Dark Matter has a lot of emphasis on hand to hand combat, so Martial Arts would be useful if you want to focus on that.

As an aside, the first two seasons of Dark Matter felt to me like a role-playing game run by a devious but flexible GM. There's a lot of plot twists that were planned out in advance, but there's also stuff like Two leaving the show that felt very much like a player moving away and the GM just having to scrap a bunch of plots with little fanfare. So it's definitely good inspiration for an RPG.

[Gollum]

Don't forget to download and read GURPS Lite first!

It is totally free and has been designed to introduce newcomers. 32 pages only, but still all the core rules to create characters and play them in every possible world. Most often, I don't need anything else for my games.

Of course, some things are missing: explosions, magic, shotgun rules ... But it is still an amazing introduction to well understand how GURPS works before adding more detail, step by step.

GURPS is not hard to play but it is complex: there are a lot of optional rules and the GM has a lot of choices to make: which ones to use in order to get exactly the games he wants?

So, start simple. Learn the very basic rules before picking all those optional rules and risking being lost. Start with GURPS Lite.

[VonKatzen]

A lot of the supplement books are things you can already do with the Basic Set, they simply do the work for you. They also contain optional and situational rules, to make things more/less realistic and more suited for particular genres. But you can do most things just with the Basic Set.

For a realistic shooting game Tactical Shooting and High-Tech are very appropriate, but I would recommend starting with the Basic Set and its Tactical Combat rules first. If you'll be using a lot of modern equipment (guns, radios, etc.) get High-Tech. Once you've got that down you can introduce the new maneuvers, combat styles, etc. from Tactical Shooting.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Only the Basic Set is essential to play GURPS.

I'd actually say even that is optional. Lite has almost everything you need; add Action 2 or After the End 2 and you have a pretty complete rule-set.

[Refplace]

My list organized by genre
http://refplace.blogspot.com/p/gurps...lable-for.html

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Sam Baughn

... add Action 2 ...

I consider Action 2 to be essential to forming the way I run GURPS.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I consider Action 2 to be essential to forming the way I run GURPS.

Yes. It gives a lot of optional rules which are not in the Basic Set but which make the GM's work much easier. They are movie action oriented but can still be used in more realistic campaigns, just to simplify things.

Also consider How to be a GURPS GM. This amazing book explains what means the numbers, which rule to use depending on what you exactly want, what to do to make everything work as you wish ... Brief, how to really understand GURPS.