Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-08-2017, 02:19 PM   #1
PK
 
PK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
Default GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)


They dropped from the sky
To destroy humanity . . .
But can you blame them?
— Janice, Disaffected teen
Here's where I'd normally explain the details of GURPS Mars Attacks -- what's in it, why you want it, and so on. But I'm not going to, because the product page does that well enough. Instead, I'm going to answer a question that's popped up a few times since we first announced this:

"Why a Mars Attacks sourcebook?"

It's not because there were throngs of gamers demanding it. In fact, it's probably safe to say that most GURPS players aren't huge Mars Attacks fans . . . but that's a damned shame, because they should be! See, the very things that make GURPS such a great RPG system -- its versatility, its adaptability, its wide range of power levels -- is what makes Mars Attacks such a great setting. And that's why we made this book, because we wanted to give our fans a setting where they could run anything from gritty battlefield slaughterfests through cinematic infiltration and sabotage to campy alien politicking.

One of the first GURPS Mars Attacks con demos I did featured a mix of "regular folks" driven out of their midwestern town when the Martians set up shop there. With the survivalist and zookeeper on point, they sneaked back into their town, disabling some Martian sentries along the way (the socialite would distract one so the mechanic could rip his helmet off and the cop could brain him). Once in, they took a minute to study the patrols; one Martian had a pinecone fall on his head, and as retribution he turned and angrily unloaded his entire blaster cartridge into the tree while screaming alien obscenities. The gamer recorded the rant and began blaring it over the school's PA system, figuring it would offend the Martians enough to investigate en masse (it did). While 3/4 of the aliens were distracted, the humans made their way to the main base: a converted water silo with a giant holographic Martian head slowly rotating over it, keeping tabs on the town. They sneaked in to discover that the Martians were performing experiments using "growth gas" to embiggen local bugs. The scientist and mechanic hatched a plan, waited for the Martians to return, and then switched the "life support" and "growth gas" hoses in the climate control suite, giving the aliens such a sudden growth spurt that they were messily crushed within their own laboratories!

Of course, some . . . well, many . . . okay, most people want to be the Martians. And while that can be run as a straightforward and silly "muahaha, blow everything up" game, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Martians aren't mindless murderers; there's a method to their madness. I've run a very serious game of Imperial Command officers and Science Division heads playing cat-and-mouse with a dangerous group of PLA guerrillas hiding in the Hengduan mountains. The plot twist was when the Martians realized that the guerrillas had figured out how to use the aliens' electronics to triangulate their position, at which point they had to leave most of their TL10 gear behind and "go native" to beat the humans.

The original Mars Attacks trading cards featured a fair bit of comedy, but also scenes of straight-up horror, violence, heroism, darkness, and more. And that's what GURPS Mars Attacks brings you: a mix of all of the things that make gaming fun. Give the setting a chance, and you just might fall in love with it.


Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG01-2510
Preview PDF: http://www.warehouse23.com/media/SJG31-2510_preview.pdf
__________________
Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ)

MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.

#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more!
{Watch Video} - {Read Transcript}
PK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2017, 04:57 PM   #2
Paulon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Nice to see this digitally. It's much appreciated.

Something odd I noticed when I checked for any published errata or designers notes type stuff to append to the PDF, was that GURPS Mars Attacks isn't listed on the GURPS books page.
Paulon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2017, 05:05 PM   #3
PK
 
PK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulon View Post
Nice to see this digitally. It's much appreciated.
Licensed works always require a few extra steps; thanks for your patience. I'm certainly glad to have it in PDF form as well, since my iPad basically is my library whenever I go somewhere.

Quote:
Something odd I noticed when I checked for any published errata or designers notes type stuff to append to the PDF, was that GURPS Mars Attacks isn't listed on the GURPS books page.
Huh, that is odd. Thanks, I'll have someone fix that.
__________________
Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ)

MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.

#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more!
{Watch Video} - {Read Transcript}
PK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2017, 03:46 AM   #4
Ronnke
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Australia
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Awesome! Many thanks.
__________________
Bro! Do you even GURPS?
Ronnke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2017, 01:11 PM   #5
baakyocalder
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Sacramento metro, California
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Glad to see this in PDF, as that gets you a little more revenue from the people who wanted the game but not at the hardcover price point.
__________________
Currently Running: Without Number family games which use a lot of GURPS material for details when the players start asking(online, sporadically)

Waiting For: Schedule Sanity to Play Car Wars and my Fnordcon special alt Car Wars cards!
baakyocalder is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2017, 01:54 AM   #6
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Glad to see the PDF, since now I can search as well as read.

I'd never heard of any of the franchise before the book was announced. Reading it from that viewpoint, I kept on seeing ways to use the plot and themes of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series with the setting.
johndallman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2017, 03:24 AM   #7
Blind Mapmaker
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Mannheim, Baden
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Quote:
Originally Posted by baakyocalder View Post
Glad to see this in PDF, as that gets you a little more revenue from the people who wanted the game but not at the hardcover price point.
It's the same price as the hardcover (which is pretty cheap for a full-colour book), so - depending on your view - you might be getting less value. Although the full-text search is usually enough for me to buy the PDF version after a while. Less of a draw than in the case of more generic books.
__________________
My GURPS and mapmaking blog: The Blind Mapmaker
Blind Mapmaker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2017, 03:51 AM   #8
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker View Post
It's the same price as the hardcover
Warehouse 23 is showing me $24.95 for the hardcover and $15.00 for the PDF.
johndallman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2017, 05:30 AM   #9
Celjabba
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Great news !

bought.

Thanks a lot !
Celjabba is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2017, 07:28 AM   #10
TorgSmith
 
TorgSmith's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Mission Tx
Default Re: GURPS Mars Attacks (now available in PDF)

Purchased. I was stoked for this book.
__________________
Thank You,
Torg Smith
TorgSmith is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
gurps, mars attacks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:04 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.