Review some SJG roleplaying products!

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Bruno

For better google juice, I recommend putting the text that relates to the link ON the link, instead of next to it. Like this:

GURPS Action 1: Heroes, Review by Clay Dowling
GURPS Action 1: Heroes, Review by Christopher Rice

Good idea. Bringing reviews up in the Google rank should make them easier to find than torrents (people who are going to steal are going to steal, but its a bit embarrassing if illicit copies of products show up before people who are actually talking about/playing/selling them!) Similarly, including a link from the review to your games retailer of choice could not hurt.

I won't edit the OP because it would take time and make the list of reviews by book less clear, but anyone adding reviews to this thread can gladly include those things in the text of their link.

[kracht]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Reviews of GURPS supplements focusing on their use outside of GURPS could also be very interesting.

Anecdotally, I would say that was more a 3e thing. On the average, 4e books are crunchier and/or more abstract: I do not think they lend themselves very well to be converted to other systems. Well, the exceptions might be the three major genre books: Fantasy, Space and Horror.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by kracht

Anecdotally, I would say that was more a 3e thing. On the average, 4e books are crunchier and/or more abstract: I do not think they lend themselves very well to be converted to other systems. Well, the exceptions might be the three major genre books: Fantasy, Space and Horror.

Supers and Mysteries, too, and perhaps some others such as Zombies. And I think you could also count Banestorm, as a setting book, and perhaps the historical Tech books. A catalog of real world tech can fairly easily be converted.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Supers and Mysteries, too, and perhaps some others such as Zombies. And I think you could also count Banestorm, as a setting book, and perhaps the historical Tech books. A catalog of real world tech can fairly easily be converted.

Yes, the tech books and setting books (Traveller, Banestorm, ...) definitely qualify as generic. So do Compact Castles and other systemless products by SJG.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Supers and Mysteries, too, and perhaps some others such as Zombies. And I think you could also count Banestorm, as a setting book, and perhaps the historical Tech books.

Also, the Hot Spots line, such as it is.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Compact Castles and other systemless products by SJG.

While Compact Castles is sold through Warehouse 23 and written by someone who has written for SJ Games, it is not itself an SJ Games product.

[kracht]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Supers and Mysteries, too

Sure, I forgot about those two. They most definitely qualify. I am not 100% sure about Tech books: if your system is not GURPS, perhaps looking at real world info and making your stats up would be easier. But it is true that the Tech books are great surveys of real world facts, so you might as well take them as your source of choice.

[ericthered]

Just went out and reviewed mysteries on good reads.

I'm a little torn about if its best to review the core books in the system or the supplements.

For mysteries though, it was easy. I've never seen a book covering anything near the same material, and its one of the few genres I'd be totally lost in without the gurps book.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by kracht

Anecdotally, I would say that was more a 3e thing. On the average, 4e books are crunchier and/or more abstract: I do not think they lend themselves very well to be converted to other systems. Well, the exceptions might be the three major genre books: Fantasy, Space and Horror.

I find 4E Martial Arts very useful, for its descriptions of real-world styles. Converting them to Sagatafl's more flexible Stunt-based system is a bit of work, but very doable.

Likewise, High-Tech has lots of real-world stats for non-combat gear. It's a total pain in the butt that they're not metric, but it's still very useable. Same for Low-Tech (combat gear is extremely cumbersome to convert to other systems, of course, since they simulate in different ways, make different distinctions, etc).

The thing that often makes no sense is using such GURPS supplements with a lower detail RPG system.

But yes, the 3E era often had better supplements. Setting books like GURPS Vikings or GURPS Arabian Nights are very useful with a wide range of systems.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

The thing that often makes no sense is using such GURPS supplements with a lower detail RPG system

Often, but not always. For a more cinematic system that still cared about weight, I got good results from High-Tech's listing of the contents of a modern survival kit when we were suddenly transported to ancient Greece.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Often, but not always. For a more cinematic system that still cared about weight, I got good results from High-Tech's listing of the contents of a modern survival kit when we were suddenly transported to ancient Greece.

True. There's also raw comparison of stuff like firearm ranges.