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Old 04-04-2021, 02:23 PM   #1
Kymage
 
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Default Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

Alright, allow me to explain what I'm after.

I'm about to start a project to organize my GURPS materials using the PDFs to place them in 3 ring binders. I plan to have a binder for each genre and/or series of books. I may also have smaller binders for various campaigns/game worlds.

I plan on starting out with a binder containing the core rules and various rulebooks needed to run GURPS. Clearly that binder would include the PDFs for The Characters book and The Campaign Book. I plan on starting out with the books for 4th edition listed in the Basic Rules Worldbooks http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/basic.html

However, there are some other books I'm thinking about adding to the list. In particular the City Stats, Tactical Shooting, Social Engineering, Boardroom and Curia and maybe some of the Tech books.

So the question I have, what suggestions would you make as to books to include in the binder intended to be used for the basic rules? I want to avoid having to get 4-5 binders out just to run a campaign/adventure. The ideal would be to just have two binders out at a time (the basic binder and the Genre specific binder). I realize that it may not be possible to have everything needed in one-two binders.

Let me know your thoughts on this.
Thanks is advance.
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Old 04-04-2021, 02:27 PM   #2
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

This entirely depends on what you're running and what rules you want to reference. There is no correct answer. There is no objectively ideal combination of GURPS rules.
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Old 04-04-2021, 02:40 PM   #3
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

For *most* of my games, martial arts and powers would be core books.

We typically switch settings and genres pretty frequently, though. There's no guarantee of which tech book may be needed. Space? High tech? Steam tech? Ultra tech? Our home-brew Star Wars?

What I'd do if I were going binders is switch them out every game. Decide each campaign what's in and what's out.
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Old 04-04-2021, 04:18 PM   #4
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

In my Core Rules folder I have:

Basic Set
The various Social Engineering books
Boardroom and Curia
Adaptations
Powers
The various Power-Ups books
Realm Management
City Stats
Underground Adventures
Skill Categories and other reference sheets

And most importantly...

How to be a GURPS GM

I tend to put Martial Arts with the various Tech books.
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Old 04-04-2021, 08:13 PM   #5
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

I can't think of a campaign I've done in years that didn't at least slightly reference Powers. And the various Power Ups books (except 1) are referenced quite a lot. The PUs are pretty small books so they can altogether take up the room of one regular book. Both of those are fairly genre neutral despite the names.
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 04-05-2021, 07:20 AM   #6
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

The books themselves aren't organized particularly by genre; many of them would belong in more than one genre. Lots of fantasy games would want Low-Tech, but Low-Tech isn't always used for fantasy, nor is all fantasy necessarily low tech. Meanwhile, the genre books like GURPS Fantasy are useful, but are more "big picture" books for overviews and strategies and ideas. They're good in thinking up games, but not the sort of thing I'd often reference at the table. Or, if "fantasy" includes "magic", you have the problem of "which magic" -- Magic, Thaumatology, RPM, Sorcery, Chinese Elemental Powers... but any given game probably doesn't use all of them at the same time. Which tech book do you bind in the "Mystery" genre -- High Tech for Agatha Christie, Dashiel Hammet, and Robert Parker; Low-Tech for Garrett, P.I., the Lord Darcy stories, and Paizo's "Agents of Edgewatch" adventure path; or Ultra-Tech for Asimov's Bailey / R. Daneel Olivaw stories and Altered Carbon?

As long as you're putting them in ring binders, I'd suggest thinking of it not as a permanent organization of the rules, but a couple of binders customized for one campaign at a time. Take advantage of the fact that you can easily move a chunk of pages from one binder into another, and pull out what you need for this game, not any "fantasy game".

I put my 3e core in a binder with sheet protectors. So in case you haven't already thought of it -- those make the book much thicker and also much heavier. Even without page protectors, you'll need more inches of binder than you have inches of bound hardcopy to keep.

These days, I'd just go for a laptop or tablet to search my directory of PDFs if I had to find a rule. Much more portable, more thorough, and faster.

PU4 and 8 (Enhancements and Limitations) belong near Powers in the "building abilities" binder. Somewhat tempting to put the "worked examples" (Psi Powers, Sorcery) there are well.

Probably an "Advanced Combat" tome, with Martial Arts, Technical Grappling, Tactical Shooting, Gun Fu. Maybe a second one for Environment (Underground Adventures for lighting and cramped spaces, Enhanced Senses for details on perception of various sorts, Tactical Shooting could go here, too).

Ignoring the "by genre" goal, putting all the tech books (Low/High/Ultra/Bio) together has some appeal. Perhaps a "worldbuilding" book with Realm Management, City Stats, and those big-picture genre books (Space, Fantasy). One for the Social Engineering series.
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Old 04-05-2021, 03:50 PM   #7
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
I'd suggest thinking of it not as a permanent organization of the rules, but a couple of binders customized for one campaign at a time.
That makes a lot of sense and I would definitely go about it that way; One binder of 'core' things that will likely show up in any campaign (obvious Basic, but a few others), then a second with all the campaign specific books.
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 04-21-2021, 07:35 PM   #8
Kymage
 
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

“Wow! I could’ve had an V8!” as I slap my head.

Some of you may get the joke from an advertising campaign from years ago. It’s about people realizing that they could have ordered a V8 drink instead of what they ordered. Google it to see some of the commercials.

I had that moment reading some of the responses in that I had never thought about rotating what would be in the core rules binder. I should have, but I didn’t think of that. What I was thinking was a binder that was more or less set in its components. My plan is to have a binder and to also have the files on a CD or Flash drive so I can print them out again if need be.

I’ve assembled the initial version of a Core Rules binder and have the following files in the binder:

Basic Sets: Characters
Basic Sets: Campaigns
How to be a GURPS GM
Adaptions
Realm Management
City Stats
Boardroom and Curia
Social Engineering
Social Engineering: Pulling Rank
Social Engineering: Back to School
Social Engineering: Keeping in Contact
Mass Combat
Tactical Shooting
GURPS Lite
GURPS Ultra-Lite
GURPS Update (To transfer the stats from 3rd edition products to 4th Edition as need be)
GURPS: Skill categories
GURPS: Combat Cards

I left out Powers and Marital Arts, although I can see an argument for both. As it was, the binder was bigger than I expected. Mass Combat and Tactical Shooting were the edge. However, I’m not sure where Mass Combat might go in the alternate. Tactical Shooting would go into the Action binder when I set It up.

Last edited by Kymage; 04-24-2021 at 02:04 PM.
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Old 04-22-2021, 04:06 AM   #9
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Default Re: Question as to organizing GURPS rules and world books

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Originally Posted by Kymage View Post
Tactical Shooting would go into the Action binder when I set It up.
I would think Gun Fun more appropriate for the Action genre; I generally wouldn’t mix Tactical Shooting and Gun Fu.

You might consider 3 binders: Core, Tech, Genre.

2 Core binders:One that is loaded with material for the current campaign and a 2nd for not currently used overflow, e.g. Mass Combat in the overflow if it’s not going to be used for that campaign.

Three Tech binders: Low, High, Ultra.

Multiple Genre binders: of course, you’ll generally only make use of one of these for a given game.
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