Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

[Anders]

Fantasy Folk, Powers, Thaumatology.

I really love Fantasy Folk and I'm so happy that the Fantasy Folk line is starting up with Alden Loveshade's pdf going into playtest soonish.

[Michael Cule]

It's hard to get this down to three.

I would probably say THAUMATOLOGY because it helps me think about the trickiest issue in adapting a setting.

GURPS ILLUMINATI is just perfect as a source of ideas and (unreliable) facts.

GURPS HORROR (the Ken Hite authored editions) not only provides a font of ideas but begins an analysis of not just the Horror genre but of roleplaying games as an art form.

But if I put those up top then I have no space for BANESTORM (which is the book I probably use the most) nor GURPS IOU, nor DISCWORLD nor...

You get the point.

[Not another shrubbery]

It really isn't hard for me to pick out my top three*

1. Powers - 3E just didn't have the tools to make a book like this. Compendium I was the closest to it, but is more like a catalog than a 'how-to' book. Powers just touched my tinkerer heart 🤍
2. Psionics - For 3E. That book really scratched my "special powers" itch in a way that Supers couldn't. Still the only book that I wore out from overuse. I still refer back to it sometimes now, mostly to compare it with...
3. Psionic Powers - PK took all that I loved about 3E's Psionics and brought it into 4E. He also showed his work, making my own job (to twist it in unsanctioned and probably unbalanced ways) much easier :)

* I love them all, being a collector first, and gamer second 🙄

[Rupert]

Well, I use High-Tech and Ultra-Tech all the time,so they'd up there if amount of use was the sole criteria. However, while it's very useful I don't read UT for fun that much, so it's off the list. I do read HT for fun and inspiration, so it stay on.

I absolutely love making spaceships with the Spaceships series. I'd say the first of them is my all-time favourite book.

My third favourite these days... hard choice. Bio-Tech probably. I don't directly use it that much, but I find it inspirational any time I'm looking to make some new species or non-standard character.

Back in the 3e days it'd have been Vehicles 2e, Bio-Tech, and no clear third.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

GURPS HORROR (the Ken Hite authored editions) not only provides a font of ideas but begins an analysis of not just the Horror genre but of roleplaying games as an art form.

True, Kenneth Hite is a master of his craft and not only GURPS Horror, but also his Suppressed Transmission articles from Pyramid #2 are absolute gems (a selection of greatest hits available as Suppressed Transmission: The First Broadcast and Suppressed Transmission 2)

[sgtcallistan]

My three, hard to reduce the list to three:

GURPS Celtic Myth, has inspired a long-lasting campaign with it's careful
description of playing characters with a different belief and value system.

GURPS Cliffhangers has done the same for another long-lasting campaign.

GURPS How to be a GURPS GM, for many useful nuggets of keeping everyone involved in campaign's core ideas, things that went beyond what I've learned over the years.

[Donny Brook]

I'm boring:

Thaumantology
Powers
High-Tech

Cheating now:
Space 3e
and Action 2 were also very good.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Well, leaving out the core rules books, I'm going to pick the following:

Originally Posted by whswhs

GURPS Powers: The single most useful of the major system expansion books, with its extremely detailed treatment of special abilities, helpful for everything from supers campaigns to "magic as powers." The concept of power modifiers is a really great unifying mechanism.

I thought you were not including core books?

Third Edition, Revised had GURPS Basic Set (a single book), Compendium I, and Compendium II as its core three books.

GURPS Fourth Edition has GURPS Basic Set Characters, GURPS Basic Set Campaigns, and GURPS Powers as its core three books. :) Teasing aside, I guess I thought this perception was more than just a "me" thing.

Answering the question myself:

• GURPS Mecha (for Third Edition): This was my first GURPS book, purchased for me by my mother. Yeah, before any core books, because I was just borrowing my friend's score stuff at the time. We actually used very little from it, but I still have a soft spot for this book.
• GURPS Fantasy Folk (for Third Edition): I loved the different fantasy races this book presented. I am still tinkering with a setting I'll probably never use, heavily inspired by the Fantasy Folk presented here.
• GURPS Warriors (for Third Edition): This is the book that made me understand occupational (or similar) templates, and their value. I also enjoyed reading many of the example characters.

Don't mistake this as a preference for Third Edition over Fourth. Almost all... maybe all... of my actual play experience is with Third Edition. Plus, I was using Third Edition in high school, with my high school friends. Nostalgia is strong. Plus, the books I mentioned don't have Fourth Edition counterparts, though adapting them to Fourth Edition is actually kind of fun. :) Time consuming, but fun. XD

Honorable Mentions are

• GURPS Powers: To me it is the third core book for Fourth Edition.
• [B]GURPS Compendium II (Third Edition): While not falling to bits like my copy of Compendium I, this was ultimately the more valuable of the three Third Edition core books. Better detail for things like Hit-Location, more equipment options, some great alternate rules... it had so much to it.
• GURPS Supers (for Third Edition and Fourth Edition): I love my superheroes! The Third Edition version introduced a lot of Advantages (namely superpowers) that weren't even available in Compendium I. I also enjoyed most of the example characters. Fourth Edition also includes some new advantages, but also glorious, glorious templates!

I almost went on and on because there are easily a dozen GURPS books that have shaped me over the years, some I never even used to game. XD

[David Johnston2]

Dungeon Magic Styles: I love magic styles (I'd add Magic Styles itself but that would be a tad redundant), and I found that this magic style book in particular to be the best world-building GURPS has ever done. I love the relationships between the different chromatic styles, including the white robes pretending to be good, when they're actually the most evil.

Weird War II: I've been obsessed with creating a world war II superhero setting forever.

Gurps Space 4E: Rolling up worlds is a great time killer and I love the random creature generator too.

[Willy]

GURPS Banestorm and the 3rd Ed precursor
GURPS Fantasy Folk 3rd Ed.
GURPS Fantasy Adventures 3rd Ed.

If I have to choose 4th ed. then together with Banestorm

GURPS Biotech
GURPS High Tech and Low tech are a very close decision throwing a coin I take High Tech