[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by kealist

I am thinking about starting a campaign for a friend based in a historical period in central asia (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, etc with other turks in the area, maybe some Mongols). I'm not totally sure which time period I will choose but it will be pre-modern, but I was curious what GURPS books may be useful for this kind of setting. Thanks for the info.

peace,
kealist

This isn't a gaming book, but it came to my mind while I was reading your post and maybe you find it interesting or curious:

Beasts, Men and Gods

"Ferdinant Ossendowski, a scientist and writer, chronicled his experiences during the Russian Revolution of the 1920's. He was caught up in the bloody overthrow by the Bolsheviks as they rampaged their way across Russia. He was a man of culture and perception, but he confesses that his scholarship and sophistication could not protect him from the solitude and dissociation from human society he was forced to endure on his flights from danger. Because of his scrupulous observations, the reader is not only able to understand the accuracy of his political assessments but the truth of his extraordinary trials. He admits that people of highly civilized status cannot give enough consideration to the situational instruction that men in primitive states find useful in the struggle for existence. Even memories of the events he faced throw him back into the fear and uncertainty he felt when he encountered them. In his expeditions he is sometimes a warrior and sometimes a doctor. To get where he is going he trades anything: horses for guns, maps for food, silken cords for bullets, rosaries for saddles. He witnesses the mutilated and half-burnt remains of military skirmishes. He documents his passages by caravan with fortune tellers, peasants, drunken soldiers, and priests. He beholds a land of sun-burnt prairies, diseased cattle and people, the pestilence of anthrax and smallpox, wild ponies, predatory birds feasting on dead bodies. This is a journey the reader will breathlessly undertake to feel the strength of personal accomplishment. Ossendowski writes, "Nature destroys the weak but helps the strong, awakening in the soul emotions which remain dormant under the urban conditions of modern life."

The epoch of this narration makes it easily suitable for a "Cliffhanger" treatment.

(I remember some other related resources, but they are only in Spanish. Only one of them is in French, but I have the Spanish translation).

Also, I think nik1979 suggestions are helpful and interesting, too.