Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

Bud · 05-05-2021, 11:35 PM

Glad to see so many of my favorites mentioned!
All the "historics" - Aztec, Celtic Myth, Vikings, and some great moderns such as Mysteries and Horror deserve note. Easier to do a top 20!
But if only picking three, I'll mention a couple ...

My three, in no particular order...

1 Horseclans Loved the novels, and this was one of the very early GURPS books. I think the first appearance of mass combat system, and the shortest version. Amazing cover (from one of the novels). Second appearance of psionics, and also had religious magic. Like so many GURPS books, I think it'd have done better with more published adventures, but Horseclans had all the tools to build on.

2 Ice Age... Which even had an 11 page scenario in its mere 64 pages. The first specific prehistoric rpg? Rules for Shamans. Jobs table with income in $kins. Perfect for running Big Lizzie. Which brings us to...

3 Old West There are a few good western rpg's out there, since the early days, but I don't feel like they get a lot of play considering the potential - probably more people doing crossovers such as Deadlands. But Old West was very well done as a sourcebook (as GURPS books tend to be), this is more of a favorite due to subject matter (I love westerns!).

Glad to see Conan, and Thaumatology, got a mention, same with Fantasy Adventures, and lets give Space Adventures a runner up. The specificity of books such as those (and space atlases) makes running adventures more viable - especially since I don't have the same time to prep and write as I did back in the day!

If this was a list of 4 books, I'd put Unnight!

Really cool to see what the rest of you mentioned, I'm going to skim through a couple (ie Myth and Voodoo) that I haven't read for many years!
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05-05-2021, 11:35 PM	#25
Bud Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Calgary AB	Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why? Glad to see so many of my favorites mentioned! All the "historics" - Aztec, Celtic Myth, Vikings, and some great moderns such as Mysteries and Horror deserve note. Easier to do a top 20! But if only picking three, I'll mention a couple ... My three, in no particular order... 1 Horseclans Loved the novels, and this was one of the very early GURPS books. I think the first appearance of mass combat system, and the shortest version. Amazing cover (from one of the novels). Second appearance of psionics, and also had religious magic. Like so many GURPS books, I think it'd have done better with more published adventures, but Horseclans had all the tools to build on. 2 Ice Age... Which even had an 11 page scenario in its mere 64 pages. The first specific prehistoric rpg? Rules for Shamans. Jobs table with income in $kins. Perfect for running Big Lizzie. Which brings us to... 3 Old West There are a few good western rpg's out there, since the early days, but I don't feel like they get a lot of play considering the potential - probably more people doing crossovers such as Deadlands. But Old West was very well done as a sourcebook (as GURPS books tend to be), this is more of a favorite due to subject matter (I love westerns!). Glad to see Conan, and Thaumatology, got a mention, same with Fantasy Adventures, and lets give Space Adventures a runner up. The specificity of books such as those (and space atlases) makes running adventures more viable - especially since I don't have the same time to prep and write as I did back in the day! If this was a list of 4 books, I'd put Unnight! Really cool to see what the rest of you mentioned, I'm going to skim through a couple (ie Myth and Voodoo) that I haven't read for many years! . Last edited by Bud; 05-05-2021 at 11:43 PM.