GURPS Essential core books

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by Refplace

For Survival Horror I would go with High Tech, Low Tech (possibly, especailly if they do a lot of low tech scrounging) and Horror not only has monsters and such but a lot of ideas on running different kinds of Horror games.
Martial Arts is also a strong candidate.

For the next one...
The Transhuman series is worth a look.
Cyberpunk, couple of Pyramids and possibly Ultra Tech.

I fully do agree with Horror. It will also give you specific rules for fright checks and sanity: stress, derangement and corruption.

And you will even be able to use these rules in your Transhuman space campaign if you want to add a gloomy atmosphere to your games... After all, cybertechnology may affect the human psyche (especially when modifying the brain)!

For Martial Arts, I would say that it all depends on how detailed you want your combats to be.

I'm a martial artist in true life and, though I bought it, I rarely need Martial Arts rules. Basic Set rules are already very detailed. But, of course, if you want a lot of combats, with very detailed warrior characters and many harsh and realistic (or, to the contrary, heroic) options, then Martial Arts will become a mandatory.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Gollum

For Martial Arts, I would say that it all depends on how detailed you want your combats to be.

I agree with this countr statement.
Martial Arts is mostly hand to hand, though it has melee and missile weapon stuff as well. But only useful if you want additional detail and options.

Same with Tactial Shooting if you want realistic rules for Gun play or Gun Fu if you want additional rules for cineamtic gun play.

[Gollum]

So the better answer could be:

Begin to play with the Basic Set only and note what is really missing in your games... Then buy the corresponding book.

You will be able to do it after glancing at the free preview of each book (which always show its table of contents*) or even after asking on this forum.

* Here is the preview of GURPS Horror, for instance:
http://e23.sjgames.com/media/SJG31-1003_preview.pdf

You can find it on this page :
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Horror/

And here is the link to every GURPS book pages.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/

Oh! I forgot to tell... Don't skip GURPS Lite. It is totally free and really helps to understand the system (especially for your players). Furthermore many games can be played with GURPS Lite only.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/

[Kage2020]

You would think that, for not just a dedicated GURPS forum but the dedicated GURPS forum, that the "You only need Lite" or "You can run it with just Basic" could be pretty much a given. Everyone knows it, many if not all have tried it and succeeded at it in various ways so... Yeah. Whenever I see the term "essentials" coupled with GURPS my brain seems to insert in an automatic, "useful" instead. Then the list of books becomes a case of "Yeah, you can run it with Lite/Basic, but if you're lazy and pushed for time, want some great recommendations and some dedicated treatments of the core rules that are appropriate for the genre/setting in question? Then you might want to check out <insert book list> if funds are available/you like to buy PDF/whatever."

With that said, new poster and all registered in Jan 2013 so... Yeah. :D

While I think about it, I seem to recall a very similar thread on RPG.net. Was that you, Keiko? The moniker rings a bell...

Anyway, with the caveat about the stock answer (you can use Lite or Basic without the other supplements), here are some additional questions/responses.

What type of survival horror are you after, Keiko? There may be a difference for a Walking Dead-inspired Z-Apoc game and, say, something more akin to Aliens 3. If it's pretty much real world stuff you're good to go with just Characters of the Basic set for 4e, or just Basic 3e (depending on which version you're using). If you're the GM then throw in Campaigns as well for 4e and, as suggested, download a copy of Lite (3e/4e) for distribution to players if you're the GM (or just being a handy person!).

"Survival horror" as I'm envisaging it is less to do with the gadgets and more to do with the themes and what aspects of those themes that you want to concentrate on. Here you mostly just have to ask which rules you want to use, which since you're talking about HERO being too cinematic, may mean that you want to check out the information on disease/infection, bleeding, and that you may want to bean count on things like ammunition, consumables etc. Travel times, rest times and so forth would all be useful... and all of it is in Basic (either Campaigns or Basic 3e).

Everything else following this point is gravy.

If you need access to more gadgets, such as players getting access to mil-spec gear or its set in the future (or whatever), then there are some books that would make things easier here, too (Ultra Tech and High Tech) unless you're willing to eyeball it. For example, do you really need to have rules for blasters or gyrocs from Ultra Tech, or the differences between MP5's from High-Tech, or are you willing to go, "Yeah, you've got a ray gun. Treat it like an 9mm SMG. Done"?

Similarly, if the ammo is gone and you need to get "primitive" in the campaign? You might want Low-Tech for the information and advice that it gives. Again, though, it depends on how much you want to eyeball and which bits of non-cinematic game play you want to focus on.

If you're not familiar with the survival horror, though? This is where the recommendation for Horror would come in--it's a thoroughly excellent book and, as a GM, can be incredibly useful so that you don't have to derive things from first principles (read: Lite/Basic). There's lots of great information in there that might help your campaign, but obviously not if you're a player (then it really is gravy to let you get into the genre tropes etc.).

For Transhuman Space the answers a little bit easier. Pick up Transhuman Space for 'fluff' and Basic 3e and Compendium 1 (as advised on the back of the book). If it's a 4e game, check out Changing Times and 4e Update all of which is once again GM-side rather than player-side information.

If you're more 'fluff' than the basic introductions in Transhuman Space then you pretty much can't go wrong. Broken Dreams goes into more detail about the surface of Earth, while Under Pressure talks about settings in the oceans of the Sol system. In the Well and The Deep Beyond to into more detail about the inner and outer system of Sol. In fact, you pretty much can't go wrong with the THS books (I love the setting for inspiration). Fifth Wave talks about the technology of the setting, while Shell-Tech is a template-dense book giving you more shell options for characters etc.

Personnel Files can be interesting, mostly as quick ideas for campaign settings, and the Teralogos News is... brief. Interesting, but not right for everyone.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kage2020

With that said, new poster and all registered in Jan 2013 so... Yeah. :D

While I think about it, I seem to recall a very similar thread on RPG.net. Was that you, Keiko? The moniker rings a bell...

Speaking of which . . . Kim Foster, Thrash RPG, Hentai and Nexus, by any chance?[/QUOTE]

[Jeffr0]

After Basic Set... I'd go with the GURPS Power Ups series.

Of all the hard back books, GURPS Martial Arts has been the most useful. It's so cool when a player describes what they want to do... and then there is a combat rule for it that you can very quickly find there. (The rule is almost always an obvious elaboration of stuff that is already in Basic Set, though.)

The Alternate GURPS Pyramid issues are also very good.

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Speaking of which . . . Kim Foster, Thrash RPG, Hentai and Nexus, by any chance?

I beg your pardon?

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by Kage2020

While I think about it, I seem to recall a very similar thread on RPG.net. Was that you, Keiko? The moniker rings a bell...

No, I don't post much on rpg.net anymore. I don't like atmosphere there very much.

What type of survival horror are you after, Keiko?

It would probably be more accurate to say "Zombie Horror" examples being the Night of the Living Dead, the Walking Dead, etc.

But I hope to use GURPS for a pretty wide variety of settings over time. I have many ideas and don't like to use published settings so I prefer generic games.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Keiko

I beg your pardon?

No relation, then.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Keiko

It would probably be more accurate to say "Zombie Horror" examples being the Night of the Living Dead, the Walking Dead, etc.

I might recommend Action 2 for a Zombie apocalypse game. It has a lot of advice on keeping a campaign that tends toward combat and action from becoming just a sequence of Guns (Rifle) rolls, and collects and distills rules from several places (and introduced some rules, some of which have appeared elsewhere since) helpful for running a surprisingly wide variety of games.

I wouldn't call it essential core, but it is high on the usefulness/cost ratio chart. Plus, Action doesn't get enough love.