GURPS Essential core books

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I wouldn't call it essential core, but it is high on the usefulness/cost ratio chart.

I don't use it a lot because I tend to do low-tech fantasy gaming, for which it isn't so useful, but time and again I'm astonished with how densely packed Action 2 is with really, really good and immediately useful stuff for modern and peri-modern (yay, neologism) campaigns.

Originally Posted by RyanW

Plus, Action doesn't get enough love.

I'll go one farther: Action 2 is the single most underappreciated book in GURPS.

[Kage2020]

Originally Posted by Keiko

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

It is very much of a... unique place, yes.

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.

Then this thread is resonating very strongly with the one over there. For Z-Apoc/horror I pointed out that for one of the very first times I was hand-on-heart able to say that Basic was pretty much it for someone that wanted to work with the "gritty, realistic" aspect of GURPS without having to go, "But if you're lazy like me then you might find this, this, and that over their helpful, too."

Originally Posted by Keiko

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.

And in those cases the books that people find useful to them in their various endeavours might be useful after all. :D

[Kromm]

For zombie apocalypses (and everything else to do with zombies, though not apocalypses), I've written GURPS Zombies. The book is edited and laid out. What it needs is art . . . and of course printing. But be sure to leave a spot for it on the shelf!

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

This, definitely this. He took the words right out of my mouth.

And despite what all the other forumites are saying, you really only need the core books. The supplements help a lot, but they're not essential to running the game. I've run combat-heavy games without Martial Arts, power-heavy games without Powers, low-tech games without Low-Tech, and so on. I do highly recommend them, but it's one thing to say "This supplement is great!" and "This supplement is essential."

Yes. For me, only the Basic Set is truly essential; Powers is close, though, since it gives so many ideas of what to do with advantages and different ways to think about them.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I'll go one farther: Action 2 is the single most underappreciated book in GURPS.

I second that. I underappreciate it all the time.

I should fix that.

[JP42]

My advice is similar to the others, who have said to pick a genre and figure out what you need from there.

But I will add this: you should play with just Basic for a while, and sooner or later you'll find something you can't do with it, or a rule that rings hollow for you, and you'll come back here and find that someone else has already posted a question about the same thing you're wondering about, and someone else will have posted a reply as to which of the source books you want to pick up to solve your issue.

Need some more options for combat? Martial Arts will fit the bill. Need some power modifiers that aren't in Basic? They're probably in Powers. The holes will slowly fill in until you've got just the game you're after.

[Grouchy Chris]

Originally Posted by Kromm

For zombie apocalypses (and everything else to do with zombies, though not apocalypses), I've written GURPS Zombies. The book is edited and laid out. What it needs is art . . . and of course printing. But be sure to leave a spot for it on the shelf!

So it's going to get printing, and not just .pdfing? That's good news, if that's what you meant.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Grouchy Chris

So it's going to get printing, and not just .pdfing? That's good news, if that's what you meant.

Yep that is offically listed as a for physical print product.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

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

GURPS Power Ups 2: Perks is probably the best of the series. I know quite a few people on the forums dislike perks, but I think they go a long way to helping define a character. One of my players call them "Character candy"

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I'll go one farther: Action 2 is the single most underappreciated book in GURPS.

It's served as the basis of nearly every Sci-fi game I've run.

[Kalzazz]

Ill definitely have to give Action 2 a look again

As someone who can't stand 'anything I could sorta, kinda, if I'm half drunk and squinting hard enough vaguely see existing' I will admit I haven't used action much

But if its good for Sci Fi? Well, I do like that