GURPS guide on asparagus (hilarious spoof)

[chiral]

Just wanted to say that I came across this hilarious parody of GURPS sourcebooks, this one for ... asparagus. Yes, the vegetable, of which you eat the passably edible tip and then discard the tough chewy stalk.

The ebook is available at:
https://www.scribd.com/document/6667...S-Asparagus-4e

The Introduction reads, in part: "At some point in [every] GURPS game, a question arises: can I play as an asparagus? Before now, the answer was "Yes. Use the Basic Set; it's not too difficult." With the release of GURPS Asparagus, however, a dedicated supplement now exists with which to guide yourself "

Anyway, I didn't buy the document off Scribd so I didn't read through all of it, but I thought I'd just mention it here.

You thought GURPS had a sourcebook for *everything*. You were right. :)

[Varyon]

I think the cover may mimic the GURPS trade dress too closely (in that it's functionally identical, down to the claim it's an SJGames product), so don't be surprised if that gets taken down via a Cease and Desist, even if the staff finds it hilarious. This isn't SJGames being malicious, but rather it protecting its trademarks and trade dress - because failure to do so can mean losing the legal protection you have for those.

For future reference, you can review the Online Policy here.

[Anders]

Yeah, that's not gonna fly. Too bad, it looks hilarious.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I think the cover may mimic the GURPS trade dress too closely (in that it's functionally identical, down to the claim it's an SJGames product), so don't be surprised if that gets taken down via a Cease and Desist, even if the staff finds it hilarious. This isn't SJGames being malicious, but rather it protecting its trademarks and trade dress - because failure to do so can mean losing the legal protection you have for those.

As a nonlawyer, I think that a parody is legally in the clear even if it closely mimics the IP owner's trade dress (closely mimicking the original is, after all, the whole point of a parody).

On the other hand, this isn't a parody, but the best GURPS book ever, so SJGames will have to suppress it. Which is a shame, because it means we'll never get the long-awaited supplement on playing sentient blueberry muffins.

[sparcipx]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Which is a shame, because it means we'll never get the long-awaited supplement on playing sentient blueberry muffins.

Nah, just tweak the Sentient Snacks template from Transhuman Space: Shell-Tech, you'll be fine.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I think the cover may mimic the GURPS trade dress too closely (in that it's functionally identical, down to the claim it's an SJGames product), so don't be surprised if that gets taken down via a Cease and Desist, even if the staff finds it hilarious.

I mean, at the same time it's been around for ages (SA's Fatal and Friends writeup dates to 2012), so either this is just going to be taken down from scribd eventually, or they've decided they won't bother before and this link will stick around.

[Blind Mapmaker]

The cover does look hilarious and it does seem to have some content (searching for "psi" does bring up the expected psionic asparagus on page 6). Did anyone already have an account on this weird, trappy-looking site and can you corroborate on whether this is a) a hilarious parody or b) a hilarious parody that might be borderline-useful.

I agree with both the online policy comment and th fact that if it's just parody it's covered by fair use, but dang this made me laugh.

[Alden Loveshade]

I'm not an attorney-at-law. But this specifically claims to be a GURPS Fourth Edition, Steve Jackson Games product. My suspicion is that violates fair use/trademark law.

So I'll check....

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I mean, at the same time it's been around for ages (SA's Fatal and Friends writeup dates to 2012), so either this is just going to be taken down from scribd eventually, or they've decided they won't bother before and this link will stick around.

Or it's never been brought as explicitly to their attention as being posted on the forums they run. I think loss of trademark due to not defending it only applies if it's clear that the trademark owner was made aware of it and opted to ignore it.

All that said, it may well be correct that this is covered under Fair Use on account of being a parody.

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

The cover does look hilarious and it does seem to have some content (searching for "psi" does bring up the expected psionic asparagus on page 6). Did anyone already have an account on this weird, trappy-looking site and can you corroborate on whether this is a) a hilarious parody or b) a hilarious parody that might be borderline-useful.

You can find the document without going through the linked site with a Google search.