New to Gurps

[knightwriter]

I just wanted to say hi and that I'm new to Gurps. I have the Fourth Edition of Gurps and the Magic system book. I was wondering if anyone thought there might be other supplementary books that I should look for in the Gurps fantasy genre.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Well, there's GURPS Fantasy, obviously. That's the book to get if you're starting to build a fantasy setting from the ground up and go beyond conventional dungeon crawling. If, on the other hand, conventional dungeon crawling is what you want, look to the Dungeon Fantasy line.

[davidtmoore]

Fantasy is a good genre/style resource, with a lot of guidance on characters and play but not a load of crunch, so it depends on what you want out of your books. Still, an all-round good resource.

The various Dungeon Fantasy books provide a specific application of fantasy roleplay; to whit, a high-powered, high-action "dungeon stomp" style game in the vein of classic AD&D, Rolemaster, WHFRP etc. There's some good stuff in there, even if you don't want to run that style of play. DF3 has a bunch of fantasy races.

Thaumatology adds a load more options to the magic rules. Probably a lot to take on if you're just starting, but a brilliant, brilliant book. Thaumatology: Magical Styles is a really good concept as well, although again, possibly a bit much right off the bat.

Banestorm is the default GURPS fantasy setting, so far supported with one other product - Banestorm: Abydos, the "City of the Dead" - with a sniff of more on the horizon.

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by knightwriter

I just wanted to say hi and that I'm new to Gurps. I have the Fourth Edition of Gurps and the Magic system book. I was wondering if anyone thought there might be other supplementary books that I should look for in the Gurps fantasy genre.

You've got all you need right there!

That said, the entire DF line is certainly worth your consideration, but especially DF:1-3. These will do the 'heavy lifting' of having predefined templates and worked examples of genre suitable advantages.

Nymdok

[knightwriter]

Ok, thanks a lot. I can't wait to get together with my friends and get this game going! I really like how customizable everything is, and I love the magic system!

[knightwriter]

I was wondering if anyone had an adventure for gurps fantasy that I could look over. Some of the gang are coming over tonight and I mentioned gurps. They thought it might be fun to run through a small adventure, but I don't have time to come up with one.

Any help would be appreciated.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by davidtmoore

Banestorm is the default GURPS fantasy setting, so far supported with one other product - Banestorm: Abydos, the "City of the Dead" - with a sniff of more on the horizon.

I think calling it "default" is a mistake, there's nothing in GURPS at all that assumes the Banestorm setting. It isn't even the only published fantasy setting for GURPS 4e.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by knightwriter

I was wondering if anyone had an adventure for gurps fantasy that I could look over.

GURPS is very short on adventures, even notoriously so, but there's this. It's even free.

ETA: You can look through issues of Pyramid for more adventures, although, IIRC, most recent Pyramid adventures have been for modern and SF campaigns rather than fantasy.

[Captain-Captain]

Mr. Bey's company is avoiding the tooting of his own horn. If you click on that link to his e23 stuff, you'll find "The Tower of Octavius", which IMHO makes a good local campaigning region for starting characters, particularly if you set Lord Octavius up in villain mode with the PCs as tyrant smashing hero types.

You'll need an outside world too but you should be able to get several sessions under your belt before you even have to refer to it, let alone have the PCs travel anywhere in it.

[Edges]

Something I wish I had known about the books when I started out:

There's basically five kinds of GURPS books.

1. Rule Books. Books filled with rules and numbers (aka "crunch"). These books can be used in just about any GURPS game. They include,
a) Basic Set
b) Powers
c) Martial Arts
d) Power-Ups: Perks (a little book available at e23 online)

2. Rule Supplements. These are books with a bunch of extra rules (lots of crunch) that are applicable to a great variety of games (but not necessarily the majority). They include,
a) Magic (it offers one possible magic system not the only GURPS magic system)
b) Taumatology (offers alternative magic systems)
c) Action (a series of books that mainly apply to modern cinematic action)
d) Spaceships (a series of books which I've never opened. They could be gear books)
e) Gun Fu (cinematic gun stuff)
f) Tactical Shooting (realistic gun stuff. not out yet)

2. Genre books. These books generally have a bunch of campaign suggestions and not much crunch. If you need a few campaign ideas or help organizing plot, these books could help. They include,
a) Fantasy
b) Supers
c) Space (I think. I've never opened it)
d) Mysteries
e) Psionic Campaigns

3. World Books*. These are for pre-created settings. Some people are really into a particular pre-made setting and other people don't want to spend the time making a world. Both these people buy world books. They include,
a) Banestorm
b) Infinite Worlds
c) Transhuman Space
d) Traveller

4. Gear Books. These books have equipment along with optional rules involving equipment and historical reference to equipment. If you want to set a game in 1899 and you want to know what kind of guns there were or if fingerprinting was around or how much a telegraph message costs, you want a gear book. They include,
a) Low-Tech TL0-TL4 (hasn't come out yet)
b) High-Tech TL5-TL8
c) Ultra Tech TL9-TL12
d) Bio-Tech (medical gear at all TLs)

5. Worked Rule Books (I'm sure there's a better name). These are books that are made to save time and energy for groups that are into a particular classic. GURPS is so flexible that it can be daunting to pick, integrate, and tweak the rules for the exact game you want. So the writers have taken a few favorites and done the work for you. If you want to play one of these classic sub-genres, you may want these books. These books also serve as worked examples of what GURPS can do. They include,
a) Dungeon Fantasy (there's about 10 of these books so far)
b) Psionic Powers (notable for its extra crunch)

As for GURPS premade "adventures", I've heard of them but I've never seen them. They are few.

*The term "World books" is often used for a broader category of books.

I'd recommend getting the four "rule books" in the first point above. If you think you might want another book, preview it at your friendly neighborhood game store and ask about it here on the forums to be sure it's what you're looking for.

In the end, you only need the basic set. But it's all good.