OK, finally buying 4e...

[B9anders]

In order of importance based on what you said:

Basic Set, obviously. And Magic if you use the standard spell system.

Although it sounds like Dungeon Fantasy is not a good fit for you, I would nevertheless suggest picking up Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons. It has lots of good GM suggestions and rulings for any fantasy campaign. The rest of the series can be skipped for you, I think.

Depending on how satisfied you are with the magic system, Thaumatology is a gold mine of alternative takes on the magic system. But overall, I'd say it is just a great buy as it also helps with magical items, tweaks to the standard system and so forth.

Powers: Divine Favour is to me the ideal supplement for anyone who wants to deal with followers receiving divine favours who don't want to resolve that with the same mechanics as wizards.

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Those are my top suggestions. Moving on to oft-mentioned choices I would might hsitate to recommend:

If you have a firmly defined setting to play in, you can probably skip Fantasy. If not, it is very good for ideas, inspiration and approach to setting building. Besides that, it has a good list of templates, some nice things for different magic systems and some decent monster writeups too.

Powers is by many considered the closest thing to a 3rd book of basic set, but it depends on how you game. If your PCs don't have much in the way of supernatural powers, then you give it a miss.

As already mentioned, Banestorm is now its own book, so if you game there, get it.

Low-tech is nice, but unless you're really into gear, it's dispensible.

If combat is important, you will want to get Martial Arts though. A tremendous book.

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In the more periphery department, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements is a very nice rules addition for dealing with uh... imbuing attacks!

In The Thaumatology series, I enjoyed Urban magics and Magical Styles. Both good if you wish to further mine for new ways or additions to the magics system.

Overall, I'd say your biggest problem will be replacing the bestiaries. There are lots of monsters for 4e, but they are spread out in a multitude of books. DF2, Fantasy, Banestorm should cover the most though.

[malloyd]

I'm going to disagree here and say Magic is not a priority even if you are using it heavily. The important rules are in Basic (including one significant change that did trip me up, casting time 1 spells now can't be interrupted except by Waiting opponents, since they now go off on your turn rather than at the beginning of your next turn) so the only thing you'd want it for is the specific spell descriptions. These didn't change substantially from 3e - in many cases not even when they *should* have to reflect 4e rules changes, Magic 4e was pushed out the door too fast, without a public playtest, and suffers for it - so you can just keep using the 3e version.

After the Basic Set, I think I'd call the next most critical book Power Ups 2 Perks - these are a neat new feature in 4e, and developed a *lot* after Basic came out. For fantasy, Dungeon Fantasy 2 might be surprisingly useful, even if you aren't strictly doing Dungeon Fantasy, since a lot of it is devoted to what skills and abilities matter for what common Fantasy situtations. Of the full size hardcopy stuff I'd put Low Tech (for mundane gear, piece by piece armor and new weapons are a particular favorite of many players), Martial Arts (for more detailed combat rules) and Powers (for more detailed treatment of advantages and advice on using Enhancments and Limitations) as the next choice, depending on which of those you care about most.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Obviously you'll want both volumes of the Basic Set. If you are happy with the old GURPS Magic magic system, you may want the new one (but if you are on a budget, you can probably just skip it, as it only barely updates that system anyway).

Originally Posted by malloyd

I'm going to disagree here and say Magic is not a priority even if you are using it heavily. The important rules are in Basic (including one significant change that did trip me up, casting time 1 spells now can't be interrupted except by Waiting opponents, since they now go off on your turn rather than at the beginning of your next turn) so the only thing you'd want it for is the specific spell descriptions. These didn't change substantially from 3e - in many cases not even when they *should* have to reflect 4e rules changes, Magic 4e was pushed out the door too fast, without a public playtest, and suffers for it - so you can just keep using the 3e version.

I wanted to add a big ditto about the advice concerning Magic. If you're satisfied with the spell list from 3E's version, then all you need are the small changes to the casting rules from Characters, and you're gtg.

Focusing on the rest of those two posts:
Low-Tech and Martial Arts are solid additions for the 'medieval fantasy' the OP mentioned, and Perks is pretty useful for its cost. Books like Thaumatology and Powers are very important if you want to do system tweaking (of magic or advantages), but may not be something you want to get into right away. Remember the distinction between 4E's Fantasy and Banestorm.

[the_matrix_walker]

Once you have your Basic Set 1 & 2, the rest is just cream. I will echo the others in saying if budget is an issue, Magic can wait.

Unfortunately, it was left off the list of "non-critical to update" books and I stretched my budget past it's limit to get my hands on it, only to find the new material was pretty sparse. I was expecting allot of new content based on the info on the cover, but alas, it was not forthcoming inside. It was the source of my only cranky email to the writers.

I you want to invest in Dungeon Fantasy, it a good set of fun rules for hack and slashing through dungeons. That is it's purpose. If your games a more detailed and roleplaying based and become involved with social and political issues, it's not going to be that useful (but check out GURPS: Social Engineering).

[Pagan]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

I wanted to add a big ditto about the advice concerning Magic. If you're satisfied with the spell list from 3E's version, then all you need are the small changes to the casting rules from Characters, and you're gtg.

Focusing on the rest of those two posts:
Low-Tech and Martial Arts are solid additions for the 'medieval fantasy' the OP mentioned, and Perks is pretty useful for its cost. Books like Thaumatology and Powers are very important if you want to do system tweaking (of magic or advantages), but may not be something you want to get into right away. Remember the distinction between 4E's Fantasy and Banestorm.

I'm going to disagree with their disagreeing. I think it is critical that you get Gurps Magic for a fantasy game if you use the standard magic system or a variation (Gurps Thaumatology Magical Styles is outstanding). I've run my same fantasy campaign for about 13 years now using Gurps and using the standard Magic system. There are enough little changes in Magic 4e for anyone who uses the system extensively to warrant buying the book. Also, everything I did to give magic flavors over the years crystalized when I bought Magical Styles. I think it is Critical to anyone running a fantasy campaign with the base magical system.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Pagan

I think it is Critical to anyone running a fantasy campaign with the base magical system.

Even if he already has the 3E version? Useful I will go with but I think it is definitively on the if you have the spare cash pile.
It does pull in spells from other sources though.

[Gef]

The changes in the costs of things has some subtle effects. If you convert a typical 3e character to 4e it gets more expensive, but if you redisign it in the same spirit, it'll come out about the same or cheaper.

The reason is that 3e IQ and DX were cheap, especially in relation to physical skills. That provided a strong incentive to pump those attributes. If you wanted to play a knight, the power stat was definitely DX, as you needed it for weapon, shield, and riding skills. Incidentally, that made you great at picking pockets and doing gymnastics! Now, it actually comes out cheaper to go with a lower DX and pour points into as many as 4 important DX-based skills. GURPS Martial Arts in 3e focused on empty hand, but the 4e version has a lot more to do with weapons.* (I'll second the opinion of the folks who suggest Martial Arts over Magic. You can keep using 3e magic for the spell descriptions; the system changes are covered in Basic.)

Better still, there's a package deal called a Talent, a generic extension of Musical or Mathematical Aptitude from 3e. There are several sample Talents in basic set, but the idea is that you design them yourself (as a GM). So you might have a talent for all-round sneakiness, bonus to Stealth, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, etc. This is great in part because it applies to these related skills REGARDLESS of what attributes their based on, and skills are now based on more different attributes, several on HT, Will, and Alertness. Talents are also swell because they provide a bonus to half a dozen skills for just 5 points per level. So, if you have a focused design, you actually come out cheaper than in 3e. A thief with a talent for sneakiness can have fairly average attributes, a nice big talent bonus, and expert skills for everything that matters to a thief. I suggest reading the section on talents carefully; there's a sentence right at the end that forbids Weapon Talent, but it's not a prohibition on a Talent that includes weapon skills: It is instead a prohibition on overly broad talents, such as one that covers every conceivable weapon skill. You might reasonably have knightly talent for Lance, Shield, Broadsword, Axe/Mace, Riding, and Soldier, in this case "related" not by using the same part of the brain but by prolonged or intensive training in an integrated curriculum.

GEF

*Speaking of weapons, there's a big change for axes: You can now attack with them every turn, you just can't parry and attack on the same turn. Of course, you can still defend with the other hand, say a block with your shield, while attacking with the axe. And Martial Arts gives an option for making a weaker attack that doesn't give up your parry.

[Gef]

I'm not a particularly great fan of GURPS Character Assistant, only because I'm personally much quicker at character creation with just a sheet of scratch paper. However, that's because I've internalized 4e rules pretty thoroughly. For someone newly switching over from 3e, it's a great help, and I'd rate it, too, as more valuable than Magic. -GEF

[lyobovnik]

OK, bought GCA. Also, my Basic Set has arrived. Yay!

READING...
READING...
READING...

Wow, 4e has some neat goodies. I especially love how much more exposed the modification mechanics are.

Another question: Are things like DF and "Low-Tech: Instant Armor" meant to be printed at home? They look... different.

[Gef]

Or not printed at all. I like viewing mine on an android tablet (10"). They're not hardback releases and may never be softback releases either, so yeah, if you want hardcopy, that's a DIY project. -GEF