gurps history

[BaHalus]

We from Gurps Group Brasil are trying to write an explanation about the difference between brazilian editions and original editions (we had 1ed and 2ed, but both are actually the 3ed, we never had a 3ed, but jumped to 4ed, that is the actual 4ed and all of this may seems confuse and that is the main reason why we are tryin to explain Gurps history), but we are having difficulties finding the dates of the revised edition. The dates we are finding makes no sense. It putz the brazilian revised edition in 1994 and the American revised version in 1996 and I am pretty sure those can't be the right dates.

Someone could give us the right dates? Some brief Gurps history with the right years of each edition and revision? Thanks.

[johndallman]

This will be easier if we use names that aren't confusing.

Call American 1st Edition A1e, which is (c) 1986, off my copy. American 3rd edition, A3e, is (c) 1989. American 4th Edition, A4e, is (c) 2004.

There are several copyright dates for American 3rd Edition, Revised, A3eR. The first printing is (c) 1994 and the fourth is (c) 1999. It looks from the dates on the 1999 title page as if the second printing was (c) 1996 and the third printing (c) 1998, but that's deduction, rather than certain knowledge.

Edit: Looking at the PDF of A3eR, that's seventh printing, (c) 2004, and there's only one copyright date, 2002, between 4th in 1999 and 7th in 2004. So either there were two printings in the same year, or there was a printing that didn't get a new copyright date. I can't tell.

So if Brazilian revised edition was printed the same year as the original A3eR, but someone got a date for Ae3R from a second printing of that book, not realising the different printings had different copyright dates, that could account for your weird-looking information.

To tell which printing a US book is, look at the title page. You'll find a line which says something like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

or

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The first is from a first printing, the second is from a fourth printing. This way of doing it comes from metal type days, where one could remove something without re-setting the page far more easily than adding something.

EDIT: The ISBN doesn't help much here: it's the same for different printings of Ae3R.