GURPS Aliens: Sparrials

[Kromm]

Meeting aliens
I must have dropped my wallet
In the excitement

— Police report

You can't run a GURPS Space campaign without aliens. And that's exactly what the newly launched GURPS Aliens series aims to deliver! But rather than kick things off with a tired stereotype such as "brainy psis with bulging foreheads," "honorable-but-warlike empire builders," or "creepy, utterly inhuman invaders," we decided to bring you GURPS Aliens: Sparrials.

You might ask, "What on Earth is a sparrial?" After saying, "Wrong planet, Ace," gamers who own GURPS Classic: Aliens will recognize the name and claim to know about this species. But there's a lot more to learn – and with these guys, you need to be on your toes! "An entire race of small, agile thieves" would be a fair first description, and probably enough to have savvy spacemen keeping an eye on the crowd and a hand on their wallet. Yet as with all aliens worth writing about, there's much more than meets the eye . . .

Read up on the origins of this fascinating race, from arboreal predators, through inventive sapient species, to seasoned space explorers. Learn about their strong family ties and chaotic social system, and the resulting civilization. Discover why they steal, and what role clever thefts play in their society. Create your own sparrial adventurers and NPCs, drawing on details about standard and variant racial traits, common abilities, important skills, representative jobs, and martial arts. Then gear up with sparrial-specific equipment and set out to explore – whether that means riding a rachou or cruising the galaxy in a uniquely sparrial starship. There's also advice for choosing psionics and even spells, if your campaign leans that way (sparrials are well-suited to fantasy, too!).

Remember: What you don't know can still rob you blind! The space-wise adventurer won't want to be without a copy of Sparrials on her data player.

—

Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-1684

[johndallman]

If anyone is not familiar with David Morgan-Mar's old 3e GURPS Space campaign, its web page is here. There was a well-realised Sparrial as one of the PCs, and it's pretty funny. The campaign also gave rise to the Space theme of David's Irregular Webcomic, based on the same characters.

[GodBeastX]

We ended up talking about the book before this thread post in another thread. Good work!

[Dammann]

This book was just really fun to read. It makes me want to start getting a space campaign going again.

[Blind Mapmaker]

I posted a review on my blog. This book is finely balanced between crunch and fluff and pretty much the perfect length for a species splatbook. I really hope all the following ones are going to be the same length. We learn a lot more about Sparrials than in the original treatment. The only real complaint are the same old illustrations, but I know the financial considerations behind that problem. I guess asking for fan art is not a very professional move.

[Archangel Beth]

*makes happy eee noises at the review*

Thank you! I am glad that it was overall useful!

There is, I confess, one other Sparrial in fiction, though only as a fairly minor character in a short story... http://elizabethmccoy.dreamwidth.org/3695.html (I got permission from SJ to use GURPS concepts... Hm! I should update the "about GURPS" backmatter in those someday!)

[dfinlay]

Originally Posted by Kromm

You can't run a GURPS Space campaign without aliens.

I beg to differ.

Also, how do you find out what length a W23 product is. I'm curious how many pages this article is before deciding whether to buy it or not.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by dfinlay

I beg to differ.

Also, how do you find out what length a W23 product is. I'm curious how many pages this article is before deciding whether to buy it or not.

It tells you right next to the price on the description page.
Also previews always include the table of contents and index.
30 page PDF in this case.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Refplace

It tells you right next to the price on the description page.

That's in the upper left-hand sector of the page. Since this is becoming a FAQ (in general, not for this specific supplement), I've indicated this with a red rectangle in the attached graphic.

[dfinlay]

Originally Posted by Kromm

That's in the upper left-hand sector of the page. Since this is becoming a FAQ (in general, not for this specific supplement), I've indicated this with a red rectangle in the attached graphic.

Ah, there was the confusion. It shows up on the sjgames page here: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/sparrials/ but doesn't seem to on the W23 page here: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-1684. It should probably show up on both.

And 30 pages seems like enough to be worth my purchase. Sold.