How to Be a GURPS GM

[Kromm]

Tales wait to be told
But players in the story
Live in the moment

— Some hooded chap at the tavern

We're all friends here, so I can say this: People who don't know GURPS frequently accuse it of being too complex, too sprawling, too full of math. Very often that's because one glimpse of the big picture – one look at all those supplements, with their grandiose claim of "Anything you want. Any world you can imagine." – leaves them asking, "Any idea where I can start?"

And to be honest, that's a fair question!

To get anywhere with GURPS, you need someone who's willing to run it. The catch? That person has to learn the ropes – and while there are excellent general guides to GMing out there, and there's even a GURPS primer of sorts, GURPS is big enough that running it with confidence requires more than generalities and basics. It calls for a long, hard look at how to cut a huge system into manageable bites, ideally provided by knowledgeable GMs who've actually run the game. Which brings us to How to Be a GURPS GM.

How to Be a GURPS GM is a guide to the ins and outs of running GURPS. Neither vague nor theoretical, it dives in and delivers details: the supplements to use and options to switch on, the power levels and abilities that suit particular genres and character types, the pitfalls that demand extra attention, and how the letter of the rules sometimes differs from the spirit. Warren "Mook" Wilson bases this practical advice on more than two decades of experience as a GURPS GM and the leading provider of worked examples for the game . . . and supports it with quotes from Sean "Kromm" Punch, the GURPS Line Editor, who sounds off both in his official capacity and as a GM since the dawn of GURPS (1986).

This handbook has something for everyone:

• New GURPS GMs will learn how to jump right in and run fun adventures that get good use out of all those GURPS supplements – adventures that will have their players coming back for more!
  
• Experienced GURPS GMs interested in riffing on the game with house rules will appreciate the extensive designer input, which answers many questions about why things work the way they do.
  
• GURPS players of all skill levels will find valuable reminders and checklists that save them a lot of time rooting through supplements and online FAQs.
  
• Even gamers who aren't fans of GURPS will get something out of the solid systemless advice on setting up and running fun adventures – because a big part of How to Be a GURPS GM is "How to Be a GM."

Pick it up now and take your game to the next level!

—

Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-0034

[GodBeastX]

Genius book to write. Wish this was around earlier. THANKS!

Having read a lot of it already, this has already clarified a few things for me, and also reinforced other ideas I lost in the recesses of my memory. An A+ book.

[GameBuddah]

Kromm,

I have collected all the hard back GURPS 4th Edition books with the exception of Vorksagan and Zombies as they have arrived in my FLGS since 2004, but I have not played GURPS 4th Edition.

I haven't actively played GURPS for 15 years, though not our a desire to do so, the people I know wanted to play Exalted or Legend of the Five Rings.

In January, I'm going to start a new GURPS 4th Edition Campaign so I'm excited to see this book.

I'll download it tonight.

Update: Got It! I'm going to read it tomorrow!

[Hannes665]

I have been playing Gurps since 1989, GMing since 1991 and 4ed since late 2004. Do I need it or rather should I get it? What is that I after playing for 25 years would learn and if anything to learn can an old GM dog learn new tricks?

Bought it...

[vicky_molokh]

You probably know me as one of the people who criticise most supplements one way or another. And as that sort of person, I'm saying this:

I've read through parts of the book, skimmed others, and it is GOOD.
Even for experienced GMs. (For inexperienced ones, it's a good third book after the two Basic Sets by priority.)

[Kromm]

FWIW: I've been playing GURPS since 1986 – i.e., since it was Man to Man and just a combat system, and then through four editions that span 28 years. I've also worked on the game since the summer of 1995, or for 19 years (more like 20 years, if you count my first freelance assignment in the autumn of 1994). And I developed the current edition. Despite all that, I still found useful tips in Mook's material, and even in words of my own that I'd forgotten or never looked at next to other things I'd written.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

You probably know me as one of the people who criticise most supplements one way or another. And as that sort of person, I'm saying this:

I've read through parts of the book, skimmed others, and it is GOOD.
Even for experienced GMs. (For inexperienced ones, it's a good third book after the two Basic Sets by priority.)

Any book of advice is going to have its ups and downs. I bought it, and a lot of it is pretty unimportant for me (NPCs should have personality and do things on their own? *Looks at vast political campaigns* You don't say!)... but even so I have to admit, I found myself already strip-mining parts for my own campaigns, especially the section that breaks down where all the various combat rules are, where they can be found, how they interact and an analysis of what rules to use for what sorts of campaigns.

There's advice that's best for beginners in here... and advice that's really meant for experts, and lots and lots of notes and cross-references. If you're an experienced GM you could get by without it, sure, but I haven't regretted the $11 I dropped on it.

EDITED TO CLARIFY: I quoted for emphasis, not because I was addressing Vicky.

[Langy]

Huh. This is unexpected - but I can understand why you'd hire Mook to write it!

I'll have to pick up a copy

I do like the tag on the store page: The Student's Guide to Ultimate Power

[Agemegos]

I gather that this book was a long time — several years — in the production pipeline at Steve Jackson Games. Out of general interest, may I ask whether it needed significant additions or re-writes on account of supplements that came out while it was in production?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I gather that this book was a long time — several years — in the production pipeline at Steve Jackson Games. Out of general interest, may I ask whether it needed significant additions or re-writes on account of supplements that came out while it was in production?

No, it needed production resources we didn't have while Ogre was in the system. Ogre all but forced us to release a minuscule number of short GURPS PDFs, and 70+ pages wasn't going to happen. To be precise, the one opening we had for a long item got snatched by GURPS Zombies. We did pepper the manuscript with a few new references at the 11th hour, but that wasn't "significant" – we literally threw those in wherever they would fit a couple of weeks before release day.