Hello Chris,
My initial thought when you requested opinions was to not even respond -
not because you're a lousy guy (which you are NOT), and not because your
question was a lousy one (which it is not) - but because as of late, my
thoughts regarding 4e have been less than complimentary. Until GURPS 4e
came out, you didn't hear me trash much in the way of SJGames products,
although I never really "liked" GURPS GRIMOIRE - I never really felt
anything in the way of an urge to trash it primarily because it wasn't a
"Core product" in my opinion. I've given you this preamble strictly so
that you know my general overall opinion of GURPS 4e and can take the
following with perhaps a HUGE grain of salt...
First:
GURPS 4e as a product really bugs the living daylights out of me. Some
of the "Fixes" weren't fixes as such, but were designed to make others
"happy" (as in the squeaky wheel gets the oil kind of happy). Looking at
the rules for how shields are damaged in GURPS 4e, I have a wee bit of a
problem reconciling how it states that shields rarely survive one battle
and the actual rules given in GURPS 4e. There are other "quibbles" or
"dislikes" I have in that department, but heck - I can get around that by
using GURPS 3e rules as "house rules" easily enough. I am however,
strongly of the mindset that what was done with GURPS 4e was to take it off
the "Gritty realism" track and make it a touch more cinematically friendly
(Is cinematically even a word I wonder?). One need only read some of the
comments made by Dr Kromm on FORUMS to realize that Drama and Game play is
more important than gritty realism. Ok, I can live with that. Not my cup
of tea, but, if that is what SJGames needs to do to survive, so be it. In
fairness, there were some really NICE changes made such as capping the cost
of skills to 4 per level instead of the original 8 per level for GURPS 3e.
There were a few other useful changes made that in general HELPED rather
than hindered GURPS. Problem is, for me, the structure of the GURPS books
had a flavor of "Some assembly required" aspect that I really didn't like
then, and really don't like now (now that I've had time to get used to it).
But, perhaps this was neccessary - I don't walk the halls of SJGames in
Austin, Texas...
Using a 5 star rating system:
*: a tree shouldn't have had to die for this one.
***: So so. I don't begrudge spending the money on it.
*****: Run to the game store and buy it, don't walk.
GURPS MAGIC for 4e: If you already have GURPS MAGIC and GURPS GRIMOIRE and
GURPS TECHNOMANCER, avoid the GURPS MAGIC for 4e as not being high on the
"More bang for the buck" category. While it does contain some other
material that is "new", it doesn't really deliver much more that makes it
mandatory for you to grab for your book of "tools" list. Frankly, after
perusing through the spell descriptions and seeing what they've changed
over the original rules from GURPS MAGIC for 3e, I realize that the author
of that travesty (and I'm using the word harshly, but I honestly think of
it as such) was only doing what he thought was right - but I seriously
doubt he even bothered to determine the ramifications of his actions. The
short and sweet of my "objections" to the GURPS MAGIC rules set for 4e is
that you can in no way, justify any form of a TL3 like game setting if you
permit unfettered access to the spells within that book. What makes it
even worse is the simple fact that they've combined the spells EARTH TO
STONE with STONE TO METAL with one unintended consequence. To wit: that
any metal coin based economy is flat outright IMPOSSIBLE to justify in a
world where a single mage can produce 6 tons of Iron in a single casting
(not even a single days work!). GURPS MAGIC for 3e had the ability to
portray a TL3 style genre, providing you kept in mind that some spells did
have the potential to cause some grief even with that - but GURPS MAGIC 4e?
Forget it.
GURPS POWERS: I concur with Dataweaver on this one. If you're looking for
more bang for the buck, this is the book you might want to consider buying.
It shows you how to assemble various different "powers" using the basic
erector style kit provided for in GURPS BASIC SET 4th edition. As pointed
out, you can use it to simulate magical spells easily enough - and can
approach that from a different direction than you might have ever done
using only GURPS MAGIC (either edition). Between the Psionics, powers, and
how to book aspect - it pretty much makes it worth your while to pick up.
Since you already have GURPS MAGIC for 3e, this book will give you more
bang for the buck in my opinion.
Rating: ***
GURPS FANTASY: I must confess that I was not overly happy with the book
although nothing strikes me outright as being "offensive" or "dumb". I
guess the best that I can say on this one is that if you're interested in
world building, this might be the book you'd want to consider looking at.
It contains a sort of "Rome aspected" fantasy world that could be the basis
for a game world if you're interested in that kind of thing. In a way, its
inclusion reminds me somewhat of how Yrth was included in the original
GURPS FANTASY 1st edition. Bang for the Buck value? Hard to tell.
Rating: **
GURPS BANESTORM: Part of my problem is that prior to GURPS 4e ever coming
out, I had recycled the MAN-TO-MAN ORCSLAYER adventure module for use with
my gaming crew. There, I had grabbed the data from various books such as
GURPS HARKWOOD, GURPS FANTASY 1st edition, GURPS FANTASY 2nd edition, and
ORCSLAYER and tried to build a decent game world with it. First thing I
noted once I started to work mapping things out using CAMPAIGN CARTOGRAPHER
PRO, was that the area encompassed within CAITHNESS was easily the size of
6 Englands. At the time, I was trying to figure out just how many people
actually inhabited the region based on the fact that any material regarding
Yrth excluded numbers. Eventually, I gave up trying to make it work. I
did however, pass on the information of my findings to the Pyramid
discussion boards before I let my subscription to PYRAMID lapse (and during
the call for playtesters for BANESTORM and immediately afterwards).
Unfortunately, despite this - I've noted that GURPS BANESTORM made no real
attempt to fix the issues involved with the gameworld of Yrth. I've also
noted that the background material for the orcs is sociologically
IMPOSSIBLE to justify as the social strategy involved makes a mockery of
any form of "Group survival" ethos for the orcs. As such, the background
information of the orc's society would either imply that they should be
considered stone age rather than TL3. When I pointed out the fact that the
demographics of the world are horribly skewed - the general response was
more or less "Its a fantasy, don't apply realism to it!". There are SOME
good things that came out of the book that were lacking in previous
editions of Yrth - such as even mentioning demographical numbers in the
first place (as in, how many people live in each of the nations of Yrth.
I'm sure that there are other "gems" waiting to be found in the book
somewhere - but I have placed that book elsewhere and have not even
bothered to finish reading through it. My ultimate judgement of the book
was "I would not use this without some SERIOUS revision on my part". I
realized that if I had to do that much work revising it before it was
palable for my use, that I'd have been better off not buying it.
Rating: (first time ever for any book, not just a SJGames book) *
If you can get your hands on a copy of GURPS CABAL before it becomes hard
to find, I would suggest purchasing that book as well as GURPS SPIRITS. If
you absolutely wanted to buy a book you thought would be useful for the 4e
line, I'd suggest GURPS POWERS. That is of course, my own opinion.
Hal
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