Roleplaying Books

If you enjoy with the Sandman histories, you're gonna love this book. In this book you can find a description of a lot of customes in the Dream. Many times in The Sandman i've heard about several customes, that i didn't knew it, and because of that i don't get what the history was about. If you have this problem, this is what are you looking for, or if you love The Sandman histories like I do, your are gonna love this book too.

This sixth installment in the Guildbook series provides more in depth information into the powers and secrets of the Spooks and Oracles. It provides a better feel for how the guilds operate; instead of merely what powers they practice. The dark and somewhat disturbing artwork helps to build the ambiance for a great Wraith Game, and inspires ideas with which a story teller can set an excellent scene.

The Blue Planet roleplaying environment is remarkably detailed and shows an amazing amount of creativity. The good folks at Steve Jackson games have simply outdone themselves in recreating this vision within the GURPS system and bringing this unique roleplaying environment to a much larger group.

I strongly urge anybody who has an interest in hard Science Fiction roleplaying to pick up this book. You can either integrate the wonderfully detailed and gritty situation directly into your campaign or use it as a source of ideas for years to come.

Imagine, if you will, that humanity has found a wormhole at the outer edges of our solar system that takes us to one other star system. Further imagine that it contains a big beautiful world with very compatible life forms, no terraforming required. The planet is 97% covered with water so it is named Poseidon.

Now hit humanity with a bioengineering disaster on Earth just as the colony was taking root on the new world. The colonists were primarily scientists and explorers and didn't have the manufacturing capacity to support themselves when Earth stopped sending supplies. Earth's population drops from 10.5 billion to 4.8 billion and the colonies around the solar system are devastated lack of by support from Earth.

Seventy years has passed and humanity has finally recovered enough to start sending ships to Posideon. The surviving locals have done quite well for themselves and mostly ignore the strange visitors from the stars. After all, what could Posideon provide that would be worth a year-long trip in a cold spaceship? Nothing until a new compound is found that has extraordinary medical properties... Then the race is on, the new frontier explodes with miners, explorers, scientists, and others trying to make a living.

Will Posideon go the way of poor battered Earth and become a victim of Humanity's rapaciousness? Has Humanity learned its lesson? Or does Posideon have something up it's sleeve? Something sinister and long hidden? Read the book and find out, this one is a treat.

The standard of roleplaying products based in a Celtic background has been poor at best. The majority have been either sloppily written and/or have missed the point entirely, opting for half-baked New Age speculation. However, Ken and Jo Walton have come through with GURPS Celtic Myth. The setting mainly concerns its self with the British Isles, and floats in that wondeful Celtic Dreamtime belonging to Lugh, Fionn and Arthur. That said, the material remains true to its sources and can be used for historical gaming too. It is a refreshing change from previous attempts, which tended to hammer the Celtic round peg into a Game System square hole. A sign of this is the magic system, which harkens back to Druidic Tree Magic. The book itself shouldn't be taken as set in stone, rather, it is a springboard for those who always wanted to play Celts, but were daunted by the challange of codifying such an amorphous and oral culture. The sourcebook is easily converted to other systems, and should be in the Library of any serious gamer- particularly those interested in European Culture and History. Another product worth checking out is Fasa's Tir Na Og, for Shadowrun, for something of similar tone, but in a Cyberpunk setting.

This is pretty handy software, especially when it comes to making characters for GURPS (the Generic Universal Roleplaying System by Steve Jackson). The interface is fairly intuitive, so you really don't have to delve into the tutorial at all, unless you just want more indept information. This software covers all the advantages, disadvantages and skills from several source books (Fantasy, Fantasy Folk, Magic, Supers, Psionics and the Grimoire). Unfortunately, you'll need those books to read up on the particular details of each, but the software is great in that it allows you to customize these things to a certain extent. The character sheets that it prints out look just like the ones out of the back of the book, except that all your information is typed in. It also prints spells sheets and extra skill sheets! This is really a great tool if you are a GM (Game Master) and need to make some NPC's really fast... which is the main reason I bought the software. In additional there is a name finder that is pretty handy and also a die roller (which really isn't as handy as grabbing a handful of dice and throwing them... but then it could be the aesthetics of it too..) I give it a 5 stars, because it is one of the better RPG tools I've used to date and I think it is a good value for the price.

This version of Deadlands is a licensed version from PEG made with GURPS rules. The book actually is in desperate need of being re-built as some things are out of order but regardless this version I actually like far better than PEG's version. It seems to be far more flexible for what the GM wants the DL world to be like and seems to take a more "D&D in the old west" style than PEG's. It's more "overt" horror than "covert" like PEG's. Specifically it seems the battle or conflict is about keeping the Reckoning from spreading east even if it means sealing off the borders to expansion. Maybe I'm wrong but that's the impression I get from it and actually like better because it gives the GM more latitude in what she wants to do for a particular adventure or campaign.

and absolutely blows me away with their Discworld supplement. before i read the Gurps books, i had never even heard of (let alone read) the Discworld book series or their author, Terry Prachett. now, of course, i am in love with the Disc. SJGames had disappointed me before with their attempts to adapt things for GURPS (the World of Darkness adaptations, in particular), but i could have read Gurps: Discworld, ignorign the rules, and still have laughed my ass off, marvelling at the imagination of Prachett and the beauty with which they condensed a huge (14 book) novel series into about 200 pages of humour, drama, adventure, and yes, stats. this is, of course, not to mention the absolutely GORGEOUS art littered about the insides. i don't know where they found Bill Kidby, but i hope they paid him enough to keep him interested in doing more work for Steve Jackson. basically, if oyu want a good sourcebook for the Discworld, well...world, if you want a book full of fabulous (and hilarious) fantasy art, or even if you want another GURPS book, make this it.

This is another comprehensive worldbook from SJ Games. It's designed for GURPS, but it could be used by ANYONE wanting to design an Egypt-based RPG. In fact, it should be useful to fiction writers wishing to set fiction in ancient Egypt--just throw out the game statistics and use the chapters on history and culture.

It's in chapters such as these that SJGames supplements shine. A richness of detail backed by solid research put at the fingertips of any GM the basic and not-so-basic knowledge that turn a generic adventure into a vivid, fulfilling story set against a rich backdrop.

Egypt is more than pyramids and mummies, and this book proves it. You want to know about the historical rulers? The details of the religion--and how it changed over time? The technologies we understand (and those we don't)? It's all here.

An egyptologist might find this book lacking; a gamer will probably find more than she needs.

Worth every penny.

I have always been a fan of humor in RPG's. This is one of the very best examples of a totally off-the-wall campaign I have -ever- seen. The setting of a college campus brings a flavor of "Animal House" to the Illuminati. You can give it your own flavor and texture and add as much or as little weirdness and insanity as you like. My very highest recommendation.

Definitely one of the best compendia of magic items ever published, by Steve Jackson Games or any company, it sets a high standard for similar works. An absolute must-have for any GURPS collection. I'm only a little surprised that an author search for "Drew Bittner" hasn't turned up anything else.