GURPS - Generic Universal RolePlaying System

GURPS High-Tech
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GURPS Martial Arts
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GURPS Supers
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GURPS Ultra-Tech
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GURPS Powers
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News · Books · Resources & Play Aids · Creator Support · Fourth Edition FAQ

Welcome to the Generic Universal RolePlaying System!

With GURPS, you can be anyone you want - an elf hero fighting for the forces of good, a shadowy femme fatale on a deep-cover mission, a futuristic swashbuckler carving up foes with a force sword in his hand and a beautiful woman by his side . . . or literally anything else! GURPS has been the premiere universal roleplaying game for almost two decades. The new Fourth Edition makes it even better!

More than 1,500,000 copies are in print - not counting foreign editions. GURPS Lite, a 32-page distillation of the basic GURPS rules, is available for free download. We also have dozens of GURPS adventures and e-books available on e23.

Whatever your favorite roleplaying genre might be, GURPS can handle it. More about GURPS...

New GURPS Releases

Here are the last ten GURPS books (both new titles and reprints/revisions) we have shipped. Click on a cover to go to that book's page.

GURPS Thaumatology GURPS Spaceships GURPS High-Tech GURPS Supers GURPS Martial Arts
GURPS Powers GURPS Ultra-Tech Transhuman Space: Changing Times GURPS Mysteries GURPS Campaigns

Here are the last ten GURPS supplements released on e23. Click on a cover to go to that item's page.

GURPS Reign of Steel GURPS All Star Jam 2004 GURPS Infinite Worlds: Lost Worlds GURPS Fantasy Folk GURPS Action 1: Heroes
GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns 2 GURPS Infinite Worlds: Collegio Januari GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns 1

GURPS News

Who Let August In?

March, April, May, June, July . . . tiddly om pom pom. Woah, I guess we owe you an update!

First off, all of the e23 Originals that I named in my previous update have since become reality. To name names (this is thinly veiled advertising, after all!): David Pulver's Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports, Hans-Christian Vortisch's High-Tech: Pulp Guns 1 and 2, and my own Dungeon Fantasy 4: Sages.

And we didn't stop there. We were bad about updating this page because we were working hard on other things. Many PDFs were in the works at e23 during early 2008, and we have since released quite a few of them.

Ken Hite's Infinite Worlds: Collegio Januari escaped from our secret files and added a new twist to Infinite Worlds: world-jumping wizards. Lizard came through with Tales of the Solar Patrol, a space-opera mini-setting in the pulp tradition. And Yours Truly wore his writer's beret instead of his editor's helmet for most of the spring, and churned out Power-Ups 1: Imbuements (flashy new capabilities for supers, martial artists, and anime-inspired heroes), Power-Ups 2: Perks (just what it sounds like: perky), and Action 1: Heroes (first in a series of boiled-down rules for the cinematic action genre).

Perhaps the biggest news was a surprise, though. We released Thaumatology as a PDF before releasing the hardback. The latest version includes errata fixes, and we've also incorporated these fixes into the files we sent the printer. The hardback is at the printer right now, and should be available in October 2008.

And then there are the secrets. I can tell you that I drafted back-cover text for five POD releases that we hope to have for GenCon . . . but I can't tell you which five. I can also verify that I'm working on Action 2: Exploits, to give PCs built with Action 1: Heroes something to do. And I can pass along that lots of writers are working hard. In the second half of July, we received two drafts from David Pulver (a long-awaited city book and an update to a popular Third Edition rules system), a Dungeon Fantasy installment and some Powers support from Jason "Rev. Pee Kitty" Levine, and a reload of gun-shootin' goodness from Shawn Fisher and Hans-Christian Vortisch. Plus there's more Creatures of the Night, Infinite Worlds, and Spaceships support in the mix. (Yes, Mr. Pulver has been very, very busy.)

As always, I want to nudge would-be writers to remember our Wish List. I think that everything I've said so far is ample proof that we're seriously committed to regular GURPS support, particularly via e23. To keep it up, we need writers – and that could be you!

What About All My Third Edition Books?

We know that our fans have a significant investment in the Third Edition of GURPS. One of our goals in the Fourth Edition design process was to make sure that your entire library would not become obsolete overnight.

While the new edition is different, it's still GURPS. Many Third Edition books will be good to go for Fourth Edition play with a minimum of conversion – and a conversion guide is available here. Most of the information in our typical worldbook or sourcebook – the thorough historical research, the detailed setting descriptions, the roleplaying advice for both players and referees – is usable with any other game system. That's still true now that the "other game system" we're talking about is GURPS Fourth Edition.

Of course, the very "crunchy" rulebooks, such as the old GURPS Basic Set itself, the two GURPS Compendium volumes, and GURPS Vehicles, are outdated. There's no way around that; that's the point of a new edition.

But most of the collection will still be completely useful. See this ludography for a more detailed list of Third Edition books that are easy to use with GURPS Fourth Edition – and still in print!

Fourth Edition Products

Here's a list of Fourth Edition products we've already released, through first quarter 2008.

Future Releases

As time goes on, we'll be announcing GURPS Fourth Edition releases that don't yet have a definite spot on the schedule:

  • GURPS Horror updates the best-selling classic from Third Edition, expanding in new and horrible ways!
  • GURPS Fantastic Cities discusses the parts a city can play in a roleplaying game, with over 30 real and fictional cities.
  • GURPS Conspiracies brings the award winning GURPS Illuminati into the Fourth Edition, with more historical conspiracies, more character templates, and more FNORD! Plus crates from GURPS Warehouse 23.
  • The long-awaited The Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and RPG (Powered by GURPS) is based on the award-winning series of science fiction adventures by Lois McMaster Bujold.
  • The Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game is based, of course, on the fantastic comic by Phil and Kaja Foglio. Kaja is a GURPS gamer and is writing the book, and Phil and Kaja will illustrate it together.

What Else Is New?

GURPS in Other Languages

GURPS isn't just in English. Here's the current status of our translation projects:

Japanese – The Basic Set: Characters was released in the summer of 2005 from Kadokawa Publishing, and other releases are following. Kadokawa released a number of Third Edition books, including several excellent original backgrounds.

Korean – Dayspring Games was the first overseas publisher to translate the new edition of the Basic Set, and releases continue.

Portuguese – Devir Livraria, in Brazil, is our oldest licensor, and their translation of the Basic Set will appear soon.

We have no translation agreements for other languages . . . yet . . .

I've Got More Questions . . .

And we've got answers, we hope. Please see our list of Frequently Asked Questions first. We will do Pyramid chats to discuss the new edition, and staffers frequently participate in the discussions on our forums. If you're not a Pyramid subscriber, the new GURPS pages have a lot of information, and we'll be adding more . . . lots more . . .

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