GURPS 4th Edition Revised Announced

 

Another unexpected RPG announcement - and another one I am happy to see even if I am not really doing anything with GURPS or planning to anytime soon. This edition of GURPS is 20 years old at this point which I suppose means it has lasted longer in its current form than the legendary Third Edition which truly put GURPS on the map in the late 80's and through the 90's. It's weird. GURPS was a standard reference in any wide-ranging RPG discussion back then, both for the universal mechanics and for the universal coverage (and high quality) of its supplements. Even if you didn't play it you knew about it and may have used some of its books to craft a campaign in something else. It was a significant part of the RPG landscape. 

These days, despite the longevity, I feel like GURPS is an obscure reference in most discussions I see online if it is mentioned at all. It is fairly crunchy and we know tastes have moved on from that over the past decade +. People who think 5th edition D&D is complicated might keel over at the site of a GURPS weapons table and spontaneously combust opening GURPS Vehicles for 3E. Sometimes though the complexity is worth it -whether you call it realism or verisimilitude or whatever. GURPS has definitely filled a niche but that seems to be a smaller niche now. The 3rd edition was a big deal, then 4th edition came out and it felt like GURPS just faded away within a few years. I bought all the hardcovers as they were published as I assumed we would get around to playing it at some point ... but we did not. SJG had a hard time keeping them in print, Munchkin became their main focus, and it felt like the line just dried up. Other places online, where GURPS was a normal part of the conversation, seemed to forget that it existed or only spoke of it in past tense. It's similar to the Hero System which was once a major player and has been continually in-print for decades but has largely faded from popular conversation within the hobby.

I was still surprised that this was an update and not a full new edition. It's been 20 years and that's a pretty good run for any edition of an RPG - is it not time to reboot? If you're going to go through this much work, that is? From the discussion in  the forums it sounds like they are doing a pretty extensive retouching of the two Basic Set books from art to text edits and even adding in some new material, all while bending over backwards to keep the page number references the same. That's going to put some significant limits on what you can or cannot do. It also sounds like money is a limiter here and I totally get that. I appreciate the goal of not making the books people own obsolete but I do have to ask - if the game isn't making you any money right now why make this partial, limited update? Why spend that money on meeting modern standards on layout, art, and language to go part way? Why not come out with a new edition and get some attention? Run a Kickstarter like everyone else is doing and emphasize the 20 years of buildup and support and say you're making an edition for the next twenty years? 

I ask this because doing an update now effectively closes that door for years if a major goal is to not anger your existing GURPS fanbase. I could see putting something out as a stalking horse to see if people want a new edition but a partial re-doing of the core rules might as well be a new edition in gamers' heads. Doing v4.5 in 2026 means you'd better not be doing v5.0 in 2027 or 2028 as "we just bought new rulebooks" is all you're going to hear at that point. I mean maybe there are no problems to solve with 4th edition. I haven't read it in years but I doubt that nothing has really come up in two decades of play. 

Also I'd say they need to call it the "core rulebook" if they are updating and consolidating it into one volume. That's what people are calling these things now. If it's an appeal to the younger generation then stop calling it the Basic Set, which is a total 80's throwback reference they mostly won't get, and for those of us older members of the crowd that term used to mean it came in a box, and GURPS did, for a while, but not for 30+ years now.

Always liked this cover

The other thing GURPS needs is a setting - a big, popular setting. Being the serious RPG nerds' toolkit is a fine enough niche but if you want to attract some attention you need a reason for people to get excited. 

• D&D has, well, "D&D" in the name, history, and a bunch of published settings some of which have novels and miniatures and video games built around them.
• Warhammer has a lot of the same attractions as D&D
• Basic Roleplaying has Runequest which has Glorantha
• Hero System has Champions as its flagship and is still probably what most people call it
• Savage Worlds has Deadlands

Most game systems have some kind of setting that plays into their strengths. GURPS major perceived strength in the past was world books which covered a lot of historical ground, some fantasy, and some science fiction but there was never one setting that was purely "GURPS" the way Champions defined the Hero system. It needs one, because settings are what really lock people into a game. You don't need to change the essence of GURPS like making it a dice pool or a d20 based game. You do need to get something out there in the world that gets people's attention and gets them interested in your game. I rambled on about these same issues 8 years ago and I don't think much of anything has really changed.

I hope this goes well for them - I'd like GURPS to survive at least. But I would really like to see it thrive again.