GURPS News
🎃 Octoboo! 🎃
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🎃 Octoboo! 🎃
While there's more to October than Halloween, I'm one of those weirdos who sees things like this: People eat tortilla chips as a vehicle for salsa, or maybe guacamole. Sure, the chips are crunchy and good, but it's all about the dip. Similarly, October is mostly an excuse to revel in jack-o'-lanterns and horror-movie trappings. But you're probably here to read about GURPS . . . so now what's the chip and who's the dip?
October brought two GURPS tidbits that – though not new – have just gone on sale for the first time since the GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge.
GURPS Action 6: Tricked-Out Rides (October 7, 2021; PDF)
GURPS Action needs car chases . . . and car chases need, well, cars. This short-but-solid volume covers subcompact, compact, mid-size, and large cars – plus SUVs, pickups, and vans – in enough detail for action realism. However, the real stars are the modifications (like "armored," "fuel-efficient," and "luxury"), the gadgets and accessories (yes, including weapons), and the rules and advice for customization. Because what kind of action hero drives a stock vehicle? Still, if you're in too much of a hurry to pick your options and paint job, there are examples waiting for you to drive off the lot.
GURPS Hot Spots: The Incense Trail (October 21, 2021; PDF)
GURPS Hot Spots maestro Matt Riggsby strikes again! This time he takes us to the Incense Trail, one of the earliest major trade routes to cross empires. Venture across the Arabian Peninsula to explore challenging terrain, be pulled into political intrigues, and of course get rich. Oh, and you can even attach this to Matt's GURPS Hot Spots: The Silk Road, if you feel ambitious. And really, isn't ambition the whole reason to become a globe-trotting merchant?
⚙⚙⚙ Girl Genius! ⚙⚙⚙
The Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game Kickstarter is live, and there's still time to get in on it. But hurry . . . you only have until November 8!
Upcoming Plans
I suspect that a lot of readers see my hints of things to come as the dip and the rest of this update as the chip. Fair enough! As ever, please remember that the list below consists of informed guesses – not promises. True, the closer something is to the top, the greater the odds that it'll be published soon . . . but sometimes, it's as if the world is more random than any dice roll in a game.
Publication plans for Dungeon Fantasy Companion 3 are still a secret, but the content is ready to go when The Powers That Be pull the trigger.
I approved art for Randy Huegele's GURPS Hot Spots: Sriwijaya, so that's likely to be the next "regular season" release.
My own GURPS Action 9 is also in the final stages of production.
GURPS Infinite Worlds: Nightreign, by James Amaral & Joshua Lopez, moved into editing.
GURPS Vehicles: Biremes and Triremes is with Carolyn Stein & Stephen Kenneth Stein to create the final draft.
Playtesting on Christopher R. Rice's GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Thieves went into overtime.
Two first drafts in the GURPS Fantasy Folk series (one by Phil Masters, the other by Anders Starmark) and one in the GURPS Template Toolkit series (by Rory Fansler) wait in the playtest queue.
A first draft in the GURPS Loadouts series is with author Paul Stefko to revise for playtesting.
Yet another first draft in the GURPS Fantasy Folk series – by Phil Masters again – awaits editorial review.
Six other projects are either too new or too complicated to talk about with any confidence here. For possible developments on those or on anything I've teased by name, watch the GURPS thread in my blog. I try to update that on Thursday evening or Friday morning these days.
Everything Old Is New Again Department
On the GURPS on Demand front, we got GURPS High-Tech and GURPS Low-Tech for Third Edition back into physical form. Meanwhile, on DriveThruRPG, we made the Discworld Roleplaying Game available.
As I recently told one of our freelancers, the pipeline from initial query to the editorial-production process is fraught with bottlenecks. We might not need more stuff for a couple of quarters, at least. If you're thinking of submitting a proposal anyway, you can greatly improve your odds by knowing the Submission Guidelines, GURPS formatting guide, and GURPS WYSIWYG template by heart, and especially by sticking to the Warehouse 23 Digital Wish List (updated August 18, 2021) and Warehouse 23 Wish List for GURPS (updated August 18, 2021). Thanks in advance!