Gurps Horror (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) [ハードカバー]

I bought GURPS Horror 2nd edition a long time ago and was very impressed with how it spiced up my gaming sessions with great advice. But a lot of the book was given over to introducing the new (at the time) GURPS Magic system and an insanity system. Both of those systems are now part of the core rules so I wondered what the author would do with the extra space if Steve Jackson Games ever republished the book for 4th edition.

The answer is: Amazing things!!!

My sole argument with the author is how he describes horror. My definition of horror is defined by all things gross and disgusting, Cthulu crossed with a thousand slasher movies. His definition is much broader and covers any sort of situation that causes a strong emotional response. This means that suspense situations (very common in roleplaying) most mysteries, most well-done dramas, and most combat situations (some campaigns are nothing but combat) all fall into this area. I wondered how the author could handle such a broad range of topics well. I shouldn't have worried, this IS Ken Hite we are talking about here.

At the heart of the book, he recognizes that Horror is all about the emotions. From there he simply starts by describing how to generate each of the emotions he is trying to reach. From there it surprisingly simple to build out the rest of the book. At 176 pages, I was originally concerned that this book wouldn't be a good value for my money.

But the opposite turned out to the be case instead, I had a serious case of information overload by the time I was done with this book and the beginnings of an absolutely BRILLIANT campaign concept that I will start running in the next few months.

One of the author's best ideas for hooking the players into the game is have them help write up part of the background and make sure there are plenty of plot hooks in the characters to get the players fully enmeshed in the game. Avoids the famous and semi-ridiculous roleplaying trope where the group wanders into a town and all of these adventures just happen to be waiting for somebody with their particular skill-set to come by and resolve them. The characters are intimately involved in the background and are not necessarily well-equipped to deal with the problem as it arises. This concept was worth the price of the book all by itself.

My sole gripe about the production values of the book are the lack of color pictures inside the book. I understand that publishing costs are going through the roof but SJ Games has been doing a very good job of jumping over to eBooks already and color doesn't cost anything in eBooks and adds a great deal of value. This is more of a something-to-think-about situation than a reason to fail to purchase this outstanding book.

as a advid rpg gamer, since 1979 I am a old school kinda gamer. Gurps has always been one of the games that I used to run and I never grow tired of the system. My wife got me this for my birthday and I am in shock.. Gurps Horror has gotten better with age!
I suggest this supplement and the Gurps 4th edition to anyone who is into rpging or looking to get into the hobby