GURPS Conspiracies

An interesting genre is the conspiracy game. GURPS put out out some great mateial for this, primarily back in Third Edition and most of those books require very little, if any work to update to Fourth Edition.

How does a Conspiracy Game Work?

A conspiracy campaign requires more than one side that opposes each other, preferably through political or social means, as opposed to direct physical combat. You can of course have physical combat but that is usually limited and something the lower ranks engage in. The higher ups tend to insulate themselves from direct involvement and vulnerability.

So a conspiracy game needs rules for social and political interaction,a strong setting that supports and encourages that sort of thing, and players who like puzzle solving and thinking their way through conflict.

Settings

• GURPS Cabal Supernatural conspiracy in a world of hidden magic.
• GURPS Conspiracy X Hidden Government activity vs. secret aliens.
• GURPS Cyberpunk Not primarily a conspiracy setting as the PCs are usually mere pawns but it has possibilities...
• GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier Hidden government agencies vs. supernatural entities that want to remake the world. 
• GURPS Illuminati The iconic conspiracy setting! The kitchen sink of conspiracy theories, its all here!
• GURPS In Nomine Angels vs, Demons for the soul of humanity
• GURPS IOU Life as a student on the weirdest college campus ever! Its not typically vast government or corporate conspiracies but campus intrigue can be quite confusing and as hard to deal with as it is funny.  This is a great conspiracy humor type setting.
• GURPS Mage The Ascension Based on old White Wolf Licence, hard to find though.
• GURPS Monster Hunters A secret magic setting where the players are often agents set to fight off evil or keep the peace. Combine with GURPS Cabal for a campaign more focused on conspiracies than monster slaying.
• GURPS The Prisoner Based o the television series of the same name, your goal is to figure out why your there and possibly how to escape.
• GURPS Transhuman Space A futuristic cyberpunk kind of setting with political and corporate conspircies and propaganda taken to a whole new level! 
• GURPS Vampire: The Masquerade Based on old White Wolf Licence, hard to find though.
• GURPS Voodoo Works well with GURPS Cabal. A good spirit based conspiracy setting.
• GURPS Warehouse 23 Think Indiana Jones, Men In Black, The Librarians, and Warehouse 13. Not necessarily a serious conspiracy setting,but a fun one.
• GURPS Werewolf: The Apocalypse Based on old White Wolf Licence, hard to find though.

Useful Books

• GURPS Espionage Third Edition, but still good material for a spy vs. spy type conspiracy.
• GURPS Mysteries Mostly geared towards detective adventures it has material that can help bot the GM and the players with conspiracy building and unraveling.
• GURPS Social Engineering This series of books are highly recommended as they expand the details and offer worked examples for political and social intrigue.

Summary

As you can see GURPS has a lot of support for this kind of campaign and a good choice of settings for different flavor and style. I personally would like to see a Social Engineering: Conspiracies book that had a BAD type system and focused on using social skills and abilities as regrds to working with and against conspiracies. Also updated IOU, In Nomine, and Illumanti books and making GURPS Cabal a series that included integration with Monster Hunters.


What would YOU like to see added to this genre for GURPS?