As I edit my supplement I am going through various supplements to see how the current manuscript compares. The quality of these older books is really awesome and most of them are far larger than GURPS Template Toolkit: Spirits will be. That is ok, though my purpose is not to write a definitive book on spirits but serve more as an update on some of the mechanics. though many of the materials I am looking at are Third Edition they still have substantial value even without an update.
Lets review one such book.
GURPS Spirits
At 128 pages this volume covers its subject rather well. The author Steve Kenson has written a LOT of RPG material, including contributing to Pyramid, GURPS Infinite Worlds, GURPS Magic, and GURPS Thaumatology, He also wrote for many other systems and is now working at Green Ronin Publishing according to his website.
Chapter 1: The Nature of Spirits
This is a brief description or listing of various types of spirits and includes some information on how various cultures viewed the soul and afterlife.
Chapter 2: Worlds of Spirit
This evocative chapter covers many possible spirit worlds and helps the reader organize them into similar types and function. it does a good job of connecting a number of prior GURPS works so that the reader can put together the pieces the way that best suits their campaign. it is my favorite chapter.
Chapter 3: Spirit Abilities
Though valuable for the Third Edition of GURPS this chapter shows its age the most and is the least useful for those using GURPS Fourth Edition. You can clearly see the style of Third Edition which was less modular and prone to scope creep with vague advantages with inherent limitations. This made for complex powers that were not readily translated into other uses.
Chapter 4: Spirit Templates
Though suffering from the problems in chapter 3 the templates can still be useful as most traits retain the same name and general function in the current edition of GURPS. I converted some of these in my supplement, the attribute +4 for Angels for example matches those in GURPS In Nomine and I used that attribute assignment for my more powerful spirits.
That said the descriptions and narrative parts of the templates are still useful and well written.
Chapter 5: Characters
This chapter describes various roles characters may take in a campaign involving spirits and includes a number of templates. Most of the templates will work as is, though costs will need to be adjusted. A few advantages and skills have changed but most of the material here is useable, at least as inspiration.
This chapter also includes a discussion on various traits useful for campaigns involving spirits and a number of advantages. most of the advantages are part of Fourth Edition though details may vary. One exception is Ectoplasmic Projection based on GURPS Supers so it was a poor fit for Fourth Edition which substantially changed how those kinds of things work. It would best be built now as a combination of Duplication, Telekinesis, and summonable Allies.
Chapter 6: Spirit Magic
This chapter describes a form of magic that also appeared in GURPS Castle Falkenstein and GURPS Voodoo. In GURPS Fourth Edition it is called Book/Path magic and has its own chapter in GURPS Thaumatology.
Chapter 7: Campaigns
The last chapter in the book describes how spirits can fit into various campaigns and GURPS settings.
Summary
I really loved this book when it came out and its still a valuable reference and a supplement I recommend to anyone who wants to use spirits in their campaign. The mechanics are mostly out dated but the bulk of the book is not about the mechanics, instead focusing on background and information that is useful regardless of the edition your using.
In fact I would say that this book can be used to help a GM in many other game systems, or even writing their own spirit related fiction.
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