Gurps Powers [Hardcover]

I had real problems deciding whether or not to buy this book. The biggest stumbling block was the lack of information about the book from anybody besides SJ Games. What would I be getting for my hard-earned money? SJ Games tried to help by showing some pages on their website but they didn't help me make up my mind because I just couldn't get a good feel for what the book was about. I finally decided to buy the book because I'm contemplating running a campaign with Psionic and/or Super powers and this book seemed to cover those topics in greater depth than the basic books did and I've had good experiences with the previous books in this series.

Now that I've read the book I can see why people have been reluctant to try to describe it. GURPS Powers is very much more than a simple repackaging of the 3rd edition of GURPS Supers and GURPS Psionics. The authors have put considerable thought into the whole concept of "Powers" (what they are, what they can do, why they exist, etc.) for all roleplaying genres and have developed a radical new structure for how to implement them within the GURPS rules without doing more than adding a few enhancements to the existing system. This is a truly astonishing accomplishment and frankly I don't have the skill as a reviewer to do justice to their work but I will try anyway.

The first couple of chapters lay the groundwork of their basic concepts, it's necessary to at least skim through these details but it's pretty dry stuff and leaves the reader wondering why they bought the book. Then chapter 3 (Examples) starts to weave the whole meaning of their work together in a very readable fashion and things start to fall into place. The book gets better and better from that point forward.

The key to their revolutionary thinking (and I don't have near enough space here to do it justice) is that most roleplaying games have some sort of extra-ordinary powers at work. This could be cybernetic, psionic, magic, gods; the list is pretty near endless. These extra-ordinary powers are frequently the key to making the game enjoyable for the players. What would Banestorm be without magic? Or most of the Infinite Worlds without the super-science and dimension-crawling aspects? Would "Carrie" be as interesting if the protagonist could only play practical jokes on her tormenters?

Stepping forward from there, the authors show how to use their theories to create new roleplaying worlds or enhance existing ones. How about creating a mage who has superpowers rather than spells? In many ways that works better for simulating some author's magic systems than the standard "wizards cast spells" model that GURPS Magic uses.

The strange thing that kept occuring to me as I read this book was that I couldn't figure out who was the intended audience for this book. Although it is very interesting and useful for generating super-powered characters, the lack of new abilities means that the book isn't absolutely necessary. On the other hand, this book is an absolute must-have for any GM who is contemplating a campaign with anything more exotic than historical or modern adventuring. But the book is almost exploding with good ideas for generating new characters...

One of the things I've already assimilated from the book is that, as with all GURPS 4th edition books, the GM needs to carefully decide what level of complexity they are willing to tolerate and stick with it. There was an example in the book of what a group of Supers needed to do to move 10 tons of concrete rubble that left me completely in the dark. Not because the example wasn't clear, it was perfectly clear, I just couldn't figure out why anybody would want to go through so much paperwork in their roleplaying.

Although this is true of GURPS in general, it is particularly true of Powers because of the implications of superpowered roleplaying. It's obvious that a sword can parry a mace, but Mr. GM, can a flamebolt parry a laser beam? The players are all looking at you and want a reasonable answer as soon as possible.

As the authors point out, modern science is frequently not useful in answering superpowered rules questions so consistency on the part of the GM is vital. One of the most important parts of the book is a couple of chapters that help the GM think through the implications of their decisions BEFORE they will occur in play. This is a godsend and is easily worth the price of the book by itself.

Another valuable section of the book assists the GM in figuring out how powers will affect their campaigns and helps the GM to find interesting plots that will keep the players coming back for more. The final section of the book briefly discusses nearly all genres that use powers and the conventions that govern playing in them. Although I thought I knew most of them, I found enough interesting material to keep me going for a surprisingly long time.

I haven't looked at the index simply because the book is superbly well organized and I don't think I'll have any problems finding anything I'd need to know on short notice. The authors have made excellent use of color to help organize the information and highlight important items. My only quibbles are that the artwork is somewhat lacking in both creativity and quantity and there are fewer roleplaying examples than I'd like, I find the examples to be extremely useful in understanding the points the authors are trying to make.

In conclusion, this isn't an easy book to comprehend but is well worth the reader's time if they are willing to invest enough of it.

Although I'll admit right off it was not what I expected. Coming from 3e I though this book would be full of powers and ways to customize those powers much like the 3e supers book. Instead It is a full Powers tool box. Most of the powers are already found in the core book characters. This book tells you how to fine tune them. Not just what is your power, but also how does it work and what is its source.
A lot of info for fine tuning your setting too. I count this book as one of my GURPS 4E core books.

I got this book because my play group and I really like high powered games. To the tune of several thousand points per character. Of course this book can do more than help you make the most uber awesome godly... ect ect ect. Its strong point is actually its ability to help you build poweres or to adjust them accordingly.

If you like a game that is out of the "NORM" then I do really think this is the book for you.

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