GURPS books you should buy

From AJS.COM

GURPS stands for Generic, Universal Role Playing System, and it is currently in its 4th edition. It's a complete system, and I would recommend it to anyone, but this essay/review isn't about getting people to run GURPS campaigns. It's about the GURPS books that are so complete and so in-depth with respect to their topics, that I recommend them to anyone, especially those running games that touch on these topics, but even if you're not a gamer many of these books are fascinating on their own.

Most of these books are from GURPS 3rd edition, and are therefore only somewhat compatible with the current rules (there's a conversion document that you can download for free from the publisher's Web site), however, as I said above, that probably doesn't matter.

Contents 1 Topic books 1.1 Blood Types 1.2 Imperial Rome 2 Template books 2.1 Rogues

Topic books

GURPS 3rd edition had a number of books that took on a single topic. Rather than presenting a single world, they would explore that topic in the myriad ways that it might be used in any role playing games, drawing on history, folklore, fiction, myth and legend, etc.

Blood Types

Blood Types AKA GURPS Blood Types: Dark Predators and Deadly Prey: Vampires and Vampire Hunters is the final word on vampires in role playing games. It covers everything from early myths and legends to the semi-fictional Vlad to Stoker's famous Dracula to the plethora of modern vampire fiction. In this book, you will find background on the baby-eating floating heads of Greek legend, Asian vampires that feasted on the life force of their victims and even an African insectoid vampire that feeds off of the life force of plants! Everything you ever needed to know about the human fascination with this particular supernatural killer is here, and you'll never run a vampire-genre game the same way again. I especially recommend this to those running a White Wolf game, as it gives you a much improved perspective on the way vampires have been viewed throughout history, and thus how people different cultures might react to an actual vampire.

Imperial Rome

GURPS: Imperial Rome is the most complete account that I've ever read of the Roman Empire in a gaming book. While the goal of the book is clearly to be a sort of worldbook for gaming in historical Rome, it's also a whirlwind tour of the Empire (and a fair amount of detail on the Republic to boot). This is another book that I'd suggest to White Wolf gamers, given the recent Vampire: Rome sourcebook. If you're gaming in Rome for any reason, though, this could really improve your and your players' sense of the world.

Template books

Template books provide lists of pre-generated templates for GURPS characters. Typically these are based on some loose character concept like "assassin" or "combat mage."

Rogues

GURPS: Rogues is essential for anyone planning to build a campaign around thieving, scrounging, spying, or scamming. From the mafia boss to the high tech assassin, this book has it all. Much of it is "crunch" (rules), but there's quite a bit to draw ideas from, and the book is a font of ideas for gaming on the shady side.