GURPS Glorantha

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_21mIBvUwagX0i2JTf89CHbNyL1UCoP5RxcNSDzB7knb1dtucd1pfIRxxpJHGTS4sUPLK>
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 13:18:10 +1000


I didn't pay too much attention to the recent GURPS Glorantha stream, other than to note that Nick did a panel on it at GCVIII.

I've just found a complete draft of GURPS Glorantha on Kazaa (one of the peer-to-peer file sharing networks), an 84 page, 5 Meg PDF file.

Its by Douglas Bailey, with additional material by Thomas Barnes, Bryan Maloney (one familiar name at least), Phil Masters and S. John Ross. It's copyright (hah!) 2000, and "represents unofficial, unauthorised supplementary material to the GURPS system and the Glorantha fantasy world'. Conversion and game focus is very RQ3. Interior graphics seem to have been lifted from an Osprey Men-At-Arms book and RQ3.

 I don't know GURPS very well, but this is an odd document. As a draft its very early - there are *lots* of blank sections. It starts with a section on that most uniquely Gloranthan of traits, Skin, Hair and Ey colour. There are chapters and chapters on tying basic GURPS to a modified RQ3 skill system, reminding me why GURPS is neither genric nor universal. And a section on charioteering -how RQ3 is that! (Like grotarons, it came, we saw, and nobody mentioned it again).

Further in, RQ3 battle magics and common rune spells are translated in GURPS lingo, and the bestiary also owns much to RQ3. There is little about Glorantha as such.

The result? A right bloody mess, at least to my eye. It combines the worst of both worlds in a way guaranteed to put almost everyone off. If *completed* it *might* help a GURPS player who already knows Glorantha, but being distributed in its current state it is a disservice to all concerned.

John            

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