Game RPG GURPS:Main Page

"GURPS" stands for "Generic Universal Role-Playing System", and indeed GURPS was the first major role-playing system designed from the outset to not be tied to a particular setting or type of game and specifically intended to be used with any genre. (Basic Roleplaying and the Hero System preceded it as generic systems, but these both began as the systems of specific games—the fantasy game RuneQuest and the superhero game Champions respectively—that were then adapted and expanded for use in other genres.) While its combat system was published as a standalone supplement in 1985 (under the title Man to Man), along with a companion adventure (Orcslayer), the complete GURPS core rules first came out in 1986. The first and second editions of the game were short-lived and had only a handful of supplements, but with the third edition, released in 1988, the line really bloomed, releasing hundreds of supplements for myriad settings and genres, including many licensed properties like Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman, Philip José Farmer's Riverworld, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, and Andre Norton's Witch World. As of 2004, GURPS is now in its fourth edition, though the changes between editions have not been as drastic as in certain other role-playing games.

Getting the Books

Unfortunately, the GURPS books are no longer in print in their original form, although they may be obtainable from used bookstores and other resellers. However, Steve Jackson games still sells all their fourth-edition books, along with supplements that were never physically printed, in PDF form through their webstore Warehouse 23. Most of the numerous third-edition GURPS books are also available as PDFs from Warehouse 23, rebranded as "GURPS Classic", with the exception of some of the licensed properties for which the licenses have presumably expired (plus GURPS Classic: Time Travel Adventures which I'm honestly not sure why it's not available in PDF). Conversion guidelines to adapt this material to fourth edition are available in a GURPS Update booklet that originally came with the GURPS GM's Screen and is now available separately for free download on Warehouse 23. (You can also get print-on-demand versions of many books if you'd like, though the POD books are offered through a certain notoriously worker-unfriendly company that I personally prefer to avoid patronizing.) The GURPS Character Assistant is useful to facilitate character creation, especially if you're the GM and will be creating a lot of characters.

If you're new to GURPS and want to get a taste for the game before deciding whether to spend money on it, there's a 32-page "Lite" version of the fourth edition rules available for free—as well as a free adventure, Caravan to Ein Arris.

The Wongery and the Infinite Worlds

As of its latest edition, GURPS has a default setting, the Infinite Worlds, where agents of the Infinity Patrol hop between parallel Earths exploring new frontiers, putting down otherworldly threats, and foiling the plans of their rival Centrum. (The Infinite Worlds setting was first introduced in the third-edition book GURPS Time Travel, and further developed in the third-edition books GURPS Classic: Alternate Earths and GURPS Classic: Alternate Earths 2, but it wasn't until the advent of fourth edition that it officially became the game's default setting.)

Because the Infinite Worlds setting is all about traveling between different worlds, it may at first blush seem that it would be easy to fit any of the Wongery worlds into an Infinite Worlds campaign. In practice, it's not as good a fit as it might first appear; most of the worlds of the Infinite Worlds setting are alternate Earths, and even most of the alternate Earth described in the Wongery aren't really good fits for it for various reasons. Still, if you want to use the Wongery worlds in an Infinite Earths campaign, it's certainly not impossible to do so.

The canonical assumption in the GURPS Gamespace here is that most of the worlds described in the Wongery lie entirely outside eight-dimensional space as Homeline and Centrum researchers know it, and are inaccessible by projection. Effectively, eight-dimensional space is a separate esture, distinct from those described in the Wongery. (There are exceptions; Nuclearth, for instance, is on quantum 6 and known to Infinity Patrol as Teller-2.) That doesn't mean those worlds are completely unreachable, however; there may be nexus portals connecting them to known worlds, and characters with the World Jumper advantage might be able to get to them, perhaps requiring the Interplanar modifier (GURPS Powers, page 57), or some variant thereof. Mages might be able to use the Plane Shift spell (Basic Set 248).

Each world entry in the Wongery will include suggestions for how the world could be used in an Infinite Worlds game. As with all the other information in these Game pages (and the mainspace, for that matter), of course, you don't have to follow these suggestions; these can be considered the Wongery's "canonical" assumptions, but you're free to ignore them and use these worlds differently in your own campaigns if you have an idea you like better. You can put in every world of the Wongery as a separate pocket universe in Quantum 6 if you want to, if you think it would work for your campaign. And of course you don't have to use the Infinite Worlds setting at all; each of the worlds of the Wongery are intended to stand on its own as a campaign setting without requiring any travel to other worlds.

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The material presented here is the original creation of the Grandmaster Wongers, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.

GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and its rules and art are copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by Steve Jackson Games. This game aid is the original creation of the Grandmaster Wongers and is released for free distribution, and not for resale, under the permissions granted in the Steve Jackson Games Online Policy.