''GURPS Robots'' is a supplement for ''

GURPS The ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting. It was created by Steve Jackson Games and first published in 1986 at a time when most such systems w ...

'' (''Generic Universal Role-Playing System''). Written by

David Pulver David L. Pulver (born 2 November 1965 in Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian freelance writer and game designer, author of more than fifty role-playing game rulebooks and supplements, including the award-winning ''Transhuman Space''. Early life and e ...

, it was published by

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

in 1995.

''GURPS Robots'' includes rules for players to design robots, and then use them as

player characters A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

in a ''GURPS'' campaign. Several sample robots are provided for the

gamemaster A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...

. Although there are no full adventures in the book, several ideas for campaigns are presented.

Publication history

In the 2014 book ''Designers & Dragons: The '80s'', game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that Steve Jackson Games decided in the early 1990s to stop publishing adventures, and as a result "SJG was now putting out standalone ''GURPS'' books rather than the more complex tiered book lines. This included more historical subgenre books. Some, such as ''

GURPS Camelot ''GURPS Camelot'' is an Arthurian supplement published by Steve Jackson Games in 1991 for ''GURPS'' (''Generic Universal Role-Playing System''). Content ''GURPS Camelot'' details how Arthurian legend can be used as a setting for a medieval ''GUR ...

'' (1991) and ''GURPS China'' (1991), were clearly sub-subgenres, while others like ''

GURPS Old West ''GURPS Old West'' is a supplement published by Steve Jackson Games in 1991 for ''GURPS'' (''Generic Universal Role-Playing System''). Content ''GURPS Old West'' provides details of how to introduce a Western (genre), Western setting to ''GURPS'' ...

'' (1991) and ''

GURPS Middle Ages I ''GURPS Middle Ages I'' is a sourcebook for running a Middle Ages themed ''GURPS'' campaign. It is a part of the extensive ''GURPS'' "generic" roleplaying system. Contents ''GURPS Middle Ages I'' covers English history from the Dark Ages to the R ...

'' (1992) covered genres notably missing before this point." ''GURPS Robots'' is one such standalone book, a 128-page softcover designed by

, with interior art by Dan Smith and

Denis Loubet Denis Loubet is an artist who has worked on several pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games, including the MMORPG ''Ashen Empires''. Career Loubet designed a set of miniatures called '' Cardboard Heroes'' (1980), a set of full-color card ...

, and cover art by

John Zeleznik John Zeleznik is an artist and illustrator. Career Zeleznik has provided covers and illustrative work for many role-playing games including ''Shadowrun'', '' Rifts'' (and other Palladium Books games), and ''GURPS''. He graduated from the Otis/Par ...

. It was published by SJG in 1995 for use with the 3rd edition of ''GURPS''.

Reviews

In the January 1996 edition of ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' (Issue #225),

Rick Swan Rick Swan is a game designer and author who worked for TSR. His work for TSR, mostly for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, appeared from 1989 to 1995. Swan also wrote ''The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'' (1990), published by St. Martin's Pre ...

was highly impressed by this book, calling it a "stunner of a ''GURPS'' supplement." He did warn that the process of robot design "isn't for the faint of heart: designing a complex robot can take up a good chunk of a weekend." However, for players willing to dive in, Swan concluded, "Prepared to be dazzled."

Other reviews

*''

Arcane Arcane may refer to: Books and comics * Anton Arcane, a DC Comics character * Arcane Jill Watson, a character in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' * Arcane literature, such as in Cthulhu Mythos Gaming * Arcane magic (''Dungeons & Drago ...

'' #19 (May 1997, p.66) *''Ringbote'' #13 (July/August 1997, p.11)

References

{{reflist

Robots "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1995 Science fiction role-playing game supplements