Short And Sweet

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Short And Sweet

February doesn't just have fewer days than all the other months – it really, truly feels shorter, because the days rapidly gain sunlight, reminding us that we're over the hump of winter and sprinting for spring. It's almost like a prize for surviving January! But it doesn't mean we slack off on our work on GURPS.

Recent Releases

February saw one new GURPS publication.

GURPS Magical Styles: Horror Magic (February 25, 2021; PDF)

GURPS Magic sometimes seems too flashy and fantasy-oriented for games of horror, mystery, and occult weirdness, where magic is meant to be secret or forbidden. Yet it provides a huge list of ready-to-use spells, where most other magic systems offer fewer examples and place the onus of creating more on the GM or players, leading to a mini-game that takes time and that can cause arguments at the gaming table. This supplement uses GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles to adapt "standard" spell-magic to genres and worlds that call for something a little darker, creepier, and less obvious.

Everything Old Is New Again Department
 
Over in GURPS on Demand, GURPS Who's Who 2 just missed the cut last time. We also banged GURPS Classic: Space, First Edition into PDF form. These are for earlier editions of GURPS, so some stats conversion is needed to use the NPCs and spaceships, respectively, with Fourth Edition.

Upcoming Plans

As I said above, we haven't slackened our pace. Here's the latest on what's still in the pipeline. Please remember that these are educated guesses and nothing more. As recent meteorological events in Texas (home of SJ Games) should make clear, the unexpected can throw a wrench – heck, the whole toolbox – into our plans.

• The stars of the GURPS Pyramid Scheme Kickstarter – three new issues of Pyramid – should be in the hands of backers by now, and we're working hard to deliver the other rewards.
• The Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game is basically done, save for a few production tweaks. I've seen proof in the form of a near-final PDF.
• Christopher Rice's GURPS Realm Management is almost certainly going to be a March release.
• I submitted a final draft of a short item (no clues yet, sorry!) that's very likely to come out in April.
• The short David Pulver project I've been teasing about remains in production. I confess that we might be saving it for something.
• We expect the final draft of GURPS Hot Spots: Srivijaya, by Randy Huegele, in March.
• Bill Stoddard's most recent work remains in peer review.
• The playtest queue hasn't advanced since last time . . . sorry! It still contains content for, in order, the GURPS Fantasy Folk series (by Alden Loveshade), the GURPS Infinite Worlds series (by James Amaral & Joshua Lopez), and the GURPS Vehicles series (by Carolyn Stein & Steve Stein).
• Rory Fansler's mystical manuscript and Christopher Rice's newest for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy continue to receive loving revisions from their authors.
• Yes, that first draft from Matt Riggsby still awaits editorial review. We might be saving this for something as well.
• Yours Truly has started something sinister for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.

Everything else is either too far out to talk about (including David Pulver's two-parter) or on hold at the author's request. Could that change? Could any of this change? But of course! The GURPS thread in my blog, which I update faithfully on Fridays, is where to look for gossip about that.

Join Us! Join Us!

So far in 2021, we've been entertaining queries and proposals more often than we did during 2020. While some aspects of the GURPS machine are still operating more slowly than I'd like, I'm not as inclined to encourage would-be writers to wait. Preparation remains important to keeping things moving, though, so if you're interested, please review the Submission Guidelines, GURPS formatting guide, and GURPS WYSIWYG template. I beg you to limit queries to what the Warehouse 23 Digital Wish List (updated February 22, 2021) and Warehouse 23 Wish List for GURPS (updated February 22, 2021) ask for; we still have too much on our collective plate to catch hits into left field. Thanks in advance!