Review: GURPS Monster Hunters Power-Ups 1, Christopher R. Rice

[Roger Bell_West's autoposter]

This supplementary volume in the _Monster Hunters_ series offers
improved abilities for some of the standard hunter templates.

Disclaimer: I was lead playtester for this book, and therefore
did not pay for it.

There are shades of _Shadowrun_ here: in the first edition of that
game, it rapidly became clear that conventional weapons were
underpowered compared with magic, and supplements were written to try
to boost them. Here there's a similar feeling that the templates with
paranormal abilities don't need much in the way of boosting, but the
others – the commando, techie, etc. – might benefit from more choices.

Although this material is presented as more stuff for experienced
characters to buy, there's no particular reason why it couldn't come
out of a character's initial point budget if other parts of their
template were removed.

The power-ups themselves are sorted into general (combat-orientated,
available to any PC), utility (also available to anyone but less
focused on combat), and professional (restricted to specific
templates). Costs are variable between about 3 points and 20+ per
level.

Some of these power-ups (such as Dual-Weapon Mastery) are taken from
other GURPS books, but tweaked to fit into the Monster Hunters model.
Others, like Push-Ups Make You Bulletproof or Run and Gun, are new
(and yes, they're broken down into standard GURPS powers too so they
can be tweaked if desired).

Finally, there's a system for inventions, either bodging together
something to copy the effects of an existing device or coming up with
an entirely new machine. Mostly this is a way of pricing powers with
Gadget limitations, with a very cinematic approach.

I definitely intend to make these powers available to the players in
my upcoming Monster Hunters campaign; I'll be a bit more cautious
about the invention system, but I think most of the rough edges have
been sanded off. _GURPS Monster Hunters Power-Ups 1_ is available from
[Warehouse
23](http://www.warehouse23.com/products/gurps-monster-hunters-power-ups-1).

https://blog.firedrake.org/archive/2019/09/GURPS_Monster_Hunters_Power_Ups_1__Christopher_R__Rice.html