Steve Jackson Games
SKU: SJG37-0156
Humans Are Only A Suggestion
A big part of what makes a game world interesting is its inhabitants – especially the nonhumans. This doesn't just mean the elves and dragons of fantasy, the aliens and robots of science fiction, the zombies and werewolves of horror, and the "toons" of animated features . . . GURPS lets you define real-world animals, plants, and machines using points, too. But creating a racial template for every important species and model in your setting is hard work.
GURPS Template Toolkit 2: Races shows you how to create solid racial templates for your campaign without going nuts. It starts from basic principles, like body morphology, native gravity and atmosphere, and what the being is made of (flesh, metal, fire, spirit . . .), so you can be sure the race's traits make sense for its role and habitat. But it also provides guidelines for tweaking the results to suit your dramatic needs.
All this comes with ample advice on what races imply for worldbuilding. Players aren't left out, either – there are guidelines for letting players modify or create racial templates. And even if your goal is to build a one-off character rather than an entire species, you're sure to get good use out of the many new traits, features, and meta-traits.
Written by William H. Stoddard
