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This article is about the Fourth Edition of GURPS Fantasy.
For the Classic versions see GURPS Fantasy (1st edition) and Classic Fantasy: The Magical World of Yrth
Fantasy

This is the Cover to GURPS Fantasy

GURPS Fantasy (2004, 2006) is a genre book written by William H. Stoddard covering the Fantasy genre. Its 240 pages includes information on alternate magic systems, fantasy adventure seeds, and advice on creating fantasy adventures.

GURPS Fantasy is logically broke down into sections beginning with the genre, setting, and scope of fantasy you want. It then by chapter does in how the supernatural can work, how magic and technology interact and even how magic can replace technology, explores using history as a template, goes into the use of localities from isolated hamlets all the way to cities and empires, the different forms, types, and systems of magic, and finally storylines.

The final chapter brings it all together but in a different form from the old magical pseudo-Middle Ages Europe familiar to many people. Instead we are treated to Roma Arcana, a fantasy setting based in Ancient Rome.

Planning the Campaign[]

Absurdist Fantasy[]

Scope[]

  • Point, Area, Base and Mission Campaigns.

The Supernatural[]

  • Magic - Intrinsic, Subjective

Magical Objects[]

Magical Beings[]

  • Spirit, Gods, Angels, Demons, Half-Mortals

Magical Realms[]

  • Dreamlands, Faerie Realms, Afterworlds, Spirit Worlds, Heavens, Hells, Archetypical Realms, Pocket Universes

The Dead[]

  • Ghosts, Ancestor Worship, Afterworlds, Reincarnation, Resurrection

Worlds[]

  • Frames
  • Playing with Maps
  • Magical Landscapes
    • Enhanced Environments, Impossible Environments, Unevenly Distributed Magic, Aspected Mana, Magical Networks
  • Plants and Animals
  • Monsters
  • Races and Cultures
  • Magic and Technology
  • Civilizations

Histories[]

  • Frames
  • Playing with Timelines
  • Historical Eras
  • Disturbances
  • Shadows of the Past

Localities[]

  • Settlements, Services

Characters[]

Magical Arts[]

Storylines[]

  • Adventures
  • Subplots
  • War in Fantasy Settings

Roma Arcana[]

A setting that pulls the material in the book together that is not yet another Middle Ages with Magic rehash.

Notes[]

While Fantasy includes a small list of spells (smaller then that in Characters), GURPS Magic is GURPS' main spell catalog. Similarly, Fantasy has some information on different magic systems and traditions, but GURPS Thaumatology is the rulebook for that.

Nature and Supernature[]

This side box has a major problem: the dynamic between Science and Magic in most fiction depends on a misunderstanding of what Science really is. Science, in reality, is simply a model of how reality is thought to work.

Elbert Hubbard in his 1905 Little Journeys to Homes of Great Scientists summed it up thusly: "To the scientist the word "supernatural" is a contradiction. Everything that is in the universe is natural; the supernatural is the natural not yet understood. And that which is called the supernatural is often the figment of a disordered, undisciplined or undeveloped imagination."

Additional Information[]

References[]

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