December 6, 2010: Zombies, Pirates, And A Blast From The Past

e23 is feeling extra generous this week. Usually when you click the What's New link on the front page, you'll get an issue of Space Gamer and either a GURPS Classic or a new GURPS supplement. Today, you're able to pick up Space Gamer #50, GURPS Classic: Undead, and GURPS Supporting Cast: Age of Sail Pirate Crew.

(And, of course, by "today" I mean "last Thursday." That's when Alex does his normal upload, and then we talk about it the following Monday. After all, we don't expect everyone to be reloading the e23 front page every five minutes on a work day, but Monday? That day of the week needs a bit of fun, just to ease yourself into the work week.)

First, Space Gamer #50 was originally published in April 1982, and is chock full of reviews from that time, as well as the Car Wars classic "Sunday Drivers." There's also a Traveller adventure and an optional class for some RPG that involves killing monsters and taking their stuff. It's exactly the sort of information you'd need if you were a gamer in the early '80s, or if you have any interest in where the games you love today came from.

Next, GURPS Classic: Undead covers . . . well, undead. From zombies to necromancers to vampires, Sean Punch covers them all. Oh, yeah, did I mention the entire book was written by Dr. Kromm himself -- the GURPS Line Editor and architect of GURPS Fourth Edition? He did, and since metabolically challenged creatures are something of a hobby of his, the result is fantastic. Histories of the undead, guidelines for creating your own, historical rites and rituals for dealing with the dead (in the hopes that they don't become un-), and places to fit undead into your campaign -- they're not just minions and villans, you know!

Finally, we have Supporting Cast: Age of Sail Pirate Crew. Long-time GURPS fans will recall GURPS Supporting Cast as a collection of characters for use in a wide variety of campaigns. The new Supporting Cast series from e23 (check out the Wish List entry here) takes the idea and breaks it down into more focused chunks. As you might guess from the title, Age of Sail Pirate Crew features the crew of Adventurer's Revenge, a pirate ship circa 1716. Author Nicolas Novell has included full write-ups for the nine key crewmembers, plus names and home ports for their 21 shipmates. He's also filled out the book with job templates, background on historical pirates, and advice on moving the ship to more fantastical waters.