Post originally by Rev. Pee Kitty at 2004-07-27 14:34:10
Converted from Phorums BB System

<I>Sounds like Vol 1 is lacking complete combat and skill usage rules. Though "primer" could mean basic combat, making Vol 1 a combo of full chargen + GURPS Lite combat. </I>

<B>Pyramid</B> subscribers have access to more information, like chats with the designers, so I can definitely say that Book I has everything that a GURPS player will need to build AND use a character. We've been assured that many times.

Book II is expressly designed for GMs. It goes into "expanded detail on combat", which I imagine is more special-case situations and alternate/optional combat rules. There's more of a focus on world-building, race-building, and campaign-building.

So the buy-in for a GURPS 4E player is $39.95 for Book I (versus $56.90 for Basic and Compendium I).

The buy-in for a GURPS 4E GM is $74.90 for Books I and II (versus $83.85 for Basic and Compendiums I and II).

So the overall buy-in <I>has</I> actually gone down quite a bit, with the quality levels going up significantly. Some would point out that players could "get by" buying just Basic ($29.95) and borrowing Compendium I from the GM... but to them, I say such players could just as well download GURPS Lite for free and borrow the GM's books for all their expanded character creation needs.

PK