Among the many challenges of adapting a game world to a universal system are the compromises designers must accept to conform to a predetermined standard. Sometimes — just sometimes — it seems to me that GURPS is the sound of the vibrant lifeblood being sucked dry from a perfectly good game world. It is completely understandable and expected that a line as vast as GURPS will fluctuate in quality. That, I think, is what makes the unexpected gems shine brighter.

This first column will take a look at one such gem. Stunningly presented, creatively described, cunningly innovative — GURPS Goblins is utter genius. Goblins of course uses the universal GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games, but in such an ingenious fashion that one forgets he is using a system intended to handle fantasy, super heroes, bunnies, cowboys, &c, &c. Messrs. Dale, Thomas, and Burwell, the authors and illustrator, have produced what I consider to be a masterpiece of game design, illustrating what fun one might have in someone else’s sandbox.

Goblins is worth its price as a graphic design primer. The only obscenely expensive thing lacking is a hard cover to preserve it for posterity. It is printed on glossy stock that adds heft and a slick feel (in the best sense of the word). Striking, droll art by Guy Burwell unifies the design and, best of all, is rendered in vivid goblin color. By the time the art goes two-tone, roundabout page 50, we are already so familiar with goblinoid idiosyncrasies that we can fill in the details. Color returns for the game master sections and, deliciously, for the chapter covering disease (yes — an entire chapter on disease). The graphic designers (Jeff Koke, layout and typography; Bruce Popky, and Lillian Butler, art direction) use color to enhance the book’s readability — distinctive headings are brick red, black, or brown while the sidebar text is brick red.

This supplement more or less relates to the sad lives and hard times of persons living in late Georgian London — that is, the city is more or less London, the individuals concerned are more or less persons, and King George is more or less late. The year is 1830 (p. 4).

The writing is evocative, humorous, and informative in equal parts. The authors employ direct description, examples derived from the game world, and quotation from historical references, actual and imagined. The book describes enough of Georgian London to help us visitors feel at home, while relating it from the goblin’s-eye view.

Goblins makes excellent use of the then-current SJG convention of sidebars. They include a timeline from 1810 to 1830, we meet Mr. Zion Rheese-Jones (the World’s Tallest Goblin), Mr. Exodus Meloane (the Goblin with the Loveliest Legs — we even get a glimpse of them!) along with any number of informative quotations from period reference books. Among the most entertaining of these — Dreadwort and Grimm’s Intimate Tableaus of London Life — which doesn’t appear in the bibliography (and, come to think of it, mentions Goblins by name) would be a useful addition to any library. Sidebars also treat conversions to pre-decimal pounds, shillings, and pence, recount popular beliefs and superstitions, and relate other colorful tidbits.

As an aside, or dare I insinuate, as sidebar, I must disclose that sidebars are a bugaboo of mine — they are more often bungled than helpful. In many GURPS books, sidebars seem to be continuations of the main text rather than an appropriate jumble of notes, rules, statistics, and marginalia. In an effort to further frustrate the reader, they often extend over two pages, sometimes forcing one to turn the page before one has read the main text — an excellent recipe for a navigational nightmare. I heartily thank SJG abandoning them in favor of occasional textboxes.

In goblin combat, keenness is what counts. The turn sequence is therefore decided by whichever of the participants first declares ‘I’ll whack him’ (p. 95).

But the most delightful bits of an entirely delightful game are those devoted to rules. Messrs. Dale and Thomas were particularly inspired in their adaptation of the GURPS rules. The first overt game mechanic reference is the Climate Table on page 21, according to which temperatures range from a Bitterly Cold 36º to Stinking Hot 61º. The chapter titles alone communicate that we are not in Kansas anymore — set beside the expected discussions of the World and Characters (chapters 2 and 5) are expositions on Status, Law and Punishment, Superstition and the Devil, Fighting and Drinking, and Disease (chapters 3,4,6,7, and 8).

Goblins is a fantasy world that combines the grotesquely fantastic with realistic grit — like a Dickens novel seen through the eyes of Jim Henson. While the GURPS system might, at first blush, seem like overkill, the tweaks Dale and Thomas exact in fact assist in developing the atmosphere. The GURPS basic set recommends that characters for typical genres — fantasy, sci fi, western, &c. — be created using 100 points. Goblins, on the other hand, are 15 point characters who can have as many as 150 points in disadvantages — the goblin racial template itself incurs –73 points!

A few of my favorite goblinoid adjustments to GURPS rules, in no particular order, include: goblin jingoism — a goblin’s social status declines the further he travels from home. Social status — climbing to the higher ranks is the driving force of the game, but the -4 to 0 range of the table is well-used. The book devotes five pages to alcohol and the effects of drinking. Each of the three stages of a prole’s life contributes to the final character. For example, if a preschool prole (immature goblins are called prole) was boiled in tea, she then suffers tanniphobia, a penalty to appearance, a bonus to menace, and she gains heat tolerance. School and apprenticeship add further physical deformities, peculiarities, and material benefits. Like the old Traveller character creation system, newly-created goblins already possess a lifetime of experience (unlike Traveller, I don’t think they can die during the creation process… ).

I quoted above my favorite aspect of combat, but it has a few more choice bits. Goblins lose courage for every point of damage suffered and must begin making fright checks when their pool reaches zero. Gunplay contests the shooters gun skill with the target’s theology skill. "This means that the Pope will be able to sleep at night, and goes a long way towards explaining why the Mafia are all Catholics. Note that the target is not necessarily presumed to be exerting himself in defence; his skill roll represents the natural order of things, by which the King (who has a +8 bonus to all skill rolls and, being head of the Church of England, an appropriately high Theology skill) has the divine right not to be harmed by some guttersnipe with a stolen pistol" (p. 97). In one fell swoop, Dale and Thomas use a rule to help us to see what kind of world we have entered, make combat more interesting, and add a "dramatic precedence" rule by which characters of greater importance are less susceptible to random acts of violence. This is what rules are for; GURPS Goblins provides a template for how rules ought to be written.

The game master’s section contributes a few of its own delights. These days, it seems that authors of urban game worlds inevitably include a matrix detailing how NPCs feel about one another (see Over the Edge for one example). Dale and Thomas suggest that the GM create a Social Web — a visual aid illustrating the skein of connections among a group of NPCs. If PC goblins have dealings with a particular character, the GM can quickly see whom else they might encounter and what those NPCs might say about one another. One of the adventures transpires in a theater playing "The Abridged Macbeth, with just the Witches and the Fighting" (the entire text of which is reprinted). My favorite innovation of the entire game, hands down, is name-based character generation. The authors provide tables keying to letters all relevant abilities, advantages, disadvantages, skills, phobias, and peculiarities. The GM creates an NPC by referencing each letter of his name, in order, to the tables. Ability level increases further down on the table, so players will know that a Zeke will be stronger that Able, &c. You use every letter, so characters with longer names enjoy an advantage and formidable NPCs always append titles — Esq., D. Div. — in order to milk every ounce. Finally, who cannot love a game in which the "monsters" section consists of a rat, ferret, dog, pig, and horse?

Putting aside for a moment the graphic design (which is inspired) and the creative game world (which is an imaginative tour-de-force), I suggest that GURPS Goblins is especially relevant in the current d20 dominated market. I like the idea of an "open source" game engine such as d20 and I actually like the d20 system. I fear, however, that at least for awhile, games will acquire a homogenous tone as designers wed their individual visions to a generic system. Even if a new game world is markedly individual, generic mechanics will deaden the effect, reducing it to the lowest common denominator. The example wrought by Malcolm Dale and Klaude Thomas in GURPS Goblins is wondrously illustrative of how designers can take someone else’s system — a detailed and quantification-obsessed one at that — and craft it into something evocative and original.