April 29, 2010: GURPS Low-Tech Progress

Recently, Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch -- you know, the GURPS Line Editor -- wrote on our forums:

We have a cunning scheme for separate appendices to Low-Tech, which constitute the Low-Tech Companion series. These contain elaborations and details that not all gamers will want, but that are still sufficiently broad that they cross numerous cultures from TL0 to TL4.

To elaborate, GURPS Low-Tech will be a print, on-the-shelf book of around 160 pages. Following that release, we'll have three or more PDFs titled "GURPS Low-Tech Companion," each with their own rather specific focus, and each weighing in around 32 pages. (Yes, that's 256 pages scheduled for this topic -- the same as GURPS High-Tech. It's going to be comprehensive.)

What's that? You'd like to know who's writing what? Well, why not? GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1: Philosophers and Kings (Riggsby and Stoddard) covers "soft technologies" like administration and mathmatics. GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2: Weapons and Warriors (Dell'Orto, Howard, and Stoddard) provides additional rules for the tools of war. GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3: Daily Life, Tools, and Trade (Riggsby and Stoddard) reveals the equipment and organizations of the common man.

The fact that the project is being discussed in no way indicates when it will be released, sadly. Too many factors are still wildly variable at this point to give a more narrow prediction than "we're shooting for 2010."

But when it does hit the shelves -- physical and digital -- you can rest assured that Low-Tech and its Companions will give you all the gaming information you could desire for campaigns from the Stone Age to the Age of Sail.

-- Paul Chapman