January 1, 2012: GURPS And The Coming Apocalypse

The Mayan calendar says the world ends this year. If ancient cultures could predict the end of the world thousands of years in advance, then forecasting a year of GURPS should be a piece of cake, right? I'll take a stab at it, but please be aware that mad stabbing – whether at blood sacrifices or publication schedules – is squarely in the realm of wild-eyed speculation! Reviewing my 2011 predictions and then reading the list below, you'll see that several things I promised a year ago have rolled back to 2012, and several GURPS supplements released in 2011 came out of the blue. Such is the lot of oracles. Those who can't get enough hints and leaks should keep tabs on the GURPS News (updated quarterly, more or less) or even my blog (updated weekly).

I'll start with hints about releases in existing series, as these build on foundations as solid as a Mayan temple, and are unlikely to run into fundamental problems like "Can we even sell this?" and "I thought you were handling the new logo and page design!":

• GURPS Dungeon Fantasy will get its first adventure, Mirror of the Fire Demon (by Matt Riggsby), as well as at least one more core volume, Dungeon Fantasy 15 (by Peter Dell'Orto and myself).
• There will be a second GURPS Hot Spots item (by Matt Riggsby).
• I hope we'll be able to push GURPS Loadouts: Low-Tech Armor (by Dan Howard) out the door.
• We should see as many as three new GURPS Locations installments, depending on how reviews and cartography go.
• Jason "PK" Levine and I have at least two more GURPS Power-Ups titles in the pipes (his Power-Ups 4 and my Power-Ups 5).

Speaking of series, we plan to kick off at least one more quick-start genre treatment in the vein of GURPS Action, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, and GURPS Monster Hunters. I really shouldn't give out too many clues. However, I'll hint that it has monsters without being traditional horror or fantasy, and guns and knives without being action per se. For that matter, it has autogyros.

Beyond series per se, there's supporting material for major releases:

• For GURPS Horror, an as-yet-unnamed Ken Hite oeuvre.
• For GURPS Low-Tech, Low-Tech: Instant Armor (by Dan Howard).
• For GURPS Martial Arts, Martial Arts: Technical Grappling (by Doug Cole).
• For Transhuman Space, Transhuman Space: Wings of the Rising Sun (by David Chart).
• For GURPS Ultra-Tech, Ultra-Tech: Weapon Tables.

There are also GURPS Banestorm and GURPS High-Tech follow-ups in the works, although those are longer shots for 2012.

Then there are the deep secrets about which I'm reluctant to give away even as much as "it's a series." One of these, for instance, will have "GURPS" in the title but not in its customary place at the start of the title. Another is a Bill Stoddard project whose name has yet to be breathed in public. And then there are the things that are so long-awaited that I have a brand manager's natural reluctance to discuss them; for instance, I would like to see GURPS Vehicle Design make headway, and there are signs that it might . . . but that could just as easily be news for 2013 or 2014.

There will be the usual collection of reprints and updates, too. These have not been announced, so out of respect for retailers, I'll name no names. It suffices to say that we'll do what we can to keep existing items in the line current.

Oh, and we have one little marketing freebie in the bullpen. I keep hinting at this, and it keeps slipping back, but just today there was news that means this can move forward. Keep your eyes peeled and get ready to grab the free stuff!

-- Sean Punch