Review: GURPS Planet of Adventure

GURPS Planet of Adventure is the latest in a long line of licenced GURPS worldbooks based on science fiction novels, based on a series of four novels by Jack Vance, City of the Chasch, Servants of the Wankh, The Dirdir, and The Pnume, later collected together as Planet of Adventure.

Steve Jackson Games have never gone for any of the really big licences like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or Dune, presumably because they didn't want to bet the company on something that they don't control. Instead, they've chosen lower profile works, usually literary rather than TV or film. Past licences have included Andre Norton's Witch World, David Brin's Uplift novels, E.E "Doc" Smith's Lensmen and Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Planet of Adventure comes from the "Sword and Planet" sub-genre of SF. The four novels follow the adventures of the Earth Scout Adam Reith, the first man from Earth to visit the planet Tschai, after his starship is shot down and he's the sole survivor of the crash landing. Tschai is typical of Jack Vance's creations, a picaresque planet filled with strange baroque cultures and larger-than-life characters. The dominant powers are the four warring alien races, each with their own races of human servants, who share the planet with a wide variety of human cultures. Adam Reith encounters many of these in his efforts to build or steal a starship to get back home.

The GURPS adaptation presents Tschai as a setting for further adventures. The first chapter gives an overview, starting with GURPS game statistics for the planet's animal life, including the dangerous Bombardier Birds (who dive-bomb their prey with stones) and the feared Night-Hounds. It goes on to give some details of the history and geography of the world, as well as a synopsis of the four novels.

Chapter Two, Masters of Tschai details the four alien races who dominate the planet through higher technology. There are the scaly xenophobic Chasch, The inscrutable frog-like Wanek (who in the novels were called The Wankh!), the man eating hunters the Dirdir, and the enigmatic insectile Pnume, the original native inhabitants of the planet. For each race we get GURPS racial templates and a description of their physiology, psychology and culture. The chapter also covers the human servant/slaves of each of the four in much the same way.

Relations among the various races of Tschai can be summed up fairly simply: Everyone hates everybody else!

Chapter Three, Humans of Tschai details the human inhabitants of the planet living in those regions not controlled by any of the alien races, descendants of Earth humans brought to Tschai by the Dirdir millennia ago. We meet the nomadic steppe nomads the Kruthe, who ride lorries and electric motorcycles. At the other extreme there are the decadent city dwelling Yao, obsessed with status games and petty intrigues. We get all we need to know about the daily life, religion, technology and economics of the human cultures.

Chapter Four, Characters and Equipment is the rule-heavy chapter, showing how to represent Tschai in GURPS terms. It gives plenty of character templates for various archetypal characters, both Earth visitors to Tschai, and locals. It also covers the available technology, including weapons and vehicles.

Chapter Five, Campaigns and Adventures puts it all together with advice on how to run games set in Tschai. It gives various campaign frames; the obvious one being the player characters as Earth Scouts in better armed and better briefed followup mission to that of Adam Reith. It also suggests a number of ideas for parties of Tschai natives such as from merchants and pirates. Finally we have four adventure scenarios, some for Earthmen, some for Tschai natives, some suitable for both.

The last chapter gives a glossary of people, places and terminology.

Overall, this is one of the better GURPS licenced worldbooks. It takes a very rich setting and shows the potential for adventure. The inclusion of some sample adventures demonstrates the things player characters might expect to do, something a few GURPS worldbooks of the past have neglected.

Board your starship and go there now!