It has been an amazing weekend since the release of “How to Be a GURPS GM,” with friends from far and wide heaping congratulations and virtual cheers. I’ve also been scouring the internet daily to see what the reception has been like — and so far it has been better than I could have hoped. Though the official store page has only three ratings at the moment — all three are five stars!
Here are some of my favorite comments from Facebook, Twitter, and especially the Steve Jackson Games GURPS Forums. (I’ve redacted authors’ names).
“Mook’s book isn’t just for new GMs. I’ve been GMing GURPS since GURPS existed, and I bought this because old dogs can learn new tricks from other old dogs.”
“It was one of the easiest purchasing decisions I ever made.”
“Wish this was around earlier. THANKS! This has already clarified a few things for me, and also reinforced other ideas I lost in the recesses of my memory. An A+ book.”
“I’ve read through parts of the book, skimmed others, and it is GOOD. Even for experienced GMs. (For inexperienced ones, it’s a good third book after the two Basic Sets.”
“Bought it, loving it.”
“I’m a pretty experienced GM overall and a midlevel trained GURPS GM and I consider it a good investment. I am totally recommending for a new GM to GURPS. It’s the book we needed to convince newbies for years.”
The more “official” comments have been extremely humbling also. In addition to the complimentary announcement posts by Kromm and Steven Marsh, they have said some wonderful things in forum posts like…
Kromm (GURPS Line Editor)
“FWIW: I’ve been playing GURPS since 1986 – i.e., since it was Man to Man and just a combat system, and then through four editions that span 28 years. I’ve also worked on the game since the summer of 1995, or for 19 years (more like 20 years, if you count my first freelance assignment in the autumn of 1994). And I developed the current edition. Despite all that, I still found useful tips in Mook’s material, and even in words of my own that I’d forgotten or never looked at next to other things I’d written.”
PK (Assistant GURPS Line Editor)
“This isn’t just newbie advice — it’s a distillation of all the advice given here on the forums, with almost half of the book being direct quotes of advice that Kromm has given (here) on a wide variety of topics, and the other half being Mook’s carefully thought out walkthroughs, further explanations, etc.”
Steven Marsh (GURPS Project Manager)
“It’s early to say anything too definitively, but sales over the first 3.5 days have been very promising. (So far, it’s outsold most of this year’s releases in each of their first four days.) Given that it was a title with no advanced warning, anticipation, or promotional drive, I’m quite happy with how it’s doing.”
How awesome is that?! Thank you, all of you, for the support and kind words. Please keep up the good work — spread the word far and wide to anyone who might be interested…and let me know what you think of “How to Be a GURPS GM”!
Congratulations!
I can’t wait to get this one and read it!
“For inexperienced ones, it’s a good third book after the two Basic Sets.”
I’d even go as far as to say that if you’re going with 4e, it’s a good first book, or second after GURPS lite.