Returning to GURPS Third Edition, I find all the flaws that fans of the current Fourth Edition point towards to be a feature rather than a bug. I find a robust and fun-to-play system that allows me to run any game, in any time period, in any genre, and with a wealth of options on hand.

Because GURPS hasn’t fundamentally changed the core engine in nearly 40 years, Fourth Edition resources are just as forwards compatible as any Third Edition book is backwards compatible. But there is a spirit in the Third Edition that I feel lies dormant and waits to rise back into your hobby.

This is the spirit that asks you to playtest, to experiment, to give your opinions, to mash up your own campaign, to ask questions, to spread the word about these fantastic games, and to do whatever you want with the published books. It feels less concerned with min-maxing your Character Points for efficiency.

Looking at my GURPS Third Edition shelves, I see the possibilities of what Robin D. Laws suggested in his seminal “Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering” back in 2002:

When in doubt, blindfold yourself, take any two GURPS sourcebooks off the shelf at random, and combine the results.

I’ve found combining three is even more satisfying but the point is the same: with GURPS, you can mash-up your own unique campaign by grabbing sourcebooks and allowing your imagination to resolve the paradox arising from their combination. I don’t think enough GMs do this anymore. It’s the biggest thing that I want to work on in my hobby.

At this moment, my mind is visiting the possibilities from combining GURPS Alternate Worlds and GURPS Time Travel with any number of other GURPS supplements. Taking elements from differing world books, whether they be tropes, trappings, or the tone, and blending them in different contexts allows new games to be born.

Thanks to Steve Jackson Games for keeping Third Edition and many of those old sourcebooks in print for the past 20 years. They didn’t have to do that – heck, very few other companies have done that, certainly beyond digital copies – but by doing so you have reignited my passion – genuine passion – for roleplaying in imaginary worlds.

Game on!