Gurps Bio-Tech: The Next Step in Human Evolution

Hi There, I have been reading RPG supplements for a long time. This one is a very handy supplement, even if you're not playing GURPS. This book is well researched, and seems to add a lot along the lines of Genetic Engineering, and Medicine to the game, while distilling materials into SJ Games Excellent 4th Edition. I am not an author, but in the interests of disclosing my affiliation with the product, I was a Playtester of the product, prior to release. I was very impressed with how this product turned out.

Bio-Tech has been re-written and expanded for GURPS 4th Edition, and is physically impressive -- full colour, some reasonable art, twice as many pages. The text divides between theory and game-specific material. The theory part is a fairly detailed and, so far as I know, up to date discussion of medical technology, selective breeding, genetic modifications to animals and plants, genetics, and cellular biology, with interesting speculations on gene therapies, genetic engineering and gross surgical alteration. Although interesting and instructive, the theory part is, from a game point of view, mostly fluff which explains the origin of some of the exotic advantages that characters can have in a hard-SF background. Bio-Tech also touches on, then skirts around nanotechnology, presumably because this will be covered in more detail in the forth-coming Ultra-Tech, which is referenced throughout the volume. The game-specific part lists genetic alterations to the human genome by tech level, surgical and therapeutic procedures to upgrade characters during play, provides new spells for magically based backgrounds, and provides rules for and examples of current and futuristic drugs and medical nanotech. It also features geneered animals and plants. The best and most immediately useful part is a chapter devoted to templates, human and para-human, that has been updated from the previous Bio-Tech book, and from Transhuman Space. All the foregoing material is excellent stuff. Sadly, the final part of the book, which features two capsule backgrounds, is less good. One has clones of Alexander the Great ruling the world, the other is a short account of a slower-than-light colonisation fleet on its way to Lambda Serpentis. Neither of these parts is particularly well detailed, and I'd have preferred more information on bio-vehicles and bio-buildings. It is a minor gripe, though -- the meat of the book is more than worth the cover price.

In this age of cloning and genetically altered crops it's hard to create a game book that won't seem hopelessly outdated by next year. David Pulver (GURPS Psionics, GURPS Vehicles and other) has done an excellent job with GURPS Bio-Tech! Rather than a simple list of advantages and disadvantages available, David takes advantage of existing rules to explain how select gene-mods would work in game mechanics.Also covered are modifications to animals, plants, alien organisms and a extensive section on germ warfare. (Better make sure that the target genome doesn't appear in your population!) Addition information discusses specific changes that bio-modification could bring to a society.This book is tailored to the GURPS game system, but with a bit of thought could be used for virtually any game system.