GURPS Swashbucklers


GURPS Swashbucklers is a sourcebook by Steffan O'Sullivan, published by Steve Jackson Games in 1988 to provide a swashbuckling setting for GURPS.

Contents

GURPS Swashbucklers is a GURPS supplement containing special rules for campaigns involving musketeer and pirate characters, including an overview of the years 1559-1815, and rules for sailing ships. In his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, Lawrence Schick noted that the book includes "such helpful sections as 'How to be French.'".

Publication history

GURPS Swashbucklers, a 96-page softcover book, was written by Steffan O'Sullivan, with a cover by Jean Elizabeth Martin and illustrations by Donna Barr, and was published by Steve Jackson Games in 1988.
In his 2011 book Designers & Dragons, games historian Shannon Appelcline noted that GURPS Swashbucklers was one of the smaller subgenre books published after the first broad genre GURPS books.
SJG published two more editions of GURPS Swashbucklers:
The "Denizens" series for GURPS Dungeons Fantasy also included a Swashbucklers book.

Reception

In the December 1989 edition of Dragon, James Wallis called the cover art and interior illustrations "amateurish", but lauded the "sheer density of background information." He noted that the "Adventures" section was only two pages long, containing "four lacklustre brief outlines, all requiring much work before being playable in any form." He also felt that both the "Swashbuckling" and "Pirate" chapters contained too much information about famous characters and not enough "actual day-to-day life." Wallis gave the book an average rating of 3.5 out of 5, saying, "In sticking too closely to the factual, Steffan O'Sullivan lets the romantic atmosphere of life in the French court or on the open seas escape GURPS Swashbucklers is not swashbuckling enough."