The Second GM Inspiration: GURPS Places of Mystery

 

The Second GM Inspiration: GURPS Places of Mystery

In its many years GURPS, especially 2nd edition and 3rd edition, generated a copious wealth of useful sourcebooks that were almost universally appreciated by those looking for a bit of history or realism in their games, whether they were actually used for GURPS or not. One of the best of these books, one which has remained in my collection for decades now and gets brought out for periodic use and inspiration, is GURPS Places of Mystery.

Places of Mystery contains twelve sections focusing on historical, archaeological and sometimes mythical locales in our world, providing enough detail on their mythological and historical relevance, along with maps, to funnel your modern day or historical adventurers and investigators through hundreds of hours of interesting gaming. Just a sample of topics and locales in this book include:

The Bermuda Triangle

Stonehange

Ley Lines

Temples of Thebes

Lamaseries

Mohenjo Daro

Nubia

King Solomon's Mines

Knossos

Camelot

The Kremlin

Ayer's Rock

Anasazi Towns

And etc etc.....this is just a sampling of one or two locations from each chapter!

For modern games like Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds or Cypher System this is an invaluable book. 95% of it is system-neutral as well, and what few rules are here for GURPS are remarkably easy to interpret into other game systems with little to no difficulty.

For fantasy games you can easily take these locations and reinterpret them within the light of your preferred fantasy setting. Adopting many of these locations may let you fill out and even explore some ideas in your fantasy campaign that you might not otherwise have considered before, now with a veneer of quasi-historical authenticity.

Anyway, check it out! PDF here and Amazon Print Edition here.