The Introduction you might read once, the only useful information for role-players is info on some supplements for GURPS, in various genres. Well it IS a 256 page book and a complete system so a lot of info is to be expected. Introduction, More for GURPS, What is RolePlaying?, Quick Start, Creating a Character, Chapter 1 Basic Attributes, Chapter 2 Physical Appearance, Chapter 3 Wealth and Status, Chapter 4 Advantages, Chapter 5 Disadvantages, Chapter 6 Quirks, Chapter 7 Skills, Chapter 8 Equipment and Encumbrance, Chapter 9 Completing your Character, Chapter 10 Character Development, Chapter 11 Random Characters, Chapter 12 Success Rolls, Chapter 13 Basic Combat, Chapter 14 Advanced Combat, Chapter 15 Injuries, Illeness and Fatigue, Chapter 16 Mounted and Vehicle Combat, Chapter 17 Flight, Chapter 18 Animals, Chapter 19 Magic, Chapter 20 Psionics, Chapter 21 Game Mastering, Chapter 22 Game Worlds, Chapter 23 Writing Your Own Adventures, Charts and Tables, All in a Night's Work, Appendix, Glossary and Index. The Table of Contents has the following Important points, and fits everything onto 3 pages, with a 1/6th picture on the first page. To me a style rating of 3-5 is unimportant (other people obviously don't rate this way though), while a 1 or 2 indicates some serious flaws that detract from the content (incredibly bad art could do this, but in the most cases it will be layout problems). I'm not rewarding the Basic Set for doing this properly as the overall quality of RPGs on the market isn't so poor that doing something properly merits an award.Ĭontent is the important stuff. Some RPG products stick the "sidebars" in the middle of the page interrupting the main text in the middle of a sentence, which is VERY annoying. Sidebars are useful and don't get in the way of the main text as they are actually SIDEbars. As far as layout goes, it's clear and easy to read.
I wouldn't penalize it on account of art unless it was terrible as RPGs aren't about the art but imagination, but at the same time I would only reward it for being appropriate to the context in the book if the art was more than decent.
On the other hand, for the most part the "art" is actually relevant to whatever is being discussed, which is a big plus compared to most RPG products. As far as art goes, the Basic Set has some of the worst that I've ever seen in ANY RPG product. Regarding style, the GURPS Basic Set is nothing special. The rules certainly don't tie it down to any one genre, but I think the term "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" applies quite well here.
GURPS Presents itself as a system that's portable to any game type in any genre.