No, we aren't up to 2,011 separate GURPS releases (yet) . . . I'm talking about GURPS supplements published in the year 2011. Playing with word order and comma placement is how editors have fun. However, this editor hopes that you have fun with some of the great content that came out over the past 12 months. Let's review, shall we? My motivations here are strictly archival, of course! I wouldn't dream of hinting that you should spend a little Christmas money to complete your collection.

The year's most awaited item was probably GURPS Horror (also available in hardback). This GURPS classic has been greatly expanded and updated to work well with both GURPS Fourth Edition and a new decade of horror fiction. Like all scary things (if few horror-story protagonists), it didn't show up alone – GURPS Infinite Worlds: Worlds of Horror was lurking nearby.

Not explicitly tied into Horror but in the same vein (that's a little vampire humor) was the all-new GURPS Monster Hunters series. This showed up as a horde of four releases: Champions, The Mission, The Enemy, and Sidekicks. Not to be outdone, an older series had some monstrous fun . . . Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 came out for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, which also saw the release of its 13th and 14th volumes, Loadouts and Psi.

However, 2011 wasn't just a year of horror and monsters! GURPS Tactical Shooting (also available in softback) and GURPS Social Engineering were both major releases, easily as big a deal as Horror. Meanwhile, GURPS Psi-Tech finished what three other psi-related works started, and GURPS Reign of Steel: Will to Live brought a classic up to date.

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and GURPS Monster Hunters weren't the only series that saw growth, either. We added GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3: Daily Life and Economics to the GURPS Low-Tech series, GURPS Powers: Divine Favor to the GURPS Powers series, and GURPS Power-Ups 3: Talents to the GURPS Power-Ups series. The Transhuman Space setting also moved forward, with Cities on the Edge, Martial Arts 2100, and Transhuman Mysteries.

Pyramid provided support throughout all this. This year's issues were #3/27, #3/28, #3/29, #3/30, #3/31, #3/32, #3/33, #3/34, #3/35, #3/36, #3/37, and #3/38. We also kept plugging holes in our GURPS Classic lineup, bringing out PDF versions of the Third Edition books Age of Napoleon, Covert Ops, Faerie, and Special Ops; Ground Forces, Humaniti, and Modular Cutter in the GURPS Traveller series; Grim Legions, Hand of Steel, and Weird War II in the GURPS WWII series; and Personnel Files and Toxic Memes in the Transhuman Space series.

I'll close by noting that I'm writing this recap at the start of December. By the time you read it, at least a couple more things will have been released! You can catch up on last-minute news by glancing at the New GURPS Releases block and checking out the e23: New Releases page.

-- Sean Punch

Yesterday, the inimitable GURPS Line Editor Sean "Kromm" Punch filled you in on the overview of what came out for GURPS in 2011. I'm going to "zoom in" a bit and discuss a few releases I found particularly intriguing this year.

One aspect of e23 I love is that we're able to release more "experimental" items -- ideas that would have been difficult or impossible in the print-only era. For example, GURPS Reign of Steel: Will to Live updated the classic GURPS Reign of Steel setting to GURPS Fourth Edition stats. Although we'd done a Fourth Edition update previously for the Transhuman Space line (see Transhuman Space: Changing Times), this marked the first time we've done an update supplement on a standalone book. Reign of Steel: Will to Live has sold quite well so far -- not surprising, given how cool giant robots are. However, what I found surprising is how much Will to Live goosed the sales of GURPS Classic: Reign of Steel on e23. The month that Will to Live was released, we sold more copies of the original Reign of Steel than in any previous month. Clearly fans "got" the idea that if they bought the original Reign of Steel and the Will to Live add-on, they'd have a complete ready-to-use setting -- and they were hungry to get both! These conversion supplements are tricky to get right, and we're not sure we're ready to tackle another one quite yet, but we're pleased with how this one turned out.

In 2011, we've really tried to take steps toward improving the quality of the art in our e23 releases. The best example is GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1. Each creature comes with a new illustration, making it perfect to inspire the GM or set the mood for players. If you haven't already, check out the Flickr set of illos to see what we mean. Then pick up the full supplement for info on gladiator apes, void brutes, dinomen, and more!

The entire Transhuman Space line got a lot of love over 2011. What makes these new releases noteworthy to me is that they're also useful for just about any near-future RPG (or even more far-flung fare). Transhuman Mysteries (written by fan-favorite William H. Stoddard) offers amazing insight into the future of crime and crimestoppers, while Cities on the Edge addresses all manner of futuristic urban issues. If you're a science-fiction gamer and haven't looked into how fun these can be, consider this to be your secret initiation handshake. (And I probably don't need to plug Martial Arts 2100, since kicking butt will be even cooler in the future than it is now . . .)

Of course, like any parent, I can't pick "favorites" among my e23 children. What did you like most from 2011? Feel free to join the discussion on our forums!

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Today's Daily Illuminator is brought to you by game designer extraordinaire Kenneth Hite.

If you're running a game about chasing Nazi werewolves through alternate histories, this was a pretty good year for you. Not only did you have all that great Monster Hunters goodness from PK, you also got some mileage out of all three of my releases for GURPS in 2011.

Back in May, the Third Edition anthology I helmed, GURPS WWII: Weird War II, came out in GURPS Classic PDF from e23! That book came out eight years ago, in 2003, and it's still just as ridiculously over-stuffed with 1940s-vintage nonsense as it was then! Much of that nonsense is free of statistics (just like all other books about Nazi occultism!) and so, like the Secret of Vril, it can power GURPS games of any vintage.

In August, the new edition of GURPS Horror Fourth Edition dropped in PDF format, and shipped the next month in glorious black and white hardback form. At one point or another, I think that book nearly killed everyone it came into contact with, like one of those sexy shirtless werewolves the kids all love so much. But like the kids who love those werewolves, I think we can agree that it was worth the risk. The werewolves in the book (both the original-recipe medieval werewolf and the modern wolf-man), sadly, are not sexy and shirtless. But here you go: just add Appearance (Beautiful) [12] and Quirk (Shirts can't contain the beast within) [-1], and you're good. Make him a shirtless sexy Nazi werewolf with Intolerance (Total, Non-Aryans) [-10] and Quirk (Thinks Himmler smells nice) [-1] and it's a point-neutral package!

Where was I? Oh, yes. My GURPS books. In September, we all got to see GURPS Infinite Worlds: Worlds of Horror in PDF. This one was, if I recall correctly, e23 Dark Lord Steven Marsh's idea. Having seen me crank out alternate histories by the carload in "Suppressed Transmission" back in the day, he got the brainstorm to commission six horror-themed AHs to support two books at once! Nice going, say I. There are werewolves mentioned in Duzakh (a world where vampirized Etruscans menace the Persian Empire), and they're strangely attracted to world-jumpers in Tsarevich (jumbled 19th-century Russian politics -- and a big old meteoric reality shard in Central Europe -- eventually creates a modern world strangely similar to the backdrop of all Hammer Films). Plus zombies, Frankensteinian monsters, killer robots, and Stalin! Stalin is not a werewolf. He's much, much worse.

What's that? You're not running a game about chasing Nazi werewolves through alternate histories? Hmmm. How about a game of insane bushido cultists (warped by the Corruption rules in GURPS Horror Fourth Edition) using Mass Magic from GURPS WWII: Weird War II to blow open a gate between worlds? (Imperial Japan is the world's leading power in Reality Gotha-Z! Admittedly, the rest of the world is pretty much overrun by zombies -- but still.) Who knows what could emerge? (See pp. 72, 79, and 97 of GURPS Horror Fourth Edition for what could emerge. And p. 126 for some hints on how to reveal it.) There you go! Glad I could help.

See you all in 2012!

I spend my days helping to make sure the wheels run smoothly on e23. Although we have an amazing selection of Steve Jackson Games releases on our dazzling digital domain, we also offer lots of interesting PDFs from other publishers. The end of the year is a good time to look over their high-rated releases (which usually translates to "what should I -- Steven Marsh -- check out because it looks so cool?").

Amarillo Design Bureau makes detailed tactical games, but with those details come lots of rules and options to keep track of. So it's no surprise that fans are delighted to have compiled versions of the rulebooks available as searchable PDFs. The Federation Commander Reference Rulebook is a huge hit, as is Star Fleet Battles: Electronic Master Rulebook (which actually came out in December of last year, and sold enough this year to keep it a top-seller).

Fans of GURPS also bought lots of copies of their licensed Fourth Edition supplements, including GURPS Prime Directive, GURPS Federation, and GURPS Klingons. There's a lot of futuristic fun in these supplements, and I won't be surprised if I spend part of my holiday looking for adventure among the stars.

Atlas Games has also released a gaggle of goodies that got my gaming juices flowing. As an RPG omnivore, my tastes drifted toward a slew of classic and award-winning RPG core rulebooks that were uploaded to e23 this year, including Feng Shui: Action Movie Roleplaying (pistol-packing kung-fu hijinks), Unknown Armies 2nd Edition (modern occult intrigue), and Over the Edge Second Edition (which has the subtitle The Roleplaying Game of Surreal Danger . . . and I can't top that). Of particular note is the Ars Magica 5th Edition Core Rulebook; it was just uploaded a few weeks ago, but it's already conjured a lot of buzz (unsurprising, given how popular the rest of the Ars Magica line is).

At e23 we also feature non-system material, of use to any gamer, which is why Hamlet's Hit Points -- and the gamerly analytical insight it brings to three classic tales -- has found such an appreciative audience. A bunch of Traveller fans also picked up the 40-Ton Slow Pinnace by the inimitable Loren K. Wiseman (editor of our own Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society). Finally, the old-school geek in me was delighted that we uploaded Grimtooth's Traps, a classic systemless supplement that's been maiming heroes for decades.

The electronic publishing revolution has made it easier and more affordable than ever for gamers to expand their horizons, and e23 has been proud to help make that happen. The future is now . . . and it's a lot of fun!

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All of you who, like me, grew up in the 80s may want a look at the first book from the Power and Honor Foundation, The Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog Volume One: The Art of the Masters of the Universe Toy Design. That's a long name, but they could have made it a dozen words longer and it would still be my favorite book of the year. It's a beautiful hardcover loaded with illustrations and photos salvaged from the designers of the toy line. I've now flipped through so many times that I'm starting to memorize it.

This is everything I wanted from a book dedicated to Mattel's classic Masters of the Universe toy line. I posted a review at battlegrip.com and a Flickr set of photos to help show exactly what makes me love it. I'm a fan of "how to" and "making of" material, coffee table books, and artwork, so there was no way this book wasn't going to join my library. I'm just amazed that it turned out as great as it did.

If you're like me and remember the series from your childhood, or if you need a gift for someone who played with the toys as a kid, this is a great find and not to be missed.

Now I want one of these for the Transformers toys of the eighties!

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