GURPS Banestorm

GURPS Fourth Edition

by Phil Masters, Jonathan Woodward

Welcome to the land of Yrth, a magical realm of incredibly varied races and monsters—including people snatched from our Earth and other worlds by the cataclysmic Banestorm!

Whole villages were transported—from such diverse locales as medieval England, France, Germany, and the Far East. Now humans struggle with dwarves, elves, and each other. The Crusades aren't ancient history here—they're current events!

Characters can journey from the windswept plains of the Nomad Lands—where fierce Nordic warriors seek a valiant death to earn a seat in Valhalla—to Megalos, the ancient empire where magic and political intrigue go hand in hand. Or trek south to the Muslim lands of al-Wazif and al-Haz to explore the forbidden city of Geb'al-Din.

This book updates the original Yrth of GURPS Third Edition Fantasy and Fantasy Adventures. It provides GMs with a complete world background—history, religion, culture, politics, races, and a detailed, full-color map—everything needed to start a GURPS campaign. Phil Masters (Discworld and Hellboy RPGs) and Jonathan Woodward (Hellboy and GURPS Ogre) have added new peoples, places, and plots, as well as lots more on magic and mysticism, all of which conforms to the just-released GURPS Fantasy and GURPS Magic.

So prepare to make your own mark on Yrth. Plunder elven ruins while evading the desert natives. Play a peasant-born hero . . . an orcish pirate . . . a Muslim double agent commanded to infiltrate the Hospitallers.

Yrth awaits the legend of you!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Gaming, Games

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 2005

Reviews

[Hugo Barbosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best setting books for Gurps. It does help that I'm a fan of alternate history settings and this one delivers it in spades. It solves the problem with many fantasy settings which are really Earth counterpart societies with their numbers filed off. In Banestorm, these ARE Earth societies transplanted to Yirth by magic. The book includes detailed notes on how these societies evolved in a fantasy environment (including the standard races of Elves, Dwarves and Orcs), how religion plays a big part in the setting (Christians and Muslims among others) and the feel of each culture. There's something for everyone from Arthurian adventures to nautical and swashbuckling scenarios. Highly recommended even if you don't like GURPS.

[Philip Rezanow · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting, politically and socially, works well and I enjoy it. The geography irritates me. The assumption of scale is broken when reading the details and then comparing to the maps. You could make an argument for the text superseding the map, but if that's the case, then both the text and map are grossly missing detail -- I get it, I'm nitpicking. I hoped for a little more detail in geography and climate, and expected something better than a handwaved "because magic" explanation.

Of course, as a GM, I am free to alter things as I like. That being said, I'm far more likely to use the political layout on a different map entirely.

[Jackson Ferrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding setting that takes the medieval roots of fantasy seriously, and a huge improvement over the Fantasy sourcebook for GURPS 3rd Edition. Plenty of detail, cultural/societal information, and adventure hooks for games set in Yrth.