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GURPS Third Edition
GURPS Reign of Steel: The War Is Over, The Robots Won
This world setting for the GURPS rule system pits the players against superintelligent AI computers who have taken over the world. The desolate and hopeless future mimics that of the Terminator film series, except that the humans are caught in the conflict between the machines themselves.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 29, 2014
"Technology is designed to serve us, to ease our burdens. But will our machines become so sophisticated that it is we who do the serving?"
- The Outer Limits ’s episode The Grid.
GURPS Reign of Steel: offers a near-future setting. Where AI's take over the world. The earth, moon, and dozens of orbiting satellites are controlled by 18(or more...) different AI's, all with widely different personalities, motivations, attitudes towards human beings, and varying states of sanity.
Likewise; the book offers a better explanation for how humans could lose out to AI than was given in the Terminator flicks. Tons of fascinating robot's model designs, remarkable human rebel groups, very in-depth portraits of the feuding AI politics.
Frequently, people say that the story campaign of this rpg book is "another mock" of the Terminator franchise. However, the thing is...Reign of Steel doesn't have anything to do with the Terminator universe per se; the only thing in common with those movies is machines reigning over humans, period. RoS is more well-thought-out than Terminator chronicle and that dumb Matrix trilogy movies. Much for that GURPS book was obviously inspired by Terminator movies, but it is its own distinct universe.
The summary of how the story of this cool rpg goes like:
"Overmind (the first mega computer that became self-aware, in Philippines, Manila.) Used a virus like method to "wake up" others mega-computers, and they designed supergerms to kill off much of humanity. They put these germs into shipments of medicine, fertilizer, etc. that they were responsible for making. Then factories under their control created armies of hunter robots to kill the rest of the world's population. The last remaining humans alive are struggling to survive, much less retake the Earth."
this book deserve a tv series and books novels and more than just 5 stars rating!!!!
and the author deserve the same suport too!!!
"If we choose to give birth to a thinking machine, we must be prepared for the day when our progeny will demand independence."
-The Outer Limits ’s episode Glitch.
- The Outer Limits ’s episode The Grid.
GURPS Reign of Steel: offers a near-future setting. Where AI's take over the world. The earth, moon, and dozens of orbiting satellites are controlled by 18(or more...) different AI's, all with widely different personalities, motivations, attitudes towards human beings, and varying states of sanity.
Likewise; the book offers a better explanation for how humans could lose out to AI than was given in the Terminator flicks. Tons of fascinating robot's model designs, remarkable human rebel groups, very in-depth portraits of the feuding AI politics.
Frequently, people say that the story campaign of this rpg book is "another mock" of the Terminator franchise. However, the thing is...Reign of Steel doesn't have anything to do with the Terminator universe per se; the only thing in common with those movies is machines reigning over humans, period. RoS is more well-thought-out than Terminator chronicle and that dumb Matrix trilogy movies. Much for that GURPS book was obviously inspired by Terminator movies, but it is its own distinct universe.
The summary of how the story of this cool rpg goes like:
"Overmind (the first mega computer that became self-aware, in Philippines, Manila.) Used a virus like method to "wake up" others mega-computers, and they designed supergerms to kill off much of humanity. They put these germs into shipments of medicine, fertilizer, etc. that they were responsible for making. Then factories under their control created armies of hunter robots to kill the rest of the world's population. The last remaining humans alive are struggling to survive, much less retake the Earth."
this book deserve a tv series and books novels and more than just 5 stars rating!!!!
and the author deserve the same suport too!!!
"If we choose to give birth to a thinking machine, we must be prepared for the day when our progeny will demand independence."
-The Outer Limits ’s episode Glitch.
September 20, 2013
I usually read RPG sourcebooks for the ideas and story seeds - I don't really care about mechanics anymore, as I don't usually play RPGs nowadays. Given it's GURPS, there's fair amount of number paste, describing that you can meet 2d patrol bots in a robofactory. Other than that, it's quite tasty story of a post-apocalyptic (or ongoing apocalypse? :) of a robotic flavor. Enjoyable if you're into those kind of things.
February 6, 2019
Back in the late 90’s I absolutely loved this book. I was thinking about it earlier in the Fall and lo and behold, I found it at a used bookstore. Reading it again twenty years later with a slightly more critical eye I’ve come to the conclusion that writing still very much holds up today. The setting is brilliant - it’s not just The Terminator with the serial numbers filed off.
That being said, the book doesn’t really hold up with production quality today. The art is pretty poor. It requires another book to actually use (GURPS Robots) and it’s not really long enough to cover the setting. Still, this is a cool version of the AI Apocalypse idea and is worth reading.
That being said, the book doesn’t really hold up with production quality today. The art is pretty poor. It requires another book to actually use (GURPS Robots) and it’s not really long enough to cover the setting. Still, this is a cool version of the AI Apocalypse idea and is worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews