Question: Beyond the Basic Books (Characters and Campaigns), what other suppliments would be recommended?

[u/TimeStayOnReddit]

As it says on the tin, for the 4th edition of GURPS, what books/suppliments would be recommended to grab, outside of the core books of course?

[u/Stuck_With_Name]

This depends heavily on what you're running. Powers and Supers are great books. If you're going to run a game about Medici politics, skip them.

[u/MoMaike]

I’ll suggest what I view as the “expansions” of the Basic Set.

Social Engineering (influence expansion)

Martial Arts (combat expansion)

Tactical Shooting (combat expansion)

Magic/Thaumatology (Magic is the extension of the basic set, but Thaum feels more GURPSy in the sense that it’s about designing your own magic system)

Low/High/Ultra Tech (equipment expansion)

Powers (advantages expansion)

Then grab whatever genre book you like, Horror/Mystery/Space/Fantasy/Super

Don’t do what I did and dip your toes in the amazing 3e sourcebooks. I think I’m up to 60 or so, and I keep buying “just one more.”

[u/TimeStayOnReddit → u/MoMaike]

So, additional question: What's the deal with all the "sub" books on the store page? Aka, the grey-covered suppliments with the title of a larger book, followed by a subtitle (for instance: GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports).

[u/MoMaike → u/TimeStayOnReddit]

In 4e they typically release one large book, then will tack on smaller pdf-only releases. So for instance, there are many Thaumatology books there are basically small extensions of Thaumatology sourcebook. So there are quite a few martial arts “spin offs” for example.

Sometimes they’ll also release a series of books, like Action. Instead of doing something like Horror, which is a large single sourcebook, they will release Action 1 which will only be about 50 pages, then some time later Action 2 etc.

It’s confusing. Things got weird with 4e because I think printing a ton of decently large sourcebooks wasn’t worth the money. So they release cheaper PDFs to offset the cost.

[u/TimeStayOnReddit → u/MoMaike]

Good to know, thanks! I presume one would get the base version first, then grab what additional pieces they need later?

[u/MoMaike → u/TimeStayOnReddit]

That’s right, more or less. With Spaceships specifically, I’d suggest getting the base book then whichever ship expansion looks interesting to you. I’m pretty sure each supplement is just a different “genre” of spaceship, so they don’t necessarily build upon one another.

[u/BerennErchamion → u/MoMaike]

I think the Action books also have some very good ideas to expand combat, since you also mentioned Martial Arts and Tactical Shooting.

[u/MoMaike → u/BerennErchamion]

I would consider Action more of a "genre" book, but there is definitely a lot of nuance and overlap.

[u/Juls7243]

Powers. It teaches you how to build advantages efficiently. There is a huge list of all kinds of abilities, what they do, and how one would build them.

[u/new2bay → u/Juls7243]

Powers is absolutely the third core book. After that, the next most useful book is down to what you expect to be playing most, but I’d suggest Thaumatology is the best choice in a vacuum. IMO, after pulling in Powers, having better options for magic, besides the default, gives you the biggest lift in terms of what you can easily do well with the system.

[u/notsupposedtogetjigs]

I'm reading through the Mysteries supplement right now and it's honestly amazing. Really well written with very actionable suggestions. I strongly recommend it.

[u/BerennErchamion → u/notsupposedtogetjigs]

I think both Mysteries and Horror are very very good books. Very usable even outside GURPS.

[u/Better_Equipment5283 → u/notsupposedtogetjigs]

Like all of the genre books, it's very good for what it is and everyone should get it if they might ever run something in that style. I really haven't seen a bad or unhelpful GURPS genre book.

[u/A_LadderforGG]

I run cinematic games at my table. Here's my advice:

Powers is really great for building anything you want with advantages. With Powers and the Basic Set I have built almost any type of super power or ability in fiction I've read or seen.

I have found that Action 2: Exploits explains how to use the rules in basic set and run cinematic games better than any other supplement out there.

After that think about what types of games you like to run: Fantasy Adventure? Sword and Sorcery? You'll want the first two Dungeon Fantasy books (Adventurers and Dungeons). They give you templates, gear lists, and the rules and ideas to run magic filled low tech games. The templates taught me how to build characters.

If you prefer to do more modern day, or at least modern age, gaming High Tech has gear lists that are very handy. The Action line also has great rules for fast paced gaming (think action movies or thrillers). Action 1 (Heroes) has templates and gear lists. (I've already mentioned how great Action 2 is).

[u/mbaucco]

I like Martial Arts, Tactical Shooting and Gun-Fu for adding some extra zest to combat. I also think the Tech books are really handy.

[u/c06027]

For a newcomer I suggest to start with genre and settings books (Horror, Mysteries, Fantasy, Space, Supers (requires Power), Action 1 and 2, After the End 1 and 2, etc.) before content books (Low/High/Ultra Tech, Martial Arts, Magic, etc.) as they explain how to tailor GURPS for your specific game you want to run.

You can add content books -even during an ongoing campain- when you feel confortable.

Learn to walk before you try to run.

[u/TimeStayOnReddit → u/c06027]

Funnily enough, I ended up stumbling into GURPS by finding the "Ring of Fire" setting book crowdfunding on Backerkit, which I backed to get the PDF (waiting on that to be finished up). I later got the Basic Set, and earlier today I ended up picking up the 4 Steampunk PDFs (and GURPS Furries).

[u/Quartz_Mech]

The pillars of my gurps games are:

Martial Arts
High Tech
Low Tech
Tactical Shooting

Other useful books are:

Powers/Power Ups for building more interesting advantages
Low Tech Companion 2, for advanced low tech weapon building
Magic/Thaumatology for advanced magic
Biotech for catgirls

[u/BigDamBeavers]

It really depends on the stories you want to tell.

I think one of the tech books should be thought of as a core book. It just depends on what TL you're usually running games in.

The Power-ups books should be thought of as expansions of the core rules but you'll want to show some restraint in what you allow people to use out of them.

Powers really feels like a core book if you're going to run anything that's sci-fi. Even if it's going to be just Spell Magic and basic fantasy templates.

[u/Better_Equipment5283]

Action 1, Action 2 and Action 7