September 16, 2014: GURPS Fourth Turns 10 With . . . Steven Marsh

Not to go all hipster, but I was into GURPS Fourth Edition before it even existed. As part of the Fourth Edition playtest, I remember the thrill of opening those secret files and poring over the new features and innovations. I recall my biggest contribution being the suggestion that Allies' and Dependents' character points should be based on a percentage of the PC's point total, rather than flat. (A 50-point sidekick is much less useful in a cosmic super-powered campaign than a street-level one!)

I'm fortunate to have been part of the "GURPS inner circle" (at least the outer inner circle) for nearly 15 years. For over half a decade, I've helmed the revamped Pyramid as a full Fourth Edition support 'zine. I'm especially proud of Pyramid #3/31: Monster Hunters – where I conspired to assemble goodies for GURPS Monster Hunters before we'd even announced it – and Pyramid #3/66: The Laws of Magic, where at least two articles were awesome enough to be mini-supplements on their own.

Even outside the realm of Pyramid, I've done what I can to keep GURPS running as smoothly and entertainingly as possible. I believe I first proposed to Sean Punch the idea of compiling a supplement of meta-game effects you can spend character points on; he then wrote GURPS Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys, which I'd rank in my Top Ten gaming books ever. Thanks to supplements like Impulse Buys, GURPS Social Engineering, and GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier, I'm delighted that Fourth Edition feels at least as fresh in recent years as when I first cracked the spine on the two GURPS Basic Set hardcovers 10 years ago . . . or opened those secret digital files a year earlier.

-- Steven Marsh
Editor of Pyramid Magazine