GURPS Vehicles

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GURPS Vehicles is a sourcebook for the GURPS role-playing game by David Pulver, published by Steve Jackson Games. The first edition came out in 1993 and shows how to design and operate a wide range of vehicles—from sailboats and cars to starships and even witches’ brooms. It uses a step-by-step process to choose a vehicle’s frame, propulsion, and thrust, backed by a detailed mathematical system to model the designs.

The second edition rewrote the entire book, offering a full vehicle design system with new options and accessories, plus rules for spacecraft and locomotives and a complete method for designing weapons. Both editions aim to help you create consistent, game-ready vehicles for your campaigns.

Publishing context: After a raid on Steve Jackson Games, the company stopped publishing adventures for financial reasons and instead released standalone GURPS books like GURPS Vehicles.

Reception: Dragon magazine reviewer Rick Swan praised the book for its literate writing and thorough research, noting it could be adapted to other games. Arcane magazine’s Andy Butcher gave the second edition 7 out of 10, saying the design process is simpler, the designs work well with GURPS Robots, and the book is flexible enough to cover many vehicles; he still wondered how often you’d need it. A later Dragon Magazine review of the second edition called it a comprehensive, handy collection with lots of new starships and accessories, plus compatibility with GURPS Robots, all while keeping easy guidelines for building vehicles from skateboards to time machines.