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Basic Set: CampaignsGURPS Game Design by STEVE JACKSONGURPS Fourth Edition Revision by DAVID L. PULVER and SEAN M. PUNCHCover Design by VICTOR R. FERNANDES Cover Art by JEFF KOKE, CHRISTOPHER SHY, and ROGERIOVILELAEdited by ANDREW HACKARD and STEVE JACKSONIllustrated by ABRAR AJMAL, MICHAEL CLARKE, CHRIS DIEN,ALEX FERNANDEZ, ROBERTO MARCHESI, TORSTEIN NORDSTRAND,BOB STEVLIC, DAN WILLEMS, ERIC WILKERSON, and LEO WINSTEADISBN 978-1-55634-730-64 5 6 7 8 9 10STEVE JACKSON GAMES

GURPS System Design STEVE JACKSONManaging Editor ANDREW HACKARDGURPS Line Editor SEAN PUNCHProduction Manager MONIQUE CHAPMANArt Director PHILIP REEDPage Design PHILIP REEDProduction Artists JUSTIN DE WITT, ALEX FERNANDEZ, and PHILIP REEDPrepress Checkers FADE MANLEY and MONICA STEPHENSPrint Buyer MONICA STEPHENSMarketing Director PAUL CHAPMANSales Manager ROSS JEPSONErrata Coordinator ANDY VETROMILE GURPS FAQ Maintainer STEPHANETHERIAULTInfinite Worlds Concept by John M. Ford and Steve JacksonIconic Characters Created by Kenneth HiteEditorial Assistance by Jeff RoseProofreading by Steve Jackson and Sean M. PunchAdditional Material: Kenneth Hite, Robert M. Schroeck, William H. StoddardFourth Edition Testing and Rules Refinement: James Cambias, Paul Chapman, Mark Cogan, Peter V. Dell'Orto, John M. Ford,Devin L. Ganger, Robert Gilson, Kenneth Hite, Roberto Hoyle, Steven Marsh, Phil Masters, Elizabeth McCoy, Walter Milliken,Bill Oliver, Kenneth Peters, Giles Schildt, Gene Seabolt, William H. Stoddard, Michael Suileabhain-Wilson, William Toporek,Brian J. Underhill, Andy Vetromile, Hans-Christian Vortisch, Jeff Wilson, Jonathan WoodwardHelpful Comments: Michelle Barrett, Kim Bernard, T. Bone, C. Lee Davis, Shawn Fisher, Bob Portnell,Lisa Steele, Stéphane Thériault, Chad UnderkofflerCredits for earlier editions:Additional Material: Steve Beeman, Craig Brown, Jerry Epperson, Jeff George, Scott Haring, Mike Hurst, Stefan Jones,Jim Kennedy, David Ladyman, Jeff Lease, Walter Milliken, Steffan O’Sullivan, Ravi Rai, W. Dow Rieder,Art Samuels, Scorpia, Curtis ScottPlaytest: Norman Banduch, Jeb Boyt, Keith Carter, Caroline Chase, James Crouchet, Jim Gould, Scott Haring,Rob Kirk, David Ladyman, Martha Ladyman, Creede Lambard, Sharleen Lambard, C. Mara Lee, Mike Lopez,Michael Moe, David Noel, Susan Poelma, Warren Spector, Gerald Swick, Allen Varney, Dan WillemsBlindtest: Aaron Allston, Mark Babik, Sean Barrett, Bill Barton, Vicki Barton, James D. Bergman, David Castro,Bruce Coleman, Jerry Epperson, Jeff Flowers, Dave Franz, Cheryl Freedman, Jeff George, Kevin Gona, Kevin Heacox,Carl Leatherman, Guy McLimore, Alexis Mirsky, Joseph G. Paul, Greg Poehlein, Greg Porter, Randy Porter, Mark Redigan,Glenn Spicer, John Sullivan, Rick Swan, Kirk Tate, David Tepool, Bob Traynor, Alexander von Thorn, and many othersReality Checking: Warren Spector, Monica Stephens, Allen Varney, Jim Gould, David Noel, Rob KirkResearch Assistance: Mike Hurst, Jeffrey K. Greason, Walter MillikenHelpful Comments: Many of the above, plus Tim Carroll, Nick Christenson, Jim Duncan, David Dyche, Ron Findling, Mike Ford,Steve Maurer, John Meyer, Ken Rolston, Dave Seagraves, Bill Seurer, Brett Slocum, Gus Smedstad, Karl Wu, and Phil YanovMany thanks to everyone above – and for all the others we couldn’t list.And special thanks to everyone who enjoyed the first three editions and said so!GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid and the namesof all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated,or used under license. GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns is copyright 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2008by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in Thailand.The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal,and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encouragethe electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.338CREDITS

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION . . . . . . 34210. SUCCESS ROLLS . . . 343When to Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Default Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Task Difficulty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345Equipment Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . 345Long Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346Degree of Success or Failure . . . 347Optional Rule:Influencing Success Rolls . . . . 347Repeated Attempts . . . . . . . . . . . 348CONTESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348Quick Contests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348Regular Contests . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349The Rule of 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349Climbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349Digging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350Different Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350Hiking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Holding Your Breath . . . . . . . . . . 351Jumping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352Optional Jumping Rules . . . . . . . 352Lifting and Moving Things . . . . . 353Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354Swimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354Flying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354Throwing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355Catching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355Extra Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356SENSE ROLLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358Taste/Smell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358INFLUENCE ROLLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359Influencing the PCs . . . . . . . . . . . 359WILL ROLLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360Fright Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360FRIGHT CHECK TABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . 36011. COMBAT . . . . . . . . 362COMBAT TURN SEQUENCE . . . . . . . . . . 362MANEUVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363Multiple Maneuvers andFull-Turn Maneuvers . . . . . . . . 363Do Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Change Posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Aim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Evaluate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Feint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365All-Out Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Move and Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365All-Out Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366Concentrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366Ready . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366Wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366MOVEMENT AND COMBAT . . . . . . . . . . 367Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Moving ThroughOther Characters . . . . . . . . . . 368Crouching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368ATTACKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369MELEE ATTACKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Melee Attack Options . . . . . . . . . 369Unarmed Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . 370Actions After Being Grappled . . . . 371RANGED ATTACKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372Thrown Weapon Attacks . . . . . . 373Missile Weapon Attacks . . . . . . . 373DEFENDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374Active Defense Rolls . . . . . . . . . . 374Dodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374Blocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375Parrying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376Parrying Heavy Weapons . . . . . . . 376Active Defense Options . . . . . . . . 377Readying Weapons andOther Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382When Is a Weapon Ready? . . . . . 383Typical Long Actions . . . . . . . . . . 38312. TACTICALCOMBAT . . . . . . . . 384Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384THE COMBAT MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384Hexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384Facing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385MANEUVERS IN TACTICALCOMBAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Wait Maneuver Strategy . . . . . . . . 385MOVEMENT IN TACTICAL COMBAT . . . . . 386The “Step” in TacticalCombat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386Movement Point Costs . . . . . . . . . 387ATTACKING IN TACTICAL COMBAT . . . . . . 388Melee Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Long Weapon Tactics . . . . . . . . . . 388Ranged Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389Pop-Up Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390DEFENDING IN TACTICAL COMBAT . . . . . 390“Runaround” Attacks . . . . . . . . . . 391CLOSE COMBAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391Entering a Foe’s Hex . . . . . . . . . . 391Leaving a Foe’s Hex . . . . . . . . . . . 391Weapons for Close Combat . . . . 391Readying in Close Combat . . . . . 391Defense in Close Combat . . . . . . 392Multiple Close Combat . . . . . . . . 392Striking Into a Close Combat . . . . 392MULTI-HEX FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39213. SPECIAL COMBATSITUATIONS . . . . . . 393DAMAGE AND INJURY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Damage Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378Damage Resistanceand Penetration . . . . . . . . . . . 378Knockback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378Fast Damage Resolutionfor Multiple Hits . . . . . . . . . . . 379Wounding Modifiersand Injury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379Injury to Unliving, Homogenous,and Diffuse Targets . . . . . . . . . 380Effects of Injury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380Special Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381Attacks Without Damage . . . . . . . 381CRITICAL HITS AND MISSES . . . . . . . . . 381Critical Hits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381Critical Misses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382Example of Combat . . . . . . . . . . . 382OTHER ACTIONS IN COMBAT . . . . . . . . 382CONTENTSSURPRISE ATTACKSAND INITIATIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393VISIBILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394SPECIAL MOVEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394High-Speed Movement . . . . . . . . 394Optional Rule: ChangingPosture in Armor . . . . . . . . . . . 395Mounted Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . 396Flying Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398HIT LOCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398Tight-Beam Burning Attacks . . . . 399Targeting Chinks in Armor . . . . . . 400Striking at Weapons . . . . . . . . . . 400Subduing a Foe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401SPECIAL MELEE COMBAT RULES . . . . . 402Attack from Above . . . . . . . . . . . . 402Combat at Different Levels . . . . . 402Size Modifier and Reach . . . . . . . 402Special Unarmed CombatTechniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403Special Melee Weapon Rules . . . . 404Improvised Weapons . . . . . . . . . . 404Dirty Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405SPECIAL RANGED COMBAT RULES . . . . . 407339