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My 2021 PDF Challenge Projects

 On the off chance that anybody reading this isn't already more than aware, I've got two works in the 2021 GURPS PDF Challenge over on Kickstarter, both of which have been unlocked. So a few words about those:

GURPS Renaissance Venice: Spies of Venice is a sequel to GURPS Hot Spots: Renaissance Venice, and it's the one I'm most fond of. It's a description of Venice's characteristically sophisticated intelligence apparatus in the 15th and 16th centuries, touching on such topics as historical and international context, high-level organization and administration, secret communications, and black ops. This was an absolute delight to research and write. It's interesting on its own merits, actionable for games, transferable to other low-tech settings, and (and this is the part that gives historicals an extra level of fascination for me) it's all true. It has all the human texture of real events and institutions, with everything from assassinations in the dark of night to high officials complaining endlessly about security-related paperwork.

 An exemplar of the book's Griti realism


GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 4: Two Page Dungeons is, as they say, exactly what it says on the tin. It contains five very brief adventures consisting of one page of description and one page of map. I'd noticed that the "one page adventure" genre was popular for That Other Game (tm) and reasoned that GURPS could surely support that kind of thing. So, then, if you need an adventure now with minimal prep, this has you covered. Each of the five adventures points to one or two other DF works for monster stats (just as That Other Game points to monster compendia and such), but the adventure itself is a single page of description and a full-color map and that's it. Spend a minute reading the description, find the necessary monsters, and you're ready to roll.

All of this, of course, is dependent on getting in on the Kickstarter. 2020's PDF Challenge books aren't in general release yet, so I expect that this year's won't be independently available for a while either. So if you haven't already, you've got a bit over a week to get in on one of the best deals in gaming right now. $3 bucks gets you at least 7 PDFs (which, btw, I've read several of, and they're quite good as well) and possibly 12. Act quickly!


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