This first GURPS Encounters book is a tavern/bar/club sourcebook
combined with four short adventures.
The idea, I think, is to straddle the line between specific and
generic: the default assumptions are broadly American, for the mid
19th century or later, but the ideas can be readily transplanted to
other times and worlds.
The first half of the book is dedicated to the idea of the club –
oddly lacking in any maps, which may score points for genericity but
means more work for the GM. (I still value my copy of the
Millennium's End GM's Companion for its selection of floor plans of
modern locations.) Rather, the various elements likely to appear (bar,
storeroom, green room, emergency exits) are listed, with some minimal
GURPS stats for things like breaking in through emergency exits;
there's a box suggesting how to pick a total size, and suggestions as
to how much space each area should have. (And yes, it lets you map
floor area to maximum occupancy, legal or otherwise.) For supernatural
games, there's also some consideration of the "spirit of the club" as
a ghost in its own right, perhaps controlling other club ghosts; and
loose (uncosted) templates are given for bartenders, bouncers,
musicians, patrons, and so on.
The second half consists of the history of a specific club, and four
short adventures that can happen there. A femme fatale offers an
opportunity to get rich quick; a apparition provides a glimpse into
history; a poker game is much more serious than it appears; and a
supernatural incident gets filmed, but someone doesn't want that video
getting out.
GURPS has always suffered from a lack of adventures, because there are
so many incompatible campaigns being run that any individual
adventure won't be useful to most players. This book doesn't really
try to remedy that, with three of the four encounters having
explicitly supernatural components, but the material on laying out and
populating a bar/club is solid (and could even be used for a pub, with
the addition of a beer cellar). GURPS Encounters: The Harrowed Hearts
Club is available from
Warehouse 23.
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