One thing that always occurs to me when I am reading through the Expert rulebooks is how much of a tool box it really is (despite a pretty modest page count really).
A few examples that stand out:
The character creation openly talks about things like social standing and age categories for everything from minotaurs to karkion, clearly suggesting that playing these characters is something the rules assume can happen.
Magic has all the usual spells but look: You can create your own undead army where a lot of rules would just limit those to the GM to figure out. Remember the comment about zombie lions in one of the rulebooks? You can do that.
Want to create a cool lightning sword? All the rules and spells for doing it are here.
Opening the monster books what happens if your character is bitten by a werewolf? Well, you can continue playing but there are the stats when you change form. What if you become a vampire? No problem. Modify your stats like this.
What if you die and a a joker in the party wants to turn you into a mummy? No problem, we already have the stats figured out for you.
Even the somewhat maligned over-long and over-detailed skill lists support this. How many games other than GURPS can you make a character who is a lawyer or geologist and it is supported by skills and sub-systems to make that an actual game play option (even if a pretty minor one)?
When was the last time someone specialised in astrology because it can actually provide some answers to questions?
Its an interesting cross roads between "tool box" games like GURPS where literally everything is possible mechanically (and at a cost of many hundreds of pages) and more open ended games like old D&D where anything is possible because the rules don't explain anything and the GM makes up most of it.
A lot is of course due to the background of BRP but I think the commitment was carried to an admirable extent, which I find absolutely fascinating even today.
People can argue about what is the first "proper" culture game, but its hard not to suggest that a lot of those seeds were sown here.
A few examples that stand out:
The character creation openly talks about things like social standing and age categories for everything from minotaurs to karkion, clearly suggesting that playing these characters is something the rules assume can happen.
Magic has all the usual spells but look: You can create your own undead army where a lot of rules would just limit those to the GM to figure out. Remember the comment about zombie lions in one of the rulebooks? You can do that.
Want to create a cool lightning sword? All the rules and spells for doing it are here.
Opening the monster books what happens if your character is bitten by a werewolf? Well, you can continue playing but there are the stats when you change form. What if you become a vampire? No problem. Modify your stats like this.
What if you die and a a joker in the party wants to turn you into a mummy? No problem, we already have the stats figured out for you.
Even the somewhat maligned over-long and over-detailed skill lists support this. How many games other than GURPS can you make a character who is a lawyer or geologist and it is supported by skills and sub-systems to make that an actual game play option (even if a pretty minor one)?
When was the last time someone specialised in astrology because it can actually provide some answers to questions?
Its an interesting cross roads between "tool box" games like GURPS where literally everything is possible mechanically (and at a cost of many hundreds of pages) and more open ended games like old D&D where anything is possible because the rules don't explain anything and the GM makes up most of it.
A lot is of course due to the background of BRP but I think the commitment was carried to an admirable extent, which I find absolutely fascinating even today.
People can argue about what is the first "proper" culture game, but its hard not to suggest that a lot of those seeds were sown here.
