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ictorian science meets gothic horror in GURPS Screampunk, while H.P. Lovecraft meets William Gibson in GURPS: Cthulhupunk. Cthulhupunk and Screampunk are two "Worldbooks" for GURPS, the General Universal Role-Playing System. GURPS, in turn, is a role-playing system with rules designed to accommodate any genre or setting.
There have been over 150 Worldbooks thus far, including generic settings such as GURPS Fantasy and GURPS Space, more rarefied niches such as GURPS Cyberpunk (dystopian near-future science fiction generally concerning the fusion of man and machine) and GURPS Steampunk (adventurous science fiction in the tradition of Welles, Verne, et al.), as well as specific settings both real (GURPS Rome, GURPS Japan) and fictitious (GURPS Riverworld, GURPS Wildcards, GURPS Discworld). There are even GURPS Worldbooks of other role-playing game worlds, including GURPS Vampire: The Masquerade, GURPS Deadlands and GURPS Traveler.
Given the widespread popularity of GURPS, and the substantial number of non-GURPS-playing gamers who nevertheless buy the occasional Worldbook for inspiration, the question "What will GURPS do next?" is a perennial topic of speculation in the gaming community. One answer is given by Cthulhupunk and Screampunk: create new genres by mashing together existing ones. Cthulhupunk is a combination of cyberpunk with the works of H.P. Lovecraft (as filtered through the game Call of Cthulhu). Screampunk is steampunk with gothic horror added. Thus, both books, in their own way, combine horror with science fiction. (Cthulhupunk is a revised version of an earlier book; however, not having seen the previous edition, I can make no comparison.)
Screampunk and Cthulhupunk have quite a bit in common structurally. Each includes extensive essays on its particular brand of horror and what the characters should find scary about it. In Screampunk, people fear the breakdown of order, both in society and within themselves, and this manifests itself through misguided experiments, blasphemous inventions and evil plots by inscrutable foreigners. In Cthulhupunk, people fear to realize that they are insignificant specks of dust who have absolutely no control over their destiny, and are confronted with inexplicable fossils, forbidden lore of insane gods and genetic taints that rob them of their humanity.
Each book also features sample characters for its hodge-podge universes, a few adventure ideas and a lot of cross-references to other GURPS books (and, to be fair, non-GURPS books) that can provide further assistance.
Clever conceits lack depth
Both books make interesting reading as explications of the philosophy of horror and exercises in character creation. Neither, however, lives up to its potential as an aid to a gamemaster.
In part, this is a matter of limited objective. Neither book is meant to be a stand-alone product: Cthulhupunk is meant primarily as a supplement for the GURPS CyberWorld universe, Screampunk for the Steampunk universe. As such, they are geared toward "how to add horror to your science fiction world" rather than "how to create a world blending horror with science fiction."
Measured by these limited objectives, both books are serviceable but uneven. Screampunk does a very good job of laying out the elements of gothic horror and how science can be a part of it, but is severely lacking in practical game material. It features a very few sample characters and nothing that really constitutes a sample adventure or story. There's simply not enough there (it costs over 50% more per page than Cthulhupunk) and too much of what there is does little more than set the mood (although it does that well enough).
Cthulhupunk has a complementary problem. It starts with a very good concise description of Lovecraftian horror, and goes on to give an overview of the politics and geography of the game world. There are some good sample characters and intriguing outlines of possible adventures. However, whereas Screampunk did an excellent job of suggesting the interplay of gothic horror and Victorian science, Cthulhupunk doesn't even try to do any equivalent thing with cybertechnology and Lovecraftian horror. There are occasional mentions that a certain gang or corporation would be interested in investigating Cthulhoid activity, and tips on how to keep heavily armed players from getting too big for their britches, but the message seems to be that the setting just doesn't make any difference. Primitive or advanced, we're all the same in Cthulhu's stomach. But in that case, why buy the book?
Both books are very clever and interesting at times, but they lack value. The interior art isn't great. A great deal of Cthulhupunk is redundant with material in CyberWorld (and the rest with Call of Cthulhu). And, as noted, Screampunk is very thin, looking more like a comic book than a gaming book. They're far from worthless, but just about any purchaser would probably find some other book more worthwhile than either of these.
Perhaps the biggest problem here is that the cool concepts behind these books are a large part of their value, and that once you've heard the concepts you no longer really need the books to bring them to life. — Bob
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