Equipment

Every GURPS campaign uses a generic currency symbol — $ — that stands in for whatever money actually circulates in the setting. One $ might be a copper farthing in a medieval fantasy world, a paper dollar in a modern thriller, or a credit chip in a space opera. The prices on every equipment table use this abstraction so the same rules work across all genres and eras.

Starting Wealth by Tech Level

The amount of money available to spend on gear at the start of play is your starting wealth — determined by two factors: the campaign's Tech Level (which sets the baseline) and your Wealth advantage or disadvantage (which multiplies or divides it).

Your Wealth level from Ch2 multiplies this baseline. Average wealth (the default) gives ×1. Comfortable gives ×2. Wealthy gives ×5. Dead Broke means you start with nothing at all. One character point can also be "cashed in" for 10% of the campaign starting wealth — useful when you need just a little more gear.

Your monthly cost of living covers food, housing, clothing, and entertainment — everything needed to maintain your social Status. This is paid at the start of each month. Characters who cannot pay may face eviction, malnutrition, or a reduced effective Status in social situations.

The daily cost away from home is always 20% of your monthly rate. Characters with Status from Rank (military or organizational) only pay cost of living for their base Status — their organization covers the rest.

Clothing & Food

You start with a full wardrobe appropriate to your Status — no separate purchase needed. If clothing is destroyed or you need a new outfit, the guidelines are:

• Complete Wardrobe — 100% of cost of living; ~20 lbs.
• Ordinary Clothes (one outfit) — 20% of cost of living; 2 lbs.
• Winter Clothes — 30% of cost of living; 4 lbs.
• Formal Wear — 40% of cost of living; 2 lbs.
• Restaurant meal — 1% (breakfast/lunch) or 2% (dinner) of cost of living.
• Travel Rations (1 week) — 5% of cost of living; 14 lbs.

You may generally buy any equipment within your starting wealth budget, subject to the campaign's laws and the GM's approval. Soldiers may be issued gear rather than buying it. Castaways or prisoners may have no choice at all. List all possessions on your character sheet — items left at home separately from carried gear, since only carried weight counts toward encumbrance.

Tech Level on Items

Each item has a tech level (TL) — the earliest era at which it is commonly available. Items remain usable at later TLs. You may only buy items at or below your campaign's TL, unless you possess the High TL advantage. The superscript "^" marks items requiring superscience beyond normal physics — availability is at the GM's discretion.

Legality Class

Controlled items carry a Legality Class (LC) rating describing how widely they may be owned or carried. Ordinary clothing and most tools have no LC. Weapons and military gear usually do.

Every weapon table lists the same core statistics. Understanding them before reading the tables will save you a lot of flipping back and forth.

Damage

Muscle-powered weapons scale with the wielder's ST, expressed as a modifier to basic thrust (thr) or basic swing (sw) damage from the Damage Table (Ch1). Swinging always does more than thrusting. Example: a spear does thr+2 imp — if your ST 11 gives thr 1d−1, the spear inflicts 1d+1 imp.

Firearms and explosives use a fixed dice expression unrelated to ST — e.g., 2d+2 pi — so any user with the same gun does the same damage.

Melee-Specific Stats

• Reach — Distance in yards at which the weapon can strike. C = usable in close combat; 1, 2 = can strike at 1 or 2 yards; an asterisk means changing reach costs a Ready maneuver.
• Parry — Modifier to your Parry defense roll. 0 = no modifier. F = fencing weapon. U = unbalanced (cannot parry after attacking or attack after parrying in the same turn). No = cannot parry at all.
• Min ST — Minimum Strength to use the weapon without penalty. Each point below costs −1 to skill and +1 FP per exhausting fight. † = two-handed weapon. ‡ = two-handed and becomes unready after each attack unless ST ≥ 1.5× minimum (round up).

Ranged-Specific Stats

• Acc — Accuracy bonus added to skill if you take an Aim maneuver on the previous turn.
• Range — Written as ½D / Max. Attacks beyond ½D range do half damage. Max is the absolute limit. For muscle-powered weapons, range is expressed as a multiplier of the weapon's ST (e.g., ×15/×20).
• RoF — Maximum shots per one-second turn. A ! suffix means full-auto only.
• Shots — Shots before reloading. T = thrown. Parenthetical = Ready maneuvers to reload (or, with i suffix, per-shot reload time).
• Bulk — Size penalty to skill on a Move and Attack maneuver; also a Holdout penalty to conceal. More negative = harder to hide and less accurate while moving.
• Rcl — Recoil (firearms only). At RoF 2+, every full multiple of Rcl by which your attack roll succeeds scores one additional hit.

Weapon Quality

Muscle-powered melee and thrown weapons come in quality grades that affect breakage (when parrying heavy weapons) and sometimes damage:

• Cheap — +2 to break; −1 Acc if thrown. Costs 40% of list price (TL6 or less).
• Good — No breakage modifier. This is the standard quality — list price buys good quality at TL6 and below.
• Fine — −1 to break; +1 to cutting/impaling damage (blades only). Costs 4× list for swords, 3× for other impaling/crushing, 10× for other cutting weapons.
• Very Fine — Fencing weapons and swords only. −2 to break; +2 to cutting/impaling damage. Costs 20× list at TL6 or less.

Melee weapons are grouped under the skill required to use them. Each weapon table entry lists the primary attack mode; many weapons have a secondary mode (e.g., swing vs. thrust) — check the full Basic Set tables for alternate modes. Column headers: TL / Weapon / Damage / Reach / Parry / Cost / Wt / Min ST.

Weapons without a listed cost are natural weapons (no cost or weight — they're part of the body).

[1] Can be thrown — see Ranged Weapons. [2] On a missed kick, roll vs. DX to avoid falling.

Muscle-powered ranged weapons include bows, crossbows, and thrown weapons. Their range is expressed as a multiplier of the weapon's own ST rating (bows and crossbows) or the wielder's ST (thrown weapons). Columns: TL / Weapon / Damage / Acc / Range / RoF / Shots / Cost / Wt / Min ST / Bulk.

Firearms (TL4+) deal fixed damage independent of the wielder's ST. They dominate combat at their tech level and make personal armor of prior eras largely obsolete. All firearms use a Guns skill variant (Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, etc.) with a default of DX−4.

Shotguns fire multiple pellets — RoF "3×9" means 3 attacks of 9 pellets each. See Shotguns and Multiple Projectiles (Basic Set p. 409). Firearms not listed here (SMGs, heavy weapons, beam weapons) follow the same stat columns — consult the full Basic Set tables for complete listings.

Armor provides Damage Resistance (DR) — subtract this from every hit that strikes the protected location before applying damage to HP. Armor that completely covers a location means you must hit that location to bypass it entirely. Each item on the tables includes underlying clothing or padding; you do not need to buy those separately.

Armor Locations

GURPS armor protects specific body locations. Layering multiple pieces protects the full body but adds weight:

• Head — skull + face + eyes
• Body — neck + torso + groin
• Full suit — everything except the head
• Torso — chest and abdomen only (the most common single piece)

[4] Wearing this helm gives the wearer the No Peripheral Vision disadvantage while worn. Split DR (e.g., 4/2*): the lower value applies against crushing attacks; * = flexible armor.

Wearing Armor — Rules

• Donning/Removing: 3 seconds per piece for most armor. Vacc suits and battlesuits take 30 seconds per piece (except the helmet).
• Layering Armor: You may layer armor only if the inner layer is both flexible and concealable. Add the DR of both layers. Wearing a second layer anywhere except the head imposes −1 to DX and all DX-based skills.
• Combining Pieces: You can freely combine pieces that cover different locations. Full coverage requires a torso piece + head piece + arm pieces + leg pieces + hand/foot pieces.

A shield adds its Defense Bonus (DB) to all your active defense rolls (Block, Dodge, and Parry) automatically, without any conscious decision. Shields are strapped to one arm — your shield hand can still carry a light item but cannot wield a weapon, preventing two-handed weapon use. Shields become almost worthless against firearms (TL4+) but make a comeback in sci-fi settings as force shields.

At TL1+, any small, medium, or large shield can have a spike added for $20 + 5 lbs, dealing thr+1 cr in a shield rush. Iron shields available at TL3+: ×5 cost, ×2 weight, +3 DR, ×2 HP. Force Shield worn on wrist, leaving hand free — its DR is Hardened (equivalent to one Hardened enhancement).

The following gear covers adventuring necessities across most campaign types. All items are LC4 unless noted. Costs in $.

Camping & Survival

Medical Gear

Our three characters — Mira Ashfeld, Aldric Vane, and Vora — are operating at TL3 (late medieval fantasy). Each starts with $1,000 at Status 0 (Average wealth). Their gear choices reflect their roles and fighting styles.