GURPS Halo
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
GURPS Halo was an unreleased Halo-themed expansion for GURPS, or Generic Universal Roleplaying System, a tabletop roleplaying game published by Steve Jackson Games. The game has never been officially discussed or acknowledged by Bungie, Microsoft, Steve Jackson Games, or any other party officially involved with either Halo or GURPS, making it unclear whether any actual game was developed beyond simple mockup artwork.
History[edit]
The first hints at a potential Halo GURPS came in early 2000. On January 27 and February 1 of that year, Steve Jackson (the creator of GURPS) posted on his blog that he was visiting Chicago, then-the site of Bungie's offices, where he had been shown an upcoming game that had given him lots of ideas.[1][2] At the time, Bungie had previously worked with SJG to produce a GURPS expansion for their previous game series Myth.[3] These teases from Jackson were the only indication that a GURPS Halo project was even considered, until the front cover for such a book was shown on the Bungie Webcam on March 20, 2003 and posted on the fansite Bungie Sightings.[4] The Bungie Webcam was used periodically throughout the early era of the Halo series to tease fans about the series, including the first reveal of Halo's development codename "Blam!" in 1999.[5] On April 1, 2003, Bungie Sightings was sent a Cease & Desist letter from Microsoft, which forced the site to take down materials relating to GURPS Halo.[6]
On April 18, 2003, a Bungie fansite named Subnova recieved an anonymous email that provided the full cover for the teased GURPS book, though the full image was partially-corrupted.[7] What can be read of the cover art seems to indicate the book would have had material from both Halo: Combat Evolved and the then-upcoming Halo 2.
Fans from Bungie Sightings, Subnova, and halo.bungie.org then set to work trying to repair the corrupted cover art.[8] Unfortunately, most of these attempted restorations are now deadlinks and not available on archival websites. However, a transcript of the cover was posted on Bungie Sightings:[9]
GURPS > United Nations Space Command Alpha Priority Transmission 051260-2 > Transmission: Curious conscience still lords its strength for darkness. > Decryption: Investigate alien artifact 585-7 before advance Covenant > fleet arrive. Wake the Spartans and arm them, we have a war to fight. HALO by Carlo Swiller Illustrated by Hammett Whist ???? HALO 2: Broken Covenant story, weapons, encounters, and armor upgrades! STEVE JACKSON GAMES
The listed writer "Carlo Swiller" and illustrator "Hammett Whist" appear to either be pen names or placeholders. The line curious conscience still lords its strength for darkness is taken from the poem To Sleep, by John Keats. Keats' Sonnet to Sleep had previously been referenced in Halo in the phrase unseal the hushed casket used to wake John-117 at the start of the game. This style is also reminiscent of some of Cortana's dialogue in the Cortana Letters used to promote Combat Evolved.
The leaked and partially-corrupted cover art sent to Subnova.
Sources[edit]
- ^ Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator, January 2000 (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator, February 2000 (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ SJ Games, GURPS Myth (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ bs.bungie.org, Bungie Sightings: GURPS Halo! (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ halo.bungie.org, E3 Shenanigans (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ bs.bungie.org, GURPS Halo Removed (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ Subnova, GURPS Halo Front Cover Image (Retrieved on Apr 18, 2003) [archive]
- ^ halo.bungie.org, GURPS cover - now mostly readable (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
- ^ Bungie Sightings (Retrieved on Sep 17, 2025) [archive]
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