I have quite a lot of love for Iron Crown’s Rolemaster take on Robin Hood, so when my pal Clay found GURPS Robin Hood (1992) in a shop, I had to get it. It’s interesting! Going to get this out of the way, though: while I like David Menehan’s cover, the interior illustrations by Ruth Thompson do the material no favors. I usually like her stuff, especially when she leans into a Patrick Nagel-esque style, but here it all feel very rushed and Liefeld-ish? Of the time, I suppose, but I’m not feeling it.

Anyway, the RPG material is very instructional. Unlike most GURPS campaign or world sourcebooks that go all in on a specific framing, this one goes all in on the specific theme — robbing from the rich and giving to the poor — and applies it to a bunch of different frameworks. The basic, classic Robin Hood campaign can be run with just this book, or enhanced with GURPS Fantasy. But then there is robust support for GURPS Old West (in which Robin is a Quaker living with a band of Lakota Sioux under the name Splits Arrow; not sure how this one holds up, honestly), Supers, Cyberpunk and Space. Oh, and a curious framing with highwaymen in the Scottish Highlands that I guess pairs with GURPS Swashbucklers.

None of these pairs are overly surprising and most are probably rote. However, the old saw is that you can do any sort of campaign with the right combination of GURPS sourcebooks. It is nice to see that laid out in front of you, though, especially with so well-known a yarn as Robin Hood.