Lands Out of Time

GURPS Lands out of Time (2006) is a GURPS 4th Edition sourcebook providing material and guidance for use in a "Caveman and Dinosaur" campaign. The book updates statblocks from GURPS Dinosaurs and contains racial templates for Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, Protohuman, and Saurian characters. It also includes dinosaur-derived equipment and skills useful for prehistoric gaming.

In addition to its generic content, Lands Out of Time details a sample setting: "The World of Banded Night."

Templates

• Cro-Magnon (Cavemen): Modern human tribal groups, as represented in pulp lost worlds. A primitive variant exists, which adds ST+1 and Low TL 1 (relative to the setting's baseline TL0).
• Neanderthals: Neanderthals in Lands Out of Time are the unintelligent brutes of older genre-fiction, and not the alien, often-psychic species of recent fiction or the complex human species described in modern anthropology.
• Protohumans: "A mélange of genre concepts" combined together in order to represent the very primitive and mostly vegetarian "early man" of genre fiction.
• Saurians: The Saurians are "pure pulp fantasy" species of intelligent dinosaurs, descended from a small theropod species. Like their ancestors they are not upright humanoids, and instead have a semi-horizontal posture. They come in two varieties:
  • Advanced: Peer competitors to modern humans in every respect, with their own languages, cultures, traditions of sophisticated tool use, etc.
  • Primitive: "Degenerate beasts" that use only simple tools and possess less complex language abilities than Neanderthals. They walk slowly - almost as if still adapting to bipedal locomotion.

Additionally, there are occupational templates for both native tribal characters and "Timelost" characters from the modern period. These include: the Tribal Chief, Warrior, Shaman, and Wanderer, a Tarn/People of Liquid Rock ("Advanced Native") Warrior, as well as the Timelost Explorer, Scientist, Kid, and Soldier.

Creatures and Monsters

• See Lands Out of Time Bestiary

World of Banded Night

Geography

There are three primary geographic features mentioned. The first is the Slow Muddy River, upon whose banks rest the city-state of Tarn-Ul; the second is the Valley of Morning Mist, located 15 miles north of Tarn-Ul and dominated by the same river. The Tarn often sail down the river and through the valley, but their ultimate destination is unknown to the Valley's tribes.

The Vanished One's cities comprise, collectively, the third feature of interest. These unadorned ruins are made of an unknown material. The only people that call them home are the Protonhumans and Primitive Saurians, who seem to lack any fear (or understanding of) the ruins. Inside the cities are black spheres that hover above the ground; they occasionally "flare up," sometimes bringing parachronic travelers to them.

Factions

• Folk of the Scaled Spirits: The largest Cro-Magnon culture in the detailed region, with more than a dozen tribes spread across the Valley of Morning Mist and beyond. Each tribe is different, but subscribes to common rules and social contracts--holidays, hunting areas, and meeting times. These tribes include:
  • Sky-Shadow Tribe: This group was once part of the Scaled Spirits, but was banished because they repeatedly broke treaties, kidnapped members of other tribes, and killed children.
  • Flat Back Tribe: The most numerous Scaled Spirit tribe, these folks inhabit the end of the Muddy River where it empties into the sea. They have territorial clashes with the Black Sand People.
  • Fast Death Tribe: One of three tribes that live in the Valley of Morning Mist, along with the Flat Backs and the Death in Numbers.
  • Death In Numbers Tribe: One of three tribes that live in the Valley of Morning Mist, along with the Flat Backs and the Fast Death.

• People of the Black River: A briefly mentioned Cro-Magnon group.
• Low Hill Folk: A briefly mentioned Cro-Magnon group.
• Black Sand People: A Neanderthal group that dwells on the dark beaches north of Tarn-Ul. The beaches are sparse and sterile and the Black Sand People often to carve out a territory of their own in the Valley of Morning Mist, leading to conflict with the Flat Back tribe. Many members of the Black Sand People, or members of other Neanderthal groups, suffer under Tarn slavery.
• People of Liquid Rock (Tarn): Located up the Slow Muddy River from the Valley of Morning Mist, the Tarn are the most technologically advanced faction included. They make extensive use of agriculture, bronze working, early writing and mathematics. Under the rule of their Priest-King the Tarn have also developed a highly stratified society, complete with monumental architecture and prejudice on basis of class and race.

Technology Decay

Lands Out of Time includes rules that allow for advanced technology to decay and rot with prolonged exposure to the dinosaur milieu. Under these rules, the World of Banded Night has a Slow decay rating for any electronic items: such equipment requires a maintenance check each week, at -1 to skill per week it has been exposed, to remain functional.

Magic

Lands Out of Time describes this setting as a low mana world where "magic qua magic does not work." Nevertheless, there are a variety of psychic powers in setting which require imbibing certain ceremonial plants. Mechanically all powers in the setting have a number of limitations, including: Trigger, Preparation Required, and Psychic. A handful of shamans and priests have a monopoly on these powers, and will not use them for frivolous reasons or if coerced.

In the Infinite Worlds

Infinity calls the World of Banded Night "Burroughs-6," on account of its anachronistic mix of dinosaurs and humans. It has the usual sorts of mundane problems, like illegal dinosaur poaching (as on Crichton and other dinosaur worlds) and the occasional nutjob that wants to exploit the primitive autochrones. A much bigger issue are Vanished Ones ruins, which act as a parachronic "magnet" that can draw any form crossworld traffic (conveyors, jumpers, etc.) to them. These ruins also attract looters, which is never pleasant when dealing with ineffable technology. Fortunately none of what's been recovered works on Homeline so far, but Infinity is nevertheless paranoid about the prospect.

Adventure Hooks

Four adventure hooks are included in Lands Out of Time: two for native tribal characters, one for Timelost characters, and one for Infinite Worlds characters. The first two involve conflict between humans and dinosaurs, the third involves Reich-5's SS Raven giving Saurians firearms, and the forth involves illegal psychic mushroom smuggling.

Reception

Initial reactions were generally positive, with some complaints about the name the author chose to use. Other users would later notice a discrepancy between how the dinosaur statblocks were presented in this book and the results of any conversion of GURPS Dinosaurs stats using GURPS Update, which made them unsuitable for certain genres. In 2017, Walt Williams, writing at the blog Prehistoric Pulp gave Lands Out of Time a negative review, saying the book was not comprehensive enough for his tastes, expressing disappointment with its portrayal of dinosaurs in general; he concluded that the setting wasn't creative enough to be worth buying and recommended prospective buyers to instead purchase GURPS Dinosaurs for 3e. In 2018, Let's GURPS author Psuedonym used the book to test the campaign planning exercises in How to be a GURPS GM. In 2022, the blog Necropiticon published a summary of Lands out of Time and a positive review of its contents, arguing that the book did everything it needed to and, despite its previous for old-fashioned dinosaurs and neanderthals, that it was ahead of the curve in anticipating certain tropes in its genre.

Related Material

• Bestiary, Lands Out of Time
• Classic: Dinosaurs
• Classic: Ice Age
• GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol
• Dungeon Fantasy 3: The Next Level
• Pyramid Magazine 3/56: Prehistory