Help me identify this Alternate World game

Cafe Society
1

I have a student who’s doing an unusual assignment: he has to pick an alternate Earth and write a research paper on what life would be like in this society. He can pick one from a movie, comic book, anything at all, but he doesn’t read or watch much sci-fi or fantasy.

I was telling him about a friend of mine who was into RPGs who had a book that was nothing but alternate Earths. One was a society in which Christians lost the battle of Tours and Islam was the dominant religion on Earth, another was one in which Tesla married J.P. Morgan’s daughter and with his father-in-law’s financing totally supplanted Edison, another was one where the Roman Empire never fell, etc… Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of this game and he’s interested in finding a copy of the book. (He has another month.5 to do his paper so he’s time to get the book online.)

Does this sound familiar to anybody? I think it’s an acronym like ARPS or BARPS or something like that.

Thanks for any help.

2

GURPS? Sounds like it may have been one of their sourcebooks.

3

Shoulda Googled before I posted. Definitely GURPS. The ones you mention are from the Alternate Earths I and II sourcebooks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Alternate_Earths
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Alternate_Earths_II

4

Sounds like…oddly enough…GURPS Alternate Earths. Either 1 or 2. Like almost all GURPS supplements, a great read. It was a collection of 6 or 7 alternate universes. My favorite one was the one where science works like a something out of 1930’s science fiction story. Lots of vacuum tubes, zeppelins and death rays.

5

That’s it! Thanks!

6

I have both of those, if memory serves, and you need someone to figure out specifically which one it is in.