| Designer(s) | Elizabeth McCoy, Walter Milliken |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Steve Jackson Games |
| Publication date | 1995 |
| Genre(s) | unknown |
| System(s) | GURPS |
GURPS Illuminati University (1995) (ISBN 1-55634-206-3), also called GURPS IOU, is a 128-page softbound campaign setting sourcebook for the GURPS role-playing game. The authors are Elizabeth McCoy and Walter Milliken; the illustrations are by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio. The book details a fictional college where absurdity and awful puns are the order of the day; its students range from witches and werewolves to secret agents and space aliens. Adventures can involve joining fraternities, surviving dorm life, dealing with rampaging lab accidents, conquering other worlds on field trips, getting caught up in faculty bloodfeuds and even attempting to pass a class.
The setting began life as an online campaign run on the Steve Jackson Games BBS Illuminati Online. It was codified into a book for the Third Edition of GURPS. There have been no announced plans to officially update the setting for 2004's Fourth Edition ruleset. Characters from every GURPS setting can be fitted into the campaign with little or no difficulty. The setting shares much in common with the equally bizarre game Teenagers from Outer Space. Agatha Heterodyne, from the Foglios' Girl Genius, is also featured in the book.
IOU is divided into nine major schools of teaching, listed here, along with a sampling of the departments each contains.
Due to the extremely dangerous nature of the academic work done at IOU, many of the staff undergo The Treatment, a mysterious and dreaded procedure that makes them virtually unkillable and thus immune to their own recklessness. In addition, there are resurrection facilities on campus for student use.
Academic rivalries at IOU tend to result in extreme violence, property damage, and mayhem. There are rules to such conflicts (Faculty Bloodfeuds), one of which is that "freshthings" in their first semester are off-limits and harm done to them will attract the unfavorable attention of the Archdean.
Any student asking what the "O" in "IOU" stands for will be told he or she isn't cleared for that information.