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Old 08-06-2015, 04:38 PM   #11
trooper6
 
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

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Originally Posted by thrash View Post
SJ Games has said they can sell existing physical books until stocks are gone. The prohibition is on selling digital copies. How this is all handled is presumably spelled out in the licensing agreement, which I don't expect either party to share with outsiders.

Think of it as a prohibition on reprints: for physical books, the distinction between "current printing on hand" and "new printing" is clear. For digital books, each new copy sold is essentially a "new printing." Note that Steven Marsh has said that you will continue to be able to download copies of items you purchased before the deadline from your Warehouse 23 account.
And note...when I checked W23's stock of 32 GT products, only two have printed copies left in stock: Planetary Survey 1, Kamsii and Humaniti--and Humaniti only has 2 left in stock.

So...really soon they will have no print copies left and it will only be digital...and that only until the end of the year. This is why I went and ordered all the digital books I didn't already own. And I'm considering buying digital copies of the one I do already own for easy keyword searching.
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Old 08-06-2015, 04:53 PM   #12
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

First In and Far Trader are must haves, imo. As stated above they can be used in any game, Far Trader can probably be adapted to non-SF games. Starports is also a wonderful book, but not the "must have" that those two are.

The Alien Races books are mostly great, and certainly usable in a variety of settings. My priorities/recommendations are 2, 1, 4, 3, and Humaniti. None are bad.

The more Traveller specific books, like Rim of Fire (excellent!) and Sword Worlds (excellent reviews, but I just got it since I never cared for the GURPS Spinward Marches), are harder to scrape serial numbers from.

Nobles is also a great, great book. Its assumption have been retconned by T5, but from my limited knowledge of T5 it looks like Nobles is a better take on the subject.

Interstellar Wars is an all-in-one campaign sourcebook, set at the dawn of the Traveller era, our immediate future. Another great book. With some work it can be repurposed for any nearish future campaign - just make the Vilani and other examples of Humaniti into Star Trekish aliens and there you go.

So if you don't have any GURPS Traveller books, you better go on a buying spree. I sincerely doubt they will vanish like DGP stuff did, but who knows where and when they will reappear.
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Old 08-06-2015, 05:00 PM   #13
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

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Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker View Post
I heard Starports and First In have interesting rules, but what does the hivemind say. Also, how good/useful is Interstellar Wars?
Starports never interested me very much. First In is a good book but largely redundant with GURPS Space for 4th edition. I'd probably pick Far Trader for being both useful and lacking a ready alternative.
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Old 08-06-2015, 05:57 PM   #14
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

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Starports never interested me very much. First In is a good book but largely redundant with GURPS Space for 4th edition. I'd probably pick Far Trader for being both useful and lacking a ready alternative.
Wouldn't the alternatives for Far Trader be either a) The trade system in GT:ISW or b) the Trade system in Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports?
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Old 08-06-2015, 05:59 PM   #15
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

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Wouldn't the alternatives for Far Trader be either a) The trade system in GT:ISW or b) the Trade system in Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports?
The first is another GT product. The second is extremely minimalist.
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Old 08-06-2015, 06:11 PM   #16
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

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The first is another GT product. The second is extremely minimalist.
It seemed to me that Spaceships basically mirrored the content in GT:ISW pretty exactly. So, if GT:ISW's trade system was good enough for you, then you could get by with just Spaceships 2.

Of course, since all of the Traveller books are going away...get them all!
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Old 08-06-2015, 06:41 PM   #17
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

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Originally Posted by trooper6 View Post
It seemed to me that Spaceships basically mirrored the content in GT:ISW pretty exactly. So, if GT:ISW's trade system was good enough for you, then you could get by with just Spaceships 2.
That's just another way of saying 'GT:ISW is not a replacement for Far Trader'.
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Old 08-06-2015, 08:48 PM   #18
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

I plan to grab what few books I don't have in dead tree in pdf (mostly have done so already), but to fully go digital library... I'm not sure I could come up with the roughly $250 by the end of the year. That's a big investment for me. But I'm surely going to try.
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Old 08-07-2015, 12:22 AM   #19
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

Thanks everybody for the recommendations. I've got a much better feeling of what to get now. I'll probably buy the core book, ISW, Far Trader, Starports and First In right away and then I'll see what else can be purchased piecemeal.

Oh, and if anybody is worrying about re-downloads after the end of the year, I've got good news for you: I just tried to re-download GURPS Vorkosigan and it was no problem at all. I assume it's going to be exactly the same with the Traveller stuff.

And I'll try to get my friend who loves physical copies to set up a Warehouse 23 account. Physical copies are nice (and probably easier reading, he's a mild dyslexic), but 3rd Edition books are definitely not made with eternity in mind.
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Old 08-07-2015, 08:36 PM   #20
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Default Re: Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

Looks like I have some shopping to do as well. So the consensus is that Far Traders is a great book for merchant games, even if you have ISW and Spaceships 2? And that First in has more detailed and better rules for exploration and first contact type scenarios than ISW and Spaceships 5?

Last edited by Valadrim; 08-07-2015 at 08:56 PM.
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