Pyramid #3/85: Cutting Edge

[Kromm]

Best preparations
Unforeseen difficulties
Novel solutions

— Nu-Tech™ slogan

Though the tried-and-true has its place, time stops for no one – least of all the heroes of adventure stories! When you take on new challenges day in and day out, you would be wise to keep up to date. Watch the news. Stay on top of trends. Get the latest gear. Look to the future.

Your opponents will . . . that's why you get the big bucks.

Think of Pyramid #3/85: Cutting Edge as the latest issue of your modern-day or futuristic character's favorite trade journal. It bring you the gear and training that are going to matter 20 minutes into the future, and offers a peek at why you'll need those things. Here are a few sound bites:

• While it's easy to think of TL9+ combat as "like TL8, but with better guns," new weapons can be game-changers if you've been Training for the Tech. Phil Masters illustrates the effectiveness of futuristic less-lethal hardware with the Captivator style . . . and then explores the eminently lethal power of gyrocs and miniaturized payloads with Missileer and Support Shotgunner. Add expanded perks and techniques inspired by GURPS Gun Fu and GURPS Tactical Shooting, and you'll be ready to fight tomorrow's foes today!
  
  
• The rock star is a key part of cyberpunk, from revolutionary punks to corporate-owned pop divas, and GURPS' vast range of options makes Remixing the Rocker easy. Learn how real-time computer editing can change the game, what society wants from its stars (and how music can change that), and new ways to use the Power of Rock for good or evil.
  
  
• Weapons get more dangerous every day, which is why the savvy hero takes advantage of Cutting-Edge Armor Design. In this month's Eidetic Memory, David Pulver offers a system for building TL6-9 body armor from the ground up. Choose your coverage, materials, design, and thickness – and maybe a few accessories – and this little workshop will turn out a unique piece of protection in no time! Everything from arachnoweave bodysuits to titanium breastplates is yours for the making.
  
  
• Free fall is a bizarre environment that most of us will never experience. It's easy to undersell it as "you float," but its physics are at times counterintuitive for those of us down the (gravity) well. Fortunately, Free Falling consolidates all of the existing GURPS rules for microgravity and zero gravity, and fleshes them out with plenty of new ones. When even throwing a kick or climbing over to a hatch becomes a challenge, you'll be glad you were prepared.
  
  
• Are you as excited about the upcoming new edition of Car Wars as we are? Then enjoy Matt Riggsby's White Gold, a vignette set in that universe. When Queen Mob rallies her troops, it's clear that violence and chaos aren't far behind.
  
  
• The netrunning rules from Pyramid #3/21: Cyberpunk have been a fan favorite, so wouldn't it be nice to add a bit more? In The Perky L33t, Christopher Rice invents seven new perks that will make your console cowboys a little bit faster, safer, and more versatile. Now jack in and kick some virtual butt!
  
  
• And our usual features arrived just in time, including a Random Thought Table extrapolating from today's groundbreaking trends and an Odds and Ends that blurs the line between art and its creator. Speaking of art, Brandon Moore has done it again, and we've included a text-free version for those who want new backgrounds and wallpapers to display on their cutting-edge tech.

— PK & Kromm

[Celti]

Two articles in and this issue is already worth its cost for me... let's keep reading!

Training for the Tech is a very welcome expansion to Tactical Shooting/Gun Fu — though I wish it had come out before I'd just finished this team of TL9 paramilitary security officers... oh well, rewrite time!

Remixing the Rocker is the sort of well done article GURPS and Pyramid have always been lauded for, and with good reason! Covering a wide variety of areas under a convergence of two topics near and dear to my heart (music and cyberpunk), this is going to see much use fleshing out the scenes of my cyberpunk setting.

This issue's Eidetic Memory is another one of those articles that came just in time for me to completely rewrite all the work I'd done on my own system for cutting-edge armour design before it actually saw use in game. The specifics of the materials included give me high hopes that this might be offering a glimpse at what VDS will be like, and wonder how well my own extrapolation of higher-TL materials will match up.

Free Falling will be useful both for the space game I'm running and for the supers game I'm playing in where one of the players is playing a gravity controller who likes to put the battlefield into microgravity. I'm glad that it finally offers a second source confirming that yes, free-fall acrobatics is Astrobatics and not Aerobatics, as nothing else that I could find referred to that (optional) rule in Space.

This month's Random Thought Table is another one near and dear to my heart — and vital to my current cyberpunk game, set in the 2060s. I still have trouble getting the players to comprehend the sheer ubiquity of the Internet and what it can do in the setting. Maybe making them read this will help.

The vignette from Mr. Riggsby is short, sweet, and makes me want to read more about Car Wars. I'd love to see more like this in Pyramid.

The Odds and Ends touches on a subject I've already hashed over many a time in several settings — even using the specific example of lost Doctor Who episodes that I've used before.

I am positively delighted to see more cover art from Brandon, whose work I've been shilling on Facebook and elsewhere.

And, finally, The Perky L33t (which is a godawful title — I applaud whoever that was the fault of) — offers some great upgrades for the hackers in my cyberpunk game. A couple of them I might even allow without Quick Gadgeteer.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Celti

And, finally, The Perky L33t (which is a godawful title — I applaud whoever that was the fault of) — offers some great upgrades for the hackers in my cyberpunk game. A couple of them I might even allow without Quick Gadgeteer.

My better half. She's evil. Real evil. >_>

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Kromm

• Are you as excited about the upcoming new edition of Car Wars as we are? Then enjoy Matt Riggsby's White Gold, a vignette set in that universe. When Queen Mob rallies her troops, it's clear that violence and chaos aren't far behind.

Ooooooooohhhhhhh - a not-GURPS article!

(Now where did I put those In Nomine article notes, again? Probably on a different computer...)

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Celti

Free Falling will be useful both for the space game I'm running and for the supers game I'm playing in where one of the players is playing a gravity controller who likes to put the battlefield into microgravity. I'm glad that it finally offers a second source confirming that yes, free-fall acrobatics is Astrobatics and not Aerobatics, as nothing else that I could find referred to that (optional) rule in Space.

Thank you! In my mind, Aerobatics necessitates gravity, which, combined with air resistance, provides power to a lot of maneuvers. Freestyle skydiving is a ready example of this that springs to my mind. Others might include the sort of crazy stuff birds and insects do.

Free fall, by definition, lacks gravity, so you end up needing to know how to spin or steady your body without the assistance gravity. I can't think of any RL correlations or examples of this, though. Astrobatics is a skill that probably hasn't quite been developed by anyone yet.

[Celti]

Originally Posted by Humabout

Astrobatics is a skill that probably hasn't quite been developed by anyone yet.

I'm sure the astronauts that have spent 6+ months on the ISS at least have a default to it, though! Maybe even a Dabbler perk.

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Celti

I'm sure the astronauts that have spent 6+ months on the ISS at least have a default to it, though! Maybe even a Dabbler perk.

They aren't any more likely to have Astrobatucs than any random person is to have Acrobatics here on Earth. What astronauts who have spent six months in the ISS have is Free Fall at at least 12, probably more.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Humabout

They aren't any more likely to have Astrobatucs than any random person is to have Acrobatics here on Earth. What astronauts who have spent six months in the ISS have is Free Fall at at least 12, probably more.

Any random person on Earth has a default for Acrobatics.

And I think they're a little more likely to have taken an interest in an activity that they're among the very few people ever to have a chance at, and that they'll only be able to do for a small fraction of their lives, than a completely random person is to go for acrobatics.

[Humabout]

I have to say I really liked this month's Random Thought Table. It was, well, thought provoking. Between that and Cutting-Edge Armor Design, I am just thrilled with this issue. Remixing the Rocker was a nice piece, though not about the sort of stuff that really creeps into my games/worldbuilding, and Training for the Tech has some really cool perks in it. And this deserves its own line:

The cover art is freakin' awesome.

----

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Any random person on Earth has a default for Acrobatics.

That doesn't affect my statement that "They aren't any more likely to have Astrobatics".

[QUOTE=Ulzgoroth;1955701]And I think they're a little more likely to have taken an interest in an activity that they're among the very few people ever to have a chance at, and that they'll only be able to do for a small fraction of their lives, than a completely random person is to go for acrobatics./QUOTE]
Oh, they goof around enough, but last I checked, they don't exactly have time to develop a new form of gymnastics up there, but what they do have is an exceeding competence at Free Fall skill from just living in it.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Humabout

They aren't any more likely to have Astrobatucs than any random person is to have Acrobatics here on Earth. .

Astronauts are a little more likely to have Acrobatics than average people there are no couch potatoes among them and even among the ranks of the physically fit they are above that average too.

I know of one Astronaut who definitely did have Acrobatics though I'm blanking on the name. He was on one of the Skylab crews and had been a competitive gymnast in college. A h heck let's Google for him.

Ah, Alan Bean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1sr6aVzW9M

I can't promise that link is good. My PC and Youtube are feuding with each other for some inexplicable reason and I can't watch it. However the search terms of Astronaut Gymnastics Skylab produces many links on Google.