GURPS LOWTECH Questions

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

For that, you need a time machine, which I believe is in Ultra Tech. So you can blame Pulver.

Nope, Infinite Worlds. Blame those tightasses at ISWAT. They never should have hired the vampire.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Fish

GURPS TL 0: At this tech level, dice are simply rocks with the word UGH carved into one side. If UGH comes up on top, you win. Any other roll is a critical failure.

TL0 is pre-literate. You just use rocks. If you hit they other guy with the rock first, you win. Saying "ugh" is optional, but in character and probably worth an extra CP at the end of the adventure.

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by Pmandrekar

From what I've seen, a *lot* of work has been put into it. I'm looking forward to it being a great addition to the GURPS product line.

-P.

3e Low Tech is an excellent book. A larger version with PDF supplements? Sign me up for two!

I have learned that I have to be patient with these GURPS things, though. That's not to say that I've learned how to be patient - just that I have to be....

[Ragitsu]

Insanity - doing the same thing and expecting different results.

[PoorMerchant]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

We're covering TL0-4. After Low Tech, GURPS will have specific coverage of the full range of TLs.

There may be adjustments, but IIRC the core book (which will be available in hardcopy as well as the usual e23 treatment) will be 160 pages, and the three companions (PDF-only) will be 30-ish pages.

Forgive me if this has already been answered elsewhere - but what is going in the three PDF "companions" - is this going to be swords and armour for the lowtech gunbunnies?

My principal interest in using the Tech books has been world-building (in the sense of constructing and sense checking locales - I use First In or Space for literal world building) so the more detail on how to build up the detail of a TL2 city the better in my opinion. I'm more interested in GURPSing the process of making a sword than the GURPS characteristics of the sword itself. Given the fascination of players with weapons I'm sure that huge chunks of the book will be devoted to oddball weaponry but I'm interested in seeing what is going to be included in the rest of the production.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by PoorMerchant

Forgive me if this has already been answered elsewhere - but what is going in the three PDF "companions" - is this going to be swords and armour for the lowtech gunbunnies?

After a little background, the main book is a gear catalog, with an emphasis on adventuring gear. There'll be lots of arms and armor, but also thief/spy gear, medical equipment (with rules for using it), transportation, and so on. It'll be largely parallel to HT and UT.

The Companions get more into variants, meta-rules, and world-building stuff. The first covers "intellectual" technologies: politics, religion, and the sciences. The second is more stuff for the low-tech gun bunny equivalents (hoplology hares?): more weapons, less portable military technologies like siege engines and fortifications, and rules for designing new types of weapons (start with such-and-such a weapon, make it twice as big, add a spike here and a blade there...). The third is largely rules for producing things: agriculture, craft activities (including rules for craftsmen making just about anything), and architecture.

[Buzzardo]

I recall Bill Stoddard mentioning that he was having trouble turning up sufficiently complete data on ships at the various tech levels. Will ships get much treatment in 4e Low Tech?

[benz72]

Wow! that sounds like a wonderful book and some yummy add-ons. I don't suppose there is any consideration being given to an e-23 edition of GURPS UBER LOW TECH which would include the book and all 3 supplements within the appropriate chapters and with a consolidated index? (at the total cost of all material of course)

dare to dream?

[hari]

Might I ask how much crunchiness there could be in the first and last companions? My guess would be that the book with rules for producing things will be suitably crunchy. But I have trouble guessing what might be in the "intellectual" techonologies companion.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by hari

Might I ask how much crunchiness there could be in the first and last companions? My guess would be that the book with rules for producing things will be suitably crunchy. But I have trouble guessing what might be in the "intellectual" techonologies companion.

My sections of LTC1 have more crunch than Turhan's Bey Company's. I think that's much less true of LTC3.

For example, LTC1 has a full set of rules for realistic low-tech surgery, including holding the patient down while you cut off his leg or yank his tooth, and stopping bleeding with methods such as cauterizing. Though "crunch" may be a bit mild for that topic.

Bill Stoddard