GURPS Mars Attacks

[wabishtar]

When will we see a PDF release?

[ColBosch]

I think it's a fantastic book. It's what I want out of GURPS: settings, not crunch. My copies of Powers and Thaumatology can sit and gather dust for all I care; give me something I can excite players with!

[Michael Thayne]

On the tanks vs. automaton thing, it also stands out that the latter weighs over twenty times what any real-world tank weighs—reinforcing that they're going to be badly, badly outnumbered unless Martian industrial capacity greatly exceeds Earth's.

On the other hand... is there a limit on how many times the automaton can "rocket jump" before needing to refuel? That actually goes a good way towards letting them close distance faster and generally outmaneuver tanks.

[Blind Mapmaker]

Wrote a review of the book on my blog:
http://blindmapmaker.wordpress.com/2...-mars-attacks/
I know I am late to the party, but I only got my copy last month here in Germany.

Short version:
A very good setting book - something GURPS desperately needs. It's not quite on the same ready-to-play level as Dungeon Fantasy, but it comes close. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is GURPS Alien Invasions. It deals with one specific setting and most of the crunch and GM advice is there in support of that setting and its style of play. Quite a few bits are useful for other campaigns, though.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

tanks can hit targets from over a mile away. At that range it will take several minutes for something at Basic Move 14 to close the engagement distance.

In a fight on an open field, sure. But the automatons aren't for that situation; they're deployed in cities and other built-up areas to deal with human military units who make it that far. If a group of tanks were slowly making their way toward a city, the Martians would send out saucers to stop 'em by melting their treads, shrinking them, etc.

My bigger concern, though, is that the Martians are described as having "dozens" of Automatons, which isn't very many compared to real-world tank production. Given that, Automatons are likely to wind up outnumbered at much worse odds than 3:1. I guess you could assume a Martian surprise attack destroyed most of the world's tanks, and tank production capacity?

That isn't even something you have to "assume"; it's explicit that the Martians' very first move was to cripple the world's military vehicles. Post-invasion, there are probably still many more tanks globally than automatons, but in any given area that the Martians wish to defend, they can easily ensure that their robots outnumber any tanks and similar vehicles.

On the other hand... is there a limit on how many times the automaton can "rocket jump" before needing to refuel? That actually goes a good way towards letting them close distance faster and generally outmaneuver tanks.

No limit, no. They can jump all day if needed, and do use that where forward momentum is more important than the ability to dodge and maneuver quickly.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Wrote a review of the book on my blog:
http://blindmapmaker.wordpress.com/2...-mars-attacks/
I know I am late to the party, but I only got my copy last month here in Germany.

Short version:
A very good setting book - something GURPS desperately needs. It's not quite on the same ready-to-play level as Dungeon Fantasy, but it comes close. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is GURPS Alien Invasions. It deals with one specific setting and most of the crunch and GM advice is there in support of that setting and its style of play. Quite a few bits are useful for other campaigns, though.

Thanks for the incredibly detailed and in-depth review!