4E Book abbreviations

[jcpatten]

What is the abbreviation for Banestorm?

Basic would be B (as in B100 is Basic page 100).
Powers is P, Fantasy F, etc.

Is there an official abbreviation?

[PK]

GURPS 4E doesn't use abbreviations. There is no abbreviation for Powers or Infinite Worlds or any 4E books. The standard procedure is now to refer to all books by their full name with the sole exception of the Basic Set, which still uses the "p. B131" notation.

[roguebfl]

which is fine for the book 8) but the forms are continuing to continue to use the abbreviations, which means which ever form when posting that conveys the context you want 8)

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

GURPS 4E doesn't use abbreviations. There is no abbreviation for Powers or Infinite Worlds or any 4E books. The standard procedure is now to refer to all books by their full name with the sole exception of the Basic Set, which still uses the "p. B131" notation.

One question: WHY? I always thought it was used to save wordspace and speech time.

[Hex]

Originally Posted by Molokh

One question: WHY? I always thought it was used to save wordspace and speech time.

I'd imagine that it would have to do with the sheer amount of GURPS supplements that will be coming put for years to come. Maybe it is just easier to keep the names rather than boil everything down short form.

I dunno that is all I got.

[MIB 1473]

Originally Posted by Hex

I'd imagine that it would have to do with the sheer amount of GURPS supplements that will be coming put for years to come. Maybe it is just easier to keep the names rather than boil everything down short form.

In 3e, they eventually got to a point where the abbreviations were confusing or conflicting. (Uniform three-letter abbreviations might avoid the problem, but e23 could create unique challenges.) There might also be something about assembling the abbreviations list for each book (used to be a sidebar for 3e books).

[PK]

Originally Posted by Molokh

One question: WHY? I always thought it was used to save wordspace and speech time.

"Speech time"? I've never heard abbreviations used in speech, and even if someone did, it would only save time for the single-letter ones. I can't imagine telling someone with a straight face, "That rule is on page double-you colon ay kay emm ninety four."

And that's part of the problem -- with so many books, the abbreviations great and grew. The space saved by referencing p. T:ARIII113 isn't worth the confusion to those who (in this case) aren't immediately familiar with the GURPS Traveller alien race books.

Shorter abbreviations make more sense, but then there's the potential for confusion again -- more than once, in published GURPS books, they've had to errata numerous misuses of abbreviations because someone used C or CA for Cabal instead of CB. And can you blame them? CB was only used because all the ones that made sense are taken. Add another few decades of GURPS books and the list will be an even more incomprehensible mishmash.

Ten Years From Now (if they hadn't stopped abbrevs):

"Okay, GURPS Congo just went up on e23. What abbreviation do I add to the abbrev page? C?"

"No, that's GURPS Cops."

"Right. CO, then."

"No, that's GURPS Conan."

"Okay, CON will do."

"We used that for GURPS Conspiracies, remember?"

"Argh. Okay, CG is ugly, but it'll work."

"Can't. The e-book GURPS Castles and Garrisons uses that."

"Um, CONG?"

"No way. That would definitely cause confusion with GURPS Viet Cong, even though that e23 book uses VC -- we'd get a FAQ on that every week."

"Okay, how about CONGO?"

"Let me check... nope, that's totally clear."

"Okay, added it to the abbrev page -- the shorthand for GURPS Congo will be CONGO. Fancy a beer?"

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

"Speech time"? I've never heard abbreviations used in speech, and even if someone did, it would only save time for the single-letter ones. I can't imagine telling someone with a straight face, "That rule is on page double-you colon ay kay emm ninety four."

That's what acronims were invented for, isn't it? It's faster to say 'st' instead of 'strength' (or 'sila'), 'ht' instead of 'health'* of 'zdorovya', 'be' (i.e. B) instead of 'Basic Set' (or 'bazoviy nabor'), 'ee-ah' instead of 'Innate Attack' (or 'vrojdyonnaya ataka'). And definitely everybody (even newbies) prefer to say 'ah-ter' ('ATR.') instead of 'Altered Time Rate' (or the somewhat Lovecraftian-sounding 'Izmenyonnaya skorost techeniya vremeni').

__________________

*==Most of the locals have trouble pronouncing the 'th' sounds (both as in 'them' and as in 'think').

[jahn]

I've never heard people say 'st', 'ht' or any of your other examples. Even ATR is said 'ay-tee-arr' pronouncing each letter. It may be a difference in regional speech patterns.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by jahn

I've never heard people say 'st', 'ht' or any of your other examples. Even ATR is said 'ay-tee-arr' pronouncing each letter. It may be a difference in regional speech patterns.

Well, 'ah-ter' is indeed a variant pronounciation of 'Ah-teh-err' (A.T.R.). And one guy in our party indeed says 'est' and 'hah-t' for ST and HT. However, iven he says 'lendst' instead of 'Lend ST[rength]' (the 3e spell).