What new Power Ups books do we want?

[Daigoro]

While I'm quoting myself, this was my previous wishlist for a Gadgeteering book (excuse the repetitivity of some points):

Originally Posted by Daigoro

No one's brought up Gadgeteering yet.

I'd like to see-

• the Metatronic Generators rules, perhaps polished up a little, "officialised", and a bit more generic
• covering all SMs: lumping "laser pistol" and "mega big starship" into the Advanced category doesn't really work
• skill/field specialisation: Tony Stark shouldn't be able to Gadgeteer biotech just because he drops a point into Bioengineering
• rules for components: is Iron Man's suit one Gadget, or is it built by researching 6 different sub-systems?
• Gadgets as Allies, and when and how to do that
• Magic Items, Enchantments, runes, flying castles, alchemy, etc, done as variations of Gadgeteering. That is, genericise Gadgeteering from just a Weird Science skill to cover crafting in other genres
• a bunch of alternative Gadget Quirk tables for different flavours of Gadgeteering
• Social Gadgeteering in IW saw a bit of use in our Spacefaring Fantasy game, more stuff like that
• other sundry Gadgeteering stuff that I believe is in Action, MH and Mars Attacks, in one place
• how to avoid or cope with the Netrunner problem equivalent with Gadgeteers, i.e. Gadgeteering can force a lot of downtime on the team
• and importantly, how to GM a Gadgeteer, especially of a tech savvy player, so he doesn't just run rings around game balance or get a backdoor to Wealth
• not exactly Gadgeteering, but a bit about Cybernetics. For example, when should an inbuilt smart phone count as an Accessory Perk instead of trying to write it up as a list of Advantages

[Kelly Pedersen]

I don't think a Power-Ups: Disadvantages book would be a good idea, but not because I don't think new disadvantages shouldn't be added - while I appreciate 4th edition's general caution about adding new traits, there have definitely been times when breaking that guideline has worked out. The new advantages in Powers, for example, filled some gaps. If a new disadvantage can be conceived that fills a clear niche, I think it should be published. And, of course, there are disadvantages like Compulsive Behavior, Code of Honor, or Vow, where they actually represent a whole category of disadvantages, that could definitely stand to have a bunch more examples created, or collate existing examples from already-published books.

Where I disagree with Power-Ups: Disadvantages is that I really feel it's a bit too broad. With such a large topic space, it would inevitably give short shrift to any particular topic. I think it would be better to break it up into a few volumes, focusing on particular types of disadvantages: Self-Imposed Disadvantages, Self-Control Disadvantage, Supernatural Flaw Disadvantages, and so forth.

[evileeyore]

I'm gonna second Power-Ups: Techniques. A collation of all currently existing techniques, a reprinting of the rules on building Techniques, and nice paragraph on "How to Turn an Technique Into An Advantage".

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I'm gonna second Power-Ups: Techniques. A collation of all currently existing techniques, a reprinting of the rules on building Techniques, and nice paragraph on "How to Turn an Technique Into An Advantage".

Ah yes!
Techniques could use both collation and an expansion.

As to Disadvantages I think a series of books could be interesting but I suspect sales would be low.

[johndallman]

How about Power-Ups: Social Characters, PU: Stealth Specialists, PU: IQ Monsters, and so on?

Essentially, these would be about ways to optimise the kinds of character archetypes that emerge from the GURPS rules. They're a bit like the DF: Denizens series, but more general.

[Taneli]

I (um) thirteenth (or so) GURPS Power-Ups: Gadgeteering and Inventions!

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Taneli

I (um) thirteenth (or so) GURPS Power-Ups: Gadgeteering and Inventions!

Now all we need is someone to write it. I'd nominate Dave Pulver, but I expect he's swamped with all his other projects.

I don't trust myself to do it just yet....

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That would be kind of like adding Power-Ups: Advantages. GURPS 4/e has been trying really hard to avoid adding more advantages, disadvantages, or skills; that led to the bloat of Compendium I in 3/e, which made character design even slower, and also to contradictions that had to be resolved. I think it may be better to focus on second-order things. A whole book of new advantages or new disadvantages would be a problem, I think.

I can see that though a book that showed how to build disadvantages from existing disadvantages would be kind of handy

Lets say you want to make the Accountant from the Ben Affleck movie of the same name , he has significant autism but is otherwise a straight out action hero or maybe you wanted to make a character with a bad heart or the like.

Knowing what combinations of disadvantages or even advantages to pick (shy and compulsive behavior, finishing things among others for the accountant , unfit for the bad heart) would be handy for some odder character selections