Is the Fourth Edition Bestiary ever going to happen?

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

For some of the more special breeds I could easily be persuaded to give the breed as a whole HT 9. Whether it's a special coloration, fur length, size, temper, milk/egg/whatever production or any other trait, during the last century or two specialized breeding has had a tendency to not care as much about the long term health of the result, with an expectation that medicine and veterinary care can keep the animal alive "long enough".

I would suggest even a HT as low as '8' with some of the more inbred specimens.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I realize that many people believe it's possible to have one writer take care of research, descriptive text, and more generally the things that could be deemed "creative" or "ideas," while another writer handles expressing ideas in rules terms, formatting the results, and more generally the things that could be deemed "technical" or "execution." For short, simple manuscripts, that approach works IF the editor can afford the time and mental energy to smooth out the interface between the two contributors' work and meld two voices into one (because multiple voices are always obvious). For long, involved manuscripts, that method multiplies the necessary editorial time to such an extent that the project risks becoming a financial disaster.

I won't lie: As an editor, I have been assigned to multi-author projects where Alex was presented to me as knowing the subject matter (e.g., era, place, profession, skill, academic discipline, or fictional series) well, or as a really good writer who "just" didn't know GURPS, while Blair was brought in to "translate" the material into rules-speak or to assign stats to ideas, and then to format them in SJ Games' style. In every case, I cried inside because I knew I'd be smoothing over tons of jumps and disconnects – often places where Alex went in after Blair and "fixed" things, or where Blair inserted hasty, crummy writing into Alex's sections. Such edits always take twice as long and feel frustrating.

Fair enough.

Originally Posted by Kromm

If it were up to me, I'd require such people to hire their own editor, with their own money, to unify the work. Then I'd credit that editor as a coauthor – not as an editor. That last part would be because I'd still have to check rules, and enforce SJ Games' style and formatting, which would make me the real editor.

That's actually not a bad idea really. I wish I knew a naturalist or zoologist who was conversant enough with GURPS to do something like this. (I know an editor.)

[dcarson]

There are a few writing teams that can pull off seamless. But not many. Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton were married and co-wrote a number of things. Memoirs by other SF writers mention dropping by, one of them greets you and you hear the typewriter upstairs, he one downstairs goes up, noise stops for 30 seconds, the other comes down. Some people claimed they could find the swap points but never agreed with each other on where they were.

Severl writers I know have said that collaboration is a 60/60 split of workload at best.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Severl writers I know have said that collaboration is a 60/60 split of workload at best.

I've worked with other writers before and that's an accurate statement.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Just as a note. Doug *IS* going to be creating a bestiary for his Nordlond world later this year. It's going to have a ton of normal animals in it plus everything that has appeared so far in his adventures from what I understand. It might not be a GURPS Bestiary, but it will be a bestiary for GURPS. Powered by GURPS is basically GURPS.

[David Johansen]

I do know a guy who's got his master's degree in environmental science. I don't know that he'd be interested. He bought Basic D&D and Star Frontiers in 1984 and hasn't felt the need to buy another rpg since. But he is a proficient technical writer.

[bert]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Just as a note. Doug *IS* going to be creating a bestiary for his Nordlond world later this year. It's going to have a ton of normal animals in it plus everything that has appeared so far in his adventures from what I understand. It might not be a GURPS Bestiary, but it will be a bestiary for GURPS. Powered by GURPS is basically GURPS.

Exactly - and I think this kind of bestiary with a mix of fantasy monsters, legendary creatures and animals is what many would be looking for. I will certainly back that kickstarter (or whatever) when it launches!

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Just as a note. Doug *IS* going to be creating a bestiary for his Nordlond world later this year. It's going to have a ton of normal animals in it plus everything that has appeared so far in his adventures from what I understand. It might not be a GURPS Bestiary, but it will be a bestiary for GURPS. Powered by GURPS is basically GURPS.

This will be very welcome!

[ravenfish]

I do wonder about the requirement that a bestiary be written by a professional animal-studier when many of GURPS's (very excellent) historical supplements seem to have been written by knowledgeable amateurs. Is determining the abilities of a creature considered to be more technical work than determining the nature of a society? Or is it that the staff at Steve Jackson Games are less able to judge an amateur's level of knowledge in natural history than in human history, and so are falling back on official qualifications?

[Ejidoth]

I imagine it's just that animals are surprisingly complicated. You could put a ton of amateur research into just trying to get one animal right, and the stuff you've missed isn't always obvious but can have significant game effects.

Every time I try to stat animals I end up later realizing I messed something up. Every. Time. There's always something.