01-14-2013, 07:57 AM | #101 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
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Let's step away from movies for a second. Games and genres have a "center" to their mechanical feel that vary from game to game. For example, in a sci-fi action game, the GM might handwave ammunition, but in a post-apoc survival game, every bullet is dear and precious, so we count all of them. By focusing on an element in one game but not another, we change the focus of the game. In a game that might simulate, say, the Vampire Diaries, there are cars, but they don't matter. We just use them to get from A to B. They're unimportant and not the focus of the game. Vampires and teen angst and sweet action are. But in a game that might simulate the Fast and the Furious, there are cars and they're central to the action. Your characters should really give a crap about their vehicles, and they're often trying to win races or beat the cops in chase scenes. They'll often have Mechanic skill at some level, and want more out of it than a scene of them tinkering on their car. So in such a game, you'd offer an intense spread of vehicular options to simulate the car-fetish of the genre, letting players pick and choose and try to maximize their vehicles and make them central to their strategy. Such a game would get great use out of GURPS vehicles. That's my point.
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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01-14-2013, 08:57 AM | #102 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
It's also a good way to take work off the GM. "Your character can R&D any vehicle that can be made at TL X and with these setting parameters."
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01-14-2013, 09:02 AM | #103 | ||||||
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
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01-14-2013, 10:17 AM | #104 | ||||||||
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
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The GURPS Action aesthetic is "grab and go," however. Even in a vehicle-heavy campaign, a catalog would be more valuable than a set of design rules. Just about all the positive fan mail we've had about Action has been of the "Thank goodness I no longer have to drag around a stack of rulebooks!" variety. I suspect that even gearhead Action gamers would get more use out of a slim PDF filled with ready-to-go Hollywood favorites. I'm not saying that would be a hot seller, since once you get out of fantasy, the leading subgenres tend to be futuristic ones . . . explaning why we haven't released a lot more Action supplements to date.
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01-14-2013, 11:42 AM | #105 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Elk Grove, CA
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
If nothing else, a viable design system would be helpful for people creating those vehicle catalogs, which do seem to get more requests than the actual design system.
How such a system would be helpful could go like this: Let's say Larry and I are both working on books that could complement each other - but we are unaware of the fact. My book is on NATO aircraft of the Cold War, while Larry is working on Warsaw Pact aircraft of the same era. If I give the F-4 Phantom a handling of X, and Larry gives the Mig-17 a handling of 4xX, that'll lead to errata down the line, since, historically, the Mig-17 has a smaller turn radius and is more maneuverable overall. Or, Larry could be doing a book on aircraft in Vietnam and give his F-4 a handling of Y - whose version would be correct? This is a concern because, generally, we've heard in the past to simply use a similar vehicle already published as a guide, which, to me, means hand-wave it, it'll be OK. Now, from what I understand, WotC's Star Wars RPG had a vehicle design system that they used in house for quite a long period before they published it, the in-house version being so that vehicles in one supplement matched those on other supplements. |
01-14-2013, 06:40 PM | #106 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
At least for my part, I tend to find
'What we have convenient books for' strongly influences what sort of games I will run I used to run a lot of DnD 3.0, oh look, Star Wars d20 exists? Okay, I will run DnD 3.0 Dungeons and Dragons and Jedis I also ran quite a bit of WEG d6 Star Wars . . . . when d6 Adventure with the Very Cool Magic System, and d6 Fantasy and d6 Fantasy critters came out, I started to run Space Fantasy with X-Wings, Magic, and Dragons So if GURPS Vehicles (or GURPS Toaster Pastries or whatever) came out, I might be inclined to buy it and run games using it I find Spaceships terribly confusing and problematic to use, so now when I run GURPS Space Fantasy it tends to be 'ships? What ships? Ships don't exist', back when I ran d6 Space Fantasy there were ships everywhere because I liked and understood d6 Star Wars ship stuff By the same token, GURPS has lots of Really Awesome Fantasy Stuff, such as the DF line, Low Tech, Martial Arts, Magic, Thaumatology and stuff. I love running straight up Fantasy games in GURPS. I hardly ever ran straight up Fantasy games in d6 because well, there really wasn't much in the way of d6 Fantasy material out there, I always ran Space Fantasy because there were a zillion variants of blasters and X-Wings and droids oh my ready to go |
01-15-2013, 01:18 AM | #107 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
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(Note that this is how the vehicles in HT were created, or so I understand) So you don't even need VDS for your cold-war aircraft, really. And there's someone who regularly publishes vehicles here on the forum. Quote:
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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01-15-2013, 02:56 AM | #108 |
Join Date: May 2011
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
I'm gonna just try to keep running DF until VDS drops. Then I'll start working up stats for my mecha 'n' star fighters campaign, with maybe a spaghetti western game in between. But then, I don't do a prospectus style pitch, with multiple options, so far. I develop a campaign concept until I'm comfortable with it, then I ask people if they want to play it.
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01-15-2013, 02:59 AM | #109 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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01-15-2013, 03:00 AM | #110 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Re: GURPS Releases seem to be slow?
I'll admit I found vehicles 3e fairly intuitive. Just not spaceships 4e
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