Steve Jackson Games' GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge

[Empada]

if you look on GURPS wishlist, you will see this information

Page Count: 12, 21, 30, or 48 pages (6,800, 14,450, 22,100, or 37,400 words).

using some weird, non-conventional math, I would call 4700 or 4800 words for a 10 page pdf.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

It's a really hard question

That's the most honest answer.

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

For example, GURPS Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew stands pretty complete on its own (with the Basic Set)

As the author, I can verify that. If you're not obsessed with vehicle stats, and are willing to reduce "What does the starship do?" to "What skills can you use with it, what modifiers are they subject to, and what do successes and failures, regular and critical, mean?", then you can use this with only the Basic Set to create a crew and run a campaign.

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

I could envision (say) a Star Trek-esque campaign that doesn't care about starships, as far as stats go; they merely serve as a plot device to transport the heroes to interesting adventures. Similarly, GURPS Space would be a great resource to help you sort out an appropriate campaign universe for your starship crew, but — if you're a fan of science-fiction and want to do without — there's nothing mandatory in there.

I'd argue that the original Star Trek series was exactly that.

What can the Enterprise do? Whatever this episode's writers decide it can do! That isn't especially consistent from story to story, but always has a heavy dose of "What does the crew need it to do?"

Are the astronomy, astrophysics, etc. consistent? No! Not unless you really believe the universe is chock-a-block with phenomena hitherto unseen and unanticipated not just by today's scientists, but also by futuristic scientists with physics-violating sensor tech.

Do the individual worlds make sense? No, for the most part! You beam down onto sets that resemble the American West, gangland Chicago, Gothic castles, Nazi cities, Roman arenas, etc., or generic botanical gardens, or just the Vasquez Rocks again, and the landscape is "Earth, plus minimal F/X, with the interesting parts coming from idiot lectures from Spock as he stares at a tricorder."

Starship Crew is 100% ready for that! You'd probably want other supplements for adventure inspiration, though. Those wouldn't have to be Space and Spaceships. Horror would get a workout, and historical worldbooks would be hugely useful.

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

It's an interesting notion, but in my mind it's harder than you might think. Nearly all the core genres and play styles have some kind of core book[s] in GURPS.

Yeah, there's a persistent myth that GURPS was originally "just the Basic Set and the GM's imagination," and that we "ruined" that by adding other content. Yet the impetus to add other content came from overwhelming gamer demand, and most of the individual components of that content were well received by somebody. So you really do need other supplements to do much with GURPS – they're the seasonings to the Basic Set's milk, flour, eggs, and baking powder, or bean curd. It's just that maybe you don't need the obvious supplements.

Originally Posted by Anders

Just a question: How many words are there in a 10-page PDF? Roughly.

At most 6,800 words, if bursting at the seams. I can tell you that Action 6: Tricked-Out Rides was pushing the limit at around 6,500 words. Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew went to about 7,000 words, and that put it a page over length. The others I dealt with fell into the 4,000- to 6,000-word range. Variability came from the number of maps, tables, and heavily formatted stats blocks (e.g., templates), and clever layout tricks. If you like meaningless averages, though, call it 5,700 words.

Originally Posted by David Johansen

Reign Of Steel starter box or book.

Well, a box with the setting and specific foes of Reign of Steel, and the simplified rules of After the End, might be interesting.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

I would certainly like to see a PDF Challenge that is aimed at people new to GURPS that can get them to quickly enjoy the mechanics of the 500+ pages of rules they just bought.

GURPS Lite and How To Be a GURPS GM?

If you add another 120 pages to read before you get to the 500 pages of rules, does that actually help the goal of quickly enjoying the Basic Set, or is it just a 20% increase in the amount of homework you have to do before getting to play? What sort of content did you have in mind?

[dbm]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

If you add another 120 pages to read before you get to the 500 pages of rules, does that actually help the goal of quickly enjoying the Basic Set, or is it just a 20% increase in the amount of homework you have to do before getting to play? What sort of content did you have in mind?

I am not the person you were asking this of, but I have a suggestion.

Have you tried ‘Lost Mines of Phandelver’ for D&D 5e? It is a good module, presented with ‘how to’ guidance for a new GM at every stage of the way. When it was published the 5e rules weren’t actually out yet, so people had to be able to play it without recourse to them directly.

Clearly D&D has several natural advantages over GURPS (huge existing player base, high brand awareness, more limited scope) but perhaps a Kickstarter could be a vehicle for such a product? Whilst DFRPG was GURPS in a box it wasn’t quite so laser-targeted as Lost Mines is.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'd argue that the original Star Trek series was exactly that.

What can the Enterprise do? Whatever this episode's writers decide it can do! That isn't especially consistent from story to story, but always has a heavy dose of "What does the crew need it to do?"

Basically, the Enterprise is a vehicle (heh) for telling the story, though in many ways she is also a character in her own right.

Starship Crew looks interesting, BTW. One of the many reasons I regret not having more discretionary income (so many books, so little to spend on them).

[Flyndaran]

I'm an idiot. I pledged but don't know anything about kickstarter. So I didn't create a backerkit account until after it all expired. How badly did I screw up?

[Been]

I was wondering the same, I have pledged a d it has been collected, how do I receive the pdf's?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I'm an idiot. I pledged but don't know anything about kickstarter. So I didn't create a backerkit account until after it all expired. How badly did I screw up?

You're fine. I only have a backer-kit account because the last project I backed made one for me and then sent me the link so I could download the stuff. I don't know how this will be done, but it certainly doesn't rely on pre-existing backerkit accounts.

Originally Posted by Been

I was wondering the same, I have pledged a d it has been collected, how do I receive the pdf's?

I'm not sure how long it will take. SJGs gave themselves until November, though I would be shocked if it took that long to get out the basic PDF's. Kickstarter is by its nature a "pay and wait" model: many projects start work after the money is collected. This project is different, of course, but give them a few days.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I'm an idiot. I pledged but don't know anything about kickstarter. So I didn't create a backerkit account until after it all expired. How badly did I screw up?

I don't think you did :)

As long as you succcesfully pledged on Kickstarter, you are good.
No backerkit account needed.

When SJG launch the backerkit campaign in a few weeks, you will get an email with a link to your pledge in backerkit - if you don't have a backerkit account, you can always access that campaign with that link.

There, you can update your pledge, add other PDFs, pay a supplement if you added more than your credit, and, if you want, fill-in your warehouse23 email (to get your pdfs there too).

At some future time, you will be able to download the PDFs.
-from backerkit (you will get an email with a link to a download page, and I guess if you have a backerkit account it will be there too)
AND
-from warehouse23 if you linked the account

At least, that's how it worked for past campaigns.

Hope this help

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Anders

Yes, but SJG has an in-house style. I meant for that.

700-800; 750 isn't a bad bet.

Note that for my own works, I usually wind up with about 550 per page (including all art, ToC, blah blah). My TFT stuff winds up being closer to 650.