The 2015 w23 Digital Release and Speculation Thread

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I'm a huge fan of Ultra-Tech pyramids (they form the backbone to many of my campaigns) and this one did not fail to deliver. My only quibble is that it seems pretty fixated on TL 9 (especially with the armor-design system) rather than later TLs, which is to say "It was so good, I wanted more of it."

Well, that's the "cutting edge" rather than "ultra-tech" theme for you - I'd have liked more higher-tech stuff too, but I can see it wouldn't have gone well in something that's meant to be mostly "edge of tomorrow".

Breaking down the articles from the three "tech and toys" issues by TL, ignoring things like Psi-Powered Imbuements that don't mention TL at all, I see:

5-12
7-11
9 ×3
9-10 ×3
9-11
9-12
10 ×2

I wonder whether the lack of love for higher TLs is because there's not much non-superscience TL11/TL12, or because it becomes increasingly difficult to keep crunchy humans alive.

[Phil Masters]

It may also be because it's easier to write crunchy-detailed Pyramid-style articles about things which can be the subject of rational detailed speculation (i.e. TL9 technology), as opposed to things where the speculation has perforce to be a bit broad and hand-wavy.

Also, I think that everybody has their own idea about what TL11+ is likely to look like, based on varying degrees of speculation, hope, hidden superscience assumptions, and favourite SF show or novel, and these don't tend to be very similar. So writing generic material is hard.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Well, that's the "cutting edge" rather than "ultra-tech" theme for you - I'd have liked more higher-tech stuff too, but I can see it wouldn't have gone well in something that's meant to be mostly "edge of tomorrow".

Breaking down the articles from the three "tech and toys" issues by TL, ignoring things like Psi-Powered Imbuements that don't mention TL at all, I see:

5-12
7-11
9 ×3
9-10 ×3
9-11
9-12
10 ×2

I wonder whether the lack of love for higher TLs is because there's not much non-superscience TL11/TL12, or because it becomes increasingly difficult to keep crunchy humans alive.

You can also extrapolate a lot from comparing values of SS armor to their TL 9 counterparts, finding a ratio, then working up to a TL 10-12 equivalent, and then reverse engineering that ratio, to find out, roughly, how much armor would improve.

The article also goes into finer detail about WHY armor is improved. If you choose to follow that, especially if you're not afraid of getting handwavy (as Phil points out), you can make a lot of mileage.

So when I said "My only complaint is that it didn't go into TL 10-12, and that's a small one," I meant it from the perspective of "It gave me more tools to do that, I just still have to do the work." So even if I want to run a TL 12 game with that sort of information, it's less useful than if I run a TL 9 campaign using that information, but I'm still better off than I was before because I have additional inspiration and ideas.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I'm a huge fan of Ultra-Tech pyramids (they form the backbone to many of my campaigns) and this one did not fail to deliver. My only quibble is that it seems pretty fixated on TL 9 (especially with the armor-design system) rather than later TLs, which is to say "It was so good, I wanted more of it."

That's because the theme of this month's Pyramid wasn't "ultra-tech" but specifically "cutting-edge technology." The call for articles explicitly asked authors to focus on late-TL8 to TL9 (though with some wiggle room).

The next two sci-fi-ish themes are "Spaceships" and "Tech and Toys" (both revisited), both of which will probably have articles going into TL10+.

[Paulon]

A new line of supplements begins today. GURPS Aliens: Sparrials is the release this week.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Paulon

A new line of supplements begins today. GURPS Aliens: Sparrials is the release this week.

A supplement written by Elizabeth McCoy, about beings Not From This Earth who consider the ability to take items from their owners to be a good thing. Did they steal In Nomine Superiors: Janus and file the serial numbers off? <very, very big grin>

[Ronnke]

Originally Posted by Paulon

A new line of supplements begins today. GURPS Aliens: Sparrials is the release this week.

I really hope this becomes a popular line and we see more of it. I love reading this sort of material. It's like an adrenaline injection for the imagination and creative juices.

[Refplace]

Finally some movement on the racial books!

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by robkelk

A supplement written by Elizabeth McCoy, about beings Not From This Earth who consider the ability to take items from their owners to be a good thing. Did they steal In Nomine Superiors: Janus and file the serial numbers off? <very, very big grin>

*fnords fnordily*

*apologizes for being away from the forums so much; kid has been eatin' mah spooooonz*

Originally Posted by Ronnke

I really hope this becomes a popular line and we see more of it. I love reading this sort of material. It's like an adrenaline injection for the imagination and creative juices.

Well, if enough people buy it and rave about it, who knows? (Serious question, probably for another thread, maybe in the general GURPS forum? Do people want more "stock humanish" races, like the Kronin, or weirder stuff, like Irari?)

EDIT: I moved that thread to http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=140326 so it wouldn't clutter up this thread anymore. *poings off to there*

[Paulon]

And today we see GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 17: Guilds, 29 pages, excluding cover and e23 ad, of info about guilds and other organizations of interest to the adventuring type.