Steve Jackson Games' GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge

[Steven Marsh]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

That said, I don't think Incense Trail refers to anything but Basic.

And while my own Tomorrow Rides includes a stat block for GURPS Boardroom and Curia, the stats still contain useful info even if you don't have that supplement; see the preview for a couple of examples if you've never encountered it before. (And, honestly, Tomorrow Rides' background material doesn't rely on any external books, and the rules are very light; I think it'd be really straightforward to port to any other modern-ish RPG, if one were so inclined.)

[Refplace]

Yeah, I think several books are useable with GURPS Basic or even as inspiration for other RPGs and used that in my ad blurbs.

[awesomenessofme1]

Kickstarter complete! Final numbers: 2780 backers pledged a total of $57,660.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by philreed

From the project page (specifically, the $49 reward level):

"Please note that the PDFs created for this campaign are not stand-alone titles; to use the new PDFs, you will also need to purchase other PDF titles."

Yes, I saw that and yet still I wondered to just what extent it was true. Glad to see that a couple of them won't need other PDFs to be usable (Thanks Matt and Steven). I am hoping that the others are still useful to the tyro in some capacity until they can buy the appropriate support materials. Any thought to producing an official suggested buy list of support materials for each of the PDFs for people that took the New to GURPS reward?

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.

[Steven Marsh]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

I am hoping that the others are still useful to the tyro in some capacity until they can buy the appropriate support materials. Any thought to producing an official suggested buy list of support materials for each of the PDFs for people that took the New to GURPS reward?

It's a really hard question, because GURPS is additive; new supplements are expected to refer to and reinforce previous supplements. So a heavily steampunk-themed supplement (such as Phil Masters' GURPS Steampunk Setting: The Broken Clockwork World) would be expected to tie into our official GURPS Steampunk support supplements. And, indeed, it does! But it also reads very nicely if you don't have those supplements; sure, you might not have 100% of the connective tissue, but you may well be able to get by without it.

As a metaphor: The Marvel movies have done an impressive job of making you think you need to see all the movies, but — for the most part — movies generally stand on their own. If you've never seen any of the other Marvel movies up to that point and the first movie you saw was The Avengers or Spider-Man: Homecoming, you can still follow what's going on. But there are enough tie-ins that someone who wants to dive deeper realizes that the architects of that cinematic universe have put a lot of work into making sure that bits work together pretty well.

GURPS is a lot like that, in my mind. A lot of supplements don't need other supplements, but they're there if you want or need them. For example, GURPS Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew stands pretty complete on its own (with the Basic Set) to help you device starship crews in GURPS. Do you need the GURPS Starships rules? They'd be nice, sure, but 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.

Of course, some supplements need more outside support than others. For example, the GURPS Reign of Steel adventure is designed for GURPS Reign of Steel, the Fourth Edition update book GURPS Reign of Steel: Will to Live, and GURPS Ultra-Tech; it'd be really hard to use it without knowing about the universe it's describing. Similarly, How to Be a GURPS GM: Ritual Path Magic is designed to help people out with the magic system from GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic. Reading it on its own might give you a taste for what the "core" Ritual Path magic system is like — in the same way reading a game walkthrough might give you an idea of what the game it's talking about is like — but it definitely needs its core supplement to get maximum use out of it.

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.

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. If we created (say) a generic fantasy city, would it feel incomplete or adrift if we didn't include references to resources in GURPS Fantasy, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, and/or GURPS Low-Tech? And if we did include those cross-references, would it feel like it wasn't aimed at people new to GURPS?

Having said that, this is all an experiment, and I think we're all really interested in seeing how these 12 PDFs are received. We tried to have a wide range and blend of styles, topics, and approaches, and I really hope there's goodness here that'll be interesting and satisfying for neophytes, long-time fans, and everyone in between.

[Anders]

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

[David Johansen]

Really, Reign Of Steel might just be a killer ap. I hadn't considered that. Reign Of Steel starter box or book. I could see that having some appeal with the right art. Art's such a major factor in people's purchase decisions. Unfortunately good art is expensive. I mean, I could volunteer to do bad art for free, but it's expensive at the price.

[Tenchi2a]

Originally Posted by Anders

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

Depends on the formatting.
(Number of colums, font type, etc)

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Tenchi2a

Depends on the formatting.
(Number of colums, font type, etc)

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

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Anders

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

Originally Posted by Anders

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

My very unscientific grabbing of a couple different recent PDFs gives me about 800 words per page. Assuming the 10-page PDFs will have one cover page, and about one page worth of Table of Contents, copywrite & company info, and Index that means there will be about 8 pages of content; 8 x 800 = 6400 words, give or take a few hundred words.