Has SJGames been working on GURPS 5th edition for 2 years, or is Steve just trolling?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's actually quite hard to use Vehicles to modify an existing platform. You'll get comparable quality results by just giving the vehicle a BL and count all the stuff you add to it as encumbrance (honestly, that's a way I would be tempted to do things like robots in GURPS).

Yeah I found GURTPS Vehicles pretty hard ot use too. However I appreciate having both available as they serve different but similar desires.
The Pyramid article he wrote for adapting real world vehicles ot GURPS stats was really useful too.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

I'm someone who's long had to be resigned to people not running what I want, so I can't imagine what it's like to have gotten hooked into a game only to watch as the player base dwindles.

Where does this "dwindling player base" come from? I've only seen if slowly growing*, and then with the WotC stumble, rapidly pick up a few "more in the spotlight" people interested in it.


* Though maybe because it's not growing as fast as the entire market it appears to be shrinking?

Originally Posted by Rolando

It may need to be renamed as Hot Pewter though... or Fresh Resin maybe?

To me GURPS has always been a Cardboard Heroes game... so maybe some Paper heroes tie-ins?

Originally Posted by binn05

Do we have a list of all official things related to a GURPS 5e?

I'd love to see it. Being there's only been three I can name, and one is an outright refutation of there ever being a 5e any time soon.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

Where does this "dwindling player base" come from? n.

Print run size and pdf sales/Kickstarter data. Over 100,000 copies of the 3e Basic Set were printed and 3e books used to be printed in 10,000 and 5,000 copy lots. PDFs and Kickstarters appear to be stuck at under 1000, maybe 2000.

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

In my experience as someone who periodically tries to drag friends into playing GURPS, mechanical complexity once you start playing has never been the issue for me (except maybe when it comes the more free-form magic systems). It's always been players experiencing decision-paralysis during character creation. For some players, occupational templates help a lot—but for others, even that's too many decisions up front. To fix that problem, something like Gaming Ballistic's Delvers to Grow needs to be a core SJGames offering.

As the author, this absolutely made my week. Thank you.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Harald387

As the author, this absolutely made my week. Thank you.

DtG is, quite frankly, an amazing product, and I'd love to see the same approach applied to other genres. It takes the complexity of character generation and simplifies it to something more akin to the "Pointless Slaying and Looting" concept Kromm published in Pyramid a few years back, but all the components are still there so you can easily modify it and add back on whatever complexity you need.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Varyon

DtG is, quite frankly, an amazing product, and I'd love to see the same approach applied to other genres. It takes the complexity of character generation and simplifies it to something more akin to the "Pointless Slaying and Looting" concept Kromm published in Pyramid a few years back, but all the components are still there so you can easily modify it and add back on whatever complexity you need.

If Mission X gets the support it needs to be a real thing, you will.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

Where does this "dwindling player base" come from? I've only seen if slowly growing*, and then with the WotC stumble, rapidly pick up a few "more in the spotlight" people interested in it.


* Though maybe because it's not growing as fast as the entire market it appears to be shrinking?

Published RPG writers who have share their opinion with me are pretty sure that the market has been steadily growing for years, although because of market fragmentation and low cost of entry, the average RPG company is not necessarily growing.

SJG staff have hinted that sales of GURPS products are low and in decline or barely stable. "Sales" have very little connection with "players" (most RPG products I own I never played or ran) but are obviously what they are best equipped to measure!

[Lovewyrm]

Originally Posted by Dalin

Whereas among my middle school students, Terry Pratchett is a demigod. I keep hoping for a reprint of the Discworld hardcover. I'd like to snap up a few copies to give as gifts.

Terry Pratchett is vile poison, but I did like Mort and Thud! a lot.
But otherwise it's just mocking European fantasy and shoehorned 'social commentary'.
Basically selling out European folklore to have it dragged through the mud for a cheap laugh.

He also watched a friend of him (if he actually had the concept of friend in his bones) get euthanized in a somewhat celebratory way, but himself just lived out his days despite his own uncurable disease also.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

SJG staff have hinted that sales of GURPS products are low and in decline or barely stable. "Sales" have very little connection with "players" (most RPG products I own I never played or ran) but are obviously what they are best equipped to measure!

Ah, sales. Okay, I can see that. My only (anecdotal) response is my old group still very much plays GURPS, but non of them have bought as many 4e products as they did 3e... and a lot of that comes from just reusing 3e material, or just playing 3e instead of 4e.

Half my group lives by the saying "I don't see why we have to use a new edition, all my [old edition] books are still perfectly fine."

5e would have to be pretty innovative to overcome old player editionitis and the "GURPS IS MATH" stigma that's falsely risen over the last half century of gaming.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Print run size and pdf sales/Kickstarter data. Over 100,000 copies of the 3e Basic Set were printed and 3e books used to be printed in 10,000 and 5,000 copy lots. PDFs and Kickstarters appear to be stuck at under 1000, maybe 2000.

Some of this must be that distributors bought books when they had these large print runs, and people would end up actually buying the book at a retailer years later.