Talking about... Warehouse 23 Wish List for GURPS

[Daigoro]

Please use this thread to discuss anything of interest regarding the Warehouse 23 Wish List for GURPS, as I couldn't see any other thread up for it, and Kromm has just overhauled and updated it.

Firstly, there's one minor erratum. It says that GURPS Powers: Divine Favor is the only published volume in the Powers series, when I believe GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses would of course also belong.

Secondly, one of the sample books-to-be-written is High-Tech: Photography Studio, covering "filters, lenses, tripods, and 101 cameras". As a long-term amateur photographer, I would be as qualified as any to write this, yet I'm struggling to think what could go in there that would fill a book and be useful as a roleplaying supplement.

Of course, in my CoC game, the question has come up about what kind of camera existed, how portable it was and how usable it was for low-light photography. But I can't think of much more to put in the book than a catalogue of cameras available over time. Explanation of ISO, f-stop and exposure times? Differences between film and digital? I guess this week's The Flash had a veeery rubber physics use of the silver nitrate backing of a mirror accidentally recording a photographic image, so some discussion of creative photography could be added.

Anyway, what were others' reaction to the newly updated wish list?

[ArchonShiva]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Secondly, one of the sample books-to-be-written is High-Tech: Photography Studio, covering "filters, lenses, tripods, and 101 cameras". As a long-term amateur photographer, I would be as qualified as any to write this, yet I'm struggling to think what could go in there that would fill a book and be useful as a roleplaying supplement.

Maybe try pitching it across all three tech eras: concentrate on TL 5-8, but include a treatment of the very low tech (portrait painting), ultra-tech and fantasy-tech alchemical photography. Include various types of motion cameras as well, and sketch artist techniques and facial recognition. I'd read that. I'll buy it when I reach the point where I'd use it within three years.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Firstly, there's one minor erratum. It says that GURPS Powers: Divine Favor is the only published volume in the Powers series, when I believe GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses would of course also belong.

I don't think that's an erratum so much as a deliberate omission. If I'm remembering Kromm's comments correctly, it was written and turned in before Enhanced Senses was released. I imagine he couldn't be absolutely certain that the book would be released before the updated wish list went up, so the new book had to stay off.

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Anyway, what were others' reaction to the newly updated wish list?

The big change that I'm seeing is that they've become much more definite and precise about page counts.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I don't think that's an erratum so much as a deliberate omission. If I'm remembering Kromm's comments correctly, it was written and turned in before Enhanced Senses was released. I imagine he couldn't be absolutely certain that the book would be released before the updated wish list went up, so the new book had to stay off.

I thought the timing was the wish list was released just after P:ES. Of course that line of text was probably written a while ago, but the erratum is not correcting the deliberate omission when facts changed.

The big change that I'm seeing is that they've become much more definite and precise about page counts.

As in "12, 21 or 30 pages"? Why is it necessary to be so definite? I'll bring up the "PDFs can be any length" canard here.
ETA: And does that usually mean that many pages of content, with cover page, credits page and index excluded? Or total pages?

[wellspring]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Maybe try pitching it across all three tech eras: concentrate on TL 5-8, but include a treatment of the very low tech (portrait painting), ultra-tech and fantasy-tech alchemical photography. Include various types of motion cameras as well, and sketch artist techniques and facial recognition. I'd read that. I'll buy it when I reach the point where I'd use it within three years.

As a gamer, I'd want a supplement that integrates real-life information about photography with details about how I'd apply it in-game. Sometimes, "photographer" is a background detail that doesn't apply much in game other than flavor. Other times, it's the focus of the campaign (like the obsessive monster hunter searching for the big green berserker that keeps following that itinerant physicist everywhere...).

Usually, it's somewhere in between, a package of useful skill and equipment that accentuates a character without taking over the whole story.

Examples:

• Character Concepts and Flavor: How to play a professional photographer. Backgrounds, skill templates, and common habits and quirks.
• Photography and High Society: Concepts related to paparazzi and photographers working for publicists and glamor magazines. Obvious tie-in to Social Engineering.
• Photography and the Professional Naturalist: Concepts related to nature photographers and cameramen for magazines and TV documentaries. Tie in to Monster Hunters (and Dinosaurs?).
• Photography and the Supernatural: Here we're talking about ghost hunters and lovecraftian campaigns. Include some details of real-life psi-tech like kirlean photography, plus some speculative stuff.
• Photography and Espionage: This will take some research-- not just what skills spies have, but also how they use them. I can recommend some books if you'd like, but most are pretty light on specifics about tradecraft. Probably you'll also want to talk about overhead surveillance (spy satellites).
• Photography and Forensics: Police work. It includes both crime scene photographers and police surveillance. Plus forensic investigation of photographs, negatives, and image captures from surveillance cameras. You'll want a good criminal justice textbook minimum, but don't forget to include cinematic photography.
• Photography and Journalism: Maybe this belongs w/ high society. Don't forget to also note the legal aspects of taking photos in public places (completely legal in the USA-- but you'll also find many state and local police departments will arrest photographers and confiscate cameras even if they don't have a legal pretext. I don't know laws in other countries.) The flip side is that freelance news photographers can be found in all kinds of newsworthy areas and so can sometimes bluff their way into places the general public can't. So it's both a background for players and a great cover story even if the player has some other job.
• Gear
• Setting Notes: Transhuman Space and Shikaku-Mon both have ultra-tech "surveillance hobbyists" who use drones and cameras. Other settings might have possibilities here too.

THat's got to be a few thousand words outlined right there. DOes it help?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

The big change that I'm seeing is that they've become much more definite and precise about page counts.

Perhaps this is to simplify pricing decisions?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

As a long-term amateur photographer, I would be as qualified as any to write this, yet I'm struggling to think what could go in there that would fill a book and be useful as a roleplaying supplement.

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Maybe try pitching it across all three tech eras: ...

Originally Posted by wellspring

THat's got to be a few thousand words outlined right there. DOes it help?

Just to nix anyone getting the wrong idea, I only meant that as a pure hypothetical. I'm not seriously entertaining the thought of making a proposal. Don't stop with the ideas though, they might inspire someone more inclined to actually commit to a book.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

As in "12, 21 or 30 pages"? Why is it necessary to be so definite? I'll bring up the "PDFs can be any length" canard here.
ETA: And does that usually mean that many pages of content, with cover page, credits page and index excluded? Or total pages?

Just submit as close to exactly the requested wordcount as possible. While the final PDF could theoretically be any length, they have clearly determined that the breakpoints given are the right profit points for a line with (as SJ alludes to in my interview with him) marginal profitability. These wordcount points maximize the gain for each copy sold, and any resources spend on GURPS come with an opportunity cost in non-GURPS resources for final review, layout, art - all the things Kromm and RPK don't provide, but are required for a good book.

[Christopher R. Rice]

As a writer it helps me focus on exactly what I want to do. I think that's part of the goal and the other is "This is what we want, this is what we expect" mindset - and that's GOOD for everyone involved. Game design and writing is at it's heart technical writing. The language is precise, the formatting is strict (but bendable in some cases), and you've a body of previous work to draw upon and make sure your work meshes with.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Secondly, one of the sample books-to-be-written is High-Tech: Photography Studio, covering "filters, lenses, tripods, and 101 cameras". As a long-term amateur photographer, I would be as qualified as any to write this, yet I'm struggling to think what could go in there that would fill a book and be useful as a roleplaying supplement.

Yeah, I'm also an amateur photographer and I read that wishlist item and wondered how I could write something interesting and gameable about photography.