[PURE THEORY] Low-Tech vs Fantasy-Tech

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

If they keep Low, High and Ultra, that makes sense, but I'd argue that the same and additional problems which exist with the title Low Tech also exist with the title High Tech.

High Tech is an awfully deceptive title, it has always bothered me and everyone else I know that High Tech isn't about High Tech.
Instead of it being a book and catalog of High Technology, it's instead a catalog of old stuff up to and including some modern day things, nothing high about it at all.

Of course then we'd also have to talk about what to call it, Modern Tech might not be much better since it needs to include old stuff too, but it'd be better than High Tech which is an outright lie as a title for the book.

I'd ditch the whole Low/High/Ultra designations. I'd go with GURPS Tech Compendium Volumes 1-whatever. Bio-Tech and Cybertech go in as well.
Maybe go with different technologies like say Weapons and Armor, Communication, Transportation, Building and Architecture, etc. Of course, any book with Weapons and Armor would sell better than all of the other volumes.

[Luther]

I like griffin's idea of Tech compendiums/volumes.



EDIT: properly aknoledged the idea.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Luther

I like the Ze' idea of Tech compendiums/volumes.

That's griffin's suggestion, not mine.

I was suggesting PreModern Tech followed by Modern Tech and then Ultra Tech or somesuch.

As for the idea of Tech compediums/volumes, that might work out fine as long as they had an appropriate subtitle, but by itself it'd be lacking in descriptive color.

[damon]

Originally Posted by griffin

I'd ditch the whole Low/High/Ultra designations. I'd go with GURPS Tech Compendium Volumes 1-whatever. Bio-Tech and Cybertech go in as well.
Maybe go with different technologies like say Weapons and Armor, Communication, Transportation, Building and Architecture, etc. Of course, any book with Weapons and Armor would sell better than all of the other volumes.

no no no.. and make it so you need far more books for each world you want to design? dividing it up by broad tech level is much better imo

[jspade]

Originally Posted by DrTemp

Really, how many campaigns do you know that are TL 0-4 and use firearms?

Two out of two of ours. And that's just the GURPS games.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by damon

no no no.. and make it so you need far more books for each world you want to design? dividing it up by broad tech level is much better imo

Hear hear. Possibly divvy it up by tech area within each book, but each book should be able to stand on its own. In other words, if you want to build a TL 2 campaign you shouldn't have to buy a book on TL0-13 weaponry, a book on TL0-13 communications, etc.

And I warn the future authors that I'm ready to begin bawling again at a moments notice.

[DrTemp]

Originally Posted by jspade

Two out of two of ours. And that's just the GURPS games.

What kind of firearms are that? What kind of campaigns?

[HANS]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

I was suggesting PreModern Tech followed by Modern Tech and then Ultra Tech or somesuch.

"Modern" is as vague as is "High". How is a 18th century flintlock modern?
The title for the original HIGH-TECH First Edition was chosen, back in the days, because it included stuff that was high-tech compared to all the other books on gear available then, which, well, only dealt with low-tech. Since our manuscript for HIGH-TECH Fourth Edition (yes, that IS actually its title) contains loads of cutting edge stuff from thermal imagers and the lastest computers to caseless guns and ceramic blades, I'd submit that the title is appropriate enough.

Cheers

HANS

[Not another shrubbery]

[idly pondering] If there's a "High-Tech" and a "Low-Tech", what comes in between:?

[HANS]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

[idly pondering] If there's a "High-Tech" and a "Low-Tech", what comes in between:?

HIGH-TECH runs from TL5-8, and the book formerly known as LOW-TECH runs from TL0-TL4 . . .

Cheers

HANS