If GURPS did a Kickstarter what would you want it to be?

[sungnif]

Originally Posted by Cybren

subscription based hyperlinked, indexed GURPS 4E encyclopedia with a newer sleeker character sheet app (and mobile version)

Yes please. D&D/Pathfinder have put their stuff up online in super accessible html form. I would love for GURPS4e to do the same. Even if I had to pay a subscription for it (though the other guys are free).

[Xenarthral]

A 4E update/edition/revival of GURPS World War II.

Or maybe GURPS The Day After Ragnarok.

[korbeau]

Originally Posted by Cybren

subscription based hyperlinked, indexed GURPS 4E encyclopedia with a newer sleeker character sheet app (and mobile version)

IMO, SJGames turn Gurps to be a "real techy geek RPG". Almost all books are only Computer-release (PDF), you have a Computer software GCA and (even if it's not an Official one) a really great MapTools Macro set.

Building an "Encyclopedia" would be just too awsome. Be able to build your own set of rules by choosing all the options by a clic. Custom the rules as you want, having a mobile version AND an offline version.

I'm not sure the "subscription" issue is a good one. I hate feeding the Corp with money for a service. Paying for the options of your set? Like enter a code when you brought a book and be able to build your own encyclopedia.

[panton41]

The best Kickstarters tend to be the ones where the work has already been started and the money is only being raised to put on the final polish. The Kickstarters for "good ideas" from people without an established record, where there's no existing prototypes and the creators have no sense of scale and proportion for how big the project will actually be tend to fail.

That's why I suggested GCA 5. Armin already has it in production but his day job that pays the bills gets in the way of actually having the time to write it. He has a set, known goal and he's competent about being able to finish seeing as he's been writing the GCA series for something like 20 years. Stretch goals could include developing more of the existing GURPS books into official data files (and finishing a few that are unfinished) and maybe some more bells and whistles that are currently on the "would like" list.

A GURPS encyclopedia would have to be written from scratch and would probably take an enormous amount to resources in both money and manpower, neither of which the company seems to be willing to invest into GURPS (as opposed to Munchkin) and is much, much larger in scope than I think people mentioning it here realize (and scope would probably expand dramatically as the project progressed) so it would be a poor Kickstarter.

[Refplace]

Most kickstarter ideas floated have been declared as not practical by TBTB.
However in this list...
GCA seems a workable idea and I would like it to add book and page references for building. Not as part of the sheet but a reference icon you could click on or mouseover. Also a capaign charecter sheet that is really a setting description with starting point totals and lists of books and rules switches listed with page references.

That is a lot of work but does not hurt the IP or need to reprint actual content other then the name and where you find it.
I think that is a workable way of doing the encylopedia request without the major investment of editing all existing books.

Settings
This actually has possibilities too.
There is a LOT of overhead in getting and working with a licence. This shows interest in a measurable way (To SJG and the liscence owner) and funds can go towards that overhead. Author time can be handled with royalties like normal, as well as some profit to SJG and the owner but what really hurts I think is that extra overhead of author/publisher approval and negotiation.

[Edges]

GURPS Girl Genius.

Accelerating something already in production is what Kickstarter does best.

[Hrothgar]

I would agree a kickstarter going towards either the ability to update GCA 4 or start on GCA 5. Maybe enough to hire a few people for Armin to supervise.

Perhaps another program that does a walk through of combat for gurps. You put in all the factors to find out damage and effective skill.

Perhaps the final would be to start another small print on some of the most popular books. There are a few books that are really expensive to get your hands on the hard copy.

[panton41]

Originally Posted by Hrothgar

I would agree a kickstarter going towards either the ability to update GCA 4 or start on GCA 5. Maybe enough to hire a few people for Armin to supervise.

GCA 5 has already been started and he's even posted a few screenshots and discussed the internal changes. It's just that he has a day job and paying side jobs that takes up most of his time. He apparently only gets paid royalties for GCA, not an up-front amount so a Kickstarter would go a long way.

Mind you, before it was officially blessed by SJ Games he was doing it in his spare time and selling it off his personal website. I discovered GCA 3 (maybe even 2) back in the late 90s and started using it for my 3rd Edition games when it was still sold directly by Armin. (I liked the fact all of the data files were free and it used them as a way to get the templates from books that were hard to find.)

[sir_pudding]

Yes, replace GCA with something more stable and that has more in-play utility (like Hero Lab does). Please take my money now.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

GCA 5 has already been started and he's even posted a few screenshots and discussed the internal changes.

When there's progress, I post updates here. I've posted two sneak peaks of new stuff under the Previews category.