(Unofficial) FAQ of the GURPS Fora

[vicky_molokh]

Q: I'm confused about how various conditions affect explosions (contact, internal etc.). How is explosion damage modified depending on the situation?
A:
Here's Kromm's view summary of explosion conditions:

Originally Posted by Kromm

At any rate, do note the progression:

• At distance: Damage is ×1, divided by (10 × distance in yards) in vacuum, (3 × distance in yards) in air, (2 × distance in yards) for FAE in air, or (distance in yards) in water. Use this for distant combat explosions.
• At touch on exterior: Damage is ×1. Use this for direct hits in combat.
• Tamped or shaped on exterior (High-Tech, pp. 182-183): Halves explosive weight needed. Effectively, damage is ×1.4. Use this for most demolition.
• Fully contained on exterior (p. B415): Maximum damage. Effectively, damage is ×1.7. Use this for demolition where explosive is in gap or applied over full surface of object.
• Internal (p. B415): Wounding, and effectively damage, is ×3. Use this for explosive bullets in flesh, for instance. In the head (e.g., cyberpunk brain-bombs), use ×4! For targets with No Vitals or Homogenous, treat as tamped (×1.4) only.

Originally Posted by Kromm

Yeah, in the brain, use ×4. And no, don't use maximum damage for this. The ×3 or ×4 for being inside someone is instead of that. "Maximum damage" is just a way to avoid saying "×12/7."

The thing that eluded me for a while was that when some books say 'in contact', they actually mean 'in contact with both the target and another surface on the opposite side from the target side' ('fully contained on exterior').

[vicky_molokh]

Q: How does a vehicle's ST interact with its Load and LWt? What happens if a vehicle's load exceeds its rated Load?

A:

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

____________________________________

Vehicle ST does not relate to its loaded weight. In terms of characters, vehicles have PAYLOAD, the Advantage of having extra load above Strength.

A vehicle's power output, of course, relates to its total loaded weight. A vehicle's ST is essentially what is left over after subtracting the power went into ST and speed. In practice, the limit is more structural ST, so find ST the same way you find HP: (the cube root of vehicle empty weight in tons) x 50.

[vicky_molokh]

Q: How do Alternative Abilities and Compartmentalised Mind interact?

A: While this may not be evident from the RAW, Kromm spoke thus:

Originally Posted by Kromm

No, Compartmentalized Mind (CM) does not grant multiple copies of abilities for the purposes of switching alternate abilities, consuming limited uses, triggering cooldowns, and so forth!

All mechanics that make abilities cheaper do so under the assumption that they'll actually limit the character. Making CM a one-stop shop for working around such things makes it a one-stop shop for cheesy abuse. It might seem fine when you're paying 50 points to get around innate usage limits on a cheap ability . . . but what happens when someone takes Ability 1 [1,000] and Ability 2 [1,000] as alternative abilities, pays 1,200 points, drops 50 points for CM 1, and enjoys 2,000 points of abilities – along with all the incidental benefits of CM – for just 1,250 points? That would be a crock.

Thus, the answer is a definitive "No way!" The main benefit of CM is extra actions. That's what 50 points fairly buys.

[vicky_molokh]

Q: Is technology level (TL) defined by access or production? Does a settlement with imported mobile / cell phones count as TL8?

A: Production defines the 'full' TL.

Originally Posted by B513

Borrowed Technology
A society can be familiar with tech-
nology that it does not itself possess.
This is frequently the case for low-tech
societies with high-tech neighbors,
and for colonies. A village with Iron
Age technology (TL2) might be quite
familiar with the TL3 steel weapons
carried by travelers, and richer vil-
lagers might have a few, but local
smiths could not duplicate or repair
them. Express this as “TL2/3.”

Originally Posted by Kromm

A society with some TL8 gadgets isn't a TL8 society; it's a lower-TL society with gadgets. Transhuman Space went into it in more detail, and an upcoming supplement will discuss it more, but in brief:

The world average is TL4 or perhaps TL5; it's just that the world's cutting edge is TL8, so the TL4 parts have TL5-8 gadgets, the TL5 parts have TL6-8 gadgets, the TL6 parts have TL7-8 gadgets, and the TL7 parts have TL8 gadgets. But to "be TL8," the majority of your gadgets have to be nominally TL8. Don't mistake the absence of the specific visuals of late-medieval Europe or Steam Age London for the absence of TL4 or TL5 realities.

Privileged people living in high-tech societies tend to forget that they don't define the average, and tend to see the presence of their benevolence toward lower-TL regions as proof that they've raised the TL there. They haven't. The single biggest marker is probably "What's the modifier to aging rolls where you live?" (p. B444). If you're rolling against HT+1 rather than HT+5, your society is probably TL4 and not TL8, whatever gadgets you have.

[vicky_molokh]

Q: How do I interpret news reports about the writing, editing, development, production, and publishing of a PDF or book in progress?

A:

Originally Posted by Kromm

"Development" is shorthand for what our editors do: Handle queries, proposals, questions that arise during writing, draft reviews, questions that arise from playtesting, and editing. It can include the game design and writing itself. All of the hands-on work this implies is done in unformatted text or using Microsoft Word.

"Production" describes what our production artists do: Lay out the text; design the pages, including headers, footers, fills, bleeds, and page numbers; insert art and diagrams; create a title page (and sometimes a cover), table of contents, and index; and finally turn it all into a PDF. Stuff you'd do in, say, InDesign, or QuarkXPress.

"Production" follows "development," with the exception of last-minute changes made when the writer and editor look at the near-final work of the production artist.

Anyway, I handle "development" but Nikki handles "production." Once I start talking about something being "in production," it's totally out of my hands except from a possible last review of the product ("production review") before we upload it for you to buy.

Q: What does project management mean in this process?

A:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Since Steven's name has come up:

"Project management" is assigning writers, editors, illustrators, and production artists to projects, and making sure these people communicate; setting up playtests; facilitating project handoffs from development to production; making sure that developers review the resulting production output; and establishing timelines for all of the above, as well as release dates. Most of this is done via email. It's concurrent with all of development and production.

That's Steven's job. So for every Kromm and Nikki you add, you need at least one Steven and possibly two.