Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

Stick needles in my belly
Take samples of my skin
I don't care as long as I
Can live with saucer men
I know that you don't take requests
But I'm a special case
Come on down you saucer men
And take me off to space

— "Take Me Off to Space"
(Traditional Subgenius Hymn)

Space. The final frontier. Well, the third iteration of this particular frontier, at any rate. And let's be honest, it's that wide open, "anything is possible" setting that draws us in. The spaceships themselves? They're just vehicles for your plots, both literally and figuratively. Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III thus focuses less on ships for their own sake, and more on what they can bring to your game:

• So You Want to Build a Spaceship, but the assumptions in GURPS Spaceships don't quite fit the feel of your setting? Then learn how to tweak them to emulate anything from a "mankind's first steps into space" to a "run silent, run deep" campaign (the latter of which calls for a new system: IR Masking).
  
  
• For many people, "spaceships" mean "alien invasion," and I firmly believe that can make for a fun game! Fortunately, Michele Armallini feels the same way, and Battle for the Earth gives your players a chance to save our planet from inhuman menaces in a thrilling GURPS Mass Combat conflict.
  
  
• Every sci-fi game requires a bolthole that falls somewhere between "anti-hero pirate base" and "hive of scum and villainy," which is why you need Blackbeard Station. This well-hidden base has everything you need, including full write-ups for both GURPS Spaceships and GURPS City Stats.
  
  
• The rules for speculative trading from GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports are invaluable for anyone running a merchant game -- but what about those carrying cargo illegal enough to warrant Hazard Rates? In this month's Eidetic Memory, David Pulver expands those rules to deal with everything from knockoff textiles to military-grade hardware.
  
  
• Of course, where there are ships, there's salvage. A team can draw plenty of credits delving into Strange Objects in Disrepair. But there's a lot more to each of these three wrecks than meets the eye, and your group's survival may depend on how quickly you can figure out what's really going on here.
  
  
• And we've got our usual features in tractor-beam tow, including a Random Thought Table that looks at racial technology and uniqueness, and a Short Bursts that stares death in the eye without blinking.

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Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-2694
Preview PDF: http://www.warehouse23.com/media/SJG37-2694_preview.pdf

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

How'd this fall to below the front page? Increase speed, drop down, and reverse direction!

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I've only read the first article so far (So You Want to Build a Spaceship by Roger Burton West and Timothy Ponce), and I like it. It's the kind of article that can really help someone figure out how to customize their game to fit the feel that they're going for. I need to stew on it a bit more before giving final thoughts on its recommendations, but it definitely gets my head thinking in good directions.

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

Glad to hear it! I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Gotta say, I like this month's Eidetic Memory. Lots of good plot juice in it. Looking forward to giving Strange Objects in Disrepair a proper read, too.

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

I have to ask: I know it's short, and I don't consider it my best work, but has anyone read through my Blackbeard Station article yet to give an opinion?

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

Well, I have, obviously. :)

I rather liked it. It was very efficient, if that makes sense, in that it wasn't very long but it had all of the info I'd need to use this in a game. And it gave the place enough character that it didn't feel overly generic.

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

I need to do this sort of thing regularly (see Psi-Wars and the modifications I made to make starfighters work well) and I even thought about doing a series on it, but it's so much work. That article might not be very long (it's not a book), but don't let that fool you! In my experience, understanding the rules in and out well enough to create the sort of gameplay you want is hard. So I absolutely value it, and I think it's worth the asking price of the issue itself.

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

Bonus points for talking up-front about the setting assumptions needed to make it work. (It won't work as-is in my current setting, which uses a jump point network, but I can still pinch ideas from it.)

Re: Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III
 

That's the article from this issue that I can drop straight into my current game (two of the things Royal Navy PCs get up to are ship inspections and rendering assistance to distressed civilians). Others will need more or less time with the angle-grinder – Battle for the Earth is practically stand-alone – but most of this month's articles have elements I can use.