Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

While we're waiting: GURPS Spaceships mentions that Traders, Liners, and Transports will deal with trade and passengers; would that be GURPS 4e's counterpart to GURPS Traveller: Far Trader, much like the world design system is 4e's answer to First In?

Also, Warships and Space Pirates is going to include hex-grid combat; is that going to be limited to STL combat, or is the system going to be flexible enough to be adapted for warp combat and hyperspace combat (setting assumptions permitting, of course)?

Finally, it's mentioned that each volume in the series will provide supplementary rules, and it gives examples for the two mentioned above. What about the others? Obviously, Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha will provide systems that make mecha designs possible; but that hardly seems like it will be the core of the supplementary rules. What else will it have?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Wow, I just asked this question in the Gurps board.

I have a brand new player, my son have been asking to play and his interest is in SF a`la Halo, Star Wars and other action adventure types of play. Which in his description includes fighter/small ship combat, so having a hex based solution would be great.... Ok dad wants it too.....

I guess I'm back to bouncing on my hands for two more supplements.....

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

(1) Far Trader is far more ambitious (and longer) than Traders and Liners, which follows the Spaceships mandate of fairly simple rules. That said, it does cover trading operations and cargo/passenger tickets.

(2) Warships and Space Pirates in the written draft basically has a Spaceships conversion of the GURPS Traveller-style vectored combat rules. However, I have been thinking that it would be useful to cover non-vector STL/ FTL combat as well and during the playtest (whenever that happens) may propose a short rules section that effect.

(3) Fighters and Carriers is mostly, well, fighters and carriers. It has a few pages of supplementary design notes (e.g., for smaller SM+4 ships, legs, etc.) and few pages of cinematic combat rules.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Ah; thank you. So "Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha" will essentially be built around presenting the likes of Battlestar Galactica, the Macross and Valkyries from Macross, and the Dropships, Aerospace Fighters, and Mechs from Battletech. ("It must be mine!") Oh, and the smaller stuff. :P

And what are you planning for Exploration and Colony Spacecraft, besides the sample spacecraft (which will presumably include a USS Enterprise knock-off)? i.e., what's the concept behind the supplemental rules portion?

Re: More GURPS Spaceships Series Goodness
 

I seem to have been attached up to a generator and hooked up to the power grid.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

MECHS!

Oh I've been waiting so long! I have two different groups. One wants to try Battletech and the other Macross. I have GURPS Mecha 3e but have been waiting for a 4e version.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

This one is mostly sample spacecraft, but it also includes a brief generic version of the Interstellar Wars exploration rules tailored for the Spaceships systems.

Much of the Exploration/Colony ship book is devoted to ship designs that "push the edge" of the envelope - things like multi-stage interplanetary rockets, sublight interstellar vessels, generation ships, and so on. I rather like the intergalactic FTL generation ship, intended to visit other galaxies.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Ah. Since I don't have (and haven't seen) Interstellar Wars, I can't comment.

"sublight FTL" appears to be a contradiction in terms, unless either "sublight" or "FTL" means something other than what it appears to mean.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Meant "interstellar" sorry. Typo.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

What other books are in the series?

I just picked it up for Battlestar purposes and found it unsatisfying, but I enjoyed building space-ships so much I figured I might as well discard the BSG-campaign idea and bust out a GURPS Space homebrew.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

From GURPS Spaceships:

There may be others; but these are the ones that we know are being planned.

I have a feeling that you'll find Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha more to your liking, mainly for the Fighters and Carriers - though Traders, Liners, and Transports might work well as a source for ship designs with which to populate a ragtag refugee fleet.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

However, "Sentient Spaceships" may be replaced with "Transhuman Spaceships" edition, with the non-THS sentient ships rolled into the other books instead.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I'm looking forward to all of them, but I must admit that there are a couple that I'm especially excited about. Any idea of the order in which they'll come out?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Not entirely - depends on editorial decisions. But last I heard the planned order for the next few books is:

1) Traders and Liners
2) Warships and Space Pirates
3) Fighters and Carriers
4) Exploration Ships

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I like that order. I like it very much.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Are Mecha still to be covered in this one?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Yes, though the coverage is fairly brief. I still hope for a dedicated mecha book (not necessarily Spaceships-based, though possibly related) at some point. Here, mecha are a basically fighter ships with arms and legs, and a few extra options. The focus of Spaceships is mainly on ships - the simplification of things like wings and landing gear (for example) and the combat scale used make many aspects of mecha (transforming, melee, etc.) best handled elsewhere.

So, in answer, the system will let you create mecha and send them against ships or each other, and we include a half dozen or so examples, but that is not a primary focus of the book.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Mr. Pulver,

Is there a release date for Spaceships part duex, yet?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I doubt David would know. Once he submits the final draft, it's pretty much out of his hands. As a general rule, e23 releases don't get pre-announcements.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports should be uploaded tomorrow.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Wohoo! A nice start to the weekend then !

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Great news! Something to look forward to this weekend :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!


I repeat.

EEEEEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!

Been lookin' forward to this for a while, and right after midterms is perfect timing.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Yea Ditto! EEK EEK EEK

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Yay! Well I just lost money but gained a book. You guys rock!

Ghostdancer

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Wow...you had to upgrade e23 just to cope with the sheer awesomeness that is a new David Pulver release :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Ooh! Ooh! I want this! Hurry up and get e23 up again!

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

/me joins Crakkerjakk in squealing like a boy-band fan

EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!! EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Having been in on this play test, although not much I had familial issues through most of it:( this book IS awesome, and so is David. Seriously one of the nicest guys I have ever chatted with online, obscenely congenial describes it to a tee.

Ghostdancer

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Is it there yet?

Is it there yet?

Is it there yet?

Is it there yet?

heh, sorry :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Does that mean you got your comp copy? Or are you just referring the draft we got?

(Hasn't gotten his comp copy yet.)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Me either, it doesn't seem to be up yet. But I remember the fun stuff that went on in the playtest even if I couldn't participate as much as I wanted. :(

I really can't wait for the rest of this series, to test how easy it was I got my baby sister to create a test spaceship with book 1, and then I ran her through a combat. Not only did she build a very efficient craft, she also understood the basic gist of combat. Before that she never played any sort of simulation game or RPG. This gives me a lot of hope for running off-the-cuff sci-fi one-shots, seriously if the rest of the books are this easy to use... *looks wistful*

Ghostdancer

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

It's there now. :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

It's mine! Looks like I'll be busy for the next few hours.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Bought. Downloaded. Printed. Bound. Read.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

commentated?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Since you insist:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=39872

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

The first one is the only one that doesn't excite me. I just can't get excited about cargo-carrying ships, sorry. Engines, and reaction mass tanks, and cargo space, in a variety of ratios to each other. Where's the fun?

The later three, however, sound really exciting. (And I have an old list which says that #5 will be about mining and industry, which also sounds more fun than just moving stuff.)


(Granted, for a lower-tech setting, knowing what people are actually able to do, in terms of climbing out of gravity wells, and how much they can carry when they do it, and how fast they can get from place to place once they've climbed, and where they can then land, and if they can et back up again, is quite useful if you're trying to derive a setting from the technological constraints, and GURPS Spaceship's mass-based design system is the first easy-to-use way to get objective answers to such questions. But how well does the system actually cope with low-TL ships? It's been a couple of months since last I read it...)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

They're not particularly exciting, no; but they're the sort of thing that few space settings can do without. I mean, how can you have pirates if you don't have cargo ships for them to raid?

Note that I'm not talking in terms of cargo ships for the PCs. One or two of them might be appropriate for that role (such as the tramps); but for the most part, cargo ships are NPC-oriented. That doesn't make them any less valuable to the setting. (Personally, I've been getting fed up lately with settings that focus exclusively on the "cool stuff" that relates to the player characters and their opposition, and completely neglects the basic staples that are needed to make the setting work.)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I would be happier if #3 was as stated in GURPS Spaceships Pg. 4 Introduction "About the Series" Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha

Unless the series has changed (and I missed the post) the list was roughly

1) Spaceships
2) Traders, Liners, and Transports
3) Warships and Space Pirates
4) Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha
5) Exploration and Colony Spacecraft
6) Mining and Industrial Spacecraft
7) Strange and Alien Spacecraft
8) Sentient Spacecraft

Granted I don't know how the new Mecha rules are going to be like but I hope it will be something like the GURPS Mecha so you can build an array of mechs.

I'm also really excited for #5 Exploration and Colony Spacecraft!

Although now with GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports out I have enough to do a bit more detailed Sci-Fi campaign.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

David Pulver has mentioned on several occasions that the mecha in Carriers, Fighters, and Mecha will be something of a sideshow: the main focus will be on the carriers and the fighters, and the mecha will be handled (almost entirely?) by means the the addition of a Legs system.

That said, he has also expressed interest in doing a new edition of Mecha (or something to that effect); and I'll throw my support behind such an effort, for what little that's worth. What would probably be a better way to go would be to wait for VDS and then do GURPS Anime in the tradition of GURPS Fantasy, with a chapter or so on mecha.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Me too! I'll be able to dust off the voyages of the starship Southern Cross, the starship Necho II, the starship Resolution, the starship Icebird, the starship Endeavour, and the starship Zheng He.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Eek?

The price of bonds is up substantially, and I have money burning a hole in my credit card, itching for further Spaceships PDFs. I know SJG has playtested manuscripts. I sense potential gains from trade.

When will it be safe for me to start holding my breath?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

What I am Waiting for is a good set of warp combat rules, the set I wrote in house still kinda Massively suck.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Not sure what you mean by 'warp combat'. Do you mean combat in FTL? How would it be different from non-FTL combat other than longer ranges and higher speeds being involved?

Also: Me want new Spaceships! When can have?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Non-Newtonian combat.....

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

So you want combat at relatavistic velocities? Sounds a bit silly, but okay - I can see how some extreme superscience ships might need it. I have doubts David Pulver'll include it in the Spaceships series, though - I don't think any of the planned books have much to do with that.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Infojunky might be thinking of engines that impart a speed rather than an acceleration.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Think "Star Fleet Battles" - or the original Star Trek series, before NextGen & co. started retconning it.

More generally, Warp Drive does operate on a speed-based system rather than an acceleration-based one - and it tends to be directional: whatever direction you're pointing, that's (almost?) always the direction you're heading. Building an alternate map-based combat system where movement operates more like naval ships and/or aerial fighters would serve the purpose of allowing for Star Wars style space battles, and could also be scaled up to FTL speeds and distances in order to address warp combat.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Ooh! I didn't know mechs (legs) were going to be covered in #4. That's awesome!

Now if #3 would come out, we could start counting down the decades until we see #4. I'd get excited by some of the other ones too, but then, I fear I'll be to old to roll the dice before they come out.

:(

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Bing give the man a cigar.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Check. While I am comfortable with realistic movement, you have to have players that are also for it to be fun for all....

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

That is not covered yet. I recognize the desire for it and had hoped to stick it into book 3 or 4 as an option, but that proved impossible for space reasons and due to lack of time to adequately playtest it.

However, I now plan to put the non-Newtonian maneuver system in Book 7, giving it fairly lengthy treatment for both combat and non-combat applications.

Otherwise, I recommend those allergic to the complexities of vector movement stick with the abstract system (which is fairly detailed anyway). Book 4: Fighters includes several options intended for making the abstract movement rule more cinematic to give a more Star Wars-ish feel to the fighter combat.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

With book 3 and 4 it should be fairly easy to come up with a more standard combat system. Choose a scale and speed for the ships and then use the rest of the rules more or less as written. Newtonian flight adds extra bits of math that non-newtonian flight can ignore.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

So......any kind of estimated release date on the next book in the series? :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I don't know. Writing and editing are done; don't know if layout has started.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Forgetting what #3 will be----warships and expanded combat rules, right?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Yes.

#3 has an essay on naval ops, a whole bunch of corvette to battleship sized warships, and a Spaceships adaptation of the 2D hexgrid vector movement system found in Traveller and Interstellar Wars, and a few other new rules of general applicability to both the basic and abstract system

#4 has a whole bunch of fighters, carriers, and assault transports, some expanded rules for cinematic maneuvering and action in the basic combat system, a bit of general fighter-ops material, and some extra design options (leg motors for building simple mecha, some more missile types, rules for SM+4 ships, etc.).

#5 (currently not yet playtested) has essays on exploration missions, lots of "edge of the design envelope" ship designs (early interplanetary probes, sublight interstellar vessels, generation ships, multi-stage rockets and star probes, etc.) a few minor design option rules, expanded radiation and other hazard rules, and a Spaceships non-Trav specific adaptation and expansion of the Interstellar Wars rules for survey and contact ops.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Having recently discovered the awesomeness that is Future Armada, I'm pretty pumped for future Spaceships releases.

If you guys need some amazing deck plans, you should REALLY check out the FA stuff.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Yeah, they are very nice - I especially like the 'Jo Lynn', aka Serenity :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

The VTOL thrusters are certainly similar, but the Jo Lynn is much more of a warship than Serenity ever was.
http://ki-ryn.com/Future_Armada/Art/Jo_Lynn_01.jpg

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I had not bumped into this set of toys before. Thanks much for pointing the way. And I see that at least some of them are on e23. Coolios

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I stumbled into them purely by chance and was astounded at the quality for the price.

These guys do fantastic work.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Yeah, Future Armada provided the Jo Lynn as the main ship for my Traveller game. The work is awesome.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Have you built the Jo Lynn using Spaceships? If so, would you mind sharing?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Count me as one! The new 4th edition Spaceship design is awful.
It gives no feel of designing a ship but more of hit locations should it encounter combat.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Pilot skill required: Tier 3 Mass Range: 50,000 & Pilot skill required: Tier 4 Mass Range: 80,000 could be dton not ston.

GURPS Spaceships #2
 

30-TON DROP CAN (TL7)
This is a streamlined, aluminum cargo canister launched
from high orbit (or via a mass driver, tether, etc.) on an aerobraking
trajectory. The soft-landing system deploys its reentry
shield and parachutes, and the container slows and safely
lands. It is built with an unstreamlined hull, masses 30 tons
(SM +5), and is 40 feet long. Ummm, Huh???

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Discussion of specific details from these PDFs is off-topic here. Please take it to the GURPS forum.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I was under the impression that this particular thread does pertain too and is a forum for discussing the GURPS Spaceship Series and encompasses the PDF progressions that relate to GURPS Spaceships.
Thank you for pointing out my obvious judgment error and moving my newly created thread which is dedicated too comments on the individual PDF for GURPS Spaceship Series #2 into the GURPS ONLY arena were “Anything GURPSy” should be found.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Gee, it sure would be neat if this came out early enough to inform the upcoming Pyramid special on Space Exploration!

Which is tentatively due in only nine or ten months. :(

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

This forum is for "News, discussion, leaks, and denials about upcoming releases."

GURPS Spaceships 2 is no longer "upcoming", and substantive discussion of content is never on topic for this forum.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Sure.

Clydesdale-Class Stripped Gunboat (TL 9-10)

Systems Table
Front Hull System
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10)
[2] Control Room (Complexity 8 Computer Network; Comm/Sensor 7; 4 Control Stations)
[3] Defensive ECM
[4] Tertiary Weapons Battery (20 cm Fixed Mount Missile Launcher; 2x20 cm Fixed Mount Chaff Launchers (dDR 5 vs. lasers, UV lasers 7 missiles); Cargo Hold – 40.5 ton capacity)
[5] Fuel Tank (50 tons capacity)
[6] Fuel Tank (50 tons capacity)
Central Hull System
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10)
[2] Hangar Bay (30 ton capacity)
[3] Habitat (1 Workshop; Steerage – 75 ton capacity)
[4] Cargo Hold (50 tons capacity)
[5] Cargo Hold (50 tons capacity)
[6] Cargo Hold (50 tons capacity)
[core] Habitat (4 cabins; 1 Galley/Mess; 1 Sickbay)
Rear Hull System
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10)
[2] Engine Room (1 Workspace)
[3] Fuel Tank (50 tons capacity)
[4] Fusion Torch Ram-Rocket (0. 5G Accel; 15 mps)
[5] Fusion Torch Ram-Rocket (0. 5G Accel; 15 mps)
[6!] Jump Drive (J2 Rating)
[core] Fusion Reactor (!!)

Features
Artificial Gravity; Ram-Rockets; Magnetic Shielding; Heat Sinks



Clydesdale Class Stripped Gunboat
TL Spacecraft dST/HP HT Hnd/SR Move SM LWt dDR Occ Load Cost Notes

Piloting/TL 10 (Aerospace, High-Performance Spacecraft)
9/10 Clydesdale Class Gunboat 70 -1/5 1G/45mps +8 1,000 tons 10 8ASV 296.3 tons 60M¥ 2,500 mph Air Speed; 10aAccel/1,250 mph Air Move

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I'm starting an exploration, survey, and first contact campaign next month (August). Any chance...?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

The final draft was on its way to editing at the end of June according to Kromm (via his blog).

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Hmm. It might be out by 15 August. But probably not.

Whom do I have to bribe in the Editorial Department?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Don't ask me... (If I knew who to bribe at SJGames, In Nomine Superiors: Zadkiel would have been released last year...)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Of course, by now, it may have moved into the production stage.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

Sorry if this has already been asked. Is there any chance of all 8 volumes of Spaceships being compiled into a monster PDF?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Series
 

I would guess no chance. SJGames has been extremely reluctant to do this kind of thing - it's been asked many times in regards to Dungeon Fantasy. In order to combine them they feel they must do a complete combining, integrating all of the information as if it always one book instead of multiple smaller ones, so a whole new layout, new index, etc. Since that's a monster job for very little gain they don't see the advantage to doing such a thing.