[trystero]

I'm really impressed with this whole issue: I enjoyed every article, and several of them -- "The Last Gasp", "From Skills to Advantages", "Abstract Wealth", "Survivable Guns", and at least the guts of "Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously" -- went on my "please incorporate this into the core rules for any future editions" list.

I need to do a little re-reading on "The Last Gasp" to understand all the complexities, and I'm not sure I'd use all the options, but I think the basic idea of separating short-term energy use (AP) from long-term fatigue (FP) and injury (HP), with a cascade structure where each pool can draw from the next one down, is brilliant, and I love love love the idea of adding energy "budgeting" to combat. This system offers the best simulation of combat lulls I've ever seen in a game; it also has the advantage of making HT and Will more important for melee warrior types. And I could really see the "light fighter wearing down the armored tank" approach working with these rules.

"From Skills to Advantages" is an excellent short tweak: it's one of those perfect ideas that seems obvious in retrospect (though I'd never thought of it before, of course).

"Abstract Wealth" takes an idea that I've liked in other games (e.g., True20) but greatly improves it by retaining concrete prices rather than abstracting them as well. This lets you bypass the copper-counting while still helping you understand what your Wealth score actually means. My only tiny niggle is that I would probably reverse some of the math, so that your Wealth score tells you what you can buy trivially/automatically, and then you can buy up to 5× on a check with one set of modifiers/results, up to 10× on a check with another set, and so on.

"Survivable Guns", again, seems like something that should have been in the rules all along: we care mostly about what weapons do to characters, so why weren't guns' damage rated on that basis to begin with?

"Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously" has maybe a little more complexity than I would need (though I can definitely imagine a game in which it would be appropriate). But the essentials of the system -- spoken and written language proficiency rated on a skill basis, with only script knowledge retaining the advantage cost structure -- is what I've wanted for a long time, and the table showing real-world language interrelationships is exactly the kind of educational information that I love finding in GURPS supplements. (Guilty acknowledgment: I'd been a subscriber to the "all Chinese languages are the same in written form" myth prior to reading this article.)

Great work. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds the Alternate GURPS issues to be among the best that Pyramid offers, but I thought it was worth saying anyway. I'm already looking forward to Alternate GURPS III...