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Old 09-02-2015, 12:52 AM   #19
kabson
 
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Somewhere outside London, UK
Default Re: Gurps Starships line errata(and some observations)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailanka View Post
I wouldn't be surprised if someone had put one together, but most of the worked examples are obviously inspired by something. The ^ are usually your fancy Space Opera stuff.

The Empire-Class Dreadnought from SS3 p10 is clearly a star destroyer. The Typhoon Space Fighter from SS4 p11 is clearly a tie-fighter, and the Starhawk on SS4 p12 is definitely an x-wing (it has 4 major fixed mounted laser batteries, and "unusual for fighters, it "has an engine room, (often manned by a robot) for repairs"). The Wyvern Star Fighter on the same page is probably a Y-fighter. The Sword-Class Heavy Cruiser on SS3 14 doesn't ring any bells, but it clearly uses the same sort of technology as the rest, so if it's not a Star Wars knock-off, it'll still make an excellent addition to your growing collection. These are all TL 11^, with x-ray lasers and force screens.

The Dark Horse-Class Free Trader might be a Millenium Falcon: It features a "souped-up" FTL engine, meaning it travels faster than everything else, it has two laser turrets, an engine room, and is described as specializing in smuggling.

For Star Trek, the Intrepid-Class Frontier Cruiser is definitely the Constitution-class Enterprise, on SS3 p 15. The Palomer-Class Exploration Cruiser is probably the Galaxy-class Enterprise. The Eclipse-Class Battle Cruiser on SS3 p14 might be a Romulan Warbird, and the Seraphim-Class Frigate might be a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. All of them feature Subwarp drives and force screens. The Adversary-Class Super Dreadnought is similarly TL 12^with force screens and subwarp drives, so it might fit in that "gamespace", even though I don't recognize what it's meant to be.

The Operator-Class Reality Police Cruiser from SS7 page 35 is definitely the TARDIS, and the Ariel-Class Transforming Space Fighter from SS4 p 28 is clearly a Veritech fighter.

There are a few others I suspect (I think there are grapple-ships from Outlaw Star, and I think the Serenity from Firefly is in there somewhere too, but I'm reluctant to call them out here). The reason I think that Pulver doesn't explicitly come out and say these things, though, goes beyond avoiding being sued. Star Destroyers and Tie Fighters and Exploration Cruisers aren't actually that unique, and quite a few of these entries could be bent to represent quite a few things, and they can work together in ways that might not exactly fit their original inspiration, which I think is good.

If you use these, you won't get Star Wars, but you might get Psi-Wars, which is similar enough that most people will enjoy it, but far enough that you have the freedom to do what you want.
Great list, thank you. You have several of the 'inspirations' I would never have guessed.

Now I know where to start, my first thoughts for the Adversary-class were that it might be a Death Star-equivalent, but I'm not convinced. [No, that can't be right, it's way too small. The reference to 'glittering armor' might be a clue.] My space opera pop culture is a bit rusty.
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Last edited by kabson; 09-02-2015 at 01:00 AM. Reason: Nah, way too small.
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