GURPS Boardroom and Curia

[ham2anv]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

Wellll... I do note that the Index lists one mention of Pulling Rank... and the page it mentions also happens to be one of the sample pages offered.

Oh, it's silly to assume I would check the preview, Steven. (Second time tonight I could have answered my own question by clicking a provided link.)

[Steven Marsh]

Originally Posted by ham2anv

Oh, it's silly to assume I would check the preview, Steven. (Second time tonight I could have answered my own question by clicking a provided link.)

That's okay; I love those kinds of questions, because they're so easy to answer! :-)

[doulos05]

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday dear meeee.
Happy birthday to me.

Seriously, one of my favorite things is incorporating cities, nations, and organizations into a game and rules support for these sorts of things is probably my favorite part of GURPS.

I'm going to have to peruse the rules for a bit to see, but I'm hoping I can kitbash this, some pyramid articles, Social Engineering, and City Stats to make a useable nation-state ruleset.

[Joseph Paul]

So City Stats, Social Engineering, and Boardrooms and Curia are all infrastructure modeling aids. Can they be stretched to cover larger political formations such as kingdoms, nation-states, or stellar empires?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

So City Stats, Social Engineering, and Boardrooms and Curia are all infrastructure modeling aids. Can they be stretched to cover larger political formations such as kingdoms, nation-states, or stellar empires?

There may be some thin spots but I think so.
City Stats can handle habitats and larger government models with broad strokes.
Boardroom and Curia can handle companies, govt agencies, etc regardless of size but does not handle populations and such. So the two are compatible with minimal overlap.
Social Engineering then handles the negotations and politics itself.
The missing piece which could be hand waived but I would like to see is raw resource and devolpment. That covers how much food you need and what is required at any given TL (the tech series and Urban Magic help some) and mining, lumber other resource from the land.
I think merchant trade income still has room for a book as well but the above works for anything but a merchant campaign.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by apoc527

Oh man, perfect for my upcoming GURPS Dark*Matter game (which is very much like Illuminati)! Does this kind of replace Illuminati or is that older book still useful?

I don't think it replaces GURPS Illuminati, but it's been many years since I last read it, so I really have no idea whether or not they overlap at all, to say nothing of the extent of any overlap. It's a generic book about organizations, very similar to City Stats. It doesn't get deeply into conspiracies, if that's what you're after.

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

What does red taste like and how many meeples can you get by trading it to the Borg?

Albuquerque.

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

So City Stats, Social Engineering, and Boardrooms and Curia are all infrastructure modeling aids. Can they be stretched to cover larger political formations such as kingdoms, nation-states, or stellar empires?

If you're inclined to read something like "polity" or "district" for "city" in City Stats, you can probably use it as a very abstract way of treating any political unit, and B&C is already broadly scalable. It depends on what you want out of your game, though. The larger the scale, the more abstract it gets, and none of it provides you with a detailed guide to structuring the day to day tasks of people with positions in government or other organizations. That is, B&C (and, to some extent, City Stats when taken together with the city management article from Pyramid) give you an at-a-glance take on the capabilities of the organization/polity, but they don't tell you what the lord high judge or assistant guild master does on a daily basis.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

If you're inclined to read something like "polity" or "district" for "city" in City Stats, you can probably use it as a very abstract way of treating any political unit, and B&C is already broadly scalable. It depends on what you want out of your game, though. The larger the scale, the more abstract it gets, and none of it provides you with a detailed guide to structuring the day to day tasks of people with positions in government or other organizations. That is, B&C (and, to some extent, City Stats when taken together with the city management article from Pyramid) give you an at-a-glance take on the capabilities of the organization/polity, but they don't tell you what the lord high judge or assistant guild master does on a daily basis.

I am inclined to read polity/district/Empire of Sol as 'city' in City Stats.

I am OK with coming up with day to day routines of staff and supplicants/citizens using services/etc of organizations within a populated area on my own. What I would be looking for is how to resolve things between polities or organizations within a polity. Ideally I could use B&C to flesh out the organizations in Space. How much can the Intelligence Service interfere with Law Enforcement? Does someones personal satrapy have the wherewithal to flout functionaries of the Imperial Government? How much are which organizations dependent on others?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

That's okay; I love those kinds of questions, because they're so easy to answer! :-)

What does red taste like and how many meeples can you get by trading it to the Borg? :-0

Also, YAY! It's out.

[Tyneras]

I think this is the first 4E release where I didn't have a clue what it was about from just the title.

Only had a chance to quickly scan through it, but I like what I see so far.

[Refplace]

This book was pretty cool and one I wanted for awhile, pretty much since City Stats.
The Rash modifier is perfect for some silly games, applicable in others too but more fun with slapstick in mind.
Was surprised to see the Green Lantern Corps mentioned by name.
That get a legal pass as a reference or something?
I liked the variety of organizations in the sample chapter.

Overall I would say its about as useful as City stats and glad it referenced other works. The Contact seems a bit off and Patron cost.
Also need to see how it meshes with the Captains Boat article.