Pyramid #3/94: Spaceships III

[PK]

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