Reviewer gives GURPS Space substance 3 out of 5

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Der Wanderer

At overlap: I personally think it is very annoying that I need both Basic and Power for every advantage I want to look up and would have preferred if they repeated the whole advantage section from Basic in Powers to have everything complete in one place (IMO they could have dropped the whole example part). On the other hand the small spell list in Basic is a waste of paper and would better have been left out.

Whereas I'd have been peeved if Powers had wasted so many pages on repreated material when it was already a very, very tight fit. As for removing the examples - they are, IMO, the most valuable part of the book. Good worked examples showing how to make particular powers from the available advantages are something that's been lacking previously. Heck, it's a problem with many point-build games with powers, and I'm really pleased it's no longer a problem for GURPS. Including a whole bunch of ~50-point powers ready to 'drop in' was a stroke of genius, IMO.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by KDLadage

Because any trimmed down version of the Starship design system and the Combat System would require that the book know what choices you made of the hundreds that are presented to define the campaign itself. In other words -- it would be fine for one set of those assumptions and completely useless for any other possible set of assumptions the campaign could make. This is why you split these things up.

Which would by why Traveller - Interstellar Wars, clearly a worldbook, has a ship design system and set of space combat rules. It has a certain set of assumptions, and those systems can be written to accomodate them. I suspect that being able to publish the game now, rather than much later after the rules for vehicle design and any expanded space combat rules had been published was an added benefit.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Fundamentally, it comes down to a difference of opinion between those who think that the essence of space gaming is "detailed numbers and mechanics, doing all the math" and those who think the essence is "spaceships are a handwave to get from A to B -- A and B had better be interesting." We sided with the latter group, since evidence suggested that 3e's focus on the former led to the "GURPS is scary" reputation.

It's all Traveller's fault. Way back when, those Little Black Books were published with a space ship design system, and ever since then a book on, or a set of rules for, 'space' roleplaying has not been complete unless it had one.

I remember discussing this with a friend back when Traveller: The New Era first came out, and we both felt that it was incomplete without the Brilliant Lances box (or Fire, Fusion, & Steel when it finally came out), because it had no ship design rules. It wasn't that they were needed for the game - it had enough ships detailed for play, and a useable space combat system - but we needed to know that if we did want to design a ship, we could. 'Classic' Traveller and its imitators, admirers, and other the SFRPGs that followed it had indoctrinated us withthis belief.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by KDLadage

Good call. Can someone please put this in a FAQ -- and while you are at it, on the book pages, include which of these catagories each book falls into.

Heck, you may even want to start color-coding the book spine text to indicate what catagory they belong to.

The product numbers on the spines are a fair clue:

01-000X means "core rules"
01-010X means "rule book", or (from Bio-Tech and Ultra-Tech) "catalog"
01-100X means "genre book"
01-200x means "worldbook"

The exception is IW, which is numbered 01-2401, which may means that 01-240X means "Traveller licenced book".

[dravenloft]

Originally Posted by Rupert

The product numbers on the spines are a fair clue:

01-000X means "core rules"
01-010X means "rule book", or (from Bio-Tech and Ultra-Tech) "catalog"
01-100X means "genre book"
01-200x means "worldbook"

The exception is IW, which is numbered 01-2401, which may means that 01-240X means "Traveller licenced book".

~blink blink~ are you serious? ~checking my 4e books~ Well, whaddya know! cool!

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Almafeta

And I dare anyone to use the three starship 'designs' in 4e's Basic Set as the only ships available in a campaign. (Games modeled after Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, or Star Wars are right out.)

No, games modeled on the ship to ship combats parts of those movies and TV series currently require more work by the GM. Those that do not involve the PCs in ship-ship combat can be modeled after your examples without difficulty.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by dravenloft

~blink blink~ are you serious? ~checking my 4e books~ Well, whaddya know! cool!

I noticed when I got IW - I have the 4e books in a pile beside my monitor, and I was entertaining myself sorting them by 'tech level', and then by publication date. Then I noticed that the product numbers followed a different pattern - 'type'.

I've been trying to work out if Fantasy and Magic having the same colour for their spine and cover text has any great significance. Also, they are yellow, as is Characters, though of different shades, so does this mean that Campaigns, Space, and Powers being some shade of blue has some deep meaning? ;)

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I noticed when I got IW - I have the 4e books in a pile beside my monitor, and I was entertaining myself sorting them by 'tech level', and then by publication date. Then I noticed that the product numbers followed a different pattern - 'type'.

I've been trying to work out if Fantasy and Magic having the same colour for their spine and cover text has any great significance. Also, they are yellow, as is Characters, though of different shades, so does this mean that Campaigns, Space, and Powers being some shade of blue has some deep meaning? ;)

...
<looks for hidden camera>
OK, this is starting to sound like some kind of Hitean phenomenon :/ 'Lo, Ken :)

Well, it should be a word :|

[Qoltar]

Hey ...as for me ...I'll buy anything that has the names Loren K. Wiseman, William H. Stoddard OR Sean Punch on them. And when those names overlap as writer & Editer on a book...or as co-authors , I get especially interested.

AND , as both a reff and player of "Classic TRAVELLER" back when it was NEW - let me stick up for the 3rd/e and 4th/e versions of GURPS:SPACE. Both had or have very good star system creation systems.

Obviously, if you read the other sections you already know that I prefer the GURPS version of the TRAVELLER universe.

- E.W. Charlton

[zogo]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Hey ...as for me ...I'll buy anything that has the names Loren K. Wiseman, William H. Stoddard OR Sean Punch on them. And when those names overlap as writer & Editer on a book...or as co-authors , I get especially interested.

My must buy List is Bill Stoddard, David Pulver, and Kenneth "weird uncle Ken" Hite.