Tech books are cumulative

[transmetahuman]

1) You don't "need" any of the Tech books to play in any setting. They're just very useful. You can just wing it, using the lists in Basic as a beginning frame of reference. Google/Wikipedia the real world objects when something comes up you didn't foresee. Future tech you need to give some thought to, but you can just pick a favorite sci-fi book or series and go by what they have and don't have.

There are hundreds of RPGs in different settings that have a tiny fraction of GURPS's equipment info (if any), and it's never stopped anyone from playing them.

2) Even if you have all three books, I guarantee that at some point you'll want info that none of them have. You'll have to do one of those things up there anyway. One book, two books, or all three, the only thing that changes is how often you have to wing it.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by transmetahuman

You don't "need" any of the Tech books to play in any setting.

Yes, I know that. I've run plenty of games without them. "Needing" isn't the point here. If I said "need," it was only shorthand for "decided that a large equipment selection is desirable and that a pre-published source would be preferable to just making stuff up."

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

So how do YOU use the tech books? Do you use them to build custom equipment lists? Do you find it necessary to use the books from previous tech levels to fill them out?

I don't build custom equipment lists. I let the players loose on them, and consider if stuff is available if it's marginal. I don't often need the earlier tech book.

To put it yet another way: If someone told you they were interested in running a game set in World War II and wanted recommendations on which books to get for equipment rules, would you recommend just High-Tech or both High-Tech and Low-Tech? And you're not recommending something just because it would be nice to have it. It would be because you thought they needed it to accomplish their goal.

Martial Arts plus High-Tech seems quite adequate.

[ericthered]

In most games, I only NEED one tech book, and in a low-combat game, basic can suffice just fine. One player might go and seek out a custom weapon from a non-core book, but they write down everything on their sheet and then we're done.

The exception is bio-tech, which usually needs ultra-tech to go with it, but that's to be expected.

Some Genre's require more books, but you expect infinite worlds to use more of the tech books than other settings.