What book would you be most interested in?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I've seen lots of people say that. It confuses me; I've used Vehicles without much trouble and with pleasure, but every time I've taken a look at Spaceships I've been unable to make head nor tail of it.

I've heard you say this multiple times and I don't quite know why it is so. My best guess is that something you want nailed down first is left til last in Spaceships.

I can do a tutorial build for you or anyone else but it really is pretty simple.

Make a list from 1 to 20. Put Control Room at number 1. All Spaceships must have a Control Room. This includes not just the literal chairs and consoles crew sit at but also basic sensors, computers and maneuvering systems. Control Rooms are necessary even for unmanned vehciles. Yiu can get a price break for doing away with the chairs.

After the system you have to have come the systems you usually want. so you usually put "Armor" in the next 3 slots. One man's "armor" is another man's "sturdy hull". Only vehicles that spend all their time in vacuum and never touch anything else (like space probes) can generally do away with armor..

Now you have 16 slots left. If your Spaceship is going to move you probably need a drive system. If it's going to go fTL you may need a drive for both faster and slower than light.

Drives frequently cause other things to be needed. Fuel is one. Decide how many unts of Delta-V you're goign to need and see how many fuel tanks that's going to take for the drive you selected.

Many drives also need a Power Plant. Such systems are marked with a "!' in their names. Add up how many points of power you're going to need including the possibility of weapons or screens.

Now you probably need Habitat modules for your crew. See how many cabins or bunkrooms a module of Habitat gives you at your expected size (SM). You really didn't need to nail down your SM before this and it can still be easily changed.

Now you can count how many modules you ahve elft and add what you want to until you hit 20. Cargo is likely and Hangar Bays may be needed for ships that can't land. Weapons and defenses are possible and better sensors are too. There are industrila systems for certain kinds of ships too.

Anyway, the most important thing to do is count from 1 to 20.

[jackcelso]

gurps veicules 3 edition is a great book it teach you how to fish. Gurps spaceships 4 ed just give you the fish!!

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Anyway, the most important thing to do is count from 1 to 20.

And now decide where you're going to put things, which aside from weapons (because it affects which directions they can fire in) is really an aesthetic choice unless ship to ship combat is going to be a big thing in your game.