GURPS Does It The Hard Way!

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

Wow! I dont even know how you could say that seriously.

Nymdok

There are several permutations for each genre, but it basically boils down to those few. Even if you play anthropomorphic bunnies, thats fantasy, surely?

That long list of 48 different types of settings were all just variations on those few themes. Traveller during the imperium, Dune, Aliens, Predator, Star Trek, its all sci fi, and they could all use a sci fi scenario in some way.

[Lord Carnifex]

All right, ambulate solveram.

I've been ruminating for some time about subitting something to SJ Games, but thus far, I haven't found anything on the wishlist I felt good about writing. I'm not really into it for the money, I just want to build a portfolio.

Ergo, I'd be happy to write a pre-fab scenario and see if TPTB feel it's good enough and marketable enough to accept.

I'll do this with one caveat: I'd like to have ten users on this forum agree on what it is they want.

1) What genre, and what generic or specific setting assumptions?

2) What TL?

3) Where on the gritty realism to four-color cinematic spectrum?

4) What CP level for PC's?

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Originally Posted by PrinceYyrkoon

That long list of 48 different types of settings were all just variations on those few themes. Traveller during the imperium, Dune, Aliens, Predator, Star Trek, its all sci fi, and they could all use a sci fi scenario in some way.

(Im quoting myself here, sorry!) But that little scenario idea I mentioned earlier, about the search for an artifact, could be good for all of those sci fi settings. For instence, Aliens or Predators could take the part of the xenomorph enemy.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by PrinceYyrkoon

Everyone talks about settings being so varied, but they boil down to fantasy, scifi, modern, horror and alternate history, surely. There not that many genres with gaming possibilities.

If you define it at that level of resolution, sure. But consider that GURPS has Traveller (classic interstellar space adventure with human characters) and Transhuman Space (limited to the solar system, but with transhumanist options all over the landscape) and Vorkosigan (space opera in a world where independent states range from smaller than a planet to a few solar systems, and with a strong biotech emphasis). Doing a crossover between any two of these would be difficult at best. And yet I imagine you would class all three as "scifi."

Bill Stoddard

[PrinceYyrkoon]

1) What genre, and what generic or specific setting assumptions?

I dont mind. As long as its entertaining.

2) What TL?

Again, dont mind.

3) Where on the gritty realism to four-color cinematic spectrum?

Im easy!

4) What CP level for PC's?

Dont mind!

[Graham]

Originally Posted by PrinceYyrkoon

That would be the ideal exactly. I would say four or five books, one for each genre.

Again, this might be the key market here. New players. Perhaps old hands don't pick up adventures, because, as discusssed, they're looking for something more specific. Perhaps new players don't pick up adventures because, let's face it, nothing on e23 is yelling "take up GURPS because I exist".

Is it possible that a dedicated page on e23 or the main site for new players, with ready-to-run material, would tap into a new source of revenue, and so not be bound by the arguments given above?

How do you get from where we are now to there? Probably by getting, somehow, that elusive string of adventures for one of the published settings books. But it would seem to make sense that a single book that only needed the Basic Set would be the most likely to sell in this way.

Graham

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Originally Posted by whswhs

If you define it at that level of resolution, sure. But consider that GURPS has Traveller (classic interstellar space adventure with human characters) and Transhuman Space (limited to the solar system, but with transhumanist options all over the landscape) and Vorkosigan (space opera in a world where independent states range from smaller than a planet to a few solar systems, and with a strong biotech emphasis). Doing a crossover between any two of these would be difficult at best. And yet I imagine you would class all three as "scifi."

Bill Stoddard

Well, there are scenario possibilities which would be suitable for all, arent there? I can imagine a few. Just think of something like Ice Station Zebra. Or The Tempest. Or Dark Star. Or At the Mountains of Madness. Or Forbidden Planet. Or Ran. Or Red Nails. Or, you get the idea.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by PrinceYyrkoon

There are several permutations for each genre, but it basically boils down to those few. Even if you play anthropomorphic bunnies, thats fantasy, surely?

Well, not necessarily. You could have an anthropomorphic bunnies campaign in the world of Steve Gallacci's Albedo, which is fairly hard science fiction. Or you could set them in the world of the 1940s (modern realism)—there was a movie about that. . . .

And conversely, anthropomorphic bunnies would fit hopelessly badly into most fantasy campaigns. I mean, try it with literary sources. Conan visits the valley of the anthropomorphic bunnies! The Fellowship of the Ring pass through a kingdom peopled by bunnies! Harry Potter spends a year as an exchange student at l'Académie St.-Lapin! . . . and in each case the clash of tone destroys any chance of taking the campaign seriously.

Bill Stoddard

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by PrinceYyrkoon

Again, the issue is simple. Less setting material, more adventure material.

Well, in the switch over to 4e SJ Games has dropped support for hundreds of settings.

Everyone talks about settings being so varied, but they boil down to fantasy, scifi, modern, horror and alternate history, surely. There not that many genres with gaming possibilities.

You can classify them as roughly as you like, but that doesn't make it possible to write an adventure that will work in every possible "scifi" campaign. These genres are diverse, and adventures have to be specific if they are not to leave the GM with a mountain of prep.

My home-brew SF setting is so like the official Traveller setting in some ways that by some accounts it essentially is Traveller. But if you tried to take 9,401 (a successful adventure I designed for a con) and run it in the Third Imperium it would go all pear-shaped. Teh basic situation could occur in the Third Imperium, but there's no equivalent of the Independent Commission for Justice. And you couldn't even begin to set in in Transhuman Space or Tales of the Solar Patrol, because those are set in this solar system without interstellar travel so you can't plunk in a planet like Cockaigne. And setting the adventure in Reign of Steel is just laughable. All science fiction.

The same is true in other broad genres. I could not run any generic fantasy adventure in my homebrew fantasy setting without a total re-write. You can't run a cozy adventure in a hard-boiled PI campaign. You can't run an In Nomine adventure in a Call of Cthulhu campaign.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by PrinceYyrkoon

Well, there are scenario possibilities which would be suitable for all, arent there? I can imagine a few. Just think of something like Ice Station Zebra. Or The Tempest. Or Dark Star. Or At the Mountains of Madness. Or Forbidden Planet. Or Ran. Or Red Nails. Or, you get the idea.

But the NPCs have to work equally well in all three. So you can't have any of the AIs and bioroids that are central to THS, or anyone with a Vor in his name, or anyone who's served in the Imperial Marines . . . because each of those is impossible in two of the three settings. You end up with something so generic that it utterly lacks flavor.

If by "scenario" you mean simply "plot skeleton than can be migrated between settings," then yes. But to do the migration, you're going to have to spend a lot of work making it fit the background, and redefining the NPCs to suit the point level and the assumed background. And I think that by the time you've built in that flexibility you no longer have a scenario but an "adventure seed."

Bill Stoddard