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Old 05-06-2021, 05:06 PM   #41
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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Originally Posted by ericbsmith View Post
That was part of it, but there were multiple decisions that made Space 4e fall flat. The removal of the sample aliens, which would have been a nice finisher for the Alien Creation chapter. The removal of Spaceships and Equipment (which lost my favorite joke in the book, the inclusion of a Towel in the Equipment chapter). The book just seemed to be expanded to be longer while saying less.
The towel is in High-Tech instead. And yes, that does dilute the joke somewhat.
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Old 05-06-2021, 05:24 PM   #42
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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I rank Space 4e as the worst GURPS book I own. All those pages dedicated to generating empty star systems. There's a case where Kromm should have been more aggressive with his 'not a simulation' policy.
Exactly, I owned 3rd Ed and bought the printed 4th Ed years late on Amazon, only to find out, that most things I loved ship building, space combat, working samples etc, was replaced with what you write. Im a great GURPS fan, but I will have to the next kickstarter to buy Spaceships until buying Space makes any sense.

Dr. Kromm had to be MUCH more aggressive in that point, I“m still reading Space through from time to time, I stopped once I found out that nearly half of the book is for things that are much to detailed for common use.

Here it would have made sense to give the basic points in Space and add all the big rest into 2 supplements like Planet creation / Alien creation for advanced users. Instead it lack important parts for any space campaign.

Last edited by Willy; 05-06-2021 at 05:25 PM. Reason: spelling error
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Old 05-06-2021, 07:20 PM   #43
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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Emphasis added. Or maybe I'm the one not getting the joke?
I don't consider Powers a core book. To my mind, there are several books that are major extensions of the core books: GURPS Martial Arts, GURPS Powers, GURPS Social Engineering, and GURPS Thaumatology, at a minimum (and I suppose GURPS Magic, but it really needs to be cleaned up). But I wouldn't pick any one of them out as THE third core book. And having six or seven core books seems a bit much.
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Old 05-06-2021, 07:21 PM   #44
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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The thing that I really like about Spaceships is the very thing that I was initially very sceptical about - that every ship, regardless of size, has twenty systems. That turns out to be enough to give good flexibility but not so many I can't keep track of them in my head. Thus I can work out roughly what a ship should look like in my head whilst on a walk or doing chores.
I can't do that even with the book right in front of me.
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Old 05-06-2021, 07:22 PM   #45
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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Emphasis added. Or maybe I'm the one not getting the joke?
I really think you're the only one who considers Powers a core book.
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Old 05-06-2021, 07:33 PM   #46
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I really think you're the only one who considers Powers a core book.
I'd call it a 3rd core book. You can certainly do without it, but it expands greatly on advantages, modifiers, and provides tons of working examples.

That last bit is really what makes it more like a "core" book. I've had quite a few players that flipped to the examples and said "cool, I want that" or ended up with similar abilities that came from those chapters.
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Old 05-06-2021, 07:51 PM   #47
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

I actually really love gurps space, and was considering putting it on my list of 3. Maybe because its the first gurps book I got. It has really solid pieces in it. The things I keep coming back to are the alien generation tables and the templates in the back (which are some of the best templates for modern day play). The discussion of the various genres are really good, and the advice on structuring a campaign in a "genre" that can go so many different ways really helped when I was first looking beyond basic dungeon crawling.

The system generation is excessive, though I'll admit I've coded automated versions of it, and occasionally use them.
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Old 05-06-2021, 08:04 PM   #48
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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The system generation is excessive, though I'll admit I've coded automated versions of it, and occasionally use them.
I've done the system generation a number of times, just for fun. I've tried that with the alien race creation, but I don't find the results satisfying, most of the time. Space was one of the books I had to consciously choose not to include.
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Old 05-06-2021, 08:36 PM   #49
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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Exactly, I owned 3rd Ed and bought the printed 4th Ed years late on Amazon, only to find out, that most things I loved ship building, space combat, working samples etc, was replaced with what you write. Im a great GURPS fan, but I will have to the next kickstarter to buy Spaceships until buying Space makes any sense.

Dr. Kromm had to be MUCH more aggressive in that point, I“m still reading Space through from time to time, I stopped once I found out that nearly half of the book is for things that are much to detailed for common use.

Here it would have made sense to give the basic points in Space and add all the big rest into 2 supplements like Planet creation / Alien creation for advanced users. Instead it lack important parts for any space campaign.
I just pulled it out to look at it after posting and I discovered Kromm is not credited on it at all. So I guess that was part of the problem.
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Old 05-06-2021, 08:45 PM   #50
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Default Re: Name your top 3 Gurps books of all time and why?

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The towel is in High-Tech instead. And yes, that does dilute the joke somewhat.
To the point where it tastes almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
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