Does GURPS need original-setting world books?

[Highland_Piper]

I'd be happy to sink my paychecks into a regular release of Adventure Modules for GURPS.

[Caleban]

I'm beginning to think that the problems I have with GURPS original-setting books stems mostly from presentation and focus. What I look for in a setting book is:

• The metaphysics. Not restricted to philosophic terms but the rules of the underlying fiction (i.e. time travel in this setting can/can't create paradoxes). In my opinion the highest priority should be on internal consistency.

• A creation story is not necessary for every type of story but can they go a long way towards setting the tone in a fantasy setting. For an example see the creation story of The Elder Scrolls (read the section on ...the Tower in the preceding link).

• A map is extremely useful.

• Logical extrapolation of the above items gives you the people, places and happenings which would make up the bulk of the rest of the text: cultural details (i.e. orcs believe that by destroying this existence they will transcend their mortal existence therefore they have no redeeming qualities to civilized races); brief descriptions of current important figures; and a history is an absolute must.

Notice that there is little in the way of rules crunch in what I am looking for in a setting. I think those items are best placed in a genera book (i.e. in the Fantasy book rather than the Banestorm book).
I don't think it would need much more than 200 pages. If the setting sold well by all means put out a supplement which might add more details to lands or previous eras if you think they will sell. I would more interested in having a couple of core (fantasy) settings than buying a lot of supplements for any individual one.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Kromm

SJ Games has never broken 30 employees that I know of, has often dipped below 20 heads...

How do you count the reptoids then?

;)


"Freelance Reptoids" would be a fine name for a band.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It simply isn't true that GURPS has never had a supported successful setting, (unless your definition of support or success is much more stringent than mine).

How many books does it take to support a setting?

I think that for many GMs it isn't a matter of world books but of adventure modules. A single book is enough if it is supported by a series of adventures or dungeons that a GM can run without having to do homework, and an Encyclopaedia Transhumanatica in thirty volumes wouldn't be enough if they still had to design their own adventures, draw their own floorplans, and stat their own NPCs.

How successful must a setting be?

Successful enough that a GM can find a group of keen players who are familiar with the internal soap opera and ready to start on Saturday. In, say, a typical provincial city of 250,000 people.

Caleban, how is THS not a "supported original setting" for GURPS?

Can he run a session every fortnight by reading boxed text? If not, it isn't supported enough. Can he find a group to play in his city? If not, it isn't successful enough.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I think that for many GMs it isn't a matter of world books but of adventure modules. A single book is enough if it is supported by a series of adventures or dungeons that a GM can run without having to do homework, and an Encyclopaedia Transhumanatica in thirty volumes wouldn't be enough if they still had to design their own adventures, draw their own floorplans, and stat their own NPCs.

Well it does have 3 published adventures, which is only 2 less than Eberron (one of his cited examples).

Successful enough that a GM can find a group of keen players who are familiar with the internal soap opera and ready to start on Saturday. In, say, a typical provincial city of 250,000 people..

I'm not sure that's possible with the settings he listed, if we are assuming that these players are strangers.

My point is I think the OPs problem isn't that GURPS doesn't have a supported setting; it's that it doesn't have a supported setting he likes.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

I hate to quibble, but they do. The Champions Universe has received a lot of support from HERO for a long time.

Sorry, I was unclear. By "big setting" I meant a setting that is extensively supported and widely played, like Traveller, Greyhawk, Ebberon, or the Warhammer 20K universe. If you wrote a list of the ten settings that it'seasiest to find players for, and the ten settings you can GM for longest without doing your own prep, the Champions Universe wouldn't be on either.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

My point is I think the OPs problem isn't that GURPS doesn't have a supported setting; it's that it doesn't have a supported setting he likes.

I think you are probably right.

This brings us on to KROMM's point. SJG work on GURPS has been stressing "generic" for twenty years. It has collected a contingent of fans who are attracted to genericity because they like variety in their RPG, or because they favour settings that happen to be little-known or little-liked, or both. We are a heterogeneous bunch with wild and wacky tastes, and no one setting is going to appeal to even a tenth of us.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

SJG work on GURPS has been stressing "generic" for twenty years. It has collected a contingent of fans who are attracted to genericity because they like variety in their RPG, or because they favour settings that happen to be little-known or little-liked, or both. We are a heterogeneous bunch with wild and wacky tastes, and no one setting is going to appeal to even a tenth of us.

He has a point. Even the Verne/Supers setting I've been working on off-and-on for a decade has Horror, Steampunk, and Wild West elements. We're a bunch of eccentrics. Large, well-detailed settings are for more conservative, conformist sorts.

A setting book is a useful resource, mostly as a source for new concepts. But any setting I get a hold of, I begin modifying. Does anyone here crack open a new setting and NOT immediately think, "This would be better with/without this or that"?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Does anyone here crack open a new setting and NOT immediately think, "This would be better with/without this or that"?

Not I, that's for sure.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

SJG work on GURPS has been stressing "generic" for twenty years. It has collected a contingent of fans who are attracted to genericity ...

Oooooh baby, take vaguely to me!

;^P