GURPS Equipment?

[hal]

Just a thought...

Would anyone purchase a GURPS EQUIPMENT pdf if it were ever offered?

It would be nice to have a compendium of equipment listed by tech level and by page reference if already in a GURPS publication. It might be nice to have added equipment above and beyond.


Just a thought

[Phantasm]

How would this be different from the various -Tech books?

[Daigoro]

I imagine it'd just be all the equipment tables ever made without any other text.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I imagine it'd just be all the equipment tables ever made without any other text.

It would largely be a combination of both a "reference" work to locate equipment already published, and in addition, listing other types of equipment. It wouldn't necessarily be another "Tech" book per se, but would simply list things like:

Battle Dress Uniform: $60, 2 lbs
Polo Shirt: $12, 1 lb
Table Saw: $150, 10 lbs

(pulling numbers out of thin air for illustration purposes only).

The idea would be to have a list of things without necessarily needing a lot of description for the item in question. If GURPS ACTION 1 HEROES already has a sleeping bag (don't know if it does!) listed, then the Compenium might say:

Sleeping bag: $70, 5 lbs, GA1:H pg 28

(again, pulling numbers out of thin air for illustration purposes!)

It would be something that would be worth working on perhaps. If SJGames is not interested in something like that, maybe someone with time on their hands (such as myself) might start a database in Excel, that lists all of that information. I'd create it for my own use initially (as there is no law against that!), but if I were to share it, it would have to have the good graces of SJGames.

As evidenced in another thread elsewhere, I attempted to look up MRE's using the search function in multiple GURPS documents, and failed to find it in GURPS HIGH TECH. Finding the equipment in GURPS ACTION 1 HEROES helped a LOT with some things, but it would be nice to have everything in one place readily available at one's fingertips.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by hal

It would largely be a combination of both a "reference" work to locate equipment already published, and in addition, listing other types of equipment. It wouldn't necessarily be another "Tech" book per se, but would simply list things like:

Battle Dress Uniform: $60, 2 lbs
Polo Shirt: $12, 1 lb
Table Saw: $150, 10 lbs

I don't know why I'd need that in 2017. If I want to know the prices for things like that, there are a lot of stores with online catalogs. Checking amazon, I find table saw, 67 lbs., $218; polo shirt, no weight given, $18; battle dress uniform jacket, 1 lb., $80.

[hal]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't know why I'd need that in 2017. If I want to know the prices for things like that, there are a lot of stores with online catalogs. Checking amazon, I find table saw, 67 lbs., $218; polo shirt, no weight given, $18; battle dress uniform jacket, 1 lb., $80.

And that route requires that you take the time to compile such a list - which is no biggie for those of us who aren't lazy... ;)

Unfortunately, it also causes concern about how accurate values given in GURPS sources really are.

For instance? We looked up the 10x25mm Auto bullets online. One place was selling them for about $19 for 50 bullets (not including S&H I suspect). It dropped by as much as $2 for bulk orders of boxes in excess of 20+ (for a total of $17 x 21 = $357 for 21x50 or 1050 bullets. That works out to a per bullet cost of $.34 per round. At $19 per 50 bullets, that works out to $.38 per round (Vs GURPS $.6). Could the prices have been 60 cents a bullet when GURPS HIGH TECH for 4e first came out? Absolutely. It may have been a new round just hitting the market, or perhaps there had been a spike in prices at that time. Hard for me to know.

In any event, this is an idea - whether anything comes of it, is another question.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by hal

For instance? We looked up the 10x25mm Auto bullets online. One place was selling them for about $19 for 50 bullets (not including S&H I suspect). It dropped by as much as $2 for bulk orders of boxes in excess of 20+ (for a total of $17 x 21 = $357 for 21x50 or 1050 bullets. That works out to a per bullet cost of $.34 per round. At $19 per 50 bullets, that works out to $.38 per round (Vs GURPS $.6). Could the prices have been 60 cents a bullet when GURPS HIGH TECH for 4e first came out? Absolutely. It may have been a new round just hitting the market, or perhaps there had been a spike in prices at that time. Hard for me to know.

That's off by less than a factor of 2. By my standards that counts as "spot on."

There is a thing that I call "close enough for gaming." It may not be exactly right, but it doesn't produce obviously absurb results. Your ammunition example is exactly the kind of thing I would approach that way.

And I'd also note that the current U.S. dollar is not necessarily the same as a GURPS $. The purchasing power of money changes over time. Not to mention that individual commodity prices fluctuate. If you get everything exhaustively right in a document that comes out 1 January 2018, by 1 July 2018 you'd have slippage and within a couple of years some unpredictable subset of your prices would be wrong. Updating every year or so would be a pretty big job. "Close enough" is close enough.

Or, instead of compiling the whole list, you can just keep your tablet at hand, and when a question comes up, you go online and look for a price.

[Refplace]

So what you really talking about is an index.
Organize it by TL and type (camping, vehicle, weapon, etc) and I would be interested but would prefer new gear books.
Something like Pulver hints at in his UT books and Ryuu does on his blog would especially be interesting. Not just stats but flavor by manufacturer or culture with different models of the same basic equipment.
Adds flavor and saves time customizing gear.

[David Johansen]

Can't just use the Sears Catalog next year eh?

Well, if you really want a point by point catalog, see if you can find ICE's And a Ten Foot Pole. I think it might even be available in POD but if you're the kind of GM that wants to know how much a sewing needle is worth, it's the book for you.

[Stone Dog]

I'd buy a compendium of gear by genre and/ or TL that was mainly or entirely mechanical reference and no dissertation or discussion. It sounds like a useful topic.