Call for Playtesters: GURPS Low-Tech

[Gavynn]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The list you worked from actually did include a randomized cohort: I used Excel to pick names at random. Sorry if I didn't make that clear!

What? Your the Line Editor for a roleplaying game. If you needed a random element I would have though you would have had the decency to throw dice.

:)

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Gavynn

I would have though you would have had the decency to throw dice.

I actually did do that for one playtest! However, it took surprisingly long owing to the number of applications and limited choice of dice sizes. Excel is cool in that it lets you roll d47 and d58.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The list you worked from actually did include a randomized cohort: I used Excel to pick names at random. Sorry if I didn't make that clear!

Omg! LOL

Anyway I'm sure it will be a great 4e book.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The list you worked from actually did include a randomized cohort: I used Excel to pick names at random. Sorry if I didn't make that clear!

Ah. My misunderstanding. You mentioned specific reasons for picking some people out of that batch of 30, so I figured you had specific reasons for all of them.

Bill Stoddard

[Þorkell]

Oh....what did I get myself into...

[Pmandrekar]

Originally Posted by Kromm

For the curious, here are the final closing volumes for several playtests of important core books with which I was involved:

• GURPS Basic Set: 3,292 posts
• GURPS Bio-Tech: 2,332 posts
• GURPS Martial Arts: 3,349 posts
• GURPS Powers: 2,372 posts
• GURPS Space: 1,659 posts
• GURPS Thaumatology: 4,720 posts (!)

These are good to within about ±5%. The error is a consequence of the occasional double-post or accidentally deleted item. If we take the average above, we get 2,954 posts. Volume is definitely linear in list membership, so a 50% increase in list size naively means +1,477 posts to read. It's easy to appreciate how that could cut back on efficiency!

Considering the sheer volume of material to cover, and how much of it is something that can be checked against real life, historical information, I'm bracing for a *really* long playtest.

-P.

[Pmandrekar]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Oh....what did I get myself into...

You should blame the others. As in, the others who encouraged you to apply for the playtest... :)

-P.

[Tzeentch]

Low-Tech material also has the added problem that you can get conflicting, mutually exclusive, results from the same set of material remains. So this project has the issue where both sides can present peer-reviewed material to bolster their case. If you have the old Low Tech good examples of problems are things like interpretation of the Walls of Jericho and the existence of tusseh silk with the Greeks. :)

And we haven't even gotten into the rules aspect of things, and the interplay between Low Tech and High-Tech and Bio-Tech in particular.

[Bruno]

On the plus side, from what I've seen so far the playtesters don't have to send the authors packing and try to rewrite the manuscript this time :D

(far from it, I've not even got to Dan Howard's armor yet, and I'm enjoying myself immensely)

[Tzeentch]

I'm sure there are already draft emails filled with rants against neologisms ("lorica segmentata"), rule contradictions, the lack of aliens, and complaints about how many kW a 5 feet diameter undershot watersheel placed in a stream with 3 mph current will generate.