Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-02-2009, 05:54 PM   #51
Gizensha
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
That people can't just go straight from the stone age to the 21st century is a real thing. The rate of technological advance in a game of Alpha Centauri is pretty radical.
...As someone who, when playing any Civ game, will typically be getting nukes by the 16th century at the latest, I'm inclined to assume that's an artifact of the genre - Without technological setbacks, foreign invasions, civilizations being wiped of the map, and all the other real world set backs technological progression faces, tech progress can be very, very fast (Or not occur at all, depending on stimuli to the civilization)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen View Post
Images need certain properties to be considered actual writing. They need to be regular, above all. If you put a picture of a man on a wall, you haven't written "man". At the very least, you need a standard form of that picture that can be duplicated by others. Cave paintings don't demontrate that.
Though presumably they do qualify as a form of long term, non-verbal, communication, even if they don't actually qualify as written language?
Gizensha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2009, 05:58 PM   #52
Gizensha
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc View Post
Picture the alliance: a shotgun marriage of the bold pioneers with the most bizarre visions and the blindly loyal worker bees with the will to carry anything that seems advantageous to its logical extremes...
So... In terms of the expansion pack factions, and very, very roughly speaking...

...The Cybernetic Consciousness under Aki Zeta-5?
Gizensha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2009, 09:22 PM   #53
Kelly Pedersen
 
Kelly Pedersen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix42 View Post
Btw, does anyone know anything as for a 4th ed. upgrade for Alpha Centauri?
Well, for starters, get GURPS Psionic Powers. It's essentially a conversion of the old-style 3e psionics into 4e terms. Point values will change, but that's for the better - they'll be balanced now.

For equipment, I think you can pretty much use Ultra-Tech with some name changes. Shredders are Gauss pistols, basic lasers are high-energy lasers, flamers are flamers, and impact weapons, of course, are conventional small arms. You have to fiddle a little with the TLs on the pistol-size lasers, and Gauss weapons are technically TL 10, but you can handwave them, since the book explicitly describes shredders as being a bit beyond the colonists`s resources to easily build at Planetfall.
Kelly Pedersen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2009, 09:28 PM   #54
Kelly Pedersen
 
Kelly Pedersen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gizensha View Post
Though presumably they do qualify as a form of long term, non-verbal, communication, even if they don't actually qualify as written language?
Well, yes, of course. This sort of thing is a spectrum, not a binary "this is communicating/this isn't." Cave paintings convey more information than blank rock. But they also convey less information than actual writing would.
Kelly Pedersen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2009, 07:02 AM   #55
HuManBing
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: TIE pilot aboard the ISD Butterball
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Speaking in-universe, the Hive intentionally rejects oldworld morality ("if you refuse to use a technology merely because it reminds you uncomfortably of your own mortality, then you have needlessly and uselessly crippled yourself"). This strikes me as being very similar to the University, which likewise values technological advance higher than moral issues.

If the Hive and the University are to be allies, then you have a fearsome geopolitical situation. The Hive takes care of defense, and although it doesn't have much energy to give to the University, it can definitely churn out supply crawlers and "gift" those to the University in their territory to help them out with secret projects etc.
HuManBing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2009, 09:03 PM   #56
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HuManBing View Post
Speaking in-universe, the Hive intentionally rejects oldworld morality ("if you refuse to use a technology merely because it reminds you uncomfortably of your own mortality, then you have needlessly and uselessly crippled yourself"). This strikes me as being very similar to the University, which likewise values technological advance higher than moral issues.

If the Hive and the University are to be allies, then you have a fearsome geopolitical situation. The Hive takes care of defense, and although it doesn't have much energy to give to the University, it can definitely churn out supply crawlers and "gift" those to the University in their territory to help them out with secret projects etc.
The ideology of the Hive and the University are in existential conflict, though, in other areas. The University is dedicated to 'question everything', the 'argument from authority' is useless with them, while it's the heart and soul of the Hive. The Hive demands that every individual give up his/her separate agenda for the good of the Hive (i.e. the rulers), the University is more likely to see every player trying to 'upgrade' himself.

They can ally, but if both remain true to their ideologies as written it won't be a stable alliance, and it'll be easily 'wedged' by canny rivals.
Johnny1A.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2009, 09:59 PM   #57
Phoenix42
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Mainz, Germany
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen View Post
Well, for starters, get GURPS Psionic Powers. It's essentially a conversion of the old-style 3e psionics into 4e terms. Point values will change, but that's for the better - they'll be balanced now.
Thanks - it's on my list; so far I haven't needed it much (or, rather, thought I needed it - ah well...)
Quote:
For equipment, I think you can pretty much use Ultra-Tech with some name changes. Shredders are Gauss pistols, basic lasers are high-energy lasers, flamers are flamers, and impact weapons, of course, are conventional small arms. You have to fiddle a little with the TLs on the pistol-size lasers, and Gauss weapons are technically TL 10, but you can handwave them, since the book explicitly describes shredders as being a bit beyond the colonists`s resources to easily build at Planetfall.
I've got Ultra-Tech, but didn't find it much use. The tricky thing is that the weapons presented in Ultra-Tech are actually useful, while things like Shredder pistols are supposed to be inherently useless (who needs a weapon that does 3d6 damage in warfare with enemies wearing 20+ armour?), while the "real" Gauss guns are pretty evil, as they should be. As it was I translated the shredder sidearms using the stories as well as the 3rd edition stats as guidelines; ended up with 1d/2d/3d pi- damage (depending on the setting, which can be regulated, with more or less cell power per shot), and maintaining the 12 ROF; absolutely evil against unarmoured enemies (and deadly if using the "6=vitals hit" rule from Martial Arts), but complete rubbish against anyone wearing even the cheapest body armour. That worked quite well, though the group's doc really hated them... wonder why ;)

As for the higher-tech weapons, well, we're still MY 2108, so it might take a while for that *coughs*



As for the Hive discussion: I really think that making the Hive likeable is rather a tricky thing to do, to say the least. The Hive can be understandable and logical, yes - heck, I feel like quoting Shen-Ji Yang every time I go to work; but the kind of nihilism that the higher Hive echelons use is far beyond the evils that Stalinist Russia could have ever come up with. Communism is a good idea with a bad sales rep. Yang-style nihilism is just pure evil, because the individual means nothing whatsoever to the self-styled overmen at the top of the food chain (at least the communists tried to make it look like they were being philanthropist), and is abused, mistreated and used as a gratuitously expendable commodity. In a campaign where the Hive no longer had that kind of thinking, they would cease to be what gives them their name, n'est-ce pas?

Anyway, that's just my opinion...
Phoenix42 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2009, 10:02 PM   #58
mikeejimbo
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gizensha View Post
...As someone who, when playing any Civ game, will typically be getting nukes by the 16th century at the latest
Egad, I hope not to meet you in a dark multiplayer lobby. I can never seem to get them as fast as I used to be able to in the older games.

I'm curious, has anyone run a more simulationist version of this setting? One where players play as, say, the leaders themselves?
mikeejimbo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2009, 10:02 PM   #59
HuManBing
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: TIE pilot aboard the ISD Butterball
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
The ideology of the Hive and the University are in existential conflict, though, in other areas. The University is dedicated to 'question everything', the 'argument from authority' is useless with them, while it's the heart and soul of the Hive. The Hive demands that every individual give up his/her separate agenda for the good of the Hive (i.e. the rulers), the University is more likely to see every player trying to 'upgrade' himself.

They can ally, but if both remain true to their ideologies as written it won't be a stable alliance, and it'll be easily 'wedged' by canny rivals.
Many realworld alliances have been struck where the nations find a point of commonality and leave the differences out of the picture. There's no reason a proposed alliance between Hive and University couldn't work if the GM wants it to.

The University may not care about repression of information in the Hive, as long as they get the manpower, free labor, and protection they need. Bear in mind the University also has drone problems too, above and beyond most other factions (+1 drone in every base) so they may have a far greater degree of sympathy for the Hive than, say, the Peacekeepers (+1 talent in each base: effectively minus 1 drone).

Your points are perfectly valid but you're talking about a hypothetical setting, and many different interpretations are possible.
HuManBing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2009, 10:08 PM   #60
HuManBing
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: TIE pilot aboard the ISD Butterball
Default Re: How is GURPS Alpha Centauri.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix42 View Post
As for the Hive discussion: I really think that making the Hive likeable is rather a tricky thing to do, to say the least.
Absolutely. It's definitely possible, but may be more trouble than it's worth.

Then again, Lucasarts managed to somehow make the Evil Galactic Empire look actually pretty decent and sympathetic in the 1995 game TIE Fighter. That game had some inspired writing and I can imagine the job is not one for the faint-hearted! But definitely doable, if your players are willing to buy into the conceit and view the faction through a different lens altogether.

Edit: I guess my avatar may be a slight giveaway, huh? :)
HuManBing is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
alpha centauri, sci-fi

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:44 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.