What book would you be most interested in?

[johndallman]

I'd have loved Biremes and Triremes three years ago, when it would have been directly useful. I'm playing a DF campaign at present, but we don't have a Thief, and since the campaign is mostly outdoors, aren't missing one badly.

I want both books, but for different reasons.

[Donny Brook]

Character "class" was one reason I chose GURPS over that other game, so I'd prefer the boat book.

[sparcipx]

Boats, definitely.

[ericthered]

Weirdly, most years it would have been the boats, but this year its thieves. I've been doing more DF stuff recently, and more high-tech stuff than low tech stuff.

[mehrkat]

Both.

Another book I would love to see is a Spaceships style book but with different types of vehicle in various time periods.

Vehicles was always just too much for me. Spaceships fit that middle ground just enough but I would love to be able to create other types of vehicle. I know I can create them as characters but the character creation is not really well designed to create vehicles.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by mehrkat

Vehicles was always just too much for me. Spaceships fit that middle ground just enough but I would love to be able to create other types of vehicle. I know I can create them as characters but the character creation is not really well designed to create vehicles.

I've seen lots of people say that. It confuses me; I've used Vehicles without much trouble and with pleasure, but every time I've taken a look at Spaceships I've been unable to make head nor tail of it.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I've seen lots of people say that. It confuses me; I've used Vehicles without much trouble and with pleasure, but every time I've taken a look at Spaceships I've been unable to make head nor tail of it.

I've heard you say this multiple times and I don't quite know why it is so. My best guess is that something you want nailed down first is left til last in Spaceships.

I can do a tutorial build for you or anyone else but it really is pretty simple.

Make a list from 1 to 20. Put Control Room at number 1. All Spaceships must have a Control Room. This includes not just the literal chairs and consoles crew sit at but also basic sensors, computers and maneuvering systems. Control Rooms are necessary even for unmanned vehciles. Yiu can get a price break for doing away with the chairs.

After the system you have to have come the systems you usually want. so you usually put "Armor" in the next 3 slots. One man's "armor" is another man's "sturdy hull". Only vehicles that spend all their time in vacuum and never touch anything else (like space probes) can generally do away with armor..

Now you have 16 slots left. If your Spaceship is going to move you probably need a drive system. If it's going to go fTL you may need a drive for both faster and slower than light.

Drives frequently cause other things to be needed. Fuel is one. Decide how many unts of Delta-V you're goign to need and see how many fuel tanks that's going to take for the drive you selected.

Many drives also need a Power Plant. Such systems are marked with a "!' in their names. Add up how many points of power you're going to need including the possibility of weapons or screens.

Now you probably need Habitat modules for your crew. See how many cabins or bunkrooms a module of Habitat gives you at your expected size (SM). You really didn't need to nail down your SM before this and it can still be easily changed.

Now you can count how many modules you ahve elft and add what you want to until you hit 20. Cargo is likely and Hangar Bays may be needed for ships that can't land. Weapons and defenses are possible and better sensors are too. There are industrila systems for certain kinds of ships too.

Anyway, the most important thing to do is count from 1 to 20.

[jackcelso]

gurps veicules 3 edition is a great book it teach you how to fish. Gurps spaceships 4 ed just give you the fish!!

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I've seen lots of people say that. It confuses me; I've used Vehicles without much trouble and with pleasure, but every time I've taken a look at Spaceships I've been unable to make head nor tail of it.

Personally, I enjoy the Spaceships approach, although being able to go a bit more in-depth would certainly be welcome. I have a partial conversion of Classic Vehicles to a Spaceships-style design system, in no small part for that very purpose. One thing I strongly dislike about Spaceships is the nebulous "Power Point" - for my conversion, I replaced that with the "kW/ton," which equals kilowatts of power generation/consumption per nominal ton of vehicle mass, thus making it a constant value like the PP.

Originally Posted by jackcelso

gurps veicules 3 edition is a great book it teach you how to fish. Gurps spaceships 4 ed just give you the fish!!

More like Classic Vehicles sets you down on a beach with the raw materials to create a fishing pole, fishing line, reel, hook, artificial bait (or the raw materials to create tools for finding and gathering live bait), etc, and some blueprints for said tools; while Spaceships gives you a selection of premade poles, fishing line, reels, hooks, bait, etc, alongside a map of where the fish are and a guide as to which baits and strategies work best for them. You've still got to catch the fish yourself, but the latter makes it easier... although it's also a bit more limited, as you have to use the prefabricated poles, baits, and strategies, and thus can't come up with your own as readily.

Classic Vehicles has a marked advantage in detail and options; Spaceships has a marked advantage in simplicity and usability. Which is ultimately superior depends on the preferences of the user (and the specific use-case - if you need to rig a portion of a city to run off your crashed spaceship's powerplant, knowing how many kW it produces makes things a lot easier than trying to figure it out based on PP).

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Classic Vehicles has a marked advantage in detail and options; Spaceships has a marked advantage in simplicity and usability. Which is ultimately superior depends on the preferences of the user (and the specific use-case - if you need to rig a portion of a city to run off your crashed spaceship's powerplant, knowing how many kW it produces makes things a lot easier than trying to figure it out based on PP).

It's precisely simplicity and usability that it lacks for me. I've tried a couple of times to figure it out, and I've never been able to get a clue how it was meant to be used. Perhaps Fred's cheat sheet will be helpful. But the organization of Vehicles gives me a sense of "first do X, then Y, then Z," whereas Spaceship is just like seeing a box full of parts and not having a clue which ones to put together in what order.