What needs to be done for GURPS 4E THS?

[Gaidheal]

Hi!

I apologize if I have missed a huge thread somewhere on this but my searching hasn't turned up a complete answer, so I'm asking this outright.

I ignored GURPS, pretty much, for the first three editions, for various reason but am now the proud owner of 4E almost exclusively off the back of THS, actually. Somehow I missed THS when it first came out but a year or so ago I came across it (and discovered some old uni friends had even been involved in some of the books), was extremely impressed, bought GURPS 4E and tracked down the THS main rulebook. I'm in the process of acquiring the other books I want (High Frontier and In the Well, primarily) but clearly it was all originally written for 3E.

I'm sure it is not a huge problem and I know about Changing Times (and I have been able to skim a friend's electronic copy) but what are the issues for the THS books with the change in rulesets, how might I best go about using the older texts and what should I consider doing, in addition to getting hold of Changing Times?

I already have the latest Ultra-Tech, Bio-Tech and shortly will have the modern day tech one (name escapes me as I type this), just to save you advising me about those. :¬)

[whswhs]

Shell-Tech is a big help if you want a campaign with lots of characters in cybershells or bioshells.

Bill Stoddard

[Gaidheal]

Aye, thanks for pointing that out but I forgot to mention that I have access to that through the friend, I figure that will be enough if I don't get it myself - most of the time the shells come up at character creation or when I'm prepping 'bad guys', I'd have thought.

Really, I am wondering about the nitty-gritty, like how the stats have altered and if there are wellknown pitfalls when trying to use the older stuff. I'll end up with a lot of 'notes' for character creation as it is, since I can't expect my players to chug through book after book to find what they need and I'll keeping some things out of reach.

[sir_pudding]

Except for the trimmed version of VE2 that appeared in In The Well and the spacecraft almost everything is covered by Changing Times and Shell-Tech. The next installment of GURPS Spaceships is supposed to have conversions of all the published spacecraft.

[Gaidheal]

Ah, okay. It's likely not too bad then. I tend to run 'vehicle light' games, as in; "It's a space bus guys, you get to Mars after a couple of days of increasing boredom... so, what now?"

Partly because unless it's the first time they have travelled in this way or their characters happen to be the C22 equivalent of 'train spotters', they probably neither notice nor care about the nitty gritty with the vehicles and partly because I find that narrative-based, abstract, vehicle combat works best for avoiding lots of tedious rolling and arguments about who gets hit where and what the relative speeds and positions are.

[Whome?]

Oh - I just LOVE Transhuman Space - the main book is by far the best produced main book I've ever bought.

I bought "Changing Times" myself - with that you are good to go.

The Gurps regular converstion guide helps also:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-2.html#SS2.4

As does this guide:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/ludography.html

Basically, most of the worldbooks are filled with background information and converstion is easily accomplished.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Gaidheal

Really, I am wondering about the nitty-gritty, like how the stats have altered and if there are wellknown pitfalls when trying to use the older stuff.

There are plenty of character creation issues, but they're all very well covered in Changing Times. If you have access to Shell-Tech, you don't even have to bother converting over all of the 'shell templates, which is about the only essential thing that CT couldn't cover. (It got a few, but not all.)

Now, outside of character creation, there's tech, but most personal tech doesn't really change stats at all -- a handheld scanner doesn't change in price or weight just because the new edition came out. Weapons do, but the common ones are covered in CT, and you can use Ultra-Tech for the rest.

The rest of the game is basically edition-independent stuff -- setting, info, ideas, etc. CT has a wealth of wonderful THS GMing advice, so you're good there, but I'd like to strongly recommend checking out the Personnel Files series. Each one is a campaign-in-a-box, ready to go, with premade characters -- or you can use it as a part of the setting, with detailed NPCs ready to go. Pyramid #15 was the Transhuman Space edition as well, and it had a metric ton of ideas to drop into any game, adding flavors from action to horror to realism. All useful for any THS GM -- this setting can be a bit tricky to run games in (there's so much to take into account), so it can be nice to get some help. :)

Originally Posted by Gaidheal

Ah, okay. It's likely not too bad then. I tend to run 'vehicle light' games, as in; "It's a space bus guys, you get to Mars after a couple of days of increasing boredom... so, what now?"

Okay, then you don't need Spaceships. The information on spacecraft from the 3e books will serve fine if ships are a 'backdrop'. In fact, you can even use the 3e ship movement and combat rules if you need to . . . but if (and only if) you find yourself regularly needing to break them out, I strongly recommend picking up GURPS Spaceships and GURPS Spaceships 8: Transhuman Spacecraft, as the systems there are so much easier to use than the old THS ones.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

strongly recommend picking up GURPS Spaceships and GURPS Spaceships 8: Transhuman Spacecraft, as the systems there are so much easier to use than the old THS ones.

As soon as Spaceships 8 comes out that is.

[Gaidheal]

I'm a dyed in the wool simulationist, when it comes to vehicle movement, so there will be no space combat (or at least, none that is not simply a description of what happens or some rolls to avoid the worst personal outcomes for each character, followed by a description of what happened). Anything else and I am strongly compelled to calculate real vectors... and we all know that cannot end well. ;¬)

Okay, excellent. It sounds like I'm not missing any horrible pitfalls, so just need to get comfortable GURPS and have proper plot and NPCs. I've glanced at the personnel files and they do look interesting, actually but I freelance similar stuff myself, so unless I am very bored, pushed for time or out of ideas I'll probably mostly do it myself. I'm probably going to run a taster game for the group around EDI and Exogenesis - the PCs might even straddle both sides, depending on how adventurous I'm feeling. That way I can put some of the issues of the setting over but sweeten the deal with some combat, flash toys and characters that can be allowed to die, disappear or whatever if they want another concept when I kick the real campaign off.

[PK]

Originally Posted by lachimba

As soon as Spaceships 8 comes out that is.

Yeah, I probably should've mentioned that, but if it's any consolation, SS8 is moving through the production process steadily and with few problems. I don't have an ETA to give, but I'd expect that it'd be out by the time the OP were to realize whether he needed it -- that is, after he's been running his game for long enough to know whether spacecraft movement and combat are going to be enough of a factor that a dedicated system was necessary.