[New Release] Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II

[Steven Marsh]

If I were to start telling you about everything awesome that's in the just-released Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II, I am not at all sure the English language will be able to maintain structural integrity as I tell you about it all. It's got alternate rules for fatigue, a tactical board-game expansion for Mass Combat by David Pulver, a skill-based system for languages, an abstract system for spending that uses a Wealth attribute, plus even more Adfp2345CXZefiht24bfargs klnb dfgdfgjksdfgs l;dfgs gsfjl s dklssdfgl . . .

See?! I warned you! English can't handle it! Pick up this issue, or subscribe today to see what cannot be contained within the bounds of human language!

[Pragmatic]

Deja vu.

Should we roll the other thread into this one?

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

(. . .) I warned you! English can't handle it!

Maybe an alternate language? :)

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Should we roll the other thread into this one?

I'd vote for it.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Deja vu.

Should we roll the other thread into this one?

Nah - this subject pretty much requires an alternate thread.

[Ulzgoroth]

I got the release notification email under the subject line:
"[e23 update] Pyramid #3/43: Thaumatology III"

Er.

[Kuroshima]

This is the official thread, and the other was the unofficial thread.

By the way, I'm disappointed that neither Catalan/Valencian nor Basque are on the languages article, while Galician is...

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

By the way, I'm disappointed that neither Catalan/Valencian nor Basque are on the languages article, while Galician is...

I had to draw the line somewhere, or this issue could easily have become Pyramid #3/44: Great Big Table of Languages With A Little Bit of Alternate GURPS.

If you want to add more languages, they make for a handy worked example:

1. check the group on Ethnologue or Wikipedia - Catalan is Indo-European/Italic for family purposes, and Basque is sui generis, meaning no family bonus in or out.
2. make a decision about similarities - nothing for Basque, I would guess Catalan is something like -3 to Spanish and Italian.
3. check writing system - both use Latin.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

I had to draw the line somewhere, or this issue could easily have become Pyramid #3/44: Great Big Table of Languages With A Little Bit of Alternate GURPS.

If you want to add more languages, they make for a handy worked example:

1. check the group on Ethnologue or Wikipedia - Catalan is Indo-European/Italic for family purposes, and Basque is sui generis, meaning no family bonus in or out.
2. make a decision about similarities - nothing for Basque, I would guess Catalan is something like -3 to Spanish and Italian.
3. check writing system - both use Latin.

I know. I'm a native Catalan/Valencian speaker, who also speaks French and Spanish at Native. Catalan is a rather special language. It has a lot of grammar and vocabulary in common with French (and probably Italian, though I don't know, as I don't speak it.), much more than with Spanish (where it picked some loanwords during the 20th century, when it's use was politically suppressed), but the phonetics are much closer to Spanish than to French. This makes a Catalan text much more readable for a French speaker than to a Spanish speaker, but much more understandable in spoken form for a Spanish speaker than for a French speaker. I haven't checked your article (only given it a quick look), to see if something like this is can work under your
rules.
The thing is, it's strange for me to see that Galician was included, but Catalan/Valencian was not. I thought that Catalan had more speakers than Galician!

EDIT: The Wikipedia gives it 11.5 million speakers, 3 times more than Galician, classes it under Gallo-romance instead of Ibero-romance (confirming what I said above) and has a ratehr good summary if it here.

[Bruno]

From your description, I'd give it the -1/-3 that Icelandic and Faore(sp) got - different for spoken and written, depending on whether you're going to-from French or to-from Spanish.

I confess I also skipped directly to the Bs to look for Basque :) It's a pet interest of mine.