If GURPS did a Kickstarter what would you want it to be?

[Langy]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

Java is losing a lot of love in the tech world because of Oracle's mismanagement of it. Microsoft recently mentioned that Java accounted for 85-90% of malware install on recent versions of Windows and pointed out that the same Java security problems are a threat to MacOS and Linux users as well (and cross-platform Java attacks have been seen in the wild). Also, Oracle trying to monetize Java by bundling the Ask toolbar on every little update is unforgivable. I for one refuse to install it on any computer I own.

Are you talking about Java or Javascript? I can definitely believe that Javascript has lead to a ton of malware installs, but Java shouldn't be any different from any other programming language in that sense.

Plus hasn't GCS pretty much been a dead project for several years now. Last I heard the lead developer quit and no one has been willing to pick it up since then. The few times I've used it it seemed extremely rough and non-intuitive, like it still needed a lot more work to even be considered a beta-quality product.

No; GCS had an update at the beginning of this year, and it's been the opposite of rough and non-intuitive since I started using it years ago. It's a very polished piece of software.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I thought it still had very little support for most GURPS books. Am I wrong?

Probably; it has things for the Action, DF, and MH series, as well as Powers and a few other books - and, more importantly, it can support every single book out of the box if you're willing to create your own advantage or power set. The only feature I can think of that it's definitely lacking is the ability to modify ST-based damage and the lack of decent support for one-attack only striking strength.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Langy

The only feature I can think of that it's definitely lacking is the ability to modify ST-based damage

That seems like a problem.

[panton41]

Originally Posted by Langy

Are you talking about Java or Javascript? I can definitely believe that Javascript has lead to a ton of malware installs, but Java shouldn't be any different from any other programming language in that sense.

The Java web plugin, which is installed by default by the Oracle installer and has to be manually removed (by digging through hidden folders) or disabled (which has become the default behavior for many browsers) is one of the biggest, if not the single biggest, remote-attack security threat today. Java itself has security vulnerabilities which are exposed due to the "wild" by the web plugin. It's as bad as ActiveX ever was, for pretty much exactly the same reasons, except it can affect any browser on any OS that can run Oracle Java.

I've had my wife's computer compromised through a drive-by malware install due to Java (she had it installed for Pogo).

[Langy]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

That was my main problem. Support for books beyond the Basic Set is pretty much non-existent and adding new traits from other books isn't exactly straightforward and has to be done extensively and numerous - sometimes dozens of - times for virtually any character you'd want to make. Thus, it's rough and non-intuitive.

(Not that GCA is particularly intuitive when adding items that aren't already in a data file, especially if the item ends up modifying other items.)

GCS is highly intuitive when adding new traits; I'm not sure why you'd think otherwise. Also, almost all traits from other books are present in the data files. It specifically has stuff from Action, Banestorm, DF, Fantasy, High Tech, Martial Arts, MH, Power Ups, Powers, Psionics, Supers, Ultra Tech, and Vorkosigan Saga. Sure, there are books that it doesn't have data files for, but it has more than just the Basic Set.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by johndallman

You might get 2000 people sign up, but you might only get 300. If it was $20 for a new GCA5, that's somewhere between $6,000 and $40,000, and my guess would be that it would be somewhere in the low end of that range.

You know I just supported Feng Shui 2. It 'only' got 3000 or so supporters. It was only after $8000. Guess how much it got? $180,000+. And I only picked the $10 option, if we had all done that then that would be $30,000. Its the extra content, bonus items and so on that pushes people in for more $$$. And if that particular KS had only had a thousand supporters and raised $20,000. Its not like it wouldnt have happened.


So in the hypothetical world of the SJ Games forums if we want to imagine a $3000 KS with stretch goals all the way up to $100,000 and supporter amounts from $1 to $1,000 thats cool.

[David Johansen]

From what I have seen, the best Kick Starters start with a lower, attainable, goal and build on that. So here's my thoughts on GURPS Kickstarter. First off, at the $10 level you get a 64 page pdf and every additional $10 is good for another 64 page pdf. For every $20 you get one of the 64 page modules. At the $50 level you can get an existing hardback. At $100 you can get a package deal worth $150. $100 seems to be the base pledge sweet spot and people love deals, so we encourage them to pick up the $100 level by making it a deal. At $500 you can pick a 64 page module you want to see made and at $5000 SJG will edit and publish your manuscript for it.

You want the stretch goal rewards close enough to make them attainable and you want to put something much desired at about half of your real goal and the holy grail at the apex. You also need rewards that reward people for upping their pledge, these are usually ad ons that you already have in production.

$5000 - Fantasy Lite - 64 pages of spells and monsters, with paper dungeon tiles and an overleaf of Cardboard Heros. Yes I'm still beating that drum because it's basically a cut and paste job and I believe it would be very good for GURPS. Still, we could do any small project with wide appeal here, Space Opera might be a better fit. I'd probably step GURPS Lite Supplements every five thousand dollars as stretch goals. As an alternate to GURPS Lite supplements it might be possible to do adventures. I'm not sure there's enough demand for adventures. But I think the 64 pages with maps and Cardboard Heroes format would work for those as well. Heck, with a $5000 step level we could do both. Genre specific players books might also work. Lots of potential here but there might be goals to package them into hardbacks and I'm not sure SJG wants to deal with a hundred different little books in the warehouse so these might all be pdfs.

$10000 GURPS Character Assistant.

$50000 GURPS Vehicle Design System

$100000 GURPS On-Line Encyclopedia

$200000 Gold Cross Life Insurance Coverage for Steve Jackson. For every additional $200000 another SJG staffer gets a clone and memory backup.

$500000 GURPS Hard Plastic 1/36 scale miniatures starting with fantasy and adding space opera, supers, spies, fantasy monsters, horror, modern heroes, fantasy civilians, modern civilians, and space opera civilians, and fantasy war machines, space opera vehicles, and modern vehicles one at a time every $50000. My friends at Wargames Factory tell me $50k is very reasonable for mould tooling and figure production these days. I'm not sure it would be worth it to do soft plastic toy soldier style figures. They'd be fun but they'd have to be pretty cheap for people to buy them.

$1000000 Minecraft style (but with better graphics) GURPS MPORG, with hex grid on the ground duh!

$50000000 FREE GURPS LARP IN HAWAII FOR EVERYONE BABY!

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Langy

... Java shouldn't be any different from any other programming language in that sense.

The Java language itself is not a problem, but a Java Runtime Environment is essentially an operating system. It has most of the potential for security holes of any other operating system. Oracle have been fixing holes at every quarterly update, and a few times a year as emergency patches between the quarterly updates. I no longer have Java on my own systems: I don't need it badly enough to be worth the trouble.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

I'd toss in a couple bucks as an investment to a general GURPS fund. A Kickstarter for whatever SJG thinks is best, because they usually surprise me in positive ways.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

$50000000 FREE GURPS LARP IN HAWAII FOR EVERYONE BABY!

Randall Monroe has demonstrated that this would be a disaster of terrible proportions if happened in Rhode Island (where people at the edges can at least escape into neighboring states), I can only imagine how terrible it would be if it was on an actual island.