GURPS Spaceships 5: Boldly Going

[Langy]

There are no new modules or build options, just new rules. There's about fourteen pages of new rules and 24 pages of spacecraft. The closest thing to a new 'build option' are the sensor drones/probes. It also mentions nanostasis, growth tanks, relativistic travel and time dilation, the small upper stage, and a likely mars mission scenario in the 24 pages of spacecraft. Probably adds up to one extra page of rules and one less pages of spaceships.

[davester65]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

I've been trying to convince a Trekker friend to play GURPS and the PALOMAR-Class Exploration Cruiser (pp 12-13) is pretty obviously a TNG-era Federation ship. I've been telling him Star Trek would be easy to do, now I can prove it.

Now if we can only figure out how to stat phasers... (Or as I vote toss them out as unrealistic and make my Federation more realistic that Roddenberry's...)

I always figured phasers were like disintegrators, but with a stun option.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

So far, I've been rather disappointed by the low number of new modules and systems in PDFs 2, 3 and 4. I want more options.

What options are you lacking with the main rules? The intent of Spaceships 2-8 has always been "mainly new ships, with a few new rules, and maybe a design option or two that doesn't have general appeal." The reason for this is that all the design options that are generally useful should have been included in the original GURPS Spaceships! To publish a core book and then say, "But to get all the systems you might need in a game, you really have to get each supplement," would be kind of weasely.

So no, SS5 doesn't include any new modules, because there simply aren't any modules that are only useful on an exploration or colony ship. Instead, you get lots of rules on system exploration, world mapping, linguistic analysis, first contact, etc., along with a new type of "ammunition" -- the sensor probe missile.

And BTW, disappointed with even SS4's amount of new system options? That one had a lot of 'em! Again, though, they were all systems and options that were mainly useful for building fighters and mecha. About the only generically useful rule was the one about area-effect ECMs, though that's still mainly a "fighters in formation" trope.

[Langy]

Don't forget the bomb-pumped lasers, R.PK! Those were in Spaceships 4, too, and are pretty much never depicted as used by fighters (though they are depicted as significantly underpowered in anything but an anti-fighter role compared to the bomb-pumped lasers in fiction).

[PK]

Originally Posted by Langy

Don't forget the bomb-pumped lasers, R.PK! Those were in Spaceships 4, too, and are pretty much never depicted as used by fighters (though they are depicted as significantly underpowered in anything but an anti-fighter role compared to the bomb-pumped lasers in fiction).

Yeah, but, again, that is a fighter-specific rule, since it's intended primarily to combat fighters.

I'm not saying that no SS supplement will ever have generally useful rules in them. Quite the contrary -- I think that there's something useful in every SS book released to date! But it's nothing that you should literally need unless your game focuses on the topic of the SS book in question. For example, if trading and transport are a major part of your game, then you really need SS2; the rules in there are invaluable and you'll almost certainly do better with them than just winging it. But if trading and transport are not major factors in your game, then you don't need SS2 -- but that doesn't mean it won't still have plenty of stuff that you'll be able to use in your game.

(Personally, I like the new rules and options, but speaking as a time-beleaguered GM, the pre-made spaceships are a huge draw for me. One or two quick tweaks to an existing design is a lot faster than building it myself, and anything that simplifies my game prep is a Good Thing.)

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

How much of the content in this PDF expands the build options? New modules , new build/design options?

How much is new rules?

So far, I've been rather disappointed by the low number of new modules and systems in PDFs 2, 3 and 4. I want more options.

More options appear in Book 7. (As the series went on, I realized there was a demand for that, so we altered book 7 to cover it.)

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

So far, I've been rather disappointed by the low number of new modules and systems in PDFs 2, 3 and 4. I want more options.

What new options do you want?

So far I have been pleased that most of the build options are in the build book, not scattered among several books. There was nothing in the merchant vessels book that you need unless you are playing a merchants campaign, nothing in the warships book that you need unless you are playing a space combat campaign, nothing in the exploration book that you need unless you are playing an exploration campaign, and you don't need four books open on your desk to build a ship. The series is properly modular, and I think that is good.

Putting ship modules and systems in the later issues of the series would be, by itself, a bad thing. It would make the later PDFs into more of individual "must haves", but at the price of making the complete set harder to use, and of making it impractical to do what I have done and been pleased to do: skipping issues that specialise in things I'm not interested in. It would make the entire series less useful and more expensive.

When Spaceships came out I gave it a glowing review. Wouldn't have been able to do that if I had to wait over a year to get a complete set of the build rules. Spaceships has been a considerable success, with excellent sales. If it had come out lacking significant modules and systems I don't think it would have done so well. Early buyers would have been disappointed and given bad word-of-mouth. You wouldn't be able to begin to use it until about now, it couldn't possible start to sell well until it was reasonably complete. But by now its brand name would be mud.

[Peter Knutsen]

I think in general, I mostly just want more specialied modules, including versions of existing modules. Rules to differentiate primitive space vehicles from advanced space vehicles would also be nice (e.g. in terms of life support - life support at TL7 has got to be bulkier and more expensive than life support at TL12), and both those kinds of rules would be an excellent fit for supplements.

[Kale]

I liked the probe rules; I was working on a 'first in' scout ship design and had put two missile tubes on it assuming probes would be fired from them. The probe rules were very timely for me as a result.
Also, all the exploration and contact tasks are very handy. I liked how they were laid out like the abstract combat system's phase tasks. The consistency of the overall series is very nice.
Next project: Drop cans full of hot apple pie! (self-baking).

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I think in general, I mostly just want more specialied modules, including versions of existing modules. Rules to differentiate primitive space vehicles from advanced space vehicles would also be nice (e.g. in terms of life support - life support at TL7 has got to be bulkier and more expensive than life support at TL12), and both those kinds of rules would be an excellent fit for supplements.

A "higher realism" supplement of that sort could be interesting. It is not covered in any of the planned books - Spaceships 7 has a few realistic systems, but is mostly superscience and divergent technology - but it might be useful for some future expansion or Pyramid article.