GURPS Alternate Earths
 

Has anyone ever used the Alternate Earths, or for that matter any other non Traveller, GURPS book for their gaming sessions?

Yes, there is a setting in Alternate Earths where you ride trains through wormholes to distant planets...

which I used.

I used to like GURPS. But then later authors (by later, in this context, post 1990) ignored the foundational aspect - in GURPS, SJ's design notes include that skills are 250 hours a point, and that setting books should warp the core system, not warp the settings to fit the system.

Further, I quit GURPS entirely when SJG caved to the munchkins and started making NPC's stupidly high attribute levels.

...what does this have to do with the OP?

"or any other non Traveller, GURPS book for their gaming sessions?"

I don't like GURPS point based character generation, but their task resolution /combat system isn't bad.

Other GURPS books I have used are Terradyne and the entire Transhuman Space series.

Great resources.

I'm a big GURPS fan. Most of the books are thoroughly researched and playtested, so even if you don't use the system you have a ton of information available you can graft onto your world(s).

Say if you have a world that is a lot like ancient Egypt - they have a setting book for it. Just sand off the serial numbers, as they say, and you have a fully realized setting. Or in the Alternate History books you can use, for example, the Reich-5 timeline for a balkanzied world dominated by fascists and dictators. Or a pocket empire actually made up of two powerful, brutal dictatorships that have coordinated to conquer their surrounding systems.

And that's the beauty of GURPS itself - you just use what you want or need. But if you want psionics, or magic, or whatever, you can add it in. Then again, point system builds for characters is complicated, it can take time to create characters. But if you're using Traveller, that doesn't apply anyway.

I know Ken Hite wrote big parts of the Alternate History worlds, and he is a great game designer. You can't go wrong with a world designed by him.

- edit; oddly enough I could not stand Terradyne. That was one of the few SJG books I felt I wasted money on. To each their own.

Interesting. What didn't you like about Terradyne?

There are a lot of interesting ideas from many of their books. I find the character generation system too complicated for my aging brain.

Its been a while so I don't recall details. I just remember disliking the setting. Then again its a very non-Traveller like setting and I was all about the Traveller at the time.

But of course just altering a few names here and there and you have a perfectly fine early stellar tech setting for a Traveller world.

I dunno - maybe it was just the really terrible artwork ;)