Questions about GURPS books

[Kilgs]

I’m a CT/Mongoose fella and can’t stand crunchy GURPS. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way… I’ve heard nothing but good things about the fluff in the GURPS books and the expansion of the Known Universe. I had the chance to look at the Solomani Rim book and it seemed packed full of goodies.

QUESTIONS:

1. Are the GURPS Traveller supplements worth it for the fluff/planet descriptions etc. In other words, if I don’t use the GURPS system would I find them worth getting?

2. Which ones would be best? I am interested more in the expansion of the Imperium fluff. Such as history, planet descriptions, new sectors etc.

3. AS for stats, is there any way to convert GURPS to CT/Mong or is just not worth the headache and will require “handwavery”?

 

[spinwardpirate]

1. Yes. Well worth the money!
2. Hard to say... if you liked Rim of Fire you'd probably like Sword Worlds. I'm rather fond of Nobles, and Starports.
3. I'm a handwavery kind of guy. Some stuff is easy to port over. Other stuff, like advantages and disadvantages, not so easy.

 

[far-trader]

1. Yes. Well worth the money!

My experience differs, for what it's worth being limited to one purchase.

I got a chance a while back to pick up "First In" at a fair price. I'd heard raves about how it was one of "THE" GT books to have at any price, and it had been long selling second hand for crazy prices. I found nothing new in it that I didn't already have in CT. I couldn't see the reason for all the fanfare, hype, and silly prices. So I sold it on at what I paid for it and gave someone else a cheap (compared to the prices it was still often selling for) buy. I hope they enjoy it to this day but based on that experience I can't give much credit to any of the rest of the hype from fans for GT stuff.

I guess it would have been a good book if I hadn't already had all the info and fluff it contained in other sources.

 

[rancke]

I got a chance a while back to pick up "First In" at a fair price. I'd heard raves about how it was one of "THE" GT books to have at any price, and it had been long selling second hand for crazy prices. I found nothing new in it that I didn't already have in CT.

You didn't have a world generation system that produced anywhere near as plausible worlds, because CT never had that. Grand Survey was an improvement on Book 6, but it retained some flaws. (Note: This is not a claim that FI produced perfect worlds, just a lot more plausible than some of the ones the CT systems came up with).

Also, producing a world using FI is quite a bit more work. And World Builder's Handbook had some things that FI didn't. I usually use both FI and WBH.


Hans

 

[coliver988]

1. Are the GURPS Traveller supplements worth it for the fluff/planet descriptions etc. In other words, if I don’t use the GURPS system would I find them worth getting?

They are full of fluffy goodness. I've Nobles, Starports, Far Trader, the Cutter module and the Glisten world survey. I've used bits and pieces of them for all sorts of things (while mostly fluff, but some of it is quite useful for descriptive settings). If nothing else, they can be entertaining to read as well. So for me, yes they were worth it. The price of an expensive paperback pretty much.

2. Which ones would be best? I am interested more in the expansion of the Imperium fluff. Such as history, planet descriptions, new sectors etc.

The world surveys, while specializing on a specific world, may be useful. Nobles has a bit of history in it. Heck - even the Cutter book has some interesting bits of history (never buy a non-LSP module apparently!) The other books that I have (Far Trader, Starports), while having some history, is really just helpful for filling in gaps for those specific systems. Of course - that also depends on your view of the Imperium: my impression is that Gurps envisions a pretty busy place. Especially Far Trader: millions of dTons a year between systems is not too uncommon (assuming I read & figured things correctly. Always a BIG if...) So if you postulate a small ship Imperium with little traffic, then they may not be particularly useful.

3. AS for stats, is there any way to convert GURPS to CT/Mong or is just not worth the headache and will require “handwavery”?

Having really enjoyed the books I do have, I use them mostly for background types of things (i.e., I really like knowing how much trade between systems goes on, to help indicate how busy the port is). But Gurps is quite different in stats for the most part, and I can't say as to how hard it is to translate specific stats. Sorry...

 

[Qstor2]

But Gurps is quite different in stats for the most part, and I can't say as to how hard it is to translate specific stats. Sorry...

There's conversion rules in the main GT book. IIRC its on sale at sjgames.com in the Warehouse 23 area, I think for around $10 US. It has a detailed library data section in the book if you don't have the old CT or MT library/enclopedia books. With the CT to GURPS conversion rules you could convert stats back to CT. The advantages and disadvantages you could leave to roleplaying for the most part.

I'm not much of a gearhead but I've found that converting the starships to MGT is easy using the MGT High Guard. There's a free .pdf of GT starships called 101 Starships that's pretty neat. It has tons of ships from the 3rd Imperium to the Solomani Confederation.

To echo others comments about the main books, I think Nobles, Starports, Rim of Fire and the Sworld World books are some of the best. GT: Behind the Claw has gotten a lot of flack but I happen to like it. So for the fluff I'd get the four books I mentioned first. The world booklets are a bit 'thin' unless your a compleat-est, I'd steer clear of those. You could do write ups of the planets that fit into your OTU.

GT: First In has a realistic world generation system for GURPS Space but conversion to a standard UWP format is easy. There's a small section of the book on doing just that. It also has some cool adventures for the Scouts.

This is off topic of this sub forum but if you're looking for 'good' fluff for your CT game, I'd get the .pdf of Gateway to Destiney for T20. It has very little stats and a ton of material on the Gateway Domain.

Mike

 

[Kilgs]

This is off topic of this sub forum but if you're looking for 'good' fluff for your CT game, I'd get the .pdf of Gateway to Destiney for T20. It has very little stats and a ton of material on the Gateway Domain.

Mike

Heh, that's where my next campaign is being run. Hence the interest in Rim of Fire for history on the Solomani war and government ;-)

 

[Brian Smaller]

I think that the six World Survey books are just great. Easy to use for any RPG system.

 

[Kilgs]

Just a note of thanks, I picked up Rim of Fire... and now own Starports and Interstellar Wars as well. Working on mustering the courage to drop more money on the better books. The layout and fluff is excellent!

 

[Gadrin]

They're releasing more and more GURPS Traveller on PDF for good prices.

The latest is Alien Races 1

http://e23.sjgames.com/search.html?...re=&type=&price_lo=0&price_hi=&sortby=alphaAZ

>

 

[spinwardpirate]

That's the book with the Vargr, right? Did they ever release a correction for the messed up deck plan?

 

[Gadrin]

I don't know their policy on PDFs and errata.

On one of their books they mentioned appending errata to the end of the original book.

Not sure if that covers graphics/art.


>

 

[mbrinkhues]

The value of the books can vary by campaign, material you have and knowledge of GURPS (Btw: Buy the Character generator and get the Lite Version of the rules, suddenly the Crunch is gone)

FirstInis IMHO the least useful of the books. System generation is optimised for GT and uses GT slang (that sadly differs from most other Traveller when it comes to Port classes and other minors) with little additional background on Scouts that is new. The ScoutCruiser and the Courier are nice but GT stats only.

Starports and FarTrader are somewhat useful. Again they use GT profiles and a rather detailed (and complex) trading system. But they give you material on trades, traders and starports that other versions are mostly lacking or that is DGP material and therefor OOP. Some points should be taken with salt (I.e I dropped the "unbribabel officials" faster than a cheap hooker drops her panties)

Alien books are so-so. The one or two major races covered by each book are good and highly detailed even compare to the old GDW material. Some of the Aliens really FEEL Alien with that material. The minor races that are given short intros are so-so ranging from "Oldies but Challenge Goldies" (Hhkar) to "Not designed for Traveller" and when it comes to Darrians YMMV on the tech thing. Stats are for GT but as said translateabel

Rim of Fire, Behind the Claw No comment since both my SM/Norris and SolRim/Solomanie work different from Canon. Even more so post 1116 since I don't use the GT timeline

Starships, Modular Cutter, 600dton So-So useabel. Starships can give some nice ideas for Additions to MT or TNE starship construction but will produce GT ships only. Cutter is IIRC a GT only supplement but easily back-ported or used as an inspiration. Worth for the 90dton and 100dton cutter versions and the various modules alone. 600dton is my favorit ship, the Typ-M Stellar/Bastion in various variants and stated for multiple systems

Nobles The ultimate book on organised crime in the 3. Imperium. From Knight to Emperor they are all well defined and described with examples and lots of fluff on them and their (non-noble)toadies. Some toys (Yachts, MegaCorp Courier ship) with GT-stats and some sample characters/templates for GT. Both call "loot me, adapt me" Again written through the "perfect 3I" lenses instead of the "rotten 3I" lens of MT/TNE. Nobles is one of the reasons to use GURPS for Traveller

Humanity So-So book about various Human sub-species. Some are interesting, some are classics (Answerin, Genoee) some are NPC material. All in GT stats