What to buy?

[jfetters]

Okay, so I have Interstellar Wars, Far Trader and Glisten.

What G:T books are worth the expense these days for someone just looking for background and content? I am not at all interested in the G:T ruleset, so I want to stay away from rules discussions here, if possible.

I am especially eyeing Nobles, Starports and Starships. Anything else?

 

[mike wightman]

Nobles would be my first choice. It fills in the gaps for how the Imperium is actually ruled.

And don't forget these books are all half price from Warehouse 23.

 

[Jeffr0]

Starports has a Sestina by John M Ford. It came out about the time that the Spinward Marches book did and seems to emphasize background info for that neck of the woods.

Starships takes every component in the GT starship system and gives it a bazillion options. (Sorta like the fireproof steelbelted off-road racing slicks from Car Wars.) It also gives every component at every single tech level. It's exhaustive. The sample ships take a bunch of basic ships and detail them at different the tech levels, so you can see how the SDB evolved over time, for example. It's mostly design info and some bits about roleplaying with starships, but only two pages of rules for doing ship combat. There are virtually no changes to the ship combat rules from GURPS Traveller.

Rim of Fire is, to my mind, the best all around book for GT.

 

[kafka47]

GURPS Nobles is a well done, as is GURPS Sword Worlds...I concur with Rim of Fire fans, and if you want to get background, the main rulebook has reproduced all Library Data but that can even be found on the web these days. I also kinda like First In but I would avoid Starships, in favor of Grand Fleet, just not much illustration.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Nobles would be my first choice. It fills in the gaps for how the Imperium is actually ruled.

And don't forget these books are all half price from Warhouse 23.

Excellent! Do you know if that is going on indefinitely?

 

[mike wightman]

As far as I know the price reduction for old GURPS stuff is permanent.

 

[Qstor2]

Originally posted by kafka47:
GURPS Nobles is a well done, as is GURPS Sword Worlds...I concur with Rim of Fire fans, and if you want to get background, the main rulebook has reproduced all Library Data but that can even be found on the web these days. I also kinda like First In but I would avoid Starships, in favor of Grand Fleet, just not much illustration.

I like First In, Starships and and Rim of Fire

If you dont have the DGP starship Operations book, GT starships has some of the similiar kind of material. First In has a detailed planetary generation system and some near non GT rule specific adventure seeds for scouts. Rim of Fire is pretty good at giving details on the Solomani Rim without giving too much in the way that some folks said that Behind the Claw did.

Mike

 

[jfetters]

Well, that's a good point -

From a point of comparison, how are the DGP SOG and GURPS Starships different? Which is better?

Same for First In versus MT World Builders Handbook.

 

[kafka47]

Depends if you like the GURPS Modular way of building things as opposed to MT clunky style then go with GT:Starships but for sheer atmosphere and mood, I would go with SOP.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

I bought all mine from MWM for $5 a pop. Starports is fun.

 

[AzSteven]

Alien Races 3 - The writeup on the Newts is truly the pinnacle of Traveller writing to date... ;-p

 

[Gruffty]

Like MT:SOM but it can be hellishly pricey to get hold of a copy (I paid £ 30 + shipping for mine on eBay). I can't comment on GT:Starships as I haven't got it (yet!).

GT:First In beats the official Traveller SysGen rules hands down. I generate systems using GT:FI then convert across to CT/MT and use CT/MT annotation (UWPs, orbits, etc). It means that I often have worlds orbiting at "Orbit 3.65" rather than just "Orbit 3" but the whole thing "feels" more realistic. Oh, and I also try to use RL stellar data as well, when ever possible.

 

[jfetters]

I must be having a major memory block here, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what MT:SOM is, Gruffty...

 

[Gruffty]

Oops, sorry Jim - I slipped into my own Traveller shorthand then.

MT:SOM = MegaTraveller:Starship Operator's Manual

Hmmm. Eye en haffink einer idea-en vor der thrrread-ink.....

Nah, forget it.

 

[Gruffty]

I forgot to mention:

GT:RoM is uber-kewl. I like to sit and compare it with CT:Sp10 and CT:AM6.

God, I'm a sad, lonely old git........

Originally posted by FlightCommanderSolitude:
I bought all mine from MWM

Name dropper

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Gruffty:
Oops, sorry Jim - I slipped into my own Traveller shorthand then.

MT:SOM = MegaTraveller:Starship Operator's Manual

Gah!

I can't beleive I couldn't figure that out! And I own the thing....

Although it wasn't too expensive - only about $20 US. Not like Cats & Rats, which requires a small loan to be taken out from the bank.

 

[Gruffty]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:Not like Cats & Rats, which requires a small loan to be taken out from the bank

Or Dogs n Cogs....

BTW, did I just happen to mention I recently bought Dogs n Cogs for a reasonable price on eBay?

 

[jfetters]

Yeah, that one has been OK price-wise - a little more than SOM, but not to the level of A&S. I got mine several months ago and the price wasn't too outrageous.

So now that you have it, was it worth it?

 

[Gruffty]

Yup But only because I'm obsessive about having a complete collection of MT books (which, of course, I now have!).

I got myself into a right state when all I needed to complete my CT collection was Supp 12!