GURPS Traveller - any new books? is 4e required?

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mcv wrote:


> [The Interstellar Wars & the 2nd. Imperium.]
>
> And then there's the theory that the Vargr raiders actually played a
> much bigger role in destabilising the Vilani empire. It's just that
> the Solomani were able to found the Rule of Man (the Ramshackle
Empire)
> on top of the collapsing Vilani Empire, which allowed them to write
the
> history books. But it didn't stop the collapse of the Empire, and at
> best postponed it a bit.
>
>

Thre being, of course, a lot of history to rewrite...

About on the level of modern historians discussing Caesar or Alexander.
(Except that there's no holographic video footage of Caesar's speeches,
or text and video weblogs of Alexander's Persian campaign....)

It's really kind of difficult to grasp the time scale of Traveller on a
gut level. Even considering "recent"--i.e. Third Imperium--history,
Cleon I is about the equivalent of Charlemange or Charles Martel, Olav
hault-Plankwell is a combination Sir Francis Drake and Oliver Cromwell,
and even the Solomani Rim War is old news on the level of WWI or the
Spanish American War.

All run at TL12, so the average Imperial historian probably has more
information on Emperor Hiroshi than we have on, say, Nixon or Kennedy.

Would a high technology of information, over the very long run, be a
force for stasis or accellerated change, I wonder?

--C.

 

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On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 11:44:22 -0600, Charles Herbig
<usenet1@NOSPAM.sorrydave.org> drained his beer, leaned back in the
rec.games.frp.gurps beanbag and drunkenly proclaimed the following

>Douglas Berry <penguin_boy@mindobviousspring.com> wrote:
>[snip]
>> Not done over, but GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is on the
>> release schedule. This takes place in the Terran Confederation v. the
>> Vilani Imperium era. I had a small part in writing this (very small
>> part) and was on the playtest. This book is excellent.
>
>My question is, will Interstellar Wars use GURPS 3ed or 4ed?

It's a 4th Edition release.
--

Douglas E. Berry Do the OBVIOUS thing to send e-mail
Atheist #2147, Atheist Vet #5

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as
when they do it from religious conviction."
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pense'es, #894.

 

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Peter Knutsen <peter@sagatafl.invalid> wrote:
>
> But there's no need for SJ Games to re-publish all the old
> Traveller supplements in 4E versions. It should be fairly
> easy, for people who understand both GURPS 3E and 4E, to
> convert the templates.

Although if they ever reprint the books, it would be nice if they did
convert them.


mcv.

 

[john]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On 13 Feb 2005 11:45:24 -0800, chaos_israel@antisocial.com wrote:
>The basic premise however....
>"One planet, with less than two centuries of space travel behind them,
>defeats a several millenia old, multi-sector star empire--but once they
>get it, they can't keep it, and civilized space collapeses into a dark
>age."
>
>Puh-leeze.
>I realize Traveller is space opera, but does it have to be *bad* space
>opera?

<shrug> It's a little bit late to change that bit of "history" if they
want to stay in the "Traveller universe". That history was borrowed
from a GDW boardgame called Imperium, in which one player was the
Terrans and the other was the Vilani Empire (the First Imperium). When
the guys at GDW started working out a semi-consistent background for
the various Traveller adventures and supplements, that was what they
started from.

John

 

[john]

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On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 10:59:22 GMT, Charlton Wilbur
<cwilbur@mithril.chromatico.net> wrote:

>>>>>> "J" == John <reply@newsgroup.please.com> writes:
>
> J> Anyway, I'm kinda wondering if all of that is now being done
> J> over again for GURPS 4e - which I don't have yet - and if this
> J> is pushing me further away from ever actually running a game
> J> with these books, without having to win the lottery in order to
> J> finance it all.
>
>New material will be produced for GURPS 4, but the old material will
>stay just the way it is. You won't have to buy GURPS Traveller books
>all over again, but you might have to do a bit of work with any
>character templates to get them translated to 4e with accurate point
>values.
>
>As far as running a game -- depending on how much rules-system
>crunchiness you want and how important it is to you to play in the
>latest version of the rules, you have a couple of options.
>
>You could run Traveller with the Lite version of either edition of the
>rules, which you can get for free. This won't give you much in the
>way of character options or fiddly technical stuff, but it will be
>enough to get the game off the ground.
>
>You could pick up some 3e books. There were enough flaws in the
>system to justify a fourth edition, certainly, but the third edition
>still makes for a very playable game, especially if you keep starting
>point values below about 200. To go this route, you'd need the Basic
>Set for sure, and Compendium I would be good to have as well.
>If you want to *try* this route, you can always start with GURPS Lite
>for 3e and add books one at a time if it seems to be working.

Oh, I have all of the basic framework GURPS 3e books: Basic set, both
Compendia, Vehicles (even got that one for free with my name in the
front as a playtester!), Space, etc. Just wondering with all of the
talk about improvements in 4e if I ought to think about getting those
- kinda expensive just as reading material.

Thanks for the info.

John

 

[john]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:07:44 -0500, Rob Kelk <robkelk@deadspam.com>
wrote:

>I don't believe this is correct. SJ Games still has a dedicated "GURPS
>Traveller" editor on staff; they wouldn't waste money on someone whose
>product line wasn't at least breaking even without a very good reason.
>(They don't currently have a "GURPS WWII" editor or a "Powered by GURPS"
>specialist.) The current "GURPS Traveller" editor has shown in the past
>that he knows how to do other game-related work, so he could be
>re-assigned if SJ thought that that was better for the company.

But what does the GURPS Traveller line editor actually do these days?
After my post that started this thread I did some hunting around the
SJG website and confirmed that Imperial Navy is still "in production"
- I think it has been in that status for at least 3 or 4 years now,
hasn't it? Didn't see any other new Traveller books listed, either -
about the newest one on the list was Starships, which I think I got a
couple of years ago - well, maybe late 2003. Nothing newer than that.
What is this person editing? (Is it still Loren Wiseman? I didn't
notice when I was there looking around.)

John

 

[john]

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On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 17:54:38 GMT, Douglas Berry
<penguin_boy@mindOBVIOUSspring.com> wrote:

>Not done over, but GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is on the
>release schedule. This takes place in the Terran Confederation v. the
>Vilani Imperium era. I had a small part in writing this (very small
>part) and was on the playtest. This book is excellent.

Sounds interesting. Wish to heck they'd finish up Imperial Navy first.
High Guard had lots on ships, but not much on roleplaying Navy
characters or on the way Navies work in the Traveller universe. What
is e23, another subscription thing?

John

 

[john]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 20:57:34 GMT, rgorman@telusplanet.net (David
Johnston) wrote:

>Well, first all, if they are calling it the "Terran Confederation"
>that doesn't sound at all like it is just one planet.

Depending on exactly when it is set (or more likely what ranges of
setting options are presented) it may be one system (Terra, Mars,
Jovian moons, etc) or a few systems (I don't remember how many
colonies the Terrans had when they first met the Vilani in the
"official history", maybe only one or two), a handful of systems, or
hundreds as the Terrans moved into old Vilani systems and snowballed
into the Rule of Man (Second Imperium). If you really want the
history, read any Traveller supplement that includes the basic
"library data" on the Imperium (the GURPS Traveller Basic book, frex).

>And I've read
>the original books from which they got the idea, and they were quite
>good space opera.

Methinks you may be confused on this point. The name "Terran
Confederation" has been used in any number of science fiction stories,
but the background for Traveller came from an earlier GDW game called
Imperium. From that point, they kinda made it up as they went along,
adding more detail with each adventure, supplement, and issue of the
Journal of the Travellers Aid Society. Sure, they borrowed liberally
from their favorite SF works, but there wasn't any particular literary
source for the whole deal.

John

 

[john]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On 13 Feb 2005 09:59:14 -0800, "copeab@yahoo.com" <copeab@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>There will, however, be a 4e book on the Interstellar Wars period that
>will include 4e basic rules (Powered By GURPS) that won't require you
>to buy the 4e basic set. I don't know anything about the Traveller line
>beyond that, although it is possible that 3e Traveller material may be
>published through e23.

Sounds like that might be something for me to watch for, especially if
it would have guidelines for converting the 3e stuff to 4e (Lite, or
Powered By, or whatever).

John

 

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On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 01:29:56 -0600, John <reply@newsgroup.please.com>
wrote:

>>And I've read
>>the original books from which they got the idea, and they were quite
>>good space opera.
>
>Methinks you may be confused on this point.

Not in the least.

The name "Terran
>Confederation" has been used in any number of science fiction stories,
>but the background for Traveller came from an earlier GDW game called
>Imperium. From that point, they kinda made it up as they went along,
>adding more detail with each adventure, supplement, and issue of the
>Journal of the Travellers Aid Society. Sure, they borrowed liberally
>from their favorite SF works, but there wasn't any particular literary
>source for the whole deal.

I wasn't talking about the "whole deal", just the "Terrans take over
an old and wussy empire as the new kids in town" idea. In fact that
was the background of the very first science fiction novel I ever
read.

 

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On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 01:29:55 -0600, John <reply@newsgroup.please.com>
wrote:
> ... What
>is e23, another subscription thing?

SJGames online PDF sales service:
http://e23.sjgames.com/

--
Phil Masters http://www.philm.demon.co.uk
Consternation: RPG Convention, Cambridge, 2005:
http://www.consternation.org.uk/

 

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John <reply@newsgroup.please.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 20:57:34 GMT, rgorman@telusplanet.net (David
> Johnston) wrote:
>
>>Well, first all, if they are calling it the "Terran Confederation"
>>that doesn't sound at all like it is just one planet.
>
> Depending on exactly when it is set (or more likely what ranges of
> setting options are presented) it may be one system (Terra, Mars,
> Jovian moons, etc) or a few systems (I don't remember how many
> colonies the Terrans had when they first met the Vilani in the
> "official history", maybe only one or two), a handful of systems, or
> hundreds as the Terrans moved into old Vilani systems and snowballed
> into the Rule of Man (Second Imperium). If you really want the
> history, read any Traveller supplement that includes the basic
> "library data" on the Imperium (the GURPS Traveller Basic book, frex).

There's quite a bit in Ring of Fire (or whatever the Solomani Rim book
is called).


mcv.

 

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On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 01:29:54 -0600, John <reply@newsgroup.please.com>
carved upon a tablet of ether:

> But what does the GURPS Traveller line editor actually do these days?
> After my post that started this thread I did some hunting around the
> SJG website and confirmed that Imperial Navy is still "in production"
> - I think it has been in that status for at least 3 or 4 years now,
> hasn't it? Didn't see any other new Traveller books listed, either -
> about the newest one on the list was Starships, which I think I got a
> couple of years ago - well, maybe late 2003. Nothing newer than that.
> What is this person editing? (Is it still Loren Wiseman? I didn't
> notice when I was there looking around.)

There was GT: Nobles. They'll be working on GT: Interstellar Wars, if
playtests and the GURPS main page <http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/> are
anything to go by.


--
Rupert Boleyn <rboleyn@paradise.net.nz>
"Just because the truth will set you free doesn't mean the truth itself
should be free."

 

[Guest]

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On 13 Feb 2005 11:45:24 -0800, chaos_israel@antisocial.com carved upon
a tablet of ether:

> The basic premise however....
> "One planet, with less than two centuries of space travel behind them,
> defeats a several millenia old, multi-sector star empire--but once they
> get it, they can't keep it, and civilized space collapeses into a dark
> age."
>
> Puh-leeze.
> I realize Traveller is space opera, but does it have to be *bad* space
> opera?

What makes this bad space opera?


--
Rupert Boleyn <rboleyn@paradise.net.nz>
"Just because the truth will set you free doesn't mean the truth itself
should be free."