Is UltraTech 4e up on the Pyramid site yet?

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Hi, all.

I am debating whether to subscribe to the Pyramid site. One of the
benefits is early access to playtest materials. Is there a draft of
Ultratech 4e up yet?

We are running a GT game using standard Ultratech, more or less, and I
have just finished the 4e conversion of the characters. I am hoping to
get an idea of the weapons, armor, and space gear that will be coming.
I am making do with the older edition of Ultratech, modified by the
changes in the new 4e player book.

Scott

 

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"Scott Ellsworth" <scott@alodar.com> wrote in message
news:scott-3CC655.14325330122004@news.west.cox.net...
> Hi, all.
>
> I am debating whether to subscribe to the Pyramid site. One of the
> benefits is early access to playtest materials. Is there a draft of
> Ultratech 4e up yet?

SJGames has been conducting /closed/ playtests for a while now. To join up
you have to be a Pyramid or JTAS subscriber, then request and be accepted to
a particular playtest. Only then will you be given access to the playtest
material. So the Ultra-Tech 4e playtest material was never available to just
any Pyramid subscriber (though some playtests, Ultra-Tech included, took
pretty much anyone who requested to join).

To answer your particuar question about Ultra-Tech 4e, the playtest was
opened a couple months ago, and closed something like a month ago. So you
will have no chance of getting a sneak peak at the Ultra-Tech manuscript.
Also, the Powers playtest should be over by now, as should Yrth. I'm not
sure what the shape of the Bestiary playtest is, but I believe that was
supposed to be wrapped up by now too.

--
EricBSmith http://home.stny.rr.com/gurpsland
@earthling.net http://firedrake.org/eric_gurpsland/

 

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Scott Ellsworth wrote:
> Hi, all.

Hi

> I am debating whether to subscribe to the Pyramid site. One of the
> benefits is early access to playtest materials. Is there a draft of

No it isn't :-(

> Ultratech 4e up yet?
[...]

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org

 

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Eric Smith wrote:
> SJGames has been conducting /closed/ playtests for a while now. To join up
> you have to be a Pyramid or JTAS subscriber, then request and be accepted to
> a particular playtest. Only then will you be given access to the playtest

Do you have to send the request when the playtest begins
(i.e. you have to be a subscriber at that time) or can you
request after the playtest has started?

I'm asking because I haven't been paying too much attention,
due to the fact that none of the new playtests have really
interested me.

> material. So the Ultra-Tech 4e playtest material was never available to just
> any Pyramid subscriber (though some playtests, Ultra-Tech included, took
> pretty much anyone who requested to join).
[...]

There's also a risk, although I don't know how great it is,
that if you are permitted into a playtest, and then don't
contribute enough (i.e. in someone's *opinion*), you might
get a "black mark" towards being admitted into future playtests.

That, obviously, couldn't occur with the previous system.

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org

 

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"Peter Knutsen" <peter@sagatafl.invalid> wrote in message
news:33jgmcF42ice9U1@individual.net...
>
> Eric Smith wrote:
> > SJGames has been conducting /closed/ playtests for a while now. To join
up
> > you have to be a Pyramid or JTAS subscriber, then request and be
accepted to
> > a particular playtest. Only then will you be given access to the
playtest
>
> Do you have to send the request when the playtest begins
> (i.e. you have to be a subscriber at that time) or can you
> request after the playtest has started?

I believe that depends entirely on the book being playtested and the wishes
of the author and lead playtester. The GURPS Powers playtest was limited to
something like 30 people (due to author time constraints), so if you didn't
apply when it first opened you couldn't get in. OTOH the Ultra-Tech playtest
was pretty much open to any comers, and I believe they let people in for a
couple weeks, which also happened when we playtested my Space: Starships
Expansion for e23. I'm not sure about the status of the other playtests
they've conducted.

Also note that they are trying to make sure to announce all playtests on the
Daily Illuminator at least a couple days before a playtest starts, to give
interested people a chance to subscribe and join a playtest.


> There's also a risk, although I don't know how great it is,
> that if you are permitted into a playtest, and then don't
> contribute enough (i.e. in someone's *opinion*), you might
> get a "black mark" towards being admitted into future playtests.
>
> That, obviously, couldn't occur with the previous system.

Apparently SJGames has decided that the good of having more open playtests
doesn't outweight the bad - if you're not going to be contributing to the
actual playtest of the book then they don't want you to have access to the
manuscript. I can somewhat understand the view, though I don't agree with
it. I rather liked being able to peruse the playtest files to get an idea of
whether or not the book would be worth getting, and bought a couple books
because of it (and avoided a couple others that I probably would never have
gotten anyway).

--
EricBSmith http://home.stny.rr.com/gurpsland
@earthling.net http://firedrake.org/eric_gurpsland/

 

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On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:49:40 GMT, "Eric Smith"
<smithericb@hotmail.com> carved upon a tablet of ether:

> To answer your particuar question about Ultra-Tech 4e, the playtest was
> opened a couple months ago, and closed something like a month ago. So you
> will have no chance of getting a sneak peak at the Ultra-Tech manuscript.
> Also, the Powers playtest should be over by now, as should Yrth. I'm not
> sure what the shape of the Bestiary playtest is, but I believe that was
> supposed to be wrapped up by now too.

I thought it was still running, to be wrapped up in a couple of weeks.


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

 

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In article <8C%Ad.108022$AL5.54859@twister.nyroc.rr.com>,
"Eric Smith" <smithericb@hotmail.com> wrote:

> "Scott Ellsworth" <scott@alodar.com> wrote in message
> news:scott-3CC655.14325330122004@news.west.cox.net...
> > Hi, all.
> >
> > I am debating whether to subscribe to the Pyramid site. One of the
> > benefits is early access to playtest materials. Is there a draft of
> > Ultratech 4e up yet?
>
[...]
> To answer your particuar question about Ultra-Tech 4e, the playtest was
> opened a couple months ago, and closed something like a month ago. So you
> will have no chance of getting a sneak peak at the Ultra-Tech manuscript.

Thanks for the answer - while I am a bit disappointed about not getting
to peek at the draft MS, the playtest period being finished says good
things about getting my hands on the finished book sooner rather than
later.

Scott