GURPS Space

GURPS Space is a genre toolkit for creating Science Fiction campaigns using the GURPS role-playing game. It performs a similar purpose as GURPS Fantasy does for Fantasy games. Rules and guidelines are provided for running games from science fantasy and space opera to hard science fiction, creating worlds and planets and notes about aliens races. The first edition was published in 1988.

GURPS Space
GURPS Space (4th edition) cover
Designer(s)Steve Jackson, William A. Barton, David Pulver
Publisher(s)Steve Jackson Games
Publication dateSept. 13, 1999 (3rd edition)
Genre(s)Science fiction
System(s)GURPS 4th edition

Contents

Third Edition

The Third Edition of GURPS Space had several differences from the Fourth Edition book. The biggest difference was the inclusion of a small subset of the GURPS Vehicles rules and some high-tech weaponry. Unlike the above-mentioned GURPS Fantasy's Third Edition analog, it was also a genre toolkit.

Fourth Edition

GURPS Space was released March 2006. It covers the creation of star systems, worlds and alien races, either completely randomly or with any amount of GM intervention during the process. Advice is also provided on planning campaigns and other related material, as is common in other books for fourth edition GURPS.

Coverage of spacecraft is aimed at setting level issues such as choosing the technology used by spacecraft in the game. This section does not worry about game mechanics issues, but rather helps players and gamemasters determine the broad capabilities of the vessel in question.

In a controversial [1] move, the book breaks with the format of earlier editions and does not contain rules for spaceship design or high tech guns. Those topics will be covered by the forthcoming books GURPS Vehicles (4e) and GURPS Ultra-Tech (4e) respectively. The rationale for this decision was explained in a series of official statements made on the SJGames forums by Managing Editor Chris Aylott and Line Editor Sean Punch.[2] GURPS Spaceships, a 4e supplement of rules for spaceship design, is now available through Steve Jackson Games as a digital purchase.

Publication history

GURPS Space was designed by Steve Jackson and William Barton, and published by Steve Jackson Games as a 128-page book.[3] The book features additional material by W. G. Armintrout, Stephen Beeman, Ben Ellinger, John M. Ford, Don Gallagher, J. David George, Mike Hurst, David Ladyman, and Mike Moe, and a cover illustration by Michael Goodwin.[3]

GURPS Space was one of the broad genre books that followed the publication of the GURPS Basic Set.[4]:107 This first tier genre book was supported by several second-tier sourcebooks including the GURPS Space Atlases (1988-1991), GURPS Space Bestiary (1990) and GURPS Aliens (1990), which helped fill out the GURPS Space world.[4]:107

GURPS Space for 4e was published in 2006, one of several genre books published by Steve Jackson Games for the new edition.[4]:112

Reception

Jim Bambra reviewed the first edition of GURPS Space for Dragon magazine #141 (January 1989).[3] Bambra comments in his evaluation: "Even if you never intend to play the GURPS game, the GURPS Space game is worth picking up on the basis of its ideas alone. For GMs who enjoy designing unique backgrounds for their players, and for GURPS players everywhere, this book is well worth getting."[3]

GURPS Space won the 1988 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement.[5]

Second edition reviewed in Games Review vol. 2 #9

gollark: Rooms aren't tied to a homeserver but distributed through some complex state resolution thing.
gollark: Rooms are channels, homeservers host your data and participate in rooms.
gollark: Nope.
gollark: But synapse is pretty stable.
gollark: I use a somewhat experimental homeserver to save resources so some things are a bit broken.

See also

References
  1. RPGnet : Review of Gurps Space 4e
  2. http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=163405&postcount=7
  3. Bambra, Jim (January 1989). "Role-playing Reviews". Dragon. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR (#141): 54, 59.
  4. Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  5. "1998 Origins Awards winners". Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
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