The Inside Scoop on Gaming

[In the interests of full disclosure, allow me to begin this review by stating for the record that I am currently under contract with Microtactix Games to produce a science fiction genre expansion for their Simply Roleplaying! line. The expansion I'm writing, entitled Simply Stellar!, will thus be to SR! what GURPS Space is to GURPS. Take this as you will.]

Like its subject matter, GURPS Space is a large and sometimes muddled affair. At over 176 pages (many of them with sidebars), it covers the length and breadth of star-spanning science fiction for Steve Jackson's Generic Universal Roleplaying System. While it does a good job of touching most SF bases, it does so only lightly in some instances. This is completely understandable. After all, how does one do justice to the entire genre of starfaring SF in a single book? Even at 300 pages, any attempt would probably be inadequate. Consequently, I have a great deal of sympathy for the authors. Despite its flaws and omissions, they managed to cram a great deal of useful information into a single volume, making it useful as a sourcebook and idea mine not just for GURPS players but for any science fiction gamer.

Before moving on to my specific thoughts and criticisms, let's take a look at the book piece by piece. To begin with, GURPS Space is an attractive book, nicely bound, with a slick, durable cover and a deep purple background. Its cover illustration is nice enough, although it has an oddly "retro" feel to it, depicting as it does a man in a bulky, shiny space suit on an alien world, complete with a domed city and a crater-pocked moon. In some ways, that cover sums up my feelings about this book, but more on that later. The interior illustrations are a mixed bag. Most are recycled from previous editions of the game, which, sadly, isn't a good thing. GURPS has always suffered in the art department and that's still true here. There are some nice new illustrations here, most notably Jesse DeGraff's computer generated starships. The mediocre art doesn't detract from the contents overly much, but I do long for the day when GURPS has art as good as that in other RPGs.

Chapter 1 discusses "creating a universe." That is, it covers all the basic questions one most ask before designing one's own science fiction setting. Topics such as alien races, societies, governments, and organizations are all treated at some length. There's a wide variety of options served up in this section, although a number of options don't seem to have been considered. Again, given the book's grounding in traditional SF literature, this is understandable. GURPS Space is a very literate supplement, constantly referring the reader to works of fiction and cinema for inspiration. However, most of those references are at least ten years old, with only token admissions that the 1990's even occurred, let alone had an influence on science fiction. Discussions of corporate states, for example, seem unaffected by the cyberpunk genre, and there is no discussion of advanced forms of democratic or republican states. Small nitpicks, yes, but, as you'll see, this is a pattern throughout the book.

Chapter 2 covers "choosing technology" and is solid as far as it goes. Like Chapter 1, it covers the basic technological questions one must ask in creating a sci-fi setting. Is there FTL drive? How does it work? What about FTL radio? Robots? Teleportation? And so on. Again, the discussions are well-done but limited. Many new technologies (or theoretical ones) like nanotechnology are relegated to a sidebar rather than be given the fuller treatment any modern SF supplement should give them – especially one dedicated to the entire genre. Chapter 2 is also hampered somewhat by GURPS' tech level progressions, which assume certain things about how technology will develop. While there is some discussion of alternate "technology paths," they're not detailed as fully as I think is necessary in a supplement of this breadth. I have always found the idea of tech levels in a generic system to be pernicious, as it exerts a subconscious influence on gamers about the "proper" development of technology. I prefer a much looser approach and regret not seeing it in this book.

Chapter 3 is a character creation chapter, complete with new skills, advantages, and disadvantages. It's a lot shorter than in past editions, largely thanks to the existence of GURPS Compendium I, which collected most character material elsewhere. Consequently, I'd hoped to see some character templates, one of the best recent innovations in GURPS. Sadly, we get none here and are pointed to GURPS Traveller for examples.

Chapters 4 through 6 treat gadgets, weapons, and medical equipment respectively. They're the "toy" chapters of GURPS Space and will undoubtedly cheer the hearts of the tech-minded among us. The equipment included runs the gamut from the near future to the fantastical. This is certainly in keeping with SF conventions and I cannot fault the authors for including them. However, with two volumes of GURPS Ultra-Tech, one wonders why it was necessary to spend almost 40 pages on technology. GURPS Space doesn't hesitate to refer the reader to other GURPS volumes when they treat a topic in more detail or at greater length. Why should technology be any different, especially when there are topics the book doesn't treat at any length at all? I realize this is a design decision that had to be made. Something had to go or else this already-long book would have been even longer. I simply question some of the choices made. GURPS Space would seem to imply SF is about tech (with 40 pages of material) rather than, say, societies (which get only 10 pages).

Chapter 7 is an excellent and very useful one, discussing a variety of environmental conditions and effects. Everything from zero gravity to space sickness to explosive decompression are covered in detail. While much of the information is presented in GURPS terms, it's easy enough to translate them (even if they are in non-metric units. Argh!). I wish that more SF games would include these kinds of details in them, as they're often important elements of the genre.

Chapters 8 and 9 detail starship construction and combat. Again, over 40 pages are used on this topic. The construction system is simple enough, although it does require a lot of bookkeeping and mathematical calculations – too many for this innumerate game reviewer. It's certainly less onerous than GURPS Vehicles, but that's hardly saying anything. The combat system is designed to be played abstractly without the need for counters and hexgrids. I applaud that, but found it somewhat flavorless and bland. This may have more to do with its generic nature than any fault in its design. However, it's another thing that highlights my thoughts about the supplement, as I'll explain soon.

Chapter 10 is an excellent one, providing an elegant and scientifically accurate world generation system. I suspect it's a pared down version of the one included in the equally excellent GURPS Traveller: First In, but I cannot be certain. It's only flaw is its use of non-metric measurements, but that is a GURPS problem and not a flaw in the design system. Indeed, I can find few faults with the world construction rules, as they're both easy to follow and detailed, two qualities one doesn't always find side by side.

Chapter 11 is a cursory treatment of civilizations, by which the book means government types, starports, and other installations. It's a pretty thin chapter and doesn't handle the topic in any depth. I'd recommend GURPS Traveller: First In for this, as it has extensive discussions of designing civilizations that put this chapter to shame.

Given all that, what do I think of GURPS Space? You'd think I hate it, considering my continual nitpicks and backhanded compliments. That's not the case, though. Yes, GURPS Space is flawed. In many ways, it's a snapshot of game design from over a decade ago given a new paint job and upholstery. That's certainly a valid criticism. I'd really have liked more evidence that its authors were familiar with and have learned from science fiction published since 1985. So much of this book feels like "classic," which isn't a bad thing. It's simply a statement that, despite claims to the contrary in the introduction, authors like Gibson and Banks and Hamilton have had little to no influence on how they view science fiction. For them, the Golden Age of the 1950's is what SF is all about. That's a legitimate perspective, but it's a bit limited for a supplement like this one. A broader approach would have been better.

More importantly, I'd have appreciated more genuine advice and suggestions. GURPS Space is a more a catalogue of ideas rather than a true GM's toolkit. There are few sections that give the GM any guidance in making choices from the catalogue. The assumption is that he will simply pick and choose from what's been provided and do the rest himself. While I'm never one to argue against treating gamers like intelligent people, a little bit of handholding would have been nice. A comment here or there on the consequences of this choice over that one would have done a lot to increase the utility of this book. Without it, we're left with what amounts to a potentially powerful device that comes with no instruction manual. I'd have gladly dispensed with such huge tech sections in favor of 20 pages of wit and wisdom on the designing of a SF setting.

In the end, this is still a valuable book. Like so many GURPS books, it encapsulates a wide variety of useful information under one cover for a good price. Even if I'd have written the book very differently, that doesn't change the fact that GURPS Space contains a lot of useful information. Use it as a touchstone rather than as a definitive guide and you'll find its utility greatly increased. Here's hoping Fourth Edition takes some of these criticisms to heart and creates for the 2000's what GURPS Space was for the 1980's.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

GURPS Space (Third Edition)
Author: Steve Jackson and William A. Barton (Revised by David Pulver) Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Line: GURPS Cost: $22.95 Page count: 176 ISBN: 1-55634-390-6 SKU: SJG6005 Playtest Review by James Maliszewski on 07/08/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Far Future Space Generic	[In the interests of full disclosure, allow me to begin this review by stating for the record that I am currently under contract with Microtactix Games to produce a science fiction genre expansion for their Simply Roleplaying! line. The expansion I'm writing, entitled Simply Stellar!, will thus be to SR! what GURPS Space is to GURPS. Take this as you will.] Like its subject matter, GURPS Space is a large and sometimes muddled affair. At over 176 pages (many of them with sidebars), it covers the length and breadth of star-spanning science fiction for Steve Jackson's Generic Universal Roleplaying System. While it does a good job of touching most SF bases, it does so only lightly in some instances. This is completely understandable. After all, how does one do justice to the entire genre of starfaring SF in a single book? Even at 300 pages, any attempt would probably be inadequate. Consequently, I have a great deal of sympathy for the authors. Despite its flaws and omissions, they managed to cram a great deal of useful information into a single volume, making it useful as a sourcebook and idea mine not just for GURPS players but for any science fiction gamer. Before moving on to my specific thoughts and criticisms, let's take a look at the book piece by piece. To begin with, GURPS Space is an attractive book, nicely bound, with a slick, durable cover and a deep purple background. Its cover illustration is nice enough, although it has an oddly "retro" feel to it, depicting as it does a man in a bulky, shiny space suit on an alien world, complete with a domed city and a crater-pocked moon. In some ways, that cover sums up my feelings about this book, but more on that later. The interior illustrations are a mixed bag. Most are recycled from previous editions of the game, which, sadly, isn't a good thing. GURPS has always suffered in the art department and that's still true here. There are some nice new illustrations here, most notably Jesse DeGraff's computer generated starships. The mediocre art doesn't detract from the contents overly much, but I do long for the day when GURPS has art as good as that in other RPGs. Chapter 1 discusses "creating a universe." That is, it covers all the basic questions one most ask before designing one's own science fiction setting. Topics such as alien races, societies, governments, and organizations are all treated at some length. There's a wide variety of options served up in this section, although a number of options don't seem to have been considered. Again, given the book's grounding in traditional SF literature, this is understandable. GURPS Space is a very literate supplement, constantly referring the reader to works of fiction and cinema for inspiration. However, most of those references are at least ten years old, with only token admissions that the 1990's even occurred, let alone had an influence on science fiction. Discussions of corporate states, for example, seem unaffected by the cyberpunk genre, and there is no discussion of advanced forms of democratic or republican states. Small nitpicks, yes, but, as you'll see, this is a pattern throughout the book. Chapter 2 covers "choosing technology" and is solid as far as it goes. Like Chapter 1, it covers the basic technological questions one must ask in creating a sci-fi setting. Is there FTL drive? How does it work? What about FTL radio? Robots? Teleportation? And so on. Again, the discussions are well-done but limited. Many new technologies (or theoretical ones) like nanotechnology are relegated to a sidebar rather than be given the fuller treatment any modern SF supplement should give them – especially one dedicated to the entire genre. Chapter 2 is also hampered somewhat by GURPS' tech level progressions, which assume certain things about how technology will develop. While there is some discussion of alternate "technology paths," they're not detailed as fully as I think is necessary in a supplement of this breadth. I have always found the idea of tech levels in a generic system to be pernicious, as it exerts a subconscious influence on gamers about the "proper" development of technology. I prefer a much looser approach and regret not seeing it in this book. Chapter 3 is a character creation chapter, complete with new skills, advantages, and disadvantages. It's a lot shorter than in past editions, largely thanks to the existence of GURPS Compendium I, which collected most character material elsewhere. Consequently, I'd hoped to see some character templates, one of the best recent innovations in GURPS. Sadly, we get none here and are pointed to GURPS Traveller for examples. Chapters 4 through 6 treat gadgets, weapons, and medical equipment respectively. They're the "toy" chapters of GURPS Space and will undoubtedly cheer the hearts of the tech-minded among us. The equipment included runs the gamut from the near future to the fantastical. This is certainly in keeping with SF conventions and I cannot fault the authors for including them. However, with two volumes of GURPS Ultra-Tech, one wonders why it was necessary to spend almost 40 pages on technology. GURPS Space doesn't hesitate to refer the reader to other GURPS volumes when they treat a topic in more detail or at greater length. Why should technology be any different, especially when there are topics the book doesn't treat at any length at all? I realize this is a design decision that had to be made. Something had to go or else this already-long book would have been even longer. I simply question some of the choices made. GURPS Space would seem to imply SF is about tech (with 40 pages of material) rather than, say, societies (which get only 10 pages). Chapter 7 is an excellent and very useful one, discussing a variety of environmental conditions and effects. Everything from zero gravity to space sickness to explosive decompression are covered in detail. While much of the information is presented in GURPS terms, it's easy enough to translate them (even if they are in non-metric units. Argh!). I wish that more SF games would include these kinds of details in them, as they're often important elements of the genre. Chapters 8 and 9 detail starship construction and combat. Again, over 40 pages are used on this topic. The construction system is simple enough, although it does require a lot of bookkeeping and mathematical calculations – too many for this innumerate game reviewer. It's certainly less onerous than GURPS Vehicles, but that's hardly saying anything. The combat system is designed to be played abstractly without the need for counters and hexgrids. I applaud that, but found it somewhat flavorless and bland. This may have more to do with its generic nature than any fault in its design. However, it's another thing that highlights my thoughts about the supplement, as I'll explain soon. Chapter 10 is an excellent one, providing an elegant and scientifically accurate world generation system. I suspect it's a pared down version of the one included in the equally excellent GURPS Traveller: First In, but I cannot be certain. It's only flaw is its use of non-metric measurements, but that is a GURPS problem and not a flaw in the design system. Indeed, I can find few faults with the world construction rules, as they're both easy to follow and detailed, two qualities one doesn't always find side by side. Chapter 11 is a cursory treatment of civilizations, by which the book means government types, starports, and other installations. It's a pretty thin chapter and doesn't handle the topic in any depth. I'd recommend GURPS Traveller: First In for this, as it has extensive discussions of designing civilizations that put this chapter to shame. Given all that, what do I think of GURPS Space? You'd think I hate it, considering my continual nitpicks and backhanded compliments. That's not the case, though. Yes, GURPS Space is flawed. In many ways, it's a snapshot of game design from over a decade ago given a new paint job and upholstery. That's certainly a valid criticism. I'd really have liked more evidence that its authors were familiar with and have learned from science fiction published since 1985. So much of this book feels like "classic," which isn't a bad thing. It's simply a statement that, despite claims to the contrary in the introduction, authors like Gibson and Banks and Hamilton have had little to no influence on how they view science fiction. For them, the Golden Age of the 1950's is what SF is all about. That's a legitimate perspective, but it's a bit limited for a supplement like this one. A broader approach would have been better. More importantly, I'd have appreciated more genuine advice and suggestions. GURPS Space is a more a catalogue of ideas rather than a true GM's toolkit. There are few sections that give the GM any guidance in making choices from the catalogue. The assumption is that he will simply pick and choose from what's been provided and do the rest himself. While I'm never one to argue against treating gamers like intelligent people, a little bit of handholding would have been nice. A comment here or there on the consequences of this choice over that one would have done a lot to increase the utility of this book. Without it, we're left with what amounts to a potentially powerful device that comes with no instruction manual. I'd have gladly dispensed with such huge tech sections in favor of 20 pages of wit and wisdom on the designing of a SF setting. In the end, this is still a valuable book. Like so many GURPS books, it encapsulates a wide variety of useful information under one cover for a good price. Even if I'd have written the book very differently, that doesn't change the fact that GURPS Space contains a lot of useful information. Use it as a touchstone rather than as a definitive guide and you'll find its utility greatly increased. Here's hoping Fourth Edition takes some of these criticisms to heart and creates for the 2000's what GURPS Space was for the 1980's. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

GURPS Space (Third Edition)