I must confess that this old grongnard had his doubts with regard to SJG's line of deck plans for GURPS Traveller. Having twenty-plus years of material to compare it with is a tough act to follow. The immediate comparison is "Snapshot", the first boxed companion set for Traveller by GDW, and the first with offical deck plans for the Beowulf.
Not the least of these comparisons was that Snapshot was $12.00 (including a complete standalone game), and the new series of deck plans are in the $20.00 range. Yes, I know about inflation, it's the *psychology* of the customer's perception of percieved value.
It's worth the $20.00. The plans are on slick 17" x 22" paper, very well illustrated and laid out, and best of all, are double sided for GURPS' 1:36 hex scale on one side, and Classic Traveller's 1.5 meter square grid on the reverse. As a bonus, one sheet of Traveller Cardboard Heroes are included. Can't say enough good things about the re-issuance of these figures, and it's a splendid complement for the deck plans.
All this means that the plans are well suited to both Classic Traveller and GURPS. The plans, and the Cardboard Heroes can easily be used for other game systems as well.
Bitches:
1) 1/36 scale makes for great detail, but it's trouble unless you have a great deal of table space free. The original 15mm Traveller plans were in 1/100 scale- a thousand ton ship could be laid out on a dining table (and was in FASA's Merchant Class Ships). The upper size limit for this scale would be at about 400 tons. If you have players like mine, they'll have things happening in *every* part of the ship, and they'll want to see it all at the same time. You'll need convention-sized table space for that with this scale.
2) An accompanying 8 1/2 x 11 sheet with stats and descriptions for each location on the ship would be useful. (See the FASA supplements, fo example). It can't kill Steve *that* much to print an additional sheet. A scenario sheet would be nice as well.
3) The Traveller grid seemed slightly out of alignment with the GURPS hex grid (squares not starting at walls, etc). Must be because they started with the GURPS hex grid first, I speculate.
If SJG can maintain this quality level, this should be a must-buy for all Traveller players.
Dave.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)