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I liked GURPs 3rd edition just fine, but I never really got into it. I could never quite get a Traveller game going as a GM either despite my purchases (New Era, T4, Traveller D20) and only played as a player in a strangely weird Classic version.
So it was with a great sigh of relief that I found IW. IW convinced me to actually buy GURPs Fourth Edition that I wasn’t yet sold on. The full color approach and professional layout are a huge leap forward in production value from 3rd edition. And I can get both core books from Amazon for less than the cost of a tank of gas!
This review is going to be a little different than other reviews I’ve done. In the first part, I’m going to list what I was looking for in a sci-fi game and than note whether IW had it. In the second part, I’m going to review IW on its own, based on what the back cover promised me when I bought it.
Part One: Was What I Wanted What I Got?
In my sci-fi game I wanted the following: solid rules, aliens, starships, a universe to explore, and Earth as a jumping off point into a space opera like setting.
GURPs Fourth Edition provides the solid rules. IW adds more: universe, planet, and starship design. Everything I wanted is there.
IW has aliens, both human and non-human. Each species has a place in the setting and rules to go with them. I especially like the Vegan and the bulging eyeball.
I didn’t want just starships. I wanted pictures and maps. IW provides pictures and maps for several of the ships I would want to use.
IW uses the Traveller setting but without that monstrously huge map from the New Era. You have the Sol subsector and eight others. More than enough for a two parsec jumping Free Trader to explore.
And what a setting! The PCs are from Terra (Earth) around 2170 (as the default). The history is rich and detailed. The Vilani Imperium, which is the main rival to the Terrans, is human and yet alien at the same time. As Free Traders, the Terran PCs get to make money and use radical ideas and the desire to grow and change to corrupt a stodgy, stick-in-the-mud empire.
With Terra as a starting point, I was more easily able to grasp the rest of the setting. Having the PCs be from Terra is wonderful in my mind, because roleplaying will be natural and easy. Players who want more of a challenge can always play a Vilani, a subject human race, or an alien.
Combined with GURPs, IW provides me with everything I wanted out of a sci-fi game.
Part Two: Did Interstellar Wars Deliver?
GURPs Fourth Edition Traveller Interstellar Wars (IW) claims to offer the following campaign options: forge new trade routes, defend the homeworld of Terra, make first contact with alien races, and guide the Confederation is its expansion from a single planet to a star-spanning empire. Includes a detailed timeline, rules for starship design, interstellar trade, exploration, ship-to-ship combat and tailoring characters to the last days of the First Imperium.
IW provides the options and the tools in spectacular style.
The first four chapters describe the Terran Confederation and the Vilani Imperium, their histories, and their conflicts and interactions with each other. Useful details including politics, mindset, military, technology, and even architecture describe both the similarities and the vast differences between the two powers. The history describes their contact and conflicts over a span of two hundred years.
These chapters are the foundation of the IW book, as they make the entire universe seem real. I can actually see Terrans on a small ship flying through the Imperium trading and spying on the Vilani.
I can’t praise the authors highly enough for the skill in which they made the IW universe come alive for me.
Chapter 5 describes the known universe and explains world building. Interstellar trade and/or war campaigns may use the existing maps while an exploration campaign may venture to unknown worlds or off the map completely. This chapter can handle a variety of campaign styles.
The maps also put all the history from the first four chapters into perspective. It is easy to see that Terra is fenced in by the Imperium and why the Imperium may see Terra as a backwater and not move with more force on the Confederation.
Characters are covered in chapter 6. This chapter is critical for me, because my players are not GURPs experts. Without the templates, we would have no idea where to start to create characters that fit in the IW universe. In addition, these templates will really help a GM when creating NPCs.
Technology follows in chapter 7. The first paragraph sums up the starting tech level and indicates that some superscience tech will exist as well. The chapter goes on to succinctly explain what tech does and does not exist in the IW universe. Combined with the base rules, everything is covered including armor, weapons, vehicles, and other tech gear.
How to fly a starship and then use it for trading or exploration is all covered in chapter 8. I have to admit that I never thought I would find the idea of picking up a cargo of grain to be exciting but the system outlined here really works. The responsibility for making a profit or losing your shirt (and maybe your ship) is put fully into the hands of the player and the Merchant skill of his character.
Getting your own ship to fly around in is what chapter 9 is all about. You can build a ship from scratch or pick up a common ship design. A few of the most common ships are shown with both artwork and a map. The only drawback to this chapter is that the ships cover a 200-year timeframe that means it will be impossible to use some of them in the default time setting of 2170. However, most of the ships are TL 10 and can be used during most of the timeline.
And what good is a ship if you can’t fly around shooting at other people with it? Chapter 10 includes the starship combat rules. Combat uses a map, which I think is necessary, and includes a variety of options for combatants to use. The value of using the GURPs rules can readily be seen in a chapter with this many detailed rules.
The GM gets a big boost with the campaign information found in chapter 11. The default campaign of Free Trader merchants is covered. A variety of other campaign models are provided as well including some that change the cannon of Traveller history and one that connects IW to GURPs Infinite Worlds. I think all of the options are well explained and include enough detail to get any GM started. The Package deal, a standard for GURPs I assume, helps to truly link the PCs together.
And yes, as well as a useful table of contents, IW has an index!
For an experienced GM fairly new to running GURPs and Traveller, I found everything I wanted in Interstellar Wars from free wheeling merchant adventurers to aliens to starships. The highest praise I can give it is that Interstellar Wars convinced me to pick up GURPs Fourth Edition.
