 Goto [ Index ] |
-I am a fan of the FFG original version of Blue Planet, and have copies of all the supplements.
-I also like GURPS a great deal, and participated in the GURPS Blue Planet playtest.
-What follows is a modified version of a review I wrote for the Yahoo Groups Blue Planet mailing list. Some folks there liked it, and suggested I post it here. The review is written from the point of view of people who have the Blue Planet original material, and were wondering what's in the GURPS converstion. Others may find it less useful, but perhaps informative.
What it is:
Basically, GURPS Blue Planet is, well, a GURPS version of Blue Planet. One one level, it's much like a PC version of a MAC computer game: same thing, but a different engine and different ways of doing things.
What's in it:
A very pared-down version of what's in the Blue Planet Players Guide and Moderators Guide, with a little input from the supplement Fluid Mechanics. That having been said, GBP does cover a lot in its 144 pages. You get character types and stats on how to play them, a big chapter of equipment, a goodly amount of data on Poseidon and some of the major points of the Archipelago, a chapter on the Aborigines, and a chapter of conversion notes.
What's different between BP and GBP:
Really honestly very little.
-Different-but-better: the GURPS version has two things the BP original material doesn't.
-First: the weapons list is much more extensive. Instead of "Pistol" you have a dozen or so listings for pistols of varous calibers, and so on. I'm not a big gunbunny, but I do appreciate the detail, and prefer this format to the BP originals.
-Second: there are some very extensive rules for diving. This includes stuff like the need for decompression at various depths, the level of light you get at various depths, etc. This, IMHO, was a glaring omission from the original BP material, and I had been looking for a workaround for a while. This satisifies it, in spades!
Other goodies: I'm actually fonder of the way GURPS Blue Planet lays out the character generation. I have always found the stuff in the PG a little annoying wrt layout: you have to go to three diffent sections to generate a character. GBP compresses it all together, in a way that's more succinct. The minus is that GBP only gives you the options for Basic characters and Experienced characters (while the PG gives your three levels), but I think the trade-off works pretty well.
Oh, and the font's much cleaner in GBP. The PG and the MG are IMHO a little hard to read, with section and equipment headings looking much the same in spite of the fact they're not supposed to be. It's easier to find your way around in GBP, and as it's a SJG product, the index is _nonpareil_.
-Minuses:
-It's too short. This couldn't be helped; there's no way you can cram six books into 144 pages and have them work out. If you buy GBP, and really like the setting, you pretty much will want to pick up the FFG Blue Planet sourcebooks eventually. I'm sure this was on FFG's mind when they licensed the product, and I'm happy with it: the more GURPS folks who buy FFG products, the better a chance there is of FFG producing more materials. I hope this'll turn out into a win-win situation for both companies. We'll see.
Of coure, everybody has different expectations of what they wanted to see in GPB. Some folks have complained it's too tech-heavy. Myself, I would rather have seen it be _more_ tech heavy, and present _less_ Poseidon and setting, with the default assumption that "The GURPS version basically the Players Guide, and you'll need to get the FFG Moderator's Guide to get background and universe", but that's not the way they went. Other users unfamiliar with the BP universe will probably prefer the approach taken in GBP. YMMV.
-The art. Ugh. This is why I'm giving the product a 3 (layout and readability would have earned if a 4 otherwise). If you didn't like the art in the PG or the MG, you won't like what's in GBP, either. I had some hopes that SJG might lease some of the art that was present in the first edition of BP, or some of the nicer pieces that were in the later BP sourcebooks. They have, after all, done such with other licensed products like GURPS Deadlands and GURPS Castle Falkenstein. No such luck; SJG commissioned new art, and it's about par or less for the PG and MG. The cover's kinda weird, too, and looks like two fascists and a killer whale busting Jesus on a boat. Was I the only guy who _loved_ the cover of the first edition of Blue Planet, with its majestic underwater scene? I guess so... ---mind you, GBP is a really _nice_ shade of blue. That may sound kinda silly, but I always found the dark navy blue of the BP line to be too subdued; the GURPS conversion is bright, and will stand out on shelves more. It also looks, I dunno, more _aquatic_ to me, I suppose.
-the conversion. I think it went pretty well, but it might not be to everybody's taste. GURPS uses a point-based system, balanced against reality pretty well, so character types are NOT equal. Orcas and GEO Shocktroopers are pretty scary, and are simply better than everybody else (and having observed the former up close for a while, this is as it should be, I believe). Not everything matches up perfectly, since GURPS is a more "realistic" setting and doesn't copy many of the more optimistic stats of BP equipment (but where there were differences in values in the tech, the authors of GBP very nicely included some text boxes labelled "Under the Hood" explaining why they did what they did, which I found quite nice). Not so nice were the fact that there are little minor editing glitches here and there, too: SJG was working on Transhuman Space: Under Pressure at the same time,and great effort was made to standardize the underwater rules between the games. That's fine, but some bits of text crossed over from UP to GBP, which make for odd reading (mentions are made of of "sharks", "supercavitating bullets" and other such things that aren't in the BP universe). These are minor, but annoying.
Well, should you buy it?
That depends. You probably fall into one of three categories:
-If you're already a BP fan, and like the BP setting as it is, there really isn't any reason to pick up GBP. Apart from some more detailed weapons and some better diving rules, there's nothing new for you.
-If you're a GURPS fan (or at least moderately interested in GURPS) and are curious about a new setting, get it. It's got enough in it to run the BP setting, and test if you want to buy more. Consider: GBP runs $24.95. The PG and MG run $27.95 each ($20 each if you can find them in softback). GURPS Lite is free off the SJG website. Getting GBP is a cheaper intro to the BP universe that picking up the PG and the MG. And if you like the setting and want more, FFG has released their Essential Collection of BP supplements at $40 for four of them (and that's 4 supplements at 128 pages, each one in _hardback_--a steal!!!).
-If you're a BP fan who wants to expand the BP universe, GBP is a worthwhile intro to a suite of tools for doing so. Do you want to do more in your BP game than hang around Poseidon? Would you like to have a campaign of spacers in the Serpentis belt, or explore A World of Hurt? If so, then GBP is for you, as long as you like the GURPS system. Let's face it: the release schedule from FFG has been very slow, and there's no telling what they'll do with the BP property. Who knows when some of the products that have been mooted about will be released? However, if you want to do much of the design yourself, there's lots of GURPS material out there, particularly in the Transhuman Space line. The BP universe ports to GURPS Transhuman Space very well, and the books for that line have lots that is adaptable to BP. I prefer the Transhuman Space spacecraft rules myself, and would probably port them over to any Blue Planet style game I ever run. THS Under Pressure should be quite interesting, too, if you'd like to add supercavitating subs and torpedos to the BP setting.
Myself, I like GBP. It's not the perfect conversion I hoped it would be, but it's very good. I prefer the GURPS mechanics to the Synergy system, and since I have all of the FFG materials already, converting existing BP material is not a problem for me. I hope that this product will generate a lot of crossover sales for both companies.
For those who do come to the Blue Planet universe via the GURPS supplement, I'd like to point out some on-line resources that will be helpful:
-the Fantasy Flight games page (www.fantasyflightgames.com/bpindex.html) has some useful files on it in pdf format, including a summary of the game world that's perfect to hand out to players, and some nice maps. Note that one glaring omission in GPB is a map of the planet Poseidon: there's one at the FFG site.
-the Biohazard Games page (www.biohazardgames.com) also has a lot of good files, including some .gifs of art, and several .pdfs of Undercurrents, the BP house organ. Well worth a look.
-a copy of an excellent fan-generated character sheet for GURPS Blue planet can be found at www.catscradle.us/gurps/ .
CJ Beiting
CJBeiting@aol.com
